Right to Opine

Washington Times — Obama’s crony capitalism: Friends of the president are given billions in government largesse

and

Heritage — Soros May Benefit From White House’s Natural Gas Proposal

Nothing quite like Chicago-style backscratching.

Forbes — Warren Buffett’s Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year

Oh, the irony. Leave it to Obama to trot out one of the 1% as his big example of how unfair the tax system is. And how about having his own staff pay their taxes:

Hot Air — Great news: The “fair share” administration owes over $800,000 in back taxes

Investor’s Business Daily triple play:

• CNN Turns Blind Eye To Obama-Alinsky Ties
• Government Accounting Is Like Lemonade Stand Economics
• Blocking Keystone XL Is Bad For Canada, Too

Michelle Malkin — Obama’s Green Robber Barons

Walter E. Williams, Human Events — Schools of education

John Ransom, Townhall — Unions, Buffett, Robber Barons and Cronies Now Have Our Oil, Oh My

Thomas Sowell, National Review — Is Anybody Serious?

WSJ — The Buffett Ruse: Obama’s ploy means the highest capital gains tax rate since 1978.

Karl Rove — Channeling David Axelrod

Not usually a fan of Rove, but this one had me snickering.

Real Clear Politics — The Hyper-Partisan President

NY Post — Adding up to nothing: O’s fast talk on the economy

MSNBC — Cops: Man, 65, kills teen who knocks him off bicycle

Jim Brady and the rest of the anti-CCW crowd would rather see a 65-year-old man be the victim of these thugs.

National Review — Ballot-Box Zombies

But requiring voter IDs is racist!

CNN — Obama pushes clean energy theme in Nevada, Colorado

Obama called his energy plan an “all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy.”

At this point does anyone really believe this line?

CNET — U.S.-backed battery firm Ener1 seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Why did the company fail? Low demand for electric vehicles. Duh. They’re EXPENSIVE! You know, when someone finally gets around to writing a book about the incredible failure of Obama’s brilliant “green economy” plan, it will have only one long chapter…11.

Obama’s first TV ad of the 2012 campaign contains deliberately misleading information. (What we used to call a lie.) Who knew? The WSJ notes that

In bold type, the ad proclaims: President Obama “kept a campaign promise to toughen ethics rules” and it cites: “PolitiFact, 1/21/09.”

But

Just two days later, on Jan. 23, Politifact moved its ruling to “compromise” when Obama gave a waiver to William J. Lynn III, the nominee for deputy defense secretary. By March 17, PolitiFact called it a “promise broken” because so many waivers had been granted.

CNET — Obama at Intel: America, make more stuff

And how are we supposed to do that when you cut access to our own natural resources and kill our ability to provide the massive amounts of energy required for manufacturing?

WSJ — Showdown Over ‘Showrooming’

Showrooming is a moral failure which crosses the political divide. I’m saddened by how often I hear people talk about going into a store to check something out, then bragging about how they bought it from xyz.com for so much less. Why? When you do that, you are stealing from the brick-and-mortar store—you’ve deliberately used their resources when you had no real intention of purchasing from them.

Townhall — 15 Questions The Mainstream Media Would Ask Barack Obama If He Were A Republican

City Journal — It’s Working in Walker’s Wisconsin

And it will work elsewhere in America if we can break the unions’ grip on taxpayer funds.

NY Times — Arizona Candidate Challenged Over English Skills

Don’t be mislead by the headline. This lawsuit is being brought by the ultimate Mexican-haters…fellow Hispanics!

Carville & Begala, CNN — Yes, there’s a lot we don’t understand about the GOP

You have to love seeing experienced Democratic strategists open a piece with a litany of pure strawmen then spend the remainder attacking Gingrich. If he’s such a terrible candidate, why not throw your support behind him? Your guy should beat him handily, right? Right?

LA Times — Sterilized by North Carolina, she felt raped once more

She has every right to be furious. What was done to her by the state is nothing short of despicable. But holding current North Carolina taxpayers accountable for something done before many of us were born is simply piling one injustice on another. Make those guilty of the act liable. Punishing the innocent does nothing to achieve justice.

Fox News — Atty Says School Threatened, Punished Boy Who Opposed Gay Adoption

Once again, “tolerance” is demanded for all opinions except, of course, those of Christians.

NY Post — Don’t we need a food-stamp prez?

Investor’s Business Daily triple-play:

• Obama’s Big Six State of the Union Tax Myths
• What the White House Really Knew About the Stimulus
• Obama’s Hypocrisy: Making Warren Buffett Richer

Parts 2-4 of Sowell’s discourse on disparity:

• An Ignored ‘Disparity’: Part II
• Part III
• Part IV

And his newest column — Too Many People Speak Out Of Their Ignorance

NY Times — Justices Say GPS Tracker Violated Privacy Rights

WSJ — The New American Divide

A very thought-provoking look at cultural differences in America.

Fox News — White House delay of budget proposal infuriates Republicans

It should infuriate all Americans. This is the third time Obama has failed to meet his statutory requirement to file a budget on time, and the Democrat-controlled Senate hasn’t passed a budget in three years. Like it or not, under the Constitution the House controls the purse, and should lay it out for the public to see by passing a severely cut—balanced is too much to hope for—budget early enough to even more clearly expose the lack of seriousness in the Senate and White House.

Washington Examiner — The welfare state is destroying America

Washington Times — The truly dismal state of the union

WSJ — Nearly Half of U.S Lives in Household Receiving Government Benefits  

This is, of course, a huge boon to the Democrats since it buys them votes needed to keep expanding handouts, which buys more votes, and…

On the Keystone XL pipeline:

• National Journal — Obama Rejecting Pipeline, Pokes Back At GOP
• Jonah Goldberg — A Question of Priorities
• WSJ — The Anti-Jobs President: Obama rejects the Keystone XL pipeline and blames Congress

NY Times — Obama Reaffirms Insurers Must Cover Contraception

Really think there’s no war on religious freedom coming from the Left? Or that liberals really care about separation of church and state? Or that you can keep your current coverage if you like it, as Catholic organizations drop insurance coverage for their employees?

Fox News — School Fears “Cougars” Mascot Will Offend Women

File that under You-Have-Got-To-Be-@#$^%-Kidding! We wonder why our kids are dumb when they have idiots running their schools.

Washington Times — Uncle Sam’s empty cupboards: Obama is about to pour another trillion dollars down the drain

Apparently the term “debt ceiling” has no meaning remotely related to the literal dictionary definition of the term. If we’re going to raise the national credit card limit every other month—as is the current case—why not just eliminate it entirely and quit pretending Congress actually cares about the debt?

Michelle Malkin — The Land of Obama Make-Believe

Express-Times — Suspects in fatal robbery at Phillipsburg gas station head to Warren County on murder charges

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from anti-gun friends or co-workers, “Just cooperate with a mugger. He’ll take what he wants & leave.” Well, maybe; maybe not. I’m not going to bet my life on it, and neither should you.

The Hill — Bain gives more campaign money to Democrats than it does to Republicans

Almost three times as much to the Democrats. Oh, the delicious irony.

Real Clear Politics — Hooray for the “Do-Nothing” Congress

The niece of Martin Luther King, Jr. on her uncle’s legacy:

Gingrich slap-down on Juan Williams

Mark Wahlberg on his faith

WSJ — Fuel Arrives, but Deep Freeze Endures

American Thinker — Speaking of desecrations
Thomas Sowell — An Ignored ‘Disparity’

Townhall — Why the Doctor Won’t See You

WSJ — The Bain Capital Bonfire: Romney has a good story to tell, if he’s willing to tell it.

Probably the best defense of the work Romney did at Bain Capital that I’ve seen in print. It’s not like they bought profitable companies and just gutted them. The purpose of a company is to turn a profit—NOT to pay people who aren’t productive. In the end, Bain created far more jobs than it cut.

WSJ — Contempt for Congress: Obama makes recess appointments when there’s no recess

Cato — Playing Politics with the Constitution and the Law

Does anyone even remember how the Left yelled and screamed at every opportunity about how Bush was a dictator, Nazi, Bushitler, etc.? Never did he blatantly ignore the Constitution in the manner Obama is doing almost daily now. The Left is getting what they wanted—rule by fiat rather than a constitutional republic.

Townhall — Why OWS Hates Married, Filing Jointly

Doug Giles, Townhall — The Santa Killer Was a Religion of Peacer

Andy Kessler, WSJ — The Rise of Consumption Equality

AP — Mount Rainier remains closed after ranger shooting

Of course the liberal knee-jerk reaction is to blame the NRA, et al, for lax gun laws. But murdering a park ranger is already illegal. Do you really think the perp would have obeyed a law banning the weapon when he clearly disregarded the more serious one re its use?

NY Times — Overtures to Egypt’s Islamists Reverse Longtime U.S. Policy

The reversal also reflects the administration’s growing acceptance of the Brotherhood’s repeated assurances that its lawmakers want to build a modern democracy that will respect individual freedoms, free markets and international commitments, including Egypt’s treaty with Israel.

The blind naivete of this administration is simply astounding and will have devastating consequences for decades to come.

Fox News — School Defends “Occupy” Song For 8-year-olds

Um, yeah, right. A bunch of third-graders wrote those lyrics. Sorry, but have you actually read anything written by a third-grade kid?

Dave Berry, Miami Herald — Dave Barry’s 2011 Year in Review

PJ Media — Ten 2011 Examples of Major Media Malfeasance

Yid With Lid — Alan Colmes is a Despicable Low Life Scumbag!

There was a time when I thought Colmes was a thoughtful—if always wrong—voice on the Left. No longer. This isn’t just a “mistake” but a revealing insight into a hate-filled heart and mind.

Thomas Sowell, Townhall — Republican Voters’ Choices

Forbes — Even the Warmists Don’t Believe In Global Warming

Investor’s Business Daily — Defend Mideast Oil, But Refuse To Build Keystone?

Would we rather get our oil from Canada and North Dakota or from the Middle East through the Strait of Hormuz?

Indeed.

NY Times — Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Freedom of Religion

I haven’t read the law, but from news analysis I’ve seen, it doesn’t appear the bishops have a real First Amendment case here. The law does not prevent the church from denying adoptions to gay couples—it denies them state funding if they choose to do so. But in my opinion, the church should not—on principle alone—have taken government funding for its adoption program to begin with. What goes unmentioned is that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services instituted this policy knowing a priori that it would bring about the closure of the Catholic adoption agencies—and putting the desires of gay adults over the needs of the children the agencies served.

Walter E. Williams, Townhall — Gullible Americans

Fox News — Obesity Linked to Older Adults’ Risk of Falls

“People who are obese may have a harder time with balance,” said Himes, of Syracuse University in New York.

And when they lose their footing, she told Reuters Health, obese older adults may be less able to react quickly and stop a fall.

Really? We needed a study to tell us this?

AP — Preventive care: It’s free, except when it’s not

What? You mean Obamacare wasn’t really thought out very well before it was passed? Who’da thunk it?

BBC — Walmart Moms: America’s next big voting bloc

Michelle Malkin — The Year in Obama Scandals — and Scandal Deniers