President, Please?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Thirty-eight House Democrats, led by Michigan Congressman John Conyers, are urging President Bush to ensure that authorities do not arrest Cindy Sheehan — the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who's demanding to see the president as she camps outside his Crawford ranch.

In a letter to the president, the Democrats call Sheehan's protest "peaceable and legal thus far," saying, "Ms. Sheehan has indicated that she is planning to continue her vigil for the entirety of your vacation ... if necessary. ... We believe it would send an unfortunate message to other relatives and soldiers if grieving parents were arrested while exercising their constitutional rights."

Officials say it's up to the secret service and local law enforcement to determine if an arrest is necessary.

NCAA ‘Insults’ Native Americans?

Reaction is still coming in over the NCAA's decision to ban from postseason tournaments what it calls "hostile or abusive" mascots, including the Seminoles of Florida State University. Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush now says the ban is "ludicrous," telling the Orlando Sentinel that "FSU's use of the word 'Seminoles' and its mascot, Chief Osceola, is not offensive to anybody, particularly the Seminoles of this state."

What's more, he says, the NCAA "insults" Native Americans "by telling them, 'No, no, you're not smart enough to understand this. You should be feeling really horrible about this.' It's ridiculous."

The NCAA, meanwhile, insists it made its decision on what it calls "sound ground."

Records Not Remembered

An audit of California's state-owned property shows that of the 70,000 vehicles owned by the state, including police cars and fire trucks, nearly half are missing. Specifically, 30,000 vehicles are unaccounted for. In fact, one state agency recently bought four million dollars worth of new vehicles, but has no record of where it bought them.

The head of California's State and Consumer Services Agency, quoted by KPIX-TV in San Francisco, calls the situation "very bad," saying it's "amazing" how poorly departments keep track of their own information.

World Youth Festival

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is hosting a world youth festival in his country's capital — with nearly 15,000 students from 144 countries. So what words of wisdom did he have for these impressionable youngsters?

Well, he told them that the United States is the "most savage, cruel and murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world," adding, "If someday they get the crazy idea of coming to invade us, we'll make them bite the dust defending the freedom of our land." So, he told the young people, it is up to them to "save a world threatened by the voracity of U.S. imperialism."

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report