"Without labor nothing prospers."

"Republicans have long blamed President Obama's signature health care initiative for increasing insurance costs, dubbing it the 'Unaffordable Care Act.' 

"Turns out, they might be right. 

"For the vast majority of Americans, premium prices will be higher in the individual exchange than what they're currently paying for employer-sponsored benefits, according to a National Journal analysis of new coverage and cost data. Adding even more out-of-pocket expenses to consumers' monthly insurance bills is a swell in deductibles under the Affordable Care Act."

"What happens when American military action has neither public support nor congressional approval? Looks like we're getting ready to find out.

"Americans did not much like President Obama's 2011 decision to intervene in the Libyan civil war, and the looming entry of American forces in Syria's conflict is shaping up to be even less popular. The consequences, especially with a president famously unwilling to put his own political clout on the line for national security policies, could be serious. ... 

"The implicit promise of the post-Vietnam understanding of presidential military authority largely unchecked by Congress is that the wars will be popularly supported. What happens in the absence of such support will set a new course for foreign policy and the use of force."

"Vladimir Putin surely isn’t the only one in the world who regards the president of the United States with barely disguised contempt. As the Syria crisis burns hotter, President Obama has never looked so feckless. He has perfected the art of speaking reproachfully and carrying little or no stick. The grand theory of his foreign policy coming into office, that more national self-abasement would win us greater international good will and respect, has done the opposite. Adversaries don’t fear us, and allies don’t trust us. ... 

"Elsewhere in the region, Iran progresses toward a nuclear weapon, Iraq reverts to civil war, and al-Qaeda gains in Yemen and Somalia. In an essay in Commentary magazine, analyst Elliott Abrams argues that the guiding principle of Obama’s foreign policy is, as he put it in an early speech as a presidential candidate, to end the old 'habits' of American international activism and leadership. The new habit, evidently, will be tolerating irrelevance and humiliation."

"The irony isn’t merely rich. It’s tragic. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 'I Have a Dream' speech this week, the Obama Justice Department is suing the state of Louisiana to stop it from distributing school vouchers to kids seeking to escape failing schools.  ...

"In King’s 1963 speech, he told of his 'dream' that his four children would 'one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'  

"That dream remains noble, but it hasn’t been advanced by a civil-rights leadership that opposes school choice and often follows an 'I have a scheme' method of activism. As liberal journalist Margaret Carlson of Bloomberg News said last Friday: 'We’ve gone from Martin Luther King to the Reverend Al Sharpton, and . . . it’s very dispiriting.' It’s also deplorable that King’s dream as been sullied by an administration that claims King’s mantle but acts against the interests of children so that they can be counted 'by the color of their skin.'"

"Shortly before July 4, Obama unilaterally suspended for a year Obamacare’s employer mandate — its requirement that most businesses provide government-sanctioned health insurance. In refusing to execute this part of the law (which, according to the statute itself, 'shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2013'), Obama invited the question of whether a future Republican president could simply refuse to enforce, say, Obamacare’s exchange-subsidy provisions (which, by law, 'shall apply to taxable years ending after December 31, 2013'). Asked whether his successor could 'pick and choose whether they’ll implement your law and keep it in place,' Obama offered an astonishing reply: 'I didn’t simply choose to delay this on my own. This was in consultation with businesses all across the country.' Apparently, Obama has rewritten Article II of the Constitution; henceforth the president shall take care that the Laws be faithfully executed unless he and some businessmen decide differently. As a Tammany machine politician famously said, 'What’s the Constitution among friends?'"

"News reports suggest Bashar al-Assad marked the first anniversary of President Obama’s 'red line' on chemical weapons in traditional fashion: by launching a new chemical attack on civilians. 

"The White House says the president is 'deeply concerned' and insists those responsible 'must be held accountable.'  Surely Assad is quaking in his boots. ...   

"One year after he drew it, Obama's red line has become Assad’s green light."

"Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus had a message last week for outspoken conservatives who support strict immigration enforcement policies: Shut up.

"Yes, the head of the RNC is more concerned about protecting the party's Hispanic vote-pandering campaign than protecting law-abiding citizens from the devastating consequences of illegal immigration.

"At the RNC's annual summer meeting in Boston, Priebus complained that openly advocating self-deportation policies during last year's election season was 'horrific' and that rule-of-law rhetoric 'hurts us.' Yes, really.

"So is it OK to discuss during off-year election cycles? Leap years? Weekends? Holidays? Can the GOP sensitivity police let us in on their approved immigration discussion calendar?"

"On the subject of Egypt: Is it the U.S. government's purpose merely to cop an attitude? Or does it also intend to have a policy? ... 

"It would be nice to live in a world in which we could conduct a foreign policy that aims at the realization of our dreams — peace in the Holy Land, a world without nuclear weapons, liberal democracy in the Arab world. A better foreign policy would be conducted to keep our nightmares at bay: stopping Iran's nuclear bid, preventing Syria's chemical weapons from falling into terrorist hands, and keeping the Brotherhood out of power in Egypt. But that would require an administration that knew the difference between an attitude and a policy."

"The Obama administration provided a New York Times reporter exclusive access to a range of high-level national security officials for a book that divulged highly classified information on a U.S. cyberwar on Iran’s nuclear program, internal State Department emails show. 

"The information in the 2012 book by chief Washington correspondent David E. Sanger has been the subject of a yearlong Justice Department criminal investigation: The FBI is hunting for those who leaked details to Mr. Sanger about a U.S.-Israeli covert cyberoperation to infect Iran’s nuclear facilities with a debilitating computer worm known as Stuxnet. ... 

"The scores of State Department emails from the fall of 2011 to the spring of 2012 do not reveal which officials told Mr. Sanger, but they do show an atmosphere of cooperation within the administration for a book generally favorable toward, but not uncritical of, President Obama."