At the start of his political career, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, was a man of modest means. After a lifetime in "public service," he has a net worth of up to $12 million. Sen. Reid often sponsors legislation that benefits firms represented by lobbyist sons Rory and Key, said Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute. In just four years between 1998 and 2002, firms connected to the Reid family earned more than $2 million "from special interests that were represented by the kids and helped by the senator in Washington," the Los Angeles Times reported. Corruption in Washington is driven more by extortion than bribery, Mr. Schweizer said. Bills have been introduced, "crises" manufactured primarily to extort contributions. "We need to somehow break the back of the ability of politicians to leverage their position to extract donations," Mr. Schweizer told CNN.  Yes, indeed, it's time to put an end to Washington's Oligarchy of Corruption.

There was an "audible gasp" from spectators when Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen told the House Ways & Means Committee the hard drive on Lois Lerner's computer had been destroyed. The IRS broke the law when it targeted conservative groups; broke it again when it leaked confidential tax information; broke it a third time when it destroyed evidence. Mr. Koskinen wouldn't apologize for the lost emails; for not informing Congress for months afterward; for giving misleading testimony in March. He was "arrogant," did "a terrible job," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. He is "as smug and imperious as any bureaucrat you will meet," said the New York Post. "It's all there - the arrogance, the wealth, the air of privilege," said Rosslyn Smith, who blogs at the American Thinker. "He has the makings of a great Bond villain." The federal bureaucracy has a face.  And it's really repulsive.  How are we going to wipe the smug smile off it?

I've played water polo for most of my life, and still do. I've had the privilege of playing on some truly excellent teams, and I've also played on some, well... not so excellent teams. I've also been involved with groups of psychologists who thought they knew how to be part of a team or build teams. I was always surprised at the lack of understanding among them. Today I want to talk about some of the things I've found over the years that make for an excellent team... and a not so excellent team, whether it's for work, play, or marriage. This is by no means exhaustive. There is so much that goes into team building that I can't put it all in one article. But I want to focus mostly on doing away with one great big flawed cliché: "There is no I in ‘team'." The truth is, an excellent team has excellent players, each one of whom is there for his personal achievement and for the team's collective achievement. There is no contradiction between the two. When either of these two elements is missing, the magic just won't happen.  A perfect example of this happened at the World Cup on Tuesday (7/01).

Do you know why the U.S. economy shrank almost 3 percent in the first quarter of this year? When the news of the dreadful gross domestic product (GDP) number came out last week, many were surprised, but none were more surprised than the folks in the Obama administration. Many of their supporters had been saying this was the year of a real economic recovery. The quick reaction was to blame the bad GDP numbers on the cold weather.  It is rather ironic that the president blames the bad economy on the cold weather, while at the same time he is running around the country saying we have to spend many more tax dollars to prevent warmer weather a hundred years from now. But get ready for much worse economic weather.  Today, July 1, the administration implements perhaps the most stupid and destructive piece of tax regulation ever devised - the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). This one regulation by itself may well cause another drop in GDP during the third quarter of this year.  The Disaster of FATCA has begun.

What aggravates me most about my fellow conservatives is how few are willing to let a constitutional crisis get in the way of promoting their hobby horses, or taking potshots at other conservatives with whom they have petty grievances. House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, announced plans last Wednesday (6/25) to sue the president, on behalf of the House of Representatives, for "failing to faithfully execute the laws." The idea for the suit originated with David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer, and Elizabeth Price Foley, who teaches constitutional law at Florida International University. Conservative columnist George Will likes it. The Speaker has a strong case, says Jonathan Turley, a liberal who teaches constitutional law at George Washington University. Yet the Boehner suit is "feckless" and "frivolous," says Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted the ringleader of the first World Trade Center bombing. Impeachment is the only solution," he said. Mr. McCarthy, you see, is promoting a book, "Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment."  Would he rather have people buy his book than see Mr. Boehner succeed?