Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Outsourcing: The Last Talking Point?
When I fretted to my friend and colleague Jay Nordlinger that Republicans may learn the wrong lessons from success in 2014, he noted sagely that he prefers to wait until the results are in before drawing any lessons. While that ought to have stayed my hand, I think some contours are discernible, and so I plunge in! The 2012 election was essentially a protracted exercise in character assassination. Democrats painted Mitt Romney and Republicans generally as extremist cretins who held rigid views on abortion, were hostile to the point of combat toward women, engineered the financial crisis to benefit their rich cronies, and cared so little for working people that they supported tax breaks for companies that shipped jobs overseas.
Colorado Bellwether
As Colorado goes Election Night, so goes the nation -- maybe. The Centennial State is clearly a barometer of Barack Obama's falling popularity. The man who began his meteoric rise as the Democratic presidential nominee in Denver's stadium in 2008 has lost much of his luster with Colorado voters and appears to be bringing down other Democrats with him. Polls show Republican Cory Gardner ahead by seven points in his race to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez is neck and neck with sitting Gov. John HIckenlooper. But before Republicans pop the champagne corks, it is worth considering the big wild card in this election.
The New York Times' War on Gun-Owning Rape Victims
Nasty New York Times editorial writer David Firestone pretends to care about campaign scare-mongering. But what he and his elitist ilk really fear are independent-thinking women who have dared to exercise their First Amendment powers to defend their Second Amendment rights. This week, Firestone took aim at "attack ads" sponsored by the National Rifle Association. The "worst commercial," he says, "features a rape victim describing her assault and accusing" former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg "of wanting to take away her right to defend herself." That rape victim has a name and a story Firestone couldn't even bother to mention. She is Kimberly Weeks, a brave and fierce Colorado woman who testified against the Bloomberg-backed gun-control measures that beleaguered Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper now admits he passed "without basic facts" and concedes were ineffective from the get-go.
The Democrats' Achilles' Heel
I read a shocking headline today: "Ex-Con: Most Black Youths See Obama As 'Deadbeat' Leader." Is this an obvious outlier, or could there be something to this? The ex-con referred to in the headline is Paul McKinley, a member of Voices of the Ex-Offender, which is described as a grass-roots group of former inmates. On the "Steve Malzberg Show" on NewsmaxTV, McKinley said: "Every time they question the president about the black community, he's apologetic or he's embarrassed. ... I would say, 97 percent of the time he (doesn't) even want to say that there even exists a black community. So a lot of the young people are seeing this double standard that the president has."
The Domestic Violence Blacklist
The "No More" TV advertisement blitz against domestic violence by professional athletes is obnoxious and reeks of political correctness. Exactly why does the public need to be indoctrinated about this, as if the audience for "Monday Night Football" is to blame? It's another reason to stop watching this sport. But there is another reason to be opposed to this clearly political pressure campaign. In the current atmosphere, where even accusations of abuse are toxic public relations, what happens when a pro is falsely accused? Consider the story of Dante Cunningham. Six months ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball player drove into his driveway in Minneapolis at 4 in the morning. Waiting for him were the police, who immediately put him in handcuffs. He was accused of beating the girlfriend he'd been living with for eight months, Miryah Herron.
A Word About Monsters, Real and Imagined
"You're the butcher, or you're the cattle." That appears to be the theme of the fifth season of AMC's "The Walking Dead, the most successful TV series about zombies since C-SPAN covered the Reform Party convention in 2000. It's a grim yet compelling drama that at times prides itself less in creative writing than in inventive ways to dispatch the ambulatory deceased. But so far, this is probably the best season since the first. It is also the darkest by far, and for the same reason: It has now dawned on the show's heroes (and writers) that while zombies are a constant danger, humans are the real enemy.
Obama’s Dove Crows: Israel’s Hawk 'A Chicken----!'
Feathers are flying -- in Washington and in Jerusalem -- over the off-the-record comments by a senior Obama administration official to the respected Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. The unnamed dovish Obama policy maker said "the thing about Bibi [Netanyahu] is he's a chicken----!" Direct quote, characterization included. State Department Spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, hastened to disavow the quote, without divulging who said it. Jeffrey Goldberg is the go-to writer whom this administration relies upon to get its message out. Goldberg, seasoned and serious, is nonetheless a faithful adherent of the Obama administration's view that it is Israeli intransigence that is to blame for lack of progress toward a Middle East peace settlement.
Challenge: The Road to Bondage
Apathy toward indecent, uncivil, and immoral behavior has been the undoing of many a nation throughout history. Nations who replace a relationship with God for secular idols are quickly filled with individuals who are apathetic about how they treat others, and ultimately become nations marred by selfishness and greed. And as Rome proved many years ago, a nation composed of selfish, greedy, immoral individuals cannot stand. History shows us that no enemy was able to defeat ancient Rome; Rome fell from within when it became morally bankrupt. Common decency, civility, and morality are intertwined, and the future of our society depends on them.
Obama Finally Identifies the Middle East's Biggest Problem -- Israel
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg has written a piece detailing the deteriorating relationship between Israel and the Obama administration. The chief purpose of Goldberg's piece is to humiliate Benjamin Netanyahu. None of this is especially shocking, considering the antagonism the administration has shown toward the Jewish state from the start. Most people have focused on the name-calling, and Goldberg keeps a list of pejoratives used by U.S. officials to describe Netanyahu, including "aspergery." On that front, it's worth noting that the person repeatedly being called "chickens--t" by anonymous officials volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces, saw combat and was the leader of an elite special forces unit deployed on numerous missions -- including the freeing of a hijacked Sabena flight in 1972, where he was shot. Granted, this may not be so courageous as hopping the Amtrak from Delaware to D.C. each day or rallying the troops at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, but God knows we can't all be heroes.
Democratic Dogs That Aren't Barking
Sherlock Holmes famously solved a mystery by noticing the dog that didn't bark in the night. Dogs that are not barking at night -- nor in prime time -- provide some useful clues to understanding the significance of this year's election. Contrary to the disparagement of some liberal pundits, this election is not about nothing. But is not about certain, specific things they might like to hear. President Obama recently said that Democrats in serious Senate and House contests this year back "every one" of his programs. But you hear very little about those programs in their ads.
A Referendum on Competence
Is this election really about nothing? Democrats might like to think so, but it's not. First, like all U.S. elections, it's about the economy. The effect of the weakest recovery in two generations is reflected in President Obama's 13-point underwater ratings for his handling of the economy. Moreover, here is a president who proclaims the reduction of inequality to be the great cause of his administration. Yet it has radically worsened in his six years. The 1 percent are doing splendidly in the Fed-fueled stock market, even as median income has fallen.
We Are the Enemy
These days, you can hardly look at our institutions or the electorate and not wonder how or if America will survive. Even our so-called houses of worship are not above suspicion. Whether it's mosques, where far too often our vilest enemies meet to plot our deaths and America's downfall; black churches, where hatred of whites is often passed off as gospel by reverends cut in the style of Jeremiah Wright; or Presbyterian churches, where its ministers are so preoccupied with attacking Israel, they often ignore Christ altogether and overlook the fact that he was a Jew.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Quarantine Questions
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.
Hysterical Media Tell Us to Calm Down
In the past week, The New York Times has ridiculed Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Gov. Chris Christie for having "fed panic" by ordering quarantines for health workers arriving from Ebola-plagued countries. NBC News' Brian Williams opened his broadcast last Friday announcing that the Obama administration was trying "to restrain the Ebola panic." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow complained that the "hysteria" over Ebola was getting "stupider."
Trick or Retreat? Houston Mayor Reconsiders Subpoenas
Houston's launched plenty of things over the years -- but controversy seems to be its specialty these days. Houston Mayor Annise Parker has certainly put the city on the map where religious intolerance is concerned. In a [Thursday] morning press conference, the center of a nationwide First Amendment firestorm says the city council is withdrawing the church subpoenas because she "doesn't want to have a national debate about the freedom of religion." Parker stunned Americans last month with her demand for the private communications of certain Houston pastors -- none of whom were involved in the litigation over the city's radical new "bathroom bill." Now, she's trying to dodge the controversy by pulling back on her PR eyesore and focusing on the suit at hand. But, as FRC has said all along, the Mayor's motivation was never about the pastors' sermons or speeches, it was about political intimidation.
PunditFact Lies Again
PunditFact strikes again. For the second time. PunditFact is a so-called truth-seeking column by the Tampa Bay Times. Its website describes the feature as "dedicated to checking the accuracy of claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers, political analysts, the hosts and guests of talk shows." President Barack Obama, for example, recently made the following patently wrongheaded claim: "The states that have raised the minimum wage have had faster job growth than the states that haven't raised the minimum wage." This claim implies a causal connection between raising the minimum wage and prosperity. Minimum-wage hikes do not provoke growth. Indeed, the reverse is true. Yet PunditFact's sister site, PolitiFact, gave Obama a generous "half true."
Cardinal Burke: Neither Bishops Nor Pope Can Change Christ's Teaching on Marriage
Can a pope change Catholic teaching on marriage? When the synod of bishops that Pope Francis has called to discuss the family was meeting in Rome earlier this month, someone not particularly familiar with the Catholic faith might have presumed the answer was yes. The synod, for example, released a midterm report with a section headed: "Positive aspects of civil unions and cohabitation." Yet the Catholic Catechism states: "The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble." The Catechism cites Chapter 10 of the Gospel of Mark as one source for this teaching.
Jeb Bush and Taxes -- Ready My Lips, Part II
Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL.) is thinking seriously about running for president in 2016, according to his son, George P. Bush. According to Commentary magazine, Jeb Bush had an impressive record as governor, including tax reductions totaling $20 billion. Given that performance, why is Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, upset? Politico, and many others, assert it's because of an answer Bush gave in 2012 to a hypothetical question posed by a member of the House Budget Committee, which resurfaced now as he contemplates running for president. Bush was asked if he could accept tax increases of $1 dollar for every $10 dollars in spending cuts. He said he could and seemed enthusiastic about the 10-for-1 formula.
A Clinton vs. Bush Race? Again?
Jeb Bush's son, George P. Bush, told ABC News the other day that his father will "more than likely" run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The former Florida governor's other son, Jeb Bush Jr., told The New York Times that the extended Bush clan and its key allies "are getting fired up" about the prospect of a run for the White House by yet another member of the celebrated political family. In the Democratic camp, meanwhile, the "Ready for Hillary" super PAC is spending $23,000 a day, or more than $2 million per quarter, to build the infrastructure for what is expected to be a second presidential campaign by the former secretary of state. Though Clinton hasn't declared herself a candidate, she is seen as the Democrats' default nominee for 2016.
Our Make-It-Up World
Do bothersome facts matter anymore? Not really. This is an age when Americans were assured that the Affordable Care Act lowered our premiums. It cut deductibles. Obamacare allowed us to keep our doctors and health plans, and lowered the deficit. Those fantasies were both demonstrably untrue and did not matter, given the supposedly noble aims of health care reform. The Islamic State is at times dubbed jayvee, a manageable problem, and a dangerous enemy -- or anything the administration wishes it to be, depending on the political climate of any given week.