A: This is their best chance to get it passed. Once 2010 starts congressmen and women will be under siege. Apparently Nancy Pelosi has studied her Civil War history:

At successive battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River and Cold Harbor, the casualty lists would grow, for both armies. However, Lee knew in this war of attrition, Grant had the edge – more available troops, and the ability to bring in new recruits. He had warned Jefferson Davis that if the war turned to a siege, in front of Richmond, it would be a matter of time, before the Confederacy would be beaten. It would become a siege, in front of Richmond, and Petersburg, during the summer of 1864 – a siege that would last ten months

The Tea Party Marches yesterday and the continuing pressure put on means that Pelosi and the administration will have more strength now then at any time in the future. To wit:

“The thing that Pelosi has going for her right now is that a lot of her members are more afraid of her than they are of their constituents,” says the GOP insider. He notes that Pelosi has plenty of weapons to make life miserable for members who cross her — “any benefits the member can have for the remainder of this Congress, the kind of support they’ll have going into next year’s election, and if they lose, what kind of post-Congress opportunities they will have.” All could be endangered by a vote against the health care bill.

It is a desperate attack (although it shouldn’t be with an 80 seat majority. The fact that it IS desperate shows what a lemon this stuff is) but it is the right political move. As York concludes:

No doubt a number of Democrats looked outside and saw the crowd. But they’re in a tough place: fearful of their constituents’ anger, on one side, and of their speaker’s anger on the other.

It’s a bad choice. But in the end, Pelosi can’t fire them. The voters can. “As the old saying goes, cross thin ice at your own peril,” said 77-year-old Herbert Rosser, who came to the rally from Raleigh, N.C. “The American people are going to make them pay a price for it.”

The closer you get to that election date the more real that cost is. Once we get to the first quarter of next year it’s all over. Pelosi has to strike NOW.

Motive a mystery after Fort Hood Rampage

 

 

I had some weird dreams last night but I didn’t dream anything that weird.

Wasn’t this the same MSNBC that made fun of Pelosi yesterday over calling Tuesday’s election a win? (And did so today on Morning Joe)

I can’t imagine why some of us might think Jihad would have been the motive.

Doris Kerns Goodwin on Morning Joe says she can’t figure out what could drive to this. This is a Historian?

Gee maybe if she talked to the military friend I talked to last night she might get a clue from the earlier case of Sgt Hasan Akbar.

Its avoidance of reality has real consequences, increasing the dangers Americans face. “This country’s officials are in a state of denial and confusion that is almost as frightening as the terrorism they are supposed to be fighting,” observes Dennis Prager, only slightly exaggerating.

Second, the Akbar incident points to the suspect allegiance of some Muslims in government. The case of Gamal Abdel-Hafiz recently surfaced: an FBI agent whose colleagues say he twice refused to record conversations with suspected financiers of militant Islamic terrorism (“A Muslim does not record another Muslim”). [The Seattle Times reports three witnesses recalling that John Allen Muhammad, the man accused of the Washington, D.C.-area sniper murders last fall, had thrown a grenade into a tent during the 1991 war against Iraq.] Other cases are under investigation.

All of which reinforces what I wrote in January: “There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism, as do Muslim chaplains in prisons and the armed forces. Muslim visitors and immigrants must undergo additional background checks. Mosques require a scrutiny beyond that applied to churches and temples.”

Hasan now sits on death row.

BTW if you want to know how far LGF has fallen, none of his posts on the subject mention Islam or the fact that he is Muslim. So for the benefit of LGF readers who are convinced that this is another case of the Flemish Menace striking again, here is how you identify them.

know the flemish menace

Your guide to the Flemish Menace!

I guess Charles has joined the MSM, after all it was the same MSM that was ready to tag tea party sympathizers for the Bill Sparkman… Murder … suicide?

Investigators probing the death of a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest increasingly doubt he was killed because of his government job and are pursuing the possibility he committed suicide, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said no final conclusions have been made in the case. In recent weeks, however, investigators have grown more skeptical that 51-year-old Bill Sparkman died at the hands of someone angry at the federal government.

The officials said investigators continue to look closely at suicide as a possible cause of Sparkman’s death for a number of reasons. There were no defensive wounds on Sparkman’s body, and while his hands were bound with duct-tape, they were still somewhat mobile, suggesting he could have manipulated the rope, the officials said.

That still seems a stretch to me but I’ll defer for now to Robert Stacy who actually reported from there.

That article had a dateline from Washington, D.C., where Barrett is based, so you can bet money that it was Barrett’s unauthorized source at the Justice Department — and not McMurray’s sources in Kentucky — who leaked the tidbit about “fed” scrawled on the chest and the “anti-government sentiment” motive.

OK, so here’s the deal with anonymous sources: The source who gives a reporter bad information automatically forfeits his right to anonymity. Barrett’s source misled him, so that the entire premise of that Sept. 23 article was bogus.

Remember the same papers (and Charles) who were POSITIVE that this was a tea party murder has no idea why Islamic Killer Major Malik Nadal Hasan did it.

Al-Qaeda got a win yesterday, the media is trying to give them a second one. It is an insult to our intelligence. As via Glenn Phillis Chester says:

The Jihadist Is Always the Victim

 

Update: MSNBC jumped away from the new conference to talk to Jim Miklaszewski. He is reporting that he shouted “Allah Akbar” while shooting. Mika looks like someone just peed in her cereal. They now bring up the possibility that is it a “political” killing…and immediately jump to the AARP endorsing Obamacare. That’s the story of the day apparently.

Update 2: Yes I know I can’t spell to save my life, but while I’m fixing that spelling error let’s link to the Newsbusters story that reminds us of some of the Sparkman speculation. You can find my coverage of it here.

Right now Col Terry Lee who worked with the Islamic Killer Major Malik Nadal Hasan states that he personally heard this man speak in favor of Jihad and in favor of the attack that took place at the Little Rock recruitment center. According to the Col this person considered it proper that Muslims take arms against American soldiers.

The odds of this not being a Jihad attack in my opinion are about equal to the chance of me turning into Captain Marvel if I say SHAZAM but even if you want to pretend that this is not the case this is a huge win for Al-Qaeda.

Fairly or not this is going to force the military to take a closer look at Muslim soldiers in general and American Muslims in particular. As a convert I’d be very interested in the Mosque where he studied at. NOTE: His cousin just said he was NOT a convert.

This is a big defeat for us today, it’s a battle lost, but the war goes on and we are going to win it.

May God have mercy on the souls of all the dead and we pray for the quick recovery of those who are wounded.

On Fox news his cousin is calling him a “good American”. If that’s a good American I’d like to see a bad one. I know this guy is blood and family is going to defend family but COME ON!

Memeorandum has plenty more. There is a lot we don’t know so be sure to take all early reports with a grain of salt.

Update Hotair has the clip that I just was watching. I’ll toss it in here.

It is worth looking at AllahPundit’s coverage from the top down. It shows you how a story develops and how information changes over time, so as i said before, take everything with a grain of salt.

Update 2: At least one person on the left has a vivid imagination.

Update 3: Shep Smith just said: “We consider this a major news event” DUH! Ya Think? My wife doesn’t watch the news but Shep is driving her crazy. O’Reilly is now on and the air so my wife will let Fox stay on.

Q: So big that Katty Kay of the BBC said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning that Bill Owens had better not buy any property near Washington because he likely won’t be staying. That’s some win Nancy.

If liberals can’t even sell your meme on MSNBC with a BBC reporter then they have problems.