Rasmussen:

Seventy-four percent (74%) of U.S. voters say it is unlikely there will be lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israel within the next decade Twenty-seven percent (27%) say it’s not at all likely.

Only four percent (4%) think a lasting peace between the two is Very Likely within the next 10 years, and another 17% say it’s somewhat likely in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

RCP:

We have two important anniversaries this week: tomorrow is the 20th of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Saturday will be the 65th of D-Day. Both events retain “educational value,” and today I shall try to remember why.

I was not around for D-Day. Recently I buried a father who was, and at an age to make me realize that the Second World War will soon exist only as book knowledge. Include, in that book, what was incised in stone over the battlefields of France, where Western leaders will gather on the weekend for verbal tributes, and where a few surviving veterans will recall the comrades of their vanished youth.

RCP:

Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don’t. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda. (more…)

Poll:

Twenty-six percent (26%) of American adults believe it was a good idea for the federal government to take ownership of General Motors as the auto giant was on the verge of collapse. Nearly as many–17%–say that Americans should protest the bailout by boycotting GM and refusing to buy its cars. Most Americans are somewhere in between. (more…)

RCP:

Traditionalists vs. Reformers

For conservatives, the coming argument about core principles will pit “Traditionalists” against “Reformers,” according to David Brooks of the New York Times. Traditionalists, he says, “believe that conservatives have lost elections because they have strayed from the true creed. George W. Bush was a big-government type who betrayed conservatism. John McCain was a Republican moderate, and his defeat discredits the moderate wing.” The Traditionalists, Brooks says, include Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. They’re convinced the cure for the problems of conservatism is more conservatism: “Cut government, cut taxes, restrict immigration. Rally behind Sarah Palin.” (more…)

RCW:

Spring always brings new blossoms, but 20 years ago, spring brought to China an unprecedented flowering. In hundreds of cities, citizens took to the streets in peaceful protests to demand freedom, government accountability and an end to corruption — and the government, once among the most repressive on earth, stood by and let them.

It was an intoxicating moment that didn’t last. By the morning of June 4, the government had reversed course, sending the army to crush the long-running student demonstration in the capital’s Tiananmen Square, leaving hundreds dead, and the Beijing Spring was over.

Rasmussen video here.

CQ Politics:

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney plans to announce a primary challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on her Web site Thursday morning, according to two sources including a member of New York’s congressional delegation.

Maloney disputed that characterization in a brief hallway interview.

“Where did you get that from?” she asked. “It’s not true.”

Regardless of the timing or venue, several of her New York colleagues, including Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Anthony D. Weiner, said Maloney has told them she will run. She has also indicated to political allies in her “silk stocking” district on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that she is preparing a bid.

New York Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing, whose district overlaps with Maloney’s and who shares a close working relationship with the congresswoman, said an announcement on Maloney’s Senate intentions was pending, but could not confirm a specific date.

The decision to run sets up what could be an expensive primary.

Bloomberg:

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Some of the 17 Chinese Uighur Muslims being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will likely be released in the U.S. in an effort to convince other countries to accept prisoners from the detention facility, according to current and former American officials.

The fate of the Chinese nationals, who were captured after the Sept. 11 attacks, has been a quandary for U.S. officials. While the Bush administration cleared the Uighurs for release or transfer between 2003 and 2008, the government hasn’t been able to find a country willing to accept them.

From K-State:

K-STATE EDUCATION INSTRUCTOR WHO DOUBLES AS BISON RANCHER OFFERS SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE SPECIES

MANHATTAN — For nearly 15 years, Kansas State University’s Susan Dillinger and her husband have been raising bison on a ranch in Pottawatomie County.
(more…)

Slate:

Last Friday the White House argued that Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s “word choice in 2001 was poor” when she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Today, it undermined its case.

An administration aide pointed out that in addition to the 2001 speech, in a 1994 speech Sotomayor used nearly identical language: “I would hope that a wise woman with the richness of her experience would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion. What is better? I … hope that better will mean a more compassionate and caring conclusion.”

Source:

But Corzine cannot be counted out of the game just yet. The incumbent has yet to flex his political muscles in the race. Corzine, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs, invested more than $60 million in personal funds into his successful 2000 bid for U.S. Senate and is expected to be able to outspend Christie this fall. Corzine also has strong support from the national party- Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. appeared at Corzine’s kickoff rally Tuesday.

And the state overall leans Democratic despite the high number of unaffiliated voters, who made up 47 percent of registered voters according to the latest figures. A Republican last won the New Jersey governorship in 1997 and state voters have supported a Democrat for president in the past five presidential elections. Democrats currently control the state legislature, both U.S. Senate seats, and eight out of 13 U.S. House seats.

WSJ:

Enter Mr. Christie, who made his reputation putting away the state’s many political crooks. But to win in November he’ll need a reform agenda that sharpens the economic contrast with Mr. Corzine and gives him leverage to clean up the tax robbers in Trenton if he does win. He’ll need a reform mandate, or the legislature will tie him down like Gulliver. Mr. Christie shrugged off primary opponent Steve Lonegan’s proposal to replace the state’s progressive income tax with a flat tax, but he’ll need something nearly as bold. He can also differentiate himself on education, where state spending per pupil is among the highest in the country, but achievement is dismal and unions run the show.

RCP:

HANNITY: But it is interesting because that term racist, racial is radioactive, but - and Chuck Schumer said, he made the comment that, you do so at your own peril if you go after Judge Sotomayor, and I found that comment pretty interesting because I’m thinking well, that didn’t stop you and your fellow Democrats from going after Miguel Estrada, remember, the - he’s a Latino memo or Clarence Thomas or even Alberto Gonzales. (more…)

Times Online:

President Obama’s journey to Saudi Arabia and Egypt could be an opportunity. It reflects both the need for an historic change in the Middle East and a unique chance of achieving it.

Various ideas are being discussed. One significant concept is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia’s peace initiative which was adopted by the Arab League in Beirut. Much wisdom lies also in King Abdullah of Jordan’s proposal of a “57-state solution” to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The kings are right in seeing both the proper destination and the surest path for its realisation. With the support of the leadership in Egypt, it seems the time is ripe to end the Israeli-Arab conflict once and for all.

Club for Growth:

From Bloomberg:

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

I wonder how many other Ballmers have the same plan. I suspect many.

RCP:

Two men, two murderers — two lost boys trying to recover dreams of manhood in two violent and disturblingly similar acts.

Is God sending us a message? (more…)

VDH at RCP:

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has scolded Americans for being “cowards” and not talking more about race. Now, Holder is getting that “dialogue” with the recent controversy surrounding President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor.

Most of the furor surrounds statements on race by Sotomayor herself: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

From K-State:

K-STATE INSTRUCTOR USES BISON FARM TO EDUCATE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD

MANHATTAN — Susan Dillinger’s entire life is about education. She’s spent 36 years as a public school teacher, married a fellow educator and now, as an instructor of special education, counseling and student affairs at Kansas State University, she’s passing on her knowledge to the teachers of tomorrow.

So, it should come as no surprise that when she and her husband, Ed, decided to take on ranching, they ended up making an educational enterprise out of it.
(more…)

Roth at Club for Growth.

AP:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed a bill Tuesday meant to place restrictions on the payday lending industry.

The bill would have capped the amount of each loan at $550. It required a one-day wait between loans for a borrower’s first seven consecutive loans, and two days between additional borrowing. It also gave borrowers one day to change their minds and undo a loan.

RCP:

The point of “utopian environmentalism” was to reduce guilt. During the green bubble, many Americans became “captivated by the twin thoughts that human civilization could soon come crashing down — and that we are on the cusp of a sudden leap forward in consciousness, one that will allow us to heal ourselves, our society, and our planet. Apocalyptic fears meld seamlessly into utopian hopes.” Suddenly, commonplace acts — e.g., buying light bulbs — infused pedestrian lives with cosmic importance. But:

“Greens often note that the changing global climate will have the greatest impact on the world’s poor; they neglect to mention that the poor also have the most to gain from development fueled by cheap fossil fuels like coal. For the poor, the climate is already dangerous.”

Now, say Nordhaus and Shellenberger, “the green bubble” has burst, pricked by Americans’ intensified reluctance to pursue greenness at a cost to economic growth. The dark side of utopianism is “escapism and a disengagement from reality that marks all bubbles, green or financial.” Re-engagement with reality is among the recession’s benefits.

Source:

Handicapper Corner’s Top 10, Plus One Longshot:

1. Mitt Romney. Republicans like orderly succession, and he’s got the $$.

2. Tim Pawlenty. Reformer, populist elected in a blue state. (more…)

From K-State:

K-STATE STUDENTS EARN HONORS FOR FURNITURE DESIGN IN REGIONAL COMPETITION

MANHATTAN — Seven students majoring in interior architecture and product design at Kansas State University recently placed in a competition sponsored by Kansas City Architects, Designers, Dealers and Representatives.

This year’s competition had 38 entries, all of which were made in furniture design and construction studio classes at K-State in the 2008-2009 school year. (more…)