Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Regrets? They've Had a Few
It's Supremes week in Washington and I don't mean the Motown group once led by Diana Ross. The Supreme Court is back in session and the nine justices will consider a number of polarizing and controversial issues, not the least of which will likely be the constitutionality of "Obamacare" and its mandate that every citizen purchase health insurance. Just in time for their reconvening is a fascinating new book by Texas writer William T. Harper (for which I have supplied a blurb). It's called "Second Thoughts: Presidential Regrets with their Supreme Court Nominations."
Gone in 60 Nanoseconds
WASHINGTON -- The world as we know it is on the brink of disintegration, on the verge of dissolution. No, I'm not talking about the collapse of the euro, of international finance, of the Western economies, of the democratic future, of the unipolar moment, of the American dream, of French banks, of Greece as a going concern, of Europe as an idea, of Pax Americana. I am talking about something far more important. Which is why it only made the back pages of your newspaper, if it made it at all. Scientists at CERN (the European high-energy physics consortium) have announced the discovery of a particle that can travel faster than light.
Jobs and Us
This era has lost its Edison. Maybe its Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller combined. As an inventor, Steve Jobs kept coming up with Next Big Things that changed the world before rendering them obsolete by inventing their successors. He began with the personal computer and went on to churn out the iPad, iPhone, iTunes, and all the apps that changed and still change the world -- not just technologically and economically but politically and culturally -- for good, bad and in-between.
The Miracle of iCapitalism
Here is your high-resolution teachable moment of the week: anti-capitalist, anti-corporate extremists of "Occupy Wall Street" mourning Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs without a trace of irony. While the Kamp Alinsky Kids ditch school to moan about their massive student debt, parade around in zombie costumes and whine about evil corporations over poached Wi-Fi connections, it's the doers and producers and wealth creators like Jobs who change the world. They are the gifted 1 percent whom the "99 percenters" mob seeks to demonize, marginalize and tax out of existence.
A Decade at War
WASHINGTON -- Ten years ago this week, America went to war in Afghanistan. At 1 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush told the world, "On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaida terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." At the conclusion of his seven-minute broadcast from the White House Treaty Room, he pledged: "The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail." Now, a decade later, his successor will determine whether that pledge is kept.
Obama Drags Feet to Avoid Offending Political Pals
Leadership, said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in his press conference Tuesday announcing he would not reverse his decision not to run for president, is something you can't be taught or learn. "Leadership today in America has to be about doing the big things and being courageous." No one doubts that Christie has shown this kind of leadership in New Jersey. Call him bombastic, call him confrontational, but don't call him wobbly. He leads, and even with a Democratic-majority legislature, the state is moving in his direction.
Still Front End of Recession
The stronger-than-expected ISM manufacturing-index reading for September might normally suggest that the economy, at least for now, has dodged a recession bullet. After zero jobs and zero real consumer spending in August, which put the stalled economy on the front end of recession, the ISM number is the first major September reading. But economist Michael Darda says hold the applause: Inside the ISM, new orders and order backlogs either flat-lined or declined and remain below 50 -- the DMZ recession marker on the index.
Obama Scolds Nation: You've Gotten Soft
"The way I think about it is, you know, this is, uh, you know, a great, uh, great country that had gotten a little soft, and you know, we didn't have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last, uh, couple of decades. We need to get back on track." -- President Barack Obama. The gall is breathtaking, even from a man who as a presidential candidate said, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." This from a President who, in chastising the rich, said, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money."
This Is What a Mob Looks Like
I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point. No one knows what the Wall Street protesters want -- as is typical of mobs. They say they want Obama re-elected, but claim to hate "Wall Street." You know, the same Wall Street that gave its largest campaign donation in history to Obama, who, in turn, bailed out the banks and made Goldman Sachs the fourth branch of government.
Christie's Right Decision
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie probably had more suitors than Portia in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" and yet in the end he made the right decision not to run for president. It was the correct decision on several levels. First, the media, which loves to build people up in order to tear them down, would have immediately heightened the conflict between the Republican Party's two wings. There would have been multiple interviews with Republicans who don't like Christie's position that illegal immigrants have not broken the law, or what they regard as his "softness" on gun control, by which they mean his favoring laws banning assault weapons. The website "Conservative New Jersey" brands Christie a "weasel."
A Potpourri of Idiocy
In recent weeks, I have come across some news items that prove liberalism isn't just wrong, but to paraphrase the Munchkins of Oz, it's morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably, wrong. What's more, it's wrong in a great many more places than Washington, D.C. But it is also wrong there, as Rep. Henry Waxman, who has spent well over 30 years representing a predominantly Jewish district here in Los Angeles, proved when he dismissed Robert Turner's astonishing victory in New York's 9th congressional district as due solely to the fact that "Jews wanted to protect their wealth."
Liberalism's Collectivist Agenda
WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and former Obama administration regulator (for consumer protection), is modern liberalism incarnate. As she seeks the Senate seat Democrats held for 57 years before 2010, when Scott Brown impertinently won it, she clarifies the liberal project, and the stakes of contemporary politics. The project is to dilute the concept of individualism, thereby refuting respect for the individual's zone of sovereignty. The regulatory state, liberalism's instrument, constantly tries to contract that zone -- for the individual's own good, it says. Warren says:
The Book on Obama
WASHINGTON - Supposedly, this White House has just made a furious attempt to sink a book, "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President" by Ron Suskind, which came out Sept. 20. Jay Carney, the White House spinmeister, spoke ill of it. Numerous former White House staffers spoke ill of it. Carney said, "One passage seems to be lifted almost entirely from Wikipedia." Why would a respected writer want to do that? I suspect that the White House is going to be as effective in sinking Suskind as it has been in keeping President Barack Obama's polling numbers lofty.
Democracy's New Discontents
Once upon a time, loud dissent, filibustering in the Senate and gridlock in the House were as democratic as apple pie. A Senator Obama once defended his attempts to block confirmation votes on judicial appointments by alleging, "The Founding Fathers established the filibuster as a means of protecting the minority from the tyranny of the majority." In 2005, progressives were relieved that a Democratic minority had just gridlocked Congress -- ending recently re-elected President George W. Bush's plan to reform Social Security. Gridlock, in other words, was a helpful constitutional tool when a minority party wanted to block a president's legislative initiatives. A then-cool Senator Obama suggested Bush and his congressional supporters "back off" and "let go of their egos."
Obama Plan Makes Social Security Look Like Welfare
Who poses the biggest threat to destroy Social Security? President Barack Obama. In December 2010, Obama signed a tax deal with his provision for a one-year, 2 percent Social Security payroll tax holiday. It lowered workers' payroll deductions from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent in 2011. This year, Obama proposed increasing the tax holiday for another year, with workers paying half the old rate -- 3.1 percent -- as part of his American Jobs Act. According to the White House, a typical family earning $50,000 a year could expect to save $1,500.
Back in the USSR (You Don't Know How Lucky You Are)
The news last week offered us a wonderfully satirical view of Russia. Headlines tell us that Russian Premier Vladimir Putin will once again "run" for President of the Russian Republic. Now, this is being reported as if he really has to run for the office. And it seems that the current "president," Dmitri Medvedev, is only too willing to step aside to allow for Mr. Putin to make his run. That's like saying the monkey is willing to give way for the organ grinder. Vladimir Putin's Russian nickname would not be Vlad, but Vova. And the Russian word for what he is is vozhd. That's what Russians call the Boss. And Boss he is, to be sure.
Letter to a Businessman
Dear Sir, It was wholly a pleasure to get your email about the recent changes in the core curriculum at the University of Arkansas' campus at Fayetteville -- and expressing honest puzzlement about why a newspaper editor should care about such academic matters. What's the big deal, you want to know, about requiring, say, 35 credit hours in the arts and sciences for an undergraduate degree instead of 65 as in the past? Why all the fuss?
The Question Hilda Solis Won't Answer
I followed along on a short tour that Catholic University gave on Tuesday to Hilda Solis, President Barack Obama's Catholic secretary of labor, who has spent much of her political career zealously advocating legalized abortion. When Solis served in the U.S. House in 2003, she voted against the partial-birth abortion ban. The day President Bush signed it, she called for the Supreme Court to reverse it. "I would just like to say it's the wrong decision that the president is making today," Solis said, "and we have to stand up and challenge him."
Obama's Terrorist Dilemma
I agree with the Obama administration's decision to kill the American-born al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki. What I can't fathom is why the administration agrees with me. Here's Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta responding to complaints from the ACLU over the "assassination" of an American citizen without due process: "This individual was clearly a terrorist. And yes, he was a citizen, but if you're a terrorist, you're a terrorist. And that means that we have the ability to go after those who would threaten to attack the United States and kill Americans."
Rick's Rock vs. Rev. Wright
Is there a clumsier group of newspaper character assassins than the hit squads at The Washington Post? On Oct. 1, the Post was back on the racist-Republican attack with a 3,000 word, investigative treatise over a rock. Specifically, Gov. Rick Perry had leased a property where the N-word was painted on a rock, and then he had it painted over with white paint. But investigative genius Stephanie McCrummen could see a virtual Klan hood on Perry's head. "As recently as this summer, the slab-like rock -- lying flat, the name still faintly visible beneath a coat of white paint -- remained by the gated entrance to the camp."