"Note the media use of the word tragedy. It's not a tragedy, it's an act of war. Listen to this soldier shot in the back."RELATED: From Just One Minute, "Maybe If We Apologized With Greater Deference." (Via Memeorandum.)
Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura secretly visited Fort Hood last night and spent "considerable time" consoling those who were wounded in Thursday's shooting spree, Fox News has learned.But note this from Reuters, "Obamas to attend Fort Hood memorial Tuesday." Better late than never, I guess. Or as Pamela suggests, "Obama's posse has announced he will go to Fort Hood next week. Not because he wants to, but because he was shamed into it. Disgusting."
The Bushes entered and departed the sprawling military facility in secret, having told the base commander they did not want press coverage of their visit, a source told Fox News.
The couple was described as "deeply concerned" about military families on Fort Hood after Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly opened fire on soldiers and civilians, killing 13 and wounding 38.
The Bushes, who have a 1,600-acre property known as Prairie Chapel Ranch less than 30 miles from Fort Hood in central Texas, spent between one and two hours visiting the wounded and their families.
There's some question as to whether Nidal Hassan is the actual author, although the views there are buttressed by increasing information on the suspect's Islamist fundamentalism and anti-Americanism. See, the Washington Post, "Fort Hood Suspect Became More Devout After Mother's Death, Cousin Says." And at Jawa Report, "NY Post: Take a Look at Ft. Hood Shooter's Old Mosque." Also, at the Los Angeles Times, "Retracing Steps of Suspected Fort Hood Shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan: As Authorities Try to Find a Motive for the Texas Attacks, Details of a Devout Muslim Begin to Emerge."There was a grenade thrown amongs [sic] a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally [sic] took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled [sic] this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees [sic] in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i [sic] you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best.
As of late yesterday, House Democratic leaders were still short of the 218 votes needed to pass health care reform. Odd as it may seem, after six months of debate, hearings, meetings, and negotiations, the biggest hurdle was the wording on a measure dealing with the fungibility of public funds as it relates to abortion services.I'd say Benen left a couple of things out, like the near-year-long campaign against ObamaCare by grassroots conservatives; and then, of course, there's tanking public support for the Democratic healthcare monstrosity. From Dana Loesch, "Why Rush Through a Bill Nobody Supports?":
Pro-choice Democrats said the bill already restricted direct public funding of abortion. Democrats who oppose abortion rights said it wasn't enough, and without a prohibition on indirect funding, they would kill the entire health care reform initiative.
So women are now supposed to carry all the burden of bearing and rearing children, while paying more for insurance and receiving less, getting lower pay, and then eating cat food in retirement because we didn't earn enough money during our "working" years.
*****
What we have here is a literal circle-jerk of sworn celibate cross-dressers dicktating gender-specific medical policy. Sorry, but we dealt with this particular form of stupid nationally in '73. Stupak, et. al. need to drag their sorry asses by their hairy knuckles back to whatever damn cave they've emerged from.
*****
I watched the Stupak gang last night in front of the Rules Committee, and despite the protestations of Hastings and McGovern, you knew this was going to happen. Somehow, the fact that they are under the same restrictions on abortion with their own Federal Health Care Plans is supposed to make them seem like sympathetic characters in this debate; who understand how difficult it is for poor people with regard to the difficult question of abortion. "They can buy supplemental plans just like us if the want to get an abortion", they say. Cut me a freaking break!
Every day, as this thing gets whittled down more and more, I really do have to wonder about its overall worth. The "we have to pass something" group takes greater control of this debate every day.
I know it is not politically feasible to get some things right up front. But if the end result of all this paring and "compromise" is a tremendously marginalized bill that creates a whole new set of problems and roadblocks for the people who truly need health care, how much value, in the end, does it really have?
It is just supremely frustrating that all of the "give back" has to be from one side, the side that is trying to help real people with real needs.
It is just aggravating to watch. The people in Washington just really don't give a shit about the most marginalized people in this debate.
*****
When you aren't bold enough as leaders this is what happens.Roosevelt was right about fear, and it has been the fear of Democrats which has led us to this crappy bill.
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt
*****
Boo, You really didn't know that the Catholic Church has pretensions to rule the world and acts everywhere as a shadow political organization. I'm not trying to be funny. This is so! It always has been. Mussolini reinstated the Catholic Church's status as an independent entity in the Vatican after the Italian revolution had compoletely incorporated the Vatican into Italian territory in about 1870. After the war, the U.S. (you know, the separation-religion-and-state empire of god on earth) opted to accept Mussolini's decision and supported the Italian post-war government's continuation of the Vatican as autonomous. Maybe the V.S. even insisted on it. Well, guys, here we are today. This decision against abortion funding is barbaric. Medieval. It chokes me.
Publisher's Note: It is my pleasure once again to publish a guest essay from a reader, Bill Dawson. A U.S. citizen, Bill has lived in Austria since 2000. He blogs regularly about German History rather than contemporary politics, but he has his finger on the pulse of the German-language media and offers an interesting perspective from across the pond.
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A story which involves a U.S. company but is just barely on the news radar in the United States is by far the biggest story in Germany today, November 5, 2009.
The Germans have gone wild with anger after hearing the news that General Motors has decided to keep Opel, a European subsidiary, rather than sell it as previously planned. The original idea was that GM would sell Opel to Canadian firm Magna International and Russia's Sberbank. The Germans -- and by that I mean the government and the gigantic trade union IG Metall -- apparently had much more faith that the Magna/Sberba combo would better protect Germany's Opel jobs. The Detroit News article (linked above) suggests otherwise by indicating that GM's plan to cut 20% of the Opel workforce is similar to what Magna had planned. Honestly, the details of the respective plans do not interest me, so I've not dug deep and tried to compare them.
What does always interest me is the predictable reactions that many Germans have when businesses in the United States affect people (read: "workers") in Germany. Journalists, politicians and labor leaders dust off their cowboy boot cliches and whine about the heartlessness of capitalism.
"Capitalism has apparently learned nothing," asserts angry IG Metall chief Berthold Huber (my emphasis, link is to German content). That statement appears in an interview; neither Huber nor the interviewer thought it necessary to explain what exactly was meant. If GM makes a decision based on its own interests, then this shows that "Capitalism has apparently learned nothing." I guess from Huber's perspective this means that Capitalism has failed to learn that if it does not protect jobs at all costs then... what? I can only assume he means that the lesson of the current worldwide financial crisis is that jobs must be protected at all costs, even if they don't make economic sense to the companies who provide those jobs. And Capitalism has failed to learn that lesson. Right.
"This behavior of General Motors shows the ugly face of Turbo-Capitalism," laments the Minister President (head of the government) of the German state North Rhine Westphalia (German link, my emphasis). He is a member of the Christian Democrats, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is traditionally considered center-right and is often accused by the Left of being too pro-business.
"Smoking Colts" (German link) is the title Thomas Wels chose for his very short opinion piece on the website of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. "The Americans have bargained just like they always do: up to the last minute, and with a Colt on the table." (My emphasis.) The disappointed Wels accuses GM of acting "purely in self-interest".
"Hatred for the Grave-Diggers of Detroit" (German link) is how the Sueddeutsche Zeitung titled their article about the anti-GM demonstrations that occurred today (11/5/2009) in the town of Ruesselsheim. Though the link is to a German article, you might enjoy clicking on it and then scrolling down until you see the slideshow consisting of six photos of the demonstration. Click that first photo and I'll take you through the photos with some translation where necessary. Hopefully they haven't changed up the photos by the time you read this.
Now all of you have been thinking throughout this whole article, "Are they nuts? GM is not 'capitalism.' It's socialism!" All German commentators whom I've come across so far are conveniently ignoring this fact. A few have mentioned that the U.S. government under world darling President Barack Obama owns the largest chunk of GM, but, funnily enough, they haven't elaborated on that: it doesn't fit the message.
On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting "Allahu Akbar!" committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.More at the link.
What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.
This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.
When the terrorist posts anti-American hate-speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as "Palestinian" in a Muslim spouse-matching program, and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit — well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an "Islamist terrorist."
But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as "Islamist terrorism" in ObamaWorld.
And the Army won’t. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political correctness that pandering to America-haters is safer than calling terrorism "terrorism."
And the media won’t. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our troops — despite their crocodile tears.
Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan planned this terrorist attack and executed it in cold blood. The resulting massacre was the first tragedy. The second was that he wasn’t killed on the spot.
Hasan survived. Now the rest of us will have to foot his massive medical bills. Activist lawyers will get involved, claiming "harassment" drove him temporarily insane. There’ll be no end of trial delays. At best, taxpayer dollars will fund his prison lifestyle for decades to come, since our politically correct Army leadership wouldn’t dare pursue or carry out the death penalty.
Maj. Hasan will be a hero to Islamist terrorists abroad and their sympathizers here. While US Muslim organizations decry his acts publicly, Hasan will be praised privately. And he’ll have the last laugh.
The reaction to condemn all Muslims for this shooting is a reaction based in bigotry, not fact. That is what I am calling racist, not people outraged over the shooting - which would include me.The slight problem is that I've never condemned all Muslims. The Political Carnival, also with a comprehension problem, hopped on "Airhead" Alexandrovna's bandwagon: Hence, the title of this post about the "non-glue sniffers," which is apparently a self-proclaimed badge of honor among leftist terror-enablers.
To the extent that radical Islamic terrorists constitute a murderous threat to innocent Americans, Hasan had it exactly right. To the extent that the vast majority of Muslims want only to live their lives in peace, pay their taxes, send their kids to college and mow their lawns he had it exactly wrong. It’s a little more than ironic that Hasan became that which he believed others took him for – a weak dick coward more willing to gun down unarmed American soldiers than care for them in a combat zone.Perhaps if Hasan had been willing to sacrifice his principles just a smidge and marry a nice Muslim girl who would be happy enough to raise his children for him but didn’t want to sit in the back room under a burkha like chattel, he’d have found more reasons for living than killing. Perhaps.
Of course, finding that perfect woman would have eventually resulted in having to, you know: Get dirty with the fiddly bits. With a woman.
Far better to stew in your resentments ...
And, further down at the post:
It’s not that most or even many Muslims want to cut infidel throats, for if they did it wouldn’t be a question of if or whether and we’d be at it hammer and tongs with the outcome not in doubt. The problem is that there is found within the Koran – the perfect, unalterable wisdom of a single, charismatic man as given to him by “God” – sufficient reason to do so, if you go looking hard enough. Which, for weak dick nutters, is all too easy to do.We’ve loonies of our own in Christendom any have had the opportunity many times over the last two millenia to prove the fallen nature of man. But their crimes and misdemeanors are granted no borderline personality waivers by the Prince of Peace. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” was not footnoted, nor was it asterisked.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Our guy died for us.
Theirs killed for them.
What a fucking day. This email made me happy. I’m drinking at my desk.Spencer,
You are doing everything to protect Islam from the shootings at Fort Hood. The reason so many centrist/independents like myself are starting to lean towards Fox News, etc. ... is because you guys refuse to be fair. The hypocrisy is openly blatant now. You know if this was a story of a Christian psychiatrist killing opening fire on a group of homosexuals, the judgement would be swift. But that doesn’t happen. Fact is, every Christian majority nation has freedom of religion and freedom of speech. NO islamic majority nation has freedom of religion and freedom of speech. If you would just be honest, more would listen. Independent Americans are not fanatics, it’s just the media has moved so far left, we look that way.
Some of those Islamic majority nations respecting freedom of speech and freedom of religion include Turkey and, to a much lesser extent, Indonesia. India isn’t Muslim-majority, but it’s a democracy with, if I’m not mistaken, the world’s greatest number of Muslims.
And, well, actually, folks argue that Turkey -- with secularism waning amid a radical shift to Islamic fundamentism -- is becoming a "second Iran"; and you know, really, it's Indonesia, not India, that boasts the world largest Muslim population.
But hey, let's not go too hard on our national security "expert" at Firedoglake and the Washington Independent. I'm sure those folks find some benefit out of having Ackerman tag along -- for example, he rattles off Islamist exclamations for the faithful: insh'allah (God willing) Israel will be wiped from the face of the earth. And of course, those George Bush death chants are popular across the netroots!
But geez, the guy could at least get some of his facts straight!
Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That's the least that should occur.And Weasel Zippers laments:
I just want to restate the disgust I have for our President. I keep hearing him say 'outburst of violence'. Why this choice of words? Why belittle the action? Why make it sound like he's talking about a 4 year old throwing a fit? I can only come up with one answer and it frightens me to the core. We know he doesn't see a purpose for the military, but his speech yesterday proves that he hates the military. That he would side with a Jihadist that killed/wounded over 30 of our heroes, disgusts me. That he would call yesterday's horrific act of violence an 'outburst of violence' validates that he deserves no respect. It is times like this that I REALLY miss President Bush.And in response, Larisa Alexandrovna, who is one of the left's biggest race-baiting smear-merchants on the web - and now obviously an America-bashing terror-enabler - is excoriating those who are rightfully outraged at Obama's inappropriate nonchalance in a crisis deserving the deepest solemnity, "3, 2, 1... Attack Obama Over the Fort Hood Shooting":
Not that I am surprised one bit by the glue-sniffing attack on Obama in relation to the Fort Hood tragedy, but thought you might like a little tour of the lunacy, racism, hate, and stupidity that comprises that right-wing fringe of the Republican Party.Yep, had to get the racist allegations in there. It's all about "race" and "hatred" with the Obama administration's apologists. Iran's going nuclear, unemployment's soaring past 10 percent, and this administration's own Department of Homeland Security -- as well as other federal officials and Army personnel -- knew of Nidal Malik Hasan's pyschological infirmities, and of his solidarity with Islamist suicide bombers. But for Larisa Alexandrovna, it's all about racist right-wing opportunism in attacking poor Obambi!
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, murdered twelve people and wounded twenty-one inside Fort Hood in Texas yesterday, while, according to eyewitnesses, “shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting.” Investigators are scratching their heads and expressing puzzlement about why he did it. According to NPR, “the motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said.” The Washington Post agreed: “The motive remains unclear, although some sources reported the suspect is opposed to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and upset about an imminent deployment.” The Huffington Post spun faster, asserting that “there is no concrete reporting as to whether Nidal Malik Hasan was in fact a Muslim or an Arab.”Read the whole thing.
Yet there was, and what’s more, Major Hasan’s motive was perfectly clear — but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened – and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.
After the 2007 Fort Dix plot, I wrote nearly three years ago the following chilling prognosis:But read the whole thing.So, in the end, what are we to make of Fort Dix — yet another post-9/11 straw on an increasingly tired camel’s back?
We know that CAIR will neither seriously admonish Muslims charged with terrorist crimes nor introspectively examine the larger Islamic culture that seems to so incite the jihadist.
Such organizations will not do so as long as they can far more easily play on the self-doubt and guilt of the affluent and leisured citizen, who is supposed to believe that the dangers of radical Islam, both at the state and individual level, are mostly fictions inspired by our own prejudices. The sermonizing here in the United States by an Ayatollah Khatami, readily received by complaint listeners, and the satellite-beamed sophistry of Tariq Ramadan prove that well enough.
Most Americans will not remember Fort Dix in a week — just as they have forgotten Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, Lodi, Portland, and all the rest; just as they want out of Fallujah now and probably Kandahar tomorrow.
Yet, at some point, the jihadists will go too far. Many of us, erroneously as it turned out, thought that, after twenty years of serial provocations, radical Islam had done precisely that on 9/11.
Apparently not. But such forbearance, even at this late hour in the post-West, is still not limitless.
The more a Palestinian imam promises us our death, the more the Iranian president promises a world without America, the more these al Qaedists, like the most recent keystone clowns at Fort Dix, do their small part in trying to reify such mad rhetoric, and the more the sophisticated apologists assure us that we, not they, are the real threat, the more likely the sofa-sitting, channel-surfing American will some day very soon blow up, rather than be blown up.
An Army psychiatrist who had counseled troops and was upset about being deployed to Iraq shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and opened fire on an unarmed crowd at Fort Hood Army base Thursday afternoon, killing 13 people and wounding 30, military officials said.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. citizen born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, was wounded by a civilian police officer responding to a shooting rampage that is believed to be the worst ever at a U.S. base, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of Fort Hood.
Cone told NBC's Today show on Friday that nearby troops heard Hasan made the comment, which is Arabic for "God is great!" before the melee that killed one civilian and 12 soldiers. Thirty people were wounded.
Also, from Atlas Shrugs, "Muslim Garbed Jihadi Nidal Hasan Screamed "Allah Akbar" as he Mowed Down US Soldiers at Fort Hood, Death Toll Rises."
Dear Patriot, As I write this note, thousands of everyday Americans have come to Washington to speak their mind about the misguided health care bill that Speaker Pelosi and President Obama are pushing through Congress.Please join me in supporting Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
What an awe-inspiring sight! These people came by plane, by train, by car and by bus. They drove overnight and they gave up their precious free time to share one message with this Congress: Keep your hands off my health care!
Less than one week from when I put out the call to the American people to come to Washington and pay this emergency house call on Congress, they're here and they're ready to stand up for their freedoms.
But, even as I stand here with these thousands of American people - moms, dads, grandparents all united by a love of what makes America great - the Democrats are setting their sights on me. In fact, it is because I stand with you and these other great Americans that the liberals are doing all they can to demean my work in Congress.
And, that's why I need your help. They'll come at me with both guns, putting millions of dollars into spreading lies about me and my work here in Congress. Can you help me with your most generous contribution today?
Here's what the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had to say about the awesome power of the American people as they gathered on the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol today:
"If the Republican party wants to make Michele Bachmann the voice of the party, that's more than fine with us. We'll help circulate the petition. ... It's their extreme right-wing, rigid ideological agenda that has Americans leaving the Republican Party in droves - and so, if displays like today are what they think is a smart political strategy, all we can say is: go for it."
They still don't get it. Today wasn't about me. And, it wasn't about any extreme agenda. It was about the American people and what mainstream America believes and supports and wants from their Congress.
I need your help to stay in Congress fighting for you. Your support means that I can keep fighting:
- Against the cap and tax national energy tax and for true energy independence
- Against government takeover of your health care and for consumer control of your health care decisions
- For accountability from your government
- For lower taxes, less red tape, and greater economic freedom for the American people
- For an end to the same old Washington double speak that bails out Wall Street at the expense of America's continued prosperity
- For continued American exceptionalism in the world
Will you help me with your most generous donation today? I cannot continue this fight without you and I promise you that I will never shrink from a fight to protect your liberty and your all-American opportunity to prosper.
God Bless You and Thank you!Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
UPDATE: Shlep Smith has the jihadi's cousin on the phone, Nader Hasan, and Schlep is lapping up the lies and he is doing the taqiya. Nader is saying the Malik was a great American. Hasan is saying that the mass murderer "was harassed" and that's why he methodically planned and executed this massive attack on a US military installation.Plus, at the Times of London, "Fort Hood Shooting: Nidal Malik Hasan 'Said Muslims Should Rise Up'":
He was not a convert. He is a devout Muslim who joined the army with a purpose.
7:16 pm UPDATE: Malik Nadal Hasan, the jihadi who led the attack on Fort Hood, was quoted as saying "Muslims have the right to rise up against the US military" "The Muslims have a right to stand up against the aggressors" "Maybe we should have more of these where people strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square" - this according to Col Terry Lee, who worked with Muslim convert.
No word on the two other suspects ..... something tells me they are not scientologists.
UPDATE: Unprecedented in American history.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 11 people before being shot dead at Fort Hood, had said Muslims should "rise up" and attack Americans in retaliation for the US war in Iraq, a former army colleague said last night.Plus, from Jawa Report, "Terror at Ft. Hood:
Col Terry Lee, a retired officer who worked with him at the military base in Texas, described angry confrontations between Maj Hasan and other officers after he expressed his views.
Maj Hasan was reportedly fighting orders to be deployed to Iraq at the end of the month, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and insults because of his Arab background and his faith.
The major was a psychiatrist who had been treating soldiers returning from Iraq for post-traumatic stress and alcohol and drug abuse problems.
"He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans," Col Lee told Fox News.
"He said Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place." He said that Maj Hasan said he was "happy" when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June. An American convert to Islam was accused of the shootings.
Col Lee said that other officers had told him that Maj Hasan had said "maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Time Square" in New York.
He said he was aware that the major had been subject to "name calling" during heated arguments with other officers.
Federal law enforcement officials have said Maj Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.
The officials said the postings appeared to have been made by Maj Hasan but they were still trying to confirm that he was the author.
Maj Hasan's cousin Nader Husan said he was happy working for the military but did dread deployment to Iraq.
Mr Hasan said his cousin was a US-born Muslim who had joined the military after high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, which treats many badly wounded troops.
"He was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed dealing with the people coming back and ... trying to help them with their trauma," he said.
He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April months ago and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq. "We've known over the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare," he said.
Egged on by House Republicans, thousands of protesters railed against Democrats' health care reform plan in Washington Thursday and flooded the offices of their representatives to urge them to oppose the plan.More at the link.
But while GOP lawmakers and demonstrators proclaimed their intention to "kill the bill," the White House and House Democrats remained confident. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is driving the bill toward a Saturday vote, and her top deputy said Thursday that Democrats will have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping, $1.2 trillion package.
President Obama, meanwhile, touted fresh endorsements of the plan from the American Medical Association and the AARP, as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the protesters as rebels without a cause.
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President Barack Obama promised "answers to every single question" about Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood after an attack by at least one U.S. service member that left 12 soldiers dead and 31 wounded.Also, at the Houston Chronicle, "12 Killed in Shooting at Fort Hood." (Via Memeorandum.)
Speaking at the Interior Department, Obama said he had already conferred with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about the attack and would continue to receive updates.
"We don't yet know all the details," Obama said. "What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence."
"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to the rest of us on a daily basis," the president continued. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
Obama's remarks came at the conclusion of the Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Interior Department and the White House. He told his listeners – leaders from many of the 564 federally recognized American Indian tribes – that he had discarded his prepared comments in light of the breaking news.
"I planned to make some broader remarks," he said after brief introductory comments. "But as some of you might have heard there has been a tragic shooting at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas."
The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Nadal Malik Hasan, who is psychologist or a psychiatrist.
He was promoted to major status in May, according to the Army Times.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, told Fox News that military sources informed her that the gunman was about to be deployed to Iraq.
The shooter was killed and two other suspects, who are also soldiers, have been apprehended, Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone said.
Rep. Michele Bachmann says her "Super Bowl of Freedom" at the U.S. Capitol today can torpedo Democratic health care overhaul plans by enlisting "the voices of freedom."Check Glenn Reynolds for more (with pictures).
At noon eastern time today, the lawn near the Capitol's West Front was crowded with thousands of protesters who chanted "kill the bill."
"Are they going to listen?" Bachmann asked the throng of cheering protesters, referring to House Democrats. "Oh, yeah, they're going to listen."
Bachmann stood at a podium that promoted the House GOP health care plan, declaring "Health Care Freedom."
GOP members of Congress stood on the Capitol steps behind her.
Bachmann was followed by actor Jon Voight, who called his listeners "brave, concerned patriotic American citizens."
Among the signs displayed at the flag-draped rally was one demanding "Waterboard Congress" and another that said, "Vote no to government-run health care."
The Democratic National Committee was quick to mock Bachmann. "If the Republican party wants to make Michele Bachmann the voice of the party, that's more than fine with us," said spokesman Hari Sevugan, accusing her of an "extreme right-wing, rigid ideological agenda."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs also dismissed the rally during his daily briefing.
"I think anybody that watches is struck by the fact that there's a rally going on without a solution on their side," Gibbs told reporters. "They've rolled out a piece of legislation, and I use those -- I hesitate to even say that -- it's a series of old ideas" that wouldn't solve the nation's health care woes.
Jon Voight speaking today in D.C.: "President Obama's only success is taking America apart piece by piece."
Republicans emerged from Tuesday’s elections energized by victories in Virginia and New Jersey, but their leaders immediately began maneuvering to avoid a prolonged battle with conservative activists over what the party stands for and how to regain power.And you can see the huge problem with this piece, by the Times' Adam Nagourney. Dede Scozzafava was no "moderate." She had radical union backing and won awards as an abortion extremist. The old-line press, by speaking of hardcore leftists as "moderates," actually emboldens conservative activists even more. The whole D.C.-New York "corridor" is corrupted by the RINO-DIABLO infection.
The victories, in races for governor, were cast by the party’s national chairman, Michael Steele, as a sign of a “Republican renaissance.” In New Jersey, Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, was toppled by the Republican nominee, Christopher J. Christie. In Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell, the Republican, defeated his Democratic opponent, R. Creigh Deeds.
Republicans said the victories showed that President Obama and his party were vulnerable on the economy, government spending and other issues.
Yet throughout the day Wednesday, Republicans grappled with the disappointing outcome of a special election for what had been a reliably Republican House seat in upstate New York. That contest became a battleground between the party establishment and a conservative insurgency demanding more ideological purity from candidates.
The race was won by a Democrat, Bill Owens, after the Republican nominee, Dede Scozzafava, a moderate, quit as conservative leaders and grass-roots organizations rallied around Douglas L. Hoffman, who ran on the Conservative Party line.
Despite Mr. Hoffman’s loss, many conservatives promised to press on with opposition to centrist Republican candidates. That vow intensified concerns among party leaders that the opportunities they see coming out of Tuesday’s results could be dimmed by intramural battles over whether to reach for the political center or do more to motivate the base on the party’s right.
Sources confirm to me exclusively that Gossip Girl’s Nov. 9 episode will feature three major characters having sex. At the same time. In the same bed. Together.Check the post for the possible "combos."
And I repeat: OMFHWTFHOLLA!
In France it's called a "menage a trois." In America, it's called a "bad idea" - at least according to the Parent's Television Council.Plus, see also the full-page ad for the premiere, "Every Parent's Nightmare."
The organization has sent a letter to Entertainment Weekly and the CW, criticizing the TV network for planning to air a "Gossip Girl" episode that features a threesome.
The letter, written by PTC chief Tim Winter, states, "To include a story line like this on a program that is expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers is reckless and irresponsible. I appeal to your highest sense of decency, respect and common sense in urging you to preempt this episode."
Rep. Michele Bachmann's message for conservatives traveling to Washington to attend her Capitol Hill House Call event Thursday is simple: "Go into the Capitol and find members of Congress," she told activists Wednesday night. "Don't bring your pitchforks, bring your video cameras. And get them on record saying how they're going to vote and why. And tell them, 'Take your hands off my health care!' "Also, Congressman Mike Pence has organized a 12-hour online town hall meeting to run tandem with Representative Bachmann's "House Call." See, "GOP Organizes 12-hour Online Town Hall for Thursday." (RELATED: The Washington Post, "House Expected to Vote on Health Bill Saturday." Via Memeorandum. AND, from Pat in Shreveport, "Here Comes Obamacare: Melt the Phones!)
Bachmann (R-Minn.) gave the marching orders on a conference call of top activists, many of whom planned to board buses in New Jersey and North Carolina Thursday morning to attend the event that the congresswoman thought up last week. "Nothing is more influential than an eyeball-to-eyeball meeting between a freedom-loving constituent and a member of Congress," she explained. "Nothing scares a member of Congress more than freedom-loving Americans."
Bachmann said she thought up the event as she lamented the speed with which the Democrats' health care reform bills were moving through Congress. "I was near despair," she said. "I was thinking, 'It looks like this bill is going to go through.' But then I thought, 'This is it. This is the Super Bowl of Freedom.'"
I think the NY-23 story is a great illustration of two basic and related phenomena. First, party coalition members constantly negotiate and renegotiation their party’s collective position, and they often do so with nominations. Second, ideologues strongly influence the preferences of party activists, so the party ultimately has to respond to them.
First, the negotiation. This is not about upstart outsiders messing with the “real” party in New York. The New York state and local party leaders represent some interests in the Republican Party, but they are more moderate, in their own preferences or at least in the preference of voters they are responsive to. The national party includes folks like that, but it also includes “movement conservative” types, like Sarah Palin. I think it’s wrong to call these people “the base.” In The Party Decides, we called them “policy demanders.” They want something, and it might be different from what upstate NY Republicans want. But since the member goes to Washington, they care about who that person is. That these different interests would fight it out over a nomination is to be expected.
The kicker here is Scozzafava’s endorsement of Owens. A lot of commentators portrayed the pro-Hoffman wing of the party as lacking in party loyalty, but Scozzafava is the one who really bolted the party. She kind of does look like a DIABLO (Democrat in All But Label Only) in retrospect.
Second, the ideologues. A lot of what holds the party together is a conservative ideology, which is reinforced by Glenn Beck but is created by more serious people (like writers in the National Review and the Weekly Standard). Those people and their writings are what creates the conservative movement. Conservatism is not merely an electoral strategy. It’s a belief system, and one that important and powerful players share.
This is important, because as you may have noticed, Hoffman lost in NY-23, while more moderate Republican gubernatorial candidates won in NJ and VA (mostly for the reasons Marc Hetherington laid out in an earlier post). If all you care about is electing Republicans, Hoffman was a blunder. But if you’re a movement conservative, winning the seat with someone who so easily switched to the Democrats might be only marginally better than losing it.
The Mark Hetherington essay is here.
I know for a fact conservatives would rather lose, and most folks can't stand Michael Steele (so he's really in an unenviable position with his attacks on Limbaugh and Palin -- the most popular personalities on the right today).
By the way, compare Noel's analysis to Rush Limbaugh's, "Conservatism Didn't Lose in NY-23. (Via Memeorandum.) I got a good laugh there, where Rush calls Dede Scozzafava a "babe."
Conservative grass-roots activists asserted Wednesday that third-party candidate Doug Hoffman’s loss in a New York special election was no setback but, rather, signaled a victory for the burgeoning political movement.
Hoffman, who surged to the brink of victory after becoming a rallying point for disaffected Republicans and tea party activists, lost to Democrat Bill Owens 49 percent to 46 percent in a contest that grabbed national headlines.
“I think time was the biggest factor, and if [Hoffman had] had a bit more time, he would have won,” said Everett Wilkinson, a South Florida-based tea party organizer who was watching the contest closely. “I wouldn’t consider it a loss. I think we were successful.”
Janet Spencer, a South Carolina-based tea party activist who in September chartered two buses to take 75 of her neighbors to the nation’s capital for the Taxpayer March on Washington, went one step further, declaring the outcome a win.
“In my opinion, I do consider it kind of a victory because he had a lot of odds going against him and not a lot of time,” she said.
Others dismissed Tuesday’s defeat as one lost skirmish in a larger battle to remake the Republican Party and establish populist conservatism as a political force.
“We plan to continue to play a role when we see a candidate who should be kept from Congress or when we see a candidate who should be advanced,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
Dick Armey, the chairman of FreedomWorks, the limited-government, anti-tax organization that has been instrumental in ginning up tea parties, said Hoffman’s loss was simply a function of having too little time — just two months — to mount a successful campaign.
“He just got there late, that’s all,” Armey said. “We think small-government conservatives had a big victory last night.”
The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let's just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.Yeah. Right.
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
They say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today, hey
The room has changed today
I have no place to stay
I'm thinking about the subway
Mu love has blown away
My tears have come and gone
Oh'Lord I got to run
I got no home
No, I have no home
Now the time has come
Nowhere (place) to run
Might get burned up by the sun
But I'll have my fun
I've been loved, pushed (put) aside
I've been crushed by tumbling tide
And my soul has been psychedelicized
Now the time has come
There are things to realize
Time has come today
Time has come today
