"New data shows the White House has painted a false picture of the Central American migration by hiding a huge spike in 'family units' who are illegally crossing the Texas border. 

"The data, which was dumped by the U.S. border patrol late Friday afternoon, shows that inflow of youths and children traveling without parents has doubled since 2013, to 57,525 in the nine months up to July 2014. 

"But the number of migrants who cross the border in so-called 'family units' has spiked five-fold to 55,420, according to the border patrol’s data, which came out amid a storm of news about the shoot-down of a Malaysian aircraft in Ukraine, delays in failed U.S. nuke talks with Iran, and on Hamas’ continued war against Israel. ... 

"The much-faster growth in 'family units' has been hidden by White House and agency officials, who have tried to portray the influx as a wave of children fleeing abuse and violence."

"To deliberately wage war so that your own people can be telegenically killed is indeed moral and tactical insanity. But it rests on a very rational premise: Given the Orwellian state of the world’s treatment of Israel (see: the U.N.’s grotesque Human Rights Council), fueled by a mix of classic anti-Semitism, near-total historical ignorance and reflexive sympathy for the ostensible Third World underdog, these eruptions featuring Palestinian casualties ultimately undermine support for Israel’s legitimacy and right to self-defense. 

"In a world of such Kafkaesque ethical inversions, the depravity of Hamas begins to make sense. ... 

"It’s to the Israelis’ credit that amid all this madness they haven’t lost their moral scruples. Or their nerve. Those outside the region have the minimum obligation, therefore, to expose the madness and speak the truth. Rarely has it been so blindingly clear."

"PRINCETON, NJ -- With thousands of undocumented immigrant minors crossing the nation's southern border in recent months, the percentage of Americans citing immigration as the top problem has surged to 17% this month, up from 5% in June, and the highest seen since 2006. As a result, immigration now virtually ties 'dissatisfaction with government,' at 16%, as the primary issue Americans think of when asked to name the country's top problem."

"In 2012, I alerted the federal government to the growing problem of unaccompanied minors making the treacherous journey across Mexico to reach the United States. At that point the minors could annually be numbered in the hundreds or thousands. 

"In recent months, tens of thousands of children have come across the border and are now housed in federal facilities across the U.S., the result of failed federal policies and Washington's indifference to securing the border. ... 

"President Obama last week proposed $3.7 billion in spending to deal with the continuing crisis. But only a small fraction of that money would go to the actual core of this problem: the lack of sufficient resources to secure the border. The majority of the billions he proposes to spend -- including on housing and transporting the minors around the country -- is treating the symptoms of the problem instead of addressing its root cause."

"The Federal Election Commission recycled the computer hard drive of April Sands -- a former co-worker of Lois Lerner’s -- hindering an investigation into Sands’ partisan political activities, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 

"Sands resigned from the Federal Election Commission in April after she admitted to violating the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from engaging in partisan political activities on federal time and at federal facilities. 

"The twist is that Sands also worked under Lois Lerner when the ex-IRS agent -- who is currently embroiled in a scandal over the targeting of conservative political groups -- worked at the FEC’s enforcement division. ...  

"Though it is unclear whether Sands and Lerner communicated after Lerner’s move to the FEC, the Oversight Committee letter points out that Lerner was known to have communicated with other FEC employees after her switch."

"The national media may get tired of stories about young illegals crossing the border in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. But as these youngsters are sent to places as distant as Chicago and Lynn, Mass., other troublesome stories are likely to emerge, on local newscasts (which are often starved for news) if not on Obama-protective mainstream media. ... 

"Oldtimers may remember that the influx of Mariel refugees from Cuba hurt Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. Carter failed to carry Florida, where many refugees were housed, and Arkansas, where many were sent to Fort Chaffee. Also defeated that year were some incumbent Democrats who hadn't seemed to be in great trouble: U.S. Sen. Richard Stone of Florida and a young governor of Arkansas named Bill Clinton. Most current voters were not alive in 1980 or have forgotten the political fallouts from the Mariel influx. I'm sure Bill Clinton hasn't. I suspect that, if asked, he might have some advice for Democrats in states to which the underage illegals are being sent."

"Some of my friends on the right think the border crisis is some grand political scheme of Obama's, that he in effect wants a border crisis. I think that’s wrong. Buffeted by scandals and the growing realization by large swaths of the public that he is out of his depth, the last thing he needed was this tragic spectacle on the border. 

"But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a crisis of his making, triggered by his tendency to think politics first and policy second. In economic terms, he thought he could lower the price of a very valuable good -- legal residence in the U.S. -- without seeing any rise in the demand. These immigrants aren’t fools. They’re responding rationally to new information: If you make it past the border, you can stay. If you’re a kid, all you have to do is make it to the border. ...   

"But the law didn’t cause the crisis, nor did the violence in Central America. The cause comes from a president who puts politics first."

"On July 3, with Americans preparing to celebrate freedom, the Obama administration reduced freedom by adding 1,296 pages of new regulations to ObamaCare. 

"It was a classic pre-holiday document dump, publishing the mind-numbing rules in the Federal Register on the eve of Independence Day, when few were likely to be watching. So much for transparency. 

"ObamaCare regulations compel doctors and their office staff, business owners, local officials and virtually everyone else subject to the law to spend hours filling out paperwork with no pay for their labor. It’s a colossal theft. ...

"In the end, only an outraged public can put a stop to this regulatory oppression."

"The American Dream is dying for tens of millions of unemployed, underemployed, and long-term-jobless citizens. But the White House has guaranteed that one sector of the U.S. economy will thrive for decades to come: immigration lawyers. 

"Don’t believe the fibbing D.C. flacks. While the president’s spokesman Josh Earnest promised that 'most' of the illegal-immigrant youths from Central America flooding across our borders will 'likely' be deported, decades of reality expose the White House lie. Our deportation system is designed to fail. 

"'Due process' in deportation is a euphemism for interminable delay. According to TRAC Immigration, which gathers data on the chronically backlogged immigration-court system, there are currently more than 366,000 pending deportation cases, with average wait times nationally of nearly 600 days."

"In January, President Barack Obama outlined his strategy for 2014. 'I've got a pen, and I've got a phone,' he said. The president planned on using his pen to sign executive and administrative orders and his phone to call outside groups -- not Congress -- to rally behind his pet programs. ...  

"Rather than working with Congress, Obama's second term is all about blaming Congress for whatever goes wrong. In that can't-do spirit, Obama mocked House Speaker John Boehner's threat to take legal action against the White House's imperial ways. 'So sue me,' Obama said to laughter. As long as House Republicans are 'doing nothing, I'm not going to apologize for trying to do something.' ...  

"As a constitutional law professor, Obama should not need the House Judiciary Committee to tell him, 'If the President disagrees with that law, he must convince Congress to change it.'"