Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Gosnell Is Not an Exception
Kirsten Powers has done a national service, by virtue of her now famous *USA Today* column, of getting the news of the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on the national radar screen. This of course, is the horror story of a cesspool in Philadelphia posturing as an abortion clinic, operating without inspection for 17 years. Gosnell, the doctor who ran the place, has been formally charged of murder of one woman and seven infants. However, the grand jury report and testimony of family and staff at the trial indicate that if there were records in this dump, where life and death were meted out daily, Gosnell would be indicted for hundreds of murders of live children.
On North Korea, Kerry Muddles the Message
If Kim Jong Un thinks he can shake down Washington by threatening nuclear apocalypse, President Obama says, the belligerent North Korean dictator has another think coming. "Since I came into office, the one thing I was clear about was: We're not going to reward this provocative behavior," Obama told NBC's Savannah Guthrie in an interview last week. "You don't get to bang your spoon on the table and somehow you get your way." No rewards for Pyongyang's criminal regime or its bloody-minded young tyrant. Everyone clear on that? Well, maybe not everyone.
Screwballs & Slurry Singers
I did not attend the Conservative Political Action Conference. That was partly because, like Chris Christie, I wasn't invited. But it was also because I can't imagine voluntarily sitting through days of speeches. To me, it verges on enhanced interrogation, but without the water. After listening to Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and Mitch McConnell, I suspect I'd tell my tormentors just about anything they wanted to know. What I don't get is why anyone wants to sit and listen to these people read speeches to them for hours on end. In fact, if I had the power, I wouldn't let any politician ever speak from a podium unless he or she then had to take and answer questions from people like me. And that definitely includes Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Michael Bloomberg. The way these people get away with uttering sheer balderdash, it's no wonder they come to regard themselves as godlike.
At Every Turn, Things Were Spinning Out of Control
Chaos. Things seemed to be spinning out of control on many fronts this week. Starting, of course, with the Boston Marathon bombing Monday. The bombers chose a significantly festive time and place for their attack. The marathon is held every year on Patriots Day, the Massachusetts state holiday commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Even before the identity of the bombers became known, it seemed likely that they were enemies of America. And their attack was a reminder that this free and open country remains a soft target. There is no way we can be entirely safe.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Why ObamaCare May Cost You Your Job
The best way to understand the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is to realize that it confers large benefits on some people and imposes large costs on others.
One to Watch From Michigan
WASHINGTON -- America's most interesting development since November is the Republican Party becoming more interesting. Consider the congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., who occupies the seat once held by Gerald Ford, embodiment of vanilla Republicanism. Justin Amash, 33, may seek the Senate seat being vacated by six-term Democrat Carl Levin, who was elected in 1978, two years before Amash was born. Michigan supported Barack Obama over native son Mitt Romney by 9.5 points and has elected just one Republican senator since 1966. The governor, however, and nearly all other statewide officers are Republicans, the GOP controls both legislative chambers, and Amash, son of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother, would benefit from Michigan having the nation's second-largest Arab-American population (almost 200,000).
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Throwing Down the Gauntlet
As you may have noticed, liberals are ever on the alert when it comes to what they love to label "the religious right." But they never have a problem with those on the left mixing religion and politics. So far as they're concerned, when Jesse Jackson runs for president, he's merely exercising his rights as an American. However, when Pat Robertson ran, he was out to turn the U.S. into a theocracy. When Catholic bishops speak out against wholesale abortions, they're crossing the line. But when Obama sits in a pew for 20 years while Jeremiah Wright condemns white people or when Rev. Luis Leon of St. John's Episcopal devotes an Easter sermon to labeling conservatives racists, Obama and his supporters are as happy as pigs in slop.
Marathon Manhunt: The Movie
It's sure to be a major motion picture worthy of the talents of Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. ... The thrilling denouement begins with the FBI's new-normal wanted poster: videos and still photos of suspect No. 1 and suspect No. 2, released at a news conference in Boston; the appeal for anyone with information about the suspects to contact the FBI; and a warning: The suspects should be presumed to be armed and extremely dangerous. A suspense-filled, bloody climax will show how these two misunderstood and misguided brothers were hunted down by black-clad SWAT teams armed with "military-style assault weapons" and intent on killing rather than capturing the lads. Such a depiction of what transpired in Boston may well satisfy the anti-American proclivities of leftist elites, but it will obscure some important lessons from the events in Boston: Evil is real.
From The Comedy Store
Kim Jung Un ordered his strategic rocket scientists to battle stations. The signs of war are evident. The U.S. Navy ordered anti-missile destroyers into the Sea of Japan, and Jane Fonda just flew to North Korea to be photographed sitting on a missile.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Obama's Futile Tantrum Over Gun Bill
The American people simply don't want more anti-Second Amendment regulations.
The Gun Vote
This column is about the vote on Wednesday in the U.S. Senate on the amendment to the gun control bill which had as its two main sponsors Democrat Joe Manchin (WVa) and Republican Pat Toomey (Pa). The effect of the amendment would have been, among other things, to have increased background checks on people buying guns to include gun shows and internet sales. I don't want to discuss the merits of the amendment; I want to chat about why it failed in the face of overwhelming popular support.
Boston Massacre
WASHINGTON -- We don't know why two bombs were set near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 170 others Monday, April 15. In an era of instant information, a 24/7 news cycle, ubiquitous social media, countless smartphones and tens of thousands of government security cameras in metropolitan areas, our FBI has called for the public to help find and catch those who carried out this terror attack. That the perpetrators were not immediately identified and taken into custody is apparently frustrating to many of our countrymen. It shouldn't be. Just minutes after the two bombs detonated, images and video of the carnage and rescuers bravely rushing to help grievously injured victims appeared on media outlets and the Internet. Local, state and federal politicians rushed to microphones to pontificate about the event and ensuing investigation. Since then, there has been a virtual tsunami of information, imagery, speculation and opinion about the bombing.
Death Doc Kermit Gosnell's Silent Co-Conspirators
Planned Parenthood now says it's "appalled" by the Philadelphia house of horrors run by accused serial baby-killer and pregnant-mom murderer Dr. Kermit Gosnell. Bull. The appalling inaction of the nation's largest abortion provider, along with countless other clinics and "pro-choice" groups in the know, speaks far louder than their belatedly self-serving words. The criminal trial of Gosnell is entering week six. The death doctor faces seven counts of first-degree murder for severing the spinal cords of babies born alive during abortions. That's in addition to one count of third-degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a 41-year-old Bhutanese refugee who died of a monstrously negligent drug overdose at Gosnell's "Women's Medical Society" clinic. Her family has brought a separate civil suit against Gosnell.
The Media Lobbyists Lose on Guns
President Obama suffered a large, embarrassing loss in the Senate on a slew of gun-control bills. If this were a Republican president, they'd be sounding the lame-duck alarms on the nightly newscasts. But most media outlets can't do this. They were fully vested in this campaign alongside Obama, and to underscore his weakness is to acknowledge their own. Since mid-December, the broadcast networks and cable news hosts like Piers Morgan and Joe Scarborough have relentlessly lobbied for gun control. On how many occasions did they completely shred the notion of objectivity -- of journalism itself -- and boldly engage in lobbying for gun control, using their networks as megaphones? Let's consider a few recent moments.
When Half a Loaf Is Enough
The immigration reform bill introduced this week by a bipartisan group of senators will please few die-hards on either side of the immigration debate, but it's likely to please most Americans. Polls consistently show majority support for allowing the 11 million people who reside illegally in the U.S. to remain here, as long as they pay a penalty for violating immigration laws, have not committed serious crimes and, importantly, learn English. But many people remain skeptical that our borders are secure and want proof that we're making progress toward that end before Congress makes other changes to immigration law. The Senate bill does a credible job of addressing both. Illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay and earn a living and eventually a green card and citizenship, albeit with long waits. Those who have been given provisional legal status will not be eligible to become permanent residents until the backlog of others awaiting green cards has been cleared.
The Language of Terror
WASHINGTON -- Terrorism is speech -- speech that gathers its audience by killing innocents as theatrically as possible. The 19th-century anarchist Paul Brousse called it "propaganda by deed." Accordingly, the Boston Marathon attack, the first successful terror bombing in the U.S. since 9/11, was designed for maximum effect. At the finish line there would be not only news cameras but also hundreds of personal videos to amplify the message. But what message? There was no claim of responsibility, no explanatory propaganda. Indeed, was it terrorism at all? There was much ado about President Obama's nonuse of the word "terrorism" in his first statement to the nation after the bombing. Indeed, the very next morning, he took to the White House briefing room for no other reason than to pronounce the event an "act of terrorism."
A Shameful Day for President Obama
I wonder why President Obama feels he has the right to be outraged when legislators don't automatically roll over to his policy demands. I suspect that his moral indignation is more about personally losing than it is about policy issues themselves. For indeed, President Obama was obviously furious when his gun control bill failed to muster sufficient votes to pass the Senate. Politico reported, "More than anything, it was an emotional blow to Obama, who was as irritated at the four members of his own party as he was at the 90 percent of Republicans who defeated the bill." Politico revealed that an administration official said Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's refusal to support the bill especially rankled Obama because she "refused to go along with the bill even after White House chief of staff Denis McDonough visited her office to make Obama's case on Tuesday."
Obama Doesn't Care About Dead Children
Obama doesn't care about dead children. He's indifferent to the suffering of their parents. There isn't a single coherent argument on his side of the case. He lies about the issue. It's pure politics. That's the way the dispute would be presented if Obama's opponents deployed the kind of demagogic language he slips on like comfortable loafers. Sounds harsh, doesn't it, possibly even racist? Funny how touchy everyone is about the way Obama is criticized but how indifferent most are to his low accusations. His opponents are always guilty of bad faith, whereas he is concerned about preventing children from being mowed down by crazed gunmen. Except he isn't. The gun control measures the president worked so hard to pass and which the Senate voted down would have done nothing to prevent Newtown and would do nothing to prevent the next Newtown.
America's Just Not That Into Obama
"You know, I actually believe my own bull----." That's what President Obama once told a reporter. If the man ever uttered a statement that spoke more to his approach to politics, I haven't heard it. Whether it stems from a grandiose overconfidence in his own powers of persuasion, or the lessons he took from his years as a community organizer, or his own messianic conviction that he is on the right side of everything, including history itself, the president has operated under the theory that he can move the American people to his causes. And he can't. He just can't.