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Hot Air » Obamateurism of the Day

2009-11-14T17:17:47Z

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President Obama: Beta Male http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=beta+male

Here’s a rare Saturday OOTD for Hot Air readers, but this one can’t wait for Monday. Andrew Malcolm reports on Barack Obama’s latest breach of protocol, this time with Emperor Akihito of Japan:

How low will the new American president go for the world’s royalty?
This photo will get Democrat President Obama a lot of approving nods in Japan this weekend, especially among the older generation of Japanese who still pay attention to the royal family living in its downtown castle. Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference for a superior.
To some in the United States, however, an upright handshake might have looked better. Remember Michelle Obama casually patting Britain’s Queen Elizabeth on the back during their Buckingham Palace visit? America’s royalty tends to make movies and get bad reviews and lots of money as a sign of respect.
Obama could receive some frowns back home as he did for his not-quite-this-low-or-maybe-about-the-same-bow to the Saudi king not so long ago.

Seven months ago, the White House insisted that Obama didn’t bow to Saudi King Abdullah, understanding the terrible breach in presidential protocol that it represented. They tried to tell reporters that Obama was picking something up off the floor, which the video clearly shows was a lie (at the link). Take a look at the picture of Obama’s bow to the son of Hirohito. Do you see anything on that immaculate floor that requires retrieval?

American Presidents do not bow to royalty. In fact, heads of state do not bow or genuflect to each other in the normal course of diplomacy. At least, they didn’t until this amateur came into office and failed to learn from the first time he did it. What will the White House say this time? He got stomach cramps?

Update: Here’s video of the bow from a reader that wishes to remain anonymous:

Clearly a bow … and clearly not reciprocated.

Here We Go Again With Obama Bowing And Scraping

2009-11-14T17:10:35Z

This time it's to the Emperor of Japan.

I'm sure there are a lot of liberal bloggers burning up the Google servers trying to find an image of Bush doing this. Hopefully for their credibility they can find something better than Bush leaning over to have a medal placed around his neck.

Also, I guess given this we can now assume that idea that the idea Obama was just picking something up off the floor when he bowed to Saudi King Abdulah is um, no longer operative.

As for this case, is it proper protocol for the US President to bow to royalty? Nope. Here's how the NY Times described a much less subservient image of Bill Clinton kind of nodding to Akihito.

It wasn't a bow, exactly. But Mr. Clinton came close. He inclined his head and shoulders forward, he pressed his hands together. It lasted no longer than a snapshot, but the image on the South Lawn was indelible: an obsequent President, and the Emperor of Japan.
...But the "thou need not bow" commandment from the State Department's protocol office maintained a constancy of more than 200 years. Administration officials scurried to insist that the eager-to-please President had not really done the unthinkable.
"It was not a bow-bow, if you know what I mean," said Ambassador Molly Raiser, the chief of protocol.

What Clinton did may not have been a Whoppie Glodbergesq "bow-bow" but what Obama did certainly was.

I think most Americans find the idea of bowing to royalty kind of silly. The Emperor of Japan would be different simply because it's the cultural tradition to bow to anyone when you meet them in Japan. Obama however, isn't a tourist or a businessman hungry to close a deal. He is American head of state and he doesn't bow to other heads of state. Well, he didn't until recently.

More about bowing in Japan...

I wouldn't be upset if it was a little head nod or even a shoulder kind of deal but this is clearly subservient.

It depends on the social status or age of the person you bow to. If the person is higher status or older than you are, you should bow deeper and longer. It is polite to bow, bending from your waist. Men usually keep their hands in their sides, and women usually put their hands together on their thighs with their fingers touching. If it is a casual situation, you can bow like nodding. The most frequent bow is a bow of about 15 degrees. You might feel strange to do it, but try to bow in Japan. You will be considered very polite.

I wonder if Akihito bowed first. I doubt it since they are shaking hands and the idea of the Emperor bowing to someone would be scandalous in Japan. Plus, you don't need to do both, shake hands and bow, and these things are (or should be) choreographed in advance.

Obama's bow is way too deep. Yeah, Akihito is older but that's not the important factor here. Obama should not be putting himself where he is in the position of lower status.

That's fine for Barack Obama, International Man of the Lef but President Barack Obama needs to stand tall for American (literally and figuratively).

A Convenient Time for Bob Bauer?

2009-11-14T05:08:19Z

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http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/88384/

Hmmm. This story about a raid on the New Orleans ACORN office last week didn't garner much attention at the time, but now it appears it could be more significant and have wider consequences. At least according to GOP Congressman Steve King. Some may dismiss this as conspiracy quackery, but it's worth noting.

Newly appointed White House counsel Bob Bauer is "perfectly positioned to be tasked with erasing the tracks between Obama and ACORN," one Republican lawmaker charged Friday.

The lawyer's hiring, announced this morning shortly after Greg Craig officially resigned the post, was also an attempt by the White House to deflect any fallout that may arise from an ACORN investigation currently underway in Louisiana, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) added in a statement.

“Bob Bauer has a public record of defending Barack Obama’s relationship with ACORN, the congressman told supporters. "Bauer’s hiring appears to be a tactical maneuver to strategically defend the White House exactly one week after Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell raided ACORN's national headquarters in New Orleans and seized paper records and computer hard drives that may lead to the White House.”

However, the link between Bauer, the president and ACORN's Louisiana office is long, winding and confusing, at best.

According to King, Bauer -- who worked for Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign -- was they key player in a politicized fight between the campaign and President George W. Bush's Justice Department over an investigation of suspected ACORN voting fraud.

While Bauer, for the most part, signaled in a letter he was unconvinced that ACORN had committed any wrongdoing, he compared the investigation itself to the partisan battle over the firing of a number of U.S. attorneys in 2008 because of their political inclinations. Consequently, he asked the Justice Department shortly after to appoint the same special prosecutor who made the attorney determination to look into the ACORN matter.

"With this voter fraud [investigation], we're seeing an unholy alliance of law enforcement and the ugliest form of partisan politics," Bauer said in October.

King, however, believes that statement was code for "back off from interfering with ACORN's activities," according to his statement. He also said Bauer's return to Obama's team at a time when law enforcement officials just finished raiding an ACORN office in Louisiana -- part of an investigation into whether it committed tax fraud and embezzlement -- signifies malfeasance is again afoot.

Of course, malfeasance by ACORN is redundant. But you can be sure Obama's close ties to ACORN are a problem for him, even though most of his approved media continue to ignore his ties to this criminal organization. And surely I won't be holding my breath that Obama stooge Eric Holder will ever let an investigation get anywhere near his boss.

CNN Calls Fort Hood Killer Hasan a “Conservative”

2009-11-14T04:14:36Z

Now that the whole world knows that Fort Hood killer Nidal Hasan is an Islamist terrorist and nobody’s buying that he’s a victim, the state-run media’s moved on to a new tactic and are calling this Islamic radical a “conservative.”
Rush Limbaugh reported on this today:

RUSH: The media is twisting itself into pretzels — pretzels! — doing everything they can to deny the obvious reality of Fort Hood. Last night, CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, Special Investigations Correspondent Drew Griffin reported this about the Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan.

GRIFFIN: Hasan made NO attempt to hide his religion or his conservative Muslim ideology, which is exactly why some experts are convinced Nidal Hasan is NOT a terrorist.

RUSH: Outrageous on two counts! There is nothing “conservative” about Islamofascism. These people in the media continue to refer to anything they think is evil as “conservative.”

That’s pretty sick stuff by CNN but not surprising.
It’s right up their with their conservative teabagger jokes.

By the way Hasan was known to frequent strip clubs, was against the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and said that Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor America.
This hardly sounds like your typical American conservative.

The Media, The Left and GOP Elitists v. Sarah Palin: A Lesson on How to Destroy a Leader (Afterburner with Bill Whittle) - free

2009-11-14T04:15:27Z

Shared by hpb
This is from a while back, but it's well worth watching again.

Hot Air » Quotes of the day

2009-11-14T03:27:25Z

“Please spare us talk of the ‘rule of law.’ If that was the primary consideration, the U.S. already has a judicial process in place. The current special military tribunals were created by the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which was adopted with bipartisan Congressional support after the Supreme Court’s Hamdan decision obliged the executive and legislative branches to approve a detailed plan to prosecute the illegal ‘enemy combatants’ captured since 9/11.

“Contrary to liberal myth, military tribunals aren’t a break with 200-plus years of American jurisprudence. Eight Nazis who snuck into the U.S. in June 1942 were tried by a similar court and most were hanged within two months. Before the Obama Administration stopped all proceedings earlier this year pending yesterday’s decision, the tribunals at Gitmo had earned a reputation for fairness and independence…

“Most Americans, we suspect, can overlook the legal niceties and see this episode through the lens of common sense. Foreign terrorists who wage war on America and everything it stands for have no place sitting in a court of law born of the values they so detest. Mr. Holder has honored mass murder by treating it like any other crime.”

***
Via the Right Scoop.

Confederate Yankee: Census Worker Made Suicide Look Like Homicide for Insurance Payoff?

2009-11-14T03:15:29Z

I guess they'll quietly drop this from the narrative.

Two law enforcement officials, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said investigators were trying to determine whether Bill Sparkman committed suicide but altered the scene to make it look like a homicide, allowing his son to collect.
Life insurance policies typically do not cover suicides within a certain time period after the policy begins.

Sad, in so many ways.

Investors.com - Clueless Summit

2009-11-14T02:57:04Z

Economy: Next month's "Jobs Summit" at the White House promises to feature a lot of posing and preening by Washington politicians. Unfortunately, despite lots of photo ops, it's not likely to result in many jobs.

Something's wrong when the government of the most prolific job-creating economy in history has to schedule a "summit" to decide how to create jobs.

This isn't rocket science. Any business owner, entrepreneur or manager can tell you that job creation requires new businesses, new investment in plant and equipment, and economic policies conducive to both.

But so far, those in charge in Washington seem to be doing everything in their power to kill jobs, whether it's hiking the minimum wage, snubbing trade deals, imposing new mandates with health reforms and climate controls, or paving the way for a massive 69% increase in capital-gains tax rates by letting the Bush cuts expire.

All told, these and other initiatives, plus the higher spending that goes with them, will suck as much as $13 trillion out of our economy over the next decade.

Yet Democrats are shocked — shocked! — that the unemployment rate has surged to a 26-year high of 10.2%, nearly a third higher than estimated in February. And that more than 4 million jobs have been lost this year despite $700 billion in bailouts, $787 billion in "stimulus," record-low interest rates of 0%, and more than $1 trillion in liquidity pumped into the banking system.

Given this record, the only real reason for a jobs summit is to appear to be "doing something" about the labor market implosion. After all, 2010 is a midterm election year, and the Democrats' ability to continue their leftist tinkering with our once-mighty economy hinges on voters giving them another chance.

Well, they don't need a summit. Job creation closely tracks investment in plants and equipment. So anything the government does to remove barriers to business investment — whether by cutting regulations, slashing taxes or reducing government spending — will lead to more jobs.

Of particular importance are small businesses, which — as a new report from the Kauffman Foundation noted — created virtually all the new jobs from 1980 to 2005.

Today, small firms suffer the most damage from congressional incompetence. The newly passed health care bill, for example, slaps families with more than $500,000 in income with an added 5.4% tax. But, according to Congress' Joint Tax Committee, a third of this will be paid by small, family-owned businesses.

The government's fiscal insanity hurts everyone. The Congressional Budget Office reckons that government outlays will grow at least 67% over the next 10 years while public debt more than doubles to $14.3 trillion. In short, not an ideal time for entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, as Americans in the hundreds of thousands lose their jobs each month, the government continues to siphon off badly needed investment capital, waste money to keep failed companies afloat, discourage personal savings and erect barriers to hiring.

If this continues, don't expect the "Sorry, not hiring" signs to come down very soon — summit or no summit.

Investors.com - A Tax To Grind

2009-11-14T02:56:34Z

Fiscal Policy: The average tax rate assessed to corporations worldwide has fallen 10 years in a row, but the U.S. isn't driving the trend. Policymakers in the most advanced economy continue to punish their constituents.

Washington refuses to cut the corporate tax rate. It has languished for more than a decade at roughly 40%, when state and local corporate taxes are figured in, KPMG reports in its 2009 Corporate and Indirect Tax Rate Survey. Republican administrations with GOP majorities in Congress, Democratic White Houses with Democrats in control of the Capitol, split governments — it doesn't matter. The U.S. corporate rate has acquired a stubborn staying power while globally, until this year at least, "corporate taxes have been driven steadily down," says KPMG.

A nation's corporate tax rate is important. Its effect on a country's competitiveness and its ability to draw or repel investment has a direct impact on economic health.

"High tax rates deprive companies of both the means and the incentive to take advantage of new market opportunities or technological changes that can improve productivity," wrote Terry Miller, director of the Heritage Foundation international economics center, and policy analyst Anthony Kim, in a memo the center published last year.

"In a business environment where capital flows are extremely mobile, lower tax rates do matter in attracting more business investment," they added.

They certainly mattered in Ireland. Once a laggard, it became the economic jewel of Europe in the last decade by attracting business through cuts in its corporate tax rate. Slashing the rate — now 12.5% — pulled the nation out of the mire in the 1990s and trimming it again would turn around its current economic difficulties.

While the U.S. has not moved its corporate tax rate, there has been an effective tax increase in this country as other nations have lowered theirs. On these pages two years ago, J.T. Young, a frequent IBD contributor who has served both at Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget, wrote that the competitive advantage the U.S. once enjoyed has narrowed over the last two decades as other nations cut their corporate tax rates.

A few years previous to Young's observation, researchers Young Lee and Roger H. Gordon noted "that increases in corporate tax rates lead to lower future growth rates within countries."

It would seem, then, that a corporate tax cut would be in order. But how much should it be cut? In their paper, which appeared in the Journal of Public Economics in June 2005, Lee and Gordon indicate "that a cut in the corporate tax rate by 10 percentage points will raise the annual growth rate by one to two percentage points."

The Tax Foundation says that "if Lee and Gordon are right, by cutting the U.S.' combined federal and average state corporate tax rate from roughly 40% to 30%, we could boost U.S. economic growth by around 1.1% per year — enough to double our nation's wealth every 63 years."

The U.S. jobless rate landed in double digits last month. Not since 1983 has the unemployment rate been as high as the 10.2% mark of October. Americans need to work, and one simple way to encourage job creation would be to cut the corporate tax rate.

Video: Glenn Beck devotes entire show to black conservatives

2009-11-14T02:49:51Z

A brilliant idea, although I hope the participants know that they’re now fair game for “progressive” blackface photoshops mocking them as traitors to their race. The Clinton coalition is fracturing, thanks to The One’s statism on steroids; every white surbanbite vote that’s lost will have to be made up with a minority vote, which means the volume on the demagoguery will have to be turned up that much higher. You’re a brave man, Charles Payne.

You can watch the entire episode at Fox News. Enjoy.

Watch the latest business video at FOXBusiness.com

Polish President Vows to Never Allow The EU to Remove Crucifixes From Its Schools....

2009-11-14T01:09:57Z

Suck it, EU....

WARSAW, Poland — Heavily Catholic Poland has joined the Vatican in criticizing a European court ruling against the display of crucifixes in Italian schools.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country will never agree to remove crosses from its schools.
The Nov. 3 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights does not require that Poland remove the crosses that hang in most public schools. It could, however, eventually force a review of the use of religious symbols in government-run school across Europe.
The decision touched a nerve in Poland, where religious symbols were banned from public buildings under communist rule but embraced with the return to democracy 20 years ago as an expression of national sovereignty.
During Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday in Warsaw, Kaczynski said that "nobody in Poland will accept the message that you can't hang crosses in schools."

ZIP

American Companies Abandon Ship [Digg]

2009-11-12T20:33:30-08:00

If you're looking for relief in the unemployment numbers, don't hold your breath.

What's Wrong With Socialism? [Digg]

2009-11-12T06:52:58-08:00

>...this is the challenge we face. My young coworker had no frame of reference by which to judge the events unfolding around him. He had been presented with only the intentions of socialism, not the inevitable results. He had been given the whitewashed fantasy of the Left, who never saw a failure that couldn't be rationalized.....>>

2009-11-12 Bob Gorrell

2009-11-12T00:00:00Z

2009-11-12 Nate Beeler

2009-11-12T00:00:00Z

Chart: Dow Priced in Gold

2009-11-14T02:16:21Z

Paul Kedrosky offers one of the best charts I've seen in recent days: the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced in gold.

Look, I'm no quant guy, but doesn't it look like we can anticipate either a serious drop in the Dow or a spike in the price of gold? Or... maybe both?

They Came To Destroy America

2009-11-14T02:16:10Z

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the chief planner of the 9/11 attacks, was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on March 1, 2003. KSM was shipped to a U.S. facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where other terrorists, enemy combatants and prisoners-of-war -- most captured on the battlefield -- were detained.

Jose Padilla, a convicted felon and former Chicago gang member, was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare International Airport. Padilla had been under surveillance for months, since he'd arrived at the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan asking for a replacement passport.

The State Department asked other agencies to investigate why a man named Padilla was hanging around in Karachi. U.S. officials investigated and found that he had met with al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There, he'd learned to wire explosive devices and disperse radiological material. Padilla's planned acts of sabotage were independently verified by Abu Zubaydah, the most senior al-Qaida figure captured by U.S. authorities.

KSM and Padilla could be held indefinitely as enemy combatants without being charged, according to John McGinnis, professor of constitutional law at Northwestern Law School. Enemy combatants, even if U.S. citizens, are no more subject to criminal law than were Wehrmacht troops on the beaches of Normandy.

The history of "enemy combatant" status lies in the tale of seven Nazi agents who came ashore in 1942. Their mission: sabotage the war effort through acts of terror. One agent, a man named Haupt, was also a U.S. citizen.

The Nazis were captured before they could launch their terrorist attacks against rail lines, waterways and factories. President Roosevelt ordered them tried by military commission, but the detainees filed a petition of habeus corpus to challenge their military detention using the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Could the president arrest and detain such persons in the United States without involving the judiciary?

Unanimously, the Supreme Court ruled that he could. Saboteurs without uniforms were "enemy combatants" and therefore subject to military jurisdiction. Even Haupt, the U.S. citizen, could be so held. The Supreme Court stated: "Citizens who ... enter this country bent on hostile acts are enemy belligerents within the meaning of the Hague Convention ..."

Thus, as far back as 1942, the Supreme Court clearly described the legal status of enemy combatants.

No President -- not Lincoln, not Wilson, not Roosevelt, not Kennedy -- no President has ever granted POWs and enemy combatants the rights of U.S. citizens and the comforts of the federal criminal justice system.

But this President permits the radical left trial bar -- the ACLU and other avowed enemies of the Constitution -- to pervert American law and tradition. Risking an acquittal on American soil. Risking disclosure of highly classified information that helps protect the U.S. homeland.

These acts desecrate the memories of 3,000 American souls who died at the hands of the most vicious terrorists in history. I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican or Independent. It's sickening.

Fill in the Thought Bubble

2009-11-13T16:04:00Z

Chairman Zero to Begin Purging Republicans from Civil Service Jobs

2009-11-13T21:27:29Z

Shared by hpb
This has gone around; I didn't think I'd shared it yet.
I don't know how Obama defenders let all this stuff pass.

Remember the massive tantrums thrown by the left when the Bush Administration fired a handful of U.S. Attorneys? Do you remember that? How the left howled endlessly about how terrible it was to fire these attorneys for "political" reasons? Remember how the Obamacrat Congress agreed this was a terrible, terrible misuse of power and demanded full investigations?

Amazing how on 01.20.2009, all the rules changed.

Under new (Obama Administration) rules, made retroactive for five years, the Office of Personnel Management will examine civil service employees who got their start as political appointees in the Bush administration and terminate those employees. The order is retroactive to 2004, that moment when a number of Republican congressional staffers and others sought to embed into the second Bush administration right after the election.

Hope, Change, and Purging of All Who Might Be Disloyal to Dear Leader. It's how they do it in Chicago.

(via RedState)

2009-11-12 Chip Bok

2009-11-12T08:00:00Z

Vet-Speak By Oliver North

2009-11-13T19:08:50Z

They have come from every state in the union -- more than 50,000 veterans and their families. They are here to celebrate "Veterans Homecoming Week" in a city that "never forgets our heroes," where businesses proclaim to "hire veterans first" and entertainers proudly announce the units with which they served -- to the applause and cheers of fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines. They come for reunions with comrades from campaigns in faraway places and to remember their shared sacrifice in long-ago battles. They come here because Tony Orlando's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" melody means something special to them and because the parade down Branson's Main Street every Nov. 11 reminds them of -- well -- America.

For nearly a decade, it has been my great privilege to interview thousands of our active duty military personnel, veterans and their families. Fox News has sent me to every theater of war in which Americans have fought since World War II -- and given me the opportunity to keep company with heroes. For two years in a row, I have covered this remarkable celebration in Branson. Last year, it was just days after a presidential election, and among the thousands of vets and their families, there was a sense of "watchful waiting." Because Americans in general -- and veterans in particular -- are innately fair, they were willing to give a new commander in chief and his administration a chance. That "decent interval" is over.

This year, we arrived just four days after the terrible carnage at Fort Hood. Within hours, it was clear these veterans -- normally reticent, rarely outspoken, invariably polite -- are, in their terms, "fed up" with our national leadership.

The veterans who spoke with me in Branson this year do not represent all 20 million American veterans and their families, and this is hardly a "scientific sampling" of public opinion. Everyone here knows I work for Fox News. Most are fans of the network. Some are veterans I previously have interviewed for "War Stories" or for Fox News in Iraq, Afghanistan or here in Branson.

But these men and women really are a cross section of mainstream America. Most served a single "hitch" in the military. About 25 percent of them are "retirees." All of them self-identify as respected community leaders at home. Many have sons, daughters or grandchildren serving in today's armed forces. Some now serve or have served in local or state elected or appointed office, and many volunteered their party affiliations.

This year, as I always do, I asked, "What was the last unit with which you served; where; when; and what did you do when you left the service?" In no case did I ask about politics, nor did I solicit their opinions about the current White House.

Herewith, excerpts from responses elicited from nearly 10 hours of meetings during the course of two days with these great Americans:

"I served in the 82nd Airborne Division from 1942 to 1945. ... When I came back to the states, we got married, and I went to work for a car dealer. ... We eventually bought the dealership. Two of our sons served in Vietnam. ... What happened at Fort Hood isn't a 'tragedy'; it's a travesty. ... It should never have happened. ... The people who knew about this guy Hasan and did nothing to stop him ought to be fired. All of 'em."

"In 1950, I was six weeks out of boot camp when I landed with the 1st Marine Division at Inchon. ... We fought our way through Seoul all the way to the 'Frozen Chosin.' ... I retired in 1970 as a master gunnery sergeant after two tours in Vietnam. ... Both our sons served as officers in the Corps. ... Our daughter was a Navy nurse in Desert Storm. ... This crowd in Washington scares us. A few months ago, they were telling us that our biggest threat was disgruntled veterans and right-wing extremists. ... That's not who's killing Americans."

"I was drafted in 1969, served in Vietnam with the 1st Cav, was medically discharged from the Army in 1973 ... came home and married my high-school sweetheart. I used the GI Bill to get my degree, taught English for 20 years, and retired as the principal of our high school. ... We're Democrats. ... We're sick and tired of being told by this White House not to 'jump to conclusions or rush to judgment' about what happened at Fort Hood. ... How can the president tell us what this guy Hasan did is 'incomprehensible'? What don't they comprehend about militant Islamists?"

And from a young staff sergeant wearing a Purple Heart medal on his uniform and standing beside his pregnant wife: "I came in because of the attack on 9/11. I've done three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. We agreed I was going to stay in. But if we're not in to win, I'm getting out."

Though the sentiments of these veterans may hearten opponents of the Obama administration, it is notable that the overwhelming complaint was leveled not only at the White House but also at Washington. Incumbents: Sound reveille.

Charles Krauthammer: Medicalizing Mass Murder

2009-11-13T19:06:33Z

What a surprise -- that someone who shouts "AllahuAkbar" (the "God is great" jihadist battle cry) as he is shooting up a roomof American soldiers might have Islamist motives. It certainly was asurprise to the mainstream media, which spent the weekend after the FortHood massacre downplaying Nidal Hasan's religious beliefs.

"I cringe that he's a Muslim. ... I think he's probably just a nutcase," said Newsweek's Evan Thomas. Some were more adamant. Time's JoeKlein decried "odious attempts by Jewish extremists ... to argue that themassacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of hisIslamic beliefs." While none could match Klein's peculiar cherchez-le-juif motif, the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They suffered. He listened. He snapped.

Really? What about the doctors and nurses, the counselors and physicaltherapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who every day hear and livewith the pain and the suffering of returning soldiers? How many of themthen picked up a gun and shot 51 innocents?

And what about civilian psychiatrists -- not the Upper West Sidetherapist treating Woody Allen neurotics, but the thousands of doctorsworking with hospitalized psychotics -- who every day hear not just talesbut cries of the most excruciating anguish, of the most unimaginabletorment? How many of those doctors commit mass murder?

It's been decades since I practiced psychiatry. Perhaps I missed theepidemic.

But, of course, if the shooter is named Nidal Hasan, whom NationalPublic Radio reported had been trying to proselytize doctors and patients,then something must be found. Presto! Secondary post-traumatic stressdisorder, a handy invention to allow one to ignore the obvious.

And the perfect moral finesse. Medicalizing mass murder not onlyexonerates. It turns the murderer into a victim, indeed a sympathetic one.After all, secondary PTSD, for those who believe in it (you won't find itin DSM-IV-TR, psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), is known as"compassion fatigue." The poor man -- pushed over the edge by an excess ofsensitivity.

Have we totally lost our moral bearings? Nidal Hasan (allegedly)cold-bloodedly killed 13 innocent people. In such cases, politicalcorrectness is not just an abomination. It's a danger, clear and present.

Consider the Army's treatment of Hasan's previous behavior. NPR'sDaniel Zwerdling interviewed a Hasan colleague at Walter Reed about ahair-raising Grand Rounds that Hasan had apparently given. Grand Rounds arethe most serious academic event at a teaching hospital -- attendingphysicians, residents and students gather for a lecture on an instructivecase history or therapeutic finding.

I've been to dozens of these. In fact, I gave one myself onpost-traumatic retrograde amnesia -- as you can see, these lectures arefairly technical. Not Hasan's. His was an hour-long disquisition on what hecalled the Koranic view of military service, jihad and war. It included anallegedly authoritative elaboration of the punishments visited uponnonbelievers -- consignment to hell, decapitation, having hot oil poureddown your throat. This "really freaked a lot of doctors out," reported NPR.

Nor was this the only incident. "The psychiatrist," reportedZwerdling, "said that he was the kind of guy who the staff actually stoodaround in the hallway saying: Do you think he's a terrorist, or is he justweird?"

Was anything done about this potential danger? Of course not. Whowants to be accused of Islamophobia and prejudice against a colleague'sreligion?

One must not speak of such things. Not even now. Not even after weknow that Hasan was in communication with a notorious Yemen-based jihadpropagandist. As late as Tuesday, The New York Times was running a story onhow returning soldiers at Fort Hood had a high level of violence.

What does such violence have to do with Hasan? He was not a returningsoldier. And the soldiers who returned home and shot their wives or fellowsoldiers didn't cry "Allahu Akbar" as they squeezed the trigger.

The delicacy about the religion in question -- condescending,politically correct and deadly -- is nothing new. A week after the first(1993) World Trade Center attack, the same New York Times ran the followingfront-page headline about the arrest of one Mohammed Salameh: "Jersey CityMan Is Charged in Bombing of Trade Center."

Ah yes, those Jersey men -- so resentful of New York, so prone toviolence.

American Thinker: Obama's Post-American World [Digg]

2009-11-11T04:07:33-08:00

Unlike Europeans, Americans are always supposed to apologize for themselves. The flaws of Europe run so much deeper than the flaws of America, but the POTUS does not think so.

Investors.com - Power To Spare [Digg]

2009-11-05T19:37:15-08:00

As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything?

Arguing With -Liberals- Idiots [Digg]

2009-10-31T11:46:25-07:00

I've argued with tons of Lefties. Trust me: they don't listen, try to understand, or care. Everyone who disagrees with them is an evil racist, sexist, homophobe driven by intolerance. And that's why it's okay for them to go on narrow-minded rants: teabaggers, evil white males, racists, etc., without even trying to understand the arguments of ...

The Straw Men of the Left [Digg]

2009-10-30T15:08:06-07:00

Republicans would like to see governmental obstacles — excessive taxation, mindless regulations, and an anti-business climate — removed, which would allow the wonder of economic growth to finally win the war on poverty.Alas, all of these facts are inconvenient for the left, who can neither answer them nor explain how raising taxes and inflating

From one that lived under Communism [Digg]

2009-10-28T19:01:58-07:00

I came from where we are heading, I grew up in a Communist country. Unfortunately I see a lot of parallels between the then and there, and the here and now.

Obama's War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent [Digg]

2009-10-27T09:29:59-07:00

Liberal politicians have been spoiled with mainstream media favoritism for so long that they believe anything other than sycophancy is mistreatment. Their selective outrage is as hollow as it is risible.

YouTube - Congressman Mike Rogers' statement on Health Care [Digg]

2009-10-25T13:42:53-07:00

Congressman Rogers' makes his opening statement on Health Care reform legislation that is under debate in Congress.

American Thinker: It's Time for Obama to Get a Clue [Digg]

2009-10-24T11:45:47-07:00

If the Obama administration took as much time to focus on the issues of the day as it does to attack its critics, this country might actually be headed in a different direction - the right direction.

Bare-Fisted Chicago Pol At Home, Pantywaist [Digg]

2009-10-23T18:39:39-07:00

The Chicago way? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. In Iran, this administration won't bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won't bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won't bring a knife to a machete fight. But, if you're doing the overnight show on WZZZ-AM, Mr. Tough Guy's got your number.