Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Iran Away Without Paying
The president's Iran deal came at great expense to U.S. security — and it may come at even greater expense to the regime's victims. About 43 billion dollars' worth. Until recently, most people probably didn't know that the Iranian government owed a bundle of money to American and Israeli terrorism victims. Since the late 1990s, U.S. courts have awarded billions of dollars to these families for their loss and their suffering. Billions of dollars that — for years — has gone unpaid. Now, with Iran set to cash in on the international community's misplaced trust, Congress is demanding that President Hassan Rouhani pay up. Before the U.S. lifts sanctions, at least 120 House conservatives want the regime to give survivors of terrorism what's owed them. If Iran refuses, a new bill would block the flow of funds promised in the U.S. nuclear deal.
Navy Secretary Dismisses Risks to Women in Combat
A new study reveals the disturbing facts.
The Dogs That Aren't Barking in the 2016 Campaign
Sherlock Holmes famously solved the mystery of the Silver Blaze by noting the dog that didn't bark in the night. It strikes me that in this wild and woolly campaign cycle there have been numerous dogs not barking in the night, or in the daytime either. Start with the race for the Democratic nomination, which has not unrolled as predicted. Every observer knows Hillary Clinton's numbers have been falling and Bernie Sanders' numbers have been rising, leading her in Iowa and New Hampshire. Every observer is waiting to see if Joe Biden will run, perhaps in time for the Democrats' first debate two weeks from now.
Our Shameful Foreign Policy
Barack Obama has made the American political left comfortable with human rights abuses. See a despot engaged in genocide in Obama's America, blame George W. Bush and move on. In Afghanistan, American soldiers are being driven out of the military for taking action to stop Afghan soldiers from raping boys. Rape is a war crime. It is a war crime to turn a blind eye to soldiers, including allies, engaging in war crimes. Just over two weeks ago, The New York Times reported that American soldiers are being told to ignore sexual abuse of boys in Afghanistan.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Overlooked Remarks From the 'People's Pope'
To say that Pope Francis' visit to the United States drew a lot of media attention would be an understatement. The coverage was 'round-the-clock. Yet as a lifelong "cradle Catholic," educated by Jesuits, I couldn't help noticing what a remarkably incomplete, if not misleading, portrait emerged of the Holy Father. Ask most people what issues concern the pope, and they'll likely cite immigration and climate change. And yes, he has discussed them on many occasions, at times using terms that have led some liberals to declare the pontiff is a card-carrying socialist with little patience for allegedly "outdated" traditional church teachings.
GOP Can't Win in 2016 by Losing Now
Some Republicans in Congress will never learn. This time the GOP's hard-right conservative minority had dreams of shutting Washington down over Planned Parenthood's illegal profiteering in fetal tissue from its abortion business. They hoped to defund Planned Parenthood of its half-billion in annual federal dollars by attaching a measure that did exactly that to a larger spending bill. They thought their legislative trickery would force President Obama into vetoing the spending bill, thereby shutting down the government in Washington.
The Republican Party's Big Choice
On Tuesday, members of the House Oversight Committee grilled Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards over undercover videos linking high-ranking employees with illegal sale of fetal body parts. Under heavy questioning, Richards admitted to supporting sex-selective abortion, acknowledged that the vast majority of Planned Parenthood's nongovernment revenue springs from abortion, and awkwardly attempted to explain away the organization's alleged willingness to utilize special abortion techniques to preserve "samples" from the killed unborn. That night, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that he would fully fund Planned Parenthood.
'Get Out'
The decline of America's influence under Obama is accelerating. Fox News reports that "Russian diplomats sent an official demarche [a diplomatic demand] ordering U.S. planes out of Syria." That demand was issued as Russia launched its first airstrikes in Syria following a unanimous vote by Russian lawmakers to approve President Vladimir Putin's request for the use of force. Putin is going to war, and he's telling America to get out of his way. How flexible will Obama be this time?
Republicans Fail at Hearings — Again
Dear Republican Members of Congress: Consider this an intervention. You guys do not understand how to hold a decent hearing. Hillary Clinton danced away from your Benghazi questions like Muhammad Ali. Your threats to hold more hearings on Planned Parenthood and Benghazi are about as frightening as President Obama's warnings to Vladimir Putin that "doubling down on Assad would be a mistake." Within hours of Obama's feeble bleat, Russian planes were dropping bombs on the Syrian resistance (not, it should be noted, on ISIS). Putin's Russia, once described by John McCain as a "gas station pretending to be a country," is now running circles around Obama — rushing to fill the power void left by American abdication in the Middle East.
Will Stephen Colbert Give Liberals the Ted Cruz Treatment?
"The Late Show" host, Stephen Colbert, in an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., said conservative icon President Ronald Reagan actually raised taxes and signed an amnesty bill. Gotcha! To the delight of his audience, Colbert argued that if Reagan could "compromise" by raising taxes and granting amnesty, why can't the intransigent Republican conservatives of today do so? For whatever reason, the normally nimble Cruz failed to educate Colbert and his audience that Reagan came to regret the tax hikes of 1982 — the ones that the left reminds us were, as a percentage of GDP, the largest in U.S. peacetime history.
The War on America Turns 50
Half a century ago, Democrats looked at the country and realized they were never going to convince Americans to agree with them. But they noticed that people in most other countries of the world already agreed with them. The solution was obvious. So in 1965 — 50 years ago this week — Sen. Ted Kennedy passed an immigration law that has brought 59 million foreigners to our shores, who happen to vote 8-2 for the Democrats. Democrats haven't won any arguments; they changed the voters. If anything, the Democrats have stopped bothering to appeal to Americans. The new feminized Democratic Party says, *That's too bad about those steelworkers in Ohio losing their jobs, but THERE'S A WOMAN AT A LAW FIRM IN NEW YORK CITY WHO DESERVES TO MAKE PARTNER!*
Bernie Sanders' America
The raucous welcomes and thundering applause that have greeted America's newest (and oldest) political rock star, the septuagenarian Bernie Sanders, have launched a cottage industry of puzzled pundits trying to figure out the source of his appeal. Of course it's his ideas, his supporters have insisted, perhaps as well as his presentation style, which issues from an agreeable set of features topped by undisciplined strands of white hair, giving him a sort of aged, professorial look of a speaker waving his arms while hurling his points across the lectern before the class ends.
Our Navy, Our Character
The Navy's operations, on which the sun never sets, are the nation's nerve endings, connecting it with the turbulent world. Although the next president may be elected without addressing the Navy's proper size and configuration, for four years he or she will be acutely aware of where the carriers are. Today they are at the center of a debate about their continuing centrality, even viability, in the Navy's projection of force. Far out into the South China Sea, China is manufacturing mini-islands out of reefs, many of which used to be underwater at high tide. China is asserting sovereignty above and around these militarized specks in the congested cauldron of this sea. Through it and adjoining straits pass half the world's seaborne tonnage; five of America's most important 15 trading partners are in this region. Until President Trump launches his many trade wars, those partners include China, which is America's third-largest export market and largest source of imports. The Obama administration has rejected challenging China's audacity by not sailing through its claimed territorial waters — within 12 miles — around the new reef-islands.
Pope Francis, I Am with You on Everything but Humility
I write as a practicing Roman Catholic. I watched the pope in America last week with pride. All the virtues that he so admirably embodies are virtues I strive to embody, too — though he will have to excuse me on one or two. In the case of chastity, I opted for marriage, admittedly the less celebrated heterosexual type of marriage, but marriage nonetheless. Then there is humility. Frankly, I have never been able to get the hang of it. I mean, what is in it for me? I suppose it is ideal to have a humble pope, but I cannot imagine a humble editor in chief, much less a humble columnist.
Candidates AWOL on Plans to Cut Spending
Donald Trump is the most recent Republican presidential candidate to release a plan to reform our burdensome tax code. Though all the proposals are different, they share common characteristics. They would cut income tax rates on households, lower the tax code's bias against savings and investment, close some loopholes, and reform America's anti-competitive corporate income tax system. Now all they need to be politically credible are sister plans to produce concomitant levels of spending restraint. According to the Tax Foundation, none of these plans would be revenue-neutral. Contrary to what you hear, that's a good thing, because it means they would reduce the amount of money the government collects from us. Using a static model that assumes people do not change their behavior much, over 10 years government revenues would shrink by $2.97 trillion under Rand Paul's plan, by $4 trillion under Marco Rubio and Mike Lee's plan, by $3.6 trillion under Jeb Bush's plan, and by $11.98 trillion under Trump's plan.
Pope Burnout
Unpopular though it may be to say so, I, for one, grew exhausted by the nonstop pronouncements/commentaries of Pope Francis. The spiritual leader of 1 billion Catholics — roughly half of the world's Christians — Francis just completed a high-profile, endlessly publicized visit to the United States. But unlike past visiting pontiffs, the Argentine-born Francis weighed in on a number of hot-button U.S. social, domestic and foreign-policy issues during a heated presidential election cycle. Francis, in characteristic cryptic language, pontificated about climate change. He lectured on illegal immigration. He harped on the harshness of capitalism, as well as abortion and capital punishment.
Taxing Propositions
The White House Historical Association is promoting a Christmas ornament honoring our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge. This summer, Coolidge was added to the "racing presidents" feature at Washington Nationals home games, in which mascots representing past presidents sprint down the sideline. The club even gave away a Coolidge bobblehead doll. Does this mean the long-neglected Coolidge is making a comeback? I hope so, because his thoughts and policies, especially when it comes to taxes and spending, are needed today.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Ahmed Mohamed's Qatari Vacation with the Muslim Brotherhood
Teenage clockmaker invited to Qatar by an organization linked to the terror group.
Putin Takes the Lead
A number of world leaders addressed the United Nation's General Assembly [Monday]. But one man stole the show and made it clear that he was willing to fill the vacuum left by America's retreat under Obama — Russian President Vladimir Putin. As one New York Post columnist put it: "Obama has turned Putin into the world's most powerful leader." Even the usually sympathetic left-wing media could see it too, evidenced by this headline, "Putin Steals Obama's Thunder On the World Stage."
Good Riddance!
The impending departure of Speaker of the House John Boehner gives the House Republicans a real opportunity to accomplish something. But an opportunity is not a guarantee. It is a little like a football team being first down and goal at the ten-yard line. You have a good chance of scoring a touchdown from there — if you can get your act together. But you could also find yourself having to settle for a field goal. Or for a missed field goal. And of course you can also fumble the ball and have the other team grab it — and run it all the way back across the field to score a touchdown against you. With Republicans, it would be chancy to make a bet as to which of these scenarios is most likely.