The FBI was quick to declare this attack by Adam Salim Alsahli to be "terror-related."
That's not the way the FBI was during Obama's tenure.
Remember the Fort Hood attack in 2011? The Obama administration called it "workplace violence." Terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan was involved in a "workplace" incident. Of course, the Democrat/Leftist media willingly promoted this ridiculous characterization to support Obama and his administration.
When Obama was at Fort Hood earlier this week, before he went to campaign fundraisers, he refused to meet with a victim of the 2009 terrorist attack at Fort Hood.
As President Obama spoke of old "wounds” at Fort Hood this week, the White House declined a request from a survivor of the 2009 massacre there to meet with Obama for a few minutes so the veteran could explain face-to-face how he believes the government has mistreated and disrespected the victims of that attack.
Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford (ret.) was shot seven times in November 2009 when Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood, killing 13 people. Despite Hasan’s admission that he carried out the attack on behalf of the Taliban and revelations that he had been in contact with high-profile al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, the Department of Defense has refused to classify the shooting as “terrorism,” which the survivors claim in lawsuit against the government has meant they’ve been denied Purple Hearts and combat-related benefits afforded to victims of other terrorist attacks.
“As you may know, the President and high-ranking members of the military promised me, my family and the other Fort Hood terror attack survivors that the federal government would 'make them whole.' After more than four and one-half years, however, the government has yet to make good on this promise,” Lunsford wrote to Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough a day before Obama's visit. “We believe that if the President could hear, first-hand, our plight and our mistreatment at the hands of his bureaucracy, that he would take the steps needed to set things right. Therefore, we ask for ten minutes of his time.”
The White House had announced days before that the President would be coming to Fort Hood this week to honor three people who were killed in another shooting earlier this month – this one carried out by an Army specialist with “mental health issues” who purportedly became enraged after an employee wouldn’t give him a leave of absence form.
“Part of what makes this so painful is that we’ve been here before,” Obama said at Fort Hood Wednesday, standing at a podium behind the boots, rifles and helmets of the three fallen, arranged in the same manner as 13 others in 2009. “This tragedy tears at wounds still raw from five years ago. Once more soldiers who survived foreign war zones were struck down here at home, where they’re supposed to be safe.”
Though he spoke of figurative wounds from 2009, Obama did not meet with Lunsford, who suffered actual wounds that day.
This is absolutely disgraceful. It's just sick.
Obama and his administration once again hit a new low.
Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford isn't the only Fort Hood victim Obama has betrayed. Sgt. Kimberly Munley is also speaking out.
Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.
"Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."
"Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of," she said. "In fact they've been neglected."
There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley's allegations.
Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.
...Munley and dozens of other victims have now filed a lawsuit against the military alleging the "workplace violence" designation means the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are classified as "combat related."
Some of the victims "had to find civilian doctors to get proper medical treatment" and the military has not assigned liaison officers to help them coordinate their recovery, said the group's lawyer, Reed Rubinstein.
"There's a substantial number of very serious, crippling cases of post-traumatic stress disorder exacerbated, frankly, by what the Army and the Defense Department did in this case," said Rubinstein. "We have a couple of cases in which the soldiers' command accused the soldiers of malingering, and would say things to them that Fort Hood really wasn't so bad, it wasn't combat."
Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said the Department of Defense is "committed to the highest care of those in our military family."
Yeah, right.
...Members of Congress, including the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, say they will introduce legislation to force the military and the Obama administration to give the wounded and dead the recognition and honors they deserve.
"It was clearly an act of terrorism that occurred that day, there's no question in my mind," McCaul told ABC News. "I think the victims should be treated as such."
The Obama administration insists on calling the terrorist attack carried out by Hasan "workplace violence."
That is disgusting, given that Hasan carried out the massacre for al Qaeda and was shouting "Allahu Akbar" when he murdered members of our military.
Obama had time to run to fundraisers but he wouldn't agree to meet with a victim of the 2009 attack.
On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested that Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was Islamaphobic because he said that Syrian opposition groups shouting “Allahu Akhbar! Allahu Akhbar!” as rockets hit government offices demonstrated Islamist influence among the opposition.
Transcript
BRIAN KILMEADE: I have a problem helping those people screaming that after a hit.
JOHN McCAIN: Would you have a problem with an American or Christians saying 'Thank God? Thank God?’ That’s what they’re saying. Come on! Of course they are Muslims, but they’re moderates and I guarantee you they are moderates. I know them and I have been with them. For someone to say "Allahu Akbar!" is about as offensive as someone saying "Thank God."
Shapiro adds, "McCain provided no evidence to suggest that Syrian opposition groups are moderate, as opposed to the wide swath of evidence suggesting that the opposition is heavily infested with al Qaeda."
Regarding "Allahu Akbar," obviously, context is extremely important.
For instance, did McCain find it "offensive" when Nidal Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar" during his shooting rampage, killing 13 and wounding 31? Just a little bit offensive? Maybe indicative of radical Islam and killing infidels?
On this morning’s Fox and Friends, political pundit and blogger Michelle Malkin weighed in on recent comments made by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) in which he blasted the characterization of the Fort Hood attack and those similar to it as generic workplace violence.
Malkin said she agrees with the lawmaker and that there are ‘too many in the Obama administration who’ve been unwilling to call radical Islamic jihadism what it is’: terrorism.
Video.
Obama's words don't match his actions.
He wants to be seen as a tough guy, a killer, not the sort of person who bows and apologizes and appeases.
OBAMA: Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22-out-of-30 top al Qaeda leaders who've been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.
This makes no sense.
Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 29 others.
During the slaughter, he yelled the bone-chilling cry accompanying acts of radical Islamic jihadism, "Allahu Akbar!"
Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane," and Sharif Mobley are similar in that they're both natural-born U.S. citizens. They're both at war with their country.
A Pennsylvania woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" was indicted for allegedly helping terror groups in attempts to carry out attacks in Europe and Asia.
Colleen R. LaRose, 46, is alleged to have recruited people, particularly women, who had the ability to travel in Europe to "wage violent jihad," the U.S. Department of Justice said. LaRose has been in federal custody since October. An indictment naming her was made public Tuesday.
LaRose allegedly wrote in an e-mail messages that it would be "an honor and great pleasure to die or kill for" Islamic holy war.
...U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy, at a news conference about LaRose, said the woman was "another very real danger lurking on the Internet" and the blonde, blue-eyed woman's alleged acts "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance."
I wouldn't say Jihad Jane "shatters any lingering thought" about being able to spot a terrorist based on appearance. However, she reveals that being an Islamic radical, hating and plotting to kill infidels, is not just a passion embraced by young Arab men. Her existence doesn't change all that we know about likely terrorists, but she does point out the critical need to monitor anyone suspected of terrorist activity.
She's a perfect example of why the Patriot Act is so terribly important in safeguarding the nation.
Once again, Mr. Russ "I voted against the Patriot Act" Feingold is exposed as clueless and naive and dangerous.
He was raised in New Jersey, where he was on the high school wrestling team and earned a black belt in karate. Nearly a decade later, Sharif Mobley is under arrest in Yemen, suspected of being an al-Qaida member and accused of killing a guard in an attempt to break out of a hospital.
While some acquaintances were startled by the news out of the Middle East on Thursday, a former classmate said that Mobley had strong religious views in high school, often trying to convert friends to Islam, and became increasingly radical, especially after they graduated in 2002.
Roman Castro, 25, who did a tour with the Army in Iraq, said the last time he saw Mobley, about four years ago, Mobley yelled, "Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!"
The FBI, the State Department and other authorities said they were trying to gather information about Mobley. But the allegations appeared to illustrate a phenomenon U.S. intelligence officials have warned about: American Muslims becoming radicalized and joining terrorist movements overseas.
Mobley, a 26-year-old natural-born U.S. citizen, was identified by Yemeni officials as a Somali-American. Mobley moved to Yemen about two years ago, supposedly to learn Arabic and study Islam, a former neighbor said.
Before that, Mobley worked for several contractors at three nuclear power plants in New Jersey from 2002 to 2008, PSE&G Nuclear spokesman Joe Delmar said. Mobley carried supplies and did maintenance work at the plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek, and worked at other plants in the region as well.
He satisfied federal background checks as recently as 2008, Delmar said, adding that the plant is cooperating with authorities.
The fact that this radical worked at nuclear power plants is frightening.
If reports of Mobley's exhibition of radicalism are true, then it would appear that federal background checks are too lax.
Sharif Mobley had strong Muslim views as early as high school. But his old friend Roman Castro knew he had radicalized when he saw him about four years ago.
Castro, an Army veteran who did a tour in Iraq, said Mobley had only these words for him in a chance meeting: "Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!"
...U.S. officials fear that Yemen is becoming the next significant terrorist staging ground because of signs that lower-level al-Qaida operatives have been moving into the country, and the Pentagon has proposed spending $150 million to help Yemen battle insurgents.
The al-Qaida branch in Yemen was linked to the failed Christmas Day airliner bombing attempt. And Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood last year, had exchanged e-mails with an extremist cleric in Yemen.
Americans are valuable to terrorist groups, in part because they can travel without arousing much suspicion.
"The U.S. passport is the gold standard," said Fred Burton, a former U.S. counterintelligence agent who is now a vice president at STRATFOR, a global intelligence company in Austin, Texas.
Mobley graduated from high school in 2002 in the rural southern New Jersey town of Buena, and later lived in Philadelphia and Newark, Del. Castro said that in the past few years, Mobley organized religious pilgrimages to the Middle East for other Muslims.
Mobley's mother, Cynthia Mobley, told WMGM-TV in Atlantic City, N.J., that her son is "an excellent person who's never been in trouble" and "a good Muslim."
As his father, Charles Mobley, pulled out of the family's driveway on the way to see a lawyer Thursday, he said, "I can tell you this: He's no terrorist."
What's Mobley's mother's definition of "a good Muslim"? What's Mobley's father's definition of a terrorist?
If his friend, Roman Castro, could recognize the signs of Mobley's radicalization, then it's hard to believe that his mother and father didn't pick up any warning signals.
I think of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab's father, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, and how he warned authorities about his son's radicalization. That's such a different response compared to the reaction of Mobley's parents.
Even though the warnings were ignored and Mutallab was not kept from boarding a plane on Christmas Day, with the plan to blow it up, at least his father did the right thing.
Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, made no secret of his radicalism, but all the signs that he was dangerous were dismissed by authorities.
That's what's scary -- ignoring the threats.
...Mike Drewniak, a spokesman for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said that his office had been told that Mobley was always supervised, caused no problems and was not believed to have breached security at the plants.
It's unclear whether Mobley worked at any of the region's other power plants. Joe Szafran, a spokesman for Exelon Corp., which owns nuclear plants at three facilities in eastern Pennsylvania, referred questions to the FBI.
An FBI spokesman did not immediately return a call, but a law enforcement official told The Associated Press that authorities don't believe Mobley's job at the nuclear plant was related to his activities in Yemen. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Also, Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, said there was no immediate connection between Mobley's activities or capture in Yemen and his work at the plants.
This nuclear plant stuff is really troubling.
I'm also troubled by the Obama administration's approach when it comes to dealing with terrorists. That's the scariest part of all.
The Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in the Fort Hood massacre told a radical Muslim imam, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, in one of several e-mails exchanged between the two men, ABC News reported on Thursday.
An unnamed official "with top secret access" told the network 18 e-mails were exchanged between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq, from Dec. 2008 until June of this year.
Other e-mails, the official said, included discussion of when jihad is considered "appropriate," and if it is acceptable for innocent people to die in suicide attacks.
"Hasan told Awlaki he couldn't wait to join him in the discussions they would having over non-alcoholic wine in the afterlife," ABC quoted the official as saying.
Hasan — with an annual salary around $92,000 — also wrote, "My strength is my financial capabilities," the source said. Investigators have found the Army major donated as much as $30,000 per year to Islamic "charities." American authorities have found several such charities to be conduits to terrorist networks.
A military analyst told ABC: "It sounds like code words ... That he's actually either offering himself up or that he's already crossed that line in his own mind."
A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with al-Awlaki. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.
...Investigators have said e-mails between Hasan and the imam did not advocate or threaten violence. After the shootings, al-Awlaki's Web site praised Hasan as a hero.
This is nuts!
"The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism."
Hasan was talking to this radical Muslim imam on a regular basis. Anwar al-Awlaki "encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq."
Hasan contributed to charities supporting terrorist organizations.
It was ridiculous for the FBI to conclude that Hasan wasn't linked to terrorism.
When Hasan killed 13 people and gunned down dozens at Fort Hood, he carried out a terrorist attack against the U.S. He was acting as a soldier in a war.
A memo reportedly written two years ago by Maj. Nidal Hasan's supervisor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center says the accused Fort Hood shooter demonstrated "a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism" during his residency at the hospital.
National Public Radio obtained what it said is a copy of the memo, posting on NPR.org a retyped version that the network said was a "transcript" of the memo and "not a facsimile or PDF of the actual document."
"The faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan's professionalism and work ethic," said the memo, signed by Maj. Scott Moran, the residency program's director. "Clinically he is competent to deliver safe patient care. But he demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism."
Hasan's supervisor at Fort Hood Army Post, Col. Kimberly Kesling, has said that Hasan's evaluations from Walter Reed contained some information that concerned her, but the concerns triggered an approach to integrate Hasan into the staff that she said had been successful.
"The types of things that were reported to me via his evaluation report were things that concerned me, but did not raise red flags toward this [the shootings] in any way, shape or form," she said, adding that Hasan "was doing a really good job for us."
...The memo obtained by National Public Radio said that Hasan, then a captain, was "counseled for inappropriately discussing religious topics" with patients and went through a remediation program for inappropriate documentation of his handling of a homicidal patient during an emergency room encounter.
The document said Hasan's remediation on that problem was successful but added that he was placed on administrative probation at the end of the year for not taking and passing the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. He later corrected that problem as well, the memo said.
The memo also noted a poor attendance record and lower-than-expected scores on the Psychiatry Resident-In-Training Examination, a yearly exam that Hasan failed to take during one of his residency years.
Based on the information in the memo, it's hard to believe that, according to Hasan's supervisor at Fort Hood Army Post, Col. Kimberly Kesling, Hasan "was doing a really good job for us."
This memo is just one piece of the puzzle.
Of course, Hasan's lack of professionalism and judgment is of concern.
However, it's those contacts with al Qaeda that should have caused great alarm.
CAMPBELL BROWN: Let's take a look at the contents and this memo that you obtained at NPR.
Again, this is from the director of Hasan's military psychiatry training program dated May 17, 2007.
DANIEL ZWERDLING, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: That's right.
BROWN: I just want to read a little of it for people. "The Faculty has serious concerns about captain Hasan's professionalism and work ethic. Clinically, he is competent to deliver safe patient care. But he demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism."
And then the memo goes on to list a series of reasons why.
Walk us through some of those reasons and your take on all this.
ZWERDLING:Essentially, what this memo says, despite that sentence about competent care, it basically says this guy was a lousy and potentially very dangerous psychiatrist to his patients.
He would be on call. He would be the guy the doctors would call in a psychiatric emergency, and he wouldn't answer his telephone. He mishandled a psychotic patient in the emergency room and essentially allowed her to escape from the emergency room.
At a time when psychiatrists and other mental health specialists at Walter Reed and hospitals around the country were overwhelmed with soldiers and other troops coming back from the war with serious mental health problems, this fellow, Nidal Hasan, saw almost no patients for his last year at Walter Reed. He saw about one patient per week.
Most psychiatrists were seeing 10 to 20 times that many. And this was his choice to see so few patients. And his supervisors and others say they kept reprimanding him over and over again. He was proselytizing to patients.He told at least one patient that Islam can save your soul.
But what's so extraordinary about this memo, I think, is that put his Islamic obsession aside. Put aside Hasan's apparently extremist Islamic views. What this memo is saying -- it's right there in the Army's official credentials file -- it is saying this psychiatrist could be reckless for his patients. He could be a danger to them. Yet, he kept getting promoted. And as we all know, he was sent to Fort Hood to treat some of the most vulnerable soldiers in the Army.
BROWN: And, in fact, Daniel, I know you talked to people about that specifically, people who treat PTSD. And there were real concerns about the fact that -- that he was handling soldiers who were in such a delicate frame of mind and the danger that that could have caused to them.
ZWERDLING: Today, I talked to several psychotherapists who have worked with the military or with troops. And I said to them, please forget for a moment that this is Nidal Hasan and that he has allegedly shot dozens of people at Fort Hood.
Suppose you got an application from a psychiatrist to get a job at your medical center, and the chief of Sheppard Pratt -- that's one of the most prestigious psychiatric hospitals in the country, near Baltimore -- he said, even if I were desperate to fill a psychiatry slot, if I got an evaluation on an applicant like Nidal Hasan's, he would never even get in the door for an interview. And another therapist who runs a big project treating soldiers in California -- it's called the Soldiers Project -- I mean, she said this almost borders on malpractice, the fact that they would -- that the Army would send a psychiatrist like Nidal Hasan to treat soldiers in a very vulnerable state.
When you come back from the war and you are falling apart, you are feeling suicidal, you need a therapist who you can trust 150 percent, not somebody who didn't show up on call, not somebody who let a psychotic woman escape from the emergency room. She said it is disgraceful.
Hasan told at least one patient that "Islam can save your soul."
That's more than a red flag. That's a king-size red sheet.
Fort Hood shooting suspect Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had been in contact with numerous Muslim extremists -- some of whom are under federal investigation -- before last week's rampage, two U.S. officials told The Washington Times on Wednesday.
Maj. Hasan made some of the contacts while visiting known jihadist chat rooms on the Internet, according to one of The Times' sources, a senior FBI official. He said that several people with whom Maj. Hasan was in contact had been the focus of investigations by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The other source, a military intelligence official, said those in contact with Maj. Hasan are located both in the U.S. and overseas. The official said they are "broadly known and characterized as Islamic extremists if not necessarily al Qaeda."
...These ties are in addition to Maj. Hasan's already-reported links to radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who called Maj. Hasan a "hero" on a blog post about last week's Fort Hood shooting, which left 13 dead and 29 wounded.
The military intelligence official said, "Those connections, except for Awlaki, could be explained innocently. But all of them together form a very concerning picture."
"I may run into contact with shady people through coincidence, through social events, etc.," he said. "But at some point you start saying like, 'Huh? Why are you coming in contact with all these charming people?' "
Questions still lingered Wednesday over whether more should have been done in response to Maj. Hasan's contacts with Mr. al-Awlaki, who served as the imam at mosques in San Diego and in Falls Church -- both of which were attended by Maj. Hasan.
Mr. al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, was in contact with Maj. Hasan as many as 20 times beginning in December 2008, according to the FBI.
Really?
Questions are still lingering "over whether more should have been done" in response to Hasan's contacts with Islamic extremists?
I question why there are questions. _______________
He's very clear: "In war, uncertainty gets you killed. It just did."
The only good news out of the Fort Hood massacre is that U.S. electronic surveillance technology was able to pick up Major Hasan's phone calls to an al Qaeda-loving imam in Yemen. The bad news is the people and agencies listening to Hasan didn't know what to do about it. Other than nothing.
Next week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) will convene the Homeland Security Committee to find out if someone in the Army or FBI dropped the ball on Hasan. At Ford Hood itself, grief has been turning to anger as news of possible dropped balls has emerged.
Earlier in the week at Fort Hood, President Obama spoke about the consequences of doing nothing. He named and described each of the 13 dead. That properly gave individual reality to what soon will become "the victims of Fort Hood."
This is how it always goes. For about a week after these awful incidents—such as the USS Cole bombing in Yemen (year 2000, 17 dead)—the rest of us feel, just a little, what the surviving families feel. This week, 13 American families are shattered, forever. It's a big deal, the biggest deal there is.
It's time for Obama to step up and act like a leader.
On Tuesday, when he spoke at the Fort Hood memorial service, he played one on TV. While part of his role as president, he needs to do a lot more than deliver a speech in response to what happened.
Someone needs to alert him. I don't think he knows.
...The national grief won't last.
In our time, nothing was bigger than the nearly 3,000 killed on September 11. But anyone who got involved with the development of public policy then knows that for the next seven years the battle never stopped over the details of the Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, then Guantanamo, then waterboarding, renditions and secret prisons and all the other issues that for some could be summed up in two words: "Bush-Cheney."
This will never come up in the Lieberman hearings next week, but I think that nonstop policy battle is why Hasan's overseers dropped the ball.
The most-heard reason for the possible failure is political correctness. No doubt. But Sen. Lieberman's committee should avoid making this its main line of inquiry, because that is a problem without a policy fix. It minimizes the real problem.
The problem is confusion. The combatants at each end of the spectrum in the war over the war on terror know exactly what they think about surveilling suspected terrorists. But if you are an intel officer or FBI agent tasked with providing the protection, what are you supposed to make of all this bitter public argument? What you make of it is that when you get a judgment call, like Maj. Hasan, you hesitate. You blink.
Now everyone thinks the call was obvious. But it wasn't so obvious before the tragedy. Not if for years you have watched a country and its political class in rancorous confusion about the enemy, the legal standing of the enemy, or the legal status and scope of the methods it wants to use to fight the enemy.
Clearly, we face an extremely serious situation when someone like Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan can exhibit all those warning signs that he was a threat and still manage to be ignored.
...Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently described in these pages the fight over renewal of the Patriot Act, expiring at year's end. At issue is "lone wolf" authority—the ability to monitor a target not connected to a terrorist organization or foreign power, such as Zacharias Moussaoui, the "20th" 9/11 hijacker.
Mr. Mukasey noted bills sponsored by Democrats to narrow the scope of surveillance. This led to a debate in our letters between Mr. Mukasey and Sen. Russ Feingold over the meaning of "foreign power" and whether search warrants were or were not obtainable in the "lone wolf" surveillance of Moussaoui.
I wonder if Russ Feingold ever feels guilty about what he's done to make Americans less safe.
The senator from Wisconsin is a crusader for the enemy. I don't believe that's his intention, but that's the fall-out from his mission.
Which reminds me: REPUBLICAN PARTY OF WISCONSIN - FIND A CANDIDATE TO UNSEAT FEINGOLD IN 2010.
Henninger concludes:
Everyone has seen the pictures of inconsolable grief amid the coffins of Fort Hood. Only one person can resolve the confusion that let this happen: the president.
This is the president who told his attorney general to decide if the CIA officers who water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be held criminally liable.
But two weeks ago, Mr. Obama met 18 coffins returned from Afghanistan. Whatever he decides about the Afghan troop deployment, what won't change is that over there or here at home, they will keep trying to kill us.
To give us better odds of protection than we had last week, President Obama should do two things: Call off the CIA investigation. Then call in the guys who didn't make the right call on Hasan and ask why not. Then, whatever set the bar too high, lower it. His "base" won't like it. So what? What he saw in Texas was worse.
It's scary that Obama is dragging his feet on Afghanistan.
It sickens me that he had the nerve to stage that photo-op, dragging the press to Dover to watch him salute the coffin of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute, Ind., the only family who permitted the cameras to document the moment.
How can Obama dare to do that while he continues to hem and haw about how to manage the war?
He has been in a state of indecision for months.
As Henninger so accurately states, "In war, uncertainty gets you killed."
Speaking with Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller gave his take on the Fort Hood rampage, specifically the failure by many to call it what it is -- an act of Islamic terrorism.
Transcript
BILL O'REILLY: Let's start with the Fort Hood situation. Are you seeing any glaring problems as far as reaction to what happened?
DENNIS MILLER: Yeah. This is the worst I've ever felt about this. I think for the first time I can see a way how good can lose to evil.
Now, after Mogadishu, bin Laden said we were the weak horse. I think it's even worse than that, Bill. I think it might be to the point where we're the blindered horse. And if we're not even going to concede who the enemy is here... I mean, you got a guy going out the door with 'Allahu akbar' and we're trying to glean it. 'Allahu akbar' is to insane radical Islamic fundamentalists as 'Miami Beach audiences are the greatest audiences in the world' was to Gleason. We know what that means and we best wise up or we're going to get, we're going to lose this thing.
O'REILLY: OK. Now, the counter to that, as Alan Colmes, President Obama, other people who say, 'Yeah, we all know what this, but to inflame it puts good Muslim Americans in danger, and we don't want to do that.' That's the counter to it. You say what?
MILLER: I say that I feel it's condescending to always concede that there are many more good Islamic Americans than there are bad. Yeah, of course it is. I can't stop my life down every two seconds to concede that.
All I know is this: Send us a signal from in there. We need an Islamic Serpico. Somebody's got to come out and rat the bad guys because we can't sit in. We don't fit in well there. We look like Ralph Reed jamming with the Wu-Tang Clan.
We need somebody in there to tell us who they are. And until they do that, do I think they're all bad people? No. But do I think they're being a little sheepish to the point where they're getting good people blown up by not relaying information? Yeah. I'm not inflaming anybody. It couldn't be more....
O'REILLY: OK, but in this case... You know,I agree that Muslim Americans if they see this kind of behavior should report it, but they knew Hasan. They had him on the tap. They knew he was trying to get in touch with the bigtime al Qaeda in Yemen. They knew all of it and they ignored it, Dennis. So, it wasn't like the information wasn't there. The information was there.
MILLER: Billy, you know why. You want to go in and say the Islamic guy is a little off his feet. Of course not.
O'REILLY: I would.
MILLER: They'll hit you with a PC hammer.
O'REILLY: I would.
MILLER: I would, too.
O'REILLY: Look, if there's an Islamic guy at FOX and he's running around going, 'You know, we ought to behead the infidels,' he's going to have a problem here. He might not have a problem at NBC News, but he's going to have a problem here.
MILLER: If you ask the guy in the next cubby to borrow his stapler and he says, 'Here, Great Satan,' you've got to flag that to HR. Now, I know it's not the most egregious workplace crime. I know saying to some woman 'Your hair looks nice today,' or somebody having a Washington Redskin helmet phone on their desk is a lot worse. But somebody's got to send up signal flares when the guy next to him starts chanting 'La,la,la,la,la.' It's time to go into, you know, Human Resources at that point.
The Leftist media seem very excited about Obama getting a chance to be the "national consoler."
I'm sure they will declare that no president has ever soothed troubled souls like Obama.
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- Stepping for the first time into the role of national consoler, President Barack Obama plans to honor the 13 people slain in a shooting rampage here by remembering what they left behind, offering personal stories about the lives they touched and the service they provided to their country.
Obama still was working on his speech as he flew to Texas on Tuesday for a memorial service five days after the shooting that left 13 dead and 29 wounded on the bustling Army post. Military families and civilians alike gathered for the ceremony, some wearing red, white and blue ribbons in honor of those slain.
The president hoped to convey the idea that for those killed, "their memory lasts in the service and the dedication of the Armed Forces and by the people that they touched, both in the military and outside," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama were meeting first with families of those killed, then with those wounded but released from the hospital and their families, before taking part in a memorial service. Later, the president and first lady planned to go to a military hospital to meet with those still recovering from injuries incurred during the attack.
The site of the ceremony is a field on the massive post, cordoned off with walls of steel shipping containers.
This is Obama's time to take on the healer role that can help shape a presidency at a time of national tragedy.
In an interview Monday with ABC News, Obama said he was going to Fort Hood to "personally express the incredible heartbreak that we all feel for—for the loss of these young men and women."
What?
No shout-outs today?
Will Obama get right to his consoling or will he talk about health care first?
Is this actually going to be Obama's first apolitical public remarks since he took office?
I don't want to hear psychobabble from Obama.
I don't want to hear about how Nidal Hasan was stressed and cracked, blah, blah, blah.
What Obama should do is APOLOGIZE to the men and women of Fort Hood. He should APOLOGIZE to their families.
Obama and his comrades were wrong to act as if Islamic extremism was somehow rooted in the presidency of George W. Bush.
Obama should label Hasan's rampage what it is -- a terrorist attack.
He should vow to do everything possible to keep al Qaeda wannabes and Islamic extremists out of the U.S. military. He should pledge to secure our bases and eliminate threats from within. He should acknowledge that as commander in chief he's been asleep at the switch, that he was delusional to believe that our enemies would retreat if he apologized to them.
An APOLOGY from Obama is in order, not from America to the world but from him to America.
The only legitimate stop on Obama's global APOLOGY tour is at home, at Fort Hood.
If he's foggy on that, I'm sure he doesn't recall the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the bombing of the USS Cole.
Al Qaeda is responsible for those acts of terror.
Matthews seems clueless.
From the Heritage Foundation, more on al Qaeda's Declarations and Acts of War.
Listening to Chris Matthews interview Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, on Hardball, November 9, it's as if Matthews is trying to brush off the significance of Fort Hood attacker Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's efforts to contact al Qaeda. AL QAEDA!
Matthews questions whether all those glaring warning signs in regard to Hasan, like the al Qaeda connection, were enough to warrant intervention.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know, I have a hard time with this because people like Sirhan Sirhan, who is still serving time for killing Bobby Kennedy, didn't like what Bobby Kennedy had said on television. Bobby Kennedy had made political statements saying we're going to sell arms, fighter planes directly to Israel, not under the table. We're going to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Those are the things that triggered his killing spree. He killed one person - Bobby Kennedy, horrifically. But did he become a different religious person because he committed the crime? And when did this happen?
See - we have a problem. How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, 'This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?
What is he babbling about?
I think you stop the guy when he's calling up al Qaeda!
How could anyone not consider that to be a giant red flag?
ZUDHDI JASSER: I mean, you can't... you have to. We're not even out of the box in this contest. I mean, we are completely asleep, let alone following him and saying that we were going to stop him. We didn't have any of the signs that we were following.
...
MATTHEWS: Well, this guy, according to all the testament, admittedly it has not been admitted into court. We cannot call him the shooter until we have a trial. That's the way we work here, you know, that's how it works in America, certainly not in the news business. You can't call somebody a murderer until you get a conviction in court. And the question here is when can you identify a problem? That's what we have to deal with. And you say it's an ideological point - you can find the problem. But then we get into the business of checking out on people's thinking. And that's the problem.
When does a person become a danger, when they have a certain thought system? Or when they go out and buying semi-automatic pistols, or when they start phoning up al Qaeda, saying how can I join the gang? I mean, where do you stop a person? This is criminology, maybe not ideology, but or even religion. But how do we weed out a guy - it seems to me, all of the warning signs, I mean, we have seen them all now. It's like looking at pictures of Muhammad Ata hanging around convenience stores and going to ATM machines. We got all kinds of information about this guy after it's too late.
But this guy was running around shooting his mouth off saying how he hated this country's wars with - look, you can listen to me on television and hear me saying I didn't like the war with Iraq. You know, I don't agree with the war on Iraq and a lot of Americans didn't like the war with Iraq. They didn't start shooting people about it.
Matthews is so confused.
When does one become a danger?
I'd say contacting the enemy is crossing the line. That can't be compared to someone merely expressing dissent.
Apparently, the government had information on Hasan's activities but nothing was done about it.
That's an inexcusable lapse.
I think Matthews is just trying to blunt criticism of the Obama government for failing to do something about Hasan before it was too late.
He can't seriously be unable to grasp the gravity of a U.S. Army major getting in touch with al Qaeda.
I don't see how Matthews can defend such behavior or consider it a gray area.
Yesterday, I wrote that I am sick of hearing about the "backlash" in connection with Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous attack at Fort Hood.
The man killed thirteen people and wounded over forty others, but we're supposed to be concerned about a "backlash."
That's nuts.ee
These "backlashes" never materialize. They're imaginary. Perhaps there is an isolated instance of a "backlash" here and there, but there certainly is nothing orchestrated like when FDR rounded up Japanese Americans during World War II and sent them to internment camps.
I'm sick of being warned not to be angry at murderers.
I don't assume that all Muslims want to kill Americans, the infidels.
Enough with the "backlash" crap. If it didn't happen after 9/11, it's not going to happen now.
And that’s the drill: concern over crimes that have never happened, as opposed to the terror that has. When Americans are murdered in cold blood, the first step in our screwed-up world is to chant, “backlash.” Never mind that backlash concerns may have allowed this massacre to occur in the first place. Hasan exhibited more signs than a horoscope – yet fears over appearing politically incorrect kept him around.
The fact is, in mosques all over the world, the desire to destroy the west continues – and our administration still worries about what you might do. The PC thing? Avoid “connecting the dots,” but stick to the “square peg in round hole” equation: a troubled man feeling hopeless in a weird world, suddenly snaps and kills people.
But it’s more than that. The defiant Muslim living in America has contempt for modern life, your lifestyle, your beliefs. Add to this a rejection of female equality, which pretty much eliminates any chance for a hook-up – and you’ve got a madman on a mission.
I suppose saying all this makes me a right-wing hate monger. But that’s the point. When a man kills Americans in the name of Allah – and you become a bad guy for pointing that out – then it’s time to be the bad guy.
It’s far better than moaning "why do they hate us."
There is something very twisted about fretting over crimes that never happened as opposed to acts of terrorism that have.
This PC crap gets people killed.
The term "backlash" is being used as a weapon.
It's inexcusable to pretend that Islamic extremism doesn't factor into what Hasan did.
It dishonors the Americans slaughtered in his shooting rampage.
They are victims in radical Islam's war against the United States.
An Internet post by Anwar al Awlaki, an Islamic cleric born in New Mexico, praises Nidal Malik Hasan as a hero.
About Sheikh Anwar:
He studied the Islamic sciences of Quran, hadith, and fiqh with scholars from Yemen. Imam Anwar served as an Imam in Denver, Colorado; San Diego, California; and Falls Church, Virginia. He is the author of the audio series on “The Lives of the Prophets”, “The Hereafter”, “The Life and Time of Abu Bakr”, “The Life and Time of Umar” , “The Messenger of Allah” along with other single lectures. Imam Anwar also holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University, and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University. Currently he resides in Yemen.
Apparently, this Islamic extremist understands that Hasan's attack on Fort Hood was rooted in his faith.
Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.
Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal. The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation.
The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy. Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment – Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137)
The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.
May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen
"The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy."
Shaykh Anwar al Awlaki may Allah bless you for your this timely post in defense of our Muslim brother Dr. Nidal Hasan. The defeatist comments by American ‘Muslim’ organizations were really disgusting. It made us think what you said long time ago that there will be separation between camp of Eman and camp of Kuffer; I guess we are witnessing that inevitable separation. An incident like these exposes the hypocrites & further purifies the camp of Islam. ___________
Thats the first thing that came to my mind, may Allah reward this man for his bravery. Allah has enlightened him with his duty unlike the hypocrites of this age and time. may he be accepted as a shaheed and may Allah bless you, and every other sheikh like you imam. Truly a man blessed with the truth, fearing nobody except the one who deserves our fear. Allah subhana wa ta’ala. May Allah guide as all.
I'm sure Obama would tell Sheikh Anwar and others of his mindset not to jump to conclusions about Hasan.
According to ABC News, Nidal Malik Hasan attempted to contact al Qaeda.
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that he requested the CIA and other intelligence agencies brief the committee on what was known, if anything, about Hasan by the U.S. intelligence community, only to be refused.
In response, Hoekstra issued a document preservation request to four intelligence agencies. The letter, dated November 7th, was sent to directors Dennis Blair (DNI), Robert Mueller (FBI), Lt. Gen Keith Alexander (NSA) and Leon Panetta (CIA).
Hoekstra said he is "absolutely furious" that the house intel committee has been refused an intelligence briefing by the DNI or CIA on Hasan's attempt to reach out to al Qaeda, as first reported by ABC News.
I don't understand why anyone would be bent out of shape over the statements Joe Lieberman made on FOX News Sunday regarding Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous attack at Fort Hood.
Lieberman had the audacity to suggest that an investigation into the slaughter last Thursday was in order. He dared to call it a possible terrorist attack.
That definition is more than some people can handle.
A senior U.S. senator on Sunday said the shootings at Fort Hood could have been a terrorist attack, and that he would launch a congressional investigation into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who heads the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said initial evidence suggested that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was a "self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist" who had turned to Islamic extremism while under personal stress.
...Mr. Lieberman, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," cautioned that it remained too early to draw any definitive conclusions. He said his comments were based on "reports that we are receiving" about Mr. Hasan's actions and comments.
The Army's top officer, Gen. George Casey, wouldn't rule out that the shooting was an act of terrorism, but cautioned against speculation at this point. "We all want to know what happened and what motivated the suspect, but we need to … let the investigation take its course," he told ABC News's "This Week."
Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had turned to Islamic extremism, "the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11."
"We don't know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," Mr. Lieberman added.
The lawmaker said he would begin a Senate investigation aimed at uncovering Mr. Hasan's motives and asking "whether the Army missed warning signs." He also called on the Pentagon to begin an independent investigation to determine whether "warning signs were missed."
Mr. Lieberman said preliminary evidence suggested that Mr. Hasan had denounced the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "In the U.S. Army, this is not a matter of constitutional freedom of speech," the senator said. "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone."
Why is what Lieberman said controversial?
It's a no-brainer that there should be an investigation.
I completely agree that there should be zero tolerance when someone in the U.S. Army is talking like an Islamic extremist.
...Gen. Casey said the Army was conducting an investigation to try to determine the motivation behind the shootings. "We in the Army will take a very hard look at ourselves and ask ourselves some very hard questions," he said.
He expressed concern that speculation about the shooting could result in a "backlash" against Muslim soldiers. "What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even-greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here," he said. "We have a very diverse army. We have a very diverse society. And that gives us all strength."
Oh, no! We can't have a "backlash"!
I am so sick of hearing about the dreaded "backlash."
Instead, of worrying about these "backlashes" that never materialize, the Army should be focusing on keeping all our troops secure and safe from any U.S. soldiers who decide to lash out at Americans and, in effect, become the enemy.
With thirteen Americans killed and dozens of others wounded, I hardly think the priority right now should be to protect potential shooters or worry about hurt feelings.
If a soldier gives others reason to doubt his or her loyalty, appropriate action should be taken to assure the safety of the troops.
On page one of the New York Times today, an article by Andrea Elliot examines the difficulties that Muslim soldiers are facing in our wars in Muslim countries, "Complications Grow for Muslims Serving Nation."
Abdi Akgun joined the Marines in August of 2000, fresh out of high school and eager to serve his country. As a Muslim, the attacks of Sept. 11 only steeled his resolve to fight terrorism.
But two years later, when Mr. Akgun was deployed to Iraq with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the thought of confronting Muslims in battle gave him pause.
He was haunted by the possibility that he might end up killing innocent civilians.
“It’s kind of like the Civil War, where brothers fought each other across the Mason-Dixon line,” Mr. Akgun, 28, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., who returned from Iraq without ever pulling the trigger. “I don’t want to stain my faith, I don’t want to stain my fellow Muslims, and I also don’t want to stain my country’s flag.”
Thousands of Muslims have served in the United States military — a legacy that some trace to the First World War. But in the years since Sept. 11, 2001, as the United States has become mired in two wars on Muslim lands, the service of Muslim-Americans is more necessary and more complicated than ever before.
In the aftermath of the shootings at Fort Hood on Thursday by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan of the Army, a psychiatrist, many Muslim soldiers and their commanders say they fear that the relationship between the military and its Muslim service members will only grow more difficult.
This makes no sense to me.
Why should fighting America's enemies give members of the U.S. military pause?
Throughout our history, millions of Americans have been called to fight against an enemy with which they share a common heritage or faith. Conflicts of conscience are nothing new.
The onus was on them to prove that they were loyal Americans through their actions, by serving their country honorably.
For instance, how many Americans of German heritage fought and died in the World Wars?
They showed that their allegiance was to America, not Germany. If they were sympathetic to the enemy, then they certainly didn't belong in the U.S. Armed Forces. End of story.
We have a volunteer military. If Muslims in our military don't want to harm other Muslims, the radicals who are our enemies, then they should get out.
Of course, an investigation needs to be done into Hasan's attack. That's what Lieberman wants. Where's the problem?
It's nuts to expect him, a U.S. senator, to dance around reality when discussing the violence at Fort Hood.
Hasan targeted an Army base. He intended to kill people and he succeeded. It's possible that he adopted the mindset of an Islamic extremist. If an investigation shows that Hasan's actions had something to do with extremist Muslim beliefs, if he lashed out because he disagreed with U.S. policy and was fighting against the U.S., then what he did should be defined as terrorism. He did the work of a terrorist.
It was an act of war.
There should be a "backlash" against members of the U.S. military siding with the enemy.
Making comments from the Rose Garden, Obama warned the nation not to 'jump to conclusions' about Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting rampage.
(I didn't hear Obama make the comments. Did he smile and wave and give a shout-out to anyone before he began?)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Friday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings.
Obama met Friday morning with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other federal leaders to get an update on what they've learned. Thirteen people were killed and 30 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post on Thursday. The suspected shooter is an Army psychiatrist; his motive remains unclear.
"We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," Obama said in a Rose Garden statement otherwise devoted to the economy.
"What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday," the president said.
His aides, meanwhile, worked to make way for Obama to attend a still unscheduled memorial service for those slain at the nation's largest military post. The White House's top spokesman said Obama would attend that service and emphasized it would take place at the family's convenience, and that it will not be dictated by the president's schedule.
"When a service is scheduled, the president will attend," Robert Gibbs told reporters during his daily briefing.
Yet Obama is also scheduled to leave on a 10-day trip to Asia on Wednesday. Gibbs would not rule out delaying the trip so Obama could attend the service before setting off on the major international trip of the year.
Gibbs said the president's schedule remains in flux.
About the memorial service--
I'm sure the White House will apply whatever pressure necessary regarding scheduling so Obama can be there.
As Rahm Emanuel said, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."
Will the Obama White House exploit the shootings as a photo-op? Will the White House use it to justify his decision on Afghanistan?
I certainly don't know, and I certainly hope the Obama White House won't use the deaths of Americans, including members of the military, for political advantage.
About the "jumping to conclusions"--
What is there to "jump to conclusions" about?
Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded 30 others.
Gee, what is there to misinterpret about gunning down 43 people?
It stands as a horrific act.
I think it's appropriate to be outraged at Hasan.
If Obama is referring to Hasan's Muslim faith, we know that there are Islamic extremists who believe it's right and they will be rewarded in heaven for killing us, the infidels.
We are at war with those Islamic extremists, aren't we?
Those terrorists are the enemy, right?
Is Hasan going to be declared mentally ill and therefore less accountable for the slaughter at his hand?
Is Obama concerned that some people are jumping to the conclusion that this is a hate crime?
We know Hasan targeted American soldiers. He murdered 13 people.
If Hasan didn't want to be deployed to Iraq, he should have deserted. If he thought violence was the answer, he should have killed himself, not others.
How much more do we as a nation need to know before judging Hasan? ________________
LYNN SWEET: Thank you, Mr. President. Recently, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you? And what does it say about race relations in America?
OBAMA: Well, I -- I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here.
I don't know all the facts.What's been reported, though, is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house; there was a report called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place.
So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so -- (laughter) -- it probably wouldn't happen.
(Chuckling.) But let's say my old house in Chicago -- (laughter) -- here I'd get shot. (Laughter.) But so far, so good. They're -- they're -- they're reporting. The police are doing what they should. There's a call. They go investigate. What happens?
My understanding is, at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I'm sure there's some exchange of words. But my understanding is -- is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.
Now, I've -- I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. ButI think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.
An owner of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Fort Hood, Texas, said Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan came in for coffee and hashbrowns most mornings, including the day he allegedly shot dozens of soldiers.
Surveillance video from the store obtained by CNN shows a man who, according to the store owner, is Hasan at the cashier's counter at about 6:20 a.m. Thursday (7:20 a.m. ET) -- about seven hours before the mass shooting -- carrying a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb.
"He looked normal, came in had his hashbrowns and coffee as you see in the surveillance video," the owner told CNN.
Another surveillance video from the store on Tuesday showed the man believed to be Hasan in scrubs.
While the owner said he was too busy to chat with Hasan whom he knows as "Major Nidal" on Thursday, he said that through his brief talks with Hasan he learned the officer's background was Jordanian, though he didn't speak Arabic well. He added that Hasan didn't wear a wedding ring and joked several times on whether the owner knew a bride for him.
Hasan would also ask the owner whether he planned to attend Friday prayers, a mainstay of Islam, to which the owner would say that he was too busy.
The news of the mass shooting at Fort Hood Thursday hit close to home for some Utahns. One man says his daughter heard the shooter exclaim "Allah Akbar" as he opened fire.
We want to stress that no government or military officials are reporting that and there is no way for us to independently confirm that it is true.
The family from northern Utah agreed to talk to us, on the condition we not identify them and blur out some photos they've supplied, because they're worried their daughter could get in trouble with her superiors for making public what she told her family she saw.
The soldier's father says his daughter was at Fort Hood Thursday when the shooting happened, and she called him, frantic and upset, soon after.
"She said, ‘Dad, I'm OK. Don't worry, I'm OK.' And initially I said, ‘What are you talking about?' She said, ‘Haven't you heard?' And I said, ‘No.' And she said, ‘We've been attacked by terrorists,'" the father explained.
He told KSL News soldiers were sitting in a staging area for medical and dental checks when the group was startled by gunfire.
"A person behind counter stood up, and he said, ‘Allah Akbar!' And just opened up on everybody," the father told us.
Again, that's what the man tells us his daughter said, but no one else is saying that and we cannot confirm whether it's true. He, himself a military veteran, says at first his daughter thought it was some sort of drill but quickly discovered it wasn't.
"It was within a second or two she realized it was real because the person right next to her was shot and killed instantly," he said.
The man says his daughter immediately fell to the ground and played dead. He says he contacted KSL because he thought people should know what happened there.
I am so glad that Hasan is alive and he'll be held accountable for what he's done, in the name of Allah.
He's a terrorist. He's an enemy of the United States. Contrary to what his cousin, Nader Hasan, said in an interview with FOX News, Nidal Hasan is not a good American.
Yesterday, I saw Obama make his first public comments about the Fort Hood shootings on live TV.
When he stepped to the podium, I expected Obama to get right to addressing the incident.
Instead, he seemed to yap on and on, addressing the happenings at the Tribal Nations Conference.
Obama began in a rather light-hearted manner. He smiled and waved when he said:
I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor* winner It's good to see you.
(Obama misspoke when he said "Congressional Medal of Honor." Obama should have said "President Medal of Freedom." The White House transcript has been amended to note Obama's error. Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow on August 12, 2009.)
I commented to others also watching the live "breaking news" that it seemed to be taking forever before Obama commented on the shootings.
We couldn't believe that he chose to talk about the "extremely productive conference," give his thank-yous, and give that "shout-out" ahead of his first comments to the nation, and the world, about Nidal Malik Hasan gunning down dozens of Americans at Fort Hood.
The entirety of Obama's remarks took five minutes. He spent a full two minutes talking about issues related to the conference of Native Americans until he got around to commenting on the carnage.
I thought it was a poor choice on Obama's part. The nation was waiting to hear from Obama. He knew that his words were being carried on live TV. He should have discussed the shootings and then dealt with the issues of the conference.
"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."
"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this—'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"
----------------------------
"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."
--JULIAN BOND
"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."
"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"
"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."
--DAVID BROOKS
"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."
"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."
--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women."
"The protesters have proven today that they‘re not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just can‘t fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."
--JOHN NICHOLS
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."
"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."
"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."
"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."
"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isn’t just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."
"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."
--DAN RATHER
"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.
"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."
"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."
"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil...
I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."
"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."
"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."
"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."
"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."
"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."
--AARON SORKIN
"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."
"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns.
You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."
"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."
"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."
--SARAH SPITZ
"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."
"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this.
"But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."
"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."
--HELEN THOMAS
"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."
--PAUL McCARTNEY
"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."
--KATIE COURIC
"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."
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"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar—you name it, any condition — is job-locking."
--NANCY PELOSI
"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"
--TOM HANKS
"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."
--LOUIS FARRAKHAN
"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."
--JOE BIDEN
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
--ROLAND MARTIN
"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."
--CHUCK SCHUMER
"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."
--ED SCHULTZ
"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."
--JOHN KERRY
"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."
--BILL CLINTON
"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."
--TOM SHALES
"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"
--MAUREEN DOWD
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
--SONIA SOTOMAYOR
"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."
--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002
"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."
"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."
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"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."
--WANDA SYKES
"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
--COLIN POWELL
"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."
--PAUL BEGALA
"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."
--BARNEY FRANK
"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."
--JIM DOYLE, Liar
"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."
--JOY BEHAR
"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."
--JON STEWART
"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"
--WHOOPI GOLDBERG
"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."
--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
--TED TURNER
"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"
--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL
"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
--FELIPE CALDERON
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."
--AL GORE
"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL
"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"
--CHRIS ROCK
"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"
--BARBRA STREISAND
"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"
--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand
"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."
--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer
"I said what I said. I am not guilty."
--SADDAM HUSSEIN
"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."
--MICHAEL SCHIAVO
"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "
--BILL MOYERS
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
--HOWARD DEAN
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
--MICHAEL MOORE
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--HILLARY CLINTON
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
--BILL CLINTON
"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."
--MICHELLE OBAMA
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."
"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but there’s real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."
----------------------------
"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."
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"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."
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"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."
"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."
----------------------------
"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
----------------------------
"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."
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"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."
----------------------------
"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."
"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
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"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."
----------------------------
"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
--BARACK OBAMA
NOTEWORTHY QUOTATIONS
"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.... [A] democracy without values can lose its very soul."
--POPE BENEDICT XVI
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."
--POPE JOHN PAUL II
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
--MOTHER TERESA
"To promote choice for its own sake is more akin to self-indulgence than self-determination. It is the philosophy of a pre-schooler in a candy shop."
--BRIAN POLLARD, M.D.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
--MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."
--RONALD REAGAN
"Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."
--MARK LEVIN
"We are Warriors forever."
--BO ELLIS
"I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich, you know."
