President Obama is using some timeworn oratorical tricks in striving to win back public favor. In a campaign-type rally in Kansas City, he challenged Republicans to "stop hatin' all the time." That's a loaded question akin to asking an opponent, "When did you stop beating your wife?" By pretending there is cause for concern about impeachment, Obama and his aides are putting up a "straw man" -- a false issue designed to distract and draw attack.


  A House committee investigating IRS targeting of conservative groups has turned up some self-incriminating evidence involving ex-IRS official Lois Lerner. Emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee quote Lerner as calling some conservatives "a--holes" and "crazies" in an exchange with an acquaintance.


Rumormongers have been signaled to stop spreading it around that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planning to resign soon. Ginsburg, 81, told Yahoo's Katie Couric, "I am still here and likely to remain for a while."

Isn't it interesting that Hillary Clinton said with certainty she was "dead broke" when she left the White House but now says she doesn't know exactly how wealthy she is. We do know that she has added at least $12 million to her net worth since quitting her job as Secretary of State.

Congress is really cracking down on the Department of Veterans Affairs, whose ineptitude has left thousands of veterans prevented from getting the benefits to which they are entitled. A House-Senate agreement places a cap of $360 million annually on bonuses handed out to VA bureaucrats.

President Obama's nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald, was confirmed by the Senate without a dissenting vote. He will have the unenviable job of following Eric Shinseki, who resigned at the height of a scandal involving manipulation of records to cover up months-long delays for veterans to see doctors. McDonald is a former executive at Procter & Gamble. It will take more than his company's products to clean up the VA mess.

A new study shows fist bumps are healthier than handshakes. How long will it take for President Obama to order a nationwide ban on handshaking? Politicians will be exempted, of course.


Does the Obama administration apply a double standard to religious freedom? The Daily Caller reports that then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the 2013 annual report on international religious freedom, declared religious liberty to be "a universal value ... a birthright of every human being." He was speaking on behalf of the State Department then -- now he's Secretary of State. The newspaper makes the point that Kerry was representing "the same federal government that tried to force a (U.S.) business to provide contraceptives contrary to the employers' religious beliefs."

Polls this far ahead of the 2016 presidential election don't mean very much, but the results of a CNN/ORC survey provide some grist for the slack summertime news mill. The poll showed if voters had to do the 2012 election over again, 53 percent would support Republican Mitt Romney over the 44 percent who would continue to back Barack Obama.

While both Democrats and Republicans fret about how much of the taxpayers' money should be spent on taking care of the thousands of illegal immigrants who have flooded the southwest border, a 13-year Border Patrol veteran made some thought-provoking revelations. Chris Cabrera, now a union vice president, told station WND and Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, that many of them, including unaccompanied minors, have been coached on how to game the U.S. immigration system. "Whether it's the adults or the young kids," he said, "one thing we consistently hear is, 'Obama will take care of us.'"

"Well, we cuss the lawmakers . . . but I notice we're always perfectly willin' to share in any of the sums of money that they might distribute." - Will Rogers

"Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place." -
Mark Twain

"We ought to say to these children, 'Welcome to America, you're going to go to school and get a job and become Americans. The idea that we can't assimilate these eight-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous." - Conservative columnist George Will, in a surprising comment about the illegal immigration crisis on Fox News Sunday.

"The world is a mess." - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, stating the obvious in an appearance on Face the Nation.



"Secretary General of the United Nations ... admitted that two U.N. schools in Gaza were used to stockpile rockets, and he condemned Hamas ... for allowing, turning these schools into military targets." - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, correcting an assertion by Meet the Press moderator David Gregory that Israel had targeted a school and killed children in its defense of rocket attacks from Hamas.

For years President Obama has maintained that he had no legal authority to slow deportations of illegal immigrants. But politico.com points out he has done a colossal flip-flop. Now he says he will use his executive power "to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress."



No news is too incidental for Washington's Roll Call newspaper to report. Here are a couple of examples:

It was "DC Constituent Service Day" on Capitol Hill and a group of activists from the District of Columbia filled the hallway outside the office of Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., to voice their concerns. One man thought the congressman ought to do something about a nuisance in his neighborhood. Showing a photograph, he said, "This is a porta-potty outside my house. You can smell it."

"I'll come up with a better word if I can think of one." - Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., after being reprimanded by a committee chairman for calling Republicans "cuckoo clocks."

In case anyone wondered, Newt Gingrich hasn't run out of off-the-wall ideas. Now the former House speaker is saying he'd like to "turn the Pentagon into a triangle." He's not really suggesting that two sides of the five-sided building be chopped off. He means cutting down the "paper-based" bureaucracy and using the savings for combat troops and equipment.



President Obama apparently is thinking about doing an end run on his Central American Chld Care program. The New York Times reports the administration is considering allowing children and young adults from Honduras into the U.S. without making the dangerous journey through Mexico. How? Give them status as refugees.



It's one thing for members of Congress to talk about spending cuts but another when it comes to actually doing it. In last year's session, House members authored 496 spending bills, compared with 112 bills that would save money. Senators proposed 332 increase spending measures and 56 savings bills. That's according to an analysis by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

As an indication of the cynicism of the American public, a recent survey of opinions on the "Star Wars" universe showed villainous Darth Vader had a higher favorability rating than President Obama and all potential 2016 presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican. If either party can just come up with a Luke Skywalker ...

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight committee conducting the IRS scandal hearing, is not shy about partisan namecalling, but he hasn't taken the trouble to learn the names of his fellow committee members. In a recent session he turned to the chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and said, "one member on your side, the gentleman, I don't know his name ... " He also doesn't know what's been going on inside the IRS, or won't admit it.


A bug removal team was called in at a Senate office building and it had nothing to do with eavesdropping on affairs of state. A woman acting as a placeholder in line for a committee hearing was removed after she was found to be infested with bedbugs. Senators' office were on lockdown temporarily, but a women's restroom where bugs were discovered was closed for two days.

Because of bureaucratic screwups, thousands of U.S. veterans have been unable to get into a VA medical facility. Marine veteran Jeffrey Duck couldn't get out. After he sat waiting in a consultation room at a clinic in Orange City, Va., for more than three hours, Duck realized everyone had left the building and he was locked in. He called 911 and got rescued ... without receiving any medical attention.


"And that's the way it is," Walter Cronkite might say. But it's not the way it ought to be. Instead of the government keeping the public fully informed about America's space program, as in Cronkite's day, the Obama administration's commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the moon landing mission was held behind closed doors. President Obama met with surviving members of the Apollo 11 crew at the White House, but no reporters or TV crews were allowed in the meeting.


Sources who have nothing better to do than monitor Twitter made known these tweets by 88-year-old Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who has learned a lot in his 58 years in Congress - but not everything: "I'm the last original author of the Clean Water Act, but I have no idea who/what a Kardashian is," he messaged in response to a tweet by someone at the Environmental Protection Agency. After a crash course about "the dizzying world of celebutantes," Roll Call's gossip blog reported, Dingell announced, "Staff has now informed me of what a Kardashian is. I'm only left with more questions."

Former president Lyndon B. Johnson was quoted as saying that Gerald Ford, then a member of the House of Representatives, couldn't "walk and chew gum at the same time." White House press secretary Josh Earnest wants everyone to know that President Obama can run the world and eat cheeseburgers at the same time. Earnest was responding to criticism that amid the uproar over the shootdown of a jet airliner over Ukraine Obama headed to a burger joint in Delaware and then flew off to fundraisers in New York.


At a time when America should be tough with its adversaries, the Obama
administration plans to give Iran access to another $2.8 billion and appears to be willing to allow Iran to proceed with enrichment of uranium, the key ingredient of nuclear weapons. This is in exchange for agreeing to extend nuclear talks past their July 20 deadline. The U.S. already has returned to Iran $4.2 billion in unfrozen oil assets.


While Democrats continue to call for measures to shrink the gap between the rich and the poor, Hillary Clinton, a potential Democratic nominee for president in 2016, made at least $12 million in 16 months since leaving her post as secretary of state. The money came mostly from sales of her latest memoir, from speeches and from paid appearances at corporate retreats.

Aides to President Obama were warned repeatedly over the past two years of the humanitarian crisis that has developed on the southwest border of the U.S., but "the administration did too little to heed those warnings." The Sunday Washington Post, in a highly critical front-page article, quoted a former Border Patrol station chief as saying federal officials viewed the situation as a "local problem."

Secretary of State John Kerry, in a marathon appearance on Sunday TV talk shows, supported Israel's right to defend its citizens from rocket attacks by the Palestine terrorist group Hamas. But he was caught on a "hot" microphone sarcastically mocking Israel, saying, "It's  a hell of a pinpoint operation."

MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell, until recently a solid supporter of President Obama, publicly criticized him for his relatively mild reaction to the shooting down of a commercial airliner over Ukraine whch cost the lives of 298 people. She said "the president's rhetoric ... was not even up to the moral outrage expressed by (UN Ambassador) Samantha Power."

U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Rio Grande river were fired upon with high-caliber weaponry from the Mexican side to allow illegal immigrants to enter the country. Forget the National Guard. Send in the Marines.


President Obama called the downing of a civilian passenger jet over Ukraine a "global wakeup call." Yet he continues to conduct foreign policy as if he were asleep at the wheel.


Another Obama administration scandal rivaling the IRS targeting of conservative groups has been exposed in the Justice Department. It was revealed during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that DOJ officials have actively pressured banks to deny financial services to businesses for political reasons. This calls for a thorough investigation.

President Obama's White House strategists finally learned a lesson: don't send Susan Rice to present the administration's views on the Sunday TV talk shows, after her disastrous performance on the Benghazi terrorist attack. Secretary of State John Kerry is appearing this Sunday on all of the major networks, included the hated Fox News, to defend all the Obama foreign policy blunders. (For a full listing of Sunday TV talk show guests, go to haughtline.net ).




Are President Obama and his wife working at cross purposes? First Lady Michelle Obama is actively promoting healthy eating to the extent of a broad scale attack on the American food industry for the products it supplies to the school lunch program.  But when "the bear is loose" (White House jargon for Obama going off schedule) he pigs out on very unhealthy burgers and other junk food. In his recent travels he ate pizza in Denver, barbecue in Denver, burgers stuffed with cheese in Minneapolis and a milk shake in Washington, D.C. The Washington Post excuses his indulgences by opinionating he's doing it to "connect with ordinary Americans."


How Your Taxes Are Spent

The U.S. State Department is spending $450,000 of your tax dollars to teach Afghan women to play cricket. According to the terms of the grant, "participating in sports helps women feel empowered and teaches them the value of teamwork."

President Obama made a 40-second mention of the Malaysian plane crash in Ukraine, saying, "It looks like it may be a terrible tragedy", before launching a 16-minute speech, joking about being in Delaware and tearing into Republicans again.





Is Vice President Joe Biden starting to put some distance between himself and President Obama with a eye toward trying to become his successor? In 2008 Obama ran a campaign of "hope and change" but Biden admitted to a group of young progressives that "it didn't happen." Ron Fournier of the National Journal called the backtrack "a really bad moment for the White House."

Democrats, Republicans, liberals, the tea party movement -- as if we didn't
already have enough of these labels, here come the "conservatarians", proclaims "Inside the Beltway" in the Washington Times. They represent "a mashup of conservative and libertarian ideas, amped up with cutting edge technology, social media and some attitude," the paper says. Leaders in the group include Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.

The NIMBY factor may derail President Obama's plan to take in all comers at the U.S. southwest border and transport them to various parts of the country.  Obama supporters like Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., called for compassion and said, "We are not a country that should turn children away" -- but "not in my backyard." He asked the White House to call of plans to send unaccompanied minors to Maryland. In many cases planeloads of illegal immigrants have shown up in states where governors had not been told they were coming.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest says President Obama "absolutely" is living up to his pledge to have the "most transparent administration in history."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says, "the border is secure."

Who do they think they're kidding?

"This is Hilda Solis calling ... wanted to ask you if you could, um, help us get folks organized to come to a fundraiser that we're doing for ... Obama campaign ... wanted to ask you if you might help contribute ... " - President Obama's former labor secretary caught redhanded making a solicitation call to a subordinate in direct violation of a federal law which prohibits political activity.

Did she really say that? Rep. Renee Elmers, R-N.C., during a meeting of conservative women in Congress, was quoted as saying that their male colleagues, when discussing policy, need to "bring it down to a woman's level."


Also noted in the mid-summer wave of stupidity was an incident involving Justin Gray, a TV Washington correspondent who was flying back to D.C. from Orlando, Fla. A TSA agent stopped him and asked to see his passport. Gray wasn't carrying a passport because he thought his D.C. driver's license should have been sufficient. Confused, Gray asked the agent: "Do you not know what the District of Columbia is?" It became clear that he didn't. Gray eventually was able to board his flight after talking to the agent's supervisor.

And finally, as the Palestine terrorist group Hamas continued to fire rockets at  U.S. ally Israel, the U.S. government finalized a deal to provide the  group's leading supporter, Qatar, with $11 billion worth of weaponry.

"He will go down as the worst president ever elected." - Who said that? A leading Republican? A conservative talk show host? No. It came from one of a number of  black residents of Chicago's South Side at a protest rally. He also said: "For the president to set aside all of these funds for immigrants and forsaken the African-American community ... I think that's a disgrace."

There seems to be an epidemic of missing emails spreading through the federal bureaucracy in Washington. Congressional investigators have been stymied in their investigation of IRS targeting of conservative political groups because a key witness, Lois Lerner, can't produce her communications with other agencies for a certain period of time. Now it's reported that a probe into Hatch Act violations at the Federal Election Commission has stalled because a suspect -- a former colleague of Lerner's -- had her computer hard drive "recycled."

A new Pew Research study shows that "America's image remains strong in much of the world." A median of 74 percent in Africa, 66 percent in Western Europe, 66 percent in Asia and 65 percent in Latin America voice an affirmative opinion of the U.S. Just 30 percent in the Middle East feel that way. But that's better than the rating Americans give their own country. Only 28 percent said the U.S. "stands above all other countries in the world."

Political charlatans are skilled at pointing up any good news they can find and downplaying the bad. President Obama is no exception. He's thumping his chest about some selective economic figures. But a more realistic picture comes from the American Action Forum, a Washington policy institute. Based on personal income data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, the forum found that if the current economic recovery had kept pace with other post-World War II recoveries, the average American would have $2,700 more in annual income.

"Any fix for immigration must be bipartisan. Hillary Clinton must contribute all her unsold books to building a wall." - HBO host Bill Maher, suggesting a solution for shoring up the U.S. southwestern border.

 Sandra Fluke, who gained national attention two years ago when she complained she couldn't afford to buy enough birth control products to keep up with her active sex life, is running for a state Senate seat in California. If she gets elected to any office it will be a fluke.

Pundits on Parade

Charles Krauthammer - "As is his wont, President Obama is treating the border crisis — more than 50,000 unaccompanied children crossing illegally — as a public relations problem. Where to photo op and where not. He still hasn’t enunciated a policy. He may not even have one."

Peggy Noonan - "There is every sign he (President Obama) let the crisis on the border build to put heat on Republicans and make them pass his idea of good immigration reform. It would be "comprehensive," meaning huge, impenetrable and probably full of mischief. His base wants it. It would no doubt benefit the Democratic Party in the long term."

Fred Barnes - "With Obama, refusing to change his mind is a habit. He sticks with policies whether they work or not. If they’ve become irrelevant or counterproductive, change is still out of the question. If a proposed policy will never be enacted, he sticks with it anyway. For him, stubborn adherence reflects a mindset. If he thinks he’s right, as Obama invariably does, why change?"