ANOTHER IRS SCANDAL: Inspector General: IRS Honchos Racked Up Six-Figure Travel Bills.

ROGER SIMON: The Democratic Party’s War On Women. “Weiner is not alone among prominent Democrats these days in his assaults on women. San Diego Mayor and former Congressman Bob Filner evidently can’t keep his hands off any female within a radius of three hundred feet and seems about to lose his job after only eight months. And we all know about Eliot ‘Client #9’ Spitzer, the great seeker of justice who prosecutes prostitutes while patronizing them, now back running for New York comptroller and, like Weiner, dragging his spouse along with him.”

THE HILL: Tax writers promise 50 years of secrecy for senators’ suggestions. You know, I’d really like to see something like the 1986 tax reform pass, and I encourage interested people to read Jeffrey Birnbaum’s Showdown At Gucci Gulch, an excellent summary of that battle.

VIDEO: Gov. Nikki Haley Firing Guns. I Repeat: Gov. Nikki Haley, Firing Guns.

YEAH, BUT WHEN THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD WAS IN CHARGE IT WAS ALL FULL-SPEED-AHEAD: Pentagon: U.S. Will Delay F-16 Delivery to Egypt.

IN THE WORDS OF HAN SOLO, I DUNNO, I CAN IMAGINE AN AWFUL LOT: The Government Wastes More Money Than You Think.

DANA MILBANK’S NOT SO HAPPY with Obama’s “lifeless” economic agenda.

And even Chuck Todd agrees: “You know what they’re acknowledging? That they have nothing new to say.”

PUNDITRY: Richard Florida’s Detroit Flip-Flop.

THE TWILIGHT OF JAY LENO: Why Would NBC Replace Him When He’s So Dominant? “The Nielsen ratings for the second week in July have Leno beating CBS’s David Letterman by a 43 percent margin.”

PROTESTING OBAMA IN CHATTANOOGA, next Tuesday.

CORRECTING GLORIA STEINEM: “A wife is not a hostage!” “Unless there’s some actual imprisonment going on.”

PALIN EMAIL HACKER gets early release from probation.

THIS SEEMS SHADY: FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child porn suspects. “Agency disseminates hyperlinks purporting to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raids the homes of anyone willing to click on them.”

Harvey Silverglate, quoted in the piece, is right about the overly narrow definition of entrapment. And honestly, at this point I wouldn’t put it past them to spam these links out, perhaps disguised as something else, to a Tea Party list or something, then go after whoever clicked on them. It’s not that far from the dirty tricks we’ve already seen.

THEY’RE ALL WASTED.

ANDREW MCCARTHY ON Huma’s Unmentionables. I was going to add a highlight quote, but there’s too much important stuff to break out any one bit. Read it all.

HE’S TRYING TO BLUSTER HIS WAY THROUGH: Obama Dismisses Scandals As “Phony.” Remember, he called the IRS scandal outrageous when he first read about it in the papers.

ACCOMPLICES TO FRAUD: New York Daily News retracts debunked racism story, other papers do not.

SPYING UPDATE: House narrowly rejects bid to curb NSA domestic surveillance. ” In an indication that Edward Snowden’s disclosures about broad government surveillances are having a political impact, the U.S. House of Representatives came within seven votes on Wednesday of curbing a program that vacuums up the logs of all Americans’ phone calls. An amendment that would have ended the National Security Agency’s use of the Patriot Act to conduct mass surveillance of Americans’ phone call metadata failed by a vote of 205 to 217.”

According to chatter on Twitter, C-SPAN couldn’t find any callers who supported continuation of the spying program.

Related: House NSA Vote ‘A Wake-Up Call for the White House,’ Says Senate Dem. People would trust them with more power along these lines . . . if people trusted them.

PHOTOS OF MEADE ROCKING A REEL MOWER. I have a Scott’s, but if Meade favors the American, well, he’s the expert — but according to the product description, the Scott is actually made by American, so maybe I’m in the clear!

UPDATE: In the comments, a reader recommends this Fiskars model.

NOT JUST A “LOVE MOLECULE:” The dark side of Oxytocin. “Oxytocin, the feel-good bonding hormone released by physical contact with another person, orgasm and childbirth (potentially encouraging monogamy), might have a darker side. The love drug also plays an important role in intensifying negative emotional memories and increasing feelings of fear in future stressful situations, according to a new study.”

AT AMAZON, up to 60% off on select school supplies.

J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: President Alinsky Threatens Americans With Rising ‘Social Tensions.’

“Chaos Umpire sits, And by decision more imbroils the fray. By which he Reigns.”

HOW THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT: 20 Ways.

DOUBLE BIND: How Protecting Your Privacy Could Make You the Bad Guy.

There’s a funny catch-22 when it comes to privacy best practices. The very techniques that experts recommend to protect your privacy from government and commercial tracking could be at odds with the antiquated, vague Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

A number of researchers (including me) recently joined an amicus brief (filed by Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society in the “Weev” case), arguing how security and privacy researchers are put at risk by this law.

However, I’d also like to make the case here that the CFAA is bad privacy policy for consumers, too. It’s not just something that affects hackers and academics.

The crux of a CFAA violation hinges on whether or not an action allows a user to gain “access without authorization” or “exceed authorized access” to a computer. The scary part, therefore, is when these actions involve everyday behaviors like clearing cookies, changing browser reporting, using VPNs, and even protecting one’s mobile phone from being identified.

An absurd law with absurd and unjust consequences.

SELF-PORTRAITS: The Photographer Doppelganger.