HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Politico: The College Loan Bombshell Hidden in the Budget: Obama’s new repayment program comes with a record $22 billion shortfall. “In obscure data tables buried deep in its 2016 budget proposal, the Obama administration revealed this week that its student loan program had a $21.8 billion shortfall last year, apparently the largest ever recorded for any government credit program.” This is why I advise students not to count on Income-Based Repayment or similar programs being around when they graduate.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: THE IRS SCANDAL, DAY 638.

POLL: 72 Percent of Americans Are Concerned About Public Pension Costs, 82 Percent Say Public Employees Should Contribute More to Their Own Retirement.

JOHN PODHORETZ: Brian Williams Had No Reason To Lie. Well, except trying to make himself look macho. He used this “experience” to shut up critics, after all.

SEE, I ALWAYS SAID HIS MAIN PURPOSE WAS TO MAKE HILLARY LOOK BETTER IN RETROSPECT: Survey: Kerry Worst SecState in 50 Years:

Foreign Policy magazine this week announced the results of its 2014 Ivory Tower survey of 1,615 international relations scholars from 1,375 U.S. colleges.

One question they were asked was: “Who was the most effective U.S. secretary of state of the past 50 years?

[…] Then, dead last, is John Kerry. He got a total of two votes of the 660 scholars who responded.

Conclusion: “Since academics track well to the left of of most people, this is a sign that the second term Obama foreign policy is bombing with liberals.”

Just remember, the Democrats were willing to put Kerry in the White House — with the disgraced John Edwards a heartbeat away — in 2004.

TAXES ARE FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Inspector General: IRS Rehired Hundreds of Former Employees With Performance Issues, Including Failing to File Tax Returns.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Nepotism and cronyism are rife in the IRS. IRS facilities are replete with relatives and friends of the bosses. If you examine their personnel lists you will see the same names coming up, again and again, in different parts of the building. What is happening is that the honchos are taking care of each other’s retainers.

See, just another reason to abolish the civil service.

OF COURSE IT DOES: The FCC’s Big Internet Power Grab Comes Directly From the White House: Tom Wheeler’s Title II net neutrality push is the result of an “unusual, secretive” push from the administration. The Internet is a threat to them. Thus, they must control it.

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Brian Williams’ Iraq helicopter attack lie spurs new questions about his Hurricane Katrina coverage.

JOHN FUND & HANS VAN SPAKOVSKY: Eric Holder’s State of Historic Denial: Holder politicized the Department of Justice to an extent never before seen.

CHANGE: As a curfew is lifted, Baghdad is at long last partying again.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Prosecutor: Highline teacher raped boy living in her home. “Formerly touted as one of Washington’s best teachers, Darcy M. Smith is now accused of abusing a boy for more than two years. The boy told investigators Smith, 41, first had sex with him when he was 14 and living in her Renton home.”

HEATHER WILHELM: The Rise of the Weak-Kneed Feminists.

I’m sorry, everyone. I’m all for empathy and understanding, and I’m all for the realization that many rape victims react to and cope with their assaults in strange and unexpected ways. But when modern feminism has spiraled into an impassioned defense of making your rapist breakfast, I think we’re starting to get the definition of “empowered” wrong.

You know what? As a woman, I don’t want to celebrate “pure radical vulnerability,” the supposed virtue symbolized by Sulkowicz’s mattress. I don’t want women to make breakfast for their rapists. More importantly, I don’t want modern feminists, constantly hiding under the guise of “empathy” and “understanding,” to celebrate and normalize self-destructive “I’ll be nice to him”/”I’ll text him”/”I’ll stay with him” behaviors that prevent assault victims from seeking actual justice.

You know what would be really empowering? Putting rapists—real rapists, not the victims of regrettable sex—in jail. But somehow, like a nightmarish conference call that never ends, modern feminists would rather just keep talking, twisting logic, making excuses, embracing victimhood, and ignoring common-sense paths to justice for women who are actually aggrieved.

We may never know what happened in the Columbia mattress rape case. What we do know—or at least what we are told—is that Sulkowicz, despite her seemingly boundless energy and her 50-pound mattress, is a fragile creature, crushed by any questioning of her narrative, no matter how incongruous it may be. To truly pursue justice, you see, would be “draining.” It would take a great deal of courage and strength. That, apparently, is not what feminism stands for any more.

Feminism stands for what pays. And right now, that’s victimhood.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Roll Call: AUMF Expected in ‘Coming Days.’

Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters Thursday he believes President Barack Obama will be sending an Authorization for Use of Military Force to Congress very shortly.

“I’m expecting that there will be an Authorization for Use of Military Force sent up here in the coming days,” Boehner said. “And we’re going to go through a rigorous set of hearings, and continue to discuss this.”

When he was pressed if he actually meant “the coming days,” Boehner reiterated that he believed that to be the case.

“It’s also going to be incumbent upon the president to go out there and make the case to the American people for why we have to fight this fight,” the Ohio Republican said. “And his actions are going to be an important part of trying … to get the votes to actually pass an authorization.”

The tussle over a new AUMF has been a long-standing issue with Congress and the president. During his State of the Union address, Obama called on Congress to pass a new AUMF for activities in the Middle East. But Boehner has insisted that such an authorization is usually written by the White House and sent to Congress. Boehner has been waiting on the AUMF before announcing a vote.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

RACISTS CHARGE DIFFERENTLY-RACED MAN WITH RACISM: Black Caucus slams Rand Paul for opposing AG nominee Lynch.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) issued a sharp condemnation of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) opposition to Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch on Thursday.

Paul said he opposed confirming Lynch because she supports civil forfeitures, a controversial law enforcement tactic, but the chairman of the CBC dismissed those concerns.

“Senator Paul is using the issue of civil forfeitures to block a well-qualified federal prosecutor from heading the Department of Justice,” said CBC Chairman G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) in a statement. “Senator Paul also has the audacity to suggest that Loretta Lynch should have more concern for people living in poverty.

“The Congressional Black Caucus recognizes Senator Paul’s unfounded argument as nothing but an excuse to keep an African American legal scholar from holding this high position, and we directly call on him and Republicans to allow the nomination of Loretta Lynch to proceed to an up or down vote in the Senate,” he added.

There’s no bigger hotbed of racist hackery in Congress than the Black Caucus, and this is just another example.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CRUSADES: An excerpt from Jonah Goldberg’s The Tyranny of Cliches.

UPDATE: Link was bad. Fixed now. Sorry!

JACK SHAFER IN POLITICO: Why Did Brian Williams Lie? He’s the one viewers are supposed to trust every night. “Brian Williams might not be working as a shoe-leather reporter, but he’s as much a journalist as any newspaper rewrite-man. Journalists are paid to be more vigilant than civilians about the stories they tell. Millions listen to Williams because he’s sold himself as a truth-teller, not a fabulist. We expect the truth from him, whether he’s reading a human-interest piece into NBC’s cameras or recounting personal war stories on Dave Letterman’s show.”

He lied for the same reason a dog licks itself — because he can. And he figured he’d get away for it because his fellow journos would cover for him. And plenty are. Kudos to Shafer for making the key point.

UH OH: Tom Browkaw Wants Brian Williams Fired. “NBC’s most revered journalist is furious that Brian Williams is still in the anchor chair after he sheepishly admitted he hadn’t traveled on a helicopter hit by enemy fire.”

Williams is a fraud and a disgrace. NBC embarrasses itself with every hour that he’s still employed.

ROGER SIMON: A Jew Examines Why Obama Never Names Islam. “It grieves me much to write this, because it is a horrible situation. Obama is not a Manchurian candidate and never was. He never had to be. He is just absolutely the wrong human being to be leading the West at this point in history. Heaven help us.”

DOUBLE STANDARDS: Sex Offender Registry? No thanks, we’re women.

MILO YIANNOPOULOS: The Hugo Wars: How Sci-fi’s Most Prestigious Awards Became a Political Battleground.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Uninspiring Boyfriend: I’m no longer able to write poetry now that I’m dating someone nice. The Jerk Store called — they’re fully stocked at all times. . . .

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: Ira Stoll: No, Blogs Are Not Dead.

EW: An unusual finding during screening colonoscopy: a cockroach!