Another great moment in nominating Obama donors as ambassadors

HomeArchivesGreen RoomEd Morrissey Show posted at 9:01 pm on February 6, 2014 by Mary Katharine Ham
Granted, it’s not as if this is a new practice or solely the practice of Democratic administrations, not by a long shot. But I don’t recall seeing so many grossly ignorant nominees put their gross ignorance on display so readily.
First, there was Norway.
Then Sen. Max Baucus, who is not a donor per se, but certainly benefits from a sort of chummy patronage in his nomination to the China ambassadorship (and should know better than to drop the ball in a Senate hearing).
Now, Argentina. This is nothing a backpacking trip or a perusal of Wikipedia, at the very least, couldn’t solve. These guys are super-rich! Take an educational tour before you take questions in front of the Senate:
But, really, who’s going to stop them? What price is there to pay? The Secretary of Defense gave one of the most woeful confirmation performances in the history of confirmation performances and the entire press corps decided it was the height of obstructionism to suggest that meant anything about whether he was fit for the position and took to the fainting couch when he had to wait a week to be confirmed.
So, who’s worrying about an ambassador to a Latin American country of emerging importance? I hope the ambassador enjoys his first visit.
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Why Donors Just Spent $25 Million To Support Undocumented Students

A former Washington Post owner, a former Secretary of Commerce, and a philanthropist are just a few of the donors who have launched a $25 million college scholarship fund on Tuesday to ensure that at least 2,500 youths can afford college for the next decade. The prerequisite? The youths have to be undocumented and must have been approved for a 2012 presidential initiative, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which granted temporary work authorization and legal presence.
The scholarships, accessible through TheDream.us website, help to fund undocumented youths who are “not eligible to apply for federal financial aid to support a college education” for 12 institutions of higher learning. Due to their legal status, undocumented immigrants are allowed to attend college, but ineligible for any federal and most state sources of aid. Many other scholarships require applicants to be legal immigrants or U.S. citizens. In at least six states, undocumented students are explicitly prohibited from receiving in-state tuition or even enrolling at public institutions. This TheDream.us scholarship would thus give undocumented students more access to the same opportunities as lawful residents.
Scholarships range between $12,000 to $25,000 per year and provide 100 percent funding for tuition, fees, and books. According to the website, students must maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA and are eligible for an additional $1,000 to $2,000 honors award if they graduate with a GPA of 3.5 or greater.
The partner colleges are located in California, Florida, New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C.
The multi-state fund is one of the largest offered to undocumented students, who are generally unable to shoulder the cost of a higher education due to financial or legal constraints. As it stands, only five to ten percent of undocumented high school graduates pursue a college education. So far, there are a handful of scholarships, but those are limited to students at a particular location — most recently, the University of California system committed a $5 million scholarship fund to undocumented students. Educators at a Brooklyn high school also set up a fund for their students, but they still have not met their $40,000 goal to provide scholarships, which range between $1,000 to $20,000.
According to the College Board, the annual average cost of tuition and fees is $9,037 for a public four-year college in California, $6,336 in Florida, $6,919 in New York, $8,522 in Texas, and $7,255 in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the income for an undocumented immigrant generally hovers at $36,000. California, Texas, New Mexico, and Minnesota are the only states that allow undocumented immigrants to apply for financial aid.

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