Cathy Burke reports at Newsmax:

Longtime political analyst Larry Sabato is predicting an electoral college blowout for Hillary Clinton in a November general election matchup with current GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

In the University of Virginia political science professor's "Crystal Ball" prediction, the Democratic presidential front-runner beats Trump 347-191.

In a column titled "Another Climate Alarmist Admits Real Motive Behind Warming Scare," this from Investor's Business Daily: 

Listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:

"One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.

"So what is the goal of environmental policy?," IBD asks.

Answer: "We redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy," says Edenhofer, according to IBD.

"He's an institutional, traditional Republican insider-type who represents exactly what the voters are rejecting this election cycle," says Frank Cannon, founder of the American Principles Project, reports Newsmax.

Read more.

"ISIS has reportedly crucified Indian priest Fr. Thomas Uzhunnalil on Good Friday. Fr. Uzhunnalil was kidnapped by ISIS on March 4 while working in Yemen at a home run by the Missionaries of Charity,' according to Christine Rousselle at Townhall.

"However, the Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service said Bishop Paul Hinder -- based in the United Arab Emirates' capital of Abu Dhabi -- had 'indications' the Indian priest was still alive. Cindy Wooden tweeted the news Monday," Fox News reports.

The U.K. Guardian has video of remarks by Ted Cruz in response to a National Enquirer story alleging that Cruz has had affairs with five different women.

Here is a transcript of what Cruz stated (as captured on video and available at the Guardian):

It is a story that quoted one source on the record -- Roger Stone, Donald Trump's chief political advisor.

Jim Hoft at the Gateway Pundit states that he contacted one of Cruz's supposed mistresses, and here is her reply:

It's ridiculous. Anyone with half a brain knows it's false . . . I don’t think the article is true. I can't see Cruz being like that . . . All I know is it's not me. There's a reason they don't use my name. They know it's BS.

The Washington Post reports that it "has not been able to confirm any of the allegations made by the Enquirer."

Meanwhile, a poll by the Washington Free Beacon shows Cruz extending his lead over Trump to 4.8% in Wisconsin.

In addition, a Fox News poll show Cruz surging against Trump nationally -- with Cruz at 38% and Trump at 41%, a statistical tie "within the poll's 5-point margin of error."

Peter Hasson reports at the Daily Caller:

Voicing their clear opposition to a guidance from Michigan's Board of Education that would push schools to allow male students to use girls bathrooms and locker rooms, Republicans in the state legislature hit board members where it hurts: their wallets.

A House appropriations subcommittee amended a budget bill on Wednesday to strip all travel and per-diem funding from the Board of Education, meaning board members will have to pay for travel expenses out-of-pocket if the budget bill is approved.

"According to a statement from Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter, the Board 'failed to notify the state Legislature before moving forward on this controversial proposal'," the DC reports.

"The Board kept the public [in] the dark as well, issuing the guidance without a press release," the DC states.

"We have heard from countless parents who are upset at being deliberately cut out of their children's education, and are livid at a government body that is trying to cut them out under the cover of night," Speaker Cotter is quoted as saying.

"The word is out now on their divisive plan, and many parents are scrambling to have their voices heard."

"Originally, the public had only until April 11 to comment on the proposed guidance," the DC reports. But "facing strong public backlash, the Board announced the comment period would be extended an additional 30 days. The public can submit feedback on the proposed policy here." 

Related
Michigan Public Schools to Let Students Choose Gender, Name, Bathroom 
American College of Pediatricians: Gender Ideology Harms Children

Peter Fricke has the story at Campus Reform.

Live streaming is available here:

"It's unrealistic to say we're going to completely shut down our borders," Hillary Clinton said this morning on the Today show.

Peter Hasson reports at the Daily Caller:

Michigan's State Board of Education has drafted a guidance that would push the state's schools to allow all students, regardless of parental or doctoral input, to choose their gender, name, pronouns, and bathrooms.

Spearheaded by board president John C. Austin and signed by state superintendent Brian Whiston, the guidance informs Michigan public schools that only the students themselves -- i.e. not their parents or doctors -- can determine what their individual gender identities are.

"The responsibility for determining a student's gender identity rests with the student. Outside confirmation from medical or mental health professionals, or documentation of legal changes, is not needed," the guidance states.

This government school "guidance" comes on the heels of an announcement by the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) warning against the dangers of gender ideology. 

The ACP "issued a position statement last month entitled 'Gender Ideology Harms Children,' which will be followed by a peer-reviewed statement on the subject that's expected to be released by summer, the college told CNSNews.com," CNSNews reported last week.

"The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex," the ACP said in a statement issued February 2.

"Facts -- not ideology -- determine reality," the ACP stated, according to CNSNews.com.

Michigan State's Board of Education "president John Austin did not immediately reply to The Daily Caller's request for comment," the DC reports.

A San Antonio atheist apparently ignorant of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (which allow for freedom of religion and are rooted in the existence of a real Creator who is the source of unalienable rights -- see the Declaration of Independence) is filing a lawsuit because a big cross is being built on Interstate 37 in Corpus Christi (which means, "Body of Christ," as Todd Starnes points out).

According to Starnes, atheist Patrick Greene "did not file a lawsuit because he believes the cross is tacky. Nor did he file a lawsuit because of potential safety hazards."

Instead, "he filed a lawsuit because the mayor and other city leaders attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the cross," Starnes writes.

"When I saw the mayor in her official position and the council in their official positions were attending a groundbreaking ceremony for a Christian symbol -- that smacked right in the face of the Constitution of the state of Texas," the atheist said, according to Starnes.

Does Mr. Greene mean the Texas Constitution that begins like this?

Humbly invoking the blessings of Almighty God, the people of the State of Texas, do ordain and establish this Constitution.

Christianity as a verifiable and publicly actionable worldview enacted in human history embraces human freedom and elevates the mind, something atheism has never had the intellectual and moral resources to do.

Yes, in their extremism against the enduring American mainstream -- purposely rooted in a real Creator -- folks who are atheists can file lawsuits.

But the worldview of atheistic materialism is intellectually bankrupt and unable -- as a matter of principle -- to ground or sustain human liberty and freedom of thought.

Or you could put it like this: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps 14:1). And even more foolishly, the fool says to his society, "There is no God in public life."

Read the entire column by Todd Starnes.

"Senate leaders are very close to rallying around Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in order to stop rival Donald Trump, according to one former Senate aide," Tre Goins-Phillips reports at the Blaze.

"John Hart, former communications director for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R) and editor-in-chief of news site Opportunity Lives, told Glenn Beck Wednesday that he has spoken with several former colleagues on Capitol Hill and current Senate aides who have told him Congressional leaders 'are really close to rallying behind' Cruz, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)," the Blaze reports.

Politico reports:

Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot.

"If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above," Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference [in Boca Raton, Florida]. "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."

"Wading into the GOP nominating battle for the first time since leaving office last fall, Boehner said that 'anybody can be nominated' at the convention in Cleveland this summer," Politico reports.

"Boehner, who now splits his time between Florida, Ohio and D.C., had long whispered to friends that he believes Ryan could be the party's political savior if it came to that," Politico states. "But Boehner never said it publicly until now."

Boehner wasnt' done. "In the same question-and-answer session here, Boehner referred to Ted Cruz as "Lucifer," Politico reports.

Comment: Boehner's comments express the muck and mire that characterizes establishment GOP politics -- which is alienated not just from its own contemporary grassroots base but is also alienated from the enduring American mainstream.

This muck and mire needs to be replaced by a politics of conviction rooted in the rules of freedom. For more on those foundational rules, see the Declaration of Indepedence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

Hat Tip: Conservative Review

Terry Jeffrey writes at CNSNews.com:

The federal government has a duty to enforce this nation's borders and do it in a humane manner that minimizes harm to human life both inside U.S. territory and on the approaches to it.

The best way to do that at the border with Mexico is to build effectively impermeable barriers that send a simple, straightforward message: You can only cross this border legally.

Not securing the border does harm. "By failing to secure the border, the federal government not only allows foreign nationals to come here illegally to live and work, but also provides an avenue for deadly drugs, for the criminals who bring them and for potential terrorists." Jeffrey writes.

"Failure to secure our border not only harms people in the United States, it also harms people in Mexico and would-be illegal border crossers. Mexicans are victimized by the drug cartels that exploit our unenforced border, and migrants seeking to cross our unsecured border to illegally live or work here put themselves at risk in remote regions and in the custody of human traffickers," Jeffrey explains.

Americans "should not turn" their backs "on those who seek refuge and asylum, especially Middle Eastern Christians who face genocide by Islamic State terrorists," Jeffrey writes. "Nor do we need to stop legal immigration."

However, Jeffrey concludes, the legal obligation to secure the "border of the United States is a just law that the federal government has [a] duty to enforce. Building walls that deter and stop illegal crossers is a humane way to do it."

Speaking on Hannity last night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sees no "path for anybody else" other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz after today's GOP Super Tuesday II, featuring primaries in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida.

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman reports at LifeSiteNews.com:

A new motion picture now showing in Mexican theaters is exposing the public for the first time to a relentlessly realistic depiction of the dangers and harm suffered by children adopted by homosexual couples.

Pink: It's Not What They Say It Is, which debuted on two hundred screens this weekend in the Cinemex chain of theaters, is the story of a homosexual couple who adopt a boy, inevitably exposing him to the chaos and confusion generated by their promiscuous lifestyle.

Click to read more.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen writes:

Doing the math for the Trump campaign's magic number today shows that the front-runner still has a lot of work to do.

"Everything up until now has been a warm-up for the real action," Rasmussen states.

"Trump and Cruz will face each other in roughly two dozen primaries and caucuses between March 15 and June 7. That competition will select the Republican nominee."

From CNN.com:

On Thursday, Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will debate. The four will participate in a Republican debate hosted by CNN, Salem Media Group, The Washington Times and the Republican National Committee.

When and where is the debate? The Republican debate will be held at the University of Miami at 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday.

How can I watch it? It will be broadcast live on CNN, as well as live-streamed online at CNN.com and across mobile devices for all users without logging in. CNN International and CNN en Espanol will also simulcast the debate. Salem Radio Network will be the exclusive radio provider for the debate.

Who will moderate the debate? CNN's Jake Tapper will moderate and CNN's Dana Bash, Salem talk radio host Hugh Hewitt and The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan will join as questioners.

David Rutz reports at the Washington Free Beacon:

Carly Fiorina, the only woman who ran for the 2016 Republican nomination, endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) on Wednesday in a surprise appearance in Miami, Florida.

Fiorina praised Cruz as a "leader and a reformer," and as a true "constitutional conservative" who had the best chance to beat frontrunner Donald Trump, saying "it is time to unite" behind him. She relayed a story that she went to vote in the Virginia primary earlier this month and, even though she saw her own name, she checked the box for Cruz.

"Part of her reason, she said, was that Cruz bucked the 'status quo' as a senator in Washington," Rutz reports.

"He's willing to take on the status quo in Washington, D.C., whether it's replacing the IRS or finally fixing the Veterans Administration so our veterans get the care that they deserve, or finally fixing our immigration problems," Fiorina said in her speech, which can be seen on Youtube.

"I can tell you from personal experience," she said, "in order to lead, you must challenge the status quo, and when you challenge the status quo, guess what. You do more than ruffle feathers. You make enemies. It is part of it. It is the price of leadership."

As Rutz reports, "Fiorina added she was 'horrified' by the prospect of Trump winning the nomination, but party leaders would not be able to lead the fight against him."

"We’re going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box, and the only guy who can beat Donald Trump is Ted Cruz," Fiorina told the rally.

Fiorina also made the case that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton "are two sides of the same coin."

And that coin is an "incompetent and corrupt" establishment coin.

Therefore, neither Trump nor Clinton are going to "reform the system," because "they are the system," Fiorina said.

"Hillary Clinton has made millions of dollars selling access and influence from the inside, and Donald Trump has made billions of dollars" operating from outside-in, "buying people like Hillary Clinton."

In short: "They are the system. They will not reform it."

As she concluded, Fiorina said, "There are big differences between progressives and conservatives. And we need to remember those differences as you head to the ballot box on Tuesday. . . .

"We, as conservatives, we know that no one of us is any better than any other one of us.

"We know that each of us is gifted by God. We know that all of us want to live lives of dignity and purpose and meaning.

"And we know that our values, our principles, our policies work better to lift people up regardless of their circumstances.

"It is progressives who believe that some are smarter than others, some are better than others, so it's okay if some decide for others and choose for others. That is not who we are.

"So my fellow conservatives, my fellow Republicans, you have a very important job on Tuesday. And I say to you: It is time.

"It is time to take our party back. It is time to take our government back. It is time to take our country back.

"And so, it is time now to unite behnd the one man who can beat Donald Trump, who can beat Hillary Clinton, who can beat the D.C. cartel. It is time to unite behind Ted Cruz."

"Cruz and Fiorina embraced on the stage after her speech, which was enthusiastically received," Rutz reports.

"Trump won Michigan, Mississippi and Hawaii on Tuesday, while Cruz took Idaho, making the GOP fight look increasingly like a two-man race. Trump leads the delegate count with 458, with Cruz in second at 359. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the other two remaining candidates, are well behind," Rutz concludes.

Watch on Youtube the Fiorina endorsement of Ted Cruz.

Newsmax reports the following numbers from a WPost-ABC News poll:

For the Republicans --

• Donald Trump: 34%
• Ted Cruz: 25%
• Marco Rubio: 18%
• John Kasich: 13%

"In January, Trump had a 16-point lead," and Ohio governor "John Kasich was in single digits," Newsmax reports.

For the Democrats --

• Hillary Clinton: 49%
• Bernie Sanders: 42%

"Hillary Clinton's lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders has slipped to an all-time low," Newsmax states.

Read more.

The U.K. Daily Mail reports:

The former governor of Massachusetts and the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has refused to rule out becoming nominee again this year at [a] contested convention.

On NBC's Meet the Press, Romney said that he doesn't think anyone in the Republican party should say no to being nominated.

He said: "I don't think anyone in our party should say, 'Oh no, even if the people of the party wanted me to be president, I would say no to it.' No one is going to say that."

But if the GOP tries to replace, say, Trump with Romney at the convention, "there’s a walkout," warns Rush Limbaugh, as quoted at Newsmax.

“If that happens, then you've got utter chaos," says the king of talk radio.

Daniel Horowitz writes:

Ted Cruz won this debate so handily that even the members of the media, who have largely ignored him throughout this debate, admitted he broke through the pack.

Cruz dismembered Donald Trump and made the case that he is the only consistent conservative who has the temperament to be president.

Also, unlike Rubio, Cruz did it with a sense of seriousness and sobriety instead of getting into the gutter with Trump.

Read more.

A week ago today, the extremist ugly head of campus "liberalism" snapped and snarled at California State University Los Angeles.

The occasion was the appearence of Ben Shapiro to give a speech. Shapiro writes:

Hundreds of students gathered to chant slogans, block entrances and exits to the student union auditorium, rough up those who wished to enter, pull the fire alarm, and trap other students inside that auditorium under threat of violence. Police officers stood aside and allowed that mob to violate basic safety protocols, reportedly at the behest of the school administration.

"This is America in 2016, on a state-funded university campus," Shapiro observes. 

How has the U.S. arrived at this unsafe place?

"We have spent two generations turning college campuses from places to learn job skills to places to indoctrinate leftism and inculcate an intolerant view of the world that insists on silencing opposition," Shapiro explains.

"We have made campuses a fascist 'safe space' on behalf of the left. Anyone who disagrees must be shut down, or threatened or hurt."

This hatred against freedom is not limited to university extremists.

"We've entered an era of politics in which baseless feelings count more than facts, in which political correctness means firing those with different viewpoints, in which government actors insist that they can police negative thoughts," Shapiro writes.

"We're on the edge of freedom's end, and many Americans don't even see it," Shapiro concludes.

"They would have had they been at CSULA that day. And they will soon enough if they don't stand up for their rights today."

Released today by the Carson Campaign:

I have decided not to attend the Fox News GOP Presidential Debate tomorrow night in Detroit. 

Even though I will not be in my hometown of Detroit on Thursday, I remain deeply committed to my home nation, America. 

I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results.

However, this grassroots movement on behalf of "We the People" will continue.

Along with millions of patriots who have supported my campaign for President, I remain committed to Saving America for Future Generations.

We must not depart from our goals to restore what God and our Founders intended for this exceptional nation.

I appreciate the support, financial and otherwise, from all corners of America.

Gratefully, my campaign decisions are not constrained by finances; rather by what is in the best interests of the American people.

I will discuss more about the future of this movement during my speech on Friday at CPAC in Washington, D.C.

Here is the Ben Carson for President 2016 website.

Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

The Christian Post, a website that describes itself as the largest evangelical news site in the U.S., has, for the first time in its existence, taken a specific editorial position in a presidential race, telling its readers that Donald Trump is "especially bad."

"We the senior editors of The Christian Post encourage our readers to back away from Donald Trump," opens an op-ed from the site’s senior editors.

As the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world, we feel compelled by our moral responsibility to our readers to make clear that Donald Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country."

Read more.