USAToday reports: “Parents as a political powerhouse? The PTA and other organizations are hoping to make it so with unprecedented efforts to turn parents into lobbyists.

“About 65 million parents live in homes with children younger than 18 - enough to rival the clout of the 35-million-member AARP if they can be activated on a large scale. Several non-partisan groups, in an effort to do that, are highlighting issues with broad appeal. Such issues include childhood obesity, Internet safety and school funding.”

Add: Improving education, school choice, and parental consent.

France isn’t the only one worrying about the EU.

CNET reports: “Microsoft must submit on Tuesday its final proposal for complying with an antitrust order from the European Commission–or face fines that could reach millions of dollars a day.”

The Commission, which polices competition in the 25-nation European Union, fined the U.S. software giant 497 million euros ($613 million) on March 24, 2004.

Maybe that’s a sign of things to come.

UPDATE: (6/1) “Microsoft has filed its latest attempt to comply with Europe’s antitrust ruling, getting its proposal in mere hours before the deadline set by authorities.” The story continues.

An Amnesty International report last week said the Guantanamo detention camp for terrorist suspects had become the “gulag of our times.”

President Bush and Vice President Cheney express their outrage at the organization’s allegations. And rightly so.

UPDATE: “In Defense of Guantanamo Bay” Malkin reports, including links to Powerline.

RELATED: Amnesty’s Liberal Hyperbole: U.S. “Gulag”

AP reports: “Calif. Botanists Find Rare Grass Species“

“A species of grass not seen since 1912 has been discovered growing on Santa Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, botanists say.

“I saw a little grass, and I thought, ‘Hmm, that doesn’t look familiar,’” said Jenny McCune, an assistant plant ecologist for the Catalina Island Conservancy.”

Hmmm, indeed. You don’t smoke it, and it doesn’t grow in San Francisco.

Imagine that.

“After all the glowing words surrounding the Senate ‘compromise’ in which the Republicans folded their hand despite holding all the high cards, it is worth taking a look at who won what and why.”

Thomas Sowell explores.

Starting in the schools, where else?

Accuracy in Academia reports: “East Carolina University recently announced the hiring of a new administrator with the title Assistant to the Chancellor for Institutional Diversity.”

According to ECU, the Assistant to the Chancellor for Institutional Diversity “will play a principal role in crafting and articulating a vision of East Carolina University as a diverse and inclusive institution of higher learning.”

Sounds great. Very altruistic. But what does that really mean?

The appointment of McKee to this new position comes one year after ECU created its new Office of Institutional Diversity. ECU already had in place such diversity offices as its Office of Intercultural Student Affairs, its Office of Institutional Equity, and its Ledonia Wright Cultural Center.

Despite those existing offices, the 2003 ECU Diversity Task Force Report reported its desire to “facilitate the development of a culturally pluralistic curriculum,” one of the objectives of the Office of Institutional Diversity. In essence, that means spending more money to create new courses and programs designed to placate vocal pressure groups rather than to teach useful bodies of knowledge to students.

Exactly. In this case, ECU fails the grade. Let’s look at the facts.

“In 2003, 60 percent of faculty and staff at ECU and 60 percent of the student body were women. In addition, 21 percent of faculty and staff in 2003 and 22 percent of students in 2004 were ethnic minorities. This does not seem like an alarming “underrepresentation,” considering that only 28 percent of North Carolinians are ethnic minorities, but it persuaded ECU’s leaders that what the school needed was yet another diversity office, headed by a $145K/year administrator.”

We’re confident the money could be better spent — on hiring another teacher, assistant, or tutor. More bureaucracy doesn’t help educate the kids.

RELATED: Dr. Summers “Told The Truth”

Reuters reports: A British couple who hold the world record for the longest marriage said Wednesday their success was down to a glass of whisky, a glass of sherry and the word “sorry.”

“Percy and Florence Arrowsmith married on June 1, 1925 and will celebrate their 80th anniversary Wednesday.

The Guinness World Records said Tuesday the couple held the title for the longest marriage and also for the oldest married couple’s aggregate age.”

Guess we understand why divorce is so high in Hollywood: “being liberal means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Better yet, where’s the outrage?

Artsy, chardonnay- sipping liberals, listen up:

“Sometimes, ‘art’ is nothing more than hatred wrapped in vulgarity framed with stupidity hung on a wall.”

Brilliant.

The Broward Art Guild should hang that quote on the wall.

Michelle Malkin has the story.

It’s the obvious choice.

Canada.com reports: “It’s a match made in heaven: an heir and an heiress, both named Paris.

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, star of The Simple Life reality show, is engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis, her spokesman said Monday.”

Really, the only solution for a woman so in love with herself. Just like the French.

AP reports: “Shaken by the defeat of the European Union constitution, President Jacques Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was France’s voice against the Iraq war, as prime minister on Tuesday.”

Sounds like he’s qualified.