Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Standing Up for Independent Journalists and Free Speech
Will Democrats put Americans' interests over the interests of their law industry funders?
Which Party Is Extreme on Abortion?
When it comes to abortion, which political party's views are more extreme? Unless you've spent the past week as a stowaway on NASA's new Mars rover, the approved media answer is obvious: Republicans are the abortion fanatics. Between the furor over Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" gaffe and the GOP platform language calling for a constitutional amendment to undo Roe v. Wade, the Republicans have revealed themselves to be -- so The New York Times editorialized on Wednesday -- "on the most extreme fringes of American opinion."
GOP Convention: No Suspense, Little Drama, Lots of Show
Today, the 40th Republican National Convention assembles in hurricane-threatened Tampa, Fla. Seven days later, the 46th Democratic National Convention will assemble in presumably non-hurricane-threatened Charlotte, N.C. Thousands of delegates, many thousands more press personnel and even more political enthusiasts will be on hand. Vendors will sell political buttons to collectors (does anyone wear them anymore?), and party volunteers will hand out bumper stickers (though I haven't seen many on cars anywhere this year). Party fat-cats will attend elegantly catered receptions, and those lower on the political ladder will buy hot dogs from vendors or sample local cuisine (Cuban food in Tampa's Ybor City; North Carolina barbecue).
Obama's Base Is Well-Named
With every word he utters, with every action he takes, we hear that Obama is playing to his base. Whether he's extending unemployment benefits, increasing the number of people receiving food stamps; cutting the interest rate for student loans; giving a pass to illegal aliens; promoting public and private sector unions; funding Planned Parenthood; supporting same-sex marriages; and refusing to prosecute the Black Panthers, it's all done for the sole purpose of energizing the nitwits who elected him in 2008. It's unintended irony when people refer to Obama's base because among the word's multiple definitions are "morally reprehensible; lacking dignity; mean-spirited; selfish; and cowardly." That pretty much sums up those who are willing to turn a blind eye to Obama's war on capitalism and his promotion of class, race and gender warfare, so long as his groupies receive their puny little bribes.
A Big Ten Strategy for GOP?
Conventions are the seventh-inning stretches of presidential politics, a pause to consider the interminable prelude and the coming climax. Republicans gathering in Tampa face an unusual election in which they do not have a substantial advantage concerning the most presidential subject, foreign policy.
The Golden Ticket
Obama and his stooges will have to excuse me if I'm somewhat skeptical when they claim to be delighted that the GOP is running Romney and Ryan against them. I mean, I have tried to see things from their viewpoint, but I just can't imagine why a radical leftist who has run this nation's economy into the ground and his clownish sidekick would want to run against two guys who are smart, well-spoken and extremely personable. I mean, at least when the various palookas said they were looking forward to facing Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and even Apollo Creed, in the boxing ring, guys like Tony Galento, Bernie Reynolds and Rocky Balboa, knew they were in store for a big payday. But faced with having to debate these two attractive, articulate Republicans, and without a Teleprompter feeding them their lines, Obama and Biden better hope their opponents will agree to take a dive.
From The Comedy Store
The U.S. soccer team beat Mexico's soccer team in Mexico City for the first time in seventy-five years. It's a good thing this happened in Mexico City and not Los Angeles. If this had happened where there are a lot of Mexicans, there might have been a riot.
Inside Napolitano's 'Frat House' Department
Lewd office atmosphere promoted by top female leadership goes beyond the pale.
Paul Ryan: Pro-Growth Supply-Sider
In the two weeks since Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, the entire Republican Party has been rejuvenated. Gov. Romney *himself* has been re-energized. After losing ground in the polls this summer, he's once again drawn even with the president. Wisconsin is now in play. Even senior voters in Florida have signaled heavy approval of Romney-Ryan. I know vice presidents are not supposed to be so influential. Political scientists say the top of the ticket is what matters. But Ryan is disproving that. And yet I hear and read some grousing from conservative supply-side colleagues that Ryan is no longer the Jack Kemp, supply-side-growth guy he once was. Instead, they say he has become a root-canal Republican who obsesses about entitlement debt bombs and deficit reduction. They say he's wedded to the Congressional Budget Office in a kind of budget-austerity, Stockholm syndrome.
Muslim Dog Day Afternoon
Man with dog nabbed by Toronto police for offending nearby Muslims.
'Clean Energy' Is Obama-Speak for Crony Government
Breaking news: The Fishwrap of Record has finally discovered that the Obama administration gives its Chicago corporate pals special access to power and regulatory favoritism. On Thursday, The Not-So-New York Times published an A1 story titled "Ties to Obama Aided in Access for Big Utility." Everyone, put on your shocked faces! "With energy an increasingly pivotal issue for the Obama White House," the Times intoned, "a review of Exelon's relationship with the administration shows how familiarity has helped foster access at the upper reaches of government and how, in some cases, the outcome has been favorable for Exelon." You mean Hope and Change was all smoke and mirrors? Well, knock me over with a feather and call me Grandpa Daley!
Downward
The progressive mindset is set. It believes that whatever it pursues at the moment must be progress. Think Progress is one of the groups that is convinced progress is achieved by the right people thinking the right thoughts. Or, the right people thinking the *left* thoughts. "We are the people we've been waiting for," said candidate Obama four years ago. Better to wait for Godot. The president's re-election slogan is an expression of this mindset. *Forward*. Just that one word. It's not as bad perhaps as MSNBC's "Lean Forward." Imagine you're on a cliff, looking over into the vast chasm below. And someone at MSNBC gets the bright idea: Lean forward. We are all on that cliff. The combination of the largest tax hikes in history with the most draconian federal spending cuts is confronting us with what many have called "Taxmadgeddon." The most fatuous application of *Forward*. has to be the Democratic Convention's plans to end marriage as we know it. Determined to do follow what is "inevitable," very liberal delegates will embrace platform proposals that will spell the end of marriage. Do they fully realize what they are doing?
The Cordesman Criteria
WASHINGTON -- Either Israel is engaged in the most elaborate ruse since the Trojan Horse or it is on the cusp of a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. What's alarming is not just Iran's increasing store of uranium or the growing sophistication of its rocketry. It's also the increasingly menacing annihilationist threats emanating from Iran's leaders. Israel's existence is "an insult to all humanity," says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime." Explains the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel is "a true cancer tumor on this region that should be cut off." Everyone wants to avoid military action, surely the Israelis above all. They can expect a massive counterattack from Iran, 50,000 rockets launched from Lebanon, Islamic Jihad firing from Gaza and worldwide terror against Jewish and Israeli targets, as happened last month in Bulgaria.
Akin and His Critics
Todd Akin would do his party and his country a service by stepping aside. The rest of the campaign will be dominated by this side issue, possibly denying Republicans a key Senate seat. To use the words "legitimate" and "rape" in the same phrase betrays a serious lack of judgment. Only about 1 percent of women undergoing abortions report that they were raped, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute. One percent is not zero. That much having been said, I must offer a mild dissent to the widespread view expressed by both Republicans and Democrats that what Akin said was outrageously "stupid." The "legitimate rape" wording was atrocious, agreed. But much of the commentary has focused on Akin's mistaken belief that women's bodies have the capacity to "shut down" the reproductive process in cases of rape. (Akin has since acknowledged that he was wrong.) Interviewing Akin on "Good Morning America," George Stephanopolous spoke for many when he said, "A lot of people are wondering how an idea like that can even get in your head."
Akin's Idiocy Is Infectious
Todd Akin's idiocy appears to be infectious. The evil genius of the Missouri congressman's comments is that they lend themselves to such broad interpretations -- and misinterpretations. By now his remarks are familiar, but just in case ... Akin told a local TV interviewer: "First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare." He continued: "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
Liberals on the Lying Frequency
As easy as it might be to forget them in the cobwebs of the AM radio dial, the liberal pretenders to the Rush Limbaugh throne are still broadcasting, and they're often utterly, shamelessly ridiculous. Case in point: Even Al Sharpton lamely used his radio show to defend Joe Biden's anti-Republican "they want to put y'all in chains" race baiting in front of a black audience. Another case in point: Liberal radio hosts adore Harry Reid for making utterly unsubstantiated ugly charges that Mitt Romney evaded taxes for a decade. Bill Press has routinely declared his love for the tactic -- even on CNN, where someone might have noticed. On "Reliable Sources," Press taunted the journalists who might want to play by the rules of evidence.
Can Romney Win Over Hispanics?
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney travelled to New Mexico this week in search of the state's 5 electoral votes, but he has a significant hurdle to overcome. The latest Rasmussen poll numbers in the state show Romney trailing the president by 14 percent. Romney began his campaign in Hobbs, New Mexico, by talking about his energy plan. It's good politics to talk about energy in the West, where the energy business provides lots of job and economic growth. But Romney's problem in the state has little to do with energy and much to do with demographics. Romney has, so far, largely ignored the elephant in the room: the large Hispanic population in the state. New Mexico boasts the largest proportion of Hispanics of any state. A large majority of New Mexican Hispanics are native-born U.S. citizens. Hispanics in NM have a long history of political involvement from the state's founding to the present and make up almost 40 percent of eligible voters. What's more, NM voters have elected several Republican Hispanics, including current Gov. Susanna Martinez.
Reckless Lunacy
WASHINGTON -- Americans following this year's presidential campaign would never know it from mainstream media coverage, but the commander in chief we hired four years ago has set the United States on a course for unilateral disarmament. The following people hope you won't notice until after Nov. 6: Vladimir Putin, Liang Guanglie, Kim Jong-un, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, A.Q. Khan and of course, Barack Obama. The 10 individuals above share a common fascination: nuclear weapons. Vladimir Putin, Russia's modern czar; Liang Guanglie, minister of national defense for the People's Republic of China; Kim Jong-un, North Korea's "Great Successor;" and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Kayani, already have such weapons of mass destruction in their hands, the means of delivering them and are racing to build more. Messer's Khamenei -- Iran's supreme leader; Gen. al-Sisi, Egypt's new defense minister; Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan; Saudi Crown Prince Salman and Pakistan's "nuclear physicist for hire" A.Q. Khan -- are all aspirants to the exclusive nuclear weapons club -- and engaged in various stages of building many more such devices. As for Barack Obama -- he just wants to get rid of all nuclear weapons -- starting with ours.
Mr. President, Tear Down This Wall
The wall I refer to is one of either ignorance or deception that is surrounding you on the issue of AGW. Given the facts, we can draw no other conclusion. Either the people around you are ignorant of the facts, or they know them and are being deceptive. Since this issue is a huge reason for why our nations freedoms and security are in jeopardy, you are not immune from the blame. There is no better example of this than your blaming last year's Texas drought on global warming. The drought was forecasted by myself and others as soon as the Pacific changed to its colder cycle in 2007. On national TV and in blog after blog, references to the 1950s were used to describe what was about to occur. Yet the wall of ignorance or deception resulted in a completely non-factual statement, and in doing so, you degraded the governor of Texas to score cheap political points.
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