Via Michelle Malkin via telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6521758/Fort-Hood-shooting-Texas-army-killer-linked-to-September-11-terrorists.html
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Archive for November, 2009
But the struggle Matthews was having – that given Reuters had reported Hasan had tried to contact al-Qaida, was that reason enough to intervene on the activities of Hasan.
“See – we have a problem,” Matthews said. “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-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?’ That’s not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?”
And this was obviously a philosophical struggle for the “Hardball” host, as he reiterated he confusion.
“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.”
Incredibly, this wasn’t just a one-time lapse for Matthews. He reiterated his question, if contacting al-Qaida, an institution classified as a terrorist organization by several international governments and organizations, was crime.
“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-Qaida, 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 on this guy after it’s too late.”
Amazingly, Matthews even compared himself to Hasan – suggesting his actions were just criticism of the United States invasion of Iraq, with just one subtle difference.
“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.”
via Sister Toldjah
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[Once again, a h/t to Philip Klein at American Spectator]
Where can I get a “V” bumper sticker?? It should be our symbol…Boy, would that piss them off. The Lizards, I mean.
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The ‘Haptic Cow‘ recently won Sarah Baillie the Most Innovative Teacher of the Year Award. Hear that, Adam Frucci? It’s for learning. Don’t get any ideas.
Miss Baillie’s invention solves one of the biggest problems in veterinary medicine. That is, once your hand is up an cow’s butt you can’t really see anything you’re doing. Now, with robotic organs and a monitor, she can teach students exactly what they should (and definitely should not) be grabbing.
On a related note, Miss Baillie claims she is also working on a ‘Haptic Horse.’ Kent Smith may well have some ideas for her, as evidenced by this September Photoshop Contest entry:
If you’d like to be put in touch, Miss Baille, please let me know. [Wired]
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Ah, another patronizing pair of rich, liberal celebrities who think all of America is taken in with starry eyes whenever they endorse something, including government-run, freedom-robbing, socialized health care. Endorsing something is easy when they themselves, because of their vast fortunes and fame, will never have to take part in it, just like our Congress [...]
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By Bill Wilson
Yesterday, in an unspeakable act of domestic terrorism, a Fort Hood psychiatrist with a long history of erratic and anti-American behavior systematically murdered 13 American soldiers.
As a stunned nation hung its head in sorrow, it was told that the President of the United States would emerge from the White House to make a statement.
And, indeed, he did make an obligatory statement of regret – but only after spending three full minutes in front of the camera clowning with his fellow cabinet members and those who had shown up earlier for his hastily convened Indian Summit. The President even went so far as to do a fun-filled “shout-out” to one Summit attendee.
Then, and only then – at the conclusion of his self-serving stand-up routine – did Barack Obama get around to deploring the massacre and extending sympathy to the bereaved families and a grieving nation.
Mr. Obama’s behavior was entirely inappropriate, and deplorable. He showed that he is eerily detached from events that do not directly involve his own personal ambitions and chillingly disinterested in the feelings of those he is supposed to represent.
One year ago, good and decent Americans entrusted this President with their health and welfare, their very lives and limbs. And he has now demonstrated that they cannot even trust him to share and convey their innermost feelings in their times of deepest need.
Barack Obama owes the American people an apology – and an explanation.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
Via Libertarian Republican
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Congress is currently in session today, a Saturday, to ramrod this unconstitutional, socialized health care disaster through a vote later tonight. Some Democrat congressional electeds are still undecided.
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Five decades ago, during the heart of the Cold War, a term entered modern political vocabulary: “The Ugly American.” Based upon a 1958 novel of the same name, the phrase began to be used to describe the whole range of thoughtless mistakes that Americans had made — which had led to the loss of American friendship among the peoples of the world.
Today, the Obama Administration has brought the Ugly American back to life. Our nation and our people have always had jealous rivals. The French, whose revolution failed miserably, are loath to respect an American Revolution that proved a spectacular success. Marxist ideology led Russia and China to be hateful to America, whatever ordinary citizens of those countries might have felt. Arabs and Moslems, seeking someone to blame for their poverty and impotence, find America (and Israel) very tempting targets.
But America still has many natural and cultivated friends, though in less than one year, Obama and his lieutenants have succeeded in irritating, confusing, and angering these friends. It is as if Obama has contorted the Arab maxim “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” into the “enemy of my friend is my friend.” Obama seems determined to be the Ugly American.
Israel is an excellent example of this. If we have a pure ally in the world today, it is Israel. America, like Israel and like every sane leader of every free nation, does not want Iran to get nuclear weapons. So when Israel suggests that it may undertake, alone, the burden of all free nations — taking out Iran’s nuclear capacity — Obama’s advisors warn that if the Israeli Defense Force flies over Iraq without our consent, our air forces will shoot down the Israeli warplanes.
Israel need not have been pushed to this desperate action had Obama passionately and publicly called for the end of the horrid reign of mullahs in Iran, after the Chicago-style presidential election of Ahmadinejad. One might have thought that American “progressives” would find a regime that exterminates gays, stones uppity women, and imposes draconian theocracy ought to be in the crosshairs of American Leftists. That assumes that the Left hates homophobia, patriarchy, and theocracy more than it hates America — a false assumption.
When our largely toothless Secretary of State travels to India, the world’s largest democracy and a nation which, like us, looks with concern at the mad rulers of Iran, an unstable Pakistan, and a growing Chinese menace, she lectures the Indian government, which is trying to lift its people out of poverty, on the left’s risible Green agenda.
While Obama nods toward an Iranian government which denies the Holocaust, seeks nuclear weapons, and considers America the Great Satan, it gratuitously snubs a constitutional government in Honduras and trusts, instead, the Marxist law-breaker who sought an illegal plebiscite to extend his term of office. Girls are not shot in the streets of Honduras. Huge protests are not broken up by special gangs of thugs. In fact, the whole of the constitutionally elected government of Honduras has concurred that former President Zelaya broke the Honduran Constitution. No matter. He hates America, and that counts most. Now he is reported back in Honduras. Does anyone wonder who America would support in a Honduran Civil War?
The same is true in South America, where the boorish thug Chavez crushes opposition, including the media voices of the opposition, to loud yawns from Washington or even approving words from Obama czars. Obama appears to respect the goon who runs Venezuela: he shakes hands with the Venezuelan strongman after receiving a ghastly book from a man who describes our nation as the “most murderous empire that has existed in the history of the world.” (N.B. Chavez is probably not our friend.) Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats offend Columbia, a close ally in South America, by putting the Columbia Free-Trade Agreement on indefinite hold.
Britain has been with America through thick and thin without political ideology of governments affecting that special relationship. But Obama appears intent upon offending the prime minister and even the sovereign of this old and important ally. Czar Putin of Russia, however, is given smiles and unearned concessions. Even the timing of Obama’s offending our allies seems deliberate, as many have noted our decision not to defend new NATO allies like Poland was on the seventieth anniversary of the Russian invasion of Poland.
There are people around the world who will always hate or distrust us, like the mullahs of Iran or Kim Jong Il or Castro. Obama seems determined to befriend these mortal enemies. Then there are peoples, nations, and leaders which share natural interests with America, like Israel, Poland, India, Colombia, and Britain. Toward these nations and their leaders, Obama seems bent on being the very ugliest Ugly American.
via American Thinker
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