Well, given the demonization of our military personnel by the lft, we knew it would come to this.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is searching for five people who allegedly attacked a uniformed National Guardsmen walking along 138th Street in Parkland Tuesday afternoon.

The soldier was walking to a convenience store when a sport utility vehicle pulled up alongside him and the driver asked if he was in the military and if he had been in any action.

The driver then got out of the vehicle, displayed a gun and shouted insults at the victim. Four other suspects exited the vehicle and knocked the soldier down, punching and kicking him.

“And during the assault the suspects called him a baby killer. At that point they got into the car and drove off and left him on the side of the road,” Detective Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News.

Notice, of course, that none of the scum were willing to make it a fair fight -- five-on-one and a gun gave tehm all sorts of courage that they lack as individuals.

H/T to Michelle Malkin, who also lists a number of such instances in the recent past.

In the business world, there are expense accounts for needed supplies and decorating issues are generally dealt with out of the company budget. Not so in education, where teachers are often given little or no assistance with material beyond the basics while they are held responsible for creating a stimulating environment to facilitate education.

So where does the money come from for the expected materials?

The posters were hung, the scissors and glue stashed in their proper places and the bulletin boards in Brenda Burlingame's classroom at Legacy Elementary School wrapped and trimmed in a cheery color.

The room simply screamed "Welcome to first grade." That feeling didn't come cheap.

"I probably spent $500 this year," Burlingame said as she shopped for a few last-minute adornments at Loudoun Learning, a teacher supplies store in Leesburg. "No matter if you've been a teacher for five minutes or five years, it has to be done."

Across the region, teachers are digging into their pockets to buy the supplies that turn four walls and a few tiny tables and chairs into the image of a child's classroom, complete with cubbyholes and attendance charts and a cozy reading corner with pillows and a rocking chair.

In a nationwide survey conducted last school year by the National School Supply and Equipment Association, 94 percent of teachers said they spent their own money on school supplies. On average, they estimated they would spend $552 of their own money on their classrooms before the school year was over.

I don't spend that much money on my materials -- because as a male high school teacher, a certain minimalism is not unheard of. I've got a lot of laminated posters hung high enough on the wall that they cannot be vandalized or destroyed, so I can reuse thm from year to year. But were I an elementary teacher, the expectations would be much higher -- and i woul be spending a lot more out of pocket. Instead of $100, I would probably be closer to the $1000 that the wife of a colleague spent last year making sure that second grade was a year of stickers, projects, and other educational activities that would have been denied if submitted on a purchase order.

A teacher expense account would be nice -- not for three-martini lunches, but for the sort of supplies and materials that contribute to student learning. Take it out of the budget for the new football stadium, athletic arena, or natatorium.

The Houston Chronicle laments the high poverty statistics in parts of Texas -- but I believe they ignore something.

The U.S. Census Bureau released new poverty estimates on Wednesday. The outlook for Texas is troubling indeed, and should prompt self-examination from state leaders and voters both.

According to the new data, one in six Texans lived in poverty last year. And Texas was home to three of the nation's 10 poorest counties, including the top two — Cameron County, with 42 percent below the poverty level, and Hidalgo County, with 41 percent. With 29 percent of its population poor, El Paso County was listed as the country's fourth least-prosperous.

A full quarter of all Texas children are poor, the Bureau's American Community Survey found. Almost 20 percent of Texans are economically deprived, which the government defined for a family of four as earning $19,971 or less. Only 13 percent of Americans overall were found to be poor.

The news was no more heartening in Houston. A full 29 percent of black families here were impoverished, a jump from 25 percent in 2000. Among Hispanics, the number living in poverty climbed to 30 percent from 26 percent. Fewer white Houstonians, 9 percent, were found to be poor.

Look at those Hispanic statistics -- what percentage of them are among the "undocumented" community. I recognized very quickly that the counties mentioned are among the most Hispanic -- and most illegal -- in the state.

And the statistics on African Americans? Do these numbers include the Katrina evacuees who we have welcomed into our midst -- many of whom are stuck in a cycle of chronic, generational dependence on public aid rather than work? We have witnessed this crew demanding ever more cash from the public teat so that they might avoid seeking and finding employment until they can return to their homes in the welfare state of Louisiana. Does this skew the numbers?

We don't get that sort of analysis -- because if such analysis was given, we might have obvious policy solutions for both that fly in the face of liberal dogman.