“I will continue to say what I’ve said before. You hear in this debate, you hear analogies, you hear references to, you see pictures about and depictions of individuals that are truly stunning, and you hear it all the time. People — imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler.” ~ Robert Gibbs, November 6, 2009
Could you just IMAGINE! Just a few years ago, could you imagine someone walking around with images of Hitler!
How cute is Joe Scarborough calling Secretary Clinton his “girlfriend”?? Repeatedly? Evidently, he has NO idea how much competition he has, does he? Read the rest
Reverend Amy wrote about the heroic civilian police officer Sgt. Kim Munley, barely five feet tall, in “The Fort Hood Shooting, And Its Hero.” And, below, I have added a NEW story published today about Sgt. Munley, courtesy of the Houston Chronicle which offers a truly detailed account of exactly what she did in those fateful seconds. First, here are some more heroes who went above and beyond at Fort Hood. I have bold-faced their identities for you. First, from the Houston Chronicle’s November 6th story, “Army: Fort Hood suspect shouted religious slogan before firing“:
[A]ll the wounded were in stable condition, including the suspect and the policewoman who shot him, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 34.
“It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer,” said Cone, praising her for stopping the gunman despite already being wounded herself. … [Hasan] shot more than 40 people before military police and civilian police officers responded, officials said. He was wounded by a civilian policewoman, who was injured in the exchange, police said.
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1174) on November 7, 2009 at 8:08 AM in Current Affairs | 238 Comments
(This post is bumped up from Friday.)
Major Nidal Malik Hassan short circuited yesterday and we had more American soliders killed in one day at Fort Hood than have been killed in Afghanistan in a single day this year. So much for the dangers of combat. Hassan is not a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder victim. Anyone who tries to push that line is as delusional as Hassan.
What about Islam? We have to deal with these hard facts. There are over 1 billion muslims in the world. If murder and mayhem was a simple consequence of being muslim then we would see horrific, horrendus attacks every day. But we do not. However, Hassan’s religious devotion did not dissuade him from killing unarmed people in a cowardly fashion. The soldiers may have been wearing uniforms but they were not armed and certainly were not in a combat theater.
There was a break down in the Army chain of command. Why? Read the rest
First the taxpayers’ treasure was raided to bail out Wall Street firms. Now it’s happening to 13 of them again, this time by putting their employees ahead of the highest risk groups among us ordinary folks to receive the H1N1 vaccine. Melanie Sloan, the Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington put it best: “In what world do Wall Street employees deserve to be vaccinated ahead of high-risk children, pregnant women and health care workers?”
Due to the tragic events at Fort Hood yesterday, this post was delayed out of respect for those who were lost and wounded. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends, and all those serving at Fort Hood.
Bleary eyed, but sated with my celebratory Belgian pecan waffles, turkey link sausages, numerous cappuccinos, and with a goofy grin plastered on my face, I am happy to report that the New York Yankees have won their 27th World Series Championship. Woohoo!!
The Yankees have christened their new stadium with their 27th World Series Championship in 40 tries. They won the Series 4 - 2 over a gutsy, exceptional Philadelphia Phillies team with a strong 5 2/3 showing by Andy Pettitte. Pettitte gave up 3 runs, but battled hard for outs and got the ones that counted even though he only had 3 days rest. Pedro Martinez was operating on regular rest, but that didn’t keep the Yankees from driving him out of the game early. Joba Chamberlain and Demaso Marte held down the fort until the Yankees could bring in the greatest reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera. Rivera got the last 5 outs of the game, capping a phenomenal year, and post-season, with a final score of 7 - 3. Derek Jeter recorded his 175th hit in his post season appearances, and had a hit in all but one game in the entire Post Season. Alex Rodriguez was hit by pitches three times, as was Mark Teixiera, but A-Rod also provided a tremendous spark to the offense, casting of the demons of post seasons past. Read the rest
The widely anticipated November Unemployment Report covering the month of October was just released. Let’s dive right in and take a look at the numbers . . .
I. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
July: 9.5%
August: 9.4% September: 9.7%
October: 9.8% - November Consensus Expectation: 9.9% - November Actual:10.2% !!!!
>> LD’s comments: this is the shocker and will get all the play. This rate is especially damaging because the participation rate declined. That drop would help the unemployment rate, all other things being equal. The fact that the rate jumped to 10.2% is an indication that job losses jumped much more than otherwise expected with a loss 558k jobs. The underemployment rate (U-6 rate) is 17.5%!! Read the rest
More and more has come out about Nidal Malik Hasan and what appears to be a cold-blooded assassination of 13 people at Fort Hood, 12 military, one civilian, and 28 wounded. The biggest piece of news for me this morning was finding out that Hasan was still alive, and one of the wounded. In addition to Hasan still being alive, we have learned he was desperately trying to get out of the military, and that his religious beliefs were radical in nature as this quote, allegedly ascribed to him would indicate:
‘If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory,’ he is said to have written.
Once again, just to be clear, this is not the belief system of the vast majority of Muslims, but of a very small few fringe elements. All Muslims cannot be painted with a broad brush stroke, just as all Christians, Jews, et al, cannot be categorized by the actions of a few. That being said, in my opinion, this is a horrible interpretation of the Koran, and the words of Muhammad.
For more information on the latest in this case, including additional information on Hasan’s religious beliefs, and posts he allegedly wrote, you can click HERE or HERE. Read the rest
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1174) on November 5, 2009 at 6:00 PM in Current Affairs | 220 Comments
Wanted to comment on the news out of Fort Hood that a muslim U.S. Army officer, Major Malik Nadal Hassan, and perhaps two others, went on a shooting rampage today and killed 11 soldiers and one civilian police officer. This is not the first time a muslim in the U.S. military has turned his weapon on fellow soldiers. A word of caution, initial reports can be quite wrong and we should keep our powder dry.
However, if these initial reports are verified as true this will be bad for muslims in America. Read the rest
CBS News, quoting an anonymous source, reported that Hasan was a licensed psychiatrist in Bethesda, Md. and drug and rehab specialist who got his Virginia psychiatry license in 2005. [Photo caption: An undated photo obtained from www.cstsonline.org shows the gunman, Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, a mental health professional killed after opening fire.]
ABC News is reporting that 12 are dead and 31 wounded.
Suspected Gunman Is Identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan — 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.
Updates: Photo of George Stratton who was shot in the shoulder and was five feet from the shooter. A police officer was shot and killed by one of the shooters who he had shot. The A.P. offers live video coverage. There’s a televised briefing at 6:30 p.m, Fox News reported (postponed). Bret Baier says that Major Hasan was a “mental health professional.” (Now Fox says Maj. Hasan had received a poor performance evaluation.) Via MSNBC:
NBC News’ Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had been promoted to major in May. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said military officials told her that the gunman, who was 39 or 40, was about to be deployed to Iraq and was “upset about it.”
The Obama invincibility that was so much in evidence then seems to have lost its power. People can argue the reasons why these elections, all in places Obama carried handily, were so close. But if he were the political marvel he was thought to be, these races wouldn’t have been contests, but walkovers. So one consequence of this Election Day is the end of his special political magic.
That’s no surprise — as that magic was a largely substanceless froth whipped up by campaign consultants and compliant big-media cheerleaders. [MORE below from this excellent column]
Election 2009 has come and gone with some major changes: VA and NJ have gone Red. Turns out, the races weren’t even all that close. Much is being discussed and debated about the meaning behind these wins by the GOP. I will leave that, and the NY 23 Owens win to the many other voices discussing these races.
There was another election issue on which I wanted to focus instead, and that was the vote in Maine to allow or prohibit Same Sex Marriage. The title of this article pretty much says it all: “Mainers Vote Down Gay Marriage Law“. Dammit.
Here are the particulars:
Maine voters on Tuesday narrowly voted to repeal a law that would have made the state one of a handful that allow same-sex couples to marry.
At 1 a.m., with 87 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, 52.8 percent of Mainers had voted to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law, versus 47.2 percent who voted to keep it.
Yes on 1, which led the people’s veto effort, proclaimed victory at about 12:30 a.m., as supporters gathered on a small stage at the Eastland Park Hotel behind Frank Schubert of Schubert Flint, the public relations firm hired to work on the campaign.
Reprinted from the blog for my syndicated radio show.
Russian Defeat.
The facts of the end of the Cold War support the short and astonishing version that Ronald Reagan’s imagination and style won out over American and Allied doubt and the sadistic and stupid Soviet empire. I learned from Martin and Annalise Anderson, Hoover, that Ronald Reagan carried his entire Cabinet and National Security team across the threshold and into the house of Star Wars just because he believed that Star Wars — a theoretical extravagance against incoming ballistic missiles, never proved at the time — would demoralize and defeat the Soviet hawks.
This is rich. We know about Obama’s many, many czars. Mark Steyn believes Obama has another one, someone of whom you have heard, but who isn’t on the usual list,
Obama Makes Bush His Blame Czar. You know, he has a point - we’ve been hearing for months now “He did it!” from Obama on all sorts of issues.
Steyn begins his piece writing about “Barack’s Rock,” Valerie Jarrett:
Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that “we’re going to speak truth to power.”
Who’s Valerie Jarrett? She’s “Senior Adviser” to the president of the United States – i.e., the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to “speak truth to power” to. But I suppose if you’re as eager to do so as his Senior Adviser, there’s always somebody out there: The Supreme Leader of Iran. The Prime Minister of Belgium. The Deputy Tourism Minister of the Solomon Islands. But no. The Senior Adviser has selected targets closer to home: “I think that what the administration has said very clearly is that we’re going to speak truth to power. When we saw all of the distortions in the course of the summer, when people were coming down to town hall meetings and putting up signs that were scaring seniors to death.”
Ah, right. People “putting up signs.” Can’t have that, can we? The most powerful woman in the inner circle of the most powerful man on Earth has decided to speak truth to powerful people standing in the street with handwritten placards saying “THIS GRAN’MA ISN’T SHOVEL READY.” Was it only a week ago that I wrote about this administration’s peculiar need for domestic enemies?
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1174) on November 4, 2009 at 11:00 PM in Current Affairs | 143 Comments
(Bumped up from earlier today.)
Last night’s election results mean one thing–tell em’ BB.
No amount of moonwalking by the Obama team can alter the results. Read the rest
Monday night, the Phillies did what they needed to do - they won. They got to AJ Burnett early on, forcing Burnett out before he had completed 3 innings. Unfortunately, many Yankee fans were not surprised by this, having grown familiar with his hot and cold performances. In just 2 2/3 innings, Chase Utley hit a 3 run homer (the first homer that was not a solo shot), with one of the runners on base having been walked by Burnett. Ultimately, Burnett was responsible for 6 runs, all earned.
The Yankees bats were slow to warm up, but just like Sunday’s game, they made a game of it. Had Yankees reliever Phil Coke not given up a second home run to Chase Utley, as well as one by Raul Ibanez, the outcome may have been different. The second Chase Utley home run proved to be the difference in the game, and tied him with Reggie Jackson’s World Series record of five. Ironically, Utley’s regular season .282 BA and 31 HRs would not have indicated he would have joined such elite company as Yankee Great Jackson with his five home runs, but that’s baseball. And that’s Utley, who has kept his team in this Series with his bat and defense on the field.
The Yankees, down 8-2 came storming back, and had a chance to tie the game in the 9th with Johnny Damon coming through yet again. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Mark Teixeira’s slumping at the plate continued, and Madson struck him out for the save. The series now stands at 3-2, with the Yankees looking to clinch their 27th World Series Championship as they return home to Yankee Stadium tonight. Read the rest
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1174) on November 4, 2009 at 6:19 PM in Current Affairs | 42 Comments
You tell me. Listen to Nancy Pelosi’s delusional spin.
What are the biggest stories in the market today? Consider the following . . .
1. Warren Buffett makes his single largest acquisition ever with the $34 billion purchase of Burlington Northern
2. Ford posts surprisingly strong auto sales
3. Royal Bank of Scotland becomes the biggest banking bailout yet with another injection of capital
4. Johnson & Johnson announces plans to layoff 7% of its global workforce
Each of these developments is truly meaningful. Interestingly enough, numbers one and two are decidedly constructive while numbers three and four are clearly quite bearish about global prospects. Despite the magnitude of these stories, in my opinion, they pale in comparison to developments in the precious metals and bond markets today. What is happening? Let’s navigate.
The Treasury yield curve is steepening dramatically today with yields on longer term notes and bonds rising by 6 to 8 basis points, while shorter maturities are unchanged. A snapshot of the Treasury market is provided by WSJ Market Data.
Why is the curve steepening? What does that mean? What are the implications for other markets? All great questions. Let’s navigate further. Read the rest
By Larry JohnsoncloseAuthor: Larry JohnsonName: Larry Johnson Email: larry_johnson@earthlink.net Site:http://NoQuarterUSA.net About: Larry C. Johnson is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, who moved subsequently in 1989 to the U.S. Department of State, where he served four years as the deputy director for transportation security, antiterrorism assistance training, and special operations in the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism. He left government service in October 1993 and set up a consulting business. He currently is the co-owner and CEO of BERG Associates, LLC (Business Exposure Reduction Group) and is an expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, and crisis and risk management, and money laundering investigations. Johnson is the founder and main author of No Quarter, a weblog that addresses issues of terrorism and intelligence and politics. NoQuarterUSA was nominated as Best Political Blog of 2008.See Authors Posts (1174) on November 3, 2009 at 10:48 PM in Current Affairs | 45 Comments
Since tonight is a bad night if you are Barack Obama (the candidates he stumped for in Virginia and New Jersey are getting an ass kicking), I though it appropriate to share with you some good news about Barack Obama that you may find surprising. Barack’s kicking some major ass on the counter terrorism front.
I know you may be shocked but the U.S. military force that has the counter terrorism mission is doing some grand things and the results are indisputable. So far this year, at least publicly, you have had the successful rescue of Captain Philipps (he was nabbed by Somali pirates) and the killing of one of the masterminds of the bombings of the US Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania. Here’s the good news that is not getting a lot of press. Read the rest
Just released: Ayn Rand and the World She Made
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Longtime Clinton friend Taylor Branch describes Hillary Clinton to Charlie Rose:
Released October 20th, the latest in Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta series:
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This "terrifying tale of conspiracy and suspense" by Larry's friend Paul Evancoe, a former Navy SEAL, holds a rare 5-star rating by readers. The novel's SEAL heroes "find themselves targeted by two superpowers who will risk war to silence them": Own The Night
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The widely anticipated November Unemployment Report covering the month of October was just released. Let’s dive right in and take a look at the numbers . . .
CBS News, quoting an anonymous source, reported that Hasan was a licensed psychiatrist in Bethesda, Md. and drug and rehab specialist who got his Virginia psychiatry license in 2005. [Photo caption: An undated photo obtained from www.cstsonline.org shows the gunman, Maj. Malik Nadal Hasan, a mental health professional killed after opening fire.]
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
