Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Mad Maxine's Minority Fat-Cat Bankers
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California is notorious for her high-decibel rants against corporate executives and career exploitation of identity politics. Class warfare and racial division are her two-decade-long stock and trade. She would normally be first in line (and in front of the cameras) to lambaste the very kind of Porsche-driving, luxury beach house-partying bank officials who begged her for a government handout. If they were white, that is.
Nostalgia for Buckley et al. Is Misplaced
Conservatives, being conservatives, have a soft spot for the good old days, but this is getting ridiculous. It seems every day another colleague on the right wants to click his ruby-red slippers (or Topsiders) and proclaim, "There's no place like home" -- "home" being the days when conservatism was top-heavy with generals but short on troops.
Malaise
Tie knotted, hair combed, middle button on blazer buttoned. Check. Briefcase in hand, wallet in breast pocket, car keys in hand. Check. Then out through the revolving door and into the fading light, a face prepared to meet the other faces. It would take a little longer for the practiced smile to fade after that presentation to the investors today. At least he hoped they were investors, not just lookers. He'd put a lot of work into that smile -- confident and friendly, but not cocky or familiar. Moderation in all things, that was the ticket.
Welcome to the Second Great Depression
Last Tuesday morning, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner "welcomed" us to the recovery. Seriously. "[A] review of recent data on the American economy shows that we are on a path back to growth," he assured us. "The recession that began in late 2007 was extraordinarily severe, but the action we took at its height to stimulate the economy helped arrest the freefall, preventing an even deeper collapse and putting the economy on the road to recovery."
The Accidental President
WASHINGTON -- If politics were literature, Bill Clinton would be Tom Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby," casually smashing lives around him while remaining untouched by the chaos he creates. Barack Obama is more like Macon Leary in "The Accidental Tourist," the author of tour guides who hates travel. "He was happiest with a regular scheme of things" -- a cautious driver and committed flosser, systematic and steady, suspicious of unpredictable yearnings, displaying an "appalling calm" in times of crisis. "If you let yourself get angry you'll be ... consumed," Macon says. "You'll burn up. It's not productive." Only order and method are productive. He is attracted to the "virtuous delights of organizing a disorganized country."
Iran: War Option on the Table
NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" this past Sunday began the war talk of August. It's not quite the guns of August, 1914, but it ain't beanbag, either. When "Meet the Press" asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen if the Pentagon had a plan for attacking Iran, Mullen replied, "We do." He added, "Military actions have been on the table and remain on the table." Mullen tempered his response by emphasizing an attack is always an "option." Mullen kept his hypothetical saber stroke in a diplomatic sheath by emphasizing the U.S. regards military action to destroy Iranian nuclear capabilities as an "option."
Is Profiling Racist?
Pima Indians of Arizona have the world's highest diabetes rates. With knowledge that his patient is a Pima Indian, it would probably be a best practice for a physician to order more thorough blood glucose tests to screen for diabetes. Prostate cancer is nearly twice as common among black men as white men. It would also be a best practice for a physician to be attentive to -- even risk false positive PSAs -- prostate cancer among his black patients. What about physicians who order routine mammograms for their 40-year and older female patients but not their male patients? The American Cancer Society predicts that about 400 men will die of breast cancer this year.
Democrats Bite Democrats: Part II
Rumors of Congressional Democrats privately expressing disapproval of the Obama administration's actions and policies have been given more credence by such things as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's public criticism of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. But when two long-time Democratic pollsters, Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen, called President Obama "cynical" and "racially divisive," that was a dramatic statement. It was like saying that the emperor has no clothes. A much more rhetorically subdued but nevertheless devastating implicit criticism of current government spending policies came from an even more unlikely source: the Congressional Budget Office, whose director is a Democrat.
Newsweek, Still Devolving
There's something oddly funny about the cluelessness of liberal media companies when their ratings fall or their subscriptions collapse. They just refuse to admit, even consider that the business problem could be (at least in part) their own incessant liberal agitating. Instead, they seem to double down and make things even worse.
Wiki Espionage
"Wiki" is a cute Hawaiian word for "quick" -- borrowed by Ward Cunningham, creator of the first Internet wiki -- from the name of a fast little interterminal shuttle at Honolulu International Airport. But cute and innocent as the word may sound, when attached to damaging wartime leaks by WikiLeaks operator Julian Assange, its cuteness should not protect Mr. Assange from being prosecuted and possibly executed by the U.S. government for wartime espionage.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Role of Luck -- Thoughts on a Birthday
There's a lot of luck in life. The longer I live -- Aug. 2 was my birthday -- the more I come to realize how much of life is affected by luck. Let's begin with life itself. Whether one lives to 62 -- or to 92 (my father's age) -- and whether in health or in sickness is largely a matter of luck. I strongly believe in taking care of one's health, but for most people, living long and in good health is a matter of good luck. My wife's sister died of cancer at 35. The brother of my radio show's producer died of a brain tumor at 57. Friends of mine lost their son at the age of 13.
Is Obama Fair to African-Americans?
I'm starting to wonder: Is President Obama fair to African-Americans? Asked about Rep. Charlie Rangel's ethics problems on CBS's "Evening News," the president could hardly have been more direct if he'd seized Rangel by the back of the collar and belt and pitched him out the door. "I think Charlie Rangel served a very long time and served his constituents very well, but these allegations are very troubling. And he'll -- he's somebody who's at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I'm sure that what he wants is to be able to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens."
Technology Overload Creates Restless Spirits
Two recent conversations reminded me how an abundance of techno noise in a child’s life can lead to boredom and emptiness. My friend Linda looked stressed. “I can’t wait for my kids to go back to school,” she said. “They’re restless and don’t know what to do with themselves, except text their friends continuously.”
None Dare Call It ... What?
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich may be the most notable public figure in some time to state the obvious: radical Islam is a clear and present danger to America. In a speech last week at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, Gingrich said, "this is not a war on terrorism ... this is a struggle with radical Islamists." The problem, he said, is that too many leaders are "sleepwalking" and won't face the threat.
On Demagoguing, Obama Should Look in the Mirror
As the granddaddy of political demagoguery, President Obama might have outdone himself with his recent admonition to political opponents not to "demagogue" the immigration issue. A "demagogue" is "a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument." "Ah," you say, "Obama is onto something here. Those who oppose his open-border policy are appealing to prejudice against immigrants instead of to rational argument." Wrong.
The Rangel Center for Public Service
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- also known as the House ethics committee -- issued a Statement of Alleged Violation last week to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y. To sum it up, Rangel thought he could skirt the rules and get away with it. Earlier this year, the ethics committee admonished Rangel for taking corporate trips to the Caribbean in violation of House rules.
Paul Ryan and the Perils of Realism
We've gone as a nation, in less than two years, from Hope and Change to "hope we can change the stuff we hoped for." Still, a question -- one of pointed interest to Republicans -- looms: change to what? Meaning, what are you all going to do, assuming you take the House and/or the Senate, to fix the problems you identified as reasons for throwing out the Obamacrats? People who push themselves as political saviors, like the Democrats two years ago, come to think of it, eventually find they have to start saving. It can be messy. A Washington Post story by Perry Bacon Jr. underscores the GOP challenge: to wit, "Rep. Ryan pushes budget reform, and his party winces."
Has Decency No Bounds?
First came the cascading apologies to Shirley Sherrod, the once and maybe future employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her candid confession of how she overcame her racial prejudice decades ago to help a white farmer, delivered at an NAACP conference in Georgia earlier this year, had been highly edited to make her sound like a racist. Before the dirty trick was uncovered, she'd been forced to resign her job and found her good name impugned by the administration, the NAACP, assorted bloggers, and the gullible in general.
Democrats Bite Democrats
You expect Republican politicians to criticize Democratic administrations and vice versa. But when Democrats start criticizing Democratic administrations, that is news. Someone once said that the headline "Dog bites Man" is not news, but "Man bites Dog" is. We are now starting to get "Democrat bites Democrat" news. Long-time Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen last week took on one of President Barack Obama's most bitter betrayals of his campaign rhetoric and the high hopes of people who voted for him.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Wringing the Bell
Sometimes, political corruption is so blatant, it almost seems like make-believe, like a farce concocted by Billy Wilder or Preston Sturges. Here in Southern California, we have a small, poor, mainly Hispanic community of 40,000 that has managed to put itself on the map in the unlikeliest of ways. Although nearly 20% of its population lives under the poverty level, this community is a shining example of the can-do spirit in action. How else can you explain that it had the highest-paid city officials in the nation?