Dreazen writes:

[...] The deadly rampage at Fort Hood is forcing Pentagon officials to confront difficult questions about the military's growing Muslim population.

The military has worked hard to recruit more Muslims since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the number of Muslim troops, while still small, has been increasing. There were 3,409 Muslims in the active-duty military as of April 2008, according to Pentagon statistics.

Military personnel don't have to disclose their religions, and many officials believe the actual number of Muslim soldiers may be at least 10,000 higher than the Pentagon statistics. For instance, the military "Officer Record Brief" of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, said he had "no religious preference" and didn't identify him as a Muslim.

[...] The push to boost Muslim representation has proven to be a double-edged sword for the military, which desperately needs the Muslim soldiers for their language skills and cultural knowledge, but also worries that a small percentage of those soldiers might harbor extremist ideologies or choose to turn their guns on their fellow soldiers.

Related: The Godfathers of the Ummah

Ah, the wonders of Obanomics and Hopenchange. But puhleese, don't question Dear Leader's competency.

Update: Fox News just reported that unemployment actually jumped to 10.2%. We can all now anxiously wait Team Obambi's spin on this.

Related:
Obama in Feb.: Without Stimulus Bill, 'Unemployment will approach double digits.'
Destroying More Jobs Cannot Wait Until Monday

It turns out that Nidal Hasan, the Ft. Hood jihadi major who killed 12 people and wounded 31 yesterday, was listed as a participant in the Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force between April 2008 and January 2009 when Barack Obama was inaugurated

Knowing that Muslim officers like Hasan serve in the U.S. military and participate in a presidential transition task force involving our homeland security, are you feeling safe now? Would you feel any safer knowing that Barack Obama appointed two devout Muslims to posts inside Homeland Security and one of them was instrumental in taking down the LA Police Department's plan to monitor it's Muslim community? Are you feeling safer knowing that Barack Obama has said that his administration needs more Muslims, and the the issue was encouraged by Muslim U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn (see Keith Ellison, CAIR, and Hamas) and the Obama administration got the names from the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association.

And let's recall that Hasan's not the first Muslim "with issues" who has served in the US military. Remember Sgt Asan Akbar and those US soldiers he callously murdered? And let's think about how Hasan's murderous rampage closely resembles one that five Muslim men in New Jersey tried to carry out at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 2007, when they plotted to enter the U.S. Army base and murder as many soldiers as they could. And let's not forget the Beltway sniper John Mohammad - another Muslim with "had issues."

In other words, there's sufficient reason to be leery of "peaceful, America-loving," Muslims in America, as well as their true agenda - especially when placed of positions of responsibility or that put them in a position to compromise national security (remember, we are at war with radical Islam - regardless of how team Obambi tries to reframe it).

This brings us to a take-home question proposed by David Vance over at The Tangled Web:

Is it safe to allow Muslims to serve in our military at a time when we are at war with militant Islam?

5:41 PM update - Ace says a local radio reporter just said the major is a MUSLIM convert. But with an Arabic-sounding name it seems that the major was either born a Muslim or changed his name later when he converted (turns out he is a born Muslim and is still alive and in stable condition).

9:46 PM update: A source tells NPR's Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time. Also, it it turns out that Hasan had made at least one web positing expressing admiration for sucide bombers:

One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the Internet posting. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

There is one eye-witness report of Hasan yelling in Arabic during the shooting:

James Hunt, 27, serving with the 510th Combat Engineers, was with his platoon at the base's Soldier Readiness Center where soldiers who are about to be deployed undergo medical screening. He is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in January.

But because James had broken his foot several weeks ago, he was sent outside and told to get some extra paperwork that would clear him for deployment. James was waiting in the parking lot of the center when the shooting started, his father said.

"Everybody started running and shouting, and he saw the wounded come out," Tom Hunt said. "He didn't hear the shooting, but he said it was 'a bloody mess.'"

Hunt said his son told him he loaded up many of the wounded and drove them to the hospital. The wounded relayed what they saw inside when the shooting happened.

"They were telling him that one guy was shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting," Tom Hunt said. "He couldn't say much more than that."

Via NBC: 7 dead, 20 injured in Fort Hood shooting.

At least seven people were killed and 20 wounded in a mass shooting Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, one of the largest military complexes in the world, NBC News and affiliate KCEN reported.

Two suspects were captured and four swat officers were wounded, NBC News and KCEN, based in Waco, Texas, reported. The station had earlier said that one of the shooters had been holed up in a building on the base and had opened fire on SWAT team members. KCEN quoted a source as saying the shooter had a high-powered rifle.

KCEN reported that a policeman was among those shot. The shootings took place in two locations on the base -- at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater, according to a military spokesman.

Update: Fox is reporting that 12 are now dead and 31 confirmed wounded.

Update: Ace has it that MSNBC is saying that the captured man is an Army major "with an Arabic sounding name".

Update: Military spokesman confirms that the shooters were U.S, soldiers.

Pure speculation: Could they be "al-Qaeda moles"? At least one commenter on Fox posited the possibility. And just now, an FBI profiler said on MSNBC that he had never heard of multiple PTSD cases getting together for such an attack and says the profile of the attack points more to "political or religious" reasons."

Related:
CBS & NBC Fail to ID Hasan as Muslim; ABC's Raddatz Relays: 'I Wish His Name was Smith'
Obama's Pet-Goat Moment
Another Belgium-American goes beserk

Incredibly, as though it's some kind of game he's playing, Barack Obama recently told Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) in a telephone conversation that when he said in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress that "under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions" he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president's own health care plan - which has never been written.

In other words, Barack Obama is a liar, and knew he was lying when he said in his Sept 9 speech that no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.

Update: Down to the Wire on Healthcare Abortion Language

How about the $5 billion to weatherize homes having yielded only a little over 5,000 jobs so far? Laughable?

How about the Kentucky shoe store that reported it had created nine jobs with an $890 order for work boots? Laughable?

And how about a $7,960 contract for a "Basketball System Replacement" in Ohio claiming three jobs? Laughable?

Claims like these make The New York Times report that "Reports Show Conflicting Number of Jobs Attributed to Stimulus Money" seem like an understatement, at the very least. As Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who served as director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) from 2003 through 2005 is a bit more direct, says "The Obama Administration's claims of fiscal responsibility are both hypocritical .... [a]nd laughable," and that doing nothing would have been better.

Yes, Obama's job claims are indeed laughable. As IBD notes don't be fooled. No jobs are being generated by the stimulus, but a lot are being lost - along with the wealth of an entire generation.

Related: A Laughable Defense of the Stimulus

As I say, it was all so obvious. No president in modern times has come to power with less political experience and less managerial experience. On the other hand, no president has come to power with a clearer record of political extremism. Senator Barack Obama had the most left-wing voting record in the Senate, brief as his record was. Back in Illinois he had a record of associations with extremists that would have sunk any other presidential candidate. Think of his friendship with Bill Ayers, a co-founder of the Weather Underground that actually bombed public buildings in the 1960s. Think of Obama's attendance week after week at religious services where the Rev. Jeremiah Wright thundered forth with diatribes lilting with such lines as "God damn America." The radical direction of the Obama presidency was foreordained.

Via NewsBusters:

Uniquely among Wednesday's broadcast network evening newscasts, ABC's World News with Charles Gibson informed viewers that the Israeli navy earlier in the day intercepted a record quantity of weapons supplied by Iran and destined for Hezbollah, in violation of a United Nations resolution forbidding the arming of the Lebanon-based terrorist group. Host Gibson set up the report: "Israeli navy commandos today seized a ship off the coast of Cyprus. Israel's defense ministry says it was loaded with tons of weapons bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. It is the largest cache of weapons ever interdicted by the Israelis, who say the arms came from one source: Iran."

Correspondent Simon McGregor-Wood opened his report by relaying that the quantity of weapons seized was enough to "keep the Islamic radicals of Hezbollah fighting for a month." And as he concluded the report, he also gave credibility to the conservative view that Iran should not be trusted in negotiations over its nuclear program: "Today's interception won't substantially reduce Hezbollah's military power, but it strengthens Israel's warning to those trying to negotiate with Iran - including the U.S. - it can't be trusted." (More)

So although Charlie completely missed (ignored?) the ACORN story, he deserves some credit for getting this one right.

[...] If you start the tally when the bills' spending would actually start (in 2013 for the House bill and 2014 for the Senate bill), then the bills' real 10-year costs become clear -- and are remarkably similar.

The CBO reports that, in their true first 10 years, the House bill would cost $1.8 trillion, and the Senate bill would cost $1.7 trillion. Pelosi would raise Americans' taxes by $1.1 trillion over that period, while Reid would hike them by $1 trillion.

And the House bill would siphon about $800 billion from Medicare to spend it elsewhere, while the Senate bill would suck out about $900 billion.

So the financial bottom lines are almost the same.

And if we discount the bills' claims to divert hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare (which is already on the edge of insolvency), the CBO says the House bill would raise our national debt by about $650 billion in its real first decade, while the Senate bill would up it by $740 billion.

So, the bills would either sock older Americans by taking huge sums of money from Medicare -- or hit future generations with huge tax hikes to cover the shortfall.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/prescriptions_for_disaster_lrgi3GBjbGlIZFrM8hHXJO#ixzz0VyzK7AQq

Related video: Pelosi's health care bill hurt young doctors and bring rationed care:

Related article: How 'reform' leads to more uninsured

[...] There was uproar in Italy today over a ruling by the European court of human rights that the crucifixes that hang in most Italian classrooms are a violation of religious and educational freedoms.

The seven judges, whose decision could prompt a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols on public premises, said state schools had to "observe confessional neutrality".

Except on the far left, the ruling met with condemnation among Italian politicians and was denounced by the Vatican. Silvio Berlusconi's education minister, Maria Stella Gelmini, said: "No one, not even some ideologically motivated European court, will succeed in rubbing out our identity."

A Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said the crucifix was a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture, and was a symbol of unity and welcoming for all of humanity, not one of exclusion.

A European court had no right intervening in such a profoundly Italian matter, he said, adding: "It seems as if the court wanted to ignore the role of Christianity in forming Europe's identity, which was and remains essential."

The ruling marked the end of an eight-year battle by a Finnish-born mother, Soile Lautsi. She took her cause to court after failing to get crucifixes removed from the school at which her two children were being taught at a town in north-east Italy.

[...] One government minister, Roberto Calderoli, of the Northern League, said yesterday: "The European court has trodden on our rights, our culture, our history, our traditions and our values."

Having your nation's "rights, culture, history, traditions and values" trodden upon is the result of Italy forfeiting it's sovereignty to the European union, just as will be the case for America when Barack Obama completes his pursuit down a path toward establishing a one-world government.

Here's a sample. Remember, this is just one of the 11:.

GOTHAM AVENUE SCHOOL -- 2-7-09

Here's the likely website for the school. Per the video's title, these are fifth graders.

Video Title: "Ending - Part II of the 5th Grade Performance"

Video Note: Special thanks to Mr. Lewis.

Partial Transcript:

We believe in Barack Obama
He loves you and he loves your mama
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah
With all the change he's building
Gonna bring hope to the children
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah

Change
That we can believe in
Change
That we can believe in
Change
That we can believe in

We believe in Barack Obama
He loves you and he loves your mama
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah
With all the change he's building
Gonna bring hope to the children
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah

Change
That we can believe in
Change
That we can believe in
Change
That we can believe in

Yeah, haha, haha.
Alright, come on now, here we go;
You know we gotta get Barack and all of his crew
In the White House so they can prove that
In their hearts they know what to do
And that includes Michelle and the kiddies too

[kids chanting] "There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America."
We believe in Barack Obama
He loves you and he loves your mama
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah
With all the change he's building
Gonna bring hope to the children
We believe in Barack Obama, yeah

Almost as much as there's the consideration of the "yuck" factor and the creepiness of this "Dear Leader" worship, can you imagine the media outrage if this was going on for a Republican president?

H/t - Sister Toldjah

John Fund: The state has received a flood of 180,000 absentee ballot requests. On some 3,000 forms the signature doesn't match the one on file with county clerks. Yet citing concerns that voters would be disenfranchised, Democratic Party lawyer Paul Josephson wrote New Jersey's secretary of state asking her "to instruct County Clerks not to deny applications on the basis of signature comparison alone." Mr. Josephson maintained that county clerks "may be overworked and are likely not trained in handwriting analysis" and insisted that voters with suspect applications should be allowed to cast provisional ballots. Those ballots, of course, would then provide a pool of votes that would be subject to litigation in any recount, with the occupant of New Jersey's highest office determined by Florida 2000-style scrutiny of ballot applications.

Related: Too bad to check: NJ Dems sending gangbangers on GOTV efforts?

"American policymakers should not look to European health-care solutions for answers, or attempt to duplicate them. If government is the main cause of the current problems of health care, why would you think that more government is the solution?"

More information at The Center for Freedom and Prosperity.