The Patriot Post Chronicle 11-11-2009

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 11-11-2009
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country." --George Washington

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. We encourage all Patriots to set aside time and reflect on the sacrifice of our Patriot veterans and those serving today, and honor them accordingly.

On Nov. 11, 1921, an unknown American soldier from World War I was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, in recognition of WWI veterans and in conjunction with the timing of cessation of hostilities at 11 a.m., Nov. 11, 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). President Warren Harding requested that: "All ... citizens ... indulge in a period of silent thanks to God for these ... valorous lives and of supplication for His Divine mercy ... on our beloved country." Inscribed on the Tomb are the words: "Here lies in honored glory an American soldier know but to God." The day became known as "Armistice Day." In 1954, Congress, wanting to recognize the sacrifice of veterans since WWI, proposed to change Armistice Day to Veterans Day in their honor. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, former Supreme Commander in WWII, signed the legislation.

To honor those veterans who sacrificed all, an Army honor guard from the 3d U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) keeps day and night vigil at Arlington. At 11 a.m. this morning, a combined color guard representing all military service branches executed "Present Arms" at the tomb for the laying of a wreath by the president, followed by "Taps."

More than a million Patriots stand ready, or are actively defending our nation today. These men and women were not drafted into service, but volunteered to serve. To all our veterans: Thank you for your dedicated service to the cause of liberty.

To the wounded soldiers and civilians, and the families of those killed or wounded at Fort Hood: Our prayers are with you.

Mark Alexander will have more on Veterans Day in his essay tomorrow, dedicated to the service of two notable veterans.

Insight

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse." --John Stuart Mill

"A really great people, proud and high-spirited, would face all the disasters of war rather than purchase that base prosperity which is bought at the price of national honor." --Theodore Roosevelt

"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory." --George S. Patton

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." --Sir Winston S. Churchill

"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country ... in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their country, for us. All we can do is remember." --Ronald Reagan

Editorial Exegesis

"The Fort Hood terrorist is being portrayed as an 'anomaly,' an 'aberration,' a 'lone wolf.' Sadly, [Nidal Hasan is] just one of many examples of jihadist traitors in the ranks of the military. Together they form a dangerous Fifth Column, and the Pentagon -- thanks to institutionalized political correctness -- is doing next to nothing to root them out. Instead, brass are actively recruiting Muslim soldiers -- whose ranks have swelled to more than 15,000 -- and catering to their faith by erecting mosques even at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va. More, they're hiring Muslim chaplains endorsed by radical Islamic front groups, who convert and radicalize soldiers. In the wake of the worst domestic military-base massacre in U.S. history, this is an outrage to say the least. And the PC blinders explain how Fort Hood commanders could have failed so horrifically in protecting their force from the internal threat there. The terrorist suspect, an Islamic fanatic, penetrated deep into the Army's officer corps before gunning down, execution-style, more than 40 of his fellow soldiers. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly killed 13 at the Texas post, which boasts some 40 Muslims. Witnesses say he shouted 'Allahu Akbar' -- Allah is great! -- before opening fire in a crowded building where troops were sitting ducks, waiting to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, both wars that Hasan angrily opposed. 'Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor,' he reportedly said earlier this year, referring to the U.S. -- the country he swore to protect." --Investor's Business Daily

Upright

"On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, 'Allahu akbar!' ('God is great!') committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam. What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of nondenominational shoplifting. This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's an act of terror. Period." --columnist Ralph Peters

"Maj. Hasan is not a card-carrying member of the Texas branch of al-Qa'ida reporting to a control officer in Yemen or Waziristan. If he were, things would be a lot easier. Yet the same pathologies that drive al-Qa'ida beat within Maj. Hasan, too, and in the end his Islamic impulses trumped his expensive Western education, his psychiatric training, his military discipline -- his entire American identity." --columnist Mark Steyn

"Among the things that people complain about under the present medical care system are the costs, insurance company bureaucrats' denials of reimbursements for some treatments and the free loaders at hospital emergency rooms whose costs have to be paid by others. Will a government-run medical system make these things better or worse? This very basic question seldom seems to get asked, much less answered." --economist Thomas Sowell

"Advocates of government control want you to believe that the serious shortcomings of our medical and insurance system are failures of the free market. But that's impossible because our market is not free. Each state operates a cozy medical and insurance cartel that restricts competition through licensing and keeps prices higher than they would be in a genuine free market. But the planners won't talk about that. After all, if government is the problem in the first place, how can they justify a government takeover?" --columnist John Stossel

"Congress recognizes no limits on its power. It doesn't care about the Constitution, it doesn't care about your inalienable rights, it doesn't care about the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights, it doesn't even read the laws it writes. America, this is not an academic issue. If this health care bill becomes law, life as you have known it, freedom as you have exercised it, privacy as you have enjoyed it, will cease to be." --Judge Andrew Napolitano

"Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize Congress to force Americans to buy health insurance? If Congress gets away with forcing us to buy health insurance, down the line, what else will they force us to buy; or do you naively think they will stop with health insurance?" --economist Walter E. Williams

Dezinformatsia

Gratuitous Christian bashing: "It's looking more and more like [Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan] was just, sort of, a religious nut. And you know Islam doesn't have a majority -- or the Christian religion has its full, you know, full helping of nuts too." --CBS's Bob Schieffer

What was the tragedy again? "It really is tragic that he was a Muslim." --NPR's Nina Totenberg

"I cringe that he's a Muslim. I mean, because it inflames all the fears. I think he's probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going and it just -- I mean these things are tragic, but that makes it much worse." --Newsweek's Evan Thomas

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 11-11-2009
From The Federalist Patriot
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Non Compos Mentis: "[Hasan] makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qa'ida. Is that the point at which you say, 'This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al-Qa'ida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?" --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

PC virus: "We cannot call him the shooter until we have a trial. That's the way we work here, you know, that's how it works in America." --Chris Matthews

Commie apologist: "Many who were raised in the East are still adjusting to the harsh economic realities, especially during this economic downturn." --NBC's Tom Brokaw, taking the opportunity of the anniversary Berlin Wall's demise to trash capitalism

Because America totally didn't have anything to do with it: "I know, I think it may be a little egocentric but I think most Americans look at that event and they think of it as an American victory." --NBC's Matt Lauer

Fact checking gone wrong: "Nnn, Constitution doesn't have a Preamble. Not. Nope. Stop it. That would be the Declaration of Independence. Ooh." --MSNBC host Rachel Maddow responding to House Minority Leader John Boehner, who actually did quote the preamble to the Declaration

Sometimes the get it right: "The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment. Let's not pretend that it isn't a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won't. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration ... is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind." --New Yorker columnist John Cassidy

Newspulper Headlines:

We Blame George W. Bush: "Chinese Syphilis Outbreak Blamed on Economic Boom" --Associated Press

We Blame Global Warming: "Chinese Scientists in Hot Water Over Icy Weather" --Taipei Times

Breaking News From 1992: "Obama's Honeymoon Is Over" --U.S. News & World Report

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Olbermann, Hannity Get Along at World Series" --TVNewser.com, Nov. 5

News You Can Use: "Expert: Open Window, Not Phone, if Vehicle Is Under Water" --Canadian Press

Bottom Story of the Day: "Leaf Pickup Continues for City Streets" --Worcester (MA) Telegram & Gazette

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

The Demo-gogues

So presidential: "Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support [Democrats who vote against the health care bill] if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit [Democrat voters] and it will encourage the extremists." --Barack Obama in a pep talk to Democrats, using the homosexual slur "teabag" (look it up at your own risk) to describe limited-government protesters

"The reason the tea-baggers are so inflamed is because we are winning." --Bill Clinton, using the same slur

Opposite Day: "On the day that we gather here at the White House and I sign comprehensive health insurance reform legislation into law [senators will] be able to join their House colleagues and say this was their finest moment in public service." --Barack Obama opining on how destroying the world's best medical care will be Leftist politicos' "finest moment"

Crime and punishment: "What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don't, you're subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it's affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you ... you know, there's nothing wrong with a penalty. ... Penalties are appropriate for people who try to free ride the system and force others to pay for their health insurance." --Barack Obama when asked if the up to $250,000 fine and jail time for not buying insurance was appropriate (If we didn't subsidize them in the first place, this might not be a problem.)

"[The bill] provides [sic] coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers [sic] everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it." --Michigan Democrat Rep. John Dingell (Whether they want it or not.)

The shooter was the victim: "Even within the extraordinary military that we have -- and I think everybody understands how outstanding the young men and women in uniform are under the most severe stress -- there are going to be instances in which an individual cracks." --Barack Obama

Gun grabbers: "Unfortunately, America loves guns. We love guns to a point that, uh, we see the devastation on a daily basis." --Chicago mayor Richard Daley on the Fort Hood massacre

It's always about Obama: "I'd like to extend my congratulations to the people of Germany and the people of Europe on this 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall. I'm sorry I could not stand there today with so many friends. ... Few would have foreseen on that day that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it." --narcissist in chief, BO, by video to those celebrating the Wall's demise

Say what? "I know that in the past people are concerned, 'Are we going to have our young people being taught to the test?' That's the last thing we want." --Barack Obama

Village Idiots

Brought to you by the "Religion of Peace": "Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. ... Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact, the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal." --Anwar al-Awlaki, former Muslim cleric who led the Northern Virginia mosque that Hasan attended -- and which 9/11 terrorists Nawaf al-Hazmi, Hani Hanjour and Khalid al-Mihdhar also attended in 2001

From the Department of Military Correctness: "I think the speculation [that Hasan committed jihad against his Army comrades] could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers. ... I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here." --Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Army Chief of Political Correctness

"It's still premature to draw the terrorism conclusion." --NBC terrorism analyst Roger Cressy on Hasan

Wannabe pundits: "America needs to do something about idiots with handguns. How many more Fort Hoods and Orlandos do there have to be before our political leaders have the guts to severely restrict access to murderous weapons?" --sportswriter Peter King, blaming the implement instead of the attacker

Short Cuts

"President Obama taped a speech to show to the crowd at the Berlin Wall gala Monday. He reminded the viewing audience he too made history as the first black president. The earth wobbled on its axis from the gravitational pull of three billion people rolling their eyes simultaneously." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"At 69, Pelosi stands a good chance of facing a death panel before she leads a majority of this size again." --Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

"Waiting weeks to get an MRI to find out why you are sick, and then waiting months for an operation, as happens in countries with government-run medical systems, can be not only painful but dangerous. You can be dead by the time they find out what is wrong with you and do something about it. But that will 'bring down the cost of medical care' because you won't be around to require any." --economist Thomas Sowell

"Diversity is good. Maybe not as good as the ability to shoot straight, though in the modern, politically correct Army, you never can tell." --columnist Wesley Pruden

*****

Veritas vos Liberabit -- Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot's editors and staff.

(Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)