Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
America's 'Green' Quagmire
It was a massive flatbed truck, flanked by smaller vehicles brandishing "oversized load" banners, carrying a huge white thing. I think the first one I saw was in Ohio. But I know that by the time I passed Grand Island, Neb., I'd lost count. What was it? At first, it looked like it could be a replacement for the Swords of Qadisiyah -- that giant crossed blades sculpture in central Baghdad.
Biden's Obsequious Bow to Beijing
Vice President Joe Biden's talent for using many words to say little or nothing -- or worse -- was never more conspicuously displayed than during his trip to China. At Sichuan University on Sunday, after Biden delivered a 4,600-word speech, a student asked him about the importance of public speaking. "That is a very good question," Biden said -- as he launched into an 863-word answer.
Liberating Libya
After U.S.-backed Libyan rebels entered Tripoli on Sunday, The Washington Post noted that NATO "has been anxious not to be seen acting as the rebel air force in a coordinated strategy" because its "United Nations mandate is limited to the protection of Libyan civilians." Still, a "senior NATO official" admitted, the alliance's firepower and intelligence sharing helped bring about "the collapse of the regime and its capability to direct its forces," so "the effect of what we were doing was not dissimilar."
NPR: The Statism Network
One of the greatest perversions of statism is the use of taxpayer money to push for ever more government spending and intervention. A casual listener to the far-left end of the FM dial, National Public Radio, will quickly conclude that NPR is one of America's leading offenders in this perversion. Let's just take one show, the Aug. 22 evening newscast "All Things Considered," perhaps one of the most ill named programs in the history of radio. Conservatism is never considered. It is only besmirched, assaulted and rhetorically dismembered.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Yes, Virginia, There Is a Surplus!
While the federal government continues to drown in a sea of debt, several states are reporting surpluses, thanks to policies Washington would do well to emulate. Nowhere has the economic turnaround been more immediate than in Virginia. When Governor Bob McDonnell took office in January 2010, he was faced with a $2.2 billion shortfall bequeathed to him by outgoing Democratic governor (and now Senate candidate) Tim Kaine. In less than two years, McDonnell has delivered two budget surpluses without raising taxes or causing harm to the "most vulnerable." Instead, he has judiciously cut spending.
Obama Is a Robot That Needs Reprogramming
President Obama's legacy is shaping up to be a recurring cycle of rhetorical failures chasing policy failures, an endless, stupefying effort to convince us of the wisdom of pursuing -- again and again -- policies that have already failed. This point is reinforced as we read reports about Obama's umpteenth luxurious golf outing while our economy and financial condition approach DEFCON 2 and Middle East turmoil continues apace.
A Freedom Recipe
"The Tea Party can go straight to hell," said Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California the other day. Having taken aboard that helpful piece of counsel, we can now press ahead with the task of putting America back to work -- the task Ms. Waters's party leader, our president, says he will address after Labor Day. Possibly, he will do so with a little more healing unction, but maybe not a lot more creativity, considering the administration's inability thus far to get its arms around a fundamental economic truth. The truth in question: free people work harder than, shall we say, less free people.
Paul Ryan's Secret Weapon
"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." -- W. B Yeats Actually, contra Yeats, our best are full of passionate intensity -- except when it comes to running for president. The Tea Party shows no sign of obliging the media by fading away. Yet one after another, each of several promising prospects on the Republican bench -- Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan -- has begged off . . . or seemed to.
When 'Inconsequential' Means 'Better'
To many liberals, Rick Perry's audacious pledge to make Washington as "inconsequential in your life as I can" is tantamount to a pledge to bring back the Dark Ages. Commenting on Twitter as the Texas governor announced his presidential candidacy, longtime Washington journalist Howard Kurtz wondered: "Perry wants to make DC 'inconsequential in your life.' Does that include Medicare, Soc Sec, vets' programs, air safety, FDA?" Former Bobby Kennedy aide Jeff Greenfield ran through a litany of Washington's contributions to American life -- from railroads, interstate highways, and the Hoover Dam to land-grant colleges, civil rights, and subsidized mortgages -- and marveled at the depth of the right's "disdain for all things Washington."
Here It Comes: The Great Quadrennial Seizure
And so it begins. Well before the actual election year. The candidates report for their auditions like inmates volunteering for the asylum's talent show. Or maybe the prison rodeo would be a better comparison when you consider all the bucking and rearing involved in an American presidential campaign. Some of the riders will get thrown early, like Minnesota's former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who's now also a former presidential candidate. When it comes to seeking the presidency of the United States, many are called, or call themselves, but fewer and fewer are chosen, as the great winnowing-out proceeds from primaries to conventions to the final competition in the fall, when the morning after Election Day, the lone survivor must face an even greater challenge: being president of these United States.
A Malfunctioning 'Reset'
It's been two years now since President Obama heralded a new era in U.S.-Russian relations -- a "reset," as he put it. His plan was to "cooperate more effectively in areas of common interest." He and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev were "committed to leaving behind the suspicion and the rivalry of the past." Fast forward to the present. Have things improved? Considering that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently called the United States a "parasite" on the global economy, and the U.S. State Department has put 64 Russian officials on a visa blacklist, it's fair to say: Not much.
'Damaging' Truth?
I'm penning this column from Australia where I was privileged to speak a few days ago at an event at Parliament House celebrating Australia's National Marriage Day. As in America, marriage in Australia is under attack by homosexual activists who seek to shoehorn their lifestyle choices into a shoe that will never fit: marriage. They want the law-and public opinion -- to redefine marriage to include homosexual sex as something good, the moral equivalent of marital sexuality expressed by a husband and a wife.
Obama's Lowest Priority: Some Deportation Cases
President Barack Obama is in a pickle. Immigration enforcement actually is working -- or at least it was working. Under the Obama administration, the government has removed almost 400,000 illegal immigrants annually. That's 4 percent of the 10 million illegal immigrants estimated to be living in America -- and it sends a warning to those thinking of illegally entering the United States.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Same-Sex Marriage Moving Toward the Mainstream
One of the few issues on which opinion has moved left over the last few years is same-sex marriage. In 1996, Gallup found that Americans opposed it by a 68 percent to 27 percent margin. Last May, Gallup found Americans in favor by 53 percent to 45 percent. That's a huge change in 15 years. Other polls have shown similar movement. Pew Research reported last week that 45 percent favored same-sex marriage and 46 percent were opposed -- a dead heat. Pew polls in 2008 and 2009 found only 35 percent to 40 percent in favor.
Narcissism Is a Contagious Disease
Every time I see some Washington mucky-muck striding down a congressional corridor with a dozen lackeys in his or her wake, I find myself wishing it were actually a perp walk and, at its conclusion, the cops would be waiting to cart the poltroon off to prison. It is also how I feel every time I see Obama walking to the Oval Office. You can just see that he's thinking, "I'm so cool. They're all so lucky to have me as their president." ... It's all narcissism. These people who have done nothing more than win an election actually believe they're indispensable.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
America's Caesar
TRENTON -- Near the statehouse office of New Jersey's 55th governor sits a sort of shrine to the 34th. Fortunately, Chris Christie is unlike Woodrow Wilson. Christie, who resembles Falstaff in girth and Jack Dempsey in pugnacity, is a visceral politician who thrives on conflict. Wilson -- lean, intellectual and pious, particularly about himself -- regarded opposition as impious.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Mideast: Safe for Democracy?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was speaking for the Obama administration this week when she issued a sharp demand: Syrian dictator Bashar al-Asad should step down and now. The Obama administration is putting its Syria policy in line with its overall goal making the Mideast safe for democracy. President Obama knows that democracy in the Middle East is not easy to attain. He has blamed the "Arab Spring" for the sharp uptick in oil prices here. That spike in oil prices was, along with the Japanese tsunami, one of the things that led to "a run of bad luck" for the U.S. economy, the president explained. We were coming out of the recession nicely, he said, until we were hit by these events beyond our control, he implied.
The Deflationary M2 Explosion
Amidst the financial flight-wave to safety, with stocks plunging, gold soaring and Treasury bond rates collapsing -- and all the European banking fears that go with that -- there's an important sub-theme developing: An almost-forgotten monetary indicator, M2, which is mostly cash, demand-deposit checking accounts, savings deposits and retail money-market funds, has been soaring. According to the St. Louis Fed, M2 is up 24.2 percent at an annual rate over the past two months. Almost out of the blue, that comes to a near $500 billion increase. In rough terms, the M2 explosion breaks down to $165 billion in demand deposits and $335 billion in savings deposits.
Par for the Coarse
In London and other English cities, young black savages have been wreaking such havoc that even Prime Minister David Cameron, who is generally as genteel as Queen Victoria, has referred to them as "scum." It figured that once England's riffraff showed the world what they were made of, America's own would step up to the challenge. The fact is, if there were an Olympics where young louts could compete for medals in such events as car-burning, looting and beating up innocent people, our own black thugs would consistently bring home the gold.
From The Comedy Store
President Obama arrived in Iowa in a brand-new massive armored presidential bus he rode around in Iowa Tuesday. It's a political tactic. He's so determined to make the Republicans spend more money on infrastructure he is weakening the bridges personally.