Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
ObamaCare Just Keeps on Tanking
How I pray we don't get so numb to the endless nightmarish stories of Obamacare that we become fatalistic and resigned to its continued existence. As an antidote to that, I submit another update. First, Unite Here -- a major union for the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry and airport industries -- has issued a report concluding that Obamacare will result in wages being reduced by up to $5 an hour, reduce worker hours and exacerbate income inequality. The report, titled "The Irony of ObamaCare: Making Inequality Worse," states: "Ironically, the Administration's own signature healthcare victory poses one of the most immediate challenges to redressing inequality. ... We take seriously the promise that 'if you like your health plan, you can keep it. Period.' UNITE HERE members like their health plans."
Monday, March 10, 2014
GOP: Boycott the Mainstream Media
In 1981, S. Robert Lichter, then with George Washington University, and Stanley Rothman of Smith College, released a survey revealing that the political leanings of 240 highly influential journalists from New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS were unabashedly liberal. In 2005, a UCLA-led study confirmed that reality. Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and lead author of that study, followed up that report in 2011 with a book, Left Turn – How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. In it he revealed that *every* mainstream news outlet in the nation has a liberal bias. This is the sobering reality with which the GOP must contend. And it's about time they did something about it.
First Down for Religious Freedom
In the clash between football analyst Craig James and Fox Sports Southwest, score one for religious liberty! The former star and broadcaster, who was fired for his mainstream views on marriage after a single day on the job, is handing off to the Texas Workforce Commission. Thursday, Craig's attorneys at Liberty Institute delivered the good news that the Commission is not only launching an investigation of the network -- but issued a formal charge of discrimination. For the former running back, last September's controversy was a "sucker punch." "For someone to call you and offer you a job, praise your talents, your credentials, put you on the air the next day and fire you the following day -- that's like some kind of mean joke." As you might remember, Craig was sacked by the network because the company had concerns about pro-marriage comments he'd made during his Senate campaign 18 months before. Despite the fact that Craig never uttered a peep about his views from the sports desk, Fox executives felt compelled to give him the boot.
'Six Californias' Instead of One?
"I love Germany so much that I am glad there are two of them," the French novelist and Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac commented acerbically during the Cold War. Investor Tim Draper loves California so much that he thinks there should be six of them. Draper is one of Silicon Valley's superstar venture capitalists, an early funder of numerous high-tech enterprises, including, most famously, Skype and Hotmail. He is also the prime mover behind the "Six Californias" initiative, a proposal to partition the nation's most populous state into six smaller ones. From north to south, those new states would be: Jefferson, North California, Central California, Silicon Valley (including San Francisco), West California (including Los Angeles), and South California.
Why Matt Bevin Is Challenging Mitch McConnell
It's with mixed reviews that the Tea Party is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its emergence onto the nation's political scene. According to a Pew Research Center survey, unfavorability rating of the Tea Party stood at 45 percent in October 2013, up from 25 percent in February 2010. Favorability was at 30 percent, modestly down from 33 percent where it stood in February 2010. Why the unfavorable trend? There is no instance where any Tea Party principle has been shown to be off base.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
A Personal Note on Inequality
Today I'm going to get personal. The reason? To see if readers have had similar experiences. There were about 450 students in my high school graduating class. I don't remember a single one I would call "poor." Only one would I call "rich." All the rest were squarely within the 20 yard lines. Socioeconomically, we were all very much alike: solidly middle class. We went to school together, played sports together and socialized with each other. Since my school was segregated by law at the time, all of the students were white.
The Face of IRS Behavior
What's been said of confession -- that it is good for one's soul but bad for one's reputation -- can also be true of testifying to Congress, so Lois Lerner has chosen to stay silent. Hers, however, is an eloquent silence. The most intrusive and potentially most punitive federal agency has been politicized; the IRS has become an appendage of Barack Obama's party. Furthermore, congruent with exhortations from some congressional Democrats, it is intensifying its efforts to suffocate groups critical of progressives, by delaying what once was the swift, routine granting of tax-exempt status.
The Heartbreak of Liberalism
It's easy, not to mention great fun, to ridicule liberals. But so long as you're not totally devoid of the compassion gene, it's hard not to feel sorry for them. For instance, imagine you voted for Barack Obama in 2008 because you believed all the high-sounding hooey he spewed, ignoring his background and his associates. Because you gave him the key to your heart, you found yourself unable to complain about an additional five or six years of mounting casualties in Afghanistan, drone strikes, Guantanamo or even the Patriot Act.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
From The Comedy Store
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been nominated by a Russian world peace group as a candidate for this fall's Nobel Peace Prize awarded in Oslo. It could happen. Vladimir Putin's chances of winning are good because his strategy is to have all the other nominees killed.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Obama's Mistaken Belief That Others See the World as He Sees It
Solipsism. It's a fancy word that means that the self is the only existing reality and that the external world, including other people, are representations of one's own self and can have no independent existence. A person who follows this philosophy may believe that others see the world as he does and will behave as he would. It's a quality often found in narcissists, people who greatly admire themselves -- such as a presidential candidate confident that he is a better speechwriter than his speechwriters, knows more about policy than his policy directors and is a better political director than his political director. If that sounds familiar, it's a paraphrase of what President Obama told top political aide Patrick Gaspard in 2008, according to the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza.
Eat Your Own Words, Debbie Wasserman Schultz
At the end of 2013, Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had some nasty words for yours truly. Irked that I used my Twitter feed to criticize her Obamacare propaganda efforts, Wasserman Schultz snarked back at me: "Thanks for spreading the word! You'll be eating them next year. #GetCovered." Classy as always. And completely wrong-headed as usual.
Cry Havoc (Racism) and Let Slip the Dogs of War
When seven Democratic senators voted with all of the Republicans to reject Debo Adegbile's nomination to serve as head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, Harry Reid cried racism. It's as if Reid was on autopilot, and the aide who usually touches his elbow to correct him wasn't available. If the aide had been there, he would have whispered, "Um, Senator, you're accusing your own side of racism." Adegbile had been rejected, the majority leader explained, because "he stood for civil rights," and "Republicans have done everything they can, for a number of years now, to stop people from voting ... "
The Wages of Weakness
Vladimir Putin is a lucky man. And he's got three more years of luck to come. He takes Crimea, and President Obama says it's not in Russia's interest, not even strategically clever. Indeed, it's a sign of weakness. Really? Crimea belonged to Moscow for 200 years. Russia conquered it 20 years before the U.S. acquired Louisiana. Lost it in the humiliation of the 1990s. Putin got it back in about three days without firing a shot.
Jane Fonda, Sex Guru for Teenagers?
If a teenager were zipping around Amazon.com looking for "a reliable guide to the turbulent physical and social transitions of adolescence," would that child want to first consult a 76-year-old grandmother who's had three unsuccessful marriages? This is a question that must never be asked if the unexpected author of the sex-and-relationships guide is Jane Fonda, an icon to liberals everywhere. Even Michelle Obama recently oozed to People magazine that Fonda was her role model for what she wants to be in her 70s, "a beautiful, engaged, politically savvy, sharp woman."
Finally, One Obama Radical Bites the Dust
This week, the Senate, by a slim margin assured by opportunist Democrats up for re-election, rejected the nomination of Debo Adegbile, another radical Obama nominee, to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. The feckless Democratic senators who broke ranks with his royalness are probably responding to the latest polling data showing that Obama has reached his all-time low for job performance approval. The Fox News poll found that just 38 percent approve of the president's job performance and that 54 percent disapprove. Prior to this poll, his worst rating was 40/55 percent in November 2013.
Women Leading the Fight Against Islamist Extremism
International Women's Day, celebrated this week for the 106th year, marks continued progress for women across the world, but that progress has been reversed in countries where Islamic fundamentalism has taken hold. And nowhere is women's freedom more under official assault than in Iran. Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, women in Iran had significant personal freedom and protection under the law. One of the first changes the Ayatollah Khomeini made after taking power was to revoke the 1967 Family Protection Law, which governed marriage, divorce and family custody.
Do Most Americans Agree With Democrats on the Issues?
According to the many experts, Republicans are expected to hold the House and could even take the Senate. This seems to be a perplexing turn of events for many in the media. "Poll: Democrats' advantage on key issues is not translating to a midterm-election edge," reads the headline of a Washington Post piece by Dan Balz and Scott Clement examining the guts of a Washington Post-ABC News poll -- which, in turn, is titled "Democrats hold issue advantage, but not on 2014 midterm vote." Take health care. The authors explain that despite "the problems with the health-care law's implementation" (because only the "implementation" has been problematic, right?), "Democrats maintain an edge over Republicans on which party Americans trust to deal with the issue, by a margin of 44 percent to 36 percent."
A Slow Lerner
It wasn't what Lois Lerner said at Wednesday's House hearing that incriminated her -- but what she didn't. For the second time, the former head of the IRS's tax-exempt division pled the Fifth Amendment, dodging the tough questions about the agency's discrimination against conservative and Christian groups. Government Oversight and Reform Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said over the weekend he was confident Lerner would testify, only to be proved wrong in a frustrating display of administration obstructionism.
The Insanity Goes Round and Round
Christians are being persecuted, often murdered, in over a hundred countries at this very moment. Most of the massacres and church burnings are taking place in the Middle East, a gigantic swamp whose only redeeming features are oil and Israel, and the Orient, where China, Vietnam and North Korea, are proving themselves the swinish equals of Egypt, Syria and Iran. In the meantime, the Obama regime goes along to get along, saving its quota of moral outrage for the Israelis who refuse to jump through hoops for the Palestinian rabble and John Kerry.