Obama's likely nominee will have to defend stance on military recruitment

Foes may target Kagan's stance on military recruitment at Harvard

Four months after becoming dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan sent an e-mail to students and faculty lamenting that military recruiters had arrived on campus, once again, in violation of the school's anti-discrimination policy. But under government rules, she wrote, the entire university would jeopardize its federal aid unless the law school helped the recruiters, despite the armed forces' ban on openly gay members.

"This action causes me deep distress," Kagan wrote that morning in October 2003. "I abhor the military's discriminatory recruitment policy." It is, she said, "a profound wrong -- a moral injustice of the first order."

Her stance put Kagan squarely in sync with professors at Harvard and other law schools -- and wholly out of sync with the Supreme Court, which later ruled unanimously that the schools were wrong. Four years after that ruling, Kagan, now the U.S. solicitor general, is a leading candidate to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Conservatives have signaled that if President Obama nominates her, her stance on this issue -- like perhaps no other in her career -- dangles as ripe fruit that opponents would grab to thwart her confirmation.

"For someone who has been so guarded on so many issues, she used strikingly extreme rhetoric. 'Moral injustice of the first order' would seem fit for something like the Holocaust," said Ed Whelan, president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center. "This is one issue that provides some jurisprudential clues as to how much her reading of the law will be biased by her policy views. If she is the nominee, that is an angle that I would press."

The Washington Post

Corn farmers enjoy nice weather, increased acreage

Mississippi’s 2010 corn crop is off to a promising start after recent sunny skies and favorable soil conditions gave farmers a chance to plant and manage their fields.

“The nice weather during the past week has allowed a tremendous amount of field work to get done, particularly in North Mississippi where farmers can finally begin planting corn,” said grain crops agronomist Erick Larson of the Mississippi State University Extension Service. “This was the first good weather that many farmers have had in a while.”

Corn planting is rapidly concluding in many areas of the state where rainfall has been light for a few weeks. Young corn plants are growing quickly in response to warm weather, and growers are applying fertilizer and preparing for the next phase of production.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts Mississippi will be one of eight states to increase corn acreage in 2010. The planting intentions report estimate for the state corn crop is 800,000 acres.

Mississippi Business Journal

Madison County Administrator's Resignation: Timing is Everything.

Makes you wonder if the ongoing audit has anything to do with it, huh? Houston is the man in charge of making sure the county books are in order with respect to roadwork and, considering he just took the job three months ago, it seems like a hasty retreat. It was Houston who sent out an email to the Board of Supervisors before the State Auditor's Audit Response Team moved in to "review" some subcontracts, giving the Board Pres and his buddy Warnock a chance to get their press releases ready.

Houston resigns as County Administrator

Madison County Administrator Mark Houston will resign at the end of the month to take a job in the private sector.

Houston offered his resignation to the Board of Supervisors Monday with members saying they were unsure when or if they would name a permanent replacement for Houston.

He called the position one of the most rewarding experiences of his life, but said the opportunity to work in the private sector was to good to pass up.

Houston was named County Administrator in January after former County Administrator Donnie Caughman retired.

The Madison County Journal

Extramarital sex, earthquakes and blindness.

As an adolescent, the old guys at deer camp would always warn me that too much of a certain thing would cause you to go blind. I won't elaborate on exactly what the elder members were speaking about. But needless to say I didn't grow hair in my palms either.

The warning that "you'll go blind" also extended to just about anything a grandparent or elderly person didn't want you to do.

Looks like the old timers in Iran have decided the blindness trick wasn't doing it so they have moved on to outright Armageddon.

Extramarital sex fuels earthquakes, warns Iran cleric

A SENIOR Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in Iran, a country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported today.

"Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at overnight prayers in Tehran.

"Calamities are the result of people's deeds," he was quoted as saying by reformist Aftab-e Yazd newspaper.

"We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers."

The Islamic dress code is mandatory in Iran, which has been under clerical rule for more than three decades.

The Australian

Undoubtedly, there is also a connection to Global Warming. Maybe all those dolled-up women are causing men to get "heated" which in turn is causing the earth to warm, and the Earthquakes to wreak more havoc.

Today's Quakes Deadlier Than In Past


Study: Seismic Activity 5 Times More Energetic Than 20 Years Ago Because Of Global Warming

(AP) New research compiled by Australian scientist Dr. Tom Chalko shows that global seismic activity on Earth is now five times more energetic than it was just 20 years ago.

The research proves that destructive ability of earthquakes on Earth increases alarmingly fast and that this trend is set to continue, unless the problem of "global warming" is comprehensively and urgently addressed.

The analysis of more than 386,000 earthquakes between 1973 and 2007 recorded on the US Geological Survey database proved that the global annual energy of earthquakes on Earth began increasing very fast since 1990.

Dr. Chalko said that global seismic activity was increasing faster than any other global warming indicator on Earth and that this increase is extremely alarming.

CBS

More comparisons to '94

Mistrust in Government: 'Perfect Storm'

Last time the weather got this bad (1980 and 1994), big things happened.

Only 22 percent of all Americans surveyed say they trust the government in Washington almost always or most of the time -- among the lowest measures in half a century - according to a new Pew Research Center survey released tonight.

The results point to "a perfect storm'' of public unrest, Pew reports -- "a dismal economy, an unhappy public, (a) bitter, partisan-based backlash and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials.

There have been political ramifications in the past when the public mood grew this sour: In 1980, Ronald Reagan unseated President Jimmy Carter. In 1994, the GOP won the House.

The current level of public skepticism was matched previously only in the periods leading up to both events -- from 1992 to 1995 (reaching a low of 17 percent trust in government in the summer of 1994), and from 1978 to 1980 (bottoming out at 25 percent in 1980).

The Swamp