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My dear fellow Americans, I am writing to you from a French Bistro in Stockholm, Sweden. A lovely people and country. I have found for the most part they love America and do think it is exceptional.

A recently released Annenberg Public Policy Center survey provides new evidence of widespread political ignorance. Fellow Washington Post-affiliated blogger Reid Wilson lists some of the more striking results: Wednesday marked national Constitution Day, the 227th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. But only 36 percent of Americans can actually name the three branches of government the Constitution created. That’s according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and it shows a huge percentage of Americans might need to take a civics refresher course. Only 38 percent of Americans knew the Republican Party controls the U.S....

Days of Elijah, by our brave young men! May God bless and protect them all.

An American man, believed to be fighting alongside Islamist militants in Syria, has been killed, the White House has confirmed. A cousin of Douglas McCain told the BBC the US government called his mother to confirm his death on Monday. McCain was found dead by Free Syrian Army fighters after a battle at the weekend, according to NBC. The US government believes a small number of Americans have travelled to Syria to fight for extremist groups. Senior US officials told broadcaster CNN Mr McCain was fighting for Islamic State (IS), which now controls large areas of Iraq and Syria. [snip]...

Michael Brown was a college-bound, black teenager who no longer has an opportunity to forge a future he could be proud of. He is dead, allegedly killed execution style after a confrontation with a policeman. Darren Wilson is a white police officer, who after six years of blemish-free service to his community, used deadly force to allegedly defend himself in an escalating confrontation with an unarmed teenager. Do you know which version is closer to the truth? The search for justice is always difficult. In the rush for judgment in Ferguson, Missouri, it has become all but impossible. As coverage...

Before jetting off for two weeks’ vacation, President Obama laid the blame for the Iraq crisis at the doorstep of the Bush administration. At a brief press conference Saturday on the White House lawn, Obama scoffed at the notion that he might regret not having left a residual American force in Iraq. “Under the previous administration, we had turned over the country to a sovereign democratic Iraqi government,” Obama said. “In order for us to leave troops in Iraq, we needed the invitation of the Iraqi government, … and the Iraqi government, based on its political considerations, in part because...

KINGSTON New Hampshire (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama considers sidestepping Congress to loosen U.S. immigration policy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Americans are deeply worried that illegal immigration is threatening the nation's culture and economy. Seventy percent of Americans - including 86 percent of Republicans - believe undocumented immigrants threaten traditional U.S. beliefs and customs, according to the poll. The findings suggest immigration could join Obamacare - the healthcare insurance overhaul - and the economy as hot button issues that encourage more Republicans to vote in November's congressional election. With Congress failing to agree on broad immigration reforms, Obama could...

On CNN on Tuesday, former CBS "Evening News" anchor Dan Rather was asked about President Barack Obama's critics complaining he is not using his influence around the world to quell ongoing international crises.

One gets the impression that AmericaÂ’s broad support for IsraelÂ’s mission in Gaza over that of Hamas militants, support reflected in policy in Washington, is evolving into an obsession for members of the press. In fact, it seems that the more stubbornly Americans cling to their support for their countryÂ’s democratic ally in the Middle East, the more frenetic and scolding the mediaÂ’s tone has become while covering the conflict. Over a month into the current crisis, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll found that a significant plurality continue to sympathize with Israel over Palestinians. 43 percent of Americans said...

There’s no shortage of piling-on when it comes to the controversy over the name of the Washington Redskins football team. But too often overlooked is the government’s response to all the noise. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) created a fatal contradiction for itself when it announced on June 18 that it would cancel the trademarks of the Washington Redskins. In handing down the decision, the PTO claimed the name was disparaging. However, a Freedom of Information Act request showed that nobody complained to the PTO about being disparaged by the name, revealing the decision as entirely subjective....

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has placed a U.S. lawmaker and 12 other people connected with the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq on its list of those banned from entering the country. In a statement Saturday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said congressman Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia, was banned in response to the July 2 U.S. ban on Russian parliament member Adam Delimkhanov. He said Moran had been repeatedly accused of financial misdeeds but didn't elaborate. The other 12, including Guantanamo commander Rear Adm. Richard Butler and Lynndie England, a former soldier convicted...

The Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals that 58 percent of Americans, including 54 percent of Latinos, are disappointed with his policies on the surge of thousands of undocumented immigrants, many of them children, across the southern border. Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/poll-Obama-immigration-children/2014/07/16/id/582962#ixzz37dmNzdPV Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

“…Our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet.” If only these words spoken by our president during his State of the Union address were actually true. The energy industry is the latest victim of Obama Administration overreach. Under the guise of addressing global warming, President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a plan that would require all states to make drastic reductions in carbon emissions. In essence, this forces them to use less coal and effectively mandates a transition to more expensive and less reliable energy sources like wind and solar – regardless...

Baltimore police plan to deploy officers around city schools until the school year ends to ensure student safety amid recent racial tensions, while school officials joined civil rights leaders to urge students of different races to peacefully resolve differences. The actions followed recent threats and violent attacks on Latino students as well as the Memorial Day robbery and murder of a 15-year-old Mexican student who had dropped out of high school to help his family. ...assaults on two Hispanic high school students last week heightened fears that Latino youths were being targeted. They said only seven out of more than...

CINCINNATI – A rush of punching and pushing during a kindergarten graduation ceremony Monday put a Mount Healthy elementary school on lockdown. Police say Raymond Walker, 33, started the fight with another man during the event at North Elementary School. The brawl then spread from two to about 20 people, witnesses said.

7 shot at South Side coin laundry print Email Pinterest 1 Chicago Police investigate shooting at a laundromat on 79th Street on Monday night. CAPTIONS Seven people have been shot tonight including a 14-year-old at a coin laundry in the South Chicago neighborhood, authorities said. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said an EMS Plan I, which automatically sends at least five ambulances to the scene, was called about 8:20 p.m. for a shooting in the 7900 block of South Marquette Avenue. Many of the victims were "laid out" on the floor of the coin laundry in the 2600 block...

In the videos, a man could be heard swearing profusely and laughing loudly as tires squealed in the background. "I said we'll scare the [expletive] out of [expletive]s," the man said, apparently referring to the attack on the joggers. A voice also could be heard saying, "We had fun" and making a reference to the video game "Grand Theft Auto," in which criminals use stolen vehicles to cause death and destruction.

The memorials were hastily assembled on Monday with sad, handwritten messages and stuffed animals — in remembrance of two teenage brothers who died from gunfire the night before in a murder-suicide over what may have been the most trivial of sibling arguments. The two brothers fought over sharing clothes on Sunday night — with one of them apparently pulling the trigger on himself.

Fort Lauderdale police believe hundreds of young people made their way to the beach for one reason this Memorial Day, to cause trouble. Police described a volatile scene Monday night as they had to arrest dozens of people that were part of unruly crowds.

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan confirmed Thursday that three American doctors were killed by an Afghan security guard who opened fire at a Kabul hospital. The shooting at Cure International Hospital in the western part of the Afghan capital was the latest attack on foreign civilians in the city this year. Two others, including an American nurse, were wounded, according to Afghanistan's Health Ministry. "With great sadness we confirm that three Americans were killed in the attack at CURE Hospital," said a statement posted on the Embassy's Twitter page. "No other information will be released at this time." Afghanistan Minister...