Thomas Senecal

Website: http://www.teensforclinton.org

Bio: Here's just something I copied from my site until I type up another: Thomas was born in September of 1992, and almost from birth he was involved in Democratic politics. Although he often wasn't old enough to work for campaigns, he vocalized his support for candidates at parades and other rallies. The first campaign he can remember supporting was Al Gore in 2000. That same year, Thomas' teacher had him reading the Constitutional law that a President and Vice President cannot be from the same state. (George Bush and Dick Cheney are both from Texas, but to get around this law Cheney registered to vote in another state) Needless to say, he was very frustrated with the result of the election. The next campaign he played an active role in was John Kerry's 2004 Presidential bid. He actively campaigned for Senator Kerry, and was again frustrated with the results. More recently, in 2006 Thomas worked for, among other campaigns, Ben Cardin for Senate, Martin O'Malley for Governor of Maryland, and Douglass J.J. Peters for state Senate. Finally, he was happy with the election results; all of his candidates won. He hopes the winning streak will continue with the 2008 election. Thomas is currently a sophomore at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, and he is the Prince George's County delegate to the Maryland Youth Council, the youth advisory arm of the Maryland government. Besides politics, he also enjoys acting, reading, and swimming.

Youth Activism & Involvement - From a Youth’s Perspective

Cross-Posted at Dailykos

I’m a high school student in Maryland, and I think that youth activism really needs to be addressed. Given all the attention being paid to young voters and encouraging young people to get involved in civics, I think its time that perhaps instead of adults thinking about how best to reach youth, an actual youth provide his opinion. We need to make some serious improvements.

Please allow me to preface this diary with a short introduction. I am a high school sophomore at a magnet high school in Greenbelt, MD, and very interested & involved in politics. I am also the Prince George’s County Delegate and Co-Chairman of the Governor’s Maryland Youth Council, essentially the only Youth Advisory group that is state-government sanctioned. Read more

Democratic Leadership Council proposes “Expanding Learning Time” in schools

Today the Democratic Leadership Council, a central, private arm of the Democratic party, issued an email as part of their “State and Local Playbook,” in which they suggested that schools today do not have enough learning time, and more time needs to be added. One method is mandatory summer school for all students. These extra hours result in 1.2 extra years of school for students. Despite the obvious fact that I love my vacation, I think that this is ridiculous on a number of more factual levels.

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House Judiciary Committee issues contempt citations for Bush aides

Today the House Judiciary Committee, led by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), issued Contempt of Congress citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and President Bush’s former legal counselor, Harriet Miers, as a result of President Bush claiming Executive Privilege over these two testifying. Read more

Anti-War Activist Cindy Sheehan to run against Pelosi

Anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan has announced that, because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not introduce Articles of Impeachment against President Bush by midnight last night, Sheehan will run against Pelosi for her San Francisco seat. Says Sheehan, “Not only am I going to run against her, but I will beat her.”

Honestly I’m not sure what effect this will have. Thus far Pelosi has made no comment. I have looked around some of the other blogs, and it appears that as a result of this run Sheehan has lost the support of more central Democrats who supported her efforts previously. While I am certainly not a centrist, I am certainly opposed to this run. Read more

Senate to be in Session all Night

Just a brief update to say that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that he will keep the Senate in session all night Tuesday and into Wednesday to bring attention to the Iraq vote. Workers will set up cots outside the Chamber for Senators to sleep on in between votes. Although even this extreme step will not garner enough votes to pass the bill, it certainly is interesting and attention-getting! Hopefully it will get enough attention to eventually make some progress and allow the Senate to pass a good bill.

Congressional Approval Ratings

For those of you who haven’t heard already, the poll numbers for the 110th Congress have hit new lows. With an approval rating in the 24-27 % range, and disapproval ratings in the 60-71 % range, America appears to be unhappier with the Congress than they are with the President (approval 26-31%, disapproval 60-66%). My question is, why is this happening?

 While true I did predict in November that citizens would quickly get frustrated with Congress once they realized that they couldn’t do everything they promised at once, I didn’t predict Congressional approval ratings going below the President’s. Some seem to think that this discontent with Congress indicates discontent with the Democrats, and yet polls show that voters still would rather have a Democrat representing them then a Republican.

Read more

Teens for Clinton

Hello all,

My name is Thomas Senecal, I’m a High School Sophomore in Maryland, and the President of www.teensforclinton.org . I was asked by Dan to write a post introducing my group, but first just let me say how impressed I am with this site. It is very nice to see many like-minded youth banding together and creating a successful group like this one. Nice work Dan.

So anyway, my group, Teens for Clinton, was founded early this year as a method for like-minded teens across the country to connect, voice our support for Hillary Clinton, and act as an organizer for members interested in helping out the campaign. We are progressive youths who are dedicated not only to electing Hillary Clinton in 2008, but also increasing teen awareness of elections and the issues involved. We are committed to battling “youth apathy” at every step, even if that means someone ultimately decides to support someone besides Senator Clinton. While we do strongly believe Hillary Clinton is the best candidate in 2008, we think that it is much better that someone is involved in politics with a different candidate versus remaining apathetic. I hope you’ll check out my site, let me know what you think. I’m always welcome to questions and suggestions. I hope you’ll join us in supporting Hillary, but, more importantly, please just support someone.

Dan, thanks for inviting me to post.