Right Opinion

Hunting for Terrorists, Not Witches

In Times Square last Sunday, an estimated 1,000 people gathered to protest the March 10 hearings before Rep. Peter King's Committee on Homeland Security entitled "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." The protesters called the hearings a "witch hunt." Since there are no "witches" of the type portrayed in "Macbeth" or "The Wizard of Oz," the term is used to disparage people who believe there are terrorists and potential terrorists hiding among us. Events dating back long before September 11, 2001 prove there are.

Six-Figure Bus Drivers and Other Working-class Heroes

Can we stop acting as if people who work for the government are the heroes of working people? Fine, we understand that Wisconsin public sector employees like the system that pays them an average of $76,500 per year, with splendiferous benefits, and are fighting like wildcats against any proposed reforms to that system. But it's madness to keep treating people who are promoting their own self-interest as if they are James Meredith walking into the University of Mississippi.

Who's Crazier -- Charlie Sheen or the Left Wing?

Charlie Sheen, at least, has an excuse. He's on a drug he calls "Charlie Sheen." But what powerful hallucinogen inhaled by the left induces the mental fantasy that makes them believe: Spending nearly a trillion dollars in "stimulus" money "created or saved" 3.5 million jobs? A "tax cut" means giving checks to the nearly 40 percent of the workforce that pays no federal income taxes?

DOMA Deserves a Defense

Why NPR Should Urge Congress to End Its Subsidy

What do they put in the water cooler over at NPR? First, they fire Juan Williams in October for comments he made on Fox News Channel -- and Vivian Schiller, the CEO of public radio, smilingly suggests he needs to have his head examined. This week, a sting video shows NPR Foundation President Ron Schiller (no relation) saying that tea party activists were "seriously racist" and telling two purported Muslim program underwriters that there aren't enough "non-Zionist" news organizations.

Purple Fingers Aren't Enough

There's a lot of enthusiasm building in Washington for the "winds of change" blowing through the Middle East. We have seen the durable regime of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt toppled in recent days. Gaddafi seems to be toppling in Libya. The long-time ruler of Tunisia was ousted in December, having ruled that North African country for twenty-three years. For most of us, only when he was given the boot did we learn the name of Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Prior to 2010, he would probably have stumped even Ken Jennings on Jeopardy. So what did Ben Ali the former world statesman actually do in Tunisia all those years? TV in Tunis has given us this picture:

Mr. President: Lead or Get Out of the Way!

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is getting away with murder because the president of the United States refuses to take action when that's exactly what is called for. Gadhafi is thumbing his nose at the alleged leader of the Free World, leaving the crazed dictator free to slaughter his own people in a frantic effort to save his dictatorship. It is hard for me to examine President Obama's current behavior without comparing it to a similar crisis during my father President Reagan's administration, and the way my Dad handled it.

NPR Exec Stung by Muslims

WASHINGTON -- It is a bloodbath over at National Public Radio. First the pinhead Ron Schiller resigns after initially being defended by NPR and then, by the end of the day Tuesday, being given the Shuffalo to Buffalo. Then Vivian Schiller, no relation to Ron Schiller, resigns the next day as chief executive officer and president of NPR. Ron Schiller was caught on tape saying NPR did not need its subsidy from the federal government to survive, but I guess the board of directors of NPR is taking no chances. Off with both of the Schillers' heads. Actually, NPR and its affiliates are among the most overstaffed and extravagant operations in media. In the 1990s, when I did "The Editors" -- a television show from Montreal that appeared on public television stations (because of my presence, one had to be an insomniac to catch the show in Washington on WETA, a lamentable situation insisted on by Sharon Percy Rockefeller, the president of WETA and a Public Broadcasting Service board member) -- the Montreal production company did the show for a pittance of what public television paid. I believe a Washington production would have outspent us by a 10-1 ratio. NPR is no different. Ron Schiller, who was NPR's fundraising chief, said it would survive the cuts, and doubtless it could. I say cut its subsidy. It has been in more scandals of late than Charlie Sheen. Off with all their heads.

The Put-Off, Postpone and Procrastinate Generation

The Obama administration figures that it has read the national mood well. This therapeutic generation of Americans loves to talk and worry about problems and then assumes that either someone else will solve them or they will go away on their own. And why not, since we have had periodic "energy crises" since 1974, have run budget deficits in most years since World War II, and have been warned about a looming Social Security meltdown for the last decade -- and yet remain wealthy and affluent. But now gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon in many places in California, and averages more than $3.50 nationwide. In response, the Obama administration is reportedly considering tapping into the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase supplies and drive down high prices brought on by a recovering world economy and unrest in the oil-rich Middle East.

Brown at the Brink

Gov. Jerry Brown's strategy to win the governor's seat has led California to this moment. March 10 was Brown's self-imposed deadline for passing his budget package and placing a $14 billion tax-increase extension on a June special-election ballot. Late Wednesday, Brown wisely asked the Legislature to delay a budget vote. As a gubernatorial candidate, Brown would not say he planned on raising taxes -- only that he would not raise taxes without voter approval. He must have known that he would follow the course he had set, but he also knew that 65 percent of California voters had rejected a similar tax package in 2009. So he was coy. And he won the election.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

There are times when I find myself thinking that all of America's loons are to be found lurking on the far left, but then something like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) takes place and I have to rethink my position. Never having attended one of those events, I have no idea how they're arranged. But one thing I do know is that any gathering that results in a straw vote victory for Ron Paul should send shivers down the back of most conservatives.

Obama's Green-Jobs Fantasies

Anyone who understands basic economics already knows that President Obama's $2.3 billion green-jobs initiative was snake oil. Now, thanks to Kenneth P. Green, we have statistics as well as theory to prove it. In a new article, "The Myth of Green Energy Jobs: The European Experience," the environmental scientist and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute writes, "Green programs in Spain destroyed 2.2 jobs for every green job created, while the capital needed for one green job in Italy could create almost five jobs in the general economy."

When a Lie Isn't One

One of the most abused words in today's political rhetoric has to be "lie." It's used to cover everything from an innocent misstatement to a broken promise to a misleading phrase. By now the strict definition of lie -- a conscious, deliberate falsehood -- is almost forgotten, the word is so over-used. Certainly in politics. For it's no longer enough for partisans to say an opponent is wrong or misleading or exaggerating or even being disingenuous. He's got to be lying.

The End of the U.S. Economy

What happens when more of us work for the government -- or receive paychecks from the government without work -- than those of us who work in the private sector? We're soon going to find out. This week, CNBC reported that social welfare payments now comprise 35 percent of wages and salaries this year. In other words, more than a third of all people receiving "paychecks" are receiving government redistribution checks via welfare, Social Security, Medicare or unemployment. In 1960, just 10 percent of the population garnered a wage from government anti-work programs. Now more than one in three of us do.

On Libya, Too Many Questions

WASHINGTON -- In September 1941, Japan's leaders had a question for Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto: Could he cripple the U.S. fleet in Hawaii? Yes, he said. Then he had a question for the leaders: But then what? Following an attack, he said, "I shall run wild considerably for the first six months or a year, but I have utterly no confidence" after that. Yamamoto knew America: He had attended Harvard and been naval attache in Japan's embassy in Washington. He knew Japan would be at war with an enraged industrial giant. The tide-turning defeat of Japan's navy at the Battle of Midway occurred June 7, 1942 -- exactly six months after Pearl Harbor.

On the GOP Menu for 2012

And so now we enter the mopey phase of the GOP presidential contest. The gloom takes many forms, but foremost is the fear that the field taking shape might be the one we're stuck with. It's like that feeling you get when you're starving and you go into a restaurant. At first everything on the menu looks great, until you have to make your choice and you realize there's nothing you actually want to eat. There isn't a German word for this sensation, but one that comes close is futterneid -- the envy one feels when somebody orders a better meal than yours. That's not perfectly apt, but it does capture the despair that the best dishes aren't on the menu.

Handouts, Morality and Common Sense

Whether Americans realize it or not, the last decade's path of congressional spending is unsustainable. Spending must be reined in, but what spending should be cut? The Republican majority in the House of Representatives fear being booted out of office and are understandably timid. Their rule for whom to cut appears to be: Look around to see who are the politically weak handout recipients. The problem is that those cuts won't put much of a dent in overall spending. The absolute last thing a Republican or Democrat congressmen wants to do is to cut handouts to, and thereby anger, recipients who vote in large numbers. To spare myself ugly mail, I'm not going to mention that handout group, but members of Congress know of whom I speak.

Neither GOP Nor Democrats Plan Balanced Budget in Next Decade

In response to questions from CNSNews.com, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia made clear this week that the American people should not expect either party to balance the federal budget anytime in the next decade. That's right: Neither House Democrats nor House Republicans plan on balancing the budget in the next decade. As of the close of business on March 7, according to the Treasury Department, the national debt stood at $14.186 trillion. Since the Census Bureau estimates there are 112,611,029 households in the United States, this means the federal government has already borrowed $125,974 in the name of every American household.

Is the President Really in Good Shape for Re-Election?

The media tend to be filled with many items that are either untrue or obvious. Last week -- from Politico to cable television, from Karl Rove to Mike Huckabee -- was a moment for the obvious to be stated and restated: "The GOP should not underestimate how hard it will be to defeat President Obama next November; indeed, he has to be considered the favorite to win the next presidential election." True. Of course, the same thing could have been (and was) said about President Lyndon Johnson in the spring of 1967 and about Jimmy Carter in the spring of 1979. Every incumbent president is the most formidable political force in the country. Even a deeply wounded president must be seen as formidable -- as Thomas Dewey learned to his regret in 1948 when President Harry Truman won the election even though the Democratic Party had been split three ways (both the pacifist left and the segregationist faction split off and ran their own candidates -- Henry Wallace ran on the Progressive ticket, Strom Thurmond ran on the Dixiecrat ticket.)

Yawning at Assassinated Troops

On March 2, two U.S. airmen, Nicholas Alden and Zachary Cuddeback, were gunned down at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Two other Americans were wounded. The assailant was a radical Muslim. This was a huge story to most Americans -- but, naturally, not to our news media. If the amount of airtime is any measure, the assassination of our troops drew a yawn. That night, ABC's "World News" offered a full report, but CBS and NBC each gave it less than 30 seconds. "Troops under attack in Germany, targeted by a gunman shouting in Arabic about jihad," reported ABC anchor Diane Sawyer. Neither CBS nor NBC found room for "jihad" talk and never found time to ask about the young American lives extinguished.