Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
The 'Fair Share' Farce
It's about time the rich started paying their fair share, according to the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters. Those fat cats aren't chipping in as much as the less fortunate. When are they going to start spreading their wealth around? Unfortunately for the occupiers, facts have a way of ruining a good storyline. Because when we check the dollars and cents behind who pays what, we find the rich are already sharing quite a bit of their earnings.
Wanna Know a Secret? When 'Melrose Place' Meets Politics
This is too juicy not to share. It's a little gossipy and involved, but it stars three presidential candidates, so it's topical stuff. It all goes back to 1990. Johnny Isakson, now a U.S. senator from Georgia, was then running for governor of the Peach State. I was running for lieutenant governor at age 29. Credit (or blame) Newt Gingrich for my candidacy. He'd been my friend and mentor since my college days. He encouraged me to run as a Republican in what was then an overwhelmingly Democratic state. He thought a young Republican candidate would help recruit young Georgians to the GOP.
Republicans Are Needlessly Offending Hispanics
Do the Republican presidential candidates understand the gravity of the moment? In 2012, the nation must choose between inevitable (and possibly abrupt) economic collapse and a return to a modicum of prudence by the federal government.
Murders, Rapes, Falling Bridges and Phantom Jobs
What are we to think about a president and vice president who blow nearly a trillion dollars in borrowed money, accept no responsibility for it and then traverse the nation trying to convince Americans that if we don't spend half that much again, people will die from dilapidated bridges and women will be raped because we can't afford cops? What business do these two have lecturing anyone about anything, much less the conditions that might ensue if we were not to spend more printed money to pay for things they failed to finance the first time because they misappropriated the funds?
'Reality Shows' Distort the Real World
Networks hungry for viewers know the cheapest way to nab eyeballs is to produce a "reality show" with no stars and often uber-sleazy, supposedly-unscripted-but-in-reality-very-scripted content. But in the rush for the prized 18-49 adult viewers, what about the millions of youngsters, the audience aged 11 to 17, who are also lured into the soup? The Girl Scout Research Institute recently surveyed 1,000 girls in that age bracket and found these children aren't clueless. Everyone surveyed thought reality shows promote bad behavior: 86 percent felt the shows often set people against one another to increase the dramatic value; 73 percent thought reality shows depict fighting as a normal part of a romantic relationship; and 70 percent believed that reality TV leads people to believe it acceptable to mistreat each other.
Punch-out in the Desert
WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday night, seismologists at the Las Vegas Oceanographic Institute reported the first recorded movement of a hair on Mitt Romney's head. Although it was only one follicle, displaced a mere 1.2 centimeters, the tremors were felt from Iowa to New Hampshire. Simultaneously, these same scientists detected signs of life in Rick Perry, last seen comatose at the recent Dartmouth debate. Such were the highlights of Tuesday's seven-person Republican brawl at the Venetian. To be sure, there were other developments: Herman Cain stumbled, Newt Gingrich grinned, Rick Santorum landed a clean shot at Romneycare and Michele Bachmann made a spirited bid for a comeback.
American Taxpayers Aiding the Slaughter of Egypt's Christians
Al Ahram is an Egyptian newspaper. It reported last week on the killing of 36 Coptic Christian demonstrators in Cairo. Millions of us have seen the pictures on our television screens of armored personnel carriers plowing into unarmed protestors, mowing them down. Those vehicles, and their drivers, are being funded in part by the United States. We are lavishly paying the Egyptian military regime.
Vote for Obama Because He's Black
At the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Sen. Barack Obama said, "...There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there is the United States of America." Those were welcome and commendable words. Unfortunately, they appear to be only words. Since then, Obama has divided us along race and class lines more than any modern president. Some of his strongest, high-profile supporters in the black community are now saying that Obama's race, alone, should be enough for black voters to vote for his re-election.
The Obama Bus Tour
Another day, another jobs bill/economic stimulus. And another presidential tour to promote it. This time our president and partisan-in-chief chose North Carolina for the setting, and who can blame him? Who wouldn't want to drive through its mountains and vistas these beautiful fall days -- instead of actually working out a compromise with those tiresome types in Congress? The kind who are always raising irritating questions, like whether the president's programs will actually work. Unlike those that have succeeded mainly in raising the country's unemployment rate to 9 percent or more.
Congress Softens Stance on High-skilled Immigrants
We've been hearing a lot about immigration on the campaign trail, most of it based on outdated assumptions and echoing the arguments made when Congress was considering so-called comprehensive immigration reform bills in 2006 and 2007. But up on Capitol Hill, there appears to be progress -- bipartisan progress, even -- toward changing our immigration laws to reflect current and emerging realities. From Barack Obama, in campaign rather than governing mode these days, we hear denunciations of Republicans for killing proposals for legalizing illegal immigrants.
Gilad Schalit Versus the Freed Hikers
On Tuesday, Hamas released Gilad Schalit, 25, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants in 2006 and held by Hamas for more than five years. Last month, Iran released Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, two 29-year-old Americans serving eight-year prison sentences on phony espionage charges filed as they hiked near the Iraq-Iran border in 2009. Tehran released a third hiker, Sarah Shourd, a year ago.
Hey, Occupy Wall Street: What, No Anti-Obama Signs?
The Occupy Wall Street folks tell us to blame Wall Street for the nation's financial troubles. Notice the no-fly zone over President Barack Obama. Where are the anti-President Barack Obama signs or the verbal chants denouncing the President? Imagine the protests/sit-ins/rallies/mass marches on Pennsylvania Avenue -- not Wall Street -- if after two years of Republican White House leadership, America remained stuck on over 9 percent unemployment! Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and President Barack Obama say they sympathize with the protestors. Of course, they do. After over two years of reckless spending, the inflationary printing of money, massive "stimulus" that failed to "save or create" 3.5 million jobs, green technology "investments" in soon-to-be-bankrupt companies whose investors donated to and raised money for the President's election and unpopular bailouts, the dismal results are in.
Why Won't Al Franken Leave Me Alone?
I used to sympathize with my wife because every day's mail brought her half a dozen requests from the likes of the RNC, Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris, to send money. She rarely sent any money, but she would faithfully fill out the enclosed questionnaires. No matter how often I would tell her that they weren't interested in her opinion, only her checkbook, she would labor on. When she was in one of her feistier moods, she would ask me what made me think anyone was interested in my opinion. I blamed such outbursts on her youth.
Claptrap Legislation
WASHINGTON -- I do not know what the learned political scientists of the Republic say about it, but it seems to me that the laws of the land are now so poorly written that almost no one knows what they mean. That is a government bureaucrat's delight! The healthcare bill, disparagingly and often referred to as Obamacare, is typical. No member of Congress could have read it before voting on it, and, even now, I doubt any congressperson has read it through. I know someone who did read it all, but he is an insomniac and does not count. Then there is Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York. She read it through, but only because she thought it an atrocity and wanted to protect Americans from it.
Are They Crazy?
In his new book, "Suicide of a Superpower," Pat Buchanan writes that the politics of race, culture and tribalism will be the largest problem civilization will face. This item on foxnews.com proves his point. Here's where today's politics of culture are leading this once-great nation. "A lesbian couple in California who say their 11-year-old son Tommy who wants to be a girl named Tammy are giving their child hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty -- so that he can have more time to decide if he wants to change his gender.
Railing Against Reality
Last week, protests broke out again in Europe, from Rome to London. The monthlong Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York have spread. The current unrest follows this summer's riots in London and flash mob incidents in U.S. cities. In 2009 and 2010, Tea Parties turned out hundreds of thousands in protests against the Obama administration's policies and eventually gave him the largest midterm rebuke since 1938. All of these protests, of course, are vastly different -- or are they really?
A Republic, Guaranteed
DENVER -- Progressives have long lamented the fact that the Framers designed a Constitution replete with impediments to federal government activism -- fetters such as federalism itself, enumerated powers, three branches of government, two rivalrous wings of the legislative branch, supermajorities, judicial review, presidential vetoes. Colorado progressives, however, have decided the Constitution has a redeeming feature -- the infrequently invoked Guarantee Clause (see above).
'Occupy Wall Street' [Hearts] Wall Street
The worst thing about Occupy Wall Street is that it's ruining a good cause: hating Wall Street. Just when opposing Wall Street was gaining momentum, these brain-dead zombies are forcing us to choose between thieving bankers and them. If the Flea Party were really concerned about the greedy "Wall Street 1 Percent," shifting money around to make themselves richer and everyone else poorer, their No. 1 target should be George Soros.
Pitting Us Against Each Other
President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have led increasingly successful efforts to pit Americans against one another through the politics of hate and envy. Attacking CEO salaries, the president -- last year during his Midwest tour -- said, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." Let's look at CEO salaries, but before doing so, let's look at other salary disparities between those at the bottom and those at the top.
Borrowing From Paul
Next month, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, a 12-member subset of Congress that Congress created to make the hard fiscal choices Congress itself has failed to make, is expected to propose $1.2 trillion in cuts from projected spending during the next decade. This week, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, unveiled a plan to cut nearly that much in 2013 alone, followed by similar cuts in the next two years, yielding a balanced budget by 2015. The contrast between the so-called supercommittee's goal and Paul's plan shows how pathetic official Washington's gestures of fiscal responsibility are, even in these supposedly straitened times. Paul's detailed numbers refute the myth that the budget cannot be balanced without raising taxes while challenging his opponents -- none of whom has offered anything nearly as specific -- to put up or shut up.