Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
GOP Didn't Win Budget Battle; Silver Lining: Neither Did Dems
The Republicans did not win this budget fight, but the cuts they were able to extract illustrate, ironically, that Democrats are finally on the defensive. Scorekeeping aside, we must build on this non-victory because it was also a Democratic retreat. Last week, I argued that the GOP should not cave on the budget negotiations for many reasons, including that today is not 1995-96. Things are so much different now, especially because of the existential threat to the republic that the exploding national debt represents.
Obama: The Man and the Myth
So why (you ask, reasonably enough) does he bother? Doesn't President Obama know that the Republicans who wrung substantive budget cuts out of him last week aren't going to applaud this week when he calls for tax increases on "the rich" to help pay down the federal deficit? This ole dog, as we like to say in Texas, won't hunt: no way, no how. Only after about a tenth of a second of concentrated thought do we understand what's going on. Two things essentially: PR and Democratic economics. The public relations aspect to Obama's big speech on Wednesday has back-to-back elements.
A Life Lesson
ARCHBOLD, Ohio -- Here in Middle America, where farmland extends to the horizon, I pass an inspirational yard sign: "Self-Control: Having a Life Purpose Bigger Than Self." It's a message our representatives in Washington would do well to learn, especially after months of raucous partisan bickering that nearly culminated in another "government shutdown."
Monday, April 11, 2011
Spending Cuts Are Hot in the Political Marketplace
One of the things that fascinate me about American politics is how the voices of the voters as registered in elections and polls are transformed into changes in public policy. It's a rough-and-ready process, with plenty of trial and error. But for all its imperfections, the political market seems to work. Three developments during the past week illustrate this process -- developments, not results, because each is part of an ongoing struggle that will not be resolved soon.
Is Obama or Isn't He?
It's not every day, thank heavens, that Louis Farrakhan, Dennis Kucinich and I agree about anything, so imagine my surprise when we all thought that Obama was a moron for deciding to abide by the U.N.'s wishes in Libya. While it's true that Muammar Gaddafi is a brutal tyrant, that's par for the course in Arab and Muslim nations. In fact, the only thing I've noticed that sets him apart from the norm is that he appears to be a transvestite. So, why the heck are we looking to depose him? For offending the international dress code?
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Coyote Preservation Act
PHOENIX -- Suburban Glendale is less a community with professional sports facilities than a sports enterprise with a community held hostage to previous improvident decisions. Now Glendale's government may multiply its follies -- unless Arizona's Constitution saves the city from itself. Taxes provided $346 million of the $455 million cost of the huge (up to 72,200 seats) retractable-roof NFL stadium where the Arizona Cardinals will play 10 times this season, if there is a season. (The NFL is having labor problems.) But Glendale (population 253,000) has a more immediate problem with its hockey team, the NHL's Phoenix Coyotes.
GOP: Do Less, but Better; Dems: Do a Lot, and Worse
President Obama has dedicated his time in office to soaking up applause and shifting blame. Last year, when Democrats owned the White House, the House and the Senate, Congress didn't even bother passing a budget. Obama didn't seem to mind. But when Republicans put together a stopgap measure to fund the military and prevent a government shutdown, Obama promised to veto it. Obama called the measure "a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise for funding the remainder of fiscal year 2011." There must have been a lot of distractions last year.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Uncertain Trumpet
It has taken time. Agonizing, unnecessary, indecisive years of it. But at last the attorney general of the United States may have begun to yield to reality. Unwillingly, begrudgingly, regretfully, even bitterly, but yield nevertheless. Almost 10 years after the dastardly attack on the Twin Towers in New York, and after two years of aimless dawdling and dithering and general dilly-dallying, The Hon. Eric H. Holder Jr. has discovered a body of law specifically designed to deal with enemy combatants, lawful and otherwise.
From The Comedy Store
India risked a trade war by banning the import of all Japanese fish to India due to the radiation. It hurts workers in both countries. Japan retaliated by announcing they will build all their computers so perfectly there will never be any need for tech support.
Shutdown Threat Is Not All That Ails the Dollar
Washington shutdown fears are sinking the U.S. dollar, according to some news reports. Surely there's something to this, as investor confusion rises and confidence falls, and as Washington seems to be gridlocked over a few billion dollars. Frankly, the GOP could easily declare victory and accept a $35 billion to $40 billion spending cut for the final strokes of the 2011 continuing resolution. This kind of deal would move the domestic discretionary baseline back toward 2008. No mean feat.
If I Were Running Things
It's true that nobody has asked me how I'd go about getting America's financial house in order, but that's not unusual. After all, I'm not an expert. No "Dr." before my name and no "PhD" after it. That's why nobody ever invites me on TV and asks me to deal with the really important things. Instead, I get stuck with taking out the trash and feeding the dog. Well, we've seen what a great job the experts have been doing. I say it's high time that I got a crack at the major problems facing us, and let Tim Geithner take out the trash and Janet Napolitano feed Duke.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Complaints About Budget Plan Veer Off Path
Republicans want to "end Medicare as we know it." Cue cat shriek! This "end Medicare as we know it" line -- and many like it ("end Medicaid as we know it," "end carbon-based life as we know it," etc.) -- is the lead-off talking point for the entire Democratic Party in response to Rep. Paul Ryan's just-released budget proposal, "The Path to Prosperity."
Government Deserves Death Penalty Treatment
In most, if not every, state in the nation, there are two instances in which a trial requires a 12-person jury: When the death penalty is at stake and when private property is being taken from an individual. One case in Florida is the epitome of government ineptitude, bureaucratic stubbornness and unnecessary costs to the taxpayers. It's an example of why people want government out of their lives.
All Quiet on the Southern Front?
WASHINGTON -- According to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, everything is hunky-dory on America's southern border. In her public appearances and speeches, Napolitano consistently claims that things along our side of the U.S.-Mexico border are "safer than ever" and that "spillover violence" is simply "a widespread misperception." In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed column she co-authored with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Napolitano claimed, "The Southwest Border Is Open for Business." Unfortunately, too much of the business is in drugs, murder and mayhem -- and business is good.
Hamilton: The Original Self-Made American Who Also Made a Nation
His face adorns the $10 bill, but as Richard Brookhiser, host of "Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton" (airing on PBS April 11), finds when conducting a quick street canvas -- many Americans cannot identify him. "Washington has a monument," Brookhiser intones. "Jefferson has a memorial. It's often said that New York City is Hamilton's monument."
A Better Way to Reform Welfare
When President Clinton signed landmark welfare-reform legislation in 1996, he said it would "end welfare as we know it." Wrong verb. More accurately, it changed welfare as we know it. That's not to say the reform wasn't a success. It was. Caseloads shrunk by over 60 percent, 2.8 million families moved off the rolls and into jobs, and 1.6 million fewer children were left in poverty. Why the improvement? For the first time, welfare was linked to work, breaking the cycle of poverty for millions of Americans and enabling them to begin providing for themselves.
Crashing Into College
The college acceptance letters have landed. Hysterics have subsided. No more time tearful sessions of "what if?" Parents have come to terms with their disappointments that their achieving, well-adjusted child didn't get into her first choice because she had only an A-minus average and good but not great SAT scores, and was merely a reporter for the school newspaper. She may be able to recite the Gettysburg Address from memory and read all of "Moby Dick" (including the whale blubber descriptions), but that simply wasn't enough.
Ryan's Leap
WASHINGTON -- In 1983, the British Labor Party under the hard-left Michael Foot issued a 700-page manifesto so radical that one colleague called it "the longest suicide note in history." House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has just released a recklessly bold, 73-page, 10-year budget plan. At 37 footnotes, it might be the most annotated suicide note in history. That depends on whether (a) President Obama counters with a deficit-reduction plan of equal seriousness, rather than just demagoguing the Ryan plan till next Election Day, (b) there are any Republicans beyond the measured, super-wonky Ryan who can explain and defend a plan of such daunting scope and complexity, and (c) Americans are serious people. My guesses: No. Not really. And I hope so (we will find out definitively in November 2012).
NBC's Naked Ambitions
As the network TV barons peruse a menu of pilots for new fall shows, some just jump out of the pile. Some Tinseltown pundits have already pegged it as "likely" that NBC will pick up a show for fall called "The Playboy Club." Just like it sounds, the show is based on Hugh Hefner's original Playboy Club in Chicago in swinging 1963. If that doesn't sound porn-friendly enough, the pilot's producers at 20th Century Fox TV required all actors on the show to sign a nudity clause -- virtually unheard of in broadcast television.
Trump, Not as a 2012 Candidate, but as a Blueprint
My brother, Rush, said on his program Thursday that Donald Trump, in taking the fight directly to President Obama, has provided a winning blueprint for defeating him in 2012. Rush was referring to the way in which Trump -- think what you will about him and his politics -- has boldly challenged President Obama on a number of issues, including the notorious birth certificate fracas, obviously unconcerned about fallout from the liberal media.