Here's news that might bring  joy to the hearts of taxpayers. A new study shows that Washington, D.C. is sinking into the ocean. The scientific term for what's happening is "forebulge collapse", a phase bureaucrats should love. Premature cheering is unwarranted, however. Researchers say it will take 100 years for the city to drop by six inches or more.

"Put that in your pipe and smoke it." - Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to  Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., after successfully blocking a Democratic effort to confirm three U.S. district judges.

Only in Washington
Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., agreed to give up his leadership position on the House Appropriations Committee and step down after he was slapped by a multi-count fraud indictment. He is being replaced by Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

Campaigning in Iowa, Hillary Clinton vigorously promoted conservation of energy. Then she boarded a luxurious 19-seat private jet that burns 347 gallons of fuel per hour.


"I actually think I'm a pretty good president." - President Obama, telling an audience in Ethiopia he would seek and win a third term if the Constitution didn't prevent it. Polls show the American people don't agree with him.

The delay in approval of the Keystone XL pipeline is costing the U.S. economy $42 million a day, according to a new report. This doesn't seem to matter to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who refuses to tell voters her position on the matter.

Too many politicians tell voters to "Do as I say, not as I do." Bernie Sanders, the Socialist running as a Democrat for president, has introduced a bill in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. But Sanders pays interns who work in his Senate office only $12 per hour.

Barack Obama paid his first visit to Kenya, his ancestral homeland, as president and carried this message: ... "the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation." Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, publicly disagreed with Obama's call to prioritize gay rights, saying his country has more pressing issues.

Illinois, at long last, is beginning to take away some of the benefits going to the dead. Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, has signed a legislative measure that requires a monthly crosscheck of aid recipients with death records to eliminate payments to dead people. A recent audit found $3.7 million was paid last year to 1,111 people recorded as deceased.

A Republican senator angrily takes issue with the actions of the leader of the Senate. What's different about that? It was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, leveling the criticism and his target was his fellow Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He accused McConnell of lying about a secret agreement to allow a vote to extend the Export-Import Bank, which conservatives oppose.

"I identify with some things as a Democrat." - Donald Trump, who has announced as a Republican candidate for president. Not surprising since in the past he has been a campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.

With hopes of the Iran nuclear deal as his legacy fading, President Obama has set his sights on gun control. Looking at finishing out his term in office he said,"It is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months."

"Boy, you really do have only a year left." - Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, ridiculing President Obama after he made the ridiculous assertion that IRS targeted conservatives and blamed the VA scandal on Congress not providing enough funds.

"I want a Lamborghini." - Mary Gatter, a high-ranking official of Planned Parenthood, discussing negotiations for sale of body parts of aborted fetuses. As if getting half a billion dollars a year in state and federal tax dollars isn't enough.

How does the White House define immediately? Five days after five members of the military services were killed in an attack on a reserves center in Chattanooga, Tenn., by an Islamic Jihadist, and before President Obama spoke to a VFW group, a statement was issued saying Obama had "immediately" ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the executive mansion.

Media Matters, the left-leaning activist group, showed its antagonism toward Republicans when a "research fellow", Oliver Willis, posted a hateful tweet against Ann Romney. He attacked the wife of 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for writing a book about her long battle with multiple sclerosis. He also expressed his disgust with her for writing too many books.


Is President Obama implying Social Security recipients are incompetent? It sounds that way from the description of his latest move to increase the power of the federal government. Obama wants to deny Second Amendment rights to own guns to people collecting Socil Security benefits if they are not competent to manage their own affairs.

It wasn't a very ladylike thing for Zoey Tur to say. The transgender reporter, after Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro had called her "sir" in a TV debate over Caitlyn Jenner, said to him: "You cut that out now, or you'll go home in an ambulance." Shapiro accused her of battery in a police report.
 

There are so many Republicans running for president it's difficult for pundits to single out things to criticize. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan came up with an answer. She wrote a scorching op-ed about Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker making his campaign announcement wearing an open collared shirt and no tie.

Vice President Joe Biden, who never tires of branding Republicans as the party of the rich, let slip in a speech that Democrats also have some wealthy individuals (including Hillary Clinton). Calling on Democrats to limit the role of big money in the primary season, he said, "We can demand that the people we support don't yield to millionaires and billionaires."

When President Obama went to Oklahoma to visit a federal prison he was greeted by about 10 people waving the Confederate battle flag. Odd, since soldiers in Oklahoma -- then a territory -- fought on both sides of the Civil War.

There are vast differences of opinion in Congress about climate change, but legislators are in general agreement on the need for better weather forecasts. The House has passed a bill, on a bipartisan vote, requiring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to go outside the government for help to develop "more accurate, timely and effective warnings and forecast of high-impact weather events that endanger life and property."

How can the president's Homeland Security chief protect our country and its citizens if he doesn't know what's going on? Secretary Jeh Johnson, testifying on Capitol Hill, was asked whether the Obama administration had reached out to the family of Kate Steinle, the California woman whose murder by an illegal alien who has been deported five times and allowed to return has shocked the nation. Johnson's response: "To who?"

"Joke's On Us - Iranians laugh out loud at nuke deal." - Cover of New York Post.

Our country's leaders can't seem to agree on what we should fear the most. President Obama has said that global warming is the greatest threat to national security. His nominee for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, believes it's Russia. Not so, according to Secretary of State John Kerry, who insists the "growth of violent extremism around the world" is the top concern.

Donald Trump's tirades against undesirable Mexican immigrants illegally crossing the border have ironically had a favorable economic effect in our neighboring country. A resourceful pinata maker in Mexico City is selling one designed in the likeness of the billionaire tycoon, complete with his signature hairstyle. Trump haters can work out their displeasure by swinging away at the object.

In their drive for a genderless society, Democrats have targeted the terms "husband" and "wife." More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers are backing a bill by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., to replace those words with gender-neutral" designations like "spouse" or "married couple."

The U.S. government has spent nearly $2 million since 2012 in a campaign to get women to nag their men to quit chewing tobacco.

Earlier this year taxpayers picked up the tab for expensive trips to Asia and Europe for First Lady Michelle Obama. Now it's the vice president's wife's turn. Dr. Jill Biden plans to visit South Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Japan during a week-
long trip to promote educational opportunity for women and girls.

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist who backed Barack Obama in his first presidential campaign has wised up. Norwegian scientist Ivar Giaever now takes issue with the president, who said, "No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change." Giaever said, "He's dead wrong. Global warming is all wet."

"I believe Jesus would approve of gay marriage." - Former President Jimmy Carter. But he couldn't cite any scripture.

"At the end of the day, I trust the American voter." - Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate for president, in CNN interview. But do they trust you, Hillary?

"Why on earth would that fit in?" - First Lady Michelle Obama, expressing skepticism about her husband's decision to sing "Amazing Grace" during eulogy for minister among nine murdered in Charleston, S.C. church (as quoted by aide Valerie Jarrett).

Over Independence Day weekend President Obama escaped from the White House press pool and went golfing. Hillary Clinton, who wants to get his job in 2016, used a rope line to keep the press at a distance. What other Obama policies would she follow?

In running for president, Donald Trump seems to have a chip on his shoulder for everybody -- not just his political opponents. He blasted NBC and other media outlets who quit carrying his TV programs. Then he turned his fire on Paulina Vega, Miss Universe, for criticizing his stance on Mexican immigrants coming across the border into the U.S. Trump, who owns the Miss Universe pageant, called her a hypocrite for saying she would keep her crown.

Hillary Clinton may be unwilling to answer questions from reporters but President Obama didn't hesitate to say what he thinks about a New York Times writer promoting green peas in guacamole. He vetoed the idea in his Twitter account: " ...not buying peas in guac ... " He stamped his approval on "onions, garlic, hot peppers ..."

Liberal economics professor Paul Krugman -- perhaps better known as a New York Times columnist -- is on the faculty of the cash-strapped, taxpayer-funded City University of New York system. He is analyzing the problem of income inequality. He is drawing an annual salary of $225,000.

In the White House a large pay gap still exists between male and female employees. Data shows men earn an average annual salary of $78,000 while women are paid only $65,650. That's a gender gap of 15.8 percent. The "war on women" that Democrats blame on Republicans actually is being conducted by the commander-in-chief -- a Democrat.

Federal housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still owe taxpayers $188 billion from a bailout from the 2008 financial crisis. Salaries of their CEO's were capped at $600,000 in 2012. Yet the federal regulator of the two agencies raised each of those salaries to $4 million. What's wrong with this picture?

In a society increasingly critical of crimefighters a New York state police officer who captured escaped murderer David Sweat has come under investigation for shooting him twice after he began fleeing toward some woods. Sweat was serving time for killing a cop years ago when he and another convicted killer broke out of a New York prison and eluded police for 23 days.

Former President  Jimmy Carter, who presided over some of the worst foreign policy debacles in history -- including Iran's seizure of U.S. hostages and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan -- is critical of President Obama's handling of foreign affairs. He said Obama's accomplishments have been "minimal" and that U.S. influence and respect in the world has declined during his administration.

 Some of the contents of Hillary Clinton's emails released in the State Department's latest dump could be fodder for a Saturday Night Live skit. Take this inquiry by the former Secretary of State: "I thought there was an event this Fall (maybe even honoring me?) But, did it not happen or did I not go? What happened?"