* From Karl Rove (Wall Street Journal) "Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia governors' races last week—despite eight campaign appearances in the two states by President Barack Obama—have unnerved Democrats.
Instead, the narrative Obama White House officials are writing about themselves is that they are uncompromising, ungracious, and ready to run roughshod over popular opinion. They have mastered the Chicago way of politics: reward friends, punish enemies, and jam the opposition. Voters have a tendency to quickly grow tired of pugnacious governance...
Maybe the Obama inner sanctum realizes that its agenda is unpopular and will cost many Democrats their seats next year but calculates that enough will survive to keep the party in control of Congress. Perhaps they have decided that Mr. Obama's goal of turning America into a European-style social democracy is worth risking a voter revolt.
Many Democrats who will be on the ballot next year may come to a different conclusion."
* On Wednesday’s CBS Early Show, the increasingly ludicrous co-host Harry Smith cited the Iraq war and post traumatic stress disorder as causes of the mass murder at Ft. Hood. Not the deliberate, premeditated act of a terrorist. Not radical Islam. Not the jihadist spirit that Nidal Hassan had embraced. Talk about missing the forest because of seeing (invented) trees. And, by the way, Hassan had never served in combat thus making Smith's reference to post traumatic stress disorder particularly irrelevant. Added Smith, "The more people go back to these fields, these theaters of war, either in Iraq or Afghanistan, it multiplies the incidence of these kinds of things occurring.”
* Christian activist Rick Pearcey has a sure-fire way to know if you're ethically dead; namely, if, like a lifeless body, you tolerate anything. (Alas, Rick's formula reminds reminds me of more than a few organizations, politicians...and preachers.)
* In an interview with ABC News' Jake Tapper, President Obama conceded that, if the Obama/Pelosi health care bill becomes law, Americans who do not buy insurance will be subject to fines and even jail time. This very serious threat, the administration assures us, is aimed only at so-called deadbeats. However, if abortion coverage is mandated in the final bill (as Democrat leaders all insist it will be), the penalties end up being aimed at Christians who will conscientiously avoid "aiding and abetting" abortion in any way.
* Jonah Goldberg -- "President Obama was right when he said, in the early hours after the [Ft. Hood] shooting, that people shouldn't 'jump to conclusions' (a lesson he might have learned when he jumped to the wrong conclusion about a white cop who arrested Henry Louis Gates, a black Harvard professor). But just as we should not jump to conclusions, we shouldn't jump away from them.
Despite reports that Hasan had shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as he opened fire, MSNBC's Chris Matthews insisted that 'we may never know if religion was a factor at Ft. Hood.' Thursday night, NBC and CBS refrained from even reporting the man's name. Meanwhile, ABC's Martha Raddatz's reporting on the subject reflected a yearning for denial: 'As for the suspect, Nadal Hasan, as one officer's wife told me, "I wish his name was Smith."'
We have a real problem when much of the political and journalistic establishment is eager to jump to the conclusion that peaceful political opponents are in league with violent extremists, but is terrified to consider the possibility that violent extremists really are violent extremists if doing so means calling attention to the fact that they are Muslims..."
* Tarek Fatah in the Ottawa Citizen -- "As dozens of talking heads descended on CNN and FOX TV to give their opinions on the Fort Hood massacre last week, no one seemed to notice the significance of the attire that suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan was wearing the morning of the killings. It was captured on a store surveillance video as Maj. Hasan bought a coffee.
CNN's Arab commentator incorrectly reported that the major was wearing 'Muslim garb' commonly worn in Jordan, and that it reflected his devoutness as a Muslim. However, to Pakistanis and Afghans watching the clip around the world, his clothing reflected something far more significant and sinister.
Maj. Hasan was wearing the 'shalwar-kameez,' the traditional attire worn by Pashtuns on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border. Had Maj. Hasan been of Pakistani or Afghan ancestry, it would have meant very little, but for an Arab-American to wear this attire was significant.
In the Middle East, over five million Pakistanis and Afghans work and live among the local Arab population. The shalwar-kameez is common on the streets of Dubai and Jeddah, but no Arab male would ever want to be seen wearing this garb. I have lived a decade in the Arab world and not once did I see an Arab wearing the shalwar-kameez.
Having said that there is one particular group of Arabs who did embrace the garb of the Pashtuns. They were the "Afghan Arabs" who went to Afghanistan to wage jihad alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban...
