As I watched the first news reports of the Fort Hood Military Base shootings, I wondered what the right response from the Commander In Chief should be to this disaster. At around 2:00PM, we all witnessed the actual response from the sitting President, but what would you have done?

Twelve members of America’s troops are dead, and at least another 31 have been wounded. These 42 soldiers and their comrades were preparing for deployment to the front. This is major calamity, not just because it occurred on American soil, but this crime was committed, it appears, by one some of their own, on an American base. The shock to hundreds of individuals comprising the related families will last a lifetime.

The priority for the Commander In Chief, IMHO, would be to bypass any planned speech and immediately fly to Austin, Texas, act like a Commander In Chief, go to the site of the shootings, meet with senior staff, assess the situation and events that led to the shootings, speak to the troops, particularly the injured, demonstrate concern and take action based on the findings of your assessment. Such actions should include addressing the families of the fallen and the injured. Assure the American people that their military bases and the security of the bases are not compromised and all possible measures will be taken to tighten what already has been established to safeguard the safety of soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »

7 Dead, more than 20 wounded. 3 shooters?

ABC News:

At least seven people have been killed and at least 12 wounded in a mass shooting at a Texas military base by what officials believe was carried out by two gunmen.
Fort Hood shooting, map.
Seven soldiers are reported to be dead and at least 12 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

One gunman is reported to be in custody and a search is on for a second shooter, officials said.

The shooting took place at Fort Hood in Texas, the largest U.S. military installation in the world.

The massacre is said to have taken place at a soldier readiness processiong center where young recruits would be taken to be inducted into the military.

Latest report I’m hearing is on a 3rd shooter.

Possible terrorist attack?

Not much time to blog, so readers are welcomed to build upon this thread (other authors feel free to update and build up this post).

UPDATE @ 2:20pm PST

Check the comments below for realtime updates but the latest is that the shooter is Major Malik Nadal Hasan… a Muslim. 12 dead

Twelve people have been killed and 31 wounded in a shooting spree at a Texas military base by what officials believe was possibly carried out by an Army officer.

The suspected gunman was identified as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. He was killed and two other suspects have been apprehended, Lt. Robert W. Cone said.

The gunman used two handguns, Cone said. He wasn’t sure if the shooter reloaded the weapons during the attack.

UPDATE @ 2:35pm PST

Check out Obama giving shout-outs prior to addressing the shooting…..unbelievable: Read the rest of this entry »

Tigre Hill is a one man machine who has something to say about the cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. He is currently editing a documentary that will be released soon that many should see. Here is the trailer:

And a good article by Amy S. Rosenberg from Philly.com… about Hill and his movie:

Tigre Hill has only released the trailer to his film, The Barrel of a Gun, but already Mumia Inc. has begun mobilizing against him.

At 57th and Christian Streets, over an offering of rice and beans and salad prepared by her grandchildren, Pam Africa labels Hill an attack dog, the second coming of
Wilson Goode, and says his film will be a racist “hit piece” against Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In Germany, writer and academic Michael Schiffman spent 5,600 words aimed at debunking the 3 1/2-minute trailer in a piece that circulated widely online. Schiffman wrote that the case made in Hill’s film, at least as indicated by the trailer, “will be built on sand.”

On death row, meanwhile, former radio newsman Mumia Abu-Jamal, 55, is as close as he’s ever been to a final judgment on his original death sentence for the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The U.S. Supreme Court in April rejected a last appeal for a new trial. A petition by the Philadelphia district attorney demanding reinstatement of Abu-Jamal’s death penalty, which was thrown out by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, is pending.

But over convenience-store coffee, sitting in the backyard of his childhood home in Wynnefield where he still lives and where his film is being edited in a room upstairs, Hill is taking it all in stride in his trademark Ben Roethlisberger jersey. Read the rest of this entry »

Rob wrote about the murders of Christopher Newsom and Channon Christian back in 2007, which still gets many hits. People want to know about this case and find out if justice will be served.

Well it was today….with little media fanfare, unlike the Duke case which fit the particular narrative our media wants to present:

A Knox County jury today put torture-slaying alleged ringleader Lemaricus Davidson on the path to death.

With a sweeping set of guilty verdicts on all murder counts, the five-woman, seven-man jury set the stage for the state’s bid Thursday to seek Davidson’s life as punishment for the January 2007 deaths of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

“The people of Knox County are the ones who took care of our kids today,” said Deena Christian, mother of Channon Christian. Read the rest of this entry »

Via ABC News:

A pharmacy college graduate made a defiant appearance in federal court Wednesday, hours after being charged with conspiring with two other men in a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq.

Authorities say the men’s plans — in which they used code words like “peanut butter and jelly” for fighting in Somalia and “culinary school” for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said.

Tarek Mehanna, 27, was arrested Wednesday morning at his parents’ home in Sudbury, an upscale suburb 20 miles west of Boston, and appeared for a brief hearing later in the day. When ordered by the judge to stand to hear the charge against him, he refused. He finally did stand — tossing his chair loudly to the floor — only after his father urged him to do so.

“This really, really is a show,” his father, Ahmed Mehanna, said afterward.

Uh…no. That would be balloon boy and his father. This is different…

Read the rest of this entry »

I spent the entire night of September 25-26, 2009 following the g20 protests on Twitter, YouTube, and many related websites that were steaming live information about the event and I drew many important lessons from a night that will go down in infamy in American history.

On the 25th, thousands of protesters (possibly millions according to some online accounts) descended upon Pittsburgh, PA to demonstrate for various causes at the G20 Summit. It was the second day of marching. There were socialists, anarchists, and environmentalists; everyone from veteran protesters who were marching in the 60s to wide-eyed college kids drawn by the idealism and excitement. Some were there to protest peacefully while others were there to cause violence and property damage.

One man, who has yet to reveal his real name, caused over $20,000 of damage singlehandedly by smashing between 12-15 shop windows during the march.

To contain such instigators, and to keep demonstrators on the marching path, the Pittsburgh Police Department was dispatched in full riot gear. For a currently unknown reason, violence broke out. Both sides claim that the other acted first. As seen in the video link below there were helicopters with floodlights, APCs with loudspeakers and sound cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets, ballistic beanbags, and German Shepherds (as seen in another video taken on site.) Police did not hold back when attempting to disperse crowds and used all legal force at their disposal. They were caught off guard in February, they wouldn’t be caught off guard now. There was general chaos in the city and it spilled over into a university campus and involved innocent bystanders.

In some YouTube videos, sizable crowds of college kids can be seen running for safety away from police.

This video gives an excellent sense of the police crackdown from a student’s point of view.

From this perspective it may seem that we live in a fascist state that oppresses those who speak out against government policies. However, a closer examination of the organizers of the march reveals the truth behind the violence and subsequent propaganda. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Provisions of the PATRIOT Act (”Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”) are set to expire at the end of the year.

NYTimes:

WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to consider extending crucial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups and some Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to press for sweeping changes to surveillance laws.

Both the House and the Senate are set to hold their first committee hearings this week on whether to reauthorize three sections of the Patriot Act that expire at the end of this year. The provisions expanded the power of the F.B.I. to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone calls in the course of a counterterrorism investigation.

Is this really an “expansion” of power? Or a matter of updating existing powers in order for the F.B.I. to effectively do its job of protecting American lives in wake of 21st century technological advancements?

Read the rest of this entry »

Coming on the heels of Cheney’s FOX News Sunday interview, in which the former Vice President leveled criticism toward the current President that he is increasing America’s vulnerability to terrorism, is an interview by Jake Tapper with the president’s National Security Adviser, Gen. Jim Jones (Ret.). Jones claims that under the Obama Administration, we have been more successful in putting terrorists out of business and in improving international relations:

“This type of radical fundamentalism or terrorism is a threat not only to the United States but to the global community,” Jones said. “The world is coming together on this matter now that President Obama has taken the leadership on it and is approaching it in a slightly different way – actually a radically different way – to discuss things with other rulers to enhance the working relationships with law enforcement agencies – both national and international.”

Jones said that “we are seeing results that indicate more captures, more deaths of radical leaders and a kind of a global coming-together by the fact that this is a threat to not only the United States but to the world at-large and the world is moving toward doing something about it.”

The former Marine General didn’t provide any specific numbers to back up his claim, but he said “there is an increasing trend and I think we seen that in different parts of the world over the last few months for sure.” He added that he was not “making a tally sheet saying we are killing more people, capturing more people than they did — that is not the issue.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr. says this is no longer America and the First Amendment no longer applies. Unfrakkin’believable!

Hat tip Caleb Howe

As approval ratings for President Obama and the Democrats’ Congress continue to fall-with both independents and the Democratic Party base leaving the support column, the Obama Admin has turned to its old tactic of distraction by torture. That is to say, they’ve leaked to the press some new sort of report about allegations of torture conducted during the early years of the Bush Administration.
Read the rest of this entry »

Getty Images

Well, well, well….today’s the day we head over at the White House, where everybody knows their names:
Read the rest of this entry »

Something strange is happening in America. For the first time, a white man is standing up to a black man’s charge of racism. And he is being supported by his employer. In another first, the media coverage of this event is not employing the time worn premise that only whites can be racist.

For those of you who may have missed the unrelenting 24/7 media coverage of the latest racial tempest in a teapot, the basic facts: A white policeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the alert for 2 reported black burglars, detained a prominent black professor. The black professor then proceeded to play the race card, accusing the officer of being a racist. After challenging the authority and the mother of the policeman, professor Henry Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct.

This incident may have gone the way of millions of others but for the fact that this professor was a friend of President Obama. Luckily for Henry Gates, the most powerful man in the world took time out from pressing affairs to take his call.

The President then announced publicly that the Cambridge Police Department ‘acted stupidly’, even while acknowledging that he wasn’t familiar with all the details. That our president chose to get involved in the first place is a discussion for another time. Read the rest of this entry »

The 9-11 call has come out in the Gates incident and it vindicates the caller.

Transcript:

DISPATCH: What’s the exact location of your emergency?

911 CALLER: I’m calling from Ware Street in Cambridge. The house number is 17.

DISPATCH: What’s the address again?

911 CALLER: Sorry, it’s 7 Ware that’s W-A-R-E Street.

DISPATCH: The residency is 7 Ware Street, right?

911 CALLER: No, it’s 17. I’m sorry. There’s a woman who’s talking next to me but it’s 17. 1-7 Ware Street. Read the rest of this entry »

This was originally televised back in April, but was repeated again tonight:

Too bad Lesley Stahl couldn’t utilize footage of 20/20’s “Virginia Tech” gun experiment (which looks to have been aired the same weekend as the 60 Minutes ep) to buttress her “more gun control/guns are bad” push:

Read the rest of this entry »