Coulter In the House!

Just ducked out of a speech by Ann Coulter here at the YAF National Conservative Student Conference, so I could report her opening line: "I'd like to thank the pharmaceutical industry for putting together this fake audience for me."

Actually, the audience is real -- and it's spectacular! Coulter also said that, thanks to the Obama administration, now every ballerina can grow up to be White House chief of staff.

Will update later . . .

UPDATE: Now it's Q&A time, where Ann has -- in the past -- caused controversy.

UPDATE II: Understand that the last-night dinner at the YAF conference is a big deal, and the young ladies get all dolled up for it. Some of them are dressed in a manner that might best be described as . . . well, Coulteresque.

OK, so a platinum blonde in a zebra-striped dress just asked Ann whether she would advise attending law school, as Coulter herself did.

"Do not go to law school," replies Ann. "Encourage liberals to go to law school. It's a complete waste of time."

Coulter said the only caveat is, it's OK to go to law school if you actually want to practice law. But if you''re just a recent college graduate who doesn't know what to do next, the "Oh, I guess I'll just go to law school" route is a waste of time, she said.

BTW, Coulter was introduced tonight by Ramapo College senior Lauren Scirocco, who was recently interviewed in Time magazine:

I really like Sarah Palin. I think as a conservative woman, I can really relate to her. . . . Conservatives feel like she's someone they can relate to and believe in. Liberals vilify her and make fun of her constantly, and I think that's because they're afraid of her and know she's going to be there in the future. She's not going away.

BTW, Miss Scirocco's dress tonight is . . . Coultersque.

UPDATE III: Just met Robert Vernon Myers III, a recent graduate of Florida International University, and had the opportunity to introduce him to Regis Giles, daughter of popular conservative commentator Doug Giles. Young Miss Giles' black dress tonight is . . . Coulteresque.

UPDATE IV: Speaking of Coulteresque . . .

At left is A.J. Dobson of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who just had his book signed by Ann Coulter. I jokingly suggested Ann should write her personal cell number under her autograph, but that wouldn't be Coultersque. That would be . . . Cougaresque.

Speaking of bad jokes, remember Jesse Griffin? Miss Coulter told me, "You've been doing some great work lately." She said she had seen the reports that Dan Riehl and I had done about the anti-Palin blogger "Gryphen." BTW, just noticed that story's been linked by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, and meanwhile Dan Riehl has the latest on Jesse.

UPDATE V: To the commenter who asked: Yes, Mrs. Other McCain knows where I am. And she also knows I'll be at the private after-party at an undisclosed location. Mrs. Other McCain has been putting up with my bad jokes for 20 years.

And so, folks . . . on to the after-party!

UPDATE VI: by Smitty
Stacy reports, from an undisclosed location, that at 2300 Eastern, an Coulter ate a cheese-fry. Additionally, she is partaking of a margarita on the rocks for her beverage. This is offered in direct rebuke of the lefties who claim she's a succubus.

UPDATE VII: by Smitty
Via Town Hall, the monologue.

Virginia, Meet Your Future Senator

Her name is Kelsey Budd. She is a student at the College of William & Mary, where she runs track and cross-country. She is currently interning for the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute -- see her "Student Spotlight" here -- and today at the YAF National Conservative Student Conference, she told me her ambition is to be a senator. Well, why wait to start the campaign?

See my article: "For YAF, the Future Is Now"

The Future of the Conservative Movement

Just brought me lunch:

This is Trey Easton, Sarah T. Herman Intern Scholar for the Young America's Foundation, and a junior majoring in economics at George Mason University.

You may ask yourself, "Why is such a promising young fellow bringing Stacy McCain a cheeseburger, fries and a large sweet iced tea from Wendy's?"

As famed George Mason economist Walter Williams would explain, the secret of capitalism is how "the Invisible Hand" redirects resources to their most valuable use. In this example, the resource involved was time.

There was a line at Wendy's downstairs here at GWU's Marvin Center, site of the YAF National Conservative Student Conference. Would my time be best spent standing in that line, rather than getting my laptop set up and logged in?

So I decided to come up here and was getting set up when -- as if by magic -- the "Invisible Hand" brought me into contact with young Mr. Easton.

"An intern?" I said. "Listen, I've got a job for you . . ."

Never let it be said that I haven't done my share to train the future leaders of the conservative movement in the glories of capitalism!

UPDATE 3:42 p.m.: "Mom?" young Mr. Easton said into his cell phone just now, after I showed him this post. "Mom, go to Google. . . . OK, now type in 'The Other McCain' . . . That's right. The first link at the top of the page. . . . OK, Mom, I gotta run now. Kind of busy. Love you. Bye."

He forgot to add, "Hit the tip jar, Mom." Never let it be said that I haven't done my share to train the future leaders of the conservative movement in the glories of capitalism!

Live from YAF Conference!

I'm at the Young America's Foundation National Conservative Student Conference, where Monica Crowley speaks tonight.

Will update with photos after dessert, but first I've got to tell you some weird news: No fewer than three students here have already told me they read the blog. One of them is Patrick Cassil, whose older sister is Alisa Cassil (a Facebook friend); another is actually Joseph Farah's daughter, Alyssa; and the third is Eva Lorraine Molina, a Sarah Palin fan at Amherst College who's actually been following the Hiroshima/Nagasaki thing that Dan and I have been doing this week.

Also, Eva is a fan of Ace of Spades HG -- the next generation of Morons! Read my American Spectator article about the YAF Conference here.

Will update with photos and speech excerpts after I get my dessert and coffee.

UPDATE I: First two photos:

Monica Crowley and Jason Mattera.

Hannah Giles, Jason Mattera, Alyssa Farah. (Y'know, I think somebody's trying to make somebody jealous.)

UPDATE II: Monica Crowley speaking about Obama: "This guy is even more dangerous than Bill Clinton ever was. . . . He is a radical through and through."

Crowley on the town halls: "I love it that our Democratic elected representatives are afraid of us. . . . And they should be!"

Ah, some more photos of the attendees:

Alisa Cassil and her brother Patrick Cassil.

My tablemates and fellow Georgians, sisters Naomi and Lydia Brown.

Lydia Brown with Stephen Hodgson of the Young Briton's Foundation.

Will update with more photos and quotes . . .

UPDATE III: More photos:

Brittany Bezick, Katelyn Alfano and Elizabeth Davidson.

Kelsey Budd, on the left, actually helped me with some of the IDs of earlier photos, and at right is Eva Lorraine Molina, the AOSHQ fan.

More photos to come . . .

UPDATE IV: In the Q&A, Naomi Brown asked a question and Crowley responded by saying she'd vote to elect Brown president. Also, Crowley called cap-and-trade "tantamount to the largest tax increase in the history of the world" and said the Waxman-Markey bill, if enacted would be "the death knell of the U.S. economy."

A couple more photos:

Adam Destremps and Travis Korson.

Ruth Malhotra and YAF's Patrick Coyle.

Travis Korson, Elizabeth Davidson, Emily O'Neil, Adam Destremps.

Well, they're shutting down here. Be back tomorrow for Ann Coulter!

Bay Buchanan banned from campus

Young America's Foundation reports:

Administrators at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota -- the nation's largest Catholic women’s college -- unexpectedly blocked young conservatives on campus from hosting Bay Buchanan, a popular conservative commentator and U.S. Treasurer under President Reagan. The speech was scheduled for Wednesday, October 22, but was abruptly canceled after college officials deemed Ms. Buchanan's remarks on "feminism and the 2008 Election" too politically charged, citing concerns about the school's tax status. "Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, the College of St. Catherine has sought to avoid any appearance of partisanship during the 2008 political season," said College spokesman Julie Michener.
That Ms. Michener can say that with a straight face is remarkable, considering the actions of her school's program, Voter Education 2008. Program-sponsored seminars have highlighted student agitators protesting the GOP's convention and featured a representative from the Joint Religious Legislative Task Force, which pushes for universal healthcare and minimum wage increases.

Interesting how this bogus non-partisanship always helps Democrats, huh? I suspect that St. Catherine's actually opposes Bay Buchanan because she's a real pro-life Catholic -- and heaven forfend that students at a Catholic school should ever be exposed to any such thing.

UPDATE: You don't suppose this has anything to do with George Soros spending big bucks to fool Catholics into thinking Obama is pro-life, do you? (Michelle Malkin has more about that.)

Can the GOP get the 'youth vote?

YAF's Jason Mattera:

Thousands of adoring supporters in the under-30 set turned out to hear him speak. Drawn by his infectious optimism and electrified by the message of hope and change, the youthful crowd interrupted his speeches with bursts of uncontrollable cheers and tremendous applause. The man in the spotlight wasn't Barack Obama. It was Ronald Reagan.
If this comes as a surprise, it shouldn't. Long before Mr. Obama began appealing to the elusive youth vote, "The Gipper" attracted thousands of young people to his cause. . . .

Read the whole thing. Jason has some suggestions on how Republicans can recapture the youth vote.

Live at YAF! -- Day Three

Continued liveblogging of the Young America's Foundation National Conservative Student Conference.

9 p.m. -- Allen just said "there is no silver bullet for our energy problem. We need some silver buckshot."

8:10 p.m. -- The banquet entree is penne pasta with chicken in tomato sauce. My tablemates include YAF staffer Flagg Youngblood.

7:40 p.m. -- Former Virginia Sen. George Allen will be the speaker at tonight's banquet.

4:50 p.m. -- Michael Graham just said the ones who really lost the primary were comedians -- Hillary's a much better target.

4:45 p.m. -- Graham just referenced this interview:



4:35 p.m. -- Speaking of Obama's speech in Berlin: "Hey, if you can't trust the German people to pick a strong leader . . ."

4:30 p.m. -- Michael Graham: "I got the memo -- that's not comedy, that's hate. . . . Everything you say about Barack Obama is hate."

4:10 p.m. -- Radio hosts Doug Giles and Michael Graham are preparing to discuss "advancing conservative ideas through humor."

4:25 p.m. -- Doug Giles is also a Christian evangelist, and has a very strong personal presence. He interacts with the audience, teasing with some of his friends Benny Johnson and Rachel Coolidge in the front row. Kidding with Jason Mattera about when they go out for beer and cigars -- not exactly your stereotypical uptight preacher. "I found in Christ an example extraordinaire . . . if you read the scriptures straight, as I do my whiskey, you'll see quickly that Jesus was no bearded lady." He says when he goes to pastors' conferences, he tells them, "Thou shalt not bore should be a commandment."

2:40 p.m. -- Princeton University professor Robert George is talking about natural law theory, and just told students that philosophy requires them to choose between "the Humean or the Aristotlean view" of human nature. (George is Aristotelean, I think.)

UPDATE: Kirby Wilbur is addressing the men's luncheon. He addresses the tradition of chivalry, and says, "There's not really much wrong with that old code. If we still lived by that, he world would be a better place."

PREVIOUSLY:
This morning the panel on new media features YAF spokesman Jason Mattera, talk radio producer A.J. Rice, National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez, and Mary Katharine Ham of the Washington Examiner.

K-Lo recalls that when she attended NCSC about 15 years ago, "you could count the girls on one hand."

UPDATE: MK just showed her notorious "Obama On My Shoulder" video and warned students that this song will "be in your head all day":

Blogging of Day One and Day Two.

Live at YAF! Day Two

Former Virginia Republican Party chairwoman Kate Obenshain is the banquet speaker tonight at the Young America's Foundation National Conservative Student Conference. The dinner entree is filet of salmon.

UPDATE: Ms. Obenshain has apparently been cautioned not to get into campaign mode, so she refers to a "very prominent liberal" who lectures Americans that "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."

Ms. Obenshain also quotes the Huffington Post's Steven Posner's denunciation of patriotism as "crude flag-waving fanaticism." She responds to Posner by quoting such famous "fanatics" as Nathan Hale, Patrick Henry and John Paul Jones.

PREVIOUSLY:
Last night, I had the opportunity to speak to a conservative student superstar, Rebecca Beach. As a community college freshman three years ago, Rebecca decided to bring Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter as a campus speaker. When she sent an e-mail to faculty asking them to help promote the speech in their classes, she got an incredibly nasty (and ungrammatical) reply from an adjunct English instructor John Daly. Rebecca forwarded the e-mail to YAF and, next thing she knows, she's being interviewed by Sean Hannity -- sparking a national controversy that ended with Daly's resignation.

The atmosphere of repression on campuses includes lots of incidents you never hear about in the media, however. I just spoke to another student superstar, Jessica Austin, who told me about the controversy that erupted last year when she scheduled Tammy Bruce as a speaker at the University of Redlands. This resulted in death threats that police traced to the president of a gay student group, who was prosecuted. University administrators agreed to provide extra security for the event.

This kind of stuff never happens to liberal speakers. You can bring Al Gore or Michael Moore to campus, and there are never death threats or security hassles or faculty denunciations.

Live at YAF!

Greetings from the Marvin Center at George Washington University, where I'm covering the 30th National Conservative Student Conference, sponsored by Young America's Foundation. Will be updating regularly . . .

9:20 p.m. -- Rich Lowry was funny. And depressing. The steak was delicious and the carrot cake was good.

8 p.m. -- My tablemates at dinner include Kirby Wilbur, talk radio star of Seattle's KVI, and one of Doug Giles's daughters. Also, two students from Patrick Henry College, and Allison Aldrich of CNS News.

7 p.m. -- Just got back from a brief pre-dinner at TGI Friday's, where I interviewed Dan Flynn, who got his start with YAF as an undergraduate at U-Mass./Amherst back in the 1990s. Among other things, he protested the university's plans to rename the library after W.E.B. DuBois (who joined the Communist Party, praised Stalin and renounced his American citizenship). Flynn had the Flat Iron Steak.

4:50 p.m. -- Brooks just finished. He was introduced by YAF intern Alisa Kassil, Kings College in New York, who said of his speech: "I thought it was a refreshing look at the current state of affairs."

Next up, National Review editor Rich Lowry speaks at tonight's banquet.

4:15 p.m. -- Just met Sgt. Frank Anello, USMC, who is a student at Norwich University in Vermont. Anello, a married father of two, participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and describes the opening day of the war as "the greatest day in my life," and says he "can't wait to get back" to Iraq. With more than 8 years in the service, Sgt. Anello is working toward a commission as a platoon leader. Semper fi!

3:45 p.m. -- David Brooks is speaking now. I've left my recorder in the auditorium for future reference, while I blog some shoutouts for a few of my peeps. Having seen them at previous YAF events and at CPAC, some of these future leaders of conservatism are becoming familiar faces: Sara Mikolajczak, Andrew McIndoe, Ruth Malhotra (who just won her lawsuit against Georgia Tech), Benny Johnson, Dan Lipian, Rachel Coolidge, Tom Qualtere and Gabby Shuster are here, to name just a few.

At any rate, I need to get myself chilled before going back in the room with the originator of "National Greatness" conservatism.

3:10 p.m. -- "You can't trust the Left to write their own history," Dan Flynn, author of A Conservative History of the American Left, told the hundreds of students gathered here. "They don't want to be reminded."

Flynn recounted the history of 19th-century socialist Robert Owen and his "New Harmony" commune, "a complete disaster." Flynn noted that Owen wished to abolish three great evils: private property, religion and marriage. "It is as it was -- not a lot has changed in 180 years," Flynn said.

The notion of "heaven on earth," of men running a godless temporal paradise is "the most harmful delusion in history," Flynn said.

New York Times columnist David Brooks speaks next. Mere coincidence ...

2:25 p.m. -- Just finished a panel on "Status of the Young Conservative Movement in 2008," featuring Charlie Smith, chairmon of the College Republican National Committee; Ron Robinson, president of YAF; Morton Blackwell, president of the Leadership Institute; and Douglas Minson, executive director of academic affairs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

During the Q&A session, Crystal Boyd of UNLV asked a question about "brand damage," students who reject the "conservative" label. She spoke of talking to a fellow student who said, "I'm a libertarian -- I'm voting for Obama" -- rather a non-sequitur. Ron Robinson answered that this is "often more a question of self-identification," with students agreeing more with the conservative position on issues. "You have to engage them," Robinson said. "Do not abandon the conservative label," he advised, citing the fact that "conservative" is far more popular than "liberal" as a political identifier.

Blackwell pointed out that "the vast majority of college students are apathetic" and said conservative students have an "opening to get these people . . . get a good book or magazine in their hands . . . get them involved."

Mattera vs. 'Cold Cash' Jefferson

'Most ethical Congress ever'!


(H/T: Michelle at Hot Air.)

Jason Mattera is at this week's Young America's Foundation conference in D.C. -- and in a few hours, I will be there, too. I'm spending three days covering the event down at George Washington University.

Youth Against 'Hope'

My latest article at The American Spectator:

Support among younger voters and academics is Obama's greatest political strength. One poll last month showed the Democrat with a 12-point advantage among registered voters under 30, while Gallup reported Obama leading 54 percent to 39 percent among those with postgraduate degrees.
Despite such evidence of rampant Hope within academia, conservative activism on American campuses continues, as evidenced by the more than 400 students who are gathering in the nation's capital this week for the Young America's Foundation 30th annual National Conservative Student Conference.
YAF spokesman Jason Mattera says Obama's popularity among students is partly due to the idealism of youth who are "most susceptible to Obama's pie-in-the sky promises," having had little experience with "bloated federal bureaucracy" and its consequences. ...
YAF is dedicated to promoting another youth hero: Ronald Reagan.

Read the whole thing. A major reason the "Eggheads for Obama" factor is such a serious problem for the GOP this year is because the Bush administration, Republican leaders in Congress and the McCain campaign have so utterly abandoned the kind of limited-government principles Ronald Reagan stood for.

A Republican Party that doesn't stand firm on limited government -- and, from No Child Left Behind to Medicare Part D to nationalizing airport security, the Bush administration has completely repudiated Reaganism -- is ultimately doomed. You can't beat something with nothing, and a GOP that doesn't stand for anything can't hope to compete by offering a watered-down "me-too" version of the same big-government philosophy as the Democrats.

This is especially true on college campuses, where conservative students nowadays find themselves mocked for the indefensible idiocies of the Bush administration, and are at pains to point out that George W. Bush is not a conservative (a subject that former Reagan administration official Bruce Bartlett wrote a whole book about).

The non-conservatism -- indeed, the anti-conservatism -- of Bush is a major reason so many young conservatives supported the Ron Paul campaign this year. And, given the even-less-conservative deviationism of Crazy Cousin John, the disaffection of youth from the GOP is likely to get worse before it gets better, regardless of who wins in November.

The Killer Commie: Che chic

Allison Aldrich clues in college kids about the guy whose face adorns their trendy left-wing T-shirts:

In a passage from his famous "Motorcycle Diaries," he quotes himself as saying, "My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood." . . .
Fidel Castro recognized this ruthlessness about Guevara, and placed him in charge of La Cabana prison in Cuba, where he was judge, jury and executioner. . . .
Several men who survived La Cabana prison recall a night when a 14-year-old boy was shoved into their holding cell. When asked what he did, he gasped that he had tried to defend his father from the firing squad, but was unsuccessful.
Moments later, guards dragged the boy out of the cell, and Che Guevara himself ordered the boy to kneel down.
The jailed men screamed "assassins!" and watched out of their cell window as Guevara took out his pistol, put the barrel to the back of the boy's neck, and fired.

Maybe Hollywood will do an Oscar-winning films about that Che. But don't hold your breath. For some reason, liberals don't like to think about the millions of people killed by the Left's communist heroes.

Last year I wrote about the Young America's Foundation's "Victims of Che" poster:

"The Victims of Che Guevera" poster, produced by the Young America's Foundation . . . uses tiny photos of those killed by Cuba's communist regime to compose the face of the Marxist guerrilla, who has become a popular T-shirt icon.
"Che is one of the heroes that the left idolizes," said Patrick X. Coyle, vice president of YAF. "But a lot of kids don't know anything about him. We thought this would be a great way to highlight his atrocities."

YAF's "Victims of Che" poster is free. (Isn't capitalism great?)

Ron Robinson on Buckley and bias

Thursday evening, Young America's Foundation President Ron Robinson was at the Magic Gourd restaurant in Washington to teach an activism seminar for members of the George Washington University YAF chapter.

Robinson's presentation was about the nature of media bias, but his mind was clearly on the recent death of William F. Buckley Jr., the "conservative icon" to whom Robinson paid tribute on the YAF Web site:

"William F. Buckley Jr. was the founder of the modern YAF movement and a longtime friend of Young America's Foundation. The staff and board of Young America's Foundation send our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends."

While waiting for the event to begin, Robinson talked to me about what a tremendous loss Buckley's death is for the conservative movement. Later, during his remarks to the GWU students, he related anecdotes about Buckley, including the National Review founder's famous 1965 response when asked what was the first thing he would do if he won election as mayor of New York City: "Demand a recount."

Robinson told the GWU students that Buckley would be proud of the work their YAF chapter was doing on campus. And while even liberals praised Buckley at his death, it wasn't always so, the YAF president reminded the students. When he was in high school, Robinson said, one of his teachers told him Buckley was "more dangerous than Hitler."

The notion that conservatives are dangerous and menacing is propagated chiefly through the news media, and Robinson's presentation consisted of more than 100 slides showing covers of Time and Newsweek magazines, contrasting how liberal and conservative figures were portrayed. A November 1994 cover of Time featuring Newt Gingrich with the headline, "MAD AS HELL," was one example.

"How did you become a conservative?" Robinson asked the GWU students. "I bet it wasn't because of an overload of conservative teachers or professors. I bet it wasn't because of anything you saw on ABC, CBS, NBC 'Nightly News.' I know it wasn't because of anything you saw on the cover of Time or Newsweek."

With the assistance of Ron Robinson, YAF's national headquarters staff and local supporters, the George Washington University YAF chapter -- led by seniors Sergio Gor and Iris Somberg -- is becoming a model for conservative campus activism nationwide. Thursday's seminar was attended by more than 30 members, including freshman Joe Sangiorgio, whose notes on Robinson's presentation were essential to the preparation of this report.

A featured post at Memeorandum -- thanks!