GOOD QUESTIONS FROM MY EMAIL: After Katrina, the media blamed the lack of response on the Bush administration's dislike of black people. Can we then conclude from the lack of media coverage and response by the Obama administration that Obama doesn't like white people?

Where are the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for help in restoring Iowa and North Dakota and helping the folks affected by the floods? Where is good old Michael Moore?

Why is the media not asking the tough questions about why the federal government hasn't solved this problem? Not asking where the FEMA trucks and trailers and food services are?

Why isn't the Federal government moving Iowa people into free hotels in Chicago and Minneapolis ?

When will Spike Lee say that the Federal government blew up the levees that failed in Des Moines ?

Where are Sean Penn, Bono, and the Dixie Chicks?

Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes, cases of beer and television sets?

When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a 'vanilla' Iowa ... because that's what God wants?

Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of shootings at rescuers, of rapes and murder?

Where are all the people screaming that Barack Obama hates white, rural people? My God, where are Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Oprah, and their pals?

How come you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever again? Where are the government bail-out vouchers? The government debit cards?

More people died in these floods than from Katrina ... how come the media doesn't report that?

There must be one heck of a big difference between the value of the people of Iowa and value of the people of Louisiana.

MICHAEL BARONE on why the Civil Service is no way to run a business: "No rational person would choose civil service as the way to manage a large organization."

GOP SEEKS A BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT: "We think it's pretty clear regardless of what we are ultimately able to negotiate here in the short term that we put the federal government in this kind of fiscal straitjacket for the future so that we cannot get into this position again."

"ANOTHER UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE of President Barack Obama's health care law has emerged: Older adults of the same age and income with similar medical histories could pay widely different amounts for private health insurance due to a quirk of the complex legislation."

Wasn't it (thankfully former) Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said "We have to pass it so you can see what's in it?" Well, we're seeing it - and we're not liking it.

JOHN STOSSEL: A new day in politics? I'm not optimistic. It's going to get worse before -- maybe -- it gets better.

THOMAS SOWELL: Is democracy viable? It's beginning to look like the answer is "no."

DOES THE CONSTITUTION MATTER? If it doesn't, then your Freedom doesn't matter.

OH, MY: California delays its carbon trading program for a year. I don't understand; just because what little remains of California's manufacturing and energy sectors will flee the state is no reason to abandon environmental nirvana.

"IT'S JUST A QUESTION OF MATH. If you don't ask the wealthy to pay their share, the money is going to come from children and the elderly."

Uh, huh. Note that the American 'middle class' is missing -- they're protected. Those remaining are either wealthy, elderly, or children. The elderly and children are victims -- hence also protected. The remaining Americans are the wealthy -- to be used by the liberal ruling class who dine on other people's money.

GOOD NEWS -- but not for environmentalists.

Natural gas just might be the energy solution environmentalists say they want, but actually can’t stand because nothing would put them out of business faster.

Read it all.

BIG GOVERNMENT: Small Business Should Be Smaller.

THE JOY OF BEING A TEST PILOT: crew flies Boeing 747-8 to Pittsburgh for a sandwich.

U.S. PLANS STEALTH SURVEY on access to doctors. The plans died almost within hours of becoming public, of course, but the plans themselves tell you one important fact about big government liberals: they don't trust the American people.

THE SHUTTLE ERA HAS ENDED. Does anyone care?

Some do. It may be the destination that captures the imagination, but it's the voyage that creates the progress.

MORE: Dream Chaser project hits milestones.

BACKING DOWN? Speaker John Boehner:

Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.

Now is not the time to back away, Mr. Speaker. If we must risk default in order to get spending under control, then we must do it. Tax changes must wait for a later day.

"WITH THEIR HANDS in my pants, my physical health, my home, and even my toilet, I have never felt so uncomfortably close to my government."

No argument from me.

THE FIVE best sentences ever written:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Illustrated.

RAY STEVENS on the Obama Budget Plan.

MORE, PLEASE.



In Orleans, Cape Cod, MA, shoppers stocking up for the 4th of July got a surprise shot of patriotism to start their weekend! This flash mob was organized by the SpiritOfAmericaBand to wish everyone a happy 4th of July!

The video is here.

OBAMA: Have we evolved as a nation past the need for a competent president?

Obama ... was a community organizer — a made up job with less accountability than the guy who rips your movie ticket at the theater — and a mediocre legislator who just voted “yes,” “no,” and “present” on things. There was absolutely nothing in his resume that would lead a reasonable person to believe he would have any competency as a president. In that light, he can hardly be considered a disappointment.

Read the rest.