Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, April 7, 2014
More Media Malfeasance
For the last few years I've had an ongoing discussion with my brother who agrees with me that Obama administration scandals like Fast and Furious, Benghazi, or the IRS corruption investigation are serious. Yet unlike me, he often wonders why they get no traction with the public. The reason, I tell him, is simple: when you have a mainstream media that has abandoned journalistic integrity in favor of an agenda, you get what you got. Remember Watergate? Of course you do. And the reason you do is because the entire mainstream media made it their non-stop topic of conversation for months on end. Despite being little more than a hotel break-in followed by an elaborate coverup, the media turned it into scandal of historic proportions.
That's No Moon: That's Obamacare!
Elect Democrats, or witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational health care legislation!
What Does the FiredFox Say?
Most people use Mozilla Firefox's web browser to search -- but the extreme Left has been using it to search... and destroy. Short-lived CEO Brendan Eich found that out the hard way, when the long-time employee was chased out of his job for holding a view that -- at the time -- even Barack Obama claimed to subscribe to. Eich, who was under the impression that Mozilla had hired him for his experience not his political views, became the latest trophy on the Left's wall when it was revealed that he'd given $1,000 to the successful Proposition 8 effort *five years ago* in California. Despite Eich's apology, an unfortunate capitulation to the kind of self-censorship activists demand, he ultimately resigned -- joining the growing list of Americans whose reputations and careers are publicly flogged because they dare to express an opinion that reflects the diversity liberals insist they want. At two and a half weeks, Eich held the job longer than Craig James -- who was fired after a single day at Fox Sports Southwest -- but having been involved with Firefox since its inception 16 years ago, the fallout still stings. Like most Americans, he didn't know that exercising the freedoms that make our nation great are the same ones that make him unemployable by the Left's corporate bullies.
Money in Politics? McCutcheon's Foes Don't Always Say No
Traditional liberals should be cheering the Supreme Court's decision last week in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which reaffirmed a value at the heart of the First Amendment: The best response to unwelcome or controversial political speech is more political speech. Democratic self-government depends on the right to participate in advocacy and debate, and the Constitution reserves some of its strongest language to support of citizens who choose to exercise that right: "Congress shall make no law" abridging it. But much of the reaction from the left to McCutcheon, which threw out the aggregate cap on how much money an individual can contribute to federal candidates or party committees in a given election cycle, has been apoplectic. The ruling didn't alter the maximum contribution that can be given to any candidate ($2,600 for each primary or general election), but by striking down the overall ceiling, it restored the right of Americans to support as many candidates as they wish.
Fewer Limits on Campaign Contributions Strengthens America
The Supreme Court's decision last week in McCutcheon v Federal Election Commission, eliminating the total limit that an individual can contribute in an election cycle to candidates and party committees, amounts to a shot of adrenalin to American democracy. The court ruled that such limits violate First Amendment free speech protection. Limits remain on the total funds that an individual can contribute to a given candidate in an election cycle. But the limit on the total contributions that an individual can make are now gone.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Charles Koch Fights Back
Is it too farfetched to connect the dots between a brilliant Wall Street Journal op-ed by Charles Koch, the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, and the continued sluggish recovery in jobs, business investment and the overall economy? I don't think so. In his piece, Koch seems to make a plea for a big dose of free-market capitalism. He argues, "The central belief and fatal conceit of the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life, but those in power are capable of running it for you. This is the essence of big government and collectivism."
Why Contraceptives Are Important
In a free market, no one would ever purchase insurance coverage for contraceptives, any more than they would use health insurance to pay for seatbelts or airbags in automobiles. Because of their low cost almost everybody can afford contraceptives and if price is a deterrent they are available for free from local public health authorities or from such private organizations as Planned Parenthood. Further, how did anyone ever get the idea that people should give up their First Amendment rights when they incorporate? This issue goes far beyond the *Hobby Lobby* and *Conestoga Wood* cases now before the Supreme Court. I don't think the federal government should be able to put the executives at Pfizer in jail if they distribute an article from the New England Journal of Medicine describing an off label use of a Pfizer drug. Pfizer executives should have the same free speech rights as anyone else.
A Tax Reformer's Uphill Push
The Sisyphean task of tax reform should be tried only by someone who will not flinch from igniting some highly flammable people -- those who believe that whatever wrinkle in the tax code benefits them is an eternal entitlement. Tax reform's Senate champion is Ron Wyden, the affable, cerebral and tall Oregon Democrat who once wanted to be the NBA's greatest Jewish power forward since ... never mind. Anyway, a serious Republican reform plan has been produced by Rep. Dave Camp, who is retiring from Congress but will probably be succeeded as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee by Paul Ryan, who has a wholesome monomania about promoting economic growth. Conservatives should rejoice that the Senate's most important chairmanship, that of the Finance Committee, has come to Wyden, whose progressive credentials are impeccable but who says: "We like expanding the winners' circle." And who believes that economic growth of 4 percent is not only feasible but urgent.
Another Job for Clarence Odbody
Because it's so easy and so much fun to belittle politicians, and because the fun isn't limited to just Republicans or Democrats, we often lose sight of the fact that these folks are not members of royal families who inherit power the way others may inherit a farm or a family photo album. They actually have to run for office and be elected, even if their names are Bush, Clinton or Rockefeller. That being said, can you even imagine how stupid people have to be to elect Sheila Jackson Lee to represent them in Congress for the past 19 years? In spite of having a BA from Yale and a JD from the University of Virginia's Law School, Ms. Lee recently said, "We have survived for 400 years under a Constitution that defines what is constitutional and what is not." Even if you overlook the fact that she hasn't uttered a single negative word about the way Obama has trampled on both the Constitution and the House of Representatives, you would have assumed that a member of Congress would be aware that the Constitution is only 227 years old, not 400. I guess it's safe to assume that those degrees owe far more to affirmative action than to Ms. Lee's scholarship.
Saturday, April 5, 2014
From The Comedy Store
The U.S. Supreme Court voted Wednesday to eliminate the limits on campaign donations to multiple candidates and political groups. Reaction was swift. MSNBC called for revolution, Fox News reported the stock market surge, and at CNN they threw paper airplanes around the studio to re-create the flight pattern of the Malaysian airliner, followed by expert commentary.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Won Mississippi...
What the Founding Fathers hailed as a virtue to be pursued and protected is today being pursued and pummeled by those who want to see religious freedom quarantined to the four walls of our churches. Fortunately, there are still some elected leaders who understand that all our freedoms hinge upon our First Freedom, the freedom of religion. Yesterday, I had the honor of joining Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) at the signing of SB2681 -- the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and had the opportunity to thank him first-hand -- and others who were instrumental in passing the bill -- for their tremendous leadership in defending religious liberty.
ObamaCare Propaganda in TV Scripts?
Top Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett recently granted an interview to a celebrity gossip website called POPSUGAR and revealed why she had come to Hollywood. "I'm meeting with writers of various TV shows and movies to try to get it into the scripts." The "it" is Obamacare. Conservatives are no match for liberals in this arena. The White House people know the immense cultural power the left has in popular culture. Liberals rightly credit TV and movies and pop songs for America's growing support for gay "marriage." So why not use that power for Obamacare? Jarrett told the POPSUGAR crew that they've used all kinds of famous people to push Obamacare: "We're talking to celebrities. We're talking to athletes, because obviously they get injured a lot and many of them are the same age as the market we're going after. And what (athletes) can say is, 'Look, you never know when life is going to throw you a curve ball. You're walking down the street, you're a little clumsy, you trip, you fall -- where do you end up? Emergency room. A couple grand just to walk in the door ... Who can afford that?'"
Obama's Stand-Up Routine Is Laughable Indeed
President Obama was doing his favorite thing this week: talking to crowds of adoring young people who already agree with him while acting like he persuaded them about something. They also seemed to give Obama the impression that he's a really funny guy. On Wednesday, he told a crowd of 1,400 at the University of Michigan that he visited a local deli, Zingerman's. He proceeded to tell a long story about ordering the small Reuben sandwich, which he said was "killer." That description got a good laugh. Then he explained how he thought the sandwich was too big, so he shared it with his advisor, Valerie Jarrett. "After I finished [my] half, I wanted [her] half back," Obama said. "But it was too late, all she had was the pickle -- so I took the pickle."
Pushing Back Against PARCC/Achieve Inc. Lobbyists
Attention, class: A Common Core mouthpiece wants to rap my knuckles with his Gates Foundation-funded ruler. In response to my column two weeks ago about the marketing overlords pushing the Fed Ed racket, Chad Colby of Achieve Inc. demanded corrections. Let's go to school. "I wanted to take a moment to highlight two points that were incorrect regarding Achieve," Colby complained. "Contrary to Ms. Malkin's assertion, Achieve employs no lobbyists and we never have." No? Never? Someone didn't do his homework. Mr. Colby, meet Patricia Sullivan. She's the founding executive director of Achieve and a career lobbyist who has bounced around D.C. for the past quarter-century in influence-peddling positions for the Gates Foundation-funded National Governors Association, Council for Chief State School Officers and Center on Education Policy. She has "advocated" for trade groups, a teachers union and her own "consulting firm." That's Washington-speak for "lobbying."
Millennials Choose the Path of Least Resistance
When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1830, he was struck by how many Americans were participating in voluntary associations. It was quite a contrast with his native France, where power was centralized in Paris and people did not trust each other enough to join in voluntary groups. Tocqueville might have a different impression should he, utilizing time travel, visit the America of 2030. Or so I conclude on reading the recently released Pew Research Center report on the attitudes and behavior of America's Millennial generation. By then the Millennials, people born after 1980, will be closing in on age 50 and will be the dominant segment of the working-age population.
What's Race Got to Do with It?
I like Megyn Kelly. The Fox News anchor is smart, lively and gorgeous. But she's managed to walk right into a controversy over race and ethnicity, and it's not the first time. These are treacherous waters for anyone in media -- but especially so for media personalities who are perceived as conservative. (Full disclosure: I am also a Fox News commentator.) The current brouhaha involves Kelly's decision on Wednesday during her eponymous show not to name the shooter in the deadly attack at Ft. Hood. Here's what she said: "Authorities are identifying the shooter. If you are interested, you can get his name on other shows, like the one that preceded this one, and online, but we have decided not to name these mass killers as a policy here on 'The Kelly File.'"
Kerry's Folly, Chapter 3
When has a secretary of state been involved in so many disastrous, self-initiated negotiations? First, John Kerry convenes -- against all advice and holding no cards -- Geneva negotiations to resolve the Syria conflict and supposedly remove Bashar al-Assad from power. The talks collapse in acrimony and confusion. Kerry's response? A second Geneva conference that -- surprise! -- breaks up in acrimony and confusion. Then, even as Russian special forces are taking over Crimea, Kerry goes chasing after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- first to Paris, then Rome, then London -- offering a diplomatic "offramp." Lavrov shrugs him off. Russia annexes Crimea.
The GM Scandal Is Worse Than You Think
Here's another reason government should never own a business. In February 2010, the Obama administration's transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, told America, without a shred of evidence, that Toyota automobiles were dangerous to drive. LaHood offered the remarks in front of the House subcommittee that was investigating reports of unintended-acceleration crashes. "My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it," he said, sending the company's stock into a nose dive. Even at the time, LaHood's comments were reckless at best. Assailing the competition reeks of political opportunism and cronyism. It also illustrates one of the unavoidable predicaments of the state's owning a corporation in a competitive marketplace. And when we put LaHood's comment into perspective today, it's actually a lot worse. The Obama administration not only had the power and ideological motive to damage the largely nonunionized competition but also was busy propping up a company that *was* causing preventable deaths.
Real Women Vote Democrat; or Do They?
"The conservative minds of the Heritage Foundation have found a way for Republicans to shrink the gender gap: They need to persuade more women to get their MRS degrees." So wrote the Washington Post's Dana Milbank about a panel that featured Mollie Hemingway, Karin Agness and yours truly. It was so nice of Milbank to attend -- a shame that his mind was so clenched shut that he could hear only what his prejudices led him to expect, rather than what we actually said. Hate to interrupt a good sneer, but the panel wasn't about the gender gap; it was about feminism. Milbank focused narrowly on the political implications of our talk and couldn't resist descending to the most tired leftist cliche, namely that "the consensus was that we ought to go back in history." The left cannot shake is starry-eyed confidence that history has a vector -- that forward is always toward the sunny uplands of equality, prosperity and happiness -- and backward is always a descent. Tell that to Germans in 1933 or Cambodians in 1975. Ask a newly captured slave onboard a ship in the middle passage if he wanted to "go back in history."
Obama Tackled in the End Zone
It's one thing to spike the football when you actually score a touchdown, but why is Obama celebrating in the end zone when he just got tackled for a safety? What on earth is this man boasting about? Boasting is obnoxious enough when the braggart in question has accomplished something, but how many people do you know who brag when they've hurt millions? Under the goal posts in the Rose Garden, Obama said: Obamacare "is doing what it's supposed to do; it's working. ... The debate over repealing this law is over; the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. ... I've got to admit, I don't get it. Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about the idea of folks having health insurance?"