"The biggest underreported story out of Washington this year is that the federal budget is shrinking and much more than anyone in either party expected.  ... 

"The sequester is squeezing the very programs liberals care most about — including the National Endowment for the Arts, green-energy subsidies, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Public Radio. Outside Washington, the sequester is forcing a fiscal retrenchment for such liberal special-interest groups as Planned Parenthood and the National Council of La Raza, which have grown dependent on government largess. ... 

"Liberals had hoped that re-electing Mr. Obama, the most pro-spending president since LBJ, would unleash another four years of Great Society government expansion. Instead, spending caps and the sequester are squashing these progressive dreams. Welcome to the new fiscal reality in Washington. All Republicans need to do is enforce the budget laws Mr. Obama has already agreed to. Entitlement reforms will come when liberals realize that the unhappy alternative is to allow every program they cherish to keep shrinking."

"[M]ost Americans with school-age children continue to say they would feel safer if their child attended a school with an armed guard and think the decision to put armed guards in the schools should be made by local government officials.  

"A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% of Americans with children of elementary or secondary school age would feel safer if their child attended a school with an armed security guard. Just 24% say they would feel safer if their child went to a school where no adults were allowed to own a gun."

"Earlier this week, we learned that other federal agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the FBI — all want access to the NSA’s database, and it has shared some of it with most of them. Also this week, former Drug Enforcement Administration agents acknowledged the agency regularly receives raw data from the NSA and uses that data to commence criminal investigations, and claimed this has been going on for at least a decade. 

"Down the slippery slope we go. ... 

"What will the NSA spies seek next? Our passwords? We already know the answer to that one. They asked for them last week."

“An evacuation is not an evacuation, it’s an ‘ordered departure’. (I would have thought that an ordered departure is what happens at National Airport every couple of hours when a plane takes off on time). 

"A coup in Egypt isn’t a coup, it’s a ‘change in government.’ 

"The war in Afghanistan isn’t really a war, it's an 'overseas contingency operation.’ 

"What happened in Benghazi was not really a terror attack, it was a spontaneous riot – as the Secretary of State at the time says ‘What difference does it make?’ 

"This is the first administration in history ever to launch a lexicological war on the enemy. They’ve  thrown the book at them – the dictionary – and it really isn’t enough.”

"Here is a practical reason conservatives especially should be concerned about the national security state. People who work for the government, including inevitably those who work in national security, will not decide their powers are too broad. They can’t — they’re focused on a real foe, they have a mission and it tends to leave them in time thinking their powers aren’t broad enough. They will not declare they need more civilian control or oversight — those dizzy, self-serving politicians just gum up the works. They will not decide to limit their use of the capabilities at their fingertips, especially when the stakes seem so high.  

"It is up to the people in the country, to citizens, to control and limit government surveillance, to the extent they can and in accord with true national-security needs."

"If there is no scandal concerning the events that led to Benghazi and its aftermath, there certainly appears to be something that resembles a cover up going on about it. The White House needs to drop the politicized refrain about 'phony scandals' and start treating this issue seriously. It should direct the CIA to start answering questions from the Congress. The sooner it does, the better it will be for the president once we find out — as we inevitably will — what it is that they are trying to keep secret."

"Congressional investigators this week released emails suggesting that staff at the Federal Election Commission have been engaged in their own conservative targeting, with help from the IRS's infamous Lois Lerner. This means more than just an expansion of the probe to the FEC. It's a new link to the Obama team. ... 

This matters because FEC staff didn't have permission from the Commission to conduct this inquiry. It matters because the IRS is prohibited from sharing confidential information, even with the FEC. What the IRS divulged is unclear. Congressional investigators are demanding to see all communications between the IRS and FEC since 2008, and given that Ms. Lerner came out of the FEC's office of the general counsel, that correspondence could prove illuminating."

"Every part of ObamaCare is a growing political burden on the Democrats. But it’s the hypocrisy that will fuel resentment among voters and drive turnout in November 2014. It will be interesting to see what August brings, and what vulnerable Democratic members of Congress, particularly those in the Senate, will witness for themselves in town hall meetings during recess, as victims of the calamity that is ObamaCare begin to show up and vocalize their disapproval. Will they follow Obama’s lead and adopt the president’s 'remain oblivious' strategy, or will they begin to demand some political relief?  For the Democrats on the ballot in 2014, it’s only going to get worse."

"[S]ometimes lawmakers really should stand for something more important than their own reelection. Obamacare is such a fundamental transformation of the American health-care system, and its consequences for patients, providers, taxpayers, and the economy are so grave, that if this is not an issue that Republicans are willing to lose their jobs over, what is? ... 

"At the very least, Republicans ought to try something. As Senator Lee told Fox News, 'Maybe we can’t repeal [Obamacare] right now, but we can delay its funding. And if we can delay it, we can stop its consequences, at least for now.'"

"The sequester has 'cost jobs,' says President Obama, and 'gutted investments in education and science and medical research.' But somehow he's earmarked $500 million for Hamas terrorists.

"Circumventing Congress and with no fanfare, President Obama last week issued an executive order enabling him to send an additional $500 million directly to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — much of which you can bet will wind up going to the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorist organization.

"According to Obama, 'it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of' Congress' legislative restrictions 'in order to provide funds . .. to the Palestinian Authority.'"