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Some interesting reads for you as we prepare to move into another week.

• With all the economic strife Millennials are experiencing these days, perhaps we need a National Youth Administration to help dig our way out?
• Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile outlines the extent to which Republicans plan to suppress votes in future elections.
• NPR explores how young people can improve their financial literacy; this article is one of a series of articles on the topic.
• Did you know? The largest number of American hate groups are located in Idaho and Mississippi.
• A Huffington Post piece discusses the importance of young people starting businesses and how we can enhance youth entrepreneurship in the future.
• Montana college students will be hit with a 10 percent tuition increase over two years. Why? State budget cuts.
• Allowing concealed guns on college campuses appeared to be sure to pass in Texas. However, some Democratic tactics appear to have dealt the bill a fatal blow.

What else is new, right?

NPR covers the continued rise of unemployment for 16-19 year olds, especially among African-American teens.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the while the country gained 162,000 jobs in March, the overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. And it's much tougher for teenagers; The jobless rate for those between ages 16 and 19 rose to 26.1 percent. For African-American teens, it's even worse: That rate stands at 41.1 percent.

"They are competing with people who have experience, and they simply don't have it," says Deborah Shore, founder of Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a group that provides housing and workforce training to homeless kids in Washington, D.C. "It's the worst unemployment for teens ever."

The longer they go without work experience, the harder it will be for them to find jobs in the future, she says.

Unfortunately, the teen job market is one of the last indicators of a healthy economy, with many white youth finding jobs before the African-American demographic. Because of racial discrimination, a lack of resources, and fewer connections, African-American youth are one of the most disadvantaged groups of job seekers.

One way to assist these young people is by passing legislation with comprehensive youth programs and public works projects included.

There is at least one proposal before the House that would devote $8 billion to year-round youth training and employment. Other proposals in the Senate have been blocked, although congressional staffers supportive of such measures believe Congress may still pass funding for youth programs through an amendment to other, broader jobs bills.

However, as the article points out, summer vacation is quickly approaching. Will our representatives act in enough time?

It's important to remember that while changing the way college students finance their education is important, there are less privileged youth out there who want to get to work but are devoid of opportunities. What are we doing to help them?

UPDATE: I'm listening to this again, and I'm thinking this might just be a horrible joke on the show gone awry, especially after finding out that very little can be taken seriously on this show in the first place.

But I certainly do not put it past someone like Brokaw to make that statement and mean it, especially given his poor analysis through most of this campaign. Which is why I posted this in the first place.
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In my youthful naivete, I once assumed Tom Brokaw was a decent journalist. I figured that since he was on NBC each night, he must know what he's talking about.

I must have been pretty dumb.

Brokaw was a guest on "Wait Wait...Don't Tell me!," a quiz show on NPR hosted by Peter Sagal. Prior to asking Brokaw trivia questions, Sagal broached the generational conversation (about seven minutes in):

Sagal: Tom Brokaw we have asked you here to play a game we’re calling “The Dorkiest Generation.” So, you’ve written a book about the World War II generation, you’ve written a new book about the generation of the sixties — the boomers. We don’t think you’re going to be writing one about kids today. They won’t even clean up their bedroom for goodness sake. But we also think that because they have been wasting their time…

Brokaw: I’m waiting for a member of this generation to write one that’s simply titled “My Generation Sucks.”

Sagal: The problem is we think these kids these days, these kids in their twenties and thirties — are they kids? I don’t know — they’re wasting their time playing collectable card games these are the games in which you buy decks of custom cards and play them against their friends. It’s like Cribbage for kids who can’t get dates.

Brokaw: Right.

These losers obviously have no clue what they're talking about.

I'm more interested, though, in Brokaw, because he's actually someone that people listen to (sorry Sagal), and he poses as an expert on generations with no apparent knowledge of any of the theory behind the subject.

Every time one of these esteemed journalists or pundits stereotypes simply because it's easy to do (this generation is too quiet, this generation won't vote, there's no such thing as the Millennial Generation, etc.), their own laziness and vanity, revealed in their criticism, immediately disqualifies them from contributing to any rational political dialogue in the future. Why? Because the thing is, it's not hard to be well-informed on the rise of the Millennial Generation, a group any serious political observer should now be taking seriously. Like Mike wrote earlier today, the 2008 youth vote narrative has been far smoother than 2004's, as many of these stories, studies, and articles seem to be written from Future Majority blog posts. All it takes is a few Google searches, and you've got a few pages chock-full of statistics right in front of you.

Of course, if Brokaw took the time to do this, he'd see we don't suck. We're the next "Greatest Generation." Unlike the individualistic Boomers (Brokaw is one), Millennials are civic in nature, confident enough to tackle big problems, and pragmatic and collaborative enough to piece together big solutions. The political dialogue will be changing because of the exhaustion with what Obama described as the dorm room fights taking place in the '60s. A new discussion is already emerging that takes back the meaning of "moral values," applying it to genocide, poverty, and climate change, as opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, and creationism versus evolution. The results of this election, in which Millennials increased our turnout rate yet again -- the highest rate in 36 years -- demonstrate this civic responsibility and potential. Yet we suck, according to Brokaw, and we're "wasting [our] time," according to Sagal.

We're getting to a point now when it's not so easy to make a lazy assumption about young people anymore. This election, data from other studies, and simple anecdotes are beating back this "young people don't care" bit. It's just too bad that crusty journalists like Brokaw haven't caught up with the times. Perhaps Brokaw should listen to some Dylan.

(h/t to L. Russell Allen at pushback)

Super Ex. Producer (and now facebook friend of mine) Art Silverman and Robert "The Voice" Siegel sat down with me to talk about the youth vote, voter registration, and what will happen in November.

Silverman, a father of two young voters is eager to see the expected surge, and Siegel remains pessimistic but has some interesting ideas about voter registration and access to voting.

Special thanks to these guys who I bugged for a good couple of hours - that said I tried to teach Silverman how to use Twitter because @NPRPolitics rocks my socks off.

(Anecdotally I called Siegel "The Voice" because when I saw him I was like... who's that guy... then he spoke and I turned into a kid at a Miley Cyrus concert... only for political geeks.)