SUCCESS:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron."

-- H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

And in an ironic twist of fate, noted on Juneteenth.

From my email.

THOMAS SOWELL: The Loss of Trust.

Having chosen an untested man to be president, on the basis of rhetoric, style and symbolism, we have ourselves to blame if we now have only a choice between two potentially tragic fates -- the loss of American lives to terrorism or a further dismantling of our freedoms that has already led many people to ask: "Is this still America?"

Read it all.

THAT WAS QUICK. I attended the Tea Party 'Audit the IRS' rally in Washington DC today. When I returned home just now, my IRS audit was in the mailbox.

EVEN IN CALIFORNIA, greenbacks outvote green enthusiasts.

POWERLINE ON DR. BENJAMIN CARSON: "[T]o be a leader, you don’t have to be a politician. In fact, it sometimes helps not to be one."

ARE YOU afraid of global warming? Maybe you shouldn't be.

PRIORITIES: Thousands of civilian workers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center -- the country’s top facility for wounded combat soldiers -- are facing furloughs this summer, as a result of sequester and other federal budget problems, according to the Defense Department.

But President Obama's Africa safari will cost between $60-$100 million.

In the age of sequester, is all the President's travel really necessary?

SIX BIG PROBLEMS with the immigration bill from someone who has actually read it.

The video is long (nearly 20 minutes) but watch it anyway.

LESS THAN HALF OF THE SENATE shows up for briefing on NSA.

We can look at this in one of two ways. Maybe only 47 of the current 100 US Senators didn’t know enough about the NSA surveillance programs to consider themselves fully informed and satisfied that the intelligence community doesn’t cross the line when it comes to spying on Americans. Or, perhaps 53 of the current 100 US senators don’t really care whether the NSA is spying on Americans — at least not enough to put off plans for a long weekend.

I know which way I'll bet.

KEN BLACKWELL: The President's Ghastly Gun Gaffe.