ED MORRISSEY: Did The IRS Target A DHS Whistleblower? “P. Jeffrey Black tried to fix problems in the federal air marshal service, but had IRS agents at his door the day he appeared in a documentary criticizing the Obama administration’s air security efforts.”

WHY YOU SHOULD WORRY ABOUT GOVERNMENT DATA GRABS: USA Today editorial: Surveillance history belies ‘trust us.’ “If history shows anything, it’s that once government has the power to sweep up data, the power is used, and often abused.”

INSIDER-TO-INSIDER: ‘Tell your boss I owe him another friggin’ beer:’ Hot mic catches NSA boss praising FBI chiefs for supportive testimony on surveillance programs.

JAMES ROSEN: Did Senior State Department Security Officials Commit Perjury? “Two top officials at the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DS) — the federal law enforcement agency that protects American diplomats and investigates allegations of criminal misconduct by State Department employees — gave sworn testimony earlier this year that appears to be evasive at best, and untrue at worst, according to evidence obtained by Fox News.”

Ask Jim Treacher about that organization’s tradition of veracity . . . .

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. KIND OF A LOT, APPARENTLY: Deputy AG admits spy program mistakenly targets innocent people.

I DUNNO, BUT AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED TEA PARTIERS SHOULD FEEL FREE TO MOB IRS OFFICIALS NOW: “Why isn’t there greater revulsion when political mobs assail the personal residences of officials they disagree with? And who will be next?”

THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, WE’D SEE A FEDERAL SEX-TOY BAN. And they were right!

JAMES TARANTO: We Are All Dick Cheney Now.

Before we go any further, let’s correct the president on some factual matters. The court that administers the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is not transparent; its rulings, including the “secondary order” leaked by erstwhile NSA contractor Edward Snowden, are classified top secret. It’s accurate to say that the court provides scrutiny–“a system of checks and balances,” as the president put it–but not transparency.

The FISA court is not, as Obama implies, an innovation of his administration. It was set up in 1978, when Obama was still a member in good standing of the Choom Gang. As we noted June 6, the NSA effort was brought under the FISA court’s jurisdiction no later than Jan. 17, 2007, by which point Obama was a celebrity, but Dick Cheney was still vice president and would be for more than two more years.

The real problem here, though, is not the president’s casual attitude toward the facts but his relentless partisan hostility. What does he hope to accomplish by asserting that he’s no Dick Cheney? The obvious political answer is that it is an appeal to people for whom Cheney is a demon figure–that is, the Democratic base. Lots of “raving liberals” are feeling betrayed by Obama’s seeming failure to live up to his rhetoric about civil liberties and such. Perhaps there is a psychological aspect to Obama’s pronouncement–that is, maybe he’s trying to reassure himself that he’s better than the leaders he demonized.

But Obama does a serious disservice to the country by casting what is in fact a bipartisan antiterror program in such partisan terms. His message, as an irreverent National Journal headline puts it, is: “Trust Us, Because . . . Trust Us.” We’d change the emphasis a bit: Trust Us, Because . . . Trust Us.

I don’t.

HOW’S THAT “SMART DIPLOMACY” WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): “In two contexts the Obama administration has revealed its complete confusion about high-stakes negotiations and the interrelation of soft and hard power.”

RAND PAUL: “The director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law.”

I THINK KEMAL ATATURK WOULD WANT THEM TO BE MORE ACTIVE: In Turkey, protesters try a new approach: Standing still. “Protesters opposed to the 10-year rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that he may have driven them from central Istanbul’s Gezi Park, which they had occupied for more than two weeks, but that he could not arrest them for standing still. More than a thousand people trickled into Taksim Square throughout the day, staring silently at a massive portrait of the country’s founding father that security forces hung last week on a building. The new style of protest — inspired by a single performance artist who on late Monday appeared to be the first to do it in Taksim Square — came on a day of continued crackdown by Erdogan’s government.”

Plus, from Erdogan: “Shooting tear gas at people is the most natural right of police.”

THE HILL: Anti-war Democrats’ lack of unity gives Obama cover on Syria policy.

ANN ALTHOUSE PROPOSES a new abortion regulation.

DAVID FREDDOSO: Government is just another name for things we all do together…like intimidate whistleblowers and their children.

IN THE ATLANTIC: Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School: Instead, help them channel their energy into productive tasks.

SORRY, PRO-LIFERS, BUT THE ABORTION BILL THE HOUSE PASSED YESTERDAY is unconstitutional. As Dave Kopel and I wrote some years ago, abortion falls outside Congress’s commerce power. The Sebelius opinion made that clear. Now I suppose you could tax abortion under that opinion. . . .

MORE RUBES SELF-IDENTIFY:

Pew survey, June 13, 2012: 89% of Germans would like to see Obama re-elected.

Spiegel, June 17, 2013: “If Barack Obama is our friend, then we really don’t need to be terribly worried about our enemies.”

Thanks to reader Roger Heinig for the links.

ED DRISCOLL: Nanny Bloomberg, Food Composting, and the Complexity Creeps.

WHEN P.C. FILTERS BREAK DOWN: Boston Bombing victim calls suspects’ mom ‘vile.’

Michelle L’Heureux, a 38-year-old John Hancock consultant, told the Herald yesterday it’s time to stop being “politically correct” and speak out — making her one of the first victims to stand up to the terror-talking Chechen family.

“I feel a little bit of hatred towards her. I think she is a vile person,” L’Heureux said of the mom. “If you don’t like our country, get out. It’s as simple as that.”

But where else can you get such generous welfare benefits? Plus:

L’Heureux, who can only walk a few steps each day, hopes the bombings lead to more open lines of communication.

“A Muslim terrorist bombed us, and people need to start talking about that more, instead of being so politically correct,” L’Heureux said. “The more politically correct we are, and the more ‘Oh, let’s not hurt their feelings,’ the more they’re going to be able to do these type of things.

“If I ever have children, I don’t want to be afraid that something like this is going to happen to them in our country,” she said. “We’re a civil society. We shouldn’t have to worry about walking your children down Boylston Street, and being blown up by a bomb.”

Well, Obama says Al Qaeda isn’t a threat any more. So we’ve got that going for us, anyway.

THE HILL: Schiff: Phone providers should retain metadata on phone calls, not NSA.

THE STRUGGLE FOR ISTANBUL: “University professors are expected to ‘raise’ students, the end product being young adults loyal to the nation. Journalists have a similar patriotic duty to fulfill, and vaguely worded terror-laws or publishers’ fears of government intervention, or lost contracts in other sectors of the economy, often leave those who cross the government out of work or worse.”

Good thing nothing like that could happen here.

NICK GILLESPIE: Is Sarah Palin A Libertarian?

No, but she’s closer than anyone we’re likely to elect. But she’s not cool enough for a lot of libertarians. Though you’d think after the disastrous “Obamatarian” fad, they’d have learned about cool.

UPDATE: Reader Alysia Lucas writes:

Sarah Palin *is* the closest thing to a libertarian. Alaska is one of the more libertarian states in the US due to the kinds of folks who settled the state. She was a very popular politician there before the national media tore her to pieces.

I’ve long thought that people confuse her actions as a mayor and governor (more libertarian-leaning) with her expressed personal beliefs and how she lives her own life (as a committed Christian). I’ve read both her books and she comes across as an intelligent, practical person who understands the fallibility of man. I think she subscribes to the doctrine of setting up laws such that even the wrong people are forced to do the right thing. I think both she and Rick Perry would favor a more minimalist government than the current administration.

I think she’s a victim of oikophobia, a prejudice to which all too many libertarians are prone, alas.

CHINA AND NYU: Undue Influence?

ENOUGH WITH THESE HUGE “GANG” BILLS THAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS: Sessions: Even the Gang of Eight Don’t Really Understand Their ‘Disastrous’ Immigration Bill.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why I got my CCW Permit and Why You Should Too.