SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE

FOR SOME EXTRA GROCERIES – From London's Daily Mail, naturally:  "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will collect a $225,000 speaking fee from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in October, it emerged on Tuesday.  The massive expense was confirmed just weeks after the university formalized a 4 per cent tuition increase for each of the next four years. Rate hikes have nearly tripled tuition costs there since 2004.  Clinton will deliver the keynote address at an invitation-only gala for philanthropists and other high-dollar donors who support UNLV. The university said private funds are being tapped to pay her speaking fee.
But students see a zero-sum financial gain in which that money could have chipped away at tuition increases."  Students just don't understand the price of private jets these days.

CAN'T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE – From Fox:  "The consensus is: it’s no accident. More than three-quarters of voters -- 76 percent -- think the emails missing from the account of Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official at the center of the scandal over targeting of conservative groups, were deliberately destroyed.  That’s according to a new Fox News poll.  That suspicion is shared across party lines, albeit to varying degrees. An overwhelming 90 percent of Republicans think the emails were intentionally destroyed, as do 74 percent of independents and 63 percent of Democrats."  The encouraging thing here is that people are following the story, even though the White House claims it's nothing.  Minor housekeeping problem.

MISSISSIPPI MUD – From Fox:  "Sen. Thad Cochran will successfully fight off a tea party-backed challenge by state Sen. Chris McDaniel to win the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Mississippi, CNN projects.  The two were forced into a runoff when neither candidate reached the 50% threshold to win the June 13 primary outright.  The Mississippi race has been one of the nastiest this election cycle with accusations of dirty politics thrown both ways and arrests for a bizarre break-in at the nursing home where Cochran's bedridden wife lives. Outside groups outspent the candidates' campaigns by a 2-1 ratio."  I think the state will stay in the Republican column come November.

SOME JUSTICE – From the Daily Signal:  "Two years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.  The Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is NOM’s chief political rival."

June 24,  2014