House rejected 11 amendments that would have required them to enroll in the public option
During the House debate over healthcare reform there were eleven amendments offered that were rejected which would have required the members of congress to sign up for the public option that they were adamant should be in the healthcare reform bill.
It appears as though what is good enough for us– the unwashed masses– just isn’t good enough for the president, vice-president, Supreme Court justices, or members of congress and all other federal employees, at least according to the members of the House.
If this public option was as brilliant and as innocuous as we are being led to believe than you would think that our leaders would want to lead by example and join the rank and file.
What are members of the House worried about? Why do they want to impose on us what they themselves are not willing to enroll in? It seems to me that the best way for the House to show all of the people who oppose the public option, whom they are trying to marginalize, are wrong about the public option that they could have proved its merits by agreeing to enroll in the option.
But they were unwilling to do so. Eleven times they had the chance to show us that they had enough faith in the public option to enroll in it themselves and eleven times they decided not to even entertain the option.
This tells us all that we need to know about the public option. While they may think that the public option is right for us, they know that the public option is not right for them.
Hoekstra demands investigation– claims that the administration is withholding information about the Fort Hood terrorist attack
One of the ideas that I just can’t accept in regards to the Fort Hood shooting is the notion that the FBI, while the attack was still fluid, had already ruled out terrorism. It just does not make sence that the FBI would not look at the possibility of the shootings being a terrorist attack as well as looking at all other possible motives.
I am of the belief that once the FBI was alerted to the situation at Fort Hood that they had already formed an opinion as to who the gunman probably was. After all they knew this man’s history and had been following him for months, they knew that he was dangerous. The fact that the FBI supposedly ruled out terrorism and the fact that the preliminary investigation has ruled out terrorism just does not make any sence to me from a logical standpoint.
There has to be another reason. Perhaps the president knows what that reason is. Representative Pete Hoekstra thinks that there is more and he claims that the Obama administration is withholding critical information about the Fort Hood massacre. As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Hoekstra is one of the people who gets briefed on sensitive information,(Kind of like when Nancy Pelosi was breifed on waterboarding and thought it was okay), so he knows what he is talking about.
President Obama said people should not jump to conclusions about what happened at Fort Hood, but the administration is in possession of critical information related to the attack that they are refusing to release to Congress or the American people,” Hoekstra said in a statement. “I intend to push for intense review of this and other issues related to the performance of the intelligence community and whether or not information necessary for military, state and local officials to provide for the security of the post was provided to them
The president is clearly hiding something. Hoekstra has now joined Joe Lieberman in calling for an investigation into this matter. These are two high ranking committee men as Lieberman heads the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in the senate. This is not going to go away as quickly as the president had hoped that it would.
Hoekstra continued:
Over the past 24 hours, I have been made aware of information from the intelligence community that suggests the possibility that serious issues exist with respect to the performance of U.S. intelligence agencies in connection with what appears to have been a terrorism-related attack on Fort Hood, Texas by Nidal Malik Hasan,” Hoekstra wrote. “I am disappointed that the administration has not been more transparent with the American people
Hoekstra has even evoked the word “terrorism” only the second politician to do so. It is somehow comforting to know that at least a couple of politicians are willing to use the “T” word in this case.
Hoekstra has asked the intelligence community for documents related to the Hasan case but the intelligence community has refused to release them.
Given the potential seriousness of these issues, I am troubled that the intelligence community has not been more immediately forthcoming with the congressional oversight committees and has refused to provide specific information I have requested to review in connection with this matter
There is a massive coverup in place here, I don’t know who is being protected. I wonder if this goes all the way up to the president. I do know that the pressure needs to be kept up and that Hoekstra and Lieberman cannot back down until a full investigation has taken place.
This act of terrorism should have and could have been avoided, all of the warning signs were in place and yet no action was taken to prevent it. Someone has to be held accountable and if that man is Barack Obama, so be it. If it is the FBI, the CIA, or Homeland Security, so be it. The bottom line here is that there were probably policies in place that either made stopping this attack impossible or made the people responsible for preventing the attacks too afraid of being seen as politically incorrect to do anything in time.
The investigation needs to move forward, Americans deserve an answer as to how this could have happened because we certainly know that it shouldn’t have happened.
The Fort Hood terrorist tried to contact al Qaeda months ago and the FBI knew about it
I find it just a little bit ironic that just a few weeks after Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his rhetoric that inspired the world to search for peace that the first terrorist attack on American soil since September 11th took place. Apparently Nidal Malik Hasan didn’t get the message.
I also find it a little ironic that during the press conference that Barack Obama held in which he managed to find time to mention the killings that he urged Americans not to jump to conclusions; he asked Americans to wait until all of the facts are known. I find this ironic because this is the same man that when asked about the Cambridge police during the whole Professor Gates fiasco said that he didn’t know the facts but that the Cambridge police acted stupidly. He jumped to a conclusion in that incident but now he is cautioning us not to jump to conclusions.
Consider the conclusion jumped. As if we didn’t know enough about Hasan to realize that he was a terrorist and that the Fort Hood shooting was a terrorist act we are learning even more about Hasan that confirms this. On top of all the evidence that points to terrorism that I wrote about here, we are now finding out that Hasan had visited a mosque in 2001 that three of the 9/11 hijackers frequented around the same time. And he has been tied to the cleric of that mosque, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was questioned after 9/11 and is now hiding in Yemen, and who now hails Hasan as a hero.
Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,” Awlaki said. “How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done?”
“In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal
And there is more, Nidal Malik Hasan tried to contact al Qaeda and the FBI knew about this months ago yet did nothing. The facts are in, Hasan is a terrorist and the massacre at Fort Hood was a terrorist act. In the end I still believe that Hasan was working alone but that does not mean this attack isn’t terror related.
Barack Obama does not want to fess up that there was a terrorist attack on his watch, that is why he will not call this a terror attack. Hell, he does not want to admit that terrorism exists. Normally I would not hold the president accountable for an attack that happened on a secure military base but we are left to wonder how this man slipped through the cracks. Sure political correctness probably led to the military’s unwillingness to take action against Hasan before it was too late but I want to know if Barack Obama instituted policies that handcuffed the FBI and Homeland Security.
The FBI was too quick to eliminate terrorism as a motive, they did so while the situation was still fluid. There can only be two reasons for this that I can come up with; either the FBI wanted to cover up their ineptitude leading up to the attack or the FBI is under a gag order from the president who does not want to admit that terrorism still exists and that his policies may have stopped the FBI from acting in time to stop the attack.
It infuriates me to know end that this administration and the media is unwilling to call this what it obviously was– a terrorist attack. It infuriates me that Homeland Security does not even want to use the term “terrorism” any more.
Perhaps we actually got lucky that Hasan lived because now he will go to court– civilian court– and all of the details that the president didn’t want to come out will come out. Perhaps then the president will have to admit that he was on guard while a terrorist attack happened on United States soil and just possibly his politically correct policies led to the failure of the FBI or Homeland Security to stop Hasan before he committed the massacre.
Joe Lieberman is saying that he will call for an investigation into the military but the investigation can not stop there, the investigation must be widened to see if the FBI, Homeland Security, and the president himself can or should be held accountable for policies that prohibited authorities from stopping this attack before it happened.
The warning signs were there, the FBI was watching Hasan, they knew he could be dangerous, and yet nobody did anything in time to stop this attack. Somebody has to be held accountable for the failure to stop this attack with all of the warning signs that were there.
The 2010 elections are too far away– we can’t stop Barack Obama
In light of the House passing the healthcare reform bill one thing has become clear to me; there is no way that we can stop Barack Obama. We made our voices heard all Summer long, we called, we wrote, and we emailed our representatives and we voiced our displeasure with the healthcare reform bill. What did that get us? Nothing.
The House of Representatives is supposed to be the part of the government that is closest to the people, yet the House did not listen to the people they are supposed to represent. We are not being represented, instead of listening to us the House is voting on what they think is best for us.
Now the healthcare reform bill will be debated in the Senate, while there is currently opposition to this bill we can rest assured that the arm twisting and pressure that will be applied will get legislation passed and before the end of the year Barack Obama will sign it.
This will free up congress to move onto climate change and illegal immigration, and these issues will be taken up next year, before the election.
While we keep looking to the 2010 elections to stop Barack Obama’s agenda I have come to realize that 2010 is just too far away. We cannot stop Barack Obama and his agenda.
Once the healthcare bill is signed the administration will move on to either climate change or illegal immigration. It doesn’t matter which one is next when you consider the speed at which this administration is moving. Barack Obama realizes there is a race towards 2010 and he realizes there could be a backlash with the voters towards his policies so he is trying to implement as much as he can before 2010 and we are powerless to stop him. Healthcare, climate change, and illegal immigration will all be passed before the midterm elections.
While we were successful at stopping Bush’s attempt at providing illegal aliens amnesty the fact is that we were able to stop it because the House of Representatives heard our protests loud and clear and were afraid for their political lives. That no longer seems to be the case as the House passed healthcare reform in spite of what we wanted, not because of what we wanted.
If we cannot trust the House to represent us, and taking into account the speed that this administration is moving, 2010 will come too late. The most insidious aspects of Obama’s agenda will be passed before we head to the polls and even if the backlash occurs we will not be able to reverse the damage that Barack Obama has done. The effects of Obama’s agenda will not be fully felt until it is too late to change his policies.
All that we can hope to accomplish is to put enough pressure on congress to make the impending legislation less bad, as happened when liberals were forced to include language in the healthcare bill that prohibited federal funding of abortions, we cannot totally stop anything.
The country that my boys will be adults in will be vastly different from the America that I grew up in. And the America that my grandchildren grow up in will be unrecognizable as the government continues to pass legislation designed to regulate, and manipulate the behaviors of the American people.
This happened while I was on watch and for that I can never forgive myself, while I opposed this from the beginning I wasn’t able to do enough to stop it.
Joe Lieberman says the Fort Hood shooter may have been a terrorist
One of the aspects in the aftermath of the Fort Hood killings that I find extremely frustrating is the fact that nobody in the government or in the media seems willing to call this massacre what is seems obvious to me that it was– a terrorist attack. I am not going to go into the reasons why this was obviously a terrorist attack , I have already written my opinion on that matter here.
That has changed as Joe Lieberman has expressed the opinion that Nidal Hasan may in fact be a “self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist.” Finally someone has said what needs to be said regarding the Fort Hood terrorist attack. The fact that Hasan was acting alone and was not a member of al Qaeda or involved in a plot with other terrorists does not make this any less of a terrorist attack.
Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had turned to Islamic extremism, “the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11.”
Harsh words to be sure, but true. Although he did say that we must wait until the investigation is over before we make that judgement.
We don’t know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act
And he may not be alone on the island, Gen. George Casey says that terrorism remains a possibility but that the investigation needs to be completed before that call can be made as well.
Joe Lieberman is going to open an investigation into the motives for the attack as well as an investigation into the military to see if the military missed any warning signs. I would suggest that the scope of this investigation be expanded into the FBI if the reports are true that they had been watching Hasan for six months and failed to act in time. I would also investigate the policies of the Obama administration and Homeland Security to see if their policies handcuffed the FBI and their investigation of Hasan before the attack. The very policies that may have helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize could have led directly to the Fort Hood attack.
It is good to know that at least one person in the government isn’t as willing as the FBI was to discount the very notion that the Fort Hood massacre was a terrorist act.
House passes healthcare reform 220-215
Late last night the House of Representatives passed the healthcare reform bill by a 220-215 vote with 39 Democrats voting against it and one Republican voting in favor.
The bill basically remained intact, the healthcare mandates (with possible jail time for those who don’t buy coverage) and public option are still in there so I guess at this point we can only look toward small victories.
Small victories is probably the wrong term to use when talking about abortion, but I am talking about one aspect of the bill in relation to the entirety of the bill.
Bark Stupak, who had amassed a coalition of 40 pro-life Democrats and threatened to kill the bill if his amendment was not added to stop federal funding of abortion, held true as did his coalition. These pro-life Democrats did not waver under the pressure being applied by Nancy Pelosi and abortion rights proponents and in the end Nancy Pelosi was forced to send the Stupak amendment to the floor for a vote. The amendment was passed 240 to 194.
Once the Stupak amendment was passed the fate of this bill was assured, there was nothing left that could stop the House from passing it.
There is really nothing more that I have to say about this that I haven’t already said before, everyone who reads this blog regularly knows how I feel about this legislation, the bill has passed it is time to move on. Our attention now turns to the Senate, and Harry Reid, and their version of the bill where there is supposed to be only luke warm support for the public option, this process still has a long way to go, the fight isn’t over.
Healthcare Reform vote may be pushed back into next week
As of right now the vote on healthcare reform is scheduled to take place sometime later on today but that seems like it could be in jeopardy as Democrats still do not have the votes. The vote may be pushed back to tomorrow or maybe even next week. Steny Hoyer claims they are close to having the votes but they are just not there yet.
Usually leadership waits until they know the votes are there for legislation before they bring it up for a vote to avoid this exact type of embarrassment. But Nancy Pelosi scheduled the vote before she could pass the legislation and I can think of only one reason.
She announced the Saturday vote last Wednesday, the day after Republicans swept the Virginia races and took the New Jersey governorship. While claiming that she thought the election of these Republicans was a Democrat victory she announced the healthcare reform vote. She did this in a defiant manner, she was trying to take the headlines away from the Republican victories. She almost seems to have done it in spite. “Oh yeah you stupid Virginians and New Jerseyans(ites?), I will show you who is boss!” That was the message that Nancy Pelosi seemed to be trying to send. She was angry at the Republican gains and scheduled the vote in a moment in which she was not thinking clearly.
And now she doesn’t have the votes. Nancy Pelosi was so concerned about grabbing the headlines away from the Republicans that she rashly scheduled this vote hoping that between last Wednesday and today she would be able to threaten Democrat legislators and twist enough arms before the bill came up for a vote. She has not been able to do this and now may face the embarrassment of having to push the vote back into next week.
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat leadership have been trying to force this legislation down our throats, in doing so they are not always thinking clearly and this was just one such example.
Nancy Pelosi: buy health insurance or go to jail
According to this press release by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Americans who refuse to buy and maintain “adequate” healthcare insurance will face fines up to $250,000 and imprisonment up to five years.
“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
This is America?
The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates
There is nothing more that needs to be said
Kimberly Munley– an American heroine
Kimberly Munley is a 34 year old mother of a three year old girl and a civilian police officer who was performing her duty directing traffic at Fort Hood when she heard shots ring out on November 6th.
She rushed toward the commotion with a disregard for her own well being and engaged Nidal Malik Hasan who had begun firing on American soldiers on the base. A firefight ensued and even after Hasan managed to put a bullet through both of her legs and one in her wrist she fired four shots into Hasan and single-handedly brought him down– ending the terror spree.
Kimberly Munley is a true American heroine, if it was not for her quick thinking and quick response this dreadful attack could have been much, much worse. Even in attacks as heinous as this one we sometimes see great acts of courage. This was one such time.
While Hasan was cowardly killing a pregnant woman and shooting soldiers in the back, Kimberly Munley stood face to face with him and took him down.
Kimberly Munley is in the hospital recovering and she is in stable condition. While nothing can ever be said that will comfort those who lost loved ones at the hands of Hasan, Americans should take comfort in the fact that we have people like Kimberly Munley on our side.
Our thoughts go out to Kimberly today, rest easy and get well soon.
Check out this article for more on Kimberly Munley.
The Fort Hood massacre was a terrorist act
Does anybody else find it curious that nobody seems to be willing to use the “T” word when reporting or talking about the Fort Hood massacre? I certainly do.
Here we have Nidal Malik Hasan, who opposes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, who opposes the United States policies in the Middle East, who was spouting dangerous and threatening language toward the United States, who had a blog in which he extolled the virtues of suicide bombers and called for Muslims to rise up to fight off the aggressors, and who went into the part of the facility that treats soldiers who are either being deployed to or are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan to begin his terror spree. I think that is is safe to say that he targeted soldiers who were involved or going to be involved in the war. And let us not forget that as he was killing American heroes he was shouting “Allahu Akbar.”
If this was not an act of terrorism I don’t know what is anymore. Yet during the shooting spree the media reported that the FBI did not suspect terrorism. At that point it was unknown what the motives for the killings was, but certainly the FBI should have considered terrorism as at least a possibility. Hell, the latest reports claim that the FBI had been watching Hasan for six months. They had to have had some suspicions.
So the question is– why is no one willing to use the word “terrorism” when discussing, investigating, or reporting on this issue? Is the FBI trying to cover up the fact that they knew Hasan was dangerous and did not act in time to save these heroes? Or has there been a gag order issued by the administration? Has the administration decided that the word “terrorism” can not be used? We know that there is a move afoot in Homeland Security to rename terrorist activities “man-caused disasters,” so is this an attempt bu the administration to be politically correct so as to not offend peaceful Muslims?
The media keeps asking the question, “what motivated this man to commit such a heinous act?” And the answer that they keep coming up with is that he suffered from stress from dealing with the stress of soldiers who have returned from battle. They are painting this killer as the victim, they are trying to make mim a sympathetic figure. I can tell you what motivated him, he is a terrorist.
He was acting alone, there was no al Qaeda plot, but does that make this any less of a terrorist act? I don’t think so.
I understand that now that Barack Obama is president the threat of terrorism is supposed to be gone. We are supposed to live in a world of hearts and flowers, sitting by the campfire singing Kumbaya, but that is not the reality. The reality is that there are still people out there who want to do America and Americans harm and this is proof.
It will be interesting to see how the investigation and prosecution of Hasan goes. Surely the president wants to downplay the fact that a terrorist attack happened on American soil on his watch, and perhaps the FBI was handcuffed in their investigation of Hasan before the deadly rampage by the administration for politically correct motives. One thing is certain, Hasan will be tried in civilian court for murder and not for committing a terrorist act, but that does not diminish the fact that Hasan is a terrorist and should be tried and hanged as one.
If we have come to the point in America where we have to pussyfoot around the notion of terrorism, if we have come to the point in America where we can no longer call a terrorist act what it is, we have already lost.
