The Congress Has Left The Building-Who would know?

** The House repealed for a record 40th time Obamacare.

**Rep. Issa now claims the IRS is obstructing his investigation and will subpoena records directly from the Treasury Department.

**President Obama intervened directly to solve the Obamacare problem for Congress and its staff, according to Politico, so the congress critters will not have to pay huge increases in insurance.

**The State Department shut down all the embassies in the Middle East and issued a terrorist warning for all travel because of threats of an Al Qaeda attack. Seems to be based on real intelligence that Al Qaeda and comrades out of the Arabian peninsula are up to something.

**Last night, the Senate approved without dissent 4 gay ambassadors and one gay official of the Justice Department. Times have certainly changed.

**The economy added 162,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 7.4%, the lowest since December 2008. 

**Gun deaths since Newtown are at 6,734. The number exceeds American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

**Believe it or not, the NRA has requested the Supreme Court overrule prohibitions against minors from owning guns.

**Vacationing Paul Krugman phoned in his blog claiming we are on the verge of Impending Chaos because Republicans have gone insane. Krugman's concern has been politely repeated in the Washington media who finally are waking up to the idea that there can be no budget deal in time for September 30, when funding for the government runs out. Instead, people are saying that we are looking at years of sequestration, which will gut the social safety net and erode the military. The trigger for concern was yesterday's failure of the Senate to pass the Transportation Bill, which would have passed if the Republicans didn't filibuster it.

**Senate Republicans are telegraphing that when they return from recess they will conduct a mother of a filibuster on all of President Obama's judicial nominees.

**There is movement on the Hill for changing the NSA and reforming parts of the Patriot Act. While true, caution should be taken because the problems with the NSA do not register significantly in the polls. The same can be said about torture,where a plurality approve--wherever polling takes place.

**Charlie Cook ranks the Kentucky Senate race a "toss-up". With Sam Nunn's daughter in the Georgia race,Nate Silver's 50-50 chance of the Republicans taking control of the Senate grows a tad dimmer. Lindsey Graham is being tea bagged in South Carolina. Reaction to North Carolina's passage of voter suppression laws and severe anti-abortion laws have bolstered Kay Hagan's chances at re-election.

**Another same sex couple in suing Oklahoma for recognition of same sex marriage.

**Lindsey Graham and John McCain are being sent to Egypt on behalf of President Obama to scout out the Egyptian military's position on restoring democracy. The administration refuses to acknowledge that it was a coup that overthrew Mohammed Morsi so that aid can continue. The Egyptian military has vowed to break up the pro-Morsi demonstrations.

**John Kerry has secured promises from Israel and the Palestianian Authority to start negotiations over the next 9 months to reach agreement on the final status of a Palestinian state.

**Bobby Jindal is heading to Iowa to test the presidential waters. Tom Harkin and Senator Dick Durbin are traveling to Steven King's district to pump for immigration reform.