SoonerBlue

I've been trying to understand the horrors that happened at Ft. Hood yesterday. My heart goes out to the families who were devastated by this tragedy. Just unbelievable.

Why did these people die? On a well-protected and supposedly safe Army base? Why did this Major go on such a rampage? We won't know his motivation until a lot more facts are uncovered...but that doesn't stop the speculation.

A spokesman from the Department of Defense said it's an isolated case. A Ft. Hood General said the evidence does not suggest an act of terrorism.

Better tell that to the rabid righties...who don't seem to have the decency to allow people to get over their shock before they start the most vile smears of Islam and Muslims.

Muslim does not equal terrorism...see the last four or five terrorist killings in the US. There is a difference between Muslims and Muslim Jihadists...just like the difference between Christians and Christian killers of abortion doctors. Both are examples of religion gone crazy. Jim Jones is an excellent example of religion gone crazy...he just killed with Koolaid instead of bullets.

It's usually Middle East military returnees who snap and go on killing rampages. Like the one Marine who killed five people at Camp Pendleton, three of them his family. There are many other sad examples.

But, this Major had never been to war, he was a mental health professional who counseled soldiers returning from war. A war he saw through the eyes of broken soldiers disintegrating under the stress of seeing and participating in atrocities.

TV said Hasan received poor performance reports when he worked at Walter Reed Hospital, so he's been having trouble for a while. That's why they sent him to Ft. Hood.

From what we know so far, I tend to think that this is just a very mentally disturbed officer...who was building up steam against going to a war that he didn't believe in. His religion obviously had a lot to do with his state of mind. Witnesses said he yelled out "God is Good!" in Arabic before he started shooting.

No, I don't think that al Qaeda is infiltrating our military. But, yes, this tragedy probably resulted from Hasan's conflicts with duty to his religion and duty to his country. These mixed loyalties caused him to crack.

He had actually hired a lawyer to help him get out of the Army.

From all accounts so far, he did not want to be deployed to Iraq. So maybe this whole thing was like "suicide by cop"...except this time the cops were military.

Living in an Army town, I've been worrying about something like this. Thousands of war vets, lots of tension, lots of frustration, lots of stress and PTSD from being deployed too many times...you figure sooner or later, someone's gonna blow.

It's the same in Ft. Hood. An Army wife living on base told a TV reporter that she used to feel safe living there, but there had been a rise in domestic violence, in bar fights, etc.

I hope they can keep Hasan alive...the better to figure it all out.

And it's great that Kimberly Munley is still alive...she's the first responder who put an end to the carnage when she shot Hasan. Most excellent. You go girl! I'm sorry you were shot four times...and I didn't like what I heard on TV this morning -- that there may have been "friendly fire".....

I followed last night's election results with great interest...Democrats won a couple and lost a couple. Looks like voters are the most upset about jobs and the economy.

I already knew Republicans would win governorships in NJ and VA. Democrat Jim Corzine ran a lousy campaign based on Karl Rove's dirty tricks and deserved to lose NJ.

We had a sucky candidate who ran a sucky campaign in VA...enough for Republican Bob McDonnell to get by with that thesis he once wrote on keeping women subjugated. He also probably won because he didn't buy into Tea Party ideology and kept Sarah Palin at bay.

So Teabaggers can relax....New Jersey and Virginia are safe from a Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Let's party like it was 1871! The NY-23 Democratic win against the Tea Party Conservative candidate sure helped me sleep a little better. Looks like the traditional wing of the Republican party said "hell, no" to the crazies.

Take that Teabaggers and Birthers! You drink too deeply from the cup of Palin, Beck and Limbaugh.

But don't get too giddy, lefties... this doesn't mean the Teabagger movement is smothered in its crib. They won't give up this easily. But if NY-23 was a trial run for Florida.... if the Republicans don't want to see Florida go the way of NY-23, somebody better rein 'em in.

In a way, I hope no one does...we Dems love to see them run wild.

It was a shame that left-wing zealot Republican Dede Scozzafava got chased off from NY-23 by Glenn Beck and the Teabaggers -- hey, nice name for a rightie rock band -- but the crazies didn't have the smarts to back a moderate who could win in a moderate district by just being moderate.

It was good that Dede threw her lot in with loyal comrade Democrat Bill Owens...and if he isn't up to the job of crushing those capitalist pigs, Chairman Obamovich can always exile him to Siberia...or North Dakota.

Is anybody amused because the Republican Party spent $900,000.00 on a Republican who dropped out and endorsed the Democrat? Or because the combined votes for Scozzafava and Hoffman would have given them a win? In a district that had been held by the GOP since 1871...when Ulysses S. Grant was President....

The GOP might be better off taking a Hoffman loss, rather than emboldening third parties in 2010. Remember Ralph Nader and Florida in 2000? Third parties are suicide...but the hard-left and hard-right wings often get impatient with the moderates and try it from time to time.

I know the Republican establishment is spineless and out of ideas, but for us to have a decent two-party system, someone needs to save the GOP. It dang sure ain’t gonna be me...but if someone wants to try, I'’ll loan you my garlic necklace, silver bullets, crucifix and wooden stakes....oh, and you might need some pitchforks and torches.

And don't worry, there's not all that many of them...they call themselves the base of the party, but they're just the fringe...the lunatic fringe.

I have a year's supply of popcorn, I'm going to love every minute of the Loony Teabagger Revolution. It's going to make the Goldwater thang look like a walk in the park.