PrairiePundit

Washington Free Beacon: A federal judge blasted the State Department during a court hearing Wednesday about the government agency’s lack of response to Freedom of Information Act requests having to do with documents from Hillary Clinton and her staff. Politico reported that U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon balked at State’s inability to produce about 60 emails demanded in one particular FOIA request, saying, “Now, any person should be able to review that in one day–one day. Even the least ambitious bureaucrat could do this.” The judge, like Clinton critics, suggested that the government agency is protecting its former secretary of state by failing to produce documents related to her staff. Wednesday’s court hearing was part of an Associated Press lawsuit against State in which the news organization accuses the government agency of failing to respond to FOIA requests for thousands of documents related to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s employment status in addition to Hilla...

Conservative Treehouse: Prosecutors have information indicating that Freddie Gray “attempted to injure himself” during a previous arrest, but have intentionally withheld it from their criminal case against the six Baltimore police officers charged in Gray’s apprehension and death in April, the officers’ attorneys said in a court filing Thursday. “Based upon information and belief, the State’s Attorney’s Office was informed of this fact, yet failed to disclose to the Defendants any statements, reports, or other communications relating to this information,” they wrote. […] In their filing Thursday, the defense attorneys said prosecutors have withheld “multiple witness statements from individuals who stated that Mr. Gray was banging and shaking the van at various points” after his arrest April 12, as well as “police reports, court records, and witness statements indicating that on prior occasions, Mr. Gray had fled from police and attempted to discard drugs.” A spokeswoman for State’s A...

Business Journal: Prices at the pump are low — and could go lower if export ban is lifted, report says They see cheap gas as a bug and not a feature.  The public needs to wake up to their agenda of high energy costs to try to make their inefficient alternatives look more competitive.

NY Times: Obama’s Hopes for Iran Go Beyond Nuclear Deal The Obama administration may have grander ambitions to open up relations with Tehran and be part of a transformation in the Middle East. Will he start his own chant of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."?   Iran is still led by homicidal religious bigots and he is incapable of transforming that reality.  He cannot change what is in their hearts.

Washington Times: Obama’s climate change policy driven by outside forces: report Lawsuit claims EPA biased on Alaska mine project ... Emails obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute ( EELI ), an environmental policy watchdog and frequent critic of the EPA , show that powerful environmental groups such as the Sierra Club , the Natural Resources Defense Council and others engaged in secret discussions with top administration officials. Much of the EPA ’s climate agenda, including its looming regulations limiting carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, is being crafted by those outside groups, the report says. ... I think all of these groups attempt to circumvent due process and stick to energy consumers in pursuit of their own agenda.  If the roels were reversed these guys would be screaming and crying foul.

Washington Post: U.S. suspected Pakistan hid Taliban’s Omar The militant leader, whose 2013 death was only recently confirmed, remained influential and invisible for years as the United States and Pakistan pursued competing and often hidden agendas. I suspect that Mullah Omar's sanctuary in Pakistan was only a part of that country's double game they have been playing from the start of the Afghan war.   It also suggest that they may have been hiding bin Laden too, because of their reaction to his death is consistent with a party that was trying to protect him.

NY Times: Bernie Sanders Again Links Low Wages With Immigration Senator Bernie Sanders said at a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event that lower wages were tethered to an influx of immigrants, a day after he said wage stagnation was linked to a porous immigration policy. It is still clear to me that socialism is a failed economic policy, but Sanders has exhibited integrity and honesty in a greater degree than his Democrat opposition.   When the illegal immigrant population is as great as the number of citizens who cannot find work and wages are stagnant, there is a correlation that should be looked at.

Not only will Iran be free to spend the money on Hamas, Hezballah and Houthies, but I have not heard the administration explain what would stop Iran from just buying a nuke from the Norks.

PJ Media: Dead and Registered: Clarke County, MS, Sued for Having More Voters Than Live Citizens The DOJ lets plenty of other counties ignore the legal responsibility to maintain accurate rolls. This is another reason Democrats oppose voter ID.  Without it , they can more easily vote for the dead.

Radio Free Europe: Turkey Seeks To Prevent Kurdish Autonomy, Not Fight IS, Analysts Suggest The US should oppose this false flag operation.  The betrayal of the Kurds is not an acceptable way to deal with ISIL.   They are clearly the best fighters in the current conflict and Turkey has lost any credibility in fighting ISIL and has been accused of actually cooperating with the head choppers.

McClatchy: Data in Clinton’s ‘secret’ emails came from 5 intelligence agencies The State Department believes there could be hundreds of classified emails sent and received by Clinton.

Conservative Tribune: European nations have for the longest time been welcoming millions upon millions of Muslim immigrants into their fold, courtesy the left-wing governments that their citizens keep electing into office. The results have not surprisingly been disastrous. Think violent crime, for instance, which runs rampant throughout Europe . Now step into Norway, where in 2013 the nation’s citizens finally bucked the trend by electing a conservative party into power. The leader of this party, Prime Minister Erna Solberg, immediately stepped to the plate and implemented “a program that deports Muslims who have ties to radical groups.” In 2014 alone, a whopping 7,100 Muslims were deported. That’s 10 times more than had ever been deported under the previous administration. Here’s the kicker: Within a year of this program’s implementation, violent crime in Norway dropped by a drastic 31 percent! ... There is more. Solberg was accused of the phony disease of "Islamaphobia,...

The State's Attorney filed a motion to stop defense counsel from calling him "the Government."  The response maybe the funniest thing you will read today.  Go read it.

AP/Quad City Times: Study: More reliable vehicles last longer It is easier to give up on a less reliable vehicle.

Washington Times: ... Egypt is accusing Turkey of working with the Islamic State on the Sinai Peninsula, a new low in the already poor relations between the two regional powers. Washington has finally coaxed Turkey into a greater commitment to take on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, across the border in Syria, while the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi battles a surge of Islamist violence. “For a long time now, we have called on all states in the region to be more forthcoming in dealing with the ISIS threat, including monitoring and control of borders,” Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters in Cairo on Sunday. “Unfortunately, this has not been the case with Turkey .” A senior Foreign Ministry official said later that Egypt could prove Turkey was supporting the Islamic State affiliate in Sinai, Ansar Beit Al Maqdis , or Champions of Jerusalem, a terrorist group that has fired rockets at Israel and attacked security forc...

Noah Rothman: Democrats Own the Disaster in the Middle East There are so many missed opportunities and blunders it is hard to summarize them all.  It is worth reading the piece to see just a few of them.

Greg Gutfeld makes a compelling argument against the abortion body parts industry.

Fox News: DIVINE INTERVENTION? Swiss bank gave thousands to Clinton Foundation after IRS settlement DONATIONS TO THE Clinton Foundation by Swiss bank UBS reportedly increased tenfold after Hillary Clinton intervened to settle a dispute with the IRS early in her tenure as secretary of state. If this were not a Clinton deal it would smack of corruption on its face, but Democrats seem blind to this problem.

This is a pretty clean cross examination for a Senate hearing.  It is well worth watching.

A.B. Stoddard: Those Clinton campaign strategists are so clever: trying to just lighten up this whole process, appeal to the young, show they get the joke and turn Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign into a late-night comedy punch line. In just days, Clinton has issued dire warnings about climate change; been caught jumping on and off a private plane; pledged, because of the plane’s emissions, to the make her campaign carbon neutral (without revealing how); jetted to New York City for a $600 haircut; and refused to reveal her position on the Keystone XL pipeline, which those same voters interested in climate change are asking her about Has Clinton fallen into the Republicans’ trap, trying to outdo Donald Trump in bad publicity, or does she want her candidacy to become a permanent skit on “Saturday Night Live”? Obvious mistakes aren’t being avoided but amplified, and negative stereotypes are being embraced. This appears to be the plan for a candidate who is already known a...

Mark Moyer: It's the fourth quarter of the Obama presidency, and Obama's national security team is losing 35-0. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the global terrorist threats to the United States now exceed those from 2001. From the Levant to the East China Sea, Iranian, Russian and Chinese power creep forward at America's expense. One might expect team Obama to run a hurry-up offense using a new, more daring playbook. The newly released National Military Strategy, however, shows that the White House is sticking with the same old plays. Indeed, were the document read in isolation, the reader would conclude that team Obama was actually winning, and that its playbook accounted for its success. Back in 2011, administration strategists called for a reduction of America's military "footprints" on the theory that drones and special operations forces could finish mopping up Al Qaeda. Obama withdrew U.S. forces from Iraq, which led to the disintegration ...

NY Times: Donald Trump Calls Lawyer in Breast-Pump Incident a ‘Horrible Person’ Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called the lawyer who took out a breast pump in front of him during a 2011 deposition a “vicious, horrible person,” even as he acknowledged his angry response to the incident. I have no problem with breast feeding a hungry child in public.  But that is not this was about.  The child was not in the deposition.  Breast pumps are a matter of convenience, but there is really no reason not to use them in private.  I suspect this was done to try to distract the witness in a deposition.  In that circumstance it appears more like rank exhibitionism.

Washington Free Beacon: Defense Department Pays $29 Per Gallon for ‘Alternative Fuel’ Despite budget cuts and troop reductions, Pentagon will up use of expensive green energy This is a wasteful indulgence of Big Green at a time when there is no shortage of traditional fuels and none expected anytime during the lifetime of those currently in the military.   The policy stems from the perceived scarcity of fossil fuels a decade ago.  But we have gone from scarcity to glut and the supply of fossil fuels is adequate for at least a 100 years if not more.  This is a boondoggle bigger than high priced hammers.

NY Times: Today in Politics: Polls Keep Bolstering a Trump Seemingly Impervious to Scrubbing Donald J. Trump’s status as a front-runner has prompted an increased scrutiny that feeds his combative nature, further fueling that status. Trump seems to gain political strength from the attacks and his reaction to them.  While the media is reluctant to admit it, his practice of reaction to negative attention is pretty similar to Obama's.  It usually involves an immediate counterattack with a few insults thrown in.  His opponents, both in and outside the media, seem to be having a difficult time adjusting to the technique.  It is going to require sticking to the real issues and being hyper-factual to slow his momentum.  The old empathy techniques just are not working. Empathy can't hide the violence visited upon Americans by some illegal aliens who have remained here because of Obama's bad polices and the empathy of some liberal cities and jurisdictions.  ...

Kerry Pickett: Nine More Undercover Videos Ready To Drop On Planned Parenthood Some are questioning the legality of the practice used to extract the organs:   Why Planned Parenthood Can’t Donate Tissue Harvested From Babies The descriptions of the practice are gruesome.  No wonder the people doing it seems so callous.

Washington Free Beacon: Iran’s nuclear relationship with North Korea is likely to grow due to a recent nuclear accord, according to experts and members of Congress, who warned in a hearing that loopholes in the deal would facilitate illicit trade between the rogue countries. Iran and North Korea have long cooperated on the nuclear front, sharing nuclear technology and ballistic missile construction plans. Reports over the years have indicated that Iranian officials were present for missile launchings in North Korea and that officials from both countries remain in close contact. Other reports have indicated that Iran houses parts of its nuclear infrastructure within North Korea in order to hide progress and perform testing away from Western inspectors. While the nuclear deal is meant to dampen such ties, lawmakers and experts warned Tuesday that the deal contains a range of loopholes that will help Tehran and Pyongyang race forward with their nuclear cooperation. The nuclear...

Judicial Watch: Mexican drug cartels are smuggling foreigners from countries with terrorist links into a small Texas rural town near El Paso and they’re using remote farm roads—rather than interstates—to elude the Border Patrol and other law enforcement barriers, according to Judicial Watch sources on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border. The foreigners are classified as Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and they are being transported to stash areas in Acala, a rural crossroads located around 54 miles from El Paso on a state road – Highway 20. Once in the U.S., the SIAs wait for pick-up in the area’s sand hills just across Highway 20. Terrorists have entered the U.S. through Mexico for years and in fact, an internal Texas Department of Public Safety report leaked by the media months ago documents that several members of known Islamist terrorist organizations have been apprehended crossing the southern border in recent years. Now they’re also being smuggled in through border region airfi...

Fuel Fix: Industrial natural gas use to continue to grow quickly, EIA says ... Industrial and other users of the fuel have stepped up plans to switch to natural gas as the fuel has become relatively cheaper. Much of the additional demand is expected to come from new industrial facilities coming online along the Gulf Coast. In 2016, the EIA said three methanol plants are expected to come online in the region, using almost 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Methanol is often combined with other chemicals to make things such as plastics and paints. An additional 100 million cubic feet of demand for the fuel is expected to come from a nitrogen fertilizer plant coming online in 2016. ... Without nitrogen fertilizer millions would starve.  Organic farming cannot match it for increased food production,   The methanol used for plastics and paint makes modern life more efficient.  There are no viable alternatives that can compete beyond a very small niche mark...

Washington Times: President Obama’s environmental agenda suffered another loss in court Tuesday when a federal appeals panel ordered the administration to rewrite rules limiting cross-state pollution. In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the Environmental Protection Agency ’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, meant to stop upwind states from producing pollution that drifts into neighboring states and pushes them out of compliance with federal standards. But while the court upheld the plan itself, the judges said the EPA ’s limits on 13 states, mostly in the South and Midwest, were far too strict and must be redone. The ruling comes a month after the Supreme Court struck down the EPA ’s mercury and air toxics standards, meant to limit pollution from power plants. The court found that the agency failed to consider the massive costs associated with complying with the rule. SEE ALSO: Climate change ‘urgent and growing threat’ to national securit...

Washington Times: A federal judge rebuked the Obama administration ’s IRS Wednesday for refusing to divulge documents, including Lois G. Lerner emails, and warned he would hold those who break his orders in contempt. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called the administration ’s defense “nonsensical” and said the IRS must release documents every Monday to Judicial Watch , a conservative public interest law firm that requested the documents under open-records laws, and then sued after the IRS didn’t comply. “Officers of the court who fail to comply with court orders will be held in contempt,” Judge Sullivan said in a published order. SEE ALSO: Newly recovered Lois Lerner email shows IRS tried to cover up tea party targeting On July 1, at a hearing, he had ordered the IRS to turn over documents weekly. But after the hearing was over, the IRS approached Judicial Watch and proposed a new schedule. Judicial Watch said it would accept the new schedule, but wanted the IRS to make it officia...

Telegraph: Stabs in the back don’t get much nastier than this. For the past year, Western leaders have feted the Kurds of Northern Iraq, praising them as one of the few forces gutsy enough to face down the death cult of Isil. Now, those leaders turn a blind eye, or even worse give an active nod, to attacks on Northern Iraqi Kurds by the Turkish air force. Heroes one minute; fair game for massacre the next. In the long list of Western betrayals of former allies overseas, this one feels especially grotesque. Last Friday, following months of negotiation with Washington, Turkey launched its first-ever air strikes against Isil in Syria . A few hours later it started dropping bombs in Northern Iraq — not on Isil, but on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with which Turkey has been locked in bitter conflict since 1984. Turkey, and Washington, consider the PKK a terrorist outfit. Confirming Turkey’s Kurd-targeting attacks inside Iraq, the office of the Turkish PM said: “Strikes were ca...

Real Clear Politics: Howard Dean on Huckabee, Trump: "Nobody is Going To Vote For Somebody They Think Is Crazy For President" Dean managed to come across as unhinged from reality when he was running.  While Huckabee and Trump sometimes overstate their case, it would be a mistake to assume they are crazy.

Washington Examiner: Kerry on mission to soothe Arab allies Mothers routinely slap down the childish argument Obama is using that everybody likes this deal.  And, this trip belies the argument anyway.   It is also hard to imagine a less convincing figure than John Kerry to make the case for this mess.

NY Times: Britain Is Losing Against ISIS Recruitment Tactics A marketing pitch has swayed hundreds of young British Muslims into believing the Islamic State's utopian vision. They are letting the enemy fight in their rear rather than seeking to destroy the enemy.  It is the same mistake Obama has made that has led to so called "lone wolf" attacks in this country.   The US and its allies have provided inadequate resources and a minimal operational tempo ion dealing with a threat that is growing and is gaining in recruits on the home front. Destroy the enemy and the recruiting pitches will disappear.

Washington Free Beacon: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is poised to reap a large windfall as a result of a recently inked nuclear accord with Western powers that will fully remove economic sanctions on the fighting force and allow it to continue pursuing rogue activities across the globe, according to analysts and a copy of entities set to be delisted as part of the agreement. In addition to lifting embargoes on Iran’s shipment of weapons and its ballistic missile program, the Obama administration has permitted the European Union to lift sanctions on the IRGC, which has long served as Iran’s main supporter of terrorism and has backed groups such as Hezbollah. Under the deal, EU sanctions on the IRGC Air Force, the IRGC Quds Force, and the IRGC-Air Force Al-Ghadir Missile Command will be waived within eight years, according to the agreement . Analysts familiar with the deal and sanctions waivers warn that the IRGC will become legitimized and further empowered to carry out it...

This is worth watching to see just how unprepared Kerry is to argue for his deal with Iran.

CNN/Money: As Secretary of State John Kerry tried to sell the Iran nuclear deal to Congress Tuesday, some U.S. senators were ready to start an oil war with Iran. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is sponsoring a bill to lift the ban on exporting American crude oil. Send U.S. oil abroad, she argues, so America can "compete against our foes in a way that doesn't involve sending our troops in and boots on the ground." In other words, let the U.S. and Iran go head to head on the world oil market. It's a timely debate. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, she asked why the U.S. would lift sanctions on Iran so it can export its oil, yet keep a ban in place on American oil exports. ... Murkowski is right, but the Obama administration is still trying to block the export of US oil, to pander to the anti energy left in this country while helping US adversaries.

Breitbart: Eight illegal aliens with criminal convictions for sexual crimes were caught this past weekend near the Texas border. The arrests took place in McAllen, Rio Grande City, and Kingsville, according information provided to Breitbart Texas by the U.S. Border Patrol. ”All eight men had previously been charged with sexual crimes to include lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, sexual assault, lewd and lascivious behavior against a child—fondling, and first degree sexual abuse by forcible compulsion,” the information provided by USBP revealed. Four of the criminal aliens came from Mexico, two from El Salvador, and two from Honduras, the information revealed. ... These people were not in the US for as an "act of love."   Meanwhile in another case: Border Patrol Ordered The Release Of Illegal Alien Now Accused Of Murder, Attempted Rape Protection from these sexual predators appears to be a low priority for the Obama administration.  These people do not need ...

Daily Mail: The anti-DRONE missile: US Army fires steerable smart shells that can bring down UAVs from miles away 50mm cannon to fire smart interceptor missiles Complex radar system used to steer them towards their target With more adversaries using drones now, this will become an important part of the military arsenal.  It may be especially important in dealing with the threat from Iran and its proxies.

Leon Wolf: The GOP Senate is Not On Our Side The voters did not send these people to Washington to stick it too conservatives .  But that seems to be the message the Senate leadership decided to send while blocking votes on conservative priorities in favor of a highway bill and and Export-Import re authorization.  They seem to be more interested in their club than in the people they are supposed to represent.  Did anyone actually run for the Senate on a platform of passing a highway bill and renewing the Export-Import Bank? It was a disgusting show that could very well mean Republicans will lose the senate in 2016 because McConnell thinks he was put in charge to help Democrats push their agenda.  They managed to alienate conservative voters for legislation that is not going to pass the House.  This is the opposite of intelligent leadership. McConnell may try to schedule votes on conservative issues now to try to look like he cares, but it will be on votes...

Josh Rogan: Days after the U.S. and Turkey announced a breakthrough deal to fight together against the Islamic State, U.S. officials are insisting that -- contrary to reports -- there are definitely no U.S. plans for a “ safe zone ” inside Syria. In fact, there really is no “zone,” and there is no plan to keep the area “safe.” This confusion is a microcosm of the disorganized U.S. approach to the Islamic State threat since last summer. Each incremental escalation into which the U.S. gets dragged in Syria seems poorly thought out and even more poorly explained. Until the Barack Obama administration can reconcile the different objectives among the members of its anti-Islamic State coalition, the various partners will continue to work at cross-purposes. In this case, for the U.S., the Islamic State is the one and only priority; for Turkey, the imperative is protecting civilians from Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and eventually forcing its exit. For the last week, various U.S. and T...

Daily Beast: There is a two-month gap in Hillary Clinton’s emails that coincides with violence in Libya and the employment status of a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin. Among the approximately 2,000 emails that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has released from her private account, there is a conspicuous two-month gap. There are no emails between Clinton and her State Department staff during May and June 2012, a period of escalating violence in Libya leading up to the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left four Americans dead. A State Department spokesman told The Daily Beast that for the year 2012, only those emails related to the security of the consulate or to the U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya were made public and turned over to a House committee investigating the fatal Benghazi assault. But if that’s true, then neither Clinton nor her staff communicated via email about the escalating dangers in Libya. There were three attacks during that two-mo...

ABC News: Mullah Omar , whose Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda  for years before the September 11th attacks, has died, Afghan officials said today. The Afghan president's and prime minister's offices offered no specifics as to how or when Omar died. The announcement was made as Kabul and the Taliban engage in a second round of peace talks this month. Last week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani thanked the reclusive Omar for endorsing the peace talks, which began earlier this month in Pakistan , where they were supervised by U.S. and  Chinese representatives. ... Good riddance.  Omar was an illiterate religious bigot who lived to kill anyone who did not follow his weird beliefs.   His embrace of bin Laden led to the mass murder of Americans.  He also brought death and destruction to Afghans on a huge scale turning soccer stadiums into death arenas.

Daily Mail: Tom Brady destroyed his cell phone and its 10,000 texts during Deflategate investigation, NFL reveals as it upholds his four-game ban Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his role in using underinflated footballs during the AFC championship game last season has been upheld by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The rules of evidence generally allow a finder of fact to presume that the failure to produce evidence ordered by the fact finder creates a presumption that the evidence would not help the face of the person who failed to produce it.  That is the essence of Brady's problem, and I would be surprised if a court reversed the finding of the NFL.

Guardian: John Kerry warns Congress: back Iran nuclear deal or face dire consequences The secretary of state said US rejection of deal would tarnish country’s future negotiating credibility and push Iran closer to developing an atomic bomb The opposition thinks that dire consequences will follow approval of what they see as a terrible deal.   Kerry seems so self absorbed that he has no appreciation for what is motivating the opposition.  It should be pointed out that those opposed to the deal think the deal itself tarnishes the reputation of the US and puts the US and its allies in a more precarious position.  They do not trust Iran and they do not trust this administration to negotiate a fair deal to the US. Neither Kerry or Obama have earned the trust of those who oppose the deal and Iran certainly hasn't either.  They see the consequences of the bad deal as worse than the consequences of rejecting it.  Kerry is yet to come up with a convincing argument t...

Telegraph: Interplanetary travel could be a step closer after scientists confirmed that an electromagnetic propulsion drive, which is fast enough to get to the Moon in four hours, actually works. The EM Drive was developed by the British inventor Roger Shawyer nearly 15 years ago but was ridiculed at the time as being scientifically impossible. It produces thrust by using solar power to generate multiple microwaves that move back and forth in an enclosed chamber. This means that until something fails or wears down, theoretically the engine could keep running forever without the need for rocket fuel. The drive, which has been likened to Star Trek’s Impulse Drive, has left scientists scratching their heads because it defies one of the fundamental concepts of physics – the conservation of momentum – which states that if something is propelled forward, something must be pushed in the opposite direction. So the forces inside the chamber should cancel each other out. However in recent ye...

Washington Times: New IRS Lerner emails show agency tried to block Congressional scrutiny ... “This material shows that the IRS’ coverup began years ago,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “We now have smoking-gun proof that top officials in the Obama IRS unlawfully harassed taxpayers just to keep them from complaining to Congress about IRS’ targeting and abuse. No wonder the Obama IRS has had such little interest in preserving or finding Lois Lerner’s emails.” ... This scandal is not going away and it raises the stakes in the 2016 election as Democrats become desperate  to avoid prosecution.

National Review: John Kerry: Obama Might Not Follow Law if Congress Blocks Iran Deal This is more evidence of a lawless presidency.  It also cause one to pause about the process that was used to come up with this agreement.

Washington Post: The Marines’ familiar M-16 rifle is slowly being phased out of front lines The weapon is likely to be replaced by the M-4, which shoots the same size bullet but is more portable. The M-16 has had a troubled relationship with Marines from the very beginning when the newly issued rifle jammed during an early battle near Khe Sanh in Vietnam.   The M-4 is seen as more maneuverable in close quarters fighting.

NY Times: Hillary Clinton Is Stumped on Question of Keystone Pipeline The day after Hillary Rodham Clinton put forth a detailed plan for confronting climate change, she would not answer a question of whether or not she would support the Keystone XL Pipeline project. Surely she has an opinion since she was Secretary of State when the project was reviewed and approved before being pulled back because of Obama's commitment to the anti energy left.  It could be she is reluctant to choose sides between labor and the anti energy left, or it is possible she fears crossing Obama on policy with a potential referral to DOJ of her handling of classified information on the table.  She has seen what happened Robert Menendez.

AFP: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Iran posed a "formidable" threat to Europe, accusing its proxy Hezbollah of operating cells across the continent. Netanyahu, on an official visit to Nicosia, said "Iran and Hezbollah organise a terrorist network that covers over 30 countries on five continents, including just about every country in Europe."Just last month, a member of the Lebanese Shiite militant group was jailed in Cyprus for plotting attacks on Israeli targets on the Mediterranean island. Iran and leading world powers signed a deal this month on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, an accord the Israeli leader criticised as a "stunning, historic mistake". Netanyahu said Israel and Cyprus were faced with the dual dangers of Iran and the extremist attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State group, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria. "ISIS obviously endangers European societies, Western societies, Afric...

Real Science: Mind-Blowing Temperature Fraud At NOAA ... The biggest component of this fraud is making up data. Almost half of all reported US temperature data is now fake. They fill in missing rural data with urban data to create the appearance of non-existent US warming. ... If the science is as settled as they claim, why do they have to fake data?

CNN: Majority wants Congress to reject Iran deal Opposition to the deal is at 52 percent who want Congress to reject it.  There is deep distrust of Iran and I think there is also distrust of Obama when it comes to this deal.

Science Alert: Scientists are building a system that could turn atmospheric CO2 into fuel Suck it up and store it for later. This technology presents a real dilemma for the anti energy left which has been using CO2 accumulation as an excuse to restrict the use of fossil fuels.  Other systems are also being developed to capture CO2 before it gets in the air and use to to increase the productivity of oil wells. Both developments make more sense that the current policy of the anti energy left which relies on aq doctrine of artificial scarcity and a push for less efficient alternative energy.

Washington Times: Ted Cruz invites Obama to debate Iran deal ‘at any time and place of his choosing’ I doubt Obama will take him up on the challenge.  In reality, Obama is a poor debater and was exposed by Romney in 2012.   Cruz is probably one of the sharpest debaters in public life and is absolutely fearless.  Obama would have a very difficult time defending his deal in such a debate.

NY Times: As the G.O.P. Base Clamors for Confrontation, Candidates Oblige A breach within the Republican Party widens, with some congressional leaders becoming the brunt of ideological and even personal attacks. If Sen. McConnell thinks the 2014 election was about passing a six year highway bill and renewing the Export-Import Bank, then he really missed the message of the election which was about rejecting Democrat policies and specifically President Obama's policy.  The old guard may think they really stuck it Ted Cruz and other conservatives, but what they really did was stick to their base who put them in office to oppose such deal making.

Ed Morrissey: CNN poll: 64% of Republicans prefer securing border and deportation of illegals over legalization This may explain Trump's appeal although he has also back amnesty in the past.  It also explains why there is a rejection of the McCain faction on "immigration reform."   Democrats are still pushing for legalization.  They see it as a means to replace all the liberal babies they aborted. Meanwhile this probably is one explanation for the low labor participation rate: Illegal Immigrants Outnumber Unemployed Americans 11.3 million illegal immigrants in U.S. What this means is that Democrats are sacrificng jobs for their most loyal voters in order to try to bring in more liberals.

The Trumpet: Awrecked mini-submarine was found last week in waters off of Sweden’s eastern coast, media in Sweden reported on July 27 . Authorities believe it is a Russian model, primarily because of Cyrillic letters on the hull. They have not disclosed the exact location of the wreckage, but say it is around 1.5 nautical miles from the Swedish coast. “We are 110 percent sure that it is within Swedish waters” said Dennis Åsberg, a member of Ocean X Team which made the discovery. Reports say the sub is some 60 feet long and 10 feet wide, and holds a crew of three to six men. Since the hatches are unopened, experts believe the crew perished inside the vessel sometime after it crashed. “The submarine is completely intact, has no visible damage to the hull and the hatches are closed. Therefore do we fear that the crew members were not able to save themselves when the sub went down,” said Ocean X diver Stefan Hogeborn. Security consultants say the submarine has not been crashed long, and ...

Washington Examiner: Immigration 'surge' continues, 30,000 expected, U.N. demands 'empathy' over 'enforcement' The US is being asked to pay a high cost for the incompetence of Latin American governments.   It would probably be cheaper and more effective for the US to just annex these places and impose the rule of law while allowing US investments and US immigration into these countries.

Moe Lane: Oh, BTW: the Democratic front-runner is quite cordially hated in swing states. She is underwater in Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia.  That is no small problem and it cannot be solved with minority turnout in those states.

Owen Alterman: Last Tuesday, a 159-page PDF of the Iran nuclear agreement dropped into my inbox. Scrolling down to page 19, I checked out Paragraph 36. I suggest you do the same. Plenty of provisions in the Vienna agreement will get attention in the coming weeks, but Paragraph 36 may be the most important of all. Paragraph 36 tells us when and how the agreement might end. Both friend and foe have touted this deal as “historic” and promised (or moaned) that its provisions will stay in place for the long term. But in practice, this is not a ten-year agreement or a fifteen-year agreement or an eternal agreement. Paragraph 36 tells us the truth: Any party—be it Iran or a future U.S. president—can essentially ditch the Iran nuclear deal with 35 days' notice. Iran might need to wait a little longer—an extra 30 working days—to check a box buried in Annex IV. But, after that, under Paragraph 36, Iran can claim that any of the P5+1 is "not meeting its commitments" under the agr...

Bill Gertz: Intel Assessment: Weak Response to Breaches Will Lead to More Cyber Attacks Obama administration's diplomatic, legal response is encouraging more cyber attacks The no drama Obama reactions suggest to adversaries that they will pay no price for these intelligence breaches.   There will be no counter attacks and Obama is not even willing tro take diplomatic reactions to the attacks.  Expect more.

Fuel Fix: Texas remains on track to produce a record amount of crude despite the lingering downturn that’s shut down rigs and spurred oil companies to lay off tens of thousands of workers. Even as oil companies pare their spending budgets and pull back from some drilling activity, production in Texas has continued surging toward all-time highs, said Karr Ingham, an economist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, at his twice-per-year assessment of the state’s oil industry on Monday. Statewide oil output is expected to reach 1.28 billion barrels this year, exceeding the state’s record of 1.26 billion barrels set in 1972, Ingham said. The resiliency of the state’s production numbers came as a surprise to Ingham, who had expected output to fall along with oil prices. Last July, before crude collapsed, Ingham predicted that Texas would break its 1972 record within two years. After prices declined and hundreds of rigs were idled, Ingham began to doubt his forecast. But producers hav...

Washington Free Beacon: FEDS SPEND $222,172 STUDYING HOW MEN LOOK AT WOMEN WHEN THEY DRINK Checking to see if the girls do become more attractive at closing time?   My guess is that there was no shortage of college age men willing to participate in the study.  They could have saved a lot of money by just listening to some classic country and western tunes.

Telegraph: China losing control as stocks crash despite emergency measures Margin debt on the Chinese stock market has reached is $1.2 trillion. 'We suspect that it’s a matter of time before banks may have to face the music,' Bank of America says The margin debt will accelerate the losses of investors.  The Chinese have already blocked short sales which would give investors and opportunity to recoup losses.

Breitbart: A report issued by the liberal Migration Policy Institute (MPI) further shreds Chuck Todd’s assertion on NBC’s “Meet The Press” last Sunday that he and his staff, “couldn’t find a single study that links violent crime and immigration.” Tucked inside a report about President Obama’s new amnesty is the estimation from this liberal think tank there are 820,000 illegal aliens in the United States with criminal convictions, including 690,000 illegal aliens currently residing on U.S. soil who have been convicted of a felony or “serious” misdemeanor. The 820,000 figure is not an estimation of total crimes committed by illegal immigrants—which would be a much higher number—but only those illegal aliens successfully identified, arrested, tried, and convicted. Combined with other statistical data points, however, the 820,000 figure gives us a way to examine the scope of total illegal alien crime. Even conservative assumptions produce harrowing conclusions, and demonstrate that the...

Gateway Pundit: One-Fifth of El Salvador, Estimated One-Quarter of Mexico Now Living Inside USA If they are so enamored of the American culture, why not export that culture to their native land rather than invite them into the US?   That would at least allow US citizens to own land there and develop the resources of those countries.

Daily Caller: McConnell Angers Conservatives By Blocking Defunding Planned Parenthood, Kate’s Law So, how many voters supported Republicans in 2014 so they could pass a highway bill?  Was it ever even mentioned in the campaign of any one running for the Senate?   McConnell seems to think he got to be Speaker because people wanted him to pass stuff rather than work to get the Conservative agenda voted on.  And much of the rest of the Senate disgraced itself by refusing to consider popular measures that were pushed by conservatives who had offended the Speaker and the institution.  They put institutional prerogatives ahead of the people. They may think they really showed Ted Cruz how the game is played, but what they really did was disclose their own disdain for the voters who put them in office.

LA Times: Why Is Guantanamo Bay Prison Still Open? This is really not even an intellectually honest question.  Gitmo is a good place to isolate some really bad people who would gladly kill every last person at the LA Times and anywhere else in the US.   There is also a very small constituency that wants to close it and a large one that wants to keep it open and put more Islamic religious bigots there for safe keeping until the end of the war.  Obama is trying to closes it against the wishes of the people.

Washington Examiner: The White House waited five days after the shooting rampage that killed five servicemen in Chattanooga, Tenn., before lowering the flags on federal buildings to half-staff. It took the administration more than five years to describe the 2009 Fort Hood massacre as domestic terrorism rather than "workplace violence" and grant the victim purple hearts, a designation of honor reserved for combat deaths. Critics say both delays demonstrate a lukewarm, less-than-urgent response from President Obama to the domestic terror threat amid a surge in Islamic terror activity over the last year, which has seen the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the group's barbaric march across the Middle East. The flap over the flag quickly became the latest example of how the White House is slow to react to these events when they happen. Asked why the White House waited five days after the Chattanooga shootings to lower the flags on federal building, and only af...

Washington Post: Pact would ramp up U.S.-led air war in Syria Turkey and the United States have agreed on the outlines of a de facto “safe zone” extending into northern Syria, according to officials. If this means helping Turkey attack the only effective fighting force dealing with ISIL then I am opposed to it.  Are the Turks willing to put boots on the ground to take on ISIL.  I am dubious that they are.  The Turks have been pretty lousy allies in the war with ISIL up until now.  They appear to be using the fight with ISIL in order to take on the Kurds who have been the most effective resistance forces.  The Turks now have an Islamist government that favors giving Palestinians a homeland in Isrtael where they have never had one while opposing allowing self rule for the Kurds who have a real historic claims to the region they occupy.