(Jakarta Globe) Rizki, together with 24 other students from his school, recently attended a four-day climate change education forum and expo from April 19-22. The event was organized by the Indonesian National Council on Climate Change (DNPI), as part of efforts to raise environmental awareness ahead of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, that will take place in Brazil from June 20-22.

The expo in Jakarta offered students tangible solutions to risks posed by climate change.

Rizki and his classmates were briefed on the importance of planting trees to capture carbon dioxide, the most deadly greenhouse gas, which is produced primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels, and forest fires.

I don’t think it is quite as deadly as dihydrogen monoxide, will kills tens of thousands yearly. It can even kill if you don’t have it. Just a few inches can sweep you away and kill you. And it is often accompanied by dangerous electricity and wind. It can come in a frozen form, too. When it is at high levels, it can make people feel miserable.

Most of the story is about indoctrinating the kids, and even their parents, if the parents dare have a different opinion. The article does fail to mention why so many Warmists will be taking unnecessary fossil fueled flights to exotic Brazil

The blog of the day is Sister Toldjah.

Mitt Romney has moved out to an eight-point lead over President Obama in North Carolina after the two men were virtually tied a month ago.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Tar Heel State shows the putative Republican nominee earning 51% of the vote to Obama’s 43%. Two percent (2%) like some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. That’s a big change from last month when Romney posted a narrow 46% to 44% lead over the president in Rasmussen Reports’ first survey of the race in North Carolina.

Democrats have signaled North Carolina’s importance as a key swing state by deciding to hold their national convention in Charlotte this summer.

Ed breaks Dow the polling data, which includes some shocks for Obama and the Democrats regarding women’s support for Romney.

It’s still early in the race, but this kind of poll will surely put Team Obama closer to panic mode.

(ABC News) A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a “closed fracture” of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

Appears as if he was in a fight and had his head bashed into the ground.

(WFTV) WFTV has confirmed that autopsy results show 17-year-old Trayvon Martin had injuries to his knuckles when he died.

The information could support George Zimmerman’s claim that Martin beat him up before Zimmerman shot and killed him.

As the article goes on to point out, there could be two reasons for this: Trayvon could have been the aggressor, or, he could have been defending himself/trying to get away. But, there has been no narrative that Zimmerman assaulted Trayvon prior to the shooting.

Liberals wanted some sort of cause to be able to scream “racism”, and they found it in Trayvon. Even though Zimmerman is a Hispanic. Liberals did not care about evidence and the rule of law, nor “innocent till proven guilty.” They wanted their gallon of blood.

(Life News) Franciscan University appears to be the first casualty of the new Obama HHS mandate that requires Catholic colleges, groups and businesses to pay for drugs that may cause abortions and birth control for their employees.

Although President Barack Obama declared “If you like your health care coverage you can keep it,” when it came to passing Obamacare, a Catholic college in Ohio has determined it will no longer offer a student health insurance plan.

“The Obama Administration has mandated that all health insurance plans must cover “women’s health services” including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-causing medications as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA),” the university says in a new post on its website. “Up to this time, Franciscan University has specifically excluded these services and products from its student health insurance policy, and we will not participate in a plan that requires us to violate the consistent teachings of the Catholic Church on the sacredness of human life.”

“Additionally, the PPACA increased the mandated maximum coverage amount for student policies to $100,000 for the 2012-13 school year, which would effectively double your premium cost for the policy in fall 2012, with the expectation of further increases in the future,” FUS continues.

“Due to these changes in regulation by the federal government, beginning with the 2012-13 school year, the University 1) will no longer require that all full-time undergraduate students carry health insurance, 2) will no longer offer a student health insurance plan, and 3) will no longer bill those not covered under a parent/guardian plan or personal plan for student health insurance,” the college said.

This is a direct result of Obamacare, a monstrous piece of legislation that went well beyond the original intent, which was simply to make sure that the 30-45 million Americans without health insurance had access to it, a worthy cause. However, we ended up with this pig of a bill that the majority of Americans hate and involves itself way too much with American’s health insurance and care, driving up costs and incentivizing organizations to drop their insurance. How, exactly, does it help make sure people have access to insurance by slapping even more mandates on to what must be offered in insurance plans?

Tom Crowe, an employee at Franciscan U., writes at Catholic Vote

But there you have it: thanks to the government’s firm desire to make sure the one or two women left in the country who did not have easy and cheap access to contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization procedures, our 2,500 students will no longer have an insurance plan ready and waiting for them.

The rule was surely meant to pander to women by offering them “free” stuff (women should be insulted that the Obama administration thinks women aren’t capable of paying the small costs for contraceptives themselves) with an election coming up. There was zero reason for the contraceptive mandate. This was micro-managing in the market, and the Law Of Unintended Consequences has turned around and bit Team Obama in the posterior.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

(Buzzfeed) In the latest attempt to crack down on potentially embarrassing digital leaks from presidential fundraisers, President Barack Obama’s campaign has begun asking donors attending small fundraisers with the president to turn over their cell phones before entering.

Pool reporter David Nakamura of the Washington Post reported that at a $35,800 a head fundraiser at the home of Blackstone COO Hamilton “Tony” James in New York City Monday night, the 60 attendees were asked to place their phones in plastic bags by the door.

An Obama aide called the move it “standard operating procedure,” but veterans of a range of other campaigns said they’d never heard of the practice, which is common in secure White House spaces where there are concerns of espionage, but unknown in contexts in which only political secrets are discussed. The new prevalence of sophisticated audio and recording capacities in mobile devices owned by virtually anyone wealthy enough to write a check to a political campaign, however, has put a new pressure on campaigns concerned with staying on a public message.

The story points out that Team Romney asks that no audio or video recordings be made at similar functions. Most candidates do the same thing, but don’t actually take phone from big money donors. What does Obama have to hide? You just know that someone is now going to work hard to get a recording from these fundraisers.

The blog of the day is All American Blogger.

(UK Daily Mail) Summer has been put on hold as chilly air brought snow to parts of Britain today at a time of year when the country is normally enjoying strong spring sunshine.

After a warm and sunny weekend, some areas of the country have seen snow flurries, while other parts have seen floods return after another night of heavy rain.

Cold northerly winds brought in wintry showers to higher ground, including the Pennines, Shropshire, parts of Wales and Scotland.

And forecasters fear that the cold spell could last well into June.

In fact, the “record setting warmth” was, as this article points out, mostly confined to America and western Europe over the winter months. In eastern Europe and much of the rest of the world, it was cold. Australia saw snow over their summer. Eastern Europe saw huge and deadly snowfalls. Alaska saw record snows. Must be because someone (else) drove an SUV.

(Chicago Tribune) Dozens of demonstrators dashed into the Loop building housing President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters this morning, slipping past security guards and running up escalators as they kicked off what they called a “Week Without Capitalism.”

Obviously, Team Obama had a positive discussion over the issues that affect all Americans while attempting to create a consensus on doing away with capitalism and moving towards a more enlightened society, right? Uh, no

Eight protesters were led out in handcuffs about half an hour later after they refused to clear the lobby. They were cheered by other demonstrators who began dancing and singing folk and gospel songs.

The demonstration, organized by the Catholic Worker movement. began with about 100 demonstrators picketing at Prudential Plaza and passing out rolls to commuters in what they called a symbolic invitation to break bread with world leaders expected here this weekend for the NATO summit.

I guess Team Obama doesn’t like it when left side protestors/agitators use the same tactics on Team Obama.

As for the Occupiers, today is their Occupy Day Of Action where no person is illegal. And around a hundred officers from around the country are coming to Chicago to help keep the peace for the NATO summit in the week leading up to the official meetings on the 20th and 21st. Boeing has told its workers (who are part of the 99%) to work from home next week because of the probably disruptions from the Occupiers.

(CNS News) “This recession has been more brutal, the job losses steeper,” he said. “Politics seems nastier. Congress more gridlocked than ever. Some folks in the financial world have not exactly been model corporate citizens.

“No wonder that faith in our institutions has never been lower, particularly when good news doesn’t get the same kind of ratings as bad news anymore,” Obama said. “Every day you receive a steady stream of sensationalism and scandal and stories with a message that suggest change isn’t possible; that you can’t make a difference; that you won’t be able to close that gap between life as it is and life as you want it to be.

Reporting was never like that before January 20, 2009. It was all lollipops and unicorns prior. The phrase “if it bleeds, it leads” wasn’t invented to that January day.  Anyhow, Obama forgot to mention that the Executive Office hasn’t exactly been model government citizens, either. Unless the point of government is to waste taxpayer money on projects that are bound to fail, that reward campaign contributors, and/or are simply over-priced idiocy. Oh, and to walk guns across the border in Mexico and fail to track them.

“My job today is to tell you don’t believe it,” said Obama. “Because as tough as things have been, I am convinced you are tougher….

To some degree, that is a part of the job of the president, to provide an upbeat outlook. Interestingly, the media and liberals, including Obama, assailed George W. Bush for trying to have an upbeat and rosy outlook. On the other hand, there becomes a point when all the rhetoric becomes propaganda based on a fanciful and reality-lacking outlook.

…I’ve seen your passion and I’ve seen your service.  I’ve seen you engage and I’ve seen you turn out in record numbers.

What else do they have to do? There are barely any jobs waiting for them after building all that debt for degrees in sociology, journalism, and fashion design. Of course, his point is that he wants these young and unemployed youths who aren’t eligible for unemployment (since they never worked) to get out and vote for him.

I’ve heard your voices amplified by creativity and a digital fluency that those of us in older generations can barely comprehend. I’ve seen a generation eager, impatient even, to step into the rushing waters of history and change its course.

“Can barely comprehend”? Besides being insulting to folks 40 and up, exactly how does being able to text, use Facebook, and use Twitter help them out? Does being able to use a phone camera to take a sexy picture in the mirror and post it to social media help with getting a job?

“And that defiant, can-do spirit is what runs through the veins of American history,” Obama said. “It’s the lifeblood of all our progress.  And it is that spirit which we need your generation to embrace and rekindle right now.”

Right now, that generation is seeing record unemployment and student loans debt. And Obama has done less than nothing to turn that around. His policies have failed.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.