From ESPN:

The Obama administration has ended public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

This announcement comes at the time when the situation supposedly still is "fluid" and the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force still hasn't issued its final report on zoning uses of these waters.

Fishing industry insiders, who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force, had grown concerned that the public input would not be taken into account.

"When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big-game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano.

"Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard-working American families and small businesses are being ignored.

Rod D. Martin

Via the Matt Drudge:

SENATE WARNS EMPLOYEES TO AVOID THE DRUDGE REPORT
Tue Mar 09 2010 08:53:37 ET

Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is 'responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.'

The committee ordered hill staff: 'Try to avoid' the DRUDGE REPORT 'for now'.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about 'pop ups', or the site serving 'viruses'.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

The Systems Administrator may want to continue taking her antibiotic until the prescription runs out.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Lawmakers plan to give Idaho's four-year public universities about $32.1 million less in total funding next year, further slashing the state share of costs for higher education.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee agreed on a budget Tuesday that proposes spending roughly $377.7 million on the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

The budget plan for higher education in the next fiscal year wields a loss of nearly 8 percent in total funding, which includes state general funds, endowment money, one-time federal stimulus cash and student tuition and fees.

The state's general fund portion would drop about 14.1 percent, which, combined with previous losses, means Idaho will be spending about $67.6 million less in tax revenue on higher education than it did two years ago.

Keith Ickes, the UI's executive director of planning and budget, said Tuesday afternoon the legislature still had to determine how to distribute the dollars to each institution, but he estimated the UI would see about a $10 million cut in state general funding from this year's budget.

He said he felt "no shocks, no surprises" from JFAC's vote.

"These were approximately the kinds of numbers that we've been looking at for the last two to three weeks, if not a month and a half," he said. 

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Lawmakers plan to give Idaho's four-year public universities about $32.1 million less in total funding next year, further slashing the state share of costs for higher education.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee agreed on a budget Tuesday that proposes spending roughly $377.7 million on the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

The budget plan for higher education in the next fiscal year wields a loss of nearly 8 percent in total funding, which includes state general funds, endowment money, one-time federal stimulus cash and student tuition and fees.

The state's general fund portion would drop about 14.1 percent, which, combined with previous losses, means Idaho will be spending about $67.6 million less in tax revenue on higher education than it did two years ago.

Keith Ickes, the UI's executive director of planning and budget, said Tuesday afternoon the legislature still had to determine how to distribute the dollars to each institution, but he estimated the UI would see about a $10 million cut in state general funding from this year's budget.

He said he felt "no shocks, no surprises" from JFAC's vote.

"These were approximately the kinds of numbers that we've been looking at for the last two to three weeks, if not a month and a half," he said. 

The following is from Idaho District 6 liberal Democrat, Rep. Shirley Ringo:

Today the budget committee set the budget for Educational Public Broadcasting.  Unfortunately, there was an overall decrease in spending of 8.3% compared to fiscal year 2010.  The good news is that the budget committee made no move to phase out public funding.  The Education Committees would appropriately consider an issue such as that, but there is no indication that there are discussions of that nature.

The appropriation for colleges and universities was especially disappointing – especially considering their role in helping a struggling economy to recover.  Support from general state funds will be decreased by 14.1% from fiscal year 2010.  About $4.3 million from stimulus funds will boost this budget somewhat, so the overall reduction for FY 2011 will be 7.8%.  My motion to increase spending for colleges and universities failed on a vote along party lines.

The community college budget will be reduced by 12.6%.

Health and Welfare budgets continue to be underfunded, especially in view of the likelihood of increased caseload.  Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention is cut 15.6%, the Mental Health Services budget will be down 6.5%, and it is recognized that we underfunded the budget for Medically Indigent Health Care.  When the legislature convenes in January, it will be necessary to find more funding for that program.

Some individuals are making extraordinary efforts to provide services with slim resources.  For example, the Board of Tax Appeals is leaving one of six positions vacant.  The three board members are working over 75 days per year and are paid for fewer than 50 days.  They cannot possibly make their May deadline for writing decisions, but will make every effort to finish them during May so that counties will have the resolutions on appeals in time.  Moscow’s Linda Pike is a board member.

All of these budgets must be approved by both House and Senate.

HB 391a, the Idaho Health Freedom Act, to ban Idaho’s enforcement of any federal requirement for purchase of passed the Senate today by a vote of 24-10.  The “Firearms Freedom” bill, HB 589, is a move to make guns and ammunition manufactured in Idaho exempt from all federal laws and regulations.  This bill passed in the House, 52-17.  This despite an attorney general’s opinion that the legislation is “likely unconstitutional.”  The vote was almost along party lines, with one Democrat voting in favor.

At the beginning of this legislative session, Governor Butch Otter announced a phase-out of general funds for certain agencies that, he explained, weren’t the proper role of state government to fund.  These included Idaho Public Broadcasting, the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Idaho Council for the Developmentally Disabled, and others.  Later, he explained that he threatened this action to get the attention of those who were not being cooperative in reducing their budgets.  His most recent action is to include these in a list of choices for donations on state income tax forms.  There will be temporary increases in the existing income tax credit for donations to help them cope with recent budget reductions.  This is House Bill 630.  It is estimated that the legislation will bring an additional $10 million in donations, at a cost of $5 million.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you. 

Representative Shirley Ringo

This has been scrubbed from the Chris Matthews website. You can watch it here until it gets pulled.

More racism from the left.  

HT: Bill J.

From Inside Higher Education:

For colleges to succeed at graduating more students, institutions will have to embrace "transformational change," and if they do, they may get some help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That was the message from Hilary Pennington, who directs the foundation's efforts in higher education, in a talk Monday to college presidents gathered at the annual meeting here of the American Council on Education.

In the talk, Pennington mixed not-so-subtle criticism of the policies of many traditional colleges with a concrete example of the foundation's willingness to back dramatic change in the way education is delivered. She announced that the Gates Foundation, along with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will provide $3.6 million to expand Cabrillo College's Academy for College Excellence to allow the effort to be used at three other (unidentified) community colleges in California and one in another state.

The academy concept, similar in some ways to the ideas behind the new community college being planned by the City University of New York, involves more direction and fewer choices for students, with the goal of getting them into college-level work right away and earning an associate degree in a reasonably speedy fashion. In an interview, Pennington said that foundation officials increasingly believe that "less choice, more structure" may translate into the kind of revolutionary change the foundation wants to see in community colleges.

Isn’t this actually counter-revolutionary?

HT: Dr. A

Here’s an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:

"Damning reports on the state of the National Health Service, suppressed by the government, reveal how patients' needs have been neglected," reports London's Sunday Times:

They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives.

The harsh verdict on the state of the NHS, after a spending splurge under Labour between 2000 and 2008, raises worrying questions about the future quality of the health service as budgets are squeezed.

The reports found that "a damaging rift between doctors and managers," "pointless new structures" and "a culture of fear and slavish compliance" led, among other results, to a disregard for "basic hygiene" so as "to cram in patients to meet waiting-time targets."

What we don't understand is why the government would suppress the reports. That makes it look as if officials have something to hide. Instead, they could have published the reports but put on the cover this authoritative disclaimer from former Enron adviser Paul Krugman: "In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We've all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false."

Thank goodness these stories are false, because some of them, like this one from London's Daily Mail, are truly horrifying:

A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.

Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help.

They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.

The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours.

She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'

Meanwhile, here's a story of someone facing bankruptcy owing to medical costs. The twist is he's Canadian. From the Toronto Sun:

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery--at a cost to family and friends of $106,000--after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn't authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size--despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.

Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug--$4,555 per treatment, two times a month--would be totally covered by Alberta's version of OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan].

But he doesn't.

And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.

The good news is that President Obama remains committed to bringing U.S. health care into line with Canadian standards. If he succeeds, sick Canadians will eventually be set free from the ruinous temptations of places like the Mayo Clinic.

And this is what the progressives want to bring the US down to. Amazing.

HT: LCJ

From U.S. News & World Report:

It has been said well and famously that politicians only really commit a gaffe when they tell the truth without meaning to. Add House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the list.

Speaking Tuesday to the 2010 Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties, Pelosi began the windup of her healthcare pitch by alluding to the controversies over the healthcare bill and the process by which it has reached its current state. Then, just after saying, "It's going to be very, very exciting," Pelosi gaffed, telling the local elected officials assembled that Congress "[has] to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it, away from the fog of controversy."

This is the same Nancy Pelosi who, only weeks earlier, was bragging about the transparency of the process that produced the bill that is currently stalled in Congress. The same Pelosi who brushed aside concerns raised by organizations like Let Freedom Ring!--where I am a senior fellow--that members of Congress actually commit to reading the bill before voting for it and that it be posted online for at least 72 hours before any vote so that the American people can read it, too.

In fact, as supporters of the current healthcare bill will no doubt point out, the bill Pelosi and the White House are trying to move to the president's desk passed the Senate at Christmas. It has been on the Web for well over 72 hours; indeed it has been discussed and dissected by healthcare policy experts repeatedly over the last two months. But if that is the case, why is Pelosi telling the National Association of Counties that the bill has to pass before they--and the rest of us "can find out what's in it." What is she hiding?

HT: Bill J.

This is not getting much coverage in the US mainstream media. But it is getting coverage in the UK. Seems like anymore, if I want to know what’s going on in the world, and it’s too politically correct for the US media to touch (especially concerning the Religion of Peace^TM), I have to turn to the UK. From the U.K. Times Online:

Dozens of bodies lined the dusty streets of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria yesterday. Other victims of Sunday morning’s Muslim rampage were jammed into a local morgue, the limbs of slaughtered children tangled in a grotesque mess.

One toddler appeared fixed in the protective but hopeless embrace of an older child, possibly his brother. Another had been scalped. Most had severed hands and feet.

Officials estimate that 500 people were massacred in night-time raids by Muslim gangs near Jos, the city that bestrides Nigeria’s Christian-Muslim fault line.

Local journalists and civil rights organisations who toured the area yesterday told The Times they had counted at least 200 victims shot and hacked to death in apparent revenge for sectarian violence in January that claimed about 300 lives from the two communities. Mark Lipdo, a co-ordinator for the Stefanos Foundation, a Christian aid group, confirmed at least 93 dead in one village. “But there are corpses charred beyond recognition,” he said.

More on the Religion of Peace^TM from the UK Times.

HT: Dave G.

Holographic preachers are stirring another technology-gone-too-far debate among Christians. While the dust over beaming preachers on a video screen on multi-site campuses has somewhat settled, the new 3D tool is raising more questions and concerns among some believers.

From the Christian Post:

Holographic preachers are stirring another technology-gone-too-far debate among Christians.

While the dust over beaming preachers on a video screen on multi-site campuses has somewhat settled, the new 3D tool is raising more questions and concerns among some believers.

"Since so many of us in the west are convinced that entertaining pew fodder is critical to advancing 'the gospel' and that only a very few have the necessary gifts to preachertain - this will become the 'perfect' solution," Bill Kinnon, author of A Networked Conspiracy, Social Networks, The Church & the Power of Collective Intelligence, wrote in a recent blog post.

What has Kinnon and many other Christians talking is the holographic technology that music artist Madonna famously used at the Grammy Awards in 2006 and that one company wants to promote in churches.

HT: Patty M.

Via Reuters:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Swedish pilot with a fake commercial license was arrested in his cockpit at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport as he prepared to fly 101 passengers on a Boeing 737 to Turkey, Dutch police said Wednesday.

HT: Gary E. 

Liberal news reporters such as Dan Rather are FAR more sensitive to people than those RACIST conservatives!

And it’s OK when liberals make racist remarks (think

From Fox News:

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, speaking on the GOP's expected strategy against Democrats in elections this fall, said Republicans would describe President Obama as "a nice person ... very articulate" but an ineffective leader who "couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic."

This reminds me of Harry Reid’s comments, who said the nation was ready for a black President, especially one who is “light-skinned” and has “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Such remarks are acceptable from the left.

Funny how that works.

HT: Gary E.

As reported in today’s online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

State lawmakers plan to give Idaho’s four-year public universities about $32.1 million less in total funding during the next fiscal year.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday agreed on a budget that proposes spending roughly $377.7 million on the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

The budget represents a loss of nearly 8 percent compared to the current fiscal year.

The committee agreed to slash 12.6 percent in total spending on community colleges and approved a budget that spends $25 million on the schools during the next fiscal year, or about $3.6 million less compared to this year. 

"I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words.... 'Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right.' That's what people say. But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner...On each banner, read the words, here in America: 'social justice.'"

—Glenn Beck

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

From CitizenLink:

The president and congressional leaders continue to push hard for a health care reform bill, but pro-life Democrats could kill the legislation if strong language banning abortion funding is not included.

President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are pressuring members of the House to pass the Senate bill with federal funding of abortion included.

Pro-life organizations say that bill would force billions of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

“It’s a cluster bomb of abortion provisions,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director at National Right to Life. “We’ve identified six or seven different components of the bill that would have a pro-abortion impact.”

Johnson said in the Senate bill that would make federal tax dollars available to fund abortions through community health centers, multiple millions that would be available for purchasing health insurance that would include abortion coverage for tens of millions of Americans, and it includes provisions that would empower federal bureaucrats to expand abortion through new federal regulations.

Kristin Day, president of Democrats for Life, said pro-life Democrats will hold the line.

“They’re going to continue to fight until that language is put in there,” she said, “and I see that as the only way that the bill will pass the House.”

From The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Average Faculty Salaries by Field and Rank at 4-Year Colleges and Universities, 2009-10

From the Financial Times:

China’s central bank chief laid the groundwork for an appreciation of the renminbi at the weekend when he described the current dollar peg as temporary, striking a more emollient tone after months of tough opposition in Beijing to a shift in exchange rate policy.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, gave the strongest hint yet from a senior official that China would abandon the unofficial dollar peg, in place since mid-2008. He said it was a “special” policy to weather the financial crisis.

“This is a part of our package of policies for dealing with the global financial crisis. Sooner or later, we will exit the policies.”

Mr Zhou’s comments contrasted with recent Chinese comments on its currency policy in the face of international criticism that the renminbi was undervalued. In December, premier Wen Jiabao said: “We will not yield to any pressure of any form forcing us to appreciate.” Chinese officials have repeatedly emphasised the need for a stable exchange rate.

However, while the recent increase in consumer prices in China has strengthened the hand of those officials who think the currency should now rise, it is not clear that this argument has yet won over the country’s senior leaders. 

From CNBC:

The true unemployment rate in the United States is actually higher than we think -- at 11.5 percent, said Stephen Roach, Asia chairman of Morgan Stanley.

"The (official) unemployment rate at 9.7 percent is distorted downwards by at least 3 million people who have simply given up looking for work and who have effectively taken themselves out of the work force for economic reasons," Roach said on CNBC.

"For some bizarre reason, the U.S. statisticians do not count these poor souls as unemployed. If you add them back in, the unemployment rate isn't 9.7 percent. It's 11.5 percent," he said.

How can over 3 million people given up looking for jobs. Don’t they need to eat?

The U.K. Telegraph sees an administration in crisis.

It is a universal political truth that administrations do not begin to fragment when things are going well: it only happens when they go badly, and those who think they know better begin to attack those who manifestly do not. The descent of Barack Obama's regime, characterised now by factionalism in the Democratic Party and talk of his being set to emulate Jimmy Carter as a one-term president, has been swift and precipitate. It was just 16 months ago that weeping men and women celebrated his victory over John McCain in the American presidential election. If they weep now, a year and six weeks into his rule, it is for different reasons. 

Recent polls of interest from the Gallup Organization:

Republicans', Dems' Abortion Views Grow More Polarized: With abortion policy emerging as a potential stumbling block for final passage of a healthcare reform bill in Congress, Gallup reviews long-term trends in Americans' views on the legality of abortion. Republicans and Democrats began to diverge in their views in 1990 and have since grown more polarized.

 Since the majority of Americans now say they are “pro-life”, tell me who is out of the mainstream on this topic?

From Paul Krugman’s recent New York Times column:

Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally. Take the question of helping the unemployed in the middle of a deep slump. What Democrats believe is what textbook economics says: that when the economy is deeply depressed, extending unemployment benefits not only helps those in need, it also reduces unemployment.

But that’s not how Republicans see it. Here’s what Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, had to say when defending Mr. Bunning’s position: unemployment relief “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”

In Mr. Kyl’s view, then, what we really need to worry about right now — with more than five unemployed workers for every job opening, and long-term unemployment at its highest level since the Great Depression — is whether we’re reducing the incentive of the unemployed to find jobs. To me, that’s a bizarre point of view — but then, I don’t live in Mr. Kyl’s universe. And the difference between the two universes isn’t just intellectual, it’s also moral.

That’s Krugman as a Democrat columnist.

Here’s economist Krugman from his own textbook (page 210):

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

Via Don Boudreaux

From the Wall Street Journal:

Today there are 24 Harlem charter schools. They select students by lottery, and they educate about 7,700 of the community's 50,000 school-age kids. Another 5,700 children matriculate at one of Harlem's 30 private and parochial schools.

"Harlem now has more school choice per square foot than any other place in the country," says Eva Moskowitz, who operates four charters in Harlem. Nationwide, the average black 12th grader reads at the level of a white eighth grader. Yet Harlem charter students at schools like KIPP and Democracy Prep are outperforming their white peers in wealthy suburbs. At the Promise Academy charter schools, 97% of third graders scored at or above grade level in math. At Harlem Village Academy, 100% of eighth graders aced the state science exam. Every third grader at Harlem Success Academy 1, operated by Ms. Moskowitz, passed the state math exam, and 71% of them achieved the top score.

This year, Harlem's charter schools received more than 11,000 applications for 2,000 available slots. More than 7,000 children are on wait lists.

Who could ever object to something like that? Well, the Teachers Unions, of courses.

The United Federation of Teachers and its political acolytes in the New York state legislature are hell-bent on blocking school choice for underprivileged families. Worried that high-performing charters are "saturating" Harlem, State Sen. Bill Perkins and State Assemblyman Keith Wright have backed legislation that would gut state per-pupil funding at charter schools and allow a single charter operator to educate no more than 5% of a district's students. Unions dislike charter schools because many aren't organized. But how does limiting the replication of successful public education models benefit ghetto kids?

These obstructionists, Mr. Clark says, aren't doing the community any favors. "The teachers unions ought to be ashamed of themselves because they know better than I do how bad these schools are," he says. "Everybody on my block and in my building and around the corner . . . they all want charter schools. They don't want a political debate."

The next time that progressives tell you “it’s all about the kids,” laugh out loud in their faces.

HT: Mark J. Perry

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

A few students, faculty and staff at Washington State University became concerned Friday about a theme party they deemed racist.

A student or students had planned a theme party "Vatos Lokos Party," for March 28. The theme party was being promoted on a Facebook page where it encouraged students to take part. Vatos Locos is a name for a Mexican gang.

This is not the first time that area students have participated in such theme parties.

UCSD students helped arrange a party called the “Compton Cookout,” which ridiculed African-Americans on the occasion of Black History Month.

That’s actually a more common party theme than you might think. They also go by the names “Pimps and Hos,” and “Gangsta” or “Ghetto” parties.

At these gangsta parties, students wear gold chains. They drink malt liquor. They flash gang signs.

Fraternities also have thrown parties making fun of Latinos. At Santa Clara University, students came dressed as gardeners and janitors. Some of the women  put balloons under their shirts to look pregnant.

Poor white people are targets, too. A fraternity at the University of Idaho throws a big one at the end of the year. Partyers wear overalls and John Deere caps to the “White Trash Trailer Bash.”

Here’s another party concept: “Mekong Delta.” At the University of Florida, male students dressed up as U.S. soldiers and the women as Vietnamese prostitutes.

Whatever happened to togas?

Looks like all that government reeducation, indoctrination stuff isn’t working.

Emily is the 3^rd Logos School student named as a local Junior Miss in the last 4 years: Cecilia Hui in 2007, Naphtali Lineberger in 2008, and now Emily Carlson in 2010. Well done, ladies!

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Emily Carlson was named 2011 Pullman Junior Miss on Saturday night.

Family and friends rushed to the stage to congratulate Carlson, who was overcome by emotion.

"Just participating has been my dream for the past nine years," Carlson said, in tears. "This is one of the best experiences of my life. I'm crying, but it's all happiness."

Hundreds of people convened at the Gladish Community and Cultural Center auditorium to watch the 15 participants compete in the scholarship program.

The participants were from Pullman High School, Pullman Christian School and Logos School in Moscow. During the program they were judged on scholastics, fitness, talent, self-expression and an interview.

The program awarded almost $6,000 in scholarships to the top winners. The money came from donors and the local business community.

Along with the title of Pullman's new Junior Miss, Carlson won a $1,000 scholarship and one year of paid tuition at Washington State University. She also received the $500 fitness award and the $500 self-expression award.

Carlson will now represent Pullman in the Washington Junior Miss Program, which will take place at Washington State University in August.

It really is amazing what our government schools are producing today.

This is from the "National Day of Action to Defend Public Education", held on 4 March in cities across America. This was organized by the best of the left:

• Michigan’s “By Any Means Necessary”
• Ohio’s “Community Organizing Center for Mother Earth”
• Los Angeles’ “County Peace and Freedom Party”
• New York’s “League for the Revolutionary Party”
• North Carolina’s “Destroy Industry.”

With groups like that, it can’t help but be good.

Below is a video from Detroit a guy representing the Che Guevara/Mumia Abu-Jamal “FIST Youth”. Here he educates a crowd on the virtues of socialism, lecturing on the Soviet Union, its roots, and the glory days when the “people’s council” made all of the important decisions.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he learned this from the University of Idaho’s history department…

Concerning the Berkeley students protesting tuition increases, Peter Robinson writes the following in the Wall Street Journal:

Although still facing an enormous deficit, [Governor Schwarzenegger] proposed to increase funding for higher education by 12%. A few thousand people at Berkeley threw a fit, and the governor responded by promising hundreds millions more…

The students’ attitudes?

They demonstrated the entitlement mentality and self-absorption that has come to dominate much of higher education.

How the entitlement mentality only grows:

Despite the budget cuts, California will this year devote $3 billion to the U.C. system. That's about $13,000 per student—more than the $10,000 per student that Illinois devotes to the University of Illinois and better than double the $6,000 per student that New York devotes to the SUNY system. Yet Mr. Schwarzenegger did not denounce the agitation at Berkeley. He gave in to it.

Heaven help us. I’m not sure how we can get out of this hole we’ve dug for ourselves.

From Market Watch:

• Both consumer confidence and sentiment have fallen unexpectedly.
• After-tax personal incomes adjusted for inflation have flattened.
• Sales of both new and existing homes took a surprising stumble.
• Orders for most durable goods are down.
• Manufacturing has slowed.
• Jobless claims are up.
• Fourth-quarter GDP growth came largely from a slower pace of inventory liquidation, not from an increase in consumer spending.
• And, as a matter of fact, consumer spending weakened last quarter.
• Existing-home sales are down two months in a row to a seven-month low.
• First-time claims for unemployment benefits have risen in six of this year's first eight weeks.
• And new orders excluding transportation fell 0.6%; orders for capital goods fell 2.5%, and capital spending itself was down a thumping 3.5%.
• Consumer confidence fell to a 27-year low.
• New-home sales fell to record lows, and they are likely to fall even further, since mortgage applications are down to 13-year lows.  

HT: Mike Costello

The polling firm, Zogby, asked respondents: “When you think about the long-term security and well-being of the U.S., which of these do you believe is a more serious threat?” From CNSNews:

By a two-to-one margin, American adults believe the amount of money the U.S. owes China to cover the U.S. national debt is now a greater threat than radical Islam.

According to a Zogby International poll, 58 percent said the debt was a greater concern, versus just 27 percent who chose terrorism perpetrated by “radical Islamists.”