Columnist.
California is experiencing an entirely new disturbance in the Force. The Magic Kingdom has become the Measles Kingdom. Disneyland is ground zero for the largest outbreak of measles in the last 15 years. So far more than 100 cases have been reported since the initial exposure, some from as far away as Boston. (Rest assured, Mickey and Goofy are still fine.) This makes last year's fear of an Ebola outbreak spreading across the nation look even more prescient and the sleepy, lethargic response of the CDC look even worse.
Bill Maher called Chris Kyle of "American Sniper" a "psychopath patriot." Michael Moore called military snipers "cowards" who shoot people in the back. Howard Dean said "American Sniper" appeals mostly to angry Tea Party types. So what? Why do we conservatives give two cents about what these lefties and liberals say about "American Sniper" — or anything else? Nothing they ever say is surprising. Nothing they say ever adds to the debate, has any effect on anything or helps us find a solution to a serious problem.
I didn't watch the State of the Union address Tuesday night. Instead I sat with my lovely wife, had a glass of wine and played with the dogs. But let me guess how it went. President Obama stood in front of Congress and declared the state of the union is strong — except for a whole bunch of new government freebies and new federal laws he wants to see enacted to make it even stronger.
Everyone from Jon Stewart to Ted Cruz has mocked President Obama for not flying to France last weekend. And rightly so. It should have been a no-brainer for any American president to want to be seen by the whole world leading a massive unity march against terrorism in response to what is being called France's 9/11. Obama had a great chance to show America's solidarity with the latest victims of Islamist extremism and stand up for a fundamental Western value like free speech.
I'm not a huge fan of John Boehner. But now that he has both houses of Congress to work with, let's give him a chance to move the Republican offense down the field to the end zone. After fighting off a challenge to his speakership this week, Boehner has held on to his job as the starting QB of the GOP's legislative team in Washington. Boehner and his Boys of Winter have a lot of hard work to do for the next two years, on and off the field.
A poll released this week found 51 percent of Americans approve of the harsh interrogation tactics the CIA used immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Imagine what those numbers would have been on Sept. 12, 2001. The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey is in synch with the results of similar opinion polls that show a majority of Americans are not naive about what "torture" is or isn't or when it should be used. About half of those polled called the CIA's use of water boarding, sleep deprivation and other tough interview methods "torture," but a majority still approved of it.
Remember Kelly Thomas? Didn't think so, but it's understandable. Thomas was an unarmed mentally ill homeless man from Southern California who was tasered, clubbed and beaten to death in Fullerton by three cops in July of 2011. Thomas' face was pounded to a pulp and, after losing the ability to breathe normally, he died later in a hospital of brain damage. Video of the awful incident -- including Thomas' screams and his cries of "Dad! Dad!" -- was recorded on security cameras and there was a minor outcry at the time over police brutality.
As we saw last weekend at the start of the St. Louis Rams-Raiders game, we'll be dealing with the facts and symbolism of Michael Brown's death for a long time. "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" doesn't accurately describe what really happened when Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot Brown to death last summer. But it should be pretty clear to everyone by now that the facts don't matter that much anymore in the Michael Brown case.
The fight over immigration reform was wiped off our TV screens by the fires and tear gas clouds in Ferguson Monday night. CNN and the other networks will milk the grand jury's decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown for as long as there's a single ratings point to be gained. But by Tuesday afternoon President Obama was already back on the road plugging the alleged merits of his executive actions on immigration and explaining why they were not constitutionally bogus.
Talk about being in the middle of Middle America. This week I'm in bitterly cold Nebraska -- Omaha, to be exact -- visiting with my wife Colleen's family. On Tuesday night I watched the Die-hard Democrats in the Senate stop a bill to force approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline that would carry oil from Canada and Montana and North Dakota to the refineries of New Orleans. The proposed $8 billion shortcut across Nebraska and other Red States is a big deal.
So Jonathan Gruber thinks the American people are stupid, does he? Gruber is a complete nobody to most Americans, but his face should be on a Most Wanted poster in every Post Office. He was one of the chief architects and cheerleaders for ObamaCare, aka the fraudulent Affordable Care Act that Republicans should be working overtime right now to repeal, not fix or reform. Gruber exploded into the news cycle this week because of some things he said publicly last year about how Democrats were able to slip ObamaCare past the trusting citizenry.
A beautiful red tsunami swept across America Tuesday night. Liberal pollsters and liberal pundits on TV refused to see the Republican wave coming and still can't believe it came. But the S.S. Obama and its cargo of bad ideas sank like a rock, dragging Captain Harry Reid and a motley crew of hopeful Democrat office seekers with it to the bottom. Republican candidates won from sea to shining sea. By January, the GOP could hold a 54-seat majority in the Senate.
To quarantine or not to quarantine? That is the legal and medical question of the hour. Should the good people coming back to the USA after helping fight Ebola in West Africa be forced to undergo a 21-day quarantine? The defense department obviously thinks so.
We all know what an act of Islamic terrorism is -- except for our lame duck-in-chief, that is. Now the Canadians know it, too. On Wednesday one of their fellow citizens who had just converted to Islam and wanted to go overseas and join ISIS donned a dark jacket and an "Arabic scarf" and attacked their Parliament. He — the suicidal terrorist -- shot one unarmed ceremonial guard to death.
Add Ebola to our long and growing list of federal screw-ups. On Wednesday morning we learned a second nurse was infected by the virus in a Dallas hospital while taking care of the Ebola patient from Africa who died October 8. When the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, went on TV, he admitted his government agency wasn't aggressive enough in managing and containing the spread of Ebola. "We could've sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one about exactly how this should be managed."
The head of the FBI says a terrorist attack may be coming. He doesn't know where or when, of course. But Director James Comey says the hard-core terror group Khorasan is planning to attack the United States and is "looking to do it very, very soon." Comey offered no details, nothing specific. He also used the weasle-word "may." Yet he says we all have to act as if a terrorist attack on us at home is "coming tomorrow."
The White House sprayed by bullets. A hospital guard with a criminal record and a gun the Secret Service didn't know about riding on an elevator with the president in Atlanta. The fence-jumper who made it all the way into the East Room of the White House. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson had no choice but to resign on Wednesday afternoon. She did it a week or two late, but she did the right thing.
"God bless you, and God bless the Homeland." It won't surprise me if that's how a future President closes one of his "State of the Union " addresses. The un-American term "the homeland" is taking over America. Everywhere I turn it's being used to replace the words "country" or "nation" or "the United States." All the media have accepted the phrase. It's all over CNN, FOX, MSNBC. I hear it on NPR.
Domestic violence just doesn't happen on elevators. And it's not just committed by former NFL running backs. But don't tell that to the people who've been calling for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to quit over his fumbling of the Ray Rice case. Based on what's been on TV all week, you'd think pro football and its nearly 3,000 well-paid athletes have the monopoly on domestic violence in America. The U.S. Justice Department disagrees.
Let's get to the burning national media issue of the week -- Ray Rice and spousal abuse. All the professional media moralizers are jumping on the politically correct Rice soapbox to prove to each other how much they are against physically abusing women. As if anyone is in favor of it. Rice knocked out his bride-to-be Janay in a casino elevator last February. That's about the only thing clear from the elevator footage TMZ released to the world.
