France announced a 2% increase in its minimum wage, and Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government wants to know why it is that the US taxpayer, by way of a “credit expansion” of $108 billion to the IMF, is being forced to fund the excesses of a country whose socialist government refuses to live within its own means? Over to you, House Financial Services Committee Chair Bachus.      

Washington Free Beacon, “The Bear at the Door: Russian nuclear bombers test U.S. air defenses in arctic war games during chilly Obama-Putin summit”: Russian strategic nuclear bombers threatened U.S. airspace near Alaska earlier this month and F-15 jets responded by intercepting the aircraft taking part in large-scale arctic war games, according to defense officials. The Russian war games began the same day President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin held

Well, on the bright side, at least they didn’t go with ovens this time.

Seriously.  This slickly-packaged fraud is to “cool” what Justin Bieber is to “rock God.”

Forget the results for a second. What I want to concentrate on is the slant of the reporting, in this case from Lee Davidson of the Salt Lake Tribune. To wit: The tea party, big-spending PACs and challenger Dan Liljenquist failed Tuesday to force 78-year-old Orrin Hatch into retirement. The self-proclaimed “tough old bird” flew easily through the GOP primary, so now only Democrat Scott Howell stands between him and

Shit’s getting real. In re: executive privilege, below is the full letter sent by Rep Issa to the President.  My favorite part: During the June 19th meeting, the Attorney General stated he wanted to “buy peace.” Heindicated a willingness to produce the “fair compilation” of post-February 4th documents. He told me that he would provide the “fair compilation” of documents on three conditions: (1) that I permanently cancel the contempt vote;

So far, I’m out of the line of fire, pardon the obvious pun.  But others aren’t so lucky.  It’s been routinely in the hundred-degree range here with some microbursts of wind — a nightmare for firefighters and a wetdream for prairie brush and timberline fires. If you’re inclined to do such things, send your prayers to those with homes and family in the way of these things, and to the

“[…] there is great irony to be found in the fact that the Obama campaign requires all who attend an Obama campaign speech to  show proof of identification before being granted admission, and yet the Obama administration is aggressively fighting states that wish to require voters to show that same kind of identification before being allowed to vote.” (thanks to bbh)

Bloomberg Business: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s limits on industrial emissions of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide were upheld by a federal appeals court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled today that the EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act was “unambiguously correct” and that the opponents don’t have the legal right to challenge the so-called timing and tailoring rules. The panel considered challenges