Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Wacky Democrats & Zany Republicans
The good news is that the economy isn't as awful as we've been hearing. If it were, left-wing knuckleheads wouldn't be able to cough up $200,000 and travel expenses in order to persuade Hillary Clinton to deliver a speech. But, politics aside, can you imagine paying that kind of money to listen to that whiny voice drone on for an hour or so? It also gives new meaning to greed. After all, in the first ten years after the Clintons moved out of the White House, through his speeches and their ghost-written books, they accumulated $100,000,000. On top of that, after spending $10 million of their own money to get Hillary the nomination in 2008, they demanded that the DNC hold fund-raisers in order to replenish their coffers. After all, Arkansas's gift to the world couldn't really be expected to get by on a piddling $90 million, even though some of us couldn't help asking, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
From The Comedy Store
President Obama made the case for a brief bombing campaign with limited targeting of chemical storage facilities in Syria. He made a campaign promise to have the most transparent administration ever. That starts with revealing our battle plans ahead of time.
Friday, September 13, 2013
A Continuing Revolution on the Continuing Resolution
House members have already voted 40 times to repeal, defund, or change ObamaCare -- but conservatives are fighting to make it 41. That's the vote Republicans are banking on to bring the law to a screeching halt, if they can persuade leadership to get behind the grassroots plan. So far, so good, say members, who celebrated when the GOP leadership pulled their bill before it hit the House floor.
The World Is a Tough Town
President Barack Obama is back on his heels and that is a dangerous place to be. The more foreign leaders he met with, the more made it clear they were not going to be helpful in Syria. The more White House staff he sent to the Hill, the fewer Members and Senators were convinced. The more everyone talked about going to war in Syria -- no matter how small that war -- the lower the support among regular Americans.
Living Wage Bills Hurt Everyone
It's not often that a Democratic mayor decides to take on unions and his own city council to veto a minimum-wage hike, but that's what Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray has done. The so-called living wage bill was clearly aimed at retail giant Wal-Mart, which was scheduled to open as many as six new stores in D.C. in the coming years. The bill would have raised the minimum wage from the city's current $8.25 an hour to $12.50 in combined wages and benefits for stores with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and operating district stores of at least 75,000 square feet.
The Epic Meltdown of the Gun-Grabbers
COLORADO SPRINGS -- Quick, call the CDC. We've got a Rocky Mountain outbreak of Acute Sore Loser Fever. After failing to stave off two historic recall bids on Tuesday, two delusional state legislators and their national party bosses just can't help but double-down and trash voters as dumb, sick, criminal and profligate. The ululations of gun-grabbing Democrats here in my adopted home state are reverberating far and wide. Appearing on cable TV Thursday to answer the question "What happened?" Pueblo State Sen. Angela Giron sputtered that she lost her seat due to "voter suppression." Giron whined to CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin that voters "weren't able to get to the polls" and that there was "voter confusion."
Celebrity Silence on Syria
In the era of "warmonger" Republicans in the White House, the Toronto International Film Festival would have been fertile ground for bold, outspoken "dissent" from actors against war in the Middle East. Now with Obama on the brink of missile attacks in Syria, you would expect the same agitation, but this time coupled with a dash of betrayal. Instead, the Hollywood Reporter found nothing there but an icy pile of "no comments" from more than a dozen celebs, including Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin, Penn Jillette and Tim Robbins.
The Fruits of Epic Incompetence
WASHINGTON -- The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place. Strange. And it gets stranger still. That "strike Syria, maybe" speech begins with a heart-rending account of children consigned to a terrible death by a monster dropping poison gas. It proceeds to explain why such behavior must be punished. It culminates with the argument that the proper response -- the most effective way to uphold fundamental norms, indeed human decency -- is a flea bite: something "limited," "targeted" or, as so memorably described by Secretary of State John Kerry, "unbelievably small."
Christian Liberties, the Stepchild of Today's 1st Amendment
You may say that there is no discrimination against Christians in America or casually dismiss it because Christians need no protection here because this is allegedly a Christian nation. But there is plenty of such discrimination, as I documented in my book "Persecution" a few years back. During the publicity tour for the book, I had a mini-debate with Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz on CNN, as I recall. Dershowitz, who was very respectful and who is unquestionably quite intelligent, advanced a curious argument that night.
This Is What 'Flexibility' Looks Like
In March 2012, President Obama whispered to placeholder Russian president Dmitri Medvedev that he needed "space" on matters like missile defense until 2013. "After my election, I'll have more flexibility," the president blurted into an unsuspected open microphone. "I will convey this information to Vladimir," Medvedev promised, managing not to smirk outwardly. Medvedev did not need to deliver the message. Obama has telegraphed his weakness in a thousand ways, starting with the "reset" that was premised on the idea that relations between Russia and the U.S. were frayed because we had been without the transformative leadership of Barack Hussein Obama. It didn't seem to occur to Obama that Russian behavior might have had something to do with it.
Obama's Wing-It Diplomacy Undermines US Credibility
Here's how the Obama folks have been starting to spin Syria. The president made a credible threat to use military force in Syria. At the same time, he worked behind the scenes to get Russia's Vladimir Putin to push Bashir al-Assad to give up chemical weapons. These two seemingly discordant initiatives, brilliantly coordinated, combined to produce a process to eliminate Assad's chemical weapons without even a shot being fired across the bow.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Don't Forget the Forgotten...
In the 12 years since 9/11, an entire generation of Americans has grown up in the shadows of towers that no longer stand. These are the children who experienced the tragedy through pictures -- the Statue of Liberty wreathed in smoke -- and stories, of heroes racing into collapsing buildings to save people they'd never met. In their textbooks are photographs of the giant flag unfurling over the Pentagon, and on their computers the video of a President standing on rubble, vowing to help the men responsible meet their Maker.
A Case of National Whiplash
Did you see the hopeful breaking news about Syria? "Russia takes control of Syrian chemical weapons." That was the headline I saw on the Daily Kos website.
Syrial Losers
Americans unsure what to think about President Obama's plans for Syria should remember that all military action undertaken by Democrats for the last half-century has led to utter disaster. (With the possible exception of the Village People's "Y.M.C.A." video, which I say still holds up.) Democrats are gung-ho about deploying the U.S. military provided only that it will harm the national security interests of the United States, but vehemently oppose interventions that serve American interests.
We've Been Played
The late Ukrainian violinist Mischa Elman is considered one of the greatest of all time, but he has nothing on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has played the Obama administration better than any musician. Washington is astounded at what happened over two days on the Syria front. First, there was a supposed faux pas on Monday in London by Secretary of State John Kerry, who said the only way Syria could avoid a military strike was to give up its chemical weapons. While the State Department was busy walking back his comment, Putin said it was a great idea and offered to facilitate the handover, a proposal to which Walid al-Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, quickly agreed.
Why Does Capitalism Still Need Defending?
Given the evidence of the superiority of capitalism in achieving prosperity, isn't it astonishing we still debate its merits? Filmmaker Michael Moore actually made an anti-capitalism "documentary" called "Capitalism: A Love Story." Moore says: "Capitalism is an evil, and you cannot regulate evil. You have to eliminate it and replace it with something that is good for all people." Is it relevant that Moore's net worth is reported around $50 million, give or take a few mil, and that his accumulation of wealth occurred within the system of free markets that he trashes?
Asking Questions About Benghazi, One Year Later
WASHINGTON -- It has now been just over a year since a group of terrorists overwhelmed our diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, and killed four Americans, one of whom was our ambassador, two of whom were former SEALs. Today, we know little more than we did then, despite the bluster of the then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and of President Barack Obama, who has gone on to other problems. Incidentally, former Secretary of State Clinton is now in retirement and ceaselessly roaming the country lecturing for enormous honoraria. She is, according to the press, the "inevitable" Democratic nominee, and, according to the likes of Time magazine's Joe Klein, the most talented and credentialed candidate for the presidency in "many a moon."
A Second Day of Infamy
It's been twelve years since the Islamic faithful inadvertently brought down the twin towers. I say inadvertently because nobody was more surprised than Osama bin Laden when jet planes crashed into the tops of New York skyscrapers and brought the buildings tumbling down. Because he had no idea how thousands of gallons of burning jet fuel would work on steel girders, he had only imagined he would send a message by murdering a few hundred office workers and airplane passengers.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Weather That Changed History
There are two events in my life I believe changed history that the weather had a hand in. The first is the assassination of JFK -- a day that was supposed to be rainy but turned out sunny, meaning the motorcade top was down for the assassin to have a clear shot. The other, the pristine weather on September 11, 2001 that allowed the terrorists their clear shot. The cloud shot says it all. Hurricane Erin was far enough offshore that the big, cool area of high pressure to the west and the strong sinking air mass lead to what is called in aviation as Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited (CAVU) conditions.