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Project Youthanize is a non-partisan organization dedicated to raising youth awareness on some of the most pressing political and social issues going on this election season and beyond. Recently PY organized this expert panel to help Wisconsin youth extract the issues from an election mired in political drama.

In an America two weeks out from the presidential election, when our political games consume the media, I wanted to get a fresh perspective one of America’s most pressing issues:  WAR.

PFC Mike Hackenberg is a 22-year-old mechanic stationed in Iraq.  Via satellite, we talked politics, war hardships and the excitement and troubles mired in a return to America. Take a look.  

When Broken Social Scene came to Madison a few weeks before the presidential election I caught up with a couple of them to get their take on world politics. These Canadian rockers, who have traveled the world playing largely for youth-based audiences, had some interesting things to say. Check it out.   

Marlon Heimerl attends the University of Wisconsin. He's a Dean's List student and works three jobs to pay his tuition. Recent plunders on Wall Street have made it nearly impossible for Marlon to find a student loan. Here’s the rest of his story…

Two young entrepreneurs from Madison have a solution for environmentally conscious laptop users. Brandon Gador and Ted Durkee of PoweredGreen have begun selling energy seals. These $16 recycled aluminum seals signify that a person has purchased enough wind energy to last a laptop's lifetime.  Check out this video for more.

Young delegates, supporters, and protesters headed to St. Paul for the Republican National Convention earlier this month. Though they spoke of different ideologies, but they all wanted their voices heard. Take a look at this video to see what they had to say.

 9/12/08

I’m now one week removed from my arrest in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Republican National Convention. Still, some questions linger unanswered in my head, some emotions remain raw in my mind, and for these reasons (and the fact the St. Paul Police Dept. still has my camera) I want to blog one more time about my arrest and the RNC protests.

The police failed. The protesters failed. The media failed. These three entities, the primary participants of last week’s protest events, failed to achieve the peace they desired. Protesters wanted a peaceful end to the war, police wanted a peaceful end to the protests, and the media (say what you will here) wanted to tell the story of how peace prevailed on the streets of St. Paul.

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The credentials around my neck said I should be watching John McCain accept his presidential nomination from the floor of the Xcel Energy Center, not from the curb of the Marion Street Bridge. But I sat there, staring at McCain’s head on some jumbotron plastered on a building half a mile down the St. Paul Skyline. McCain mouthed words I couldn’t hear, and unfortunately I was too distracted to care.

My hands were cuffed, my throat was dry, and my mind was wondering if I’d be sleeping in a St. Paul jail house or my Minneapolis hotel room. I thought back to how I ended up here…

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Sarah Palin accepted the Vice Presidential nomination last night, making her the first woman to appear on the GOP ticket. But on the day of her acceptance speech, not all women were proud. Code Pink, an anti war and women’s rights group, protested Palin’s nomination at the RNC entrance.

Meanwhile the convention center filled with women that hand painted “Power Palin” signs. During her speech, they jumped to laughter then cheers after Palin noted the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was lipstick. And when Palin mentioned the war, it was only in reference to her son’s Iraq deployment next week.