Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Lies, Damn Lies & Liberal Talking Points
According to Harry Reid, "There have been plenty of horror stories being told about the Affordable Care Act, but they're all untrue." My initial reaction was to ask if people were going to believe Harry or their canceled health insurance policies. But then, after thinking about it a while, it occurred to me that the real horror stories are the lies Obama and his collection of sock puppets keep feeding us. From Harry Reid's point of view, the facts regarding low enrollment numbers, the small percentage of enrollees who are young and healthy and the inevitable loss of Senate seats to the GOP in November, are far more horrific than anything even I could conjure up.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
A Costly Failed Experiment
With last Sunday marking the fourth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law, it's worth revisiting the initial purpose of the president's signature legislation: Universal coverage was the main goal. Four years later, not even the White House pretends that this goal will be realized. Most of those who were uninsured before the law was passed will remain uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Democrats also fixated on another goal: protection for people with pre-existing conditions. One of the first things the new law did was create federal risk pools so that people who had been denied coverage for health reasons could purchase insurance for the same premium a healthy person would pay. Over the next three years, about 107,000 people took advantage of that opportunity.
A Silver Lining for GOP Senate Hopes
Statistical wunderkind Nate Silver, who analyzes baseball and elections, has bad news for Democrats. Appearing Sunday on ABC's This Week, Silver told reporter Jonathan Karl that Republicans have a 60 percent chance to win the six seats they need to regain control of the Senate in November. "What's the projection, how many are they going pick up?" Karl asked. "Exactly six," Silver replied. Unsurprisingly, Democrats were not amused. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) executive director Guy Cecil fired back in a memo released yesterday morning. "Nate Silver and the staff at FiveThirtyEight are doing groundbreaking work, but, as they have noted, they have to base their forecasts on a scarce supply of public polls," Cecil declared. "In some cases more than half of these polls come from GOP polling outfits. This was one reason why FiveThirtyEight forecasts in North Dakota and Montana were so far off in 2012. In fact, in August of 2012 Silver forecasted a 61% likelihood that Republicans would pick up enough seats to claim the majority. Three months later Democrats went on to win 55 seats."
Take a Swing at These
"Andre Dawson," Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully once said, "has a bruised knee and is listed as day-to-day. Aren't we all?" Yes, so use some of your remaining time constructively by identifying the player or players who...
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Obama's Nuked New York Worry
President Obama remains as sensitive to criticism as he remains immune to reality. Speaking at a news conference in the Hague, Obama addressed criticism directed at him by Mitt Romney, who insisted during the 2012 presidential campaign that Russia is America's foremost foreign policy concern. "With respect to Mr. Romney's assertion that Russia is our number one geopolitical foe, the truth of the matter is that America has a whole lot of challenges," said the president. So what is one of the president's primary concerns? "I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan," said Obama. That's a breathtaking assertion, one completely at odds with Obama's 's reckless foreign policy.
Democrats' ObamaCare Albatross
In September 2010, six months after signing the Affordable Care Act and just weeks before his party's massive losses in the midterm elections, President Obama wondered whether the law's unpopularity might be due to a communication failure on his part. "Sometimes I fault myself," he told an audience in Virginia, "for not having been able to make the case more clearly to the country." There was nothing wrong with the president's communication skills. The case he made for his sweeping health care overhaul was straightforward and appealing: It would make health insurance available to every American, especially the more than 40 million people who were uninsured. It would significantly reduce insurance premiums for individuals and families. It would guarantee that Americans who already had a health plan they liked, or a doctor they liked, would be free to keep them.
The World Is a Bad Soap Opera
The health and fashion magazines keep telling their readers that 60 is the new 50, and 50 is the new 40, and so on. We now have further proof that college is the new high school. It seems that the SAT, an exam that is supposed to establish which 18-year-olds are college material and which ones should consider getting into politics as soon as possible, is not only making the essay portion optional, but removing difficult words from the vocabulary part of the exam. Apparently, anyone who can spell c-a-t and is willing to hock his or her future for a college loan is now deemed to be college material.
From The Comedy Store
The White House pastry chef quit saying Michelle won't let him cook with cream, butter, sugar or eggs. Last week the Secret Service caught three men jumping over the White House fence. They were presidential advisors who'd heard the Popsicle truck coming down the street.
Friday, March 28, 2014
College Players Deserve More
A controversial ruling by the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board this week gives college football players the right to form a union. At issue was whether scholarship players should be considered employees of the university, in this case Northwestern University. NLRB Regional Director Peter Ohr ruled that the players are athletes first and students second. That's probably a fair reading for most college football players in the country at both public and private colleges. But the solution isn't unionization. I'm actually quite sympathetic to the claims that schools take advantage of top athletes in sports like football and basketball. Sure, college players win full rides, with tuition and room and board paid for, along with perks, including tutoring and better food and accommodations at many schools. But athletic programs are a huge source of funding for the schools. Northwestern raised an estimated $30 million for its football program alone last year -- and the top earner, the Texas Longhorns, raised $139 million.
Obama and the 'Hipster Elite'
Politico reported something interesting before President Barack Obama met with Pope Francis: "The visit is a rare chance for Obama to associate himself with a world leader whose cool factor far outweighs his own." It's rare for pundits to admit that someone else might top their revered Barack in the coolness category. They're equating coolness and popularity, and the pope certainly polls much better than the president, which is no surprise these days. Liberals have developed a collective man crush on Pope Francis, even though he hasn't budged an inch on the church's teachings. The Catholic Church is just as "homophobic" as ever in its defense of marriage and just as "intolerant" as ever in its defense of human life.
A Whole Lotta Democratic Corruption Going On
Has Nancy Pelosi seen a newspaper lately? (Pro tip, hon: Like the Obamacare monstrosity, you have to read it to find out what's in it.) I'd love to see her face in the wake of the veritable epidemic of Democratic corruption now sweeping the country. Pelosi's blink count must be off the charts. I'm going to make it easy on Pelosi and put all of the latest cases in one handy rogue's gallery reference list. But let's not be naive. It's clear to me that the Barack Obama/Eric Holder DOJ is clearing the decks before the midterms. Prediction: The FBI's GOP corruption shoe will drop right before the elections for maximum distraction and damage
The 'Creationism' Distraction
Eric Meikle, project director at the National Center for Science Education, recently told Politico that he doesn't believe "the function of public education is to prepare students for the turn of the 19th century." Good point. We should stop teaching kids about the wonders of windmills and choo-choo trains and stop demeaning the technological accomplishments of the 20th century. Because guess what; it already sounds a lot like the 19th century in classrooms. Of course, Meikle wasn't referring to the environmental Cassandras of our public school districts; he was pondering the boogeyman of creationism. And like most efforts to warn us about the menace of religious extremism in schools, all these investigations into "creationism" offer the media a convenient way to express secular unease about the supposed outsize power of zealots while also clouding the purpose of school choice.
Don't Assume Liberals Always Put Principles Before Profits
Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles. A lengthy FBI affidavit also describes Yee's ties to a Chinese triad and his desire to help out Islamist militants. In short, the story makes for what journalists call "good copy."
World Vision Eyes Policy Change
Anyone who bought the media's line that Christians don't care about the issue of marriage found out just how wrong they were. The church not only cares about marriage -- it remains a priority for Bible-believing Christians. Every American, no matter where they stand on marriage, was stunned when World Vision -- one of the largest charities in the country -- walked away from 60 years of moral tradition by agreeing to hire same-sex "spouses." Fortunately, they hadn't walked out of earshot, as thousands of Christians jammed phone lines and email boxes with messages of shock and dismay. Some of the most influential Evangelical leaders weighed in publicly and privately, while supporters took their outrage directly to the organization's executives. Some churches were already making plans to redirect fundraisers to other groups when word broke that World Vision had reconsidered. Barely 48 hours after departing from the straight and narrow, President Richard Stearns released a statement officially reversing its short-lived plan to bring about "unity" in the Church.
Obama vs. Putin: The Mismatch
"The United States does not view Europe as a battleground between East and West, nor do we see the situation in Ukraine as a zero-sum game. That's the kind of thinking that should have ended with the Cold War." --Barack Obama, March 24 Should. Lovely sentiment. As lovely as what Obama said five years ago to the United Nations: "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation." That's the kind of sentiment you expect from a Miss America contestant asked to name her fondest wish, not from the leader of the free world explaining his foreign policy.
Obama and Nuclear Terrorism
In the Netherlands this week, President Barack Obama confessed a fear: "I continue to be much more concerned, when it comes to our security, with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan." It would be reassuring to think that the president worries about this (when he's not busy filling out his NCAA brackets), except that he is failing to do the most important thing to prevent such a catastrophe. The president was speaking at a meeting of the Nuclear Security Summit, a conclave of nations that agree to certain worthy actions, such as converting their reactors from the use of highly enriched uranium to newer versions using low-enriched uranium, beefing up security at nuclear facilities, improving radiation detection at airports and seaports, and so forth. Fifty-seven nations and entities (the EU and U.N. included) participate in this process. But the Islamic Republic of Iran is not on the list.
Obama's 'Flexibility' Leads to a Dangerous World
"This is my last election," President Obama said in words caught on an open mic. "After my election, I have more flexibility." He was speaking in Seoul, South Korea, in March 2012, almost exactly two years ago, to Dmitry Medvedev, then in his last year as Vladimir Putin's stand-in president of Russia. The subject was missile defense, and Obama was apparently seeking time to assuage Russia's objections that a proposed U.S. missile defense system, sited in Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain, would not be aimed at Russian missiles.
ObamaCare Is a Fitting Noose Around Democrats' Necks
Pollster Celinda Lake's advice to fellow Democrats to take a midway position in the 2014 congressional campaigns is flawed because it can't be sold as honest. Reacting to results from her bipartisan Battleground Poll that show Obamacare to be a political loser, Lake said: "Don't defend it. Say it was flawed from the beginning and we're going to fix it." Note that she didn't advise to reject it outright, apparently because she knows that's never going to fly with Obama and the Democratic establishment and probably because it would be tantamount to an admission that the party has failed in its central policy "achievement."
Thursday, March 27, 2014
ObamaCare's Indefinitely Extended Deadline
The Obama administration's contempt for the rule of law has hit a new low. On Tuesday night, federal officials revealed that Americans who claim they have been unable to enroll in healthcare plans on the federal exchange will be granted an extension past the March 31 deadline. "We are . . . making sure that we will be ready to help consumers who may be in line by the deadline to complete enrollment -- either online or over the phone," said Julie Bataille, director of the office of communications for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The move reeks of desperation. Once again, as the administration did for calculating premium subsidies based on one's income, no actual verification is necessary. People need only check a blue box on the HealthCare.gov website indicating that they tried to enroll before the deadline, and they will have until mid-April -- or perhaps longer -- to ask for an extension based on the "honor system."
Skepticism on Skeptics
I think most man-made global warming skeptics are not realistic. We have to understand: *It doesn't matter if we are right to the people that are demonizing us.* By that I mean this idea that somehow we are winning when the powers that be continue to shut down the very sources that would make our nation strong and self dependent. They could care less about what is right and wrong concerning what is really driving the climate. If you actually cared, why would you make the statements we see coming out of many of the political elite in this nation, given data that at the very least is questioning their ideas, and in many cases, going the opposite direction? You wouldn't. It's because they don't care about all this, except that it's a smokescreen to continue accomplishing their real mission that, unfortunately, most of the people that really care about what is right and wrong are not involved in.