Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Obama's Military Purge
The number of commanders fired under the president’s watch reaches alarming levels.
The Saudis' UN Snub Was Message for Obama
Is there an idiom in Arabic for cutting off your nose to spite your face? Saudi Arabia's abrupt rejection on October 18 of the UN Security Council seat to which it had just been elected was described as "bizarre" and "baffling," a "perplexing" decision that that left diplomats "gasping" and was "met with incredulity." No member of the United Nations had ever done such a thing, and the Saudi government's explanation was about as subtle as an uppercut.
Hey GOP: Put on a Happy Face
"Bye Bye Birdie" is an old musical that survives in high school productions and in some people's memory bank. It debuted on Broadway in 1960 and was made into a film in 1963. One of the songs from the show might serve as an inspiration, if not a theme, for Republicans in the winter of their discontent over President Obama and congressional Democrats: "Put on a Happy Face." A problem Republicans have had since the "glory days" of Ronald Reagan is that too many have forgotten how to be positive and affirming. Nobody likes to be around a sourpuss.
California Strips Privacy From Kids
Families, we need your help this week. As I wrote about recently, California is dead set on stripping away the privacy of children -- and we need to do what we can to stop the madness.
Little Wars Turn Messy Because of Politics on the Ground
"The examination of war from an exclusively military perspective, isolated from its social and political context, leads to false conclusions and poor strategy." That is the conclusion of Emile Simpson, a former infantry officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles, who served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, in his book, War From the Ground Up.
Throw the Rascals Out?
Polls indicate that the public is so disgusted with Washington politicians of both parties that a surprisingly large proportion of the people would like to get rid of the whole lot of them. It is certainly understandable that the voters would like to "throw the rascals out." But there is no point in throwing the rascals out, if we are just going to get a new set of rascals to replace them.
How to Appeal to the White Working Class
The spectacularly dreadful debut of Obamacare represents the greatest political opportunity for conservatism and the Republican Party in two generations. Big government stands rebuked. It has overreached, overpromised, and, embarrassingly, failed to deliver. Even if the website's gremlins are banished, and even if Obamacare purrs along like a BMW from now on, voters will be disillusioned.
GOP Must Not Get Into Bed With Demos on O'Care
Two snares stand in the way of conservatives' fervent desire to dismantle Obamacare: 1) a possible perception that its problems are limited to the technical issues with the rollout and 2) the GOP's potentially suicidal impulse to bail Obama out. Though the problems with the rollout are far more than website "glitches," they can and will be fixed. But once fixed, substantive problems will remain that will only be corrected if Obamacare is undone.
The President Who Has Done the Most Damage
I have been broadcasting for 31 years and writing for longer than that. I do not recall ever saying on radio or in print that a president is doing lasting damage to our country. I did not like the presidencies of Jimmy Carter (the last Democrat I voted for) or Bill Clinton. Nor did I care for the "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush. In modern political parlance "compassionate" is a euphemism for ever-expanding government.
Hey, Have Some Inflation!
Proving that bad ideas never go out of style among particular kinds of people with particular mentalities, The New York Times advertises on its front page "the growing concern inside and outside the Fed that inflation is not rising enough." And, yes, that something ought to be done about it!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Sebelius: In the Line of Fire
If there's one thing Americans have learned, it's that the ObamaCare rollout wasn't a technological hiccup, bug, or snafu. It wasn't a "glitch," any more than the Titanic was a glitch. This was a system-wide meltdown -- taking the federal government's reputation for incompetence to new heights.
Marriage and Abortion are Economic Issues
Political discussions commonly assume there are two separate sets of issues. There's a social agenda -- issues like abortion and marriage. And there's an economic agenda -- issues like federal spending, debt, taxes, and government programs like entitlements. It's usually assumed that these two agendas don't have anything to do with each other.
A GOP Death Spiral
The Republican's self-inflicted death spiral continues. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be introducing legislation this week aimed at granting six years of legal status to illegal aliens. "It's halfway -- and it always has been -- halfway between full amnesty and simply rejecting people," Issa told *Politico* on Wednesday. "I think if we're going to break this logjam that's occurred for my whole 13 years I've been in Congress, we have to find middle ground."
Abortions & Other Abominations
There are any number of females who can be found on the membership rolls of NOW or in the audience at Sandra Fluke speeches or raising funds for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, who make my skin crawl. They are the creatures whose major concern isn't equality in education, equality of opportunity in the work place, or protection of children from sexual predators. Instead, the issue that motivates them to get out of bed in the morning is abortion on demand.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
For Santorum, the Fight Goes On
Perhaps Rick Santorum is demonstrating persistence beyond the call of plausibility, but he says compelling political logic and high duty converge. Although he has not made a decision about 2016, he candidly says he is doing "everything consistent with running" -- traveling to speak to sympathetic groups and donors. His hand is on his sword's hilt.
Free Taxi Cabs
Until recently the taxi cab business in virtually every city in the country functioned like a medieval guild. And as Adam Smith might have predicted, we consumers are worse off for it. But for me at least, things have changed. Say I need a ride to the airport. I can tap an icon on my cellphone and a car will arrive, usually within five minutes. I normally take whatever vehicle is available; and that's most likely a black town car. But if I have several passengers with me and we have a lot of luggage, I can order a van. A map appears on my cellphone and I can actually see the car's avatar as it wends its way in my direction. I'm continuously updated on the expected time of arrival.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
No Delay, GOP; Let the Dems Hang Themselves
One huge political question surrounds the catastrophic launch of Obamacare: Will the administration double-talk, cancelled insurance contracts for millions, terminated doctor-patient relationships, sticker shock from higher premiums and deductibility, and damage to job hiring and economic growth get the GOP off the shutdown hook for the 2014 midterm elections? That is the question. Donald Rumsfeld would call it a known unknown. And right now nobody knows the answer.
Life in These United States
Barack Obama says more dumb things in a day than some people say in a lifetime. For instance, regarding the shutdown, he said: "The House Republicans are holding the government hostage." I know that Obama isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and that he has only a passing relationship with the Constitution, but someone should tell him that the House is a part of the government, no matter how he feels about it. So, were we to take him at his word -- always a bad idea! -- the House Republicans would be guilty of holding themselves hostage.
From The Comedy Store
President Obama went on TV to declare the U.S. government is open again after the House vote. He added Joe Biden would personally greet federal workers as they returned after being out of work for sixteen days. Haven't these people suffered enough?
Friday, October 25, 2013
There's No Such Thing as a Free Launch
Elections are funny things. Nothing does more to improve Congress' hearing and stiffen members' spines than a routine trip to the ballot box. Like democracy's miracle cure, incumbents recover from their autonomy and start paying attention to their employer: voters. Next year's midterm elections are already having that effect [on Democrats](http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/23/Report-All-Senate-Democrats-up-for-re-election-in-2014-will-back-delaying-Obamacare-s-enrollment-deadline), who find themselves on the opposite side of most Americans on ObamaCare. As the gulf grows, so do the liberals running for the exits. This week, some of the law's staunchest supporters were ready to jump ship on the system's linchpin: the individual mandate. Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) all boarded the GOP's bandwagon to delay the ObamaCare penalties that threaten Americans who don't buy insurance by January 1.