Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Is Rubio the One?
Unlike last month's contentious GOP debate on CNBC, the event staged by Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal was thankfully less about the moderators and more about the candidates. It was about content, not about which moderator could ask the best "gotcha" question. We are moving beyond the "who won" stage in these Republican debates into the "who would you be most comfortable with as president" and "who is best equipped to defeat Hillary Clinton?" The answer to both questions seems to be Sen. Marco Rubio.
Ben Carson's Resume Is Fair Game — but What of Democrats' Resumes?
The Politico headline was blunt: "Ben Carson Admits Fabricating West Point Scholarship." Except Carson made no such admission. He acknowledged never applying to West Point. But as a top ROTC student in Detroit, there's little question that had he wanted to go to West Point, he could've gotten in. Technically, West Point offers appointments, and the full tuition is paid for by taxpayers. But even West Point's own website uses the word "scholarship." In any case, Carson went to Yale, and, as such, could likely have gone to any school in the country.
Budgeting in Wonderland
One need not be intricately familiar with the tale of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to appreciate that the federal budget process has similarly become an alternate reality replete with sketchy characters, peril and the absurd. In the latest trip down the Beltway rabbit hole, a Republican-led Congress relied on Democratic votes to produce a two-year budget agreement that removed the limit on Uncle Sam's credit card and increased spending now in exchange for offsetting spending cuts and revenue increases that will mostly occur 10 years from now. Well, that's if future Congresses stick to the offsets.
The Fiction of 'Truth'
We live in a weary age of fable. The latest Hollywood mythology is entitled "Truth." But the film is actually a fictionalized story about how CBS News super-anchor Dan Rather and his "60 Minutes" producer supposedly were railroaded by corporate and right-wing interests into resigning.
Honoring Our Vets, GOP Debate
[Wednesday was] Veterans Day — a day set aside to recognize the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who have served our country in uniform. The day originally began as Armistice Day to mark the 11 AM ceasefire on November 11, 1918 that ended World War I. Congress voted to change the name to Veterans Day in 1954 to commemorate veterans of all wars.
Parliamentary Games
No more excuses. That's the message from [Tuesday's] Senate news. After weeks of worrying that their budget reconciliation bill would hit a procedural wall, conservatives can finally exhale. According to leadership staff, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough gave the thumbs up to the GOP's plan to defund Planned Parenthood through the expedited budgetary process.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
O'Reilly Makes a Mess of History
Were the lungs the seat of wisdom, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly would be wise, but they are not and he is not. So it is not astonishing that he is doubling down on his wager that the truth cannot catch up with him. It has, however, already done so. The prolific O'Reilly has, with his collaborator Martin Dugard, produced five "history" books in five years: "Killing Lincoln," "Killing Kennedy, "Killing Jesus," "Killing Patton" and now the best-selling "Killing Reagan." Because no one actually killed Reagan, O'Reilly keeps his lucrative series going by postulating that the bullet that struck Reagan in March 1981 kind of, sort of killed him, although he lived 23 more years.
For Conservatives and the House Freedom Caucus, a Time to Build
A few weeks ago the House Freedom Caucus was being roundly pummeled by the media, liberal and pseudo-conservative alike. This small band of conservative House members had the audacity to challenge the status quo in Congress, and in the eyes of Washington's comfortable elites, that's a serious offense.
Put Rouhani to Test by Placing Human Rights at the Center of His European Tour
This weekend and early next week Hassan Rouhani will be making his first visit to Europe as the president of Iran. The first time for anything is special and this has the potential to really be a historical visit. Rouhani is scheduled to meet with the leaders of France and Italy, and they can make this a new chapter for relations between Iran and Europe, and to some extent the West as a whole. But this status is not guaranteed simply by the fact that Rouhani is the first Iranian president to visit Europe in a decade. Neither will the historical impact of the visit be determined by the trade agreements that he will try to sign, or the types of concessions he will seek from his European counterparts.
Comcast Keeps Faking Debates
After the CNBC debate, Republicans were outraged at the vicious personal attacks not even disguised as questions from the moderators. Defenders of CNBC suggested the Republicans were just whining. President Obama joked that if GOP candidates can't handle TV moderators, they could never handle Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Then the Obama-lovers at Comcast prove Republicans' point. When NBC anchor Lester Holt sat down for an interview with the president on Nov. 2, there were no attacks. It was business as usual, just another syrupy Brian Williams-style lovefest.
Will Five Justices Give One Man Control of U.S. Immigration Law?
President Barack Obama told the truth — perhaps by accident — when he spoke last November at a Chicago community center. Hecklers shouted at him for not doing enough, in their view, to stop deportations. He responded by defending his new policy. "I understand you may disagree. But we've got to be able to talk honestly about these issues. All right?" said Obama, according to the White House transcript.
The Viruses Infecting American Universities
Many American universities have become hotbeds of political correctness, racial identification politics, anti-Americanism and, increasingly, anti-Semitism. At the University of Missouri, racial grievance politics is thriving. On Monday the university's system president and the chancellor of the flagship campus were forced to resign. For what? I've read two dozen articles about the "controversy" and in all honesty haven't been able to identify anything either of them did wrong. Some students have been complaining about an atmosphere on campus that's hostile to black students. (Among the protestors is the student body president, who is black. Apparently, the atmosphere there is friendly enough toward black students for him to be elected student body president.)
Byrd Watching: GOP Eyes Rule on Planned Parenthood
The most important vote on the bill to defund Planned Parenthood isn't a senator's — it's the parliamentarian's! Until now, most Americans had probably never heard of Elizabeth MacDonough, who, for all practical purposes, is the Senate's referee. The first-ever woman to hold the job, parliamentarian MacDonough will have the weight of the House's budget reconciliation bill on her shoulders when the chamber considers it as early as next week.
Obamnesty Falls Apart. American Workers Win.
Well, this should make the crapweasels in D.C. listen. On Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals told the immigration power-grabbers in the Obama administration to stuff it. The amnesty sympathizers in the media mourned mightily. "Appeals court rules against Obama's plan to protect about 5 million people from deportation," the Associated Press spun. "Court again blocks Obama's plan to protect undocumented migrants," the left-wing U.K. Guardian decried.
The Leftist Tree Must Be Watered With Blood at Mizzou
University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe must wonder what he did wrong. It all began back in September when the black student government president complained that a racist drove by in a truck and allegedly called him a racial slur. Then, in September, a group of black students said that a drunken white racist shouted a slur at them, too. Ugly, of course. But in any normal world, without further evidence of the incidents, life would have gone on — occasional ugliness from ugly people is a feature of living on Earth.
My Trump Problem
Sometimes I like Donald Trump. He makes me laugh when he mocks reporters' stupid questions. Sometimes he's smart. When Maryland's lefty governor said a tax on rich people would "raise revenue," Trump told me why it wouldn't. The taxpayers would just flee: "I know these people! They're international people! Whether they live here or in a place like Switzerland, it doesn't really matter to them!" Perfect TV sound bite. And accurate. Maryland's tax on the rich brought in *less* revenue.
Campus Commotions Show We're Raising Fragile Kids
It seems like every week there's a new horror story of political correctness run amok at some college campus. A warning not to wear culturally insensitive Halloween costumes sparked an imbroglio at Yale, which went viral over the weekend. A lecturer asked in an email, "Is there no room anymore for a child to be a little bit obnoxious ... a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?"
Why Do Working Americans Support Job-Killing Democrats?
After years of review, President Obama has killed the Keystone XL pipeline project. The pipeline would have moved crude oil from Western Canada to Nebraska, where it would have connected to existing pipelines and moved the oil to refineries at the U.S. Gulf Coast. The exact number of jobs that the project would have created was disputed, but a reasonable estimate seems to be several thousand jobs. These would have been largely blue-collar jobs, which is why labor unions, usually a constituency that a Democratic president seeks to please, supported the project.
The Real Sexting Scandal
After public school officials in Canon City, Colorado, discovered at least 100 students had been using their cellphones to swap nude photos of themselves, the Associated Press reported that "it could take a month to sort the offenders from the victims." Part of the challenge is that Colorado, like many states, makes no such distinction: If you are under 18 and take a sexually suggestive picture of yourself, you are both victim and offender.
Attacking Our Founders
Many of my columns speak highly of the wisdom of our nation's founders. Every once in a while, I receive an ugly letter sarcastically asking what do I think of their wisdom declaring blacks "three-fifths of a human." It's difficult to tell whether such a question is prompted by ignorance or is the fruit of an ongoing agenda to undermine American greatness. Let's examine some facts about our founders and slavery.