162 Comments

1. Vincent Vega:

Wish you were our President Wretch.

Excellent.

Nov 11, 2009 - 5:59 pm 2. Arkroyal:

He does not have the guts to take responsibility like this. Indeed, his every move has been to avoid responsibility whenever he can. God Bless Our Troops.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:03 pm 3. Tarnsman:

Wonderful speech that the President should have given, but never ever would have, even under threat of torture. As time passes and as more and more facts become know these murders will be laid squarely at the feet of this Administration and by extension to this President. Political correctness once again has put folks in the grave.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:10 pm 4. RCM:

He hasn’t taken responsibility for anything except “change,” and in doing so proceeds in destroying “hope.”

With that incredible agenda, where could a mere mortal (even Teh One) possibly find room for “courage.”

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:16 pm 5. Habu:

In Aristotles Nichomachean Ethics, ethics is called teleological or goal driven.
According to Aristotle, every thing has a purpose or end. A knife, for example, has the purpose of cutting things. A good knife is good at cutting things, and therefore knives should be sharp. Similarly, people have a purpose. People should do things that help them fulfill that purpose or end: things that are for their good. obama did not teleprompt today for the nation’s sorrow.

Obama is a serial liar and deceiver of a magnitude we have never seen in the WH. His speech was for one purpose. Not to comfort the suffering or correct the mistakes but to allow him to remain, as Bill Clinton did when he backed out of his ROTC obligation, remain politically viable. Many will buy into this deceit. He did it for no universal good but for the most base of reasons. To continue the destruction of this country.

obama remains a clear and present danger to this country.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:19 pm 6. Josh:

I’m not a professional speech writer and don’t play one even on the Internet, but this is certainly more the kind of speech and proper content I think should be given.

Whether it is necessary or sufficient to admit fault, I’d have to debate. Whether to open with a personal apology, likewise. POTUS doesn’t stand guard personally, y’know, and the less first-person singular used, in general, the better. Gettysburg Address contains it not at all.

As I said in the last thread, Ambinder must be the biggest idiot since Chaitin (?) at New Republic admitted that he personally hated George Bush, with the logic (such as it is) coming only after. I hope Ambinder sees your post and chokes on it.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:21 pm 7. Josh:

But neither would I doubt that Ambinder and his ilk *would* use this execrable speech by Obama to educate the young.

Mmmm-mmm-mmm.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:25 pm 8. Josh:

One more thing – the meme is starting to spread that the victims at Fort Hood were victims of political correctness.

Not Islam as such, not even jihad, nor any kind of random violence, there being too much evidence this was anything but random.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:34 pm 9. bogie wheel:

Eisenhower’s prepared statement in the event of the failure of the D-Day landings:

“Our landings in the Cherbourg-Harve area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”

Taking the blame when blame is appropriate is what good leaders do. But I guess by definition that when there is a failure of leadership, the leader (being a poor one) will never acknowledge it.

General Casey made the Freudian slip of slips on Meet the Press:

“And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse ….”

The real lives of real American soldiers are not as important as the diversity totem. There. He said it.

BTW, did any top dog in the federal government apologize for failing to protect the lives of the nearly 3,000 people who were slaughtered on 9/11? And this includes GWB.

What is Job #1 of the federal government?

To secure the right of life. (We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men …)

American citizens are attacked and killed, en masse, by terrorists on American soil. American soldiers are attacked and killed, en masse, on American soil, by a terrorist wearing an American uniform.

This is a gross, gross failure of the government to do its primary duty.

Acknowledging this failure, and using the word “failure” repeatedly in the first person, as your version of the speech did, Wretchard, would have been a good first step in the long road back to national sanity.

It is unfortunate, however, that there are people in our government, at the top levels, even, who neither realize nor care that protecting the lives of Americans is their utmost duty, so it does not even occur to them that they have failed. They do not understand this viscerally, where it needs to be understood.

Several threads ago, Tcobb noted that one of the chief reasons governments have fallen throughout history is when they prove unable or unwilling to protect the lives of their citizens.

Hmmm.

… whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:44 pm 10. bogie wheel:

Whether it is necessary or sufficient to admit fault, I’d have to debate. Whether to open with a personal apology, likewise. POTUS doesn’t stand guard personally, y’know, and the less first-person singular used, in general, the better. Gettysburg Address contains it not at all.

Josh, I would say it was/is most definitely necessary to admit fault. This was a big steaming pile of completely unnecessary failure. The 80% of the American population who are not sold-out leftists understand this. About half of these are livid about the failure.

Having the POTUS accept responsibility for this failure is something the 80% need to see and hear. To not acknowledge something that everyone knows, that is as plain to most people as the sun in the sky, is bad, bad crisis management.

TOTUS may not be aware that he is handling a crisis, but he is.

The context at Gettysburg was completely different. No apology from Lincoln was needed, only a statement of firm resolve that the cause for which the soldiers had died would be upheld. Lincoln made such a statement, and made it magnificently.

Nov 11, 2009 - 6:57 pm 11. starling:

I don’t think the speech is that remarkable. If any speech will be taught in rhetoric classes, it will be the Inaugural Address. In fact, it already is on my campus. As for the Ft Hood speech, there is one thing that does bother me a tad, maybe more than that. It’s the opening. I recognize it from two opening sentences from two other major speeches Obama has given this year–the Inaugural and the UN Address. They are not word for word copies, but they are perfectly parallel.

Inaugaral Address: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
http://tinyurl.com/9wllv6

UN Speech: I come before you humbled by the responsibility that the American people have placed upon me, mindful of the enormous challenges of our moment in history, and determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad. http://tinyurl.com/yadp8mh

Ft. Hood Speech: We come together filled with sorrow for the thirteen Americans that we have lost, with gratitude for the lives that they led, and with a determination to honor them through the work we carry on. http://tinyurl.com/ybl5jl6

I wrote the following about the first two sentences on my “Rhetorical Flourishes” blog back in September after the UN speech:

“This level of similarity does not happen by accident. Clearly, both sentences feature the same three-fold parallelism, as discussed here. Given the identical structure, one might reasonably conclude that (1) the same hand is at work and (2) that he/she is pleased enough with the opening of the Inaugural Address that it was intentionally recycled for the UN speech. Not that there is anything wrong with this. It’s just an observation.” http://tinyurl.com/ylygkeb

Now that I’ve seen this same sentence three times (and that’s in the only three speeches I’ve looked at) its charm is starting to wear thin. I’d have hoped that an event like this would have inspired something a little less obviously formulaic, something original with at least the appearance of being heartfelt. I’d have hoped whoever was writing or approving these words would have been spurred to go beyond the familiar to find words and figures of speech that conveyed the unique nature of this tragedy and an uncommon/unexpected resolve to see that it is not repeated. But of course, I do know better. And I especially know better than to have expected a speech like Wretchard prepared.

BTW: here’s an in-depth analysis of the opening sentence of Obama’s Inaugural. http://tinyurl.com/yb9tyv2

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:07 pm 12. Leaf:

Wretchard, your speech is man-up magnificent. Obama’s is mush in comparison. Nevertheless, some people are saying it is eloquent, but so what; how can we even begin to believe that it is sincere? It is important to remember when considering Obama the Islamic influences in his life. He does not have to be a practicing Moslem to fall back on taqiyya, religiously sanctioned deliberate dissimulation. Early in his life he learned he can lie with impunity any time it suits his needs, and there is nothing in his cold heartless self to stop it. We can never take what he says at face value or believe that he believes it.

Robert Spencer at JihadWatch discusses taqiyya at length in his Islam 101 section.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:08 pm 13. Josh:

Certainly the context at Gettysburg was different, for one thing it was a victory, however bloody – especially to the defeated.

Of course it *was* a failure by Obama and his entire philosophy, but at the moment, I want a minimum of chest-beating and a maximum of action.

Does Obama have ANY credibility left? None with me, where up to now, I’d at least try to give him the benefit of the doubt, given his lack of experience and leftard leanings and bizarre and incompetent subordinates and …

Sorry if I’m ranting about this rather loosely, I’m really upset by it and a full diatribe wouldn’t even fit in these comments.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:10 pm 14. Pork Rinds for Allah:

Words are a powerful thing…

You wrote “And he used that position to kill the men we are remembering today.”

WRONG (respectfully)

It should read “And he used that position to MURDER the men and WOMEN we are remembering today.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:16 pm 15. AZM:

Wretchard — Interesting sentiment as the if-only speech. Sadly, even the plainspoken tell-it-like-it-is GWB* would not have given a speech like this. So, find him repugnant and/or malicious for all manner of reasons, but cut Obama some slack on his passing on this talk track.

The fact is that when they find themselves in a crisis, people rarely throw away their faith. Rather, they cling to it and seek meaning through it.

Good luck convincing the Obamoids to flush away the twin (n)potions of political correctness and multiculturalism. These are people who hate America, who hate the military, and who hate the idea that not all cultures and nations are equal. In their larger world view, this tragedy is not the necessary result of political correctness but rather the unnecessary result of an insufficiently wide application of the principle.

*Lest folks loose the few marbles that age has left us all with, let me quickly point out that love him as I might, it remains to GWB’s eternal shame to have said nonsense like “**** is the religion of peace” and to have apologized to the Arab street for God-knows-what, and so on, and so on.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:41 pm 16. Moniker:

Wretchard, your speech is indeed far superior to the One’s that I forced myself to listen to yesterday, delivered as it was with much sincere-looking head-swiveling. And wouldn’t you know it, at last, when an apology would have been so appropriate, the Apologizer-in-Chief failed to come through.

Thank you, Veterans, one and all.

Nov 11, 2009 - 7:54 pm 17. Lifeofthemind:

Reposted, forgive me, from my #184 four days ago on the “Physician heal thyself” thread:
What would be appropriate for a POTUS to say without interfering with the trial?
1. He can praise the fallen, their honor and sacrifice and the ideals they died for.
2. He can praise the Constitution, the American system of law and justice that they swore to defend.
3. He can praise the healing nature and essential goodness of our culture as a source of hope for all.
4. He can quote sources of our culture, the Old and New Testaments and Pericles Funeral Oration.
5. He can cite other tough moments when our sense of justice was tested but triumphed.
6. He can assure all that Justice will be done.

The precedent for covering the points I listed is Pericles Funeral Oration, whiskey may feel inspired by the next to last paragraph.

Here is an example of a better man responding to a tragedy.
“We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public.”

On balance while I agree with wretchard in that Justice and Deeds are essential, and missing from Obama’s speech, excepting the line “and see to it that he pays for his crimes,” the problem with the address given was not what was said but the man behind the words. There is no emotional connection between the man and the objects of his performance. He says that service in distant deserts and snowy mountains made us all safer here at home. Everything he has said and done up to this moment demonstrates that he does not believe that and labored to convince the electorate that the service of these people overseas made us more vulnerable to attack from enemies we create by our actions.

This was quoted before, forgive me for not having time to credit the BC commentator.
From John Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Olivia Dandridge: [after the massacre at Sudrow's Wells] You don’t have to say it, Captain. I know all this is because of me; because I wanted to see the West; because I wasn’t – I wasn’t “Army” enough to stay the winter.
Captain Brittles: You’re not quite “Army” yet, miss… or you’d know never to apologize… it’s a sign of weakness.
Olivia Dandridge: Yes, but this was your last patrol and I’m to blame for it.
Captain Nathan Brittles: Only the man who commands can be blamed. It rests on me… mission failure!

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:06 pm 18. Tony:

Let’s not gnash and groan, let’s focus on something.

Digital Goes Viral
Aviation Week, 11/9, 2009

Here’s a subject right in Belmont Club’s wheelhouse – meta-understanding and the problems thereof. Not only is our President, Commander-in-Chief overwhelmed with data, so are our war-fighters according to Aviation Leak…

… Afghanistan is being hit with a “bow wave” of technology involving advanced weapons, communications, sensors, and both manned and unmanned intelligence-gathering aircraft that must be integrated.

What if we were to remove unintended complications ( “bow wave” of technology ) and go back to the A-teams of November and December 2001 in Afghanistan, each with their own B-1’s and B-52’s drawing lazy smoke rings in the sky?

That would be re-writing another President’s bold history…

The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American-led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.

President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/01, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:08 pm 19. Konyok:

Obama gave a Dubya speech, delivered more competently.
(The Mussolini raised chin was a bit cute … )
He played it very safe and managed to get through that tough moment. Really the only bit of himself that came across to me was the use of “incomprehensible.”

Wretchard’s truth telling alternative is utopian. Obama might have taken that tack earlier this year – placing the full blame on Bush for the weakness and fear in the upper ranks. He owns it now and ain’t gonna give the suckers a break.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:13 pm 20. jWarrior:

Re: 9. bogie wheel – yes the primary job of any government is to protect its citizens. But no one – no one – lost his job after 9/11.
The federal sniper at Ruby Ridge lost his job (temporarily), but GWB gave George Tenet the Medal of Freedom instead of the sack. Actions have consequences.

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:15 pm 21. Josh:

What would be appropriate for a POTUS to say without interfering with the trial?

Well, bite me. POTUS can declare clemency, doesn’t he have symmetrical rights to summary justice? Grrrr.

(yes I can see the immediate problem with that … but still, perhaps you also see my point)

Nov 11, 2009 - 8:22 pm 22. cfbleachers:

We are not gathered together at this place to discuss cause and causation. For there is no just cause that allows the wholesale slaughter of our countrymen, at any time, for any reason. And all the empty rhetoric about causation of mass murder, is an irrelevance and a distraction from today’s mission.

We are not gathered here at this place to discuss justice or justification. There is never justification for the premeditated attack on innocents, unarmed and not engaged in battle. The wheels of justice will not roll past the gravity of this heinous offense, in order to leave skid marks on the landscape of common sense and dignity.

We are gathered at this place to honor what we hold most dear. Unity of purpose, unity of motive, unity of intent and unity of pride. We are the UNITED States of America and we will not be bowed by atrocity or attrition of that unity.

The innocents who were murdered by an enemy within our gates will not be brushed aside so easily this time, so cavalierly hurled upon the pyre of victims forgotten in the rush to absolve judgment.

We do judge today. We judge ourselves and find ourselves wanting. The plot outlining this atrocity was avoidable, preventable, discoverable and it was missed. There shall be no next time. We must get it right this time.

We judge our enemy and we find them wanting. We seek peace in all corners of the globe, from all residents on our shared planet. Yet, when our enemies reject the notion of peace, and replace it with blind hatred, their empty pleas for understanding of their cause and causation should fall on deaf ears.

We failed this time, to identify and isolate a mass murderer in our midst. We will not fail again. And we are united in our defense of every single countryman, no matter whether civilian or soldier. We won’t leave anyone behind. Not this time. Not ever again.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:11 pm 23. Pat Patterson:

I don’t really see this speech supplanting the Gettsyburg Address or Shakespeare’s St Crispin’s Day speech. The absolute best speech at a war memorial was given by Pericles who managed to lay out what made Athens different than its enemies, honored those citizens who had died for their fellow citizens, called for Athenians to continue the war and even promised to care for the orphans and widows. Pres Obama missed his opportunity to speak to and for the nation and simply delivered a speech that was technically proficient but as hollow as a termite infested log.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:12 pm 24. Batman:

Intellectual dishonesty, sophistry, deceptive rhetoric delivered without sincerity. That is what we heard. We have heard it from the commentariat and we have heard it from the President.

To use the left’s tools and deconstruct the speech I will point out just a few areas. When the President referred to the mission of America as creating a more perfect union was he speaking in the Constitutional sense of establishing a balanced way for power to be both contained and exercised or was he pointing to his programs for utopia?

When he said this generation was equal to all before it and that we need not look to the past for greatness, was he issuing a rallying cry for us to step up or was he discouraging us from examining our past and our roots? Surely no one would argue that this generation is equal to the generation of the Founding Fathers. But if we stop looking to Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams and the other Founders, or to Lincoln who saved the nation from secession and from the stain of its slave holding past, then we will truly have nothing to compare ourselves with except the reflections we see in our narcissistic mirrors.

Pace Marc Ambinder, but to have ranked this speech as one of the greatest in American history is beyond my comprehension. This was not a GWB speech delivered better. It was a formulaic stiff compilation of cliche delivered mechanically. I’d prefer a Truman or a GW Bush stammering twang to this robotic rhetoric.

Yes, Wretchard’s speech is more direct and honest. But President Hypothetical simply cannot take responsibility for real action. Yes, apologies for American history flow fluently from his lips and tongue but you will not find narry a single substantive self-accounting from him and about him.

My brief alternate speech would include the following. (Please forgive me if this is too presumptuous.)

“We are gathered in mourning during a week of events that recall triumphs and despair. Monday was the anniversary of Krystalnacht, an event that marked the public manifestation of what we would come to know as Nazi cruelty and destruction, but that the free world chose not to attend to until it was nearly too late. Monday also marked the anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall, which demonstrated what a concerted effort on the part of the free world could do — namely stay the course for decades until Communism was defeated.

This day, Tuesday November 10, is the anniversary of the creation of the United States Marine Corps and that is a cause for pride and celebration. But it is also the day we bury the dead from the tragic events that unfolded recently here at Ft. Hood.

Those who died, 13 soldiers and the unborn child of one of them, were casualties. We do not know all the facts of the case, but the murder of fellow soldiers by an Army officer is a heinous act. As Commander-in-Chief I pledge that he will be brought to trial and receive punishment for these acts. And I further pledge that if there are any systemic flaws in the process of assuring the safety and security of our troops, we will search them out and correct them immediately. All of you volunteered for this Army in the service of our great nation. My responsibility is to serve you by doing everything in my power to make your missions successful and to assure your well being here at home.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Eighty years ago that day marked the Armistice that halted World War I. For many reasons that armistice did not hold and twenty short years later World War II broke out. Since the end of World War II we have had 64 years without another world war. But smaller conflicts have nevertheless cost the lives of many American soldiers and others defending our civilization.

Today the threats that face us are more diffuse. But whatever we have to face, today, tomorrow, and in the future, will be borne by soldiers like yourselves. As you protect us abroad, I pledge that we shall protect you here at home from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:12 pm 25. Pat Patterson:

Shoot, forgot the link.

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/GREECE/PERICLES.HTM

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:14 pm 26. Papa Ray:

Yep, words, just words.

And I have heard a lot of them over the last couple of days and let me tell you they are nail biting, venom spitting angry words.

I live in a tight knit community here in Texas and we speak our minds. The community is angry beyond description.

I had just returned from San Antonio where the family watched my middle grandson graduate from Air Force Basic. When I heard this I knew what the reaction from him and his fellow Airmen would be. I was right, he called later that night and I advised him to settle down and continue his new journey. I told him he would have ample opportunity for legitimate means to destroy those that would harm us.

But here at home, we have no opportunity, no release for our anger. Yet…

But the time will come, if not by vote then by other means.

Papa Ray

The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
2009 Judge Alex Kozinski

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:19 pm 27. buddy larsen:

It was a speech about a speech. It was a demonstration of itself. Up to a certain level of insincerity, the speaker’s identity is only the first message, with the words being indexed to that identity. But deep enough into artifice and the speaker’s identity is the whole message, with the words the props in the performance.

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:52 pm 28. Lifeofthemind:

Pat Patterson,
Agreed. Points up at #17.

Batman,
Excellent, to be pedantic, do you mean 90 years?

cfbleachers,
Fold your paragraphs 4-7 in with Batman’s text and add a Periclean affirmation of what we are fighting for with our genial host’s acceptance of command responsibility and we have a speech.

Can we do this for a living?

Nov 11, 2009 - 9:54 pm 29. Batman:

LOTM @28 Thanks for the correction.

Nov 11, 2009 - 10:33 pm 30. Carol Herman:

NPR probably just nailed its Pulitzer! It has an inside track to Walter Reed, even though the military tried to clamp down on everybody. And, told all the service people to shut up. And, not even talk to the FBI!

Out the barn door the information flew!

Can you imagine, the brass thought it was okay to promote Hasan to Major? With his six year work record? And, you don’t see how this one is gonna clamp down on top of General Casey’s head? Diversity, indeed. Not.

The left is gonna run rings around everyone else! You think only Armitage owned a Rolodex, and Bob Novak is dead? There’s no excuse to send a crazy major in. Let alone it was feared if he was sent to Afghanistan, he’d give secret information to Al-Kay-duh. Yes, he would, too.

Dumbest thing ever done by our military was to promote Hasan. Maybe, even stepping backwards a minute, to ‘make him a psychiatrist.’ How’d he get there? Is this a saudi trick? They just call up their contacts, and miracles take place? Maybe, what’s wrong with our military is that there’s nobody ‘home’ up there, among the shiny brass stars?

I have no idea how our soldiers are going to cope.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:07 pm 31. EDS:

The More You Know: Hasan Edition

Hasan is a proud member of the NRA and a staunch defender of 2nd Amendment rights.

When guns get outlawed, only Hasan will have guns. He’s OK with that.

Nov 11, 2009 - 11:12 pm 32. ADE:

W

Great speech!

It gets to the core of the issue, maps out the program, and motivates to achieve it.

If I could be so bold as to decode your frame, it is effects have causes – there is a logic to all of this.

To the left, things just happen, essentially the hunter-gatherer frame – take but never bother aboout where it all came from.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:23 am 33. Walt:

President Obama’s address to the Council on American Islamic Relations regarding the unfortunate events at Fort Hood. Translation from the Arabic by Google, video by YouTube.

My fellow Americans
He said with a frown
A tragedy occurred
But don’t let us get down
With spirits uplifted
We’ll march as before
United as people
Together once more
But before I begin
There are things I must say
About the fine man
We here honor today
A man filled with peace
Who was pushed to the brink
By the actions of those
Who would not stop to think
How oppressive we are
How oppressive we’ve been
How afflicted we are
With original sin
It’s clearly our fault
That this fine man just snapped
And in reddest rage
Fellow soldiers he zapped
He’s shown us the worst
That our country can be
He’s shown us the best
Of a country that’s free
We honor a man
Who put Islam above
A country he honored
With undying love
In closing I’ll say
We condone not his act
But justified fully
And that is a fact

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:27 am 34. marymcl:

wretchard, bless your heart, it’s wonderful to see someone saying what needs to be said, even if we’re all living in a fantasy world to expect anything like it from the current administration.

I see a “narrative” developing in the MSM that acknowledges Hasan’s terrorism in a backhanded way but diverts attention from it at the same time. It’s the Army’s fault. They didn’t recognize that Hasan was a loose cannon. There will be umpteen articles to come about the stress of military service, the uncertainty of the mission, Hasan’s inner tensions blah blah blah.

The emptiness of Obama’s speech is no surprise, and neither is the fact that Ambinder’s response to it is what passes for deep thought these days. Likewise for Chris Matthews’s oh-so-anguished and empty-headed threnody referenced on a previous thread. Even Taranto in the WSJ is describing those who cite Islam as a big part of Hasan’s motivation as “bigots and fanatics” – I guess that means most of us here at BC, huh?

I’m reminded of the words of Pierre Mendes-France in the documentary “The Sorrow and the Pity” describing the situation in occupied France ~ “Suddenly there was treason everywhere”

Treason. Interesting, isn’t it, how all the powers of the government and mass media are marshalling to divert the nation from recognizing that fact. Some are truly corrupt, some are just unwilling to countenance the possibility that things could be that bad. We need to hold fast and push back and not be deterred.

Treason. It is what it is.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:29 am 35. Walt:

Tony/18

You made Instapundit. Congrats.

Walt Erickson

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:54 am 36. ADE:

Surely they next gestum is a class action by the relatives of the murdered against the military for failing to take action on a clear and present danger of premeditated treasonous murder?

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:57 am 37. Subotai Bahadur:

Wo3 de5 ma1 he2 ta1 de5 feng1kuang2 de5 wai4sheng5 dou1 !

And that is the only Chinese expletive I can come up with that would be permissible in Wretchard’s House. My initial response was far less acceptable in polite company. But more accurate.

I realize that the ATLANTIC is part of the government controlled media, and that everything about the Lightworker, up to and including bodily functions, has to be described in terms of heralding the bleeding Millenium; but one would think that someone who has written there for so long, or at least an editor, would realize that they are becoming a parody of themselves.

The closest thing that Ambinder’s piece reminds me of would be a review of the collected speeches of J. V. Stalin written by a member of the Young Pioneers in a 1930’s edition of Pionerskaya Pravda.

By next year, they will be referring to him as Dear Leader.

Subotai Bahadur

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:03 am 38. Fletcher Christian:

Let’s see. Hassan is unquestionably guilty of 13 counts of murder and many more (sorry but I forget the figure) counts of attempted murder. It is very arguable that he is guilty of treason. He is also guilty, although it doesn’t matter much, of various offenses of bringing into disrepute, failing to follow lawful orders (the order not to bring weapons into the base) and assorted firearms offenses.

There is a way that that the superior officers of the victims can send a clear message, I think. List the dead as KIA and the wounded as MIA, and give all the wounded Purple Hearts. I am not sure, but I doubt any of that needs Presidential approval.

They deserve that anyway, but such a decision would do several things. It would signal that the military consider Hassan’s act an act of war, and it would also bring into play one of the articles of the Geneva Convention – the one about enemy belligerents out of uniform.

When this scumbag is executed, never mind the firing squad, lethal injection or a long-drop hanging. The old-fashioned “kick the chair away” hanging method would suit. Preferably with a pigskin rope.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:43 am 39. ADE:

So Fletcher Christian @ 38 has gestum duo.

Love it.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:57 am 40. Fred2:

I watched the MSNBC video of Obama’s speech and it was very appropriate and well done. Perhaps his best. The sort of confession and correction Wretchard has outlined is probably better done in private in orders to his subordinates. A manager can’t insult (publicly) an entire chain of command under him; He can redirect them, but insulting them is counter-productive.

As a mourning and memorial speech, Obama did just fine.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:05 am 41. twobyfour:

Subotai, it would be only temporary. There may be somewhere online a list of headlines of the Parisian press from time when Napoleon left Elba to reestablish his rule. It went from “Hydra” at the time of his Elba departure, to outright adulatory forms at the time of his arrival to Paris.

This time, at some point, it would be the reverse, when even the dimmest media lightbulb will realize that though the emperor has clothes, that is all there is.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:06 am 42. blogstrop:

Thanks Richard. Amen to that.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:15 am 43. vb:

34 marymcl: Daniel Henninger at WSJ talks about your “it’s the army’s fault” narrative.(There is also a video.) He looks at the political discussion since 9/11 and how it has affected those charged with protecting us. He specifically mentions the effect of Obama’s CIA waterboarding investigations. He doesn’t mention Pelosi’s “the CIA lied to us” weaseling, although it certainly fits in the discussion. The buck truly stops with our political class, who are more concerned with a Code Pink protest than with defeating our enemies.

One more thing: when people criticize Bush for saying that Islam is a religion of peace, they should also remember that he said, “You are with us or you are with the terrorists.” This provoked outrage among the bien pensant of Europe, but it did get us a supply line through Pakistan. Bush always had to walk a fine line in his speeches, but he didn’t slip in the direction of the know-it-all pundits.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:44 am 44. Pajamas Media » What President Obama Should Have Said at Fort Hood:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:45 am 45. Pat Patterson:

Lifeofthemind-I missed your earlier comment and am glad that someone else noticed that an opportunity by Pres Obama to make the kind of speech that’s content inspires not merely giving an address that sounds as if describing the accidental deaths of a busload of tourists somewhere in the world. Oh, woe is us.!

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:15 am 46. Salt Lick:

I must reluctantly say it’s time to start the Hitler analogies. Crafting speeches to appeal to his audience’s deepest emotional needs was Hitler’s forte; likewise, this is Obama’s “gift” applied to America’s intellectual class.

Ambinder, Christopher Buckley, David Brooks, Katherine Parker, and scores of others — remember wretchard’s post about Camille Paglia’s disappointed love? — hear not mystic chords of memory in Obama’s speeches (they’ve long since discarded the shackles of natural law), but instead glory in the sound track of the New Creation being birthed by their masterful intellects. Yes, Obama brings the same gift as Hitler. And it’s wrapped in Pandora’s box.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:32 am 47. Lifeofthemind:

Blogged under the title “Hands Across the Water.”

Subotai Bahadur,
The Atlantic is merely competing for the title of American Grauniad.
It is part of the Europeanization, really Lancastration, of America.
Next I predict Comprehensive Schools and a Trade Unions Council.

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:40 am 48. ADE:

Focus, gentlemen (Mary’s alright).

We’re playing for big stakes. If W’s post goes viral, we might well be facing the end of Dear Leader as the gravity of his incompetence sinks in.

In the thread, Fred 2 is the only contra comment. We need contra comments, not in the interest of diversity (which just killed 13 people), but in the interest of correct logic.

I’ll have a go at fisking Fred2 @ 40.

The sort of confession and correction Wretchard has outlined is… Here, Fred2 admits that a confession/correction is needed.

… is probably better done in private in orders to his subordinates. Well, here’s the Dear Leader syndrome, with the assumption that the Dear Leader is responsible, but that we should assist him to save face. The system is everything.

He can redirect them [the managerial class], but insulting them is counter-productive. And here we all were, thinking Dear Leader was the CiC.

As a mourning and memorial speech, Obama did just fine. Oh dear, I feel Fred2 damns with faint praise. For what has just happend, he should be calling to arms.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:13 am 49. bartok:

The woman police officer who tookr the murderer/terrorist down was also insuficiently praised as the hero inspirational she actually is. She may have literally saved dozens of lives and deserves the highest honours and/or medals.

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:23 am 50. gracie:

complain, complain, complain.
Be happy Obama didn’t just give the grieving families and public a “shout out”..

Obama doesn’t write his speeches, he merely reads them. Pray tell where is the talent in that?
oh.. the up tilting of the chin..I forgot..

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:01 am 51. Marie Claude:

Marymcl,

that’s funny that you quoted Mendes-France, I saw yesterday night a TV program on Munich agreement ant the feelings of Daladier that said about the mobs that acclaimed him at the Bourget airport “ah les cons, if they knew !” and also a discourse of a communist(of this period) saying at the Deputees assembly, that the socialists were treators in soul, and of course that they can never remain on one line, but jump on opportunistic agendas ; this was also enlightened by a portrait of Eric Besson the nowadays socialo defector, I wonder if he wouldn’t have opted for Petain government in other times ! Though I could agree with him, if he’ll manage that “patriotism” can touch french mobs again !

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:17 am 52. deguello:

This is what he really should have said:”I resign,I’ve neutered our intelligence agencies,and as a result 14 people are dead;I’m sorry!”of course he won’t;he cares about our servicemen about as much as Stalin cared for Kulaks!

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:24 am 53. anonymous:

14. Pork Rinds for Allah:

Hey, guys, how about “Pork Rinds for the Jews” or “Abortions for the Catholics”? Will that get by your moderating, too?

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:55 am 54. programmer:

Buddy@27

Most of the time you write in the voice of a “good ol’ boy”. Every once in a while, the facade slips and the cool, polished, intellectual shines through.

I played poker with a couple guys like that in Viet Nam. I learned a lot. As most good educations are, it was expensive.

By the way, no offense meant in referring to you as intellectual. It is like a lot of words anymore, the connotations override the denotation and thus, has become cheapened. My favorite definition of intellectual is “a person who uses the mind creatively”.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:02 am 55. seanmahair:

Well, yes that is what the president should have said. But then again the president should have integrity, sacred honor, compassion for those who serve the cause of liberty, a belief in a higher authority, pride in his nation and last but not least a hatred of his nations enemies.

Since he has none of the above he is hard pressed to say or do the correct things. Guided by his own hubris, self conceit and humanist philosophy he will most likely say and do the wrong things, as he has so done. He has a real genius for doing that which will do the most damage to those who are under his thumb, as do most despots. An all encompassing faith in their own superiority is the main ingredient.

All hail, or would that be heil the “one”. The messiah of the faithless.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:02 am 56. Hangtown Bob:

The “O” contines to vote “present” but he does it with such fine eloquence.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:10 am 57. dan:

In my darker fantasies, I wonder whether Obama’s obvious emotional disconnection from the Ft. Hood massacre (he even uses his own campaign cliche formulations in what should be a very private speech) is because he knows that, as Bezmenov might put it, “the sleepers are waking up.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZHRgTskEhE

The more I hear about Hasan the more I believe he was a sleeper who was activated. CIA is reluctant to share, therefore. No family, little psychiatry, much proselytizing, paranoid and irrascible, extremely lazy – sounds, in fact, a lot like accounts of Nosenko.

In any case, perhaps the sleepers are beginning to awake, in order to (1) terrorize, for the purpose of (2) further debauching the public discourse (PTSD!?) and (3) discovering whether the You Know Who can put even so obvious an evil as this to use, too.

Of course, could just be a loner… who has Rolodex info on Yemeni terrorists (hm… People’s Republic of Yemen or Islamic Emirate of Yemen? does it matter?). But right – maybe it was just “for research.”

And maybe those three idiots picked up by IRG on the NW border of Iraq and Iran really were just, um, “hiking,” because, you know, it is so picaresque there. Lol – so much activity things are getting sloppy!

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:10 am 58. Papa Ray:

Here is Pamela’s take on all this…

A snippet:

“We are witnessing an Islamized America. This is well beyond political correctness. We are enforcing Shariah law. We will not insult Islam. That is Shariah law. We self censor. That is Shariah law. We disrespect ourselves, our nation, so that we might respect Islam. This is dhimmitude. We should be raging. We should be outraged. We should be strategizing for this worldwide conflict. We should be debating about which leader will best handle Islam’s war on the West. And yet we have not one leader who begins to understand the conflict — that’s how feared the subject matter is. Not one leader.”
________________

The sense of betrayal is spreading among our Military. I have over two dozen emails from current Military service members expressing their dismay and sense of betrayal of their leaders and their government. One reads: “We are taught to look up to our Officers, to believe them, to look to them for not only guidance but for their wisdom. For an Officer in the Military and on top of that a Doctor…to kill our brothers and sisters in the service of this Nation is almost more than we can bear. And to top it off, that others in the Military and the civilian intelligence services to know of this killers thoughts and beliefs before he acted is unbelievable…except that it is exactly what happened.”

Islam is loose on the world and doing very well in America.

Papa Ray

The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
2009 Judge Alex Kozinski

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:13 am 59. dan:

BL/27 – Yes. and it is becoming curiouser & curiouser that such a man, who appears to have arrived at his telos & will not evolve, should become & be President of the United States of America, Anno Domini 2009.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:13 am 60. Booker T. Gain:

Excellent. The contrast between the intelligence of Richard Fernandez and the stupidity of Marc Ambinder could not be greater.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:18 am 61. Pork Rinds for Allah:

53. anonymous:
14. Pork Rinds for Allah:

Hey, guys, how about “Pork Rinds for the Jews” or “Abortions for the Catholics”? Will that get by your moderating, too?

Nov 12, 2009 – 6:55 am

My name “Pork Rinds for Allah” is an act of humiliation to Islam, a faith whose people call Jews “pigs and apes”, whose so called holy books call for the murder of Jews (even if hiding behind a tree)…

Traditional ways of “fighting”islam are not effective since moslems welcome death (with the reward of 72 raisins or virgins) so rather than offer violence against islam, I offer humiliation…

Ridicule and mocking are my weapons…

Drawing cartoons…

Stupid name calling…

Pointing and giggling at burka clad women (or men who knows what’s underneath)

All around juvenile behavior towards a faith that murders tens of thousands of it’s own and scores of others on a yearly basis.

Now, I have heard of a group called “Cuckolds for Obama” perhaps that is the group to which “53. anonymous” subscribes…

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:20 am 62. Charlie (Colorado):

How about if he said nothing? Just shut up for God’s sakes.

Oh, and 53? PJM doesn’t moderate except in the really most egregious cases. Sadly, not even idiots.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:26 am 63. ledger:

I agree with Wretchard’s version of the speech. Wretchard’s version was responsible, honorable and truthful. Obama’s speech was the opposite.

The quicker Obama is out of Office the better. To paraphrase Wretchard: “…our nation did not ourselves have the fortitude to expel Obama from the White House who by rights should shave been gone because we feared criticism” (or being call a racist)

Where are all the good lawyers and investigative reporters that should have exposed Obama long ago and drummed him out of Office?

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:35 am 64. Pork Rinds for Allah:

Did Charlie just call me an idiot?

Well I’ve been called far worse……..

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:36 am 65. ADE:

Papa Ray @ 58.

The sense of betrayal is spreading among our Military.

Well of course it is. There is a limit to which intelligent people will support a clown.

Listen to the cliches, the faux concern, the chin (thanks Gracie).

The disappearing man. And yet I don’t care about him.

Where is the West? Marathon, Tours, Lepanto, Cambridge. He’s never mentioned them. So he’s never mentioned me.

Stuff him.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:37 am 66. Booker T. Gain:

One more thing – the meme is starting to spread that the victims at Fort Hood were victims of political correctness.

Not Islam as such, not even jihad, nor any kind of random violence, there being too much evidence this was anything but random.

The victims were gunned down by an Islamic terrorist who was enabled by the media- generated political correctness which has infected all institutions of American society, including the military.

I blame Chris Matthews and Barack Obama as two people who represent what is wrong with America. Matthews and Obama – a purveyor and the chief beneficiary of political correctness.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:42 am 67. Fred Beloit:

#53 Anonymoses
“14. Pork Rinds for Allah:
Hey, guys, how about “Pork Rinds for the Jews” or “Abortions for the Catholics”? Will that get by your moderating, too?
Nov 12, 2009 – 6:55 am

Was somebody mumbling something about political correctness?

The people that think like Anonymoses who are in charge of our armed forces created the situation that makes simple personnel decisions, like kicking an officer out of the Army for siding with the enemy and trying to refuse to accept a lawful assignment, require the heroics of an Audie Murphy instead of just plain doing ones duty.

http://www.audiemurphy.com/

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:56 am 68. cfbleachers:

wretchard, a thought exercise that came to me was based upon two of your recent threads…for which you deserve all the credit as the inspiration.

We seem to be at a moment in time whereby we pick a side as a nation to be fully Nietzsche, half-Nietzsche, or non-Nietzsche.

First, you had us walk through the exercise on religion, here you have us on the path of facing facts and being accountable.

But Nietzsche left behind his dark corners, a madman who was ignored until his fistfight with God left him TKO’d, whereupon he became a model for the unborn again left.

His madness became their madness. His anti-religion became their religion. His belief system, that there are no facts…became their motto. His creed that there is no truth, became their raison d’etre.

His attack on Christianity became their crusade.

When you listen to the Little Nietzsche post-modern groupies today, the explanation for their inability to accept facts as facts becomes much clearer. And the need to be “my own God” crystallizes.

Perspectivism is a coward’s way of avoiding hard facts. The Little Nietzsche groupies simply observe the facts and then present “I am my own God” narrative to fit their bias.

The thought exercise is combining the truth, facts, accountability creation of a speech…while identifying each Nietzsche fallacy that needs to be spotlighted.

The destruction of American Perspectivism ought to be our first order of business. Everyone is NOT entitled to their own facts…and truth should not be a puree of leftist filtered opinions…as a source of our “news”.

If leftists wish to continue to fistfight with God, that’s their prerogative. Nietzsche left them all his dark corners from which to mount the attack.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:05 am 69. always right:

Wretchard,

Please don’t take it amiss, but even if Obama had used your speech, he would still get zero credit from me. Because it had been shown time and again, speeches do not come from his heart, the words are not his true being, by comparing to his other animated true belief on his campaign trail.

The ‘shout-out speech’ showed us The Man, which btw frightened the b-juices out of me. The 8th mtg with his national security team and subsequent rejections of ALL options on the table showed us The CinC.

At this point, all Obama and his team want to do is to get rid of the hot potato (i.e., Afghanistan/Pakistan situation, and Overseas Contingency Operation) onto somebody else ASAP.

What Obama does not and has not realized is that Afghanistan is tied to his name forever, just as Iraq is to GWB. The president can not dodge his duty and say whatever the outcome somebody else OWNs it.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:15 am 70. EnemyoftheState:

Not possible. Only a true Leader of Men, a Leader who Loves and Respects his Soldiers, could give a speech like that.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:15 am 71. pedrosito:

Actually I don’t find his rhetoric that soaring, in fact I believe it’s quite annoying.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:18 am 72. ADE:

cfbleachers @ 69

Er, bleach, there are some monumental wasters in life. Of them all, there is Nietzsche. He commited suicide, didn’t he?

And not quite Socrates in that.

bleachers, we are talking on this thread about the incompetence of the leader of the mightiest military machine on the planet, and the extent to which the military might not continue to support him because of his support for treason.

A non-entity like Nietzsche isn’t in the game.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:21 am 73. Bohemond:

“and determined to act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad.”

“…and collectively.” Does that creep you out as much as it does me?

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:29 am 74. Pork Rinds for Allah:

It’s off topic but important…

What about Iran and North Korea?

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:41 am 75. Fred Beloit:

#75 “What about Iran and North Korea?”

The President votes PRESENT.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:43 am 76. cfbleachers:

ADE

I agree that Nietzsche was a waste, but perspectivism is rampant in our current state of affairs.

The reason behind the moral relativism and the lack of support for our military, I believe lies in the adoption of this vacuous notion that facts and truth do not exist.

Reflexive denial and blameshifting are now “accepted” as normal behaviors. If we don’t confront those items head on…we are fighting half a battle, in my opinion.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:49 am 77. EDS:

“58. Papa Ray:
The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
2009 Judge Alex Kozinski”

Yeah, Hasan sure loves that 2nd Amendment.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:52 am 78. trangbang68:

Pork Rinds, Mock on Bro, I’m with you. A religion so offensive to civilized sensibilities, so murderous to the innocent, so glaringly hypocritical ( Hasan and Atta at the strip clubs, Arafat the filthy pedophile), so utterly ludicrous deserves nothing but a Bronx cheer from sane minds.

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:53 am 79. ADE:

bleachers@77

Reflexive denial and blameshifting are now “accepted” as normal behaviors.

Indeed.

That’s what this blog is all about. The refusal to accept that this is normal.

Pork
Good to see you back. There is a perspective. You’re fighting for us all. Don’t quit for a while yet.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 9:40 am 80. anonymous:

79. trangbang68: “Pork Rinds, Mock on Bro, I’m with you. A religion so offensive to civilized sensibilities, so murderous to the innocent, so glaringly hypocritical ( Hasan and Atta at the strip clubs, Arafat the filthy pedophile), so utterly ludicrous deserves nothing but a Bronx cheer from sane minds.”

But PJM a hate-site? Noooooo….

Nov 12, 2009 - 9:55 am 81. Sallie:

NOTHING WRONG WITH

………..”PORK RINDS FOR ALLAH”.

I kinda like it.

Although… it’s not as catchy as the Muslim phrase…

“bullets and suicide bombers for Americans”…

“kill anyone that does not agree with Islam”..

…….those are killer phrases!!

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:02 am 82. Josh:

You guys criticizing Nietzsche, have you ever actually read him? Stay with the earlier books (while he was still sane), and you have a case for individualism against socialism. Just sayin’.

The abuse others may have made of his works is another matter.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:05 am 83. ADE:

Pork

You owe me. Dinner at Al Aksa Mosque is on you. Ok?

Now for the easy wine. Josh @ 83 Anybody who commits suicide is irrelevant.

ADE

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:17 am 84. anton:

81. anonymous: how is that the truth is hate?

Are you suggesting that Hasan ans Atta didn’t go to strip clubs?

Perhaps Arafat didn’t behave badly with little boys?

Maybe Islam expanded at the point of a sword for four centuries because Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians enjoyed being slaughtered for their faith?

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:31 am 85. Sherab Zangpo:

Nice column, but I think that we shouldn’t go around suggesting that this president, who has filled his administration with communists, racists (black supremacists), and jihadists COULD speak like that.
You don’t expect a muslimarxist administration supported by enemies of America and of Freedom like George Soros …to defend Americans.
I don’t anyway.

After eight years, we have been attacked again, and the muslimarxist agenda of the media is now evident because they try to hide what has happened.
The muslimarxist media have elected a muslimarxist administration, the rest is obvious.

Our only hope is that the honest Congressmen will stop this madness.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:35 am 86. geoffb:

“Greatest speech ever”, “Best speech ever”, handed out to Democrat politicians like gold stars to kindergartners. Just as appreciated by the recipient and as meaningful as a measure of the achievement.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:38 am 87. Lifeofthemind:

Didn’t we just go over repel borders (trolls) procedures?
Dime will get you a donut we have a visitor from LGF.

Fred Beloit,
#75 “What about Iran and North Korea?”

The President votes PRESENT.
Permit me to correct that for you.

The pResident votes ABSENT.

Re: Nietzche is peachy. He is like Wagner’s music that Mark Twain pointed out was “better than it sounds.” He wasn’t as crazy as he is described, until he was. On the other hand wannabe Superdoopermenschen like Leopold and Loeb were nuts. Depression is an illness and suicide is a sin and a loss. Don’t blame the writer for the folly of those who follow. He had some merit. Like the understated English Cleric said when asked if the odd smelling egg he was eating was any good, “Parts of it are excellent.”

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:43 am 88. marymcl:

@84 ADE

~ “Anybody who commits suicide is irrelevant.” ~

Not so. Primo Levi, for one. Vincent van Gogh for another. There are many others. Whatever drives an individual to self-annihilation will always be a great mystery. I used to think of it as the ultimate act of selfishness, but on the other hand, it’s just as selfish to condemn another’s pain in blanket fashion. I’ve lost a number of friends to suicide, and while each case left me holding equal portions of anger and grief, their deaths don’t negate the value of their lives. The sad truth is life can and does give some people more than they can bear. There but for the grace of God….

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:44 am 89. EDS:

“83. Josh:
You guys criticizing Nietzsche, have you ever actually read him? Stay with the earlier books (while he was still sane), and you have a case for individualism against socialism. Just sayin’.

The abuse others may have made of his works is another matter.”

Heh, so Pajamasmedia is the abyss?

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:44 am 90. Evanston2:

For Obama to take personal responsibility for something that failed is asking too much. It is beyond his ken.

Even more pathetic is that the speech does not contain a single word, not even a syllable, that talked about prevention. Nothing akin to “I will do my utmost to prevent this in the future.”

Bush set this goal, and succeeded. Obama’s “Yes We Can” switch seems to be “off” these days…

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:55 am 91. Josh:

> Heh, so Pajamasmedia is the abyss?

Res ipsa loquitur.

We all add the positives that we can, and live with the results.

Nov 12, 2009 - 11:10 am 92. Mike:

Obama is a Muslim.

Why would he say in the aftermath of this terrorist attack what you wrote?

He wouldn’t

Nov 12, 2009 - 11:16 am 93. Darren:

Again — when you find yourself head-to-head with a three-card monte operator, don’t listen to what he says, watch his actions.

So far, the actions are…nothing. I predict that a few months from now, fingers will have been pointed but the sum of the policy changes will be…nothing. General Casey, bless his heart, apparently puts ‘diversity’ above force protection. I believe this is a ranking of value shared by the White House.

The White House will never frame this as anything other than a criminal act, because they consider the appropriate response to terrorism to be use of the civilian law enforcement agencies rather than the military. Even if they do find it to be a terrorist act, in their formulation the end result is the same as if it was a criminal act: this is a law enforcement problem, not a military one. Maybe they will beef up manpower in the JAG and military CID corps, but still, law enforcement is the answer.

I would imagine the Walter Reed psychiatry residency will be getting a new program director soon, and the PTSD/Stress fellowship program will be revamped with major personnel changes. The military will continue to be unarmed on their own bases, and there won’t be enough MPs or civilian armed police to make somebody like Hasan think twice about undertaking a similar assault. Only when there is a second assault of a similar nature will there be impetus for change, I have to hope that even this current administration would understand that there is a problem once there is what amounts to a third attack from within the military (counting the fragging in Kuwait as the first). Unfortunately I also believe the proposed solution will be increased diversity training for all troops to reduce the stress on Islamists serving in the United States military. Maybe if they don’t get angry they won’t shoot anybody, right?

Nov 12, 2009 - 11:17 am 94. peepers:

Somewhere in my memory bank I remember many people pre election talking about how unqualified, Obama was to be commander in chief. No executive or military experience. A hateful distrust of the U.S. military. A promise to neuter them. An end to the “peace in strength” belief of Ronald Reagen and most of the American people. But, like JFK, use to say, there’s always somebody out there that doesn’t get the word.

So what is there now to salvage. Not much. After the first terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, our President Obama doesn’t even have a clue to its reality or importance. Disrespecting the dead, disrespecting the solemnity of the moment, just before the main speech he does shout outs to the audience. He talks about native Americans. Then in the same sentence transitions into a, by the way, we’ve got the blood of 13 dead Americans on our hands.

Actually, though, as you know, he took no responsibility, turning a big deaf ear to the Truman Doctrine that the buck stops here (with the President). He said, “now don’t rush to judgment about this Major Husan. Then Obama proceeds to rush to judgment calling him crazy, psychologically nuts, while making sure not to say what everybody knows. The guy was a terrorist. God is good was what he yelled before inserting bullets into the bodies of some fifty people. I wonder if Malmedy would have gotten Obama’s attention.

Sure, I could agree Hitler and Lenin were crazy, but that begs the question. What was the basis of their actions.

Obama needs to take “truth in labeling 101″, a marketing course, because his insulting speech at Ft. Hood surely didn’t sell in Peoria.

Of course, Obama is lacking in many respects. He’s a power grabbing, greedy little man with a huge ego and a destroy America as we knew it agenda.

He’s a Neo-Com (new kind of Communist) redistribute the wealth fanatic.

A fighter for Socialized Medicine.

By insisting on going into conference with the House PelosiCare bill and putting a thousand tons of sick-socialist medcrap in a five pound bag, Senate Democrats have decided to go down with the ship. Passage of socialized medicine, as difficult as it will be for future Republicans to undo, will, in the end, prove to be Obama’s and cohorts’s undoing.

My sources do tell me the revised bill will get the 50 votes needed for passage. Which means the 500 billion medicare cut, the public option, the eight hundred billion in front-loaded taxes on medical treatments and devices as well as the end of private, company provided insurance will become law.

The fact that Obama promised that people could keep their company offered present medical insurance, if they wanted to, is itself a load of Neo-Com crap. Which provoked that Wilson guy during the Telebama speech to shout, “You lie.” Let’s face it, Obama and his merry men, and I count Pelosi in that number, have raised the lie to an art form.

On the foreign side of the political table, Obama continues to make Afghanistan the Wake Island of the 21st century.

The 40 thousand in reinforcements that Gen. McChrystle has asked for are already nearly three months late arriving. President Obama is incapable of making a correct military decision. (Remember how he announced Iraq’s surge was a failure when all it did was win the war? When he went to Ft. Hood yesterday, somebody should have taken him aside and pinned his ears back with a heavy dose of reality.

Of course, Obama’s inaction simply reinforces my certainty that Obama is the first American Neo-Com (and, I hope only) to be elected President of these United States.

Incidentally, Neo-Com is a new term that means “new kind of Communist.” Essentially, their most obnoxious trait is a demonstrated ability to talk nice to your face, then pull the Brutus move, and stab you in the back. In Barack’s case, our entire country now has a six inch combat knife stuck between our shoulder blades.
We’re reeling, but if it doesn’t kill us, it’ll make us hate Communism (both kinds) even more.

It’s also interesting to note how Obama has told us not to rush to judgment about Major Hasan, calling him crazy, (a rush to judgment in itself) while avoiding like the plague the truth that the massacre was actually a case of a radical Islamic freedom-o-phobe terrorist act, carried out by a guy called Hasan.

Obama, in trying to destroy what was the United States, in effect, is subtly in league with Islamic extremists. This symbiotic relationship, a free standing irony, that might turn out to be a fertile field of subtext to plow I’ll leave to some future historian to uncover. For now, I’ll leave it fallow. With Obama temporarily in charge, I’d wage it’s just the first terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 of many. “Where’s Homeland Security? The whole world wants to know.” (Nimitz, 1943, Peepers, 2009)

I can understand Obama becoming the leader of some European nation where his values and ideas truly fit in. But as President of the United States, though I don’t want to rush to judgment, I’d say for Obama to think he’s capable of leading this nation; being our commander in chief, well, here’s a shout out to Obama.

Barack, I think you’re crazy. And if it wasn’t so serious, I’d laugh.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:09 pm 95. Amy T:

Excellent. This should be required reading for the White House and the military.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:15 pm 96. sirius_sir:

I think it might be helpful to forcefully refute the self-professed motivating assumption of the Major Hasans: that we are waging war on and indiscriminately killing Muslims.

Can we say there are good muslims and bad Muslims, or is that beyond the pale?

We fought a war in Iraq that had the beneficial effect of liberating 28 million people (the vast majority Muslim) from a tyrannical ruler. We stayed to make sure that the population wouldn’t be ruled by tyrannical Islamists.

We are fighting now in Afghanistan, in part, so that Muslim girls can attend school and exhibit a modicum of free choice without having acid thrown in their faces.

The rabidly violent prey on the non-violent and are at war not only with us kafirs but most Muslims as well. The Major Hasans are their enemy too. Let’s declare and define common interests, and enlist them.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:19 pm 97. marymcl:

@78 EDS

~ “Yeah, Hasan sure loves that 2nd Amendment.” ~

No. If anything he took advantage of the fact firearms were banned on base.

If soldiers were allowed to keep and bear arms Hasan would’ve been shot as soon as he opened fire and most, if not all, of the casualties would be alive and well today.

(I know, I know…..but that particular cheap shot carries a lot of weight on the road that’s paved with good intentions and shouldn’t go unanswered, if only just once)

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:22 pm 98. Tcobb:

#95 Peepers writes
Let’s face it, Obama and his merry men, and I count Pelosi in that number, have raised the lie to an art form.
The question is, what shall we call this art form? My initial reaction is to call it “Progressive feces finger painting.” To my own warped mind that term seems to fit so well.

I liked your comment–but–it is open to criticism on the grounds that you are praising Obama by such faint damnation.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:46 pm 99. Sam:

Jesus guys, way to be illogical. Have you forgotten that the commander in chief when investigations began into Hasan was Bush? Have you forgotten that the illegal wars that drove Hasan to madness were started by Bush? Have you forgotten the enormous numbers of competent leadership that were driven off by Bush and his advisors? Bush left the US with its greatest threat to national security in the history of America, a seriously gutted military leadership structure. I fail to see how a president who inherited this mess and has been in office mere months is solely to blame for this horrible tragedy.

Not to mention that this blog post and lamentable “speech” is a crass use of other’s tragedy for one’s own political agenda-pushing. Ugh. Absolutely disgusting.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:47 pm 100. RagnarD:

Hilarious! As citizens the MOST egregious assault on Liberty and Freedom was passed through the first of the two houses of the law-making branch of government without a whimper, really. Now the government can put me in jail should I not choose to spend money I don’t have the way that they dictate. It is positively Randian. And who plays Wesley Mouch in this regime? Biden?

Instead, they have us debating how much fly sh-t will fit on the head of a pin. Hasan did what any good Musselman MUST do! He killed the infidel at the behest of his masters. What about the visit he had the night before? For a man who had no visitors? Or so few that one – ONE – caused notice from his neighbors. (And this particular detail seems to have slipped beneath the waves unnoticed.) Who? Hell, profile any Musselman who frequents strip clubs as an imminent Jihadi! There seems to be a pattern there.

The real question is: What dog got wagged with the Ft. Hood jihad attack? Who is pulling what strings and why?

Papa Ray quoted:

The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed – where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.
2009 Judge Alex Kozinski

Putting me in jail for not buying health insurance is a “silence(s) (of) those who protest”. We should be in the streets demanding the immediate impeachment of all those who are involved in The 0bamanation – 0bama, Pelosi, Reid, Emanuel, Holder, Napolitano et al.

The time is passing and “the terrible if’s accumulate”.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:52 pm 101. geoffb:

Have you forgotten that the commander in chief when investigations began into Hasan was Bush?

Been there, done that. T-shirt not included but optional.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:59 pm 102. Sam:

Wow RagnarD, hinting around armed revolution in the US. Because of your HILARIOUSLY mistaken ideas about health reform. So f–king classy.

Nov 12, 2009 - 12:59 pm 103. Dave Surls:

Well, it was the first speech our little boy president ever gave where every other word wasn’t “I”, but that’s because he’s trying to avoid having to take any personal responsibility.

A real man would have stood up and said: no traitor is going to kill American troops and get away with it on my watch, I’m the man in charge, I guarantee it…but, he ain’t a real man.

The speech was a joke…so is our so-called president.

“Today, at Ft. Hood. I guarantee: they’ll be teaching this one in rhetoric classes. It was that good.”

ROTFL

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:04 pm 104. Charles:

14. Pork Rinds for Allah:

Words are a powerful thing…

You wrote “And he used that position to kill the men we are remembering today.”

WRONG (respectfully)

It should read “And he used that position to MURDER the men and WOMEN we are remembering today.
/////
This is correct. Christian bible typically mistranslates the 6th commandment as “thou shalt not kill”. Rather the commandment is “thou shalt not murder.”
Big difference.
Rather like distorting the 7th commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” to mean “thou shalt not have sex.”

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:16 pm 105. Knotacommie:

Dont forget this-In “his” book “Dreams of my father”(the one who left him when he was 2 years old? how would he have known anything about his fathers “dreams”?) the obamascum IS acutally been quoted as saying “in times of crisis, I will side with my brothers in Islam”. Well, he just did side with Islam. And he will do so again and again. Malik Nidal Hasan is an ISLAMIC SUPREMACIST and so is Obamascum. Most of Islam FAVORS an Islamic CALIPHATE OVER THE ENTIRE WORLD. ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM-WE BETTER DEAL WITH IT.

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:29 pm 106. Lifeofthemind:

OT but important.
To be blogged under the title “Purge on All Fronts”

Follow this link from Instapundit.
http://tinyurl.com/yagdtrk
It does look like the Democrats are moving to purge Republicans from the Civil Service by identifying former political appointees who converted to the Civil Service, preventing them from being promoted or transferred, and then once they are isolated and dead in their careers getting them scrubbed out of the system. They intend to identify former staffers going back 5 years. How very Alinskyite. Turnabout will be fair play.

The Republicans should announce that when they regain power all acts done under the Obama regime will be repudiated. That will destroy the market value of any assets corruptly aquiered by partisans of BHO. Specifically the theft of the auto companies will be reversed and anyone who climbed on for the ride with Government Motors will be left holding a bag,

Congress can reset the size of the SCOTUS and pass rules for the Judiciary. If necessary they can play hardball and purge out the Democrats.

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:31 pm 107. Dwight:

Dave S wrote:

“A real man would have stood up and said: no traitor is going to kill American troops and get away with it on my watch, I’m the man in charge, I guarantee it…but, he ain’t a real man.”

A real idiot might talk about guarantees. Do real men think at all before they open their yaps? Do you? Guarantee? Are you a used car salesman?

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:31 pm 108. Dwight:

Think Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon and then talk about guarantees.

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:33 pm 109. paul_unalaska:

‘Less rhetoric’?

Have you read Obama’s autobiography?

His entire campaign, though run well, was solely based on rhetoric. ‘Hope’ & ‘Change’.

The guy’s a showman, only.

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:36 pm 110. Mongoose:

Obama’s Fort Hood speech was not “eloquent” and, for that matter, neither are any of his other speeches, including the Inaugural speech. They are the cultural, moral and political equivalent of treacle and kitsch, gimcrackery and vaudeville.

Sentimentality replaces true sentiment, and a willfully fanciful false reality and history elbows out true history and shared experiences. Profoundly real and obdurate differences are smugly and studiously ignored and in their stead trivial similarities and outright lies are proffered as “social truths”. The dishonorable and the dishonest exploit the natural reserve, shocked silence and good will of the decent and the honorable. Habu has it just right.

Eloquent? Expressive? Nonsense. It is absurd on the face of it. It is all the rapid fire prattle of a con-man “cooling the Mark”.

It is sad that we have sunk so low to think that these displays are anything other than that, but it is infinitely sadder that the elites conspire to paper over this incident at Ft. Hood as something trivial and inconsequential. One hopes that the true voices of our people have only been momentarily suppressed, but if indeed we have been laid so supine by the machinations of the Left all these years that this outrage does not fire our hearts, then there is no hope at all for this Republic. For this is as deep an attack against us, in its way, as 911 or Pearl Harbor. A man who never should have even been a citizen has, as a officer charged with the mental health gunned down those who he was meant to serve. He has been allowed to do this to uphold notions of culture, nations and peoples that are, res ipsa loquitur, baleful and bald-faced lies and absurdities. The dullest eyes of times past would have clearly seen this.

This horrid act, amd the waves of deceit, irresponsibility and rationalization that have followed after it, show most clearly just what is wrong with this nation. No other event of the last few years come even close to it in this. In their responses Obama and the Left have truly shown just what they think of us all, and have exposed the blackness of their heart and the vileness in their minds.

One can understand why the Left finds Obama “eloquent” for he enables the same masking of the truth, the same fragile tap-dance around the true real nature of the world and the immorality and the indecency that corrupts them mind, body and soul. Obama in his dodges, false pieties and humilities, hustles and preening theatrics merely articulate their own internal evasions, posturings and rationalizations. Soul curdled and inhuman Vipers all.

But for the rest of the nation to buy into this hustle is quite frankly beyond belief. Inside myself I cannot truly yet believe it.

Time will tell.

Again, we are at a great crossroad; we are in a moment of great spiritual and moral corruption and peril. Is it permanent? Is the decline and fall inevitable? This answer is written in our actual collective nature and character. We must look into our minds and souls. Are we the people we once were?

Time runs out.

Nov 12, 2009 - 1:56 pm 111. Habu:

O/T permission requested.sir.

At least Governor Perry (TX) has the cajones, huevos, balls, to call out obama. More and larger tea parties and the coup de grace in 2010 when obama’s metaphorical legs are chopped off.

Bravo, Gov Perry

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:03 pm 112. Jeffrey:

Here what the President should have said.

-I apologize to you today for the policies of previous administrations, policies of appeasement and “can’t we just get along” which I see as responsible for this and other terrible terrorist attacks. I stand here today, mourning with you over the murder of our citizens and soldiers, these Americans who are victims of evil.
Today, I announce the end of our appeasement strategy and announce to the world that we will do what we need to do to wipe out radical Islam, the religion of evil in modern times.
I used to be a Muslim but I am no longer. I have renounced the religion of death. We will purge our state dept. of the appeasers and we will replace them with men and women of conscience and conviction.
Either you are with in this or you are against us in this but we are determined to take the fight to the enemy wherever he lives. We will cut off all funding and purchases from any nation or organization found to be supporting terrorism in any way and we will engage you on the battle field and in the air. We will hunt you down, prosecute you and jail you if we find you here. We will do whatever it takes to rid the world and ourselves of this evil.
I announce a change in our recruiting rules, we will longer force political correctness in our institutions instead will focus on character and ability and will not tolerate this evil in our institutions any longer. This will require change and toughness for all Americans. Be patient and work with us in this our hope to rid the world of this evil.
May the true God in Heaven bless us and work with us in this endeavor.-
This ought to work for the apologizer in chief; first he gets to apologize and he gets to blame every previous administration as well. He can stick his chin in the air and in Chicago thug style; threaten the hell out of anybody unwilling to co-operate. And it got hope and change
He would make a great dictator.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:07 pm 113. Tcobb:

Have you forgotten that the commander in chief when investigations began into Hasan was Bush?
Touche–good point. But–what would your reaction have been if little Mr. Hasan had been arrested and put into prison? Outrage I suspect. Methinks the lady doth protest too much. And little Mr. Obama has been in office for some months. If its a sin for Bush, why isn’t it a sin for da Won?
Have you forgotten that the illegal wars that drove Hasan to madness were started by Bush?
Exactly how are these wars “illegal?” Just because you put a label on them to that effect doesn’t mean that the label has any validity. Even if, as I suspect you are, one who is erotically bound up with the idea of the UN, look at the history. You can pretend, but nobody else is required to do so, no matter how that offends you.

Have you forgotten the enormous numbers of competent leadership that were driven off by Bush and his advisors?
Yes I have. Name even one. Of course, your idea of “competent leadership”
and mine probably differ significantly.
Bush left the US with its greatest threat to national security in the history of America, a seriously gutted military leadership structure.
Touche again–when we have people in high military positions who say “This terrible event,” Gen. Casey noted, “would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty.”

Perhaps I agree with you here. Anybody who spouts off crap like that should be relieved of their commands.
And I’m sure dat teh One will be the first to lead the charge against them.

Yeah. Right.

I fail to see how a president who inherited this mess and has been in office mere months is solely to blame for this horrible tragedy.
The anti-Bush people set the standards. As you live by the sword, you die by the sword. If anything is wrong it must be the fault of the retard Obama and anybody who supports him, the repulsive little stinking animals they are.

Not to mention that this blog post and lamentable “speech” is a crass use of other’s tragedy for one’s own political agenda-pushing. Ugh. Absolutely disgusting.

Look into the mirror. You are everything you accuse others of doing. And yes–when the points are valid it is disgusting. Very much so.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:17 pm 114. Batman:

Mongoose @111 — You are absolutely correct. Intellectual dishonesty and sophistry wrapped in slick packaging.

They have eyes but cannot see; they have ears but cannot hear. Maybe they can fool most of the people most of the time, until it is too late.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:25 pm 115. RagnarD:

Sam @ 103 said:

Wow RagnarD, hinting around armed revolution in the US. Because of your HILARIOUSLY mistaken ideas about health reform. So f–king classy.

Way to put words in my mouth, blockhead. You must be a libtard or a troll. Is the word protest too long for your limited comprehension?

And if it comes to that? Where will you be?

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:26 pm 116. Habu:

114. Tcobb

WOW. You sure don’t know a damn thing about politics. obama is the President and has had sufficient time to set an agenda, which he has. Pure Marxism.

You might as well say that poor old o Hussien O inherited the accumulated problems of all previous administrations. Flush out that headgear dude.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:39 pm 117. buddy larsen:

Re M/111, Mongoose Apocalypto knows that his advantage over the King Cobra is all in the alert vigilance and quickness of reaction. With the Cobra around, mongoose cannot afford to be arch any more. In fact Archie Moore was nicknamed ”the old mongoose” and holds the all-time KO record (131), fighting above his weight because he had the fourth hardest punch of all time, altho but a light heavyweight. An old mongoose is rare, while nature is busy slowing him down, nature is also busy raising new smarter younger quicker cobras. The Old Mongoose @ 46 years old vs young Cassius Clay (later, Muhammad Ali); voice over commentary in Chinese.

***
re Nietzsche, Josh & Marymcl have it right i think. Time can pass one by, and the suicide is not the same person he once was; ergo the later act can’t ipso facto invalidate the earlier works. And the (university-induced?) inversion of his work from a deeply melancholy warning against, to a totalistic welcoming of, the coming nihilist superman, is astonishing successful disinformation –and was predicted by the man himself, who said that in the future he would be spoken of by the leaders of the supermen as being their great philosopher. Which did (and does) happen, of course.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:40 pm 118. Tcobb:

HABU
I didn’t get my reputation for being as sharp as a marble for nothing—I had to earn it.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:46 pm 119. marymcl:

@119 Habu

Habu, you’re not paying attention. Tcobb was fisking Sam’s post @100
And doing a good job too!

@97 sirius-sir

The problem is that every time something happens involving Muslim violence, the response of the American Muslim community is ambivalent at best and reflexively defensive. This despite the claim (which many Americans, myself included, would like to believe) that most of them came here to escape the violence and intolerance of their coreligionists in the old country. To paraphrase a point made on a previous thread, two and two are not adding up to four. There is evidently a conflict of loyalties at work within that community and also a sense that they believe themselves to have a constitutional entitlement (via the First Amendment) to have it both ways without facing the consequences.

Political correctness has played a big part in bringing us all to this pass, and right now its continued dominance of our public discourse is the patriotic American Muslim’s worst enemy. The best thing that could happen – not only for Americans in general but for the American Muslim community in particular – would be for Hasan to be charged with treason.

You might check out the “Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism” thread – there is a thorough discussion of the entire subject there

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:57 pm 120. JMH:

The one little bit of, ah, hope, that appears a little brighter to me is that Obama is proving to have a tin ear and tin mouth, making him less of a fascist danger than I thought. He doesn’t have the emotional connection to the public needed to be a Hitler or Moussolini.

PS: with Peggy Noonan falling off the cliff, it’s nice to know in Wretchard that our side has a new #1 speechwriter if we need him.

Nov 12, 2009 - 2:58 pm 121. always right:

Political correctness has played a big part in bringing us all to this pass

Has the pendulum swing passed the mid-point (in the right direction) yet? Or has it just started?

I think the Americans utterly rejected the PC versions of Ft. Hood explanations, and only a small minority still saying those insane things but they won’t convince anybody.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:11 pm 122. buddy larsen:

Re the soaring rhetoric, ’soaring’ compared to what? Not to his standard rhetoric –it’s all soaring, all the time. Everything is a tulip, and round the clock day in and day out, he tiptoes us through them.

it’s the well-known pOmO ‘flattening effect’ –which is in this case also a fattening affect as our swollen ears pretend to listen to the master chef larding us up with pretend emotions and pretend convictions.

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:15 pm 123. BC:

Yeah, it’s always a brilliant idea to bring low-IQ politics and ideology to a memorial service. Seriously, Obama could run into a burning building to save a child and her puppy and right wing numbnuts would still make up stuff to smear him with. Gawd…..

Nov 12, 2009 - 3:20 pm 124. sirius_sir:

marymcl @ 123

I understand the problem as you lay it out. My problem is with a domestic leadership (most specifically, the President) who for whatever reason find(s) it impossible to frame the argument to our advantage. The radicalized Muslims like Hasan (and his ex-pat Imam) have no problem framing the argument to their advantage, and so they win the argument by default. By remaining silent, allowing the calumnies and lies they use to justify their evil deeds to go unchallenged, we implicitly affirm them. I too would like to see the ‘moderate’ Muslims acknowledge our country’s basic goodness (and beneficial sacrifice for millions of Muslims), praise our democratic way of life (promoting democracy as the reformational path for Islam), and, in toto, rise to the Islamist challenge (by vociferously refuting radical Muslim extremism both here and abroad). But if our own leaders won’t do it, I can understand (without condoning it) why they too might vaccilate or keep silent.

Btw, I read your response to my response previously. I would have had another response, had I been able to make it in a timely manner. Another time maybe. But thanks for engaging.

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:07 pm 125. tcobb:

Seriously, Obama could run into a burning building to save a child and her puppy and right wing numbnuts would still make up stuff to smear him with.

Seriously Dude, the idea that Obama would EVER endanger himself by running into a burning building is ludicrous. That’s just something that the inferior people should be required to do.

What they don’t seem to understand is that the day may come where THEY are considered to be the inferior people, and where notions of political correctness are thrown to the winds.

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:11 pm 126. marymcl:

@129 sirius_sir

You’re welcome. And I think we agree on the overall framework of the problem (though the entire concept of “framing” has gotten a bit worn out around here this week!)

Nov 12, 2009 - 4:54 pm 127. buddy larsen:

So, it’s right wing numbnuts who smear vs left wing moonbats who didn’t?

The difference is is in the ratios –smears vs lies, lies vs smears.

Bush got smeared for pretty much telling the truth, Obama gets smeared for pretty much not telling the truth.

This is either a minor fuzzy detail related to the nebulous nature of ‘truth’, or it’s the whole ball o wax, depending on whether truth is an absolute value or just another gear in the agenda machine.

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:09 pm 128. sirius_sir:

…the entire concept of “framing” has gotten a bit worn out around here this week!

And here I thought I was just being au courant!

Nov 12, 2009 - 5:30 pm 129. marymcl:

O/T but has anyone else noticed that whenever we have this problem, PJM just happens to have featured wretchard’s post on the main page? Oh never mind… I guess that’s just life in the big time

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:55 pm 130. buddy larsen:

the dog star, dragging a bent, broken, splintered old frame behind, with a last baleful blink sets in the western sky

Nov 12, 2009 - 6:59 pm 131. Subotai Bahadur:

# 126 Distraught,

I am not trying to get involved in a battle over abortion, by any means. However, I am curious about:

I am not of the view that abortion is a benign act, but feel any deprivation of human life is a tragedy, as life is unbounded. However, I do not feel that I nor any other human, should be able to dictate to another, the goings on inside one’s body, let alone on the surface.

Do you support or oppose the imminent takeover of health care that will have a government determining the type and amount of care that a person will be able to receive?

# 114 Tcobb

We do not have a hard time line as to what happened when; but we are starting to get one together. The Leftists are, of course, resorting to the reflexive fallback position; i.e. “Blame Bush”. The reconstructions are starting, blocked as best they can by the Democrats. The ranking Republican Member of the House Intelligence Committee has been told that the administration refuses to brief him, or apparently any Republican, on the investigation. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

But despite their best efforts, things are being put together. A.J. Strata has been working with the information that is out [and he readily admits that everything is subject to modifications as more data escapes the cover-up] but here are the first few steps in his scenario:

OK, here is my suspected timeline from what little is out there now (which means take it with a grain of salt):

1. December 2008: Hasan is picked up by NSA monitors on radical Imam al-Awlaki
2. NSA passes the lead to FBI who begin an investigation under the new FIS Court rules, It is not clear if all of Hasan’s communications are monitored at this point, but the NSA continues to pick up communications between Hasan and al-Awlaki for months into 2009.
3. The Presidency is transition in late January.
4. At some point the 90 day monitoring window runs out and the FBI requires a new submission to the FIS Court to continue monitoring Hasan and for the NSA data to keep flowing to the FBI.
5. At this point someone decides to stop the investigation, probably because they are a liberal sycophant who always wanted the new FISA rules put in place after 9-11 removed.

Note that they have 90 days and that the investigation started in December 2008. Even if it started on December 1, the decision as to whether to continue had to be made by Buraq Hussein Obama and/or his subordinates.

More at:

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/11268

Further, there some anomalies in Hasan’s lifestyle. It was noted the day of the shooting that he lived in a …… unsavory apartment complex where the rent for the tiny place he lived in was at most $350 a month. As a Major, a doctor, and a psychiatrist with base pay, allowances, specialty bonuses, etc. he was making roughly $90,000 a year. The possibility that the money not spent on supporting himself may have made its way via covert means to terrorist groups in Pakistan is under investigation. See this article from the DALLAS MORNING NEWS:

http://tinyurl.com/ybvvaq6

Of course, if it can be shown that he was illegally funding groups listed on the terrorist watch list [wait for Chris Matthews to next scream, "What? You mean you can't violate Federal law and send money to foreign terrorist groups at war with us?!!! What kind of country have we become?"]; it kind of blows the cover of PTSD. And it means that, to quote something I wrote elsewhere today:

Subject to factual rebuttal, the simplest explanation given what we know now; is that the military either is under orders to ignore misconduct by Muslims, or believes that it is expected to do so, due to political command influence. Based on malfeasance/misfeasance by the upper levels of the chain of command, including at the political levels [who can order the FBI to ignore statutory threats to national security?], an extremist Muslim terrorist was allowed to carry out an attack that killed a dozen of our defenders, and wound dozens more.

You can be sure that neither the regime, nor their kept lapdogs of the American press will be trying to get this information out to the American public. Just the opposite, in fact.

Subotai Bahadur

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:03 pm 132. Mongoose:

Fred2: If you think that Obma’s speech was in any way appropriate or meaningful in any positive way you need to exam your character. You have lost you way. Tha speech in an abomination.

Words have meaning, they are not the baying of animals.

Nov 12, 2009 - 7:32 pm 133. trangbang68:

Hey Sammy, It wasn’t the illegal wars that Bush started that drove Hasan mad. It actually began with the illegal wars that Mohammed started for plunder in the Arabian peninsula oh 1400 years ago or so.
Hey ,does Megan’s Law require Mohammed to report his address in Hell?

Nov 12, 2009 - 8:39 pm 134. LFMayor:

All of these shell games, lying and hucksters are actually going to bring about some good in the long run folks.

Real America is slow to anger. Like this good friend I have. Great guy, really mild mannered and quiet, takes his church going serious and does not meet any Naval or Truck Driving standards of Profane Communications.

He would be the last of my aquaintences that I would seek to annoy, because once he’s lit you know up is go.

So things are working their way along slowly and when Ragnar and me (and friends!) take the rugs out for cleaning we’re going to be sure and beat them all vigorously and with glee. How often do you really think a chance to Straighten Things Out happens by, after all? Do it right and we’ll pay ahead for another 100 year run.

Enemies must be dealt with by applying violence. Habu is right and it is inevitable. Use your time wisely.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:02 pm 135. presbypoet:

My wife is one of the nicest people on earth. However, do not cross her. She is very patient, but remembers for a loong time.

Perhaps a motto for Belmont Club:
Beware the wrath of those who are patient.

Nov 12, 2009 - 10:16 pm 136. Dave Surls:

‘A real idiot might talk about guarantees.’–Dwight

‘”I guarantee you,” he told the caller, “we are going to get health care reform done.’–Barry O, the little boy playing at being president

You’re absolutely right, Dwight. Real idiots do talk about guarantees.

Nov 13, 2009 - 12:22 am 137. dtmack:

TCOBB 114 – Good post. I appreciate someone who honestly looks at shortcomings from all sides.

That’s important – as things unfold, we’d better be prepared to cut through all of the BS to see things clearly. A lot seem to think that the problems we have are all attributable to the DEMs and O. They’re not, although that crew is doing what they can to make things worse.

I fear that we’ll trade the DEMS for the same old from the GOP, who will be elected because they’re “not Democrats”. That’s not going to cut it.

Nov 13, 2009 - 3:08 am 138. howiem:

The “should have” speech is too PC. It omits the words “Muslim terrorist”

Nov 13, 2009 - 3:46 am 139. buddy larsen:

h/143; according to Fox, and as of late yesterday, 85% of news stories on the attack do not mention terrorism, 29% mention Muslim, and of that 29%, half defended the religion as having nothing to do with the incident.

Nov 13, 2009 - 4:30 am 140. Wadeusaf:

it’s the well-known pOmO ‘flattening effect’

pOmO? as is postmodern?
pOmO? as in Poseur queer? or
pOmO? as in California Indian Tribe, wiped out by russian fur traders but still able to claim tribal rights?

I know president Obama gave a speech, but did he say anything?

Nov 13, 2009 - 5:45 am 141. buddy larsen:

W/145; that’d be #1 –#2 is “pOhOmO” and #3 is Pot-a-wat-a-mi. don’t say anything about those “are*yew*ess*ess*eye*ay*en” fur traders. Mr X will sniff you out and trick you into writing an hour long post, then trick wretchard into closing comments juuuust before you post it. he also tricks you into forgetting to copy it, allowing you to remember only that it was long and labor intensive. when they kilt off rasputin, you see, they stole his occult mind control bells books and candles, and learnt the secrets, and now with their mental beams they can make you do anything. for example, they made us elect a communist president –can ya believe it? next they’ll be saying Alaska was only a lease contract and they want it back now, with the ex-officio governer wearing one of them slinky red dresses too, with sequins and a rose in her hair

Nov 13, 2009 - 7:34 am 142. Dwight:

Dave S wrote “A real idiot might talk about guarantees.’–Dwight

‘”I guarantee you,” he told the caller, “we are going to get health care reform done.’–Barry O, the little boy playing at being president

You’re absolutely right, Dwight. Real idiots do talk about guarantees.”

OK, You make my point. He was an idiot when he said that and you wanted him to be an idiot…again. Of course, in the bigger picture an unfulfilled health care guarantee to a caller will have less collateral damage than same to “protecting all troops etc.”

It’s BS either way, but one is the kind of BS you like to hear…and one isn’t. You are the one who brought up the desire to hear about guarantees, not me.

Nov 13, 2009 - 8:04 am 143. Moss:

The twelve main tactics of taqiyya.

Nov 13, 2009 - 9:57 am 144. 3Case:

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men

Nov 13, 2009 - 10:56 am 145. Evanston2:

114. Tcobb: job well done in addressing 100 Sam’s claims. Curious, isn’t it, how Sam failed to answer any of YOUR questions? By no means did I know many general officers or other “top leaders” but I can tell you that my slice of the military (USMC) thought the world of Bush, particularly in comparison to his predecessor. Perhaps Sam was/is a fan of Rumsfeld? Sure!
I wonder how long Petraeus and McChrystal will put up with Obama’s decision to make no decisions?
Regarding the PC culture in the military, FBI, CIA, etc. it was politicians like Obama who fostered this before 9-11 and led its comeback. To start a timeline in early 2009 is silly, Obama politicked against every national security measure instituted by Bush and now we reap the harvest at Ft Hood.

Nov 13, 2009 - 1:47 pm 146. Cybergeezer:

Oh, I know, I know what he should have said; He should have said:

“I respectfully resign from the Office of President of the United States based on the facts that I’m completely unqualified to be a leader”.

Nov 13, 2009 - 2:12 pm 147. deguello:

Two words: I resign.

Nov 13, 2009 - 2:30 pm 148. buddy larsen:

hell, deguello, was it something somebody said?

Nov 13, 2009 - 4:28 pm 149. Bob R:

I have a son in the military,with over 17 years of service,or more. I feel very, very sorry for our Military. He is an E-7. He told me the other day that there is no way he can, or could, go on base and say detrimental things about the muslims. It would simply be to far Politically Incorrect. Can you imagine in WW1,or WW2, or the Korean War, or the ‘Nam war,of not being able to verbally trash the enemy?!? Especially on a Military Base? What the hell is up with that!?!

Nov 13, 2009 - 5:05 pm 150. Bob R:

And the Wind doesn’t blow over obama; it Sucks.

Nov 13, 2009 - 5:07 pm 151. Dave:

More trouble ahead for Ft Hood.

I see that Sarah Palin is going to visit there. Oh, no! Sarah is not the problem.

The problem is how are we gonna keep Buddy from sneaking into Darnell hospital and disguising himself as a casualty?

Some folks will do ANYTHING fer a kiss on the cheek.

Buddy, control yourself. At least wait until she visits Brooke.

Nov 13, 2009 - 5:43 pm 152. buddy larsen:

Dave stick’m my name on idea what pop up in head of Dave

Nov 13, 2009 - 6:19 pm 153. jgdp:

This is indeed what should have been said, but obama is a worthless amateur and will NEVER be professional enough to say this! He is a rank poseur and has ABSOLUTELY NO business being president. The sooner this fool is out-of-office by any means the better!

Nov 13, 2009 - 7:10 pm 154. jgdp:

“I respectfully resign from the Office of President of the United States based on the facts that I’m completely unqualified to be a leader”.

THERE IS CHANGE WE CAN ALL BELIEVE IN and sincerely hope for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 13, 2009 - 7:13 pm 155. jgdp:

In response to Tony #18:”Let’s not gnash and groan, let’s focus on something.”

Let’s get this worthless embarrassment of a turd out of office!!!

Nov 13, 2009 - 7:42 pm 156. heyyoukidsgetoffmylawn:

buddy larsen

Not unlike Burt Lancaster in “The Swimmer”, I’ve been dropping in on select websites and noticed, well, not to put to fine a point on it, a certain indefinable quality.

Is it just me, or are people right miffed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV0MKP0wyak

Too soon?

Nov 13, 2009 - 7:53 pm 157. rc:

Wretchard,

By that speech alone, I would vote for you as POTUS. You are simply head and shoulders above our current incumbent.

Nov 13, 2009 - 8:12 pm 158. proreason:

Hey, at least 10 of the 14 wouldn’t have voted for him anyway (assuming the cabal would have figured a way to get the fetus on the Chicago voter roles somehow).

What’s the issue?

Nov 13, 2009 - 8:31 pm 159. rumcrook®:

yes barry is awsome. just for the record, is this guy expounding on barry’s awsome delivery of a shout out? just prior to fitting in a few words on the massacre? or some other speach, becuase his shout out really brought a tear to my eye/////

Nov 13, 2009 - 8:47 pm 160. Donna V.:

Hey, at least 10 of the 14 wouldn’t have voted for him anyway (assuming the cabal would have figured a way to get the fetus on the Chicago voter roles somehow).

I agree, we need to work on that. After all, the Democrats have been rip-roaringly successful in getting the dead on the Chicago voter rolls somehow. It would be only fair to garner votes from the other end of the life cycle.

Nov 13, 2009 - 9:10 pm 161. myth buster:

36. There are two problems with that- 1. You can’t sue the Federal Government without its consent, and 2. The occupational hazard doctrine, which states that an employer is immune to lawsuits for injuries or deaths that result from known hazards of a job. That said, these men and women died in the line of duty, and therefore the next of kin is entitled to $100,000 plus cash value on all banked leave, plus hostile fire pay for this month (not entirely sure about the last one, but they ought to get it, because this man should be deemed an enemy) and 90 days free housing or BAH. In addition, widow(er)s are entitled to 55% of the fallen soldiers pension, which vests immediately upon death, until they either die or remarry.

Wounded soldiers are entitled to free medical treatment, and shall be placed on light duty until they recover, at which point it will be determined whether they are fit to resume duty, or shall be discharged for disability. If they are discharged for injuries sustained in the line of duty, they are absolved of all service obligations outstanding, and are therefore able to keep all bonuses advanced to them, as well as cashing out their leave; in addition, discharges for disability cause at least a partial vesting of the soldier’s pension, regardless of years of service. If deemed a hostile fire act, as it should be, the wounded soldiers shall receive hostile fire pay for this month, and will receive hostile fire pay again in December if they are still hospitalized at 0001 on December 1.

38. Everything sounds great except the number of dead (14) and the MIA part. MIA stands for Missing in Action, which these men and women clearly are not. They were wounded in the line of duty, but we know exactly where they are and how they’re doing.

Nov 13, 2009 - 9:17 pm 162. Opaobie:

With Obama, every silver lining is filled with a dark cloud. He had to slip in negatives about America, and a cynic could even find some veiled praise for the shooter disguised as praise for our troops. He failed to acknowledge that it was a terrorist attack, no surprise, but he further blurred the picture by injecting the “crazed killer who snapped” canard. Has the paperwork to award Purple Hearts been initiated yet?

Nov 13, 2009 - 10:04 pm

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