Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The United States Does Not Negotiate ... With Congress
Americans have gotten the raw end of a lot of Barack Obama deals -- but the Bowe Bergdahl swap could literally be the most explosive yet. With five of the world's top terrorists on a "work release" program in Qatar, voters see the swap as the ticking time bomb it is. President Obama, who seemed to show some remorse for the "oversight" of breaking the law, has shifted gears, digging in his heels on what's turned out to be a major black eye on his already bruised foreign policy record.
Redskins & Thin Skins
The U.S. Senate under the guidance -- or, if you prefer, the thumb -- of Harry Reid isn't interested in getting to the bottom of scandals involving the IRS, Benghazi or the Veterans Administration. But half the Senate -- 50 members, count 'em, 50 -- decided that the worst problem facing us was that their hometown football team continues to call itself the Washington Redskins. Even though a poll has shown that 80% of actual Native Americans have no problem with the name, Harry Reid and his coven of chowderheads have decided that something must be done. The very idea that Reid, who refers to Republicans as un-American -- and that's on one of his more civil days -- and calls cancer victims liars if they complain about ObamaCare, should set himself up as a moral arbiter and as the last word on decorum is ludicrous at best, stomach-turning at worst.
The 'Weird' and 'Scary' Open Carry Movement
Are people who assert their Second Amendment rights by bringing rifles and shotguns into stores and restaurants "weird" and "scary"? At least one staff member at the National Rifle Association (NRA) thought so, and he expressed that view in an online commentary that the organization felt compelled to retract last week after it caused an uproar among gun rights advocates. To some extent, the episode reflects divisions among Second Amendment activists, many of whom view the NRA, despite its reputation for adamantly resisting gun control, as insufficiently zealous. But the brouhaha also highlights a shift in American attitudes regarding the public display of guns.
Who Owns You?
Darcy Olsen, president of the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, and Richard Garr, president of Neuralstem, a biotech company, wrote "Right to Try experimental drugs" in USA Today (5/28/2014). They pointed out that "this year, more than 5,000 Americans will lose their battle with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease." Up until recently, there was no medicine on the market that significantly improved the lives of ALS patients. But now there is one in clinical trials that holds considerable promise, but it has not been granted Food and Drug Administration approval. The average amount of time it takes to get a drug through the FDA approval process is 10 years. That's time that terminal patients don't have. Legislators in Colorado, Louisiana and Missouri recently approved "Right to Try" legislation, and Arizona voters will vote on the measure this November. "Right to Try" is an initiative designed by the Goldwater Institute. It would give terminal patients access to investigational drugs that have completed basic safety testing. Under a doctor's supervision, people would be given the chance to try promising experimental drugs before they're given final FDA approval.
Libertarians Versus Conservatives
Both libertarians and conservatives want to keep America safe. We differ on how best to do that. Most libertarians believe our attempts to create or support democracy around the world have made us new enemies, and done harm as well as good. We want less military spending. Some conservatives respond to that by calling us isolationists, but we're not. I want to participate in the world; I just don't want to run it. I'm glad Americans trade with other countries -- trade both goods and people. It's great we sell foreigners our music, movies, ideas, etc. And through dealing with them, we also learn from what they do best. On my TV show this week, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton will tell me why my libertarian skepticism about the importance of a "strong military presence" is "completely irrelevant to foreign policy decision-making."
Reading Between the Lines of Clinton's 'Hard Choices'
Hillary Clinton's State Department memoir, "Hard Choices," has just come out, and who among us can contain their excitement? Not Mike Allen, author of the incestuously insider Politico column "Playbook." In Monday's installment, he began, "Welcome to Hillary Week!" But the exclamation point was ironic, for Allen immediately dropped what he calls a "truth bomb": "'Hard Choices' is a newsless snore, written so carefully not to offend that it will fuel the notion that politics infuses every part of her life. In this book, like in 'The Lego Movie' theme song, everyone is awesome!"
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
The Pig in the Republican Poke
Sir Isaac Newton instructs us, in the Third Law of Motion, that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. It may be another way of saying that without Barack Obama there might not now be a Ted Cruz. The political writers swarmed all around the Texas Republican Party's recent convention with the tale of how much enthusiasm Cruz aroused there as the party's prospective answer to Barack Obama and Harry Reid. "I tell you this," Cruz said at one Republican event, "as good as 2014 is gonna be, 2016 is gonna be even better." "Something incredible is happening," he told delegates. "Something is sweeping the state of Texas; it's sweeping every state." He likened the "something" to "the Reagan revolution we saw in the face of stagnation, in the face of feckless, naive foreign policy, in the face of America getting weaker and weaker ... "
Israel Is Not America
Defenders of President Obama's release of five Taliban terrorists from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl cite as justification Israel's history of swapping hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for one or two Israel soldiers. As strong an ally and example of democracy as Israel is, especially in a region sorely lacking in either, Israel is not the United States. Israel has its own interests and purpose for its actions. The world looks to the United States for leadership and in this president and his administration it has found little. There are important distinctions between Israeli prisoner exchanges and the Bergdahl deal. First, according to many who served with him, Sgt. Bergdahl deliberately walked away from his post. The Israeli soldiers were captured while doing their jobs.
The Prisoner Swap Deal
People are arguing about what the United States got out of the deal that swapped five top level terrorist leaders for one American soldier who was, at best, absent from his post in a war zone. Soldiers who served in the same unit with him call him a deserter. The key to this deal, however, is less likely to be what the United States got out of the deal than it is about what Barack Obama got out of the deal. If nothing else, it instantly got the veterans' hospitals scandals off the front pages of newspapers and pushed these scandals aside on television news programs. It was a clear winner for Barack Obama. And that may be all that matters to Barack Obama. People who are questioning the president's competence seem not to want to believe that any President of the United States would knowingly damage this country's interests.
Under Crabb, Democracy a Lost Claws
While Americans are glued to the story of one high-profile deserter, the courts seem packed with them -- lawless judges eager to walk away from the Constitution and the oath they swore to uphold it. Unfortunately, the country is all too familiar with one of those activists, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, who's been tied to the National Day of Prayer, which she tried -- unsuccessfully -- to strike it down. Obviously, Crabb hasn't learned anything since her rogue days in 2010, when a higher court rebuked the ideologue for her obvious political agenda. Now, the Wisconsin judge is back to her old ways, ruling late Friday afternoon that natural marriage belongs in the same garbage pile as public prayer. Like her past outrages, this ruling makes a case for same-sex "marriage" absolutely devoid of religious or legal authority.
A Costly Way to Limit Free Speech
Americans will pay a price for limits on campaign spending
The Continuing ObamaCare Nightmare
While President Obama diverts the nation's attention with his other myriad scandals, the Obamacare Express continues to careen off the rails, leaving a wide path of destruction and rendering its supporters defenseless. The latest outrage, in a yearslong string, is that at least 4 million of the 8 million total Obamacare sign-ups contain flawed applications, according to a report by House Republicans. But this isn't some arbitrarily divined number chosen by Republicans for political purposes. It is based on a chart prepared by federal Obamacare contractor Serco that shows more than 4 million application discrepancies as of May 27. These include inconsistencies regarding income, citizenship and immigration, residency, incarceration, Indian status, Social Security numbers, and eligibility for another federal health program.
America Cannot Do a Damned Thing
Considering how easy it would be for the Iranian regime to get everything it wants from the current administration, it's a little startling to see the "supreme leader" brazenly poking his finger into the president's eye. President Barack Obama's fond hopes -- nurtured since before his first inauguration -- to forge a new, better relationship with the "Islamic Republic" have come to this: Speaking to a large crowd assembled to mark the 25th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death, "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei declared his continuing belief that America is the Great Satan. "Battle and jihad are endless," he said. "This battle will only end when the society can get rid of the oppressors' front with America at the head of it, which has expanded its claws on human mind, body and thought." Arrayed behind the cleric was a banner reading, "America cannot do a damn thing!"
Pope Francis: Pets Can't Replace Children
Pope Francis said something so important last week that it will either be widely ignored or widely disparaged. The pope criticized "these marriages, in which the spouses do not want children, in which the spouses want to remain without fertility. This culture of well-being ... convinced us: It's better not to have children! It's better! You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside; you can be carefree. It might be better -- more comfortable -- to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the dog." He is right. More than ever before, young men and women in most affluent Western countries (and Russia) have decided not to have children. Instead, many shower love and attention on dogs and cats. Ask many young women -- married or single -- if they have any children, and if they do not, you are likely to be told, "I have two cats" or "I have two dogs." There are authors whose book jacket photo shows them with their dog or cat.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Why Are Establishment Republicans Supporting Thad Cochran?
Anyone that wants to know what is wrong with today's Republican Party need only look to the state of Mississippi. A 76-year-old Republican Senator, Thad Cochran, who has been serving in the United States Congress for 42 years, is running yet again for another six-year term. This, while his dementia-ridden wife has been sitting in a nursing home for the last 14 years. In the primary last Tuesday, Cochran lost by half a point to Tea Party Republican challenger Chris McDaniel. But because McDaniel garnered 49.6 percent of the vote, short of the 50 percent mark, there will be a run-off.
Pot Shots and Pit Stops
As most of you know, I am often pointing out the problems I have with liberal arts colleges. I am bothered by the cost of their tuitions, by the radical politics of their professors and by the craven cowardice of their administrators. Taken in order, there is no good reason why parents and students should have to go into debt. The price of books hasn't increased to such an extent that an education that used to run a few thousand dollars now runs to six figures. Next, if there is any place where freedom of thought and expression should be encouraged, it's on college campuses. But, thanks to an ever-vigilant academic gestapo, conservatives are persona non grata, both on the faculty and in the student body.
The Cloward-Piven Immigration Strategy
As is the the Obama administration's modus operandi, one scandal replaces another. The Bergdahl prisoner swap, along with another orchestrated, Benghazi-like campaign again spearheaded by professional [liar](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/208472-susan-rice-bergdahl-being-tried-in-court-of-public-opinion) Susan Rice, was just the tonic for getting the VA scandal off the front pages. Yet even as both of these fiascos roil the American public, they pale in comparison to a far more serious debacle that remains largely under the radar by comparison: we are being invaded on our southern border -- with the blessing of the Obama administration and its allies.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
No U.S. Dollars to This PLO 'Terroristan'
For too long, the U.S. taxpayers have been forced to shell out money to the PLO -- the Palestinian Liberation Organization. For nearly a quarter of a century, the PLO -- re-packaged as the Palestinian Authority -- has been raking in billions of dollars from credulous officials in the U.S. State Department and the European Union. All the while, the PLO has never truly renounced its objective of destroying Israel. Nor has the PLO ever been a friend to the American people. When the Twin Towers collapsed in flames on 9/11, the people living under the PLO danced in the streets, gave candy to their children, and fired their AK-47 Soviet-era rifles in the air to celebrate. The late PLO boss, Yassir Arafat gave orders for the murder of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel in 1973. And he invented airline hijacking for terror purposes.
When a President Goes Rogue
What Winston Churchill said of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles -- that he was a bull who carried his own china shop around with him -- is true of Susan Rice, who is, to be polite, accident prone. When in September 2012 she was deputed to sell to the public the fable that the Benghazi attack was just an unfortunately vigorous movie review -- a response to an Internet video -- it could have been that she, rather than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was given this degrading duty because Rice was merely U.N. ambassador, an ornamental position at an inconsequential institution. Today, however, Rice is Barack Obama's national security adviser, so two conclusions must be drawn.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
A 'Classic Sweetheart Deal'
Gregory Sullivan is appalled. The former Inspector General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been studying House Bill 4111, the legislation authorizing a $1.1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. The bill, which sailed through the House of Representatives last week on a 130-19 vote, would empower the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority not only to enlarge its already enormous convention facility in South Boston by 60 percent, but to select a hotel company to build and operate a 1,000- to 1,200-room hotel on land owned by Massport across the street.