Link: Watch Sarah (Watch from the 37:35 minute mark)

YCC Vice President Sarah Smith discusses the politics of fast food restaurants and American eating habits. Watch her dazzle :) 

EVENT:  Today’s Rising Stars Discuss Tomorrow’s Terrorist Threat
WHEN: Wednesday, August 25th - 6:00-8:00PM
WHERE: The Heritage Foundation, 214 Mass. Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002
SPONSORS: Young Conservatives Coalition & Heritage Foundation Young Leaders Program
RSVP: Click Here

SUMMARY:
While homeland security can sometimes sit on the backburner of the nation’s policy agenda, the threat of terrorism against America continues—as evidenced by the recent Christmas Day and Times Square terror plots. Continuing to stop terrorism, while keeping Americans free, safe, and prosperous is a challenge that can’t be overlooked by today or tomorrow’s leaders. After the panel, stay and join us for a networking reception with FREE Drinks and Hors D’Oeuvres on Heritage’s Roof Terrace to discuss the issues further with the panelists and fellow guests.

Global youth unemployment has hit a record high following the financial crisis and is likely to get worse later this year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Thursday.

The report from the ILO says 81 million out of 630 million 15-24 year olds where unemployed at the end of 2009, some 7.8 million more than at the end of 2007.

Thursday marks the first day of the UN International Youth Year; the ILO warned these trends will have “significant consequences for young people as upcoming cohorts of new entrants join the ranks of the already unemployed.”

The world risks a crisis legacy of a “lost generation” of young people who dropped out of the job market, the organization added in its report.

The report also points out that the unemployment rates of youth have proven to be more sensitive to the crisis than the rates of adults and that the recovery of the job market for young men and women is likely to lag behind that of adults.

It indicates that in developed and some emerging economies, the crisis impact on youth is felt mainly in terms of rising unemployment and the social hazards associated with discouragement and prolonged inactivity.

“In developing countries, crisis pervades the daily life of the poor” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.
“The effects of the economic and financial crisis threaten to exacerbate the pre-existing decent work deficits among youth,” Somavia said. “The result is that the number of young people stuck in working poverty grows and the cycle of working poverty persists through at least another generation.”

Investment in education will be lost and governments will not receive contributions to social security systems, while at the same time being forced to raise spending on services to correct the problem, if the situation continues, he warned.

“Young people are the drivers of economic development,” Somavia said. “Foregoing this potential is an economic waste and can undermine social stability.”

He sees the crisis as “an opportunity to re-assess strategies for addressing the serious disadvantages that young people face as they enter the labor market.”

Brought to you by the same people who engineered the modern tax code!

In mid-term elections, voter turnout defines success. To win, it is imperative to target likely voters and mobilize sympathetic yet diffident constituencies to the polls. Barack Obama’s successful courtship of young voters in 2008 cast John McCain’s GOP as the party of yesterday — a group of old, white men out of touch with an increasingly diverse and engaged youth — never to regain electoral clout. This was not a triumph in the battle of ideas.

Because the adolescent prerequisite of peer affirmation to consider anything persists in this age group, conservative policies were not even entertained by many young voters as potential solutions to America’s problems.

The Obama campaign manipulated this phenomenon brilliantly by wooing young voters not with policy prescriptions but retail politics. Before the Iowa caucuses, he skipped an AARP event to attend a hip-hop concert. And he was far ahead of other candidates in high-tech outreach through e-mail, YouTube and social networking media. Read Full Article!

A momentous deal to cap property taxes was all but done, but Gov. Chris Christie was taking no chances, barnstorming the state to commiserate with squeezed homeowners and keep pressure on the Legislature.

Outside a farmhouse here in central New Jersey last week, buttoned up in a dark suit despite the triple-digit heat, Mr. Christie promised to tackle rising pension costs, transportation financing, municipal spending — all while poking fun at his opponents, the news media and, mostly, himself.

When a reporter suggested that the governor do a rain dance, he said, “Don’t want to miss that, baby.” Read Full Article!

View Invitation

Featuring Opening Remarks from:
Vince Haley
Field Producer, Nine Days that Changed the World

Hosted by:
Heather Sexton
Director, Young Leaders Program
Christopher Malagisi
President, Young Conservatives Coalition

Produced by Gingrich Productions in partnership with Citizens United Productions and Peace River Company, “Nine Days that Changed the World” is the historic story of Pope John Paul II’s nine-day visit to Poland in 1979, which inspired a nation and created a revolution of conscience that transformed Poland and fundamentally reshaped the spiritual and political landscape of the world in the 20th century. The Pope’s visit would ultimately lead to “Solidarity” – Poland’s first successful free-trade movement –and eventually the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.

SCREENING BEGINS AT 6:30 P.M.
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION’S ALLISON AUDITORIUM
214 MASSACHUSETTS AVE NE WASHINGTON, DC 20002

Networking Reception Immediately Following Screening at Union Pub

We hope you can join in this event and learn about a man who changed the world forever. It is important for our generation to share this story with future generations.
For more information or to RSVP, email YoungLeadersProgram@heritage.org or view on Facebook.

Last week’s Supreme Court decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment is, believe it or not, a victory for private property owners. The court recognized Florida’s authority under state law to add beach sand between an owner’s beachfront property and the ocean if erosion separates the two. Property rights advocates, looking only at the outcome, fear that the holding will morph serene beachfront property into a scene from MTV’s Spring Break. But reasoning matters as much as result. For property owners litigating over the taking of their land, Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion reasons important constitutional restraints on state’s using their judiciaries to take property – vindicating the Constitution while vapulating future judicial activism.

Read Full Article!

This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Amanda Vuke, Research Intern for the John Locke Foundation and Intern for Carolina Journal.

It is everywhere. We may not live in Anatevka (think Fiddler on the Roof), but tradition still impacts us daily. We have little traditions that few people know about, like the routine we follow every morning or the way we manage our frustration when that person took our parking space again.

Then there are the traditions that affect other people and are shared with them, like the food everyone always brings to a family reunion, or that movie you watch every time you visit your grandparents. Some traditions happen only in particular places, like the meal you always buy from a particular restaurant, or what you do in your favorite town. Most traditions follow us around, though, and we pass them on.

Read full article!