WHAT RIGHT TO TRAVEL? The Republican House of Representatives may soon follow the Democratic Senate and give the IRS the power to confiscate your passport on mere suspicion of owing taxes. There’s no place like home, comrade.

WASHINGTON POST: DOJ review of flawed FBI forensics processes lacked transparency. “Maybe [a coverup] wasn’t the intent, but it did seem to look that way. . . . It was too controlled by the FBI.”

PUNT: Democratic Senate budget chairman reverses course, will not offer budget this year.

POLITICS: Bill Clinton Backs Loyalists.

President Bill Clinton’s recent endorsements in a handful of House primaries have conjured up memories of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, as he has sought to reward his wife’s supporters and candidates with loyalties to the couple.

“There’s nobody in this business that keeps score like the Clintons,” a Washington, D.C.-based Democratic fundraiser noted.

Two of the four highest-profile races Clinton has chosen to get involved in are Member-vs.-Member fights. He wrote a letter of support for Rep. Brad Sherman in his race against fellow California Democratic Rep. Howard Berman. And just last week he backed Pennsylvania Rep. Mark Critz in his Democratic primary against Rep. Jason Altmire.

Scores, kept.

NON-RACISM IN MEMPHIS: “Black students at the University of Memphis hanged from a tree a piñata made to look like a white woman, and took turns beating it with a stick. A photo of the incident has been making the rounds on the internet, and the university had to issue a statement about it this week.”

THE HILL: White House threatens veto of highway bill over Keystone pipeline provision.

DAVID HARSANYI: Another Day, Another Administration Witch Hunt.

In the future, we will all be Emmanuel Goldstein for 15 minutes.

INDEED: If you really want to locate the “war on women,” check out Afghanistan.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: “All Transactions To Be Conducted In The Presence Of A Tax Collector.” “This time is not different.”

JAY LENO: “President Obama released his tax returns. It turns out he made $900,000 less in 2011 than he did in 2010. You know what that means? Even Obama is doing worse under President Obama.”

CHANGE: Harry Reid Shuts Down Budget Process In Senate.

AT AMAZON, bestsellers in men’s shoes. The Manolo would not approve of what’s in the #1 slot.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails that Manolo probably wouldn’t like anything on the top ten list . . . .

NOBODY TELL SEAMUS: Obama Used To Eat Dog Meat. “Say what you want about Romney, but at least he only put a dog on the roof of his car, not the roof of his mouth.”

UPDATE: “Libs think Romney acted jerky with a dog. Whereas Obama was fond of dog jerky.”

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: Secret Service’s Colombia scandal has election-year implications.

WHEN IS A SUCIDE THREAT A DEATH THREAT? When CNN can spin it.

PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Romney Rips Media.

CHANGE: Obama criticized high-dollar fundraisers in 1996; now hosts them.

TOM MAGUIRE: Out Of The Dark And Into The Light.

More like a Neil Young paraphrase: “Into the red, and out of the black.” With special emphasis on You pay for this and they give you that.

MORE ON THAT NORTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PARTY SEXUAL HARASSMENT SCANDAL: N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue calls on state party chairman to resign after first telling reporter to ‘get over it.’

HMM: Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 46%, Democrats 36%.

I’VE OFTEN FELT THAT MAC OWNERS HAVE A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY: Latest Mac Malware Attack Is a Wake-Up Call for OS X Users.

I’ve been running the free Sophos antivirus for Mac for a while. And I have a separate computer that I use for financial transactions online; I don’t use the same machine that I do all my browsing, email, and blogging with. That last is probably a bit overly paranoid, but on the other hand. . . .

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY: Mood-Sensing Robot Prison Guard Begins First Real-World Test in Korea.

CHINA: Rotting From Within: Investigating the massive corruption of the Chinese military. “Behind the PLA’s shiny exterior is a world where information is not trusted, major decisions require cumbersome bureaucratic consensus, and leaders fear their subordinates will evade responsibility or ignore directions. This entails a different array of risks than the ones that have troubled China’s neighbors and the United States. And Liu, like several other active princelings, is not sure whether the PLA is capable of self-surgery in the age beyond ideals and strong leaders.”

ANDREW MALCOLM: A SURFEIT OF APOLOGIES:

Sorry to bring this up. But has anyone noticed the surfeit of apologies flying around in the current political season?

Not President Obama, of course. He went to Harvard.

But so many other Americans in public life are apologizing to each other and even to entire sectors of society. Members of the media and Congress. Political strategists. Soldiers. Almost everyone’s apologizing for something. (Scroll down for videos)

It’s the new thing the media seeks as a subsequent stage in any controversy to prolong the story if possible. Sincerity is something else. Doesn’t matter.

Read the whole thing.

ABUSIVE LAB TEST: Toughest Toolboxes.