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•Understanding the Health-Care Debate: Your Indispensable GuideIt seems to me that the weakest link in our Homeland Security defense is our own politically correct establishment.
Sun, Nov 8, 2009 10:41 AM PST
It would be amusing if it were not so dangerous — to observe how in some liberal quarters, when the Fort Hood Killer yelled out “Allahu Akbar!” while standing in a crowded auditorium slamming bullets into innocent American troops, so quickly advise us that, “This is not a terrorist act,” or “This is a case of a disturbed individual who finally could not contain the strain of his job,“ or ”This is not about Islam.“
~Pesky Emotional Republican
More on the weak link in the Homeland Security problem HERE.
By Philip Klein on 11.7.09 @ 11:39PM / American Spectator
House Democrats just narrowly passed their health care legislation, by a margin of 220 to 215, with 39 Democrats voting against it, and just one Republican — Louisiana’s Joseph Cao — voting in favor. Obviously, this is an historic victory for Democrats as it’s the first time that a health care bill of this magnitude has made it this far. Passing it in the House gives it momentum going into the Senate. And also, in a larger sense, Democrats have proven once again that no matter how messy the daily grind may look, they’ve eventually been able to use their overwhelming majority to keep moving the health care ball down field.
With that said, tonight’s victory of a mere five votes, came at a tremendous cost for the House leadership and may eventually help doom the entire effort. In order to get over the top, Democrats had to agree to pass an amendment that would bar taxpayer funding for abortion. The measure is strongly opposed by pro-choicers, and Planned Parenthood has vowed to fight it. While pro-choice Democrats voted for the bill tonight to keep the process moving forward, they did so under the assumption that they could strip it from the bill once the House goes into negotiations with the Senate. If the measure gets stripped, suddenly there’s a risk of pro-life Democrats dropping their support of the final bill. And considering that the measure only passed by five votes, Nancy Pelosi cannot afford to shed more than a handful of members.
Also keep in mind that because 64 Democrats voted in favor of the Stupak anti-abortion amendment, it means that should it get stripped from the bill, Republicans will be on firm ground arguing that the remaining legislation allows taxpayer funding for abortion. Yet if Pelosi maintains the pro-life language, it’s hard to see how staunch pro-choicers support the final bill, and suddenly you could see defections of liberals.
And of course, all of this assumes that some sort of bill passes the Senate. Yet if it was this heavy of a lift in the House — where it’s supposed to be easy for the majority party to ram things through — it suddenly looks like a daunting task to get to 60 votes in the Senate. So, clearly, this was a step forward for Democrats. But tonight’s victory could prove Pyrrhic.
Whereas George W. Bush
kept us safe for eight years.
P.E.R.
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George W. Bush Secretly Visits Fort Hood Victims
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.
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.
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.
By Hilary Hylton / Killeen Friday, Nov. 06, 2009 / Time.com
Sargeant Kimberly Munley
The west side of Killeen, Texas is like countless other places in America’s heartland, freshly carved out of prairie pastures with wide streets in bucolic neighborhoods like “Sunflower Estates” and “Bridgewood.” But on a glorious cloudless fall day, the flags at the home sales center nearby are at half mast in honor of the 13 fallen at Ft. Hood, victims of a gunman whose deadly attack was stopped thanks to a petite, long-haired blonde mom from the neigborhood.
Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34, a civilian Department of Defense police officer at the base, is credited with stopping the firing rampage of U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan at the Soldier Readiness Center within a few minutes after he launched his attack. The center is a quick five minute drive from Munley’s home, past the new strip centers and the high school football field along wide Cross Creek Boulevard, but a world away from the horrors inflicted in one of the worst incidents of soldier-on-soldier violence in U.S. Army history. (Read TIME’s report: “Stresses at Fort Hood Were Likely Intense for Hasan”)
Munley, described by neighbor Brooke Beato, as “very petite, with long blonde hair and a strong personality,” was credited by base officials with preventing further carnage by aggressively engaging Hasan as he shot at her. She rounded a corner, took aim at Hasan and brought him down, officials said. “It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer,” base commander Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said. It also was a tactic straight out of recent lessons learned from the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when first responders waited for additional backup before engaging the shooter.
“She walked up and engaged him,” said Lt. Gen. Cone told Associated Press. As a member of the base Special Reaction Team, Munley had learned that “if you act aggressively to take out a shooter, you will have less fatalities,” Cone said.
Soon after Munley fired at Hasan, taking him down, she herself fell wounded and police radios quickly sent out an “Officer down” call. Wounded three times in the arm and leg, Munley is in stable condition after undergoing surgery Friday to repair damage to an artery. Base officials said she wishes she could have acted even faster and saved more lives, and she spent Thursday evening calling friends and colleagues, expressing those regrets.
While Thursday’s shooting sent a shockwave through the tight-knit Killeen community, Beato, whose husband is an Army captain, said she was not surprised when Munley’s name surfaced as the police officer who ended the shooting. “It was just like her — she carries herself with confidence,” Beato said.
Beato is a 30-year-old mother of four whose children often play with Munley’s daughters, ages 12 and 3, in the quiet cul-de-sac. “I couldn’t believe what happened, but when I heard what she did,” says Beato of her neighbor, “I believed that because of who she is — I know her.”
Munley, who worked as a police officer for five years in North Carolina where her father, Dennis Barbour, once served as mayor of Carolina Beach, is a talented shooter and member of the base’s Special Reaction Team which trains for the possibility of events like Thursday’s shooting rampage. She also is a passionate fan of Twitter and once news of her actions spread, her followers began to blossom in number — among them country singer Dierks Bentley who posed for a photo with the petite police officer at the fort’s annual July Fourth FreedomFest. The photo is posted on her Twitter page along with a brief biographical quote: “I live a good life…a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully at night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.”
See photos of the Fort Hood shooting.
Barack Hussein Obama has never spoken as admiringly, respectfully, passionately about America as he does here about Islam
Barack Hussein Obama has never spoken as admiringly, respectfully, passionately about America as he does here about Islam. ~Pesky Emotional Republican
Lt. Col. Raph Peters on Nidal Malik Hasan
He’s right. This was a terrorist act and our government is STILL POLITICALLY CORRECT. President Obama had better get his head screwed on right for this one.
A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama: This man does not connect with American sentiment or sensibilities
I haven’t seen this particular video yet but I will. It sounds like Prez Obama has again shown a disconnect with the American people and American sensibilities. ~Pesky Emotional Republican
Ok. I found it. Here is the video. He’s bad. I know that George W. Bush would have connected with the American people with a heartfelt speech.
Here is one Comment from YouTube:
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By ROBERT A. GEORGE / ABCChicago.com
Updated 9:18 AM CST, Fri, Nov 6, 2009
President Obama didn’t wait long after Tuesday’s devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.
After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.
But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow — that Congressional Medal of Honor winner.” Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?
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.
Dramatic Photos: Fort Hood Shooting
Indeed, an argument could be made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before. That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the event.
Did the president’s team not realize what sort of image they were presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between what Americans at home knew had been going on — and the initial words coming out of their president’s mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.
It must have been disappointing for many politically aware Democrats, still reeling from the election two days before. The New Jersey gubernatorial vote had already demonstrated that the president and his political team couldn’t produce a winning outcome in a state very friendly to Democrats (and where the president won by 15 points one year ago). And now this? Congressional Democrats must wonder if a White House that has burdened them with a too-heavy policy agenda over the last year has a strong enough political operation to help push that agenda through.
If the president’s communications apparatus can’t inform — and protect — their boss during tense moments when the country needs to see a focused commander-in-chief and a compassionate head of state, it has disastrous consequences for that president’s party and supporters.
All the president’s men (and women) fell down on the job Thursday. And Democrats across the country have real reason to panic.
New York writer Robert A. George blogs at Ragged Thots. Follow him on Twitter.
Obama: ‘Dont’ Jump to Conclusions’ on Fort Hood Shooting (But he did just that in July, 2009!)
Nov. 8, 2009 / Fox News
And yet Obama defended his Harvard buddy, Louis Gates against Sgt. James Crowley, admitting that he/Obama knew nothing about the case but that “the police acted stupidly.” ~Pesky Emotional Republican
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President Obama said Friday he met with FBI chief Robert Mueller and other federal agencies to discuss what may have caused Nidal Malik Hasan to turn on his comrades in Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 28 wounded.
In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. base, President Obama on Friday cautioned against jumping to conclusions on the motive of the suspect.
“We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,” Obama said on the White House lawn.
“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.
Obama said he met with FBI chief Robert Mueller and other federal agencies to discuss what may have caused Nidal Malik Hasan to turn on his comrades in Thursday’s shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.
Obama ordered the flags at the White House and other federal buildings to be flown at half-staff until Veterans Day on Wednesday, in memory of those who were killed.
“This is a modest tribute to those who lost their lives even as many were preparing to risk their lives for their country,” he said.
Obama was expected to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center later in the day.
White House spokesman Bill Burton told Fox News that Obama’s visit to the Army’s top medical facility was planned before Thursday’s massacre.
Although it didn’t appear on the White Houses’ weekly schedule, Burton said it was already in the works.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates also declared a moment of silence for U.S. military forces worldwide as a show of respect for the Fort Hood victims. The moment of silence is planned for 2:34 p.m. EST Friday — exactly 24 hours after the shooting in Texas. All U.S. forces worldwide were being asked to participate.
Obama had been planning to visit House Democrats on Capitol Hill ahead of their historic debate and vote on health care reform but he pushed the meeting back to Saturday. White House aides said the delay is not because of the shooting aftermath but because he wants to visit closer to the vote expected as early as late Saturday.
On Thursday, Obama called the Fort Hood shooting a “horrific outburst of violence” and said his “immediate thoughts and prayers” are with the wounded and the families of those who died.
The president said he is working with the Pentagon, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure security at the Texas military post.
“It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It’s horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil,” Obama said. “We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident. … We are going to stay on this.”
Obama received a phone briefing on the incident late Thursday and expressed his condolences to all base personnel.
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P.E.R. lives out west with a dog named Cheyenne.
