George Will makes a case of the anti-Constitutionality of Congress trying to shove health care down the nation’s collective throat.
AFP Phillips calls for respectful but firm protest tactics
December 15, 2009-Washington, D.C.
Tim Phillips knows what it’s like to have protesters physically challenge him and his views. Days ago he experienced angry protesters jumping on stage screaming in favor of climate change proposals and against him and Americans for Prosperity’s presence at the United Nations conference in Copenhagen. As the protesters continued to chant, one of the AFP speakers, Lord Christopher Monckton called the activists “crazed Hitler Youth” and “Nazis” however, Phil Kerpen, the policy director of Americans for Prosperity, distanced himself from Monckton’s comments. Kerpen wrote on Twitter, “DO NOT approve.”
Today, Phillips and Kerpen are back at home leading yet another rally in front of the nation’s Capitol in protest of the pending Senate health care legislation–this one not expected to attract Copenhagen-like counter protests.
Our “Code Red” rally at the Capitol today, in conjunction with broad coalition, is making sure our voices are heard at a key time in the Senate debate. Then, we’re asking folks to go inside the Senate offices to deliver the same “hands off my health care” message to their Senators.”
Inside the Capital Tea Party protesters held ‘sit-ins’ in front of Congressional offices showing their serious opposition to a pending trillion dollar healthcare legislation.
The ever changing political environment here at home and abroad is continuing to challenge activists to question tactics and their effectiveness.
“I think it’s good for our side and Americans in general, to see how the Left wants to silence and intimidate anyone not agreeing with them. Those tactics should not be for us. We’re winning, moving the public to our side on health care and cap-and-trade, by pounding on the issues while still being respectful but firm with elected officials.”
In early November, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) led a similar rally on the steps of the Capital followed by visits to elected officials by those in attendance. Protesters visiting the offices of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proceeded to throw pieces of the healthcare bill on the floor as suggested by speakers while others lied down and had to be removed by Capitol Police.
As the current political environment remains volatile and emotionally charged will protests become more and more radical in their tactics?
“I do not think that the American public will respond well to more “radical” tactics like those used by the Left but most of the polling and anecdotal evidence shows they are responding to our current tactics\strategies reasonably well,” said Phillips just hours before today’s Code Red Rally.
“Our tactics thus far have: killed cap-and-trade for the year, killed card check for the year, and as of mid December we have a fighting chance to defeat the health care takeover–all this despite fighting overwhelming odds in Washington politically and financially. Yes, we’re losing some battles, too, and it’s frustrating but we are also making a difference for our values.”
Like the Kyoto Treaty that no one much paid attention to some years back, Copenhagen has produced another document so that everyone can “just keep talking.” Very productive. At least the POTUS got to see a charming city.
HT: WSJ.
Cross-posted at RudyCarrera.com.
Palin inspires “domestic engineer” with a PhD in “Mom” to run for Congress
Patricia Sullivan is daring to go where many women would never have dared to go before Sarah Palin took center stage of the national political scene last year especially after the attacks the Palin experienced. But the 40 year old Floridian is determined to win 8th Congressional District office currently held by Democrat Alan Grayson. Palin may have inspired her but concern for her children’s futures motivated her to leave her current position as a self described Domestic Engineer/Home School Teacher/Community Organizer with a PhD in ‘Mom,” quips Sullivan.
“The first thing I would like to do is repeal the “stimulus” spending bill and put all unused funds back in the Treasury. Clearly that was a tremendous failure,” says Sullivan with a confidence.
‘Sarah Palin really was a breath of fresh air. I remember the day she was announced as McCain’s running mate. We stopped our book work to watch TV. Our oldest daughter, Jennifer, was immediately engaged in the election because of her. I remember watching Sarah walk through crowds with Piper holding her waist and now my youngest is doing the same while I’m talking with voters in my district.”
Like Palin, Sullivan believes in having more than the average two children per household. “My husband and I have four children and have been married for 18 years. We’ve always home schooled which has given us the freedom to volunteer at all hours of the day, from nursing homes to boys and girls clubs. Two years ago I founded the Lake County 4-H Foundation which secures funding for our county 4-H program, enabling youth to attend leadership camps and participate in activities they otherwise couldn’t afford. Serving together as a family not only blesses others, but we typically receive the greater blessing!”
What sacrifices and challenges have you endured in running for office and what how do you expect it to change you and your family’s lives?
My family has already had to pick up the slack when it comes to preparing meals! Our oldest daughter now does the grocery shopping. Instead of spending evenings at home, we find ourselves out at speaking engagements, but because we usually go as a family, it has been fun. Home schooling will look a little different than it has in the past, but we adapt.
As a woman do you think that you will be scrutinized more strictly than male candidates?
I already have! One comment on an online article actually read “She’s going to leave her kids and go to Washington? Nice family values!” Recently I visited DC for the “Health Care House Call” and was able to visit Representatives Ginny Brown-Waite and Michele Bachmann. These are both strong, vocal women and have been called names because of it. They’re paving the way and both offered great advice. They will be incredible mentors for future congresswomen. I look forward to learning from their examples.
What is your advice to those who may have tinkered with the notion of running for office at any level at this time of their lives?
Run it by your closest friends. At first, I thought my friends would talk me out it, knowing the busy life I have and everything I am committed to already. I was truly shocked when they weren’t caught off guard by the idea at all! I think they all saw it coming before I did. Of course as a family, we individually prayed about this decision and had several discussions about it. I wouldn’t have moved forward if the entire family wasn’t 100% on board. If you’ve got support, go for it! Our country needs you! I am a woman of deep faith. Everything I do is driven by it. I believe that is why serving is such a joy, because it is simply an expression of my faith “
What President Obama and those in favor of talks with North Korea fail to understand is that, like their fellow rogue regime in Iran, they have no intention of giving up their desires to acquire nuclear weapons and make misery for their neighbors. China will never be any help because having a pet attack dog in the form of Kim Jong-Il serves their purposes of creating regional instability that much easier, thereby increasing China’s ascendancy in East Asia.
On June 15, 1215, a document was put into effect that would change the world. Men would be recognized with certain unalienable rights for the first time in modern European history. Publius over at Big Government publishes the document in full.
Cross-posted at RudyCarrera.com.
The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has identified 24 Democrat House members who voted for passage of the Pelosi Death Care bill and is targeting those 24 Democrats for defeat in November 2010. The RCCC has set-up a website called Reverse the Vote! to raise money for a war chest specifically aimed at defeating these 24 individuals who voted for the Pelosi bill in opposition to the will of their constituencies.
The list of 24 includes…
Every dollar raised by Reverse the Vote! will be split 24 ways and used to defeat these 24 Democrats in the general election. Not one dime will be used in the primaries.
The hope is that these 24 individuals will see that the Republicans are taking a pro-active step to build a war chest to remove them from office and decide to not support the Death Care bill when it makes its return from Conference.
So if you have the means, please consider contributing whatever you feel most comfortable to Reverse the Vote! and help take back this country.
H/T: Hugh Hewitt
Gribbit Reporting for YGC Radio – Ohio (4th District)
Surprise, surprise. National Public Radio, of all people, breaks a huge story on whether political correctness or the urges of doctors to protect one of their own, no matter the cost, played a role in allowing Maj. Nidal Hassan, charged today with killing 13 people, to stay in the Army rather than be unceremoniously booted for being a psychotic danger to his fellow soldiers.
Cross-posted at RudyCarrera.com.
Before I really get rolling, I want to take a minute and talk about the horrific events at Ft. Hood that took place yesterday.
I’ve always been a staunch supporter of the United States Military, and its personnel. I was coming home from work and saw it on the news when I walked in the house. It was one of the most disgusting displays of humanity that I had seen since September 11th. This man, Maj. Nidal Malik Hassan, did something deplorable. He was known to be politically against the war, and had spoken about how Muslims should not be made to fight other Muslims. He had had a recent past of poor performance reviews, and decided to take the coward’s way out.
Chanting “Allahu Akbar” (god is great) he turned his guns on his fellow soldiers. He killed 13 and wounded over thirty others. This country and its military gave him a chance, a life, and an education. Nearly half a million dollars I hear in that education, too. It’s disgusting that this is how he chose to show himself. He ended up being a terrorist, a scumbag, and a disgrace to the uniform.
I want to say that my thoughts and prayers are with the men and women of Ft. Hood. I also want to say that I only wish that they had killed him when he was taken down.
Okay, now onto what I was originally had written, which deals with the election victories for the GOP this week.
I’ll admit I did a little bit of partying on behalf of the GOP victories. After losing two straight elections, it was a pleasant surprise to see some life breathed back into the Republican brand. These were not RINOs taking home the gold, either. These people were running as tax-cutting, small-government, traditional-valued conservatives.
The State of Virginia was painted red across the board, as Republican Bob McDonnell beat out Democrat Creigh Deeds, 58% to 41%. To have a Republican win with a 17-point margin of victory in a state Obama won soundly last year is fantastic for the GOP brand. McDonnell is not the only one celebrating in Virginia today. The Republican candidates for Lt. Governor and state Attorney General also won decisive victories. Three-for-three in ‘The Old Dominion State.’
Virginia showed quite a turnaround in exit polling from last year’s results. In polls conducted by Edison Research, we saw a dramatic change from last year. In 2008 the number of people who identified themselves as members of the GOP leveled off at about 33%. This year it topped 37%. During last year’s election, the number of self-described Democrats was at 39%. This year it is down to 33%.
Creigh Deeds spent a decent amount of time trying to show that McDonnell’s conservative cred meant that he was oppressive towards women, but according to those polled, McDonnell took the women’s vote 54% to 46%, and ‘working’ women even preferred him over Deeds 51% to 48%.
The top issues in Virginia were the economy by 47%, health care by 24% and taxes by 15%. Conservatives and Republicans both showed up in greater numbers than in 2008, and it paid off.
In New Jersey, it was nothing short of divine intervention. This is the bluest of blue states, and an incumbent Democrat governor should have sailed right through to victory. Christie in fact led the race for most of the past few months. Even with Obama coming multiple times to campaign for him, Corzine still lost, 48% to 44%. (Independent candidate Jim Daggett took the remainder of the vote.)
Independents made up 25% of the vote, and they favored Christie over Corzine, 60% to 30%. Members of the GOP voted solidly for Christie, 91% and 6% for Corzine. Registered Democrats were less loyal, going 88% for Corzine and 8% for Christie. Moderates for the most part were split, but still favored Christie, 48% to 45%. Conservatives, who were out in huge numbers in New Jersey, favored Christie by 88%.
The most important issues in New Jersey were the economy with 32%, property taxes (highest in the nation) with 26%, corruption with 20% and health care, 17%.
In a brief note about the special election of New York’s 23rd district, all conservatives and Republicans can learn an important message here:
1) 1) Pick conservative candidates, and not traitorous RINOs who will either NOT champion liberal causes’ or betray their party by endorsing the Democratic candidate.
2) 2) Learn whom in the party to trust more. Sorry Newt, but Palin’s endorsement won that round. Not only did her endorsement put Hoffman in the lead for a while, she proved to be a true force to be reckoned with. Hoffman nearly won as a third party conservative candidate in a blue state. People do like Sarah, and her endorsements.
The elections also brought other surprises. The state of Maine became the 31stin a row to vote down Gay Marriage. Maine is no red state, and I was sure this was going to pass with popular vote. Barack Obama may have won in what was called an electoral landslide, but he did not win in an ideological one. Many people voted on their anger towards President Bush, which is just moronic. Ya know, because he wasn’t on the ticket!
The United States is still a center-right nation. People may have voted in change last year, but it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be. This is only the beginning. They woke up the sleeping giant, and the conservatives are being led to the polls once again.
Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists
Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a “spiritual adviser” to three of the hijackers who attacked America on September 11, 2001.
By Philip Sherwell and Alex Spillius
Published: 8:17PM GMT 07 Nov 2009
Previous 1 of 2 Images Next Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow U.S. soldiers in Texas Photo: GETTY
The radical Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, accused of supporting attacks on British troops
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow U.S. soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother’s funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
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Fort Hood shooting: President Barack Obama will travel to Texas for Fort Hood memorial service. Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan’s motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the West Coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
Charles Allen, a former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, has described al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, as an “al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers… who targets U.S. Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen.”
Last night Hasan remained in a coma under guard at a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and was said to be in a “stable” condition. Born in America to a Palestinian family, Hasan, 39, was an Army psychiatrist who had chosen to sign up for the U.S. military against his parents’ wishes.
But he turned into an angry critic of the wars America was waging in Iraq and Afghanistan and had tried in vain to negotiate his discharge.
He counseled soldiers returning from the front line, and told relatives that he was horrified at the prospect of a deployment to Afghanistan later this year – his first time in a combat zone.
Whether due to his personal convictions, his stress over his deployment or other reasons, Hasan is alleged to have snapped and gone on a murderous rampage with a powerful semi-automatic handgun after shouting “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is great”), according to survivors. He had earlier given away copies of the Koran to neighbours.
Investigators at this stage have no indication that he planned the attacks with anyone else. But they are trawling through his phone records, paperwork and computers he used before the attack during an apparently sleepless night.
Five of the 13 victims were fellow mental health professionals from three units of the army’s Combat Stress Control Detachment, it was disclosed yesterday.
It is understood that Hasan had been due to be deployed with members of those units in coming months. Whether he deliberately singled out other combat stress counsellors is another key question.
What does seem clear is that the army missed an increasing number of red flags that Hasan was a troubled and brooding individual within its ranks.
“I was shocked but not surprised by news of Thursday’s attack,” said Dr. Val Finnell, a fellow student on a public health course in 2007-08 who heard Hasan equate the war on terrorism to a war on Islam. Another student had warned military officials that Hasan was a “ticking time bomb” after he reportedly gave a presentation defending suicide bombers.
Kamran Pasha, the author of Mother of the Believers, a new novel relating the story of Islam from the perspective of Aisha, Prophet Mohammed’s wife, was told of the al-Awlaki connection from a Muslim friend who is also an officer at Fort Hood. Using the name Richard, the recent convert to Islam described how he frequently prayed with Hasan at the town mosque after Hasan was deployed to Fort Hood in July. They last worshipped together at predawn prayers on the day of the massacre when Hasan “appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous.”
But Richard had previously argued with Hasan when he said that he felt the “war on terror” was really a war against Islam, expressed anti-Jewish sentiments and defended suicide bombings.
“I asked Richard whether he believed that Hasan was motivated by religious radicalism in his murderous actions,” Mr Pasha said.
“Richard, with great sadness, said that he believed this was true. He also believed that psychological factors from Hasan’s job as an army psychiatrist added to his pathos. The news that he would be deployed overseas, to a war that he rejected, may have pushed him over the edge.
“But Richard does not excuse Hasan. As a Muslim, he finds Hasan’s religious perspectives to be fundamentally misguided. And as a soldier, he finds Hasan’s actions cowardly and evil.”
Fellow Muslims in the US armed forces have also been quick to denounce Hasan’s actions and insist that they were the product of a lone individual rather than of Islamic teachings. Osman Danquah, the co-founder of the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, said Hasan never expressed anger toward the army or indicated any plans for violence.
But he said that, at their second meeting, Hasan seemed almost incoherent.
“I told him, ‘There’s something wrong with you’. I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.”
He was sufficiently troubled that he recommended the centre reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood.
Hasan had, in fact, already come to the attention of the authorities before Thursday’s massacre. He was suspected of being the author of internet postings that compared suicide bombers with soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save others and had also reportedly been warned about proselytising to patients.
At Fort Hood, he told a colleague, Col Terry Lee, that he believed Muslims should rise up against American “aggressors”. He made no attempt to hide his desire to end his military service early or his mortification at the prospect of deployment to Afghanistan. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there,” said his cousin, Nader Hasan.
Yet away from his strident attacks on US foreign policy, he came across as subdued and reclusive – not hostile or threatening. Soldiers he counselled at the Walter Reed hospital in Washington praised him, while at Fort Hood, Kimberly Kesling, the deputy commander of clinical services, remarked: “Up to this point, I would consider him an asset.”
Relatives said that the death of Hasan’s parents, in 1998 and 2001, turned him more devout. “After he lost his parents he tried to replace their love by reading a lot of books, including the Koran,” his uncle Rafiq Hamad said.
“He didn’t have a girlfriend, he didn’t dance, he didn’t go to bars.”
His failed search for a wife seemed to haunt Hasan. At the Muslim Community Centre in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, he signed up for an Islamic matchmaking service, specifying that he wanted a bride who wore the hijab and prayed five times a day.
Adnan Haider, a retired professor of statistics, recalled how at their first meeting last year, a casual introduction after Friday prayers, Hasan immediately asked the academic if he knew “a nice Muslim girl” he could marry.
“It was a strange thing to ask someone you have met two seconds before. It was clear to me he was under pressure, you could just see it in his face,” said Prof Haider, 74, who used to work at Georgetown University in Washington. “You could see he was lonely and didn’t have friends.
“He is working with psychiatric people and I ask why the people around him didn’t spot that something was wrong? When I heard what had happened I actually wasn’t that surprised.”
Indeed, many of the characteristics attributed to Hasan by acquaintances – withdrawn, unassuming, brooding, socially awkward and never known to have had a girlfriend – have also applied to other mass murderers.
Hasan was born and brought up in Virginia to parents who ran restaurants after emigrating to America from the West Bank. He graduated from Virginia Tech university – coincidentally, the scene of the worst mass shooting in US history in 2007 – with a degree in biochemistry and then joined the army, which trained him as a psychiatrist.
Relatives said that he was subjected to increasingly ugly taunts about his religion and ethnicity from other soldiers after the September 11 attacks. But his uncle insisted yesterday that Hasan would not have been driven to mass murder by revenge or religion.
Speaking in the West Bank town of al-Bireh, Mr Hamad said his nephew “loved America” and could only have been caused to snap by an as yet unexplained factor. “He always said there was no country in the world like America,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Something big happened to him in Texas. If he did it – and until now I am in denial – it had to have been something huge because revenge was not in his nature.”
•Additional reporting by Adrian Blomfield in al-Bireh
link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6521758/Fort-Hood-shooting-Texas-army-killer-linked-to-September-11-terrorists.html
