Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Mizzou may pay price for campus protests as enrollment plunges
Safe spaces may become empty spaces at the University of Missouri, where officials acknowledged an expected sharp decline in enrollment next fall is due at least in part to protests that rocked the campus last fall.
The school is braced for a 25 percent drop in new students this coming fall, forcing the institution to enact painful budget cuts, as well as hiring and salary freezes.
“We do know that the events of last fall have had an effect on our application numbers; however, it’s difficult to provide a specific number as we do not have any hard data," University of Missouri spokesman Christian Basi said in a statement to Foxnews.com.
“We do know that the events of last fall have had an effect on our application numbers..."Basi said there are other factors contributing to the decline, including fewer high school graduates in the region since 2010 and increased competition since Mizzou entered the SEC a few years ago.
- Mizzou spokesman
“We are continuing to work with prospective students and their parents, answering any questions they might have and giving them information about MU’s current campus climate,” he said. “We’re looking forward to welcoming our new class in the fall.”
Related Image
Former
university president Tim Wolfe was forced to resign amid controversy
surrounding race relations at the University of Missouri.
Further cuts may be possible if the state reduces monetary support. A budget approved last Thursday reduces funding for the University’s Columbia campus by $1 million and support for the systemwide administration by $7.6 million.
“College enrollment is declining overall – perhaps because high school graduates are realizing trivial courses that lecture on “white privilege” and “queer liberation” – just to name two – don’t help one much with employment and real-world problems,” Kyle Olson, founder and head of the Education Action group and news site EAGnews.org, told FoxNews.com.
He adds that the same can be true of the microcosm of Mizzou.
“Do most reasonable people want classmates who parade through the library finger-waving about the supposed evils of whiteness – or professors who threaten the safety of their students and undermining the very tenant that protects their profession for which she is training them: the First Amendment?” he asked.
Related Image
Aug.
26, 2015: A "day of action" demonstration to draw attention to graduate
students' demands in front of Jesse Hall on the Mizzou campus in
Columbia.
((Daniel Brenner/Columbia Daily Tribune via AP) )
Olson noted that other schools in Missouri, including Missouri State, are seeing an increase in enrollment, which would indicate local students are considering options other than Mizzou.
Benghazi victim's mom: Hillary needs to tell me the truth!
During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Intelligence Report with Trish Regan, Patricia Smith, the mother of one of the Benghazi victims, responded to Hillary Clinton’s comments during the latest Democratic debate. Smith, whose son Sean was killed in the attack, believes Clinton lied to her when the former Secretary of State claimed a video was responsible for the attack.
“We were nose-to-nose at the coffin ceremony,” Smith said. “She lied to me. She told me it was the fault of the video. I said ‘are you sure?’ She says ‘yes, that’s what it was… it was the video.’ And she knew full well it wasn’t at that time. And then she says she was going to check and if it’s any different she would call me back, she would let me know, ”Smith continued, saying Clinton has yet to reply.
“She has never once spoken to me or [has] her office. The only thing I ever got out of them is that I am not a member of the immediate family and I don’t need to know… I know what she said. I don’t lie. She’s a proven liar and I call her out for that. I know what I heard.”
At Wednesday evening’s debate, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos presented Clinton with the question, which has been a contentious issue during her run for the White House. As part of her response, Clinton said Smith’s accusations are “wrong.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, not at all from the way she’s been talking,” Smith said. “She has never—and her department—will not speak to me. They still have not spoken to me. Not once has anybody ever contacted me other than to tell me I was not a member of the immediate family and they don’t have to tell me. I want Hillary to talk to me personally and tell me why there was no security there when they asked for it. I know this because I spoke to my son.”
Smith, who said she spoke to her son on the day of the attack noted that he said he was “really scared.”
“He was afraid—he said it didn’t look very good. And that he asked for security and he was turned down.”
Smith said she has pleaded with the U.S. government tell her the truth about what happened on the evening of September 11, 2012.
“All I want is for Hillary to tell me what happened…I think that as a mother I deserve to know, why my son is dead! What was the reasoning behind it? Can’t anybody there from my [own] government tell me what happened?”
She added: “I want them to tell me what happened. I want the government not to call me a liar because that’s incredible—I don’t lie like that. She’s a proven liar.”
Smith continued to state her case.
“I want to speak to her personally and I want to be able to ask her what happened. I want her to be able to tell me what happened. I don’t believe she has the guts to do that,” she said.
Smith concluded by combining some words from a recent controversial comment from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and a few words of her own: “There’s a special place in Hell for people like her [Clinton] and I hope she enjoys it there!”
Clinton commits Benghazi gaffe, saying US 'didn't lose a single person' in Libya
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton committed her second gaffe in as many days on the campaign trail Monday night, claiming that the U.S. "didn't lose a single person" in Libya during her time as secretary of state.
Clinton made the comment defending her push for regime change in the war-torn North African nation at an Illinois town hall hosted by MSNBC.
"Now, is Libya perfect? It isn't," Clinton said. After contrasting her approach toward Libya with the ongoing bloodshed in Syria's civil war, Clinton said "Libya was a different kind of calculation and we didn't lose a single person ... We didn’t have a problem in supporting our European and Arab allies in working with NATO."
Clinton made no mention of the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Questions about the attack and its aftermath have dogged Clinton throughout her second run for the White House, with emails released by the State Department contradicting several aspects of her testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the attack.
Earlier Monday, Clinton's campaign was forced to scramble to clarify comments she made about coal jobs at a CNN town hall Sunday night.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
With many workers in crucial primary states like Ohio and Illinois relying on such jobs, Clinton's campaign put out a statement stressing that, “Coal will remain a part of the energy mix for years to come” and Clinton’s plan would also safeguard workers’ retirement and health benefits.
Spokesman Brian Fallon said “no candidate in this race is more devoted to supporting coal communities than Hillary Clinton” and “any suggestions otherwise are false."
Media scuffle: Many pundits blaming Trump for violence at his rallies
Is Donald Trump responsible for the fistfights and scuffling that have broken out at some of his rallies?
That seems to be the main question that the media are asking.
What’s overshadowed, and sometimes ignored, is the role of protestors who are engaged in organized attempts to disrupt these rallies.
We saw that again yesterday in North Carolina, when a group of demonstrators kept screaming in an attempt to shout down Trump, until they were removed.
There are two sides to this debate—but the harsh spotlight is mainly on Trump.
The billionaire yesterday declared that there is “no violence” at his rallies, that these gatherings are “love fests.” Clearly there have been violent outbreaks.
And it can certainly be argued that Trump kept his
foot on the gas pedal by saying he’d like to punch one protestor in the
face, or that he’d pay the legal fees of supporters fighting back.
But what about the role of protestors who use Facebook to organize the troops for the express purpose of disrupting a presidential candidate’s event?
When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says she’s practically concluded that Trump wanted the confrontation in Chicago, where he canceled the rally, it’s clear that some in the media are making this all about the candidate and not those who would silence him.
Imagine how different the coverage might be if protestors were shouting down Hillary Clinton, as they briefly did to Bernie Sanders earlier in the season.
Everyone has the right to peacefully demonstration, something that’s deeply embedded in our country’s DNA. But nobody has the right to stop someone else from speaking. That is an assault on free speech—and one that’s been too prevalent on college campuses in recent years, where some liberals have tried to block speakers whose views they don’t like.
In the short term, this probably helps Trump in the Republican primaries, where voters will see him taking on mostly minority protestors who they don’t have much sympathy for. The danger in the long run is that the outbreaks of violence will come to be seen as a metaphor for a campaign that critics will say is tearing the country apart.
Joe Scarborough, in his Washington Post column, continues his turn against Trump, insisting that “a political campaign whose security has been so stifling as to draw angry comparisons to fascist regimes would plan a key rally for Trump in the middle of a racially diverse urban campus. The fact that this campus sits in the middle of a city that is so Democratic that it has not elected a Republican mayor since before Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as president makes the venue’s selection even more bizarre.”
I have to disagree on that point. Why shouldn’t a presidential candidate—especially one who hopes to attract Democratic votes in the fall--be able to campaign anywhere he wants?
National Review, which detests Trump and is backing Ted Cruz, faults the protestors, but adds this:
“Trump — Saddam Hussein to the ayatollahs of political correctness on the other side — is of course far from blameless in all this. That is not to say that Trump’s irresponsible, wild-eyed, and meat-headed rhetoric, which has included explicit calls for violence against his critics, is responsible for having provoked the protests. Rather, Trump’s rhetoric has been unworthy of a presidential candidate — and unworthy of an American — in and of itself.”
On the liberal side, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo says “it is not that Trump can't control the beast he's unleashed. He cannot control himself because the same psychodrama and politics of resentment that is playing out among his followers is playing out within himself. Trump can pivot to the general all he wants. But the primaries will follow him there. Indeed, he will bring them.”
And at the Huffington Post, which hates Trump with a passion, Howard Fineman invokes the violence and division of 1968:
“Like the late George Wallace, Trump exudes a sneering hatred for political establishments and blames the ills of the county on those whose race, faith or origin makes them somehow ‘un-American.’
“Wallace softened somewhat in later years, but Trump, at 69, shows no signs of doing so. Indeed, he is doubling down on his willingness to allow verbal and even physical antagonism in his name and at his campaign rallies.”
Trump speaks openly about tapping into the anger of Americans who are fed up with the political establishment, and that has fueled his rise. Now his challenge is to deal with the very visible backlash to that anger.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
That seems to be the main question that the media are asking.
What’s overshadowed, and sometimes ignored, is the role of protestors who are engaged in organized attempts to disrupt these rallies.
We saw that again yesterday in North Carolina, when a group of demonstrators kept screaming in an attempt to shout down Trump, until they were removed.
There are two sides to this debate—but the harsh spotlight is mainly on Trump.
The billionaire yesterday declared that there is “no violence” at his rallies, that these gatherings are “love fests.” Clearly there have been violent outbreaks.
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
But what about the role of protestors who use Facebook to organize the troops for the express purpose of disrupting a presidential candidate’s event?
When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says she’s practically concluded that Trump wanted the confrontation in Chicago, where he canceled the rally, it’s clear that some in the media are making this all about the candidate and not those who would silence him.
Imagine how different the coverage might be if protestors were shouting down Hillary Clinton, as they briefly did to Bernie Sanders earlier in the season.
Everyone has the right to peacefully demonstration, something that’s deeply embedded in our country’s DNA. But nobody has the right to stop someone else from speaking. That is an assault on free speech—and one that’s been too prevalent on college campuses in recent years, where some liberals have tried to block speakers whose views they don’t like.
In the short term, this probably helps Trump in the Republican primaries, where voters will see him taking on mostly minority protestors who they don’t have much sympathy for. The danger in the long run is that the outbreaks of violence will come to be seen as a metaphor for a campaign that critics will say is tearing the country apart.
Joe Scarborough, in his Washington Post column, continues his turn against Trump, insisting that “a political campaign whose security has been so stifling as to draw angry comparisons to fascist regimes would plan a key rally for Trump in the middle of a racially diverse urban campus. The fact that this campus sits in the middle of a city that is so Democratic that it has not elected a Republican mayor since before Franklin Roosevelt was sworn in as president makes the venue’s selection even more bizarre.”
I have to disagree on that point. Why shouldn’t a presidential candidate—especially one who hopes to attract Democratic votes in the fall--be able to campaign anywhere he wants?
National Review, which detests Trump and is backing Ted Cruz, faults the protestors, but adds this:
“Trump — Saddam Hussein to the ayatollahs of political correctness on the other side — is of course far from blameless in all this. That is not to say that Trump’s irresponsible, wild-eyed, and meat-headed rhetoric, which has included explicit calls for violence against his critics, is responsible for having provoked the protests. Rather, Trump’s rhetoric has been unworthy of a presidential candidate — and unworthy of an American — in and of itself.”
On the liberal side, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo says “it is not that Trump can't control the beast he's unleashed. He cannot control himself because the same psychodrama and politics of resentment that is playing out among his followers is playing out within himself. Trump can pivot to the general all he wants. But the primaries will follow him there. Indeed, he will bring them.”
And at the Huffington Post, which hates Trump with a passion, Howard Fineman invokes the violence and division of 1968:
“Like the late George Wallace, Trump exudes a sneering hatred for political establishments and blames the ills of the county on those whose race, faith or origin makes them somehow ‘un-American.’
“Wallace softened somewhat in later years, but Trump, at 69, shows no signs of doing so. Indeed, he is doubling down on his willingness to allow verbal and even physical antagonism in his name and at his campaign rallies.”
Trump speaks openly about tapping into the anger of Americans who are fed up with the political establishment, and that has fueled his rise. Now his challenge is to deal with the very visible backlash to that anger.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
Trump looks to take command of GOP race as Rubio, Kasich fight to keep campaigns alive
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump will look to pull clear of his competitors with victories in the Florida and Ohio primaries Tuesday, results that would also seal the fate of his homestanding rivals, Sen. Marco Rubio and John Kasich.
With Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina also holding Republican and Democratic primaries, Tuesday has more delegates up for grabs than almost any other day on the campaign calendar.
Polls show Trump beating Rubio by double digits in Florida, but Ohio is expected to be a closer race. Buckeye State polls have shown Trump trading the lead with Kasich, while the incumbent Ohio governor holds a slight lead in the polling average.
In a last-minute effort to shore up support in Ohio, Trump postponed a Monday evening event at Trump National Doral in Miami to hold a rally in outside Youngstown.
Trump enters the primaries embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of his contentious campaign. The GOP front-runner has encouraged supporters to physically confront protesters at his events and is now facing criticism for encouraging violence after skirmishes broke out at a rally last week in Chicago.
During an event Monday in Tampa, Trump was interrupted intermittently by protesters, some of whom were forcibly removed. Trump said he didn't want to "ruin somebody's life, but do we prosecute somebody like that?"
The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →
Kasich spent Monday campaigning alongside 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a fierce critic of Trump who has offered assistance to all of the front-runner's rivals.
"This is the guy Ohio has to vote for, and America's counting on you," Romney told the crowd at a Kasich event in North Canton.
While Romney has not endorsed Kasich, he's said he'll do whatever is needed to help all of Trump's rivals.
Rubio, despite having the backing of numerous GOP elected officials, appears to have slipped in recent public polls in Florida. The senator tried to stay upbeat Monday, perhaps his final full day of campaigning in the 2016 race.
"Tomorrow's the day where we are going to shock the country," Rubio said during a stop in Jacksonville.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's closest competitor in the race, said Monday that the goal for his campaign was to pick up delegates in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, claiming that he was "neck and neck" with Donald Trump in all three states. Cruz also said his campaign was "surging" in Ohio and Florida, states thought to be longshots for him.
Among the Democrats, leader Hillary Clinton has been itching to look ahead to the general election but continues to face persistent competition from Bernie Sanders. While Clinton maintains a commanding lead in the delegate count, Sanders breathed new life into his campaign with a surprising victory last week in Michigan.
Reprising a theme that helped propel that Michigan win, Sanders on Monday pounded Clinton's past support for trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. He's escalated his criticism in recent days, hoping to undercut her edge among minorities and expand his advantage with white working-class voters.
"When it came down whether you stand with corporate America, the people who wrote these agreements, or whether you stand with the working people of this country, I proudly stood with the workers," Sanders said in Youngstown, Ohio. "Secretary Clinton stood with the big money interests."
Clinton's team is attempting to tamp down expectations for Tuesday night, stressing that the race remains close in the Midwest, despite public polling showing her with a sizable lead. Still, she's eying the general election and escalating her attacks on Trump, saying he's "inciting mob violence" at his rallies.
"I do hold him responsible," she said in an interview with MSNBC. "He's been building this incitement, he's been leading crowds in jeering protesters"
The campaign next shifts to the West, where Sanders' advisers have suggested he could rattle off a win streak and enter April with the chance to put a dent in Clinton's delegate lead.
Monday, March 14, 2016
Donald 2.0: In an interview, Trump tones down the trash talk
When I sat down with Donald Trump for an interview at
Mar-a-Lago, he directed our crew to soften the lighting and pull back
on the close-up shot.
He was right. This is a man who knows how to project an image.
I wasn’t surprised at all when Trump was restrained at the CNN debate in Miami. He signaled pretty clearly in our interview that he was done trashing his rivals, at least for now. Trump, in the hallowed tradition of front-runners, is trying to pivot toward party unity.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. How, I wondered, could Trump be running an ad attacking Marco Rubio as “corrupt” and “dishonest,” but also say he wouldn’t rule him out as a running mate?
He responded with more positive words for Rubio. There was none of this Little Marco or Lying Ted stuff. He told me how he had had a constructive conversation with Paul Ryan.
The message was clear: Trump believes he has this thing just about wrapped up, and he wants to mend fences with his Republican detractors. And he told me he expected a milder atmosphere on the debate stage.
Of course, Trump lost control of this coming-together narrative when protestors shut down his Chicago rally the next night. This sparked a heated debate over whether these are thugs looking to suppress free speech or Trump is implicitly encouraging violence with his harsh remarks about protestors. He denied any responsibility in a round of testy Sunday show appearances.
Once again, the media focus was on Trump—he called in to several cable shows on Friday night to explain his decision to cancel the rally—but this time as disturbing scenes of crowd scuffles played out on the television screens.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, who deserves credit for the substantive and civil debate, foreshadowed what was to come by reading Trump the harsh remarks he has made about protestors at previous rallies and asking whether he bears any responsibility.
On that Florida stage Trump was prepared to counterpunch, but it turned out he didn’t have to.
Rubio has admitted that he was uncomfortable when he started hitting Trump with personal insults about small hands and spray-tanning, and embarrassed in front of his kids. He may have overcompensated, because he was a Boy Scout at the debate—his last real chance to buttress his last stand in Florida.
Cruz was also restrained. In fact, when the questioning turned to outbreaks of violence at Trump rallies, he passed up an opportunity to blame Trump. Instead he offered a mild jab about how candidates should pledge allegiance to their supporters, not the other way around. It was Trump who brought up negative information in response, dismissing a far-fetched “Today” show narrative that all those raised hands were reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
But he probably came closer to appearing presidential than in any of the 11 previous debates.
John Kasich, running neck and neck with Trump in Ohio, always takes the high road at debates, so the result was a subdued and issue-oriented affair that some folks complained was boring.
The next morning, Trump rolled out an endorsement by Ben Carson, despite the fact that he had attacked the doctor as “pathological” over elements of his life story. Politics is a strange business.
As our interview was winding down, I asked Trump about some of the thermonuclear attacks by some commentators on the left and right. He usually punches back at them personally, and there was a little of that.
But he also said he didn’t understand their “personal hatred” for him, that it was "unbelievable," that they didn’t know him and didn’t try to reach him and yet wrote terrible things about him. I believe that media attacks actually help him, because his supporters don’t trust the press, but Trump disagreed, and for one brief moment, it seemed like his feelings were hurt.
Donald Trump keeps saying he’s not a politician, but for all his tough talk, he has something in common with those in his new profession: He wants to be liked.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
He was right. This is a man who knows how to project an image.
I wasn’t surprised at all when Trump was restrained at the CNN debate in Miami. He signaled pretty clearly in our interview that he was done trashing his rivals, at least for now. Trump, in the hallowed tradition of front-runners, is trying to pivot toward party unity.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. How, I wondered, could Trump be running an ad attacking Marco Rubio as “corrupt” and “dishonest,” but also say he wouldn’t rule him out as a running mate?
He responded with more positive words for Rubio. There was none of this Little Marco or Lying Ted stuff. He told me how he had had a constructive conversation with Paul Ryan.
The message was clear: Trump believes he has this thing just about wrapped up, and he wants to mend fences with his Republican detractors. And he told me he expected a milder atmosphere on the debate stage.
Of course, Trump lost control of this coming-together narrative when protestors shut down his Chicago rally the next night. This sparked a heated debate over whether these are thugs looking to suppress free speech or Trump is implicitly encouraging violence with his harsh remarks about protestors. He denied any responsibility in a round of testy Sunday show appearances.
Once again, the media focus was on Trump—he called in to several cable shows on Friday night to explain his decision to cancel the rally—but this time as disturbing scenes of crowd scuffles played out on the television screens.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, who deserves credit for the substantive and civil debate, foreshadowed what was to come by reading Trump the harsh remarks he has made about protestors at previous rallies and asking whether he bears any responsibility.
On that Florida stage Trump was prepared to counterpunch, but it turned out he didn’t have to.
Rubio has admitted that he was uncomfortable when he started hitting Trump with personal insults about small hands and spray-tanning, and embarrassed in front of his kids. He may have overcompensated, because he was a Boy Scout at the debate—his last real chance to buttress his last stand in Florida.
Cruz was also restrained. In fact, when the questioning turned to outbreaks of violence at Trump rallies, he passed up an opportunity to blame Trump. Instead he offered a mild jab about how candidates should pledge allegiance to their supporters, not the other way around. It was Trump who brought up negative information in response, dismissing a far-fetched “Today” show narrative that all those raised hands were reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
But he probably came closer to appearing presidential than in any of the 11 previous debates.
John Kasich, running neck and neck with Trump in Ohio, always takes the high road at debates, so the result was a subdued and issue-oriented affair that some folks complained was boring.
The next morning, Trump rolled out an endorsement by Ben Carson, despite the fact that he had attacked the doctor as “pathological” over elements of his life story. Politics is a strange business.
As our interview was winding down, I asked Trump about some of the thermonuclear attacks by some commentators on the left and right. He usually punches back at them personally, and there was a little of that.
But he also said he didn’t understand their “personal hatred” for him, that it was "unbelievable," that they didn’t know him and didn’t try to reach him and yet wrote terrible things about him. I believe that media attacks actually help him, because his supporters don’t trust the press, but Trump disagreed, and for one brief moment, it seemed like his feelings were hurt.
Donald Trump keeps saying he’s not a politician, but for all his tough talk, he has something in common with those in his new profession: He wants to be liked.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.
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