Columnist.
Tavis Smiley raised a lot of eyebrows this weekend when he spoke on ABC-TV's "This Week" news show, hosted by George Stephanopoulos. Smiley pointed to double-digit unemployment in the Black community under President Obama and said: "If you're Black or Brown, other than saving the Democrats' hide, what inspires you to go out and vote?" Economic empowerment for minority families is surely a vital issue, a hardy perennial in off-year elections. But it's not the only issue. Minority voters have always been concerned with Civil Rights. And this year is no exception.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is moving with a steady pace to establish his total control over Russia. He's now pushing a law to help him deal with the last pesky parts of the post-Soviet period of Russian history -- that annoying free press. In this [Washington Post story](www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russias-putin-signs-law-extending-kremlins-grip-over-media/2014/10/15/6d9e8b2c-546b-11e4-809b-8cc0a295c773_story.html?tid=hp_more), we see that President Putin is doing in Russia what Sen. Harry Reid and fifty-three of his Senate colleagues attempted to do recently with a constitutional amendment to limit free speech. Putin knows he is fairly free to act on the world scene and at home. President Obama is distracted. His administration is perplexed. Having waited too long to address the threat of ISIS, Mr. Obama is now leaping into the ISIS crisis with both feet. And he is even willing to make the Russians our new partner in the Middle East.
Several years ago, the Israeli satirical series, Latma, produced [this funny sketch](motls.blogspot.com/2010/08/latma-tv-iranian-bomb.html) on the Iranian mullahs' push for a nuclear bomb. "The bomb, the bomb, I'll get the bomb. Listen to me, Honey, it ain't gonna be too long" sings the frolicking mullah in the online version of this humorous look at a most serious subject. The Israelis can joke about an Iranian nuclear bomb because they are on the front line. They know what it would mean. They don't go on and on about "stability" in the Middle East the way our State Department types do. There hasn't been stability in the Mideast in our lifetime and there is no likelihood of stability being achieved there in the future. All the Western journalists' gushing about the "Arab Spring" has produced not one country with a semblance of stability, freedom, or genuine change.
Buried inside of the 20,000 pages of the Obamacare monstrosity are a few paragraphs which could create a multi-billion dollar industry in the American healthcare sector. Known as "biosimilars," the law allowed for the production of complex drugs which are medically equivalent versions of biologics (drugs derived from living organisms), and can treat deadly diseases ranging from Alzheimer's, AIDS, and rheumatoid arthritis. Not only can biosimilars save lives, the competition they create for a heavily regulated and patented marketplace can help patients by lowering the price of their prescriptions by up to 40%. The average annual cost of biologic drugs is roughly $35,000, so any savings can often make the difference between life and death. That is why the creation of approval process for biosimilars may be the only part of Obamacare that enjoys bipartisan support.
An incident in suburban Maryland occurred this week that should serve as a wake-up call to all concerned mothers (and dads). An Anne Arundel County, Maryland, school bus was stolen by two drunken pranksters who said they were looking for cigarette money. Bus 874 was trashed and smashed up and left in the woods in Davidsonville. Local moms are incensed -- and they should be. How can we know that these people would not have driven around picking up special needs kids? For them the bus would have seemed a safe and welcoming sight. How could anyone gain access to a school bus parking lot under cover of darkness and make off with a bright yellow vehicle without being stopped at locked gates? We should remember that our open society and our free press give ample coverage to such capers. They seem to us a one-day story. But to terrorists who have crossed our porous borders, these stories give ideas. Let's not forget that the 1971 airline hijacking by "D.B. Cooper" gained worldwide publicity. Soon, Yasser Arafat's PLO guerrillas and their subcontractors were hijacking commercial jets and taking their passengers hostage to advance his political agenda.
Historically, Democrats have been politically vulnerable on military issues. The recent missteps President Barack Obama has made in dealing with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the situation in Syria are hurting his party's chances for keeping control of the Senate in the next Congress. Another problem for the President and Congressional Democrats, is having to spend the 2014 election cycle explaining to voters why our Veterans Hospitals are government-run healthcare disasters. In Phoenix, Veterans Administration secretary Robert McDonald acknowledged that secret waiting lists and bad care needlessly "caused the death of veterans." Why is such an outrage possible? Answer: because Democrats reflexively favor government bureaucracy over the free marketplace. Sadly, at no point will the President's suggested reforms for veterans involve private hospitals or voucher-based coverage, even though that could mean better outcomes for the brave men and women who have served our nation in the armed forces. And while it is not life-and-death, the same can be said for efforts to educate active-duty military and younger veterans.
One look at today's headlines will tell you that events around the world seem more unpredictable and chaotic than ever. Russia is showing no sign of backing down in Ukraine, even under increasing sanctions. The terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continues to wreak havoc in the Middle East, energized by up to $2 million a day in captured oil revenues. And political violence from Iraq to Libya continues to escalate. Americans are stuck wondering what, if anything, we can and should be doing. In the midst of all this chaos, oil prices were expected to rise. Instead, they have dipped in recent months, thanks primarily to lower global demand and increased production here at home. Gasoline prices have dropped for the moment too, prompting some to call this a "new era" of oil abundance, where our fuels are cheap and plentiful, even in the face of multiple international crises.
The "War on Women" theme has become a campaign perennial in the U.S. We hear it charged that anyone who does not support sex selection abortions is somehow engaged in a war against women. No matter that the vast majority of those "selected" for death in these horrific procedures are female, that is, little women. In a similar vein, many of us who speak out for women shockingly abused in Muslim lands are accused of being *Islamophobes* and culturally insensitive. The simple fact is that the fate of women in these lands is grim. In not one of the Muslim majority lands are basic human rights respected.
It's one of the oldest rules in politics. And it's one that her husband, Bill Clinton, made famous: "When you're in a hole, stop digging!" So why is Secretary Hillary Clinton continuing to dig away? Her book tour was bound to be rocky. With a tin ear for the nuances of young feminists, she titled her book, *Hard Choices*. But the Washington Post recently published Janet Harris' column urging all liberals to "stop saying abortion is a difficult choice." If you talk like that, Harris says, you are putting the focus on the fetus. Well, we can't do that! Difficult Choice? Hard Choices? Her very book title is off-key in the pro-abortion chorus. Even worse, Hillary Clinton famously told Newsweek in 1994 (October 31st issue) that "abortion is wrong." She had never said it before and she has never said it since. But she said it. And that spells trouble with the Left that will not provide legal protection for a single one of the 57,000,000 unborn children whose lives have been sacrificed to choice. Then, there's young Rob Goodman's piece in Politico. It's titled "Duck this Dynasty." That's pretty clever, I'll admit. And the argument this activist makes is most interesting.
It seems the Export-Import Bank of the United States is once again putting up walls to keep the duly-elected representatives of the American people from getting a look at their inner workings. Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg recently dashed off a letter to U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry in which he dismissed the committee's request to interview Ex-Im officials, shying away from what he called "the inherently adversarial nature of transcribed interviews." The Ex-Im Chairman also defended the Bank's practice of making heavy redactions to the documents they have deigned to turn over to the committee. He did, however, offer to provide "additional information if you have questions about particular redactions." This, apparently, is a man who thinks having committee staff pick out every single blacked-out word or phrase is a good use of their taxpayer-funded time. Or maybe, because he knows how prevalent these redactions are -- as Chairman Hensarling put it, "more redactions than answers" -- this is simply another attempt to slow-walk any investigation into the Ex-Im Bank's affairs.
As Americans celebrated Labor Day and the freedom to provide for their families, let's hope they didn't spoil the holiday yesterday by pausing to consider whether government today is making their lives easier or more difficult. To wit, the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, which ranks countries based on four main factors -- rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, open markets -- has the US is headed in the wrong direction. "The U.S. is the only country," the survey states, "to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years."
The worldwide struggle for freedom and democracy faces enormous challenges today. Despite the promise of the United States government to support that struggle wherever it can, the Obama administration is not standing tall on the world stage. The American Legacy, as a shining beacon for oppressed peoples everywhere in their time of darkness, is being abandoned. The United States has a wonderful track record of fulfilling that commitment. Past leaders of our nation have taken seriously America's special role in a troubled world. But the fact that the US has historically advanced freedom and democratic values makes me all the more upset when our current leaders fail to demonstrate an understanding of our exceptional role.
Last fall the United States began, for the first time in almost 20 years, to produce more crude oil than it imported. Around that same time, the International Energy Agency altered its previous predictions to show that the U.S. would become the world's number-one oil producer by 2015, producing 11 million barrels of crude a day. The headlines -- and their implications -- were hard to miss. American energy was making a comeback in a huge way. Not only was the U.S. regaining its foothold in world energy markets, things were beginning to look pretty good here at home too. Oil and gas industry jobs increased by 40 percent between 2007 and 2013, a sharp contrast to the three percent job loss in the overall economy. Meanwhile, surging domestic energy production injected $476 billion into the U.S. economy in 2010 alone, filling state and federal coffers with needed revenue.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is too strong. PLO boss Mahmoud Abbas is too weak. That's why we can't get a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, says President Obama in an interview with the ever-serious Tom Friedman of the New York Times. The president seems to be confusing Mideast politics with Goldilocks. The peace porridge is too hot (Netanyahu). It's too cold (Mahmoud Abbas). But with Mr. Obama's Goldilocks policy, it's just right.
"Great nations need organizing principles -- and 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle." So said former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with The Atlantic. So, why is she doing stupid things? The Washington Post called her "blunt" criticism of the Obama administration "surprising." Well, it's certainly not surprising to anyone who has followed her career. Don't forget, she made her debut as a Wellesley College senior. She bluntly told off Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Brooke. Sen. Brooke, a liberal Republican, was the first black man elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. As such, and in recognition of his own massive personal dignity, Sen. Brooke was given deferential treatment by leaders in both political parties. But not by young Hillary Rodham. She sassed him good. Don't do stupid stuff.
Hillary Clinton's famous "listening tour" of Upstate New York in 2000 eased her way into the U.S. Senate. She was the first liberal politician in years to discover there *was* an Upstate New York. Who knew? She then spent eight years in the Senate, the "world's greatest deliberative body," during which time she distinguished herself only by voting *for* the Iraq war. She spent much of the middle years of the decade trying to explain away her vote. Hillary Clinton ran for president in '08 against the dovish Sen. Barack Obama. He is credited with the best putdown in the history of Democratic presidential debates. Without looking up from his notes during their New Hampshire encounter, the Senator from Cool said: "You're likeable enough, Hillary."
Sir Elton John is world famous, deservedly so. This billionaire singer is one of the most creative talents we have. But when he attacks Christian missionaries in Africa and other Third World regions, his message is off-key. Instead of *Crocodile Rock*, he's peddling a Crocodile Crock. As a mega-star, Sir Elton is free to say whatever he likes. His native Britain and the U.S. are still free countries. But his belief that the worst thing about AIDS is the "stigma" attached to it is bizarre. We thought the worst thing about AIDS was the disease itself. Even here, however, Sir Elton is free to disagree with us.
The Federal Communications Commission is looking to raise revenue -- and the agency is in full pitch mode. The company is injecting itself as the middlemen between buyers (wireless carriers) and sellers (TV broadcasters) of spectrum, hoping to take a large commission check as a result. The FCC is hoping to raise $20 billion by matching the broadcasters who are willing to sell at the lowest prices with the wireless carriers willing to buy at the highest. The spread between becomes the government's commission check. In typical government fashion, Congress already earmarked the funds to pay for a $7 billion nationwide network for first responders, with the additional funds going toward deficit reduction.
A monumental opportunity has presented itself as Julian Castro, former mayor of San Antonio, takes over as the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Congress looks ahead on the critical issue of housing finance reform. After years of tepid growth and false starts, leaders in Washington have the opportunity to give housing finance reform a shot in the arm. This reform is readily achievable even in today's log-jammed Congress, as there is bipartisan consensus that the most prudent reforms would accomplish three essential goals: appropriately and strategically wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a way that strengthens the housing sector, ensure private capital is sustainably attracted to the market, and fairly treat current and future homeowners, taxpayers and investors.
You know you've hit a sore spot when the Left starts screeching. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow's producer, Steve Benen, just took a whack at the American Civil Rights Union's new booklet, "The Truth About Jim Crow," (TTAJC) which National Review Online writer John Fund wrote about in a recent column. Benen cites a critique from the Atlanta Journal Constitution blogger Jay Bookman: "Jay Bookman took a closer look at the pamphlet Fund's piece was promoting, highlighting some of its more glaring errors of fact and judgment."
