Victhor The Viking | 
11 9th, 2009| 
November 9th, 2009 5:21 PM
Lieberman Suggests Army Shooter Was ‘Home-Grown Terrorist’
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By Brody Mullins / Wall Street Journal
A senior U.S. senator on Sunday said the shootings at Fort Hood could have been a terrorist attack, and that he would launch a congressional investigation into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who heads the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said initial evidence suggested that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was a “self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist” who had turned to Islamic extremism while under personal stress.
Mr. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, had opened fire Thursday at a soldier processing center at Fort Hood, Tex., killing 13 and wounding 29 in the worst mass shooting on a military facility in the U.S.
Mr. Lieberman, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” cautioned that it remained too early to draw any definitive conclusions. He said his comments were based on “reports that we are receiving” about Mr. Hasan’s actions and comments.
The Army’s top officer, Gen. George Casey, wouldn’t rule out that the shooting was an act of terrorism, but cautioned against speculation at this point. “We all want to know what happened and what motivated the suspect, but we need to … let the investigation take its course,” he told ABC News’s “This Week.”
Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had turned to Islamic extremism, “the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11.”
“We don’t know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act,” Mr. Lieberman added.
The lawmaker said he would begin a Senate investigation aimed at uncovering Mr. Hasan’s motives and asking “whether the Army missed warning signs.” He also called on the Pentagon to begin an independent investigation to determine whether “warning signs were missed.”
Mr. Lieberman said preliminary evidence suggested that Mr. Hasan had denounced the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “In the U.S. Army, this is not a matter of constitutional freedom of speech,” the senator said. “If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone.”
Gen. Casey said the Army was conducting an investigation to try to determine the motivation behind the shootings. “We in the Army will take a very hard look at ourselves and ask ourselves some very hard questions,” he said.
He expressed concern that speculation about the shooting could result in a “backlash” against Muslim soldiers. “What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even-greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here,” he said. “We have a very diverse army. We have a very diverse society. And that gives us all strength.”
Gen. Casey said the Army has taken steps to help identify and help soldiers with mental health issues in an effort to prevent repeats of the shooting at Fort Hood. He said the Army encouraged members of the military to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress.
The Army has also partnered with the National Institute for Health on a $50 million study of suicide, and has a $125 million program aimed at giving soldiers and their family members the “resilient skills they need to make it through these tough times,” the general said.
Like any of the motorist around here are actually going to pay attention to this anyway.
Recently the City of Austin has been installing some brand new (to us) bicycle-specific signage and facilities, namely sharrows and now a set of “Bike Boxes” (aka. advance stop line) at Speedway and 38th Street, seen below:
(photo taken from forum link below, credit to Tim Diller)
Unlike the bike boxes I’m typically used to seeing online and during my trip to Portland, there’s no color differentiation between the bike box and the regular asphalt, and there’s no additional signage to indicate that traffic should stop at the line beyond what is printed on the street itself.
Well Issue 2 in Ohio passed- of course. Well proponents of Issue 2 made it sound like it was a beneficial to the animals. But actually what it does is allow the factory farmers police themselves. Yeah, right. Like that is going to happen.
Read Greg Baur’s [President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary] blog on the issue.
Ironically, the intention of Issue 2 is to prevent meaningful reform by allowing industry officials to define what is “humane.” Agribusiness brought Issue 2 to the ballot in the hopes of heading off legislation proposed by humane advocates to ban some of the cruelest forms of factory farming confinement: veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages. Despite the industry’s effort, change is coming. It has been said that the only constant is change, and this applies in Ohio just as it applies everywhere else.
This is one of the coolest BMX areas to ride at and it happens to be right here in town. If you are a rider and ever in Austin, this is the place to be
via thecomeupbmx.net
Ancestors is the shit. I was just thinking to myself that it would be cool if they played Roadburn and, Holy-Shit, They ARE!
As you all may have noticed, the line-up for Roadburn Festival 2010 has been shaping up nicely. In addition to the bands previously announced, we are very happy to announce the following acts:
JEX THOTH, with siren Jex at the helm, play a distinctive kind of psychedelic doom that encompasses Black Widow, Pentagram, and Amon Duul II. Thriving on occultism and alchemy as well, they’ll take the Roadburn attendees on an extremely interesting doom-odyssey.
“Rural as fuck, and Heathen as a Cunt and thrice as mysterious, Jex Thoth’s is a strange ministry. I imagine this quintet’s audience dwelling in scattered & out-of-the-way homesteads, rarely coming together as a community, and so obliging this itinerant quintet to spread their barbarian information out to their congregation by any means necessary; for their music contains few highs or lows of the Urban variety, and replaces obvious hooks with insidious melodies that emerge then take over our melting plastic minds. Not for Jex Thoth the Metallic K.O. Instead, their Very Rudimentary but extremely evocative and primal sound is circular, beating-the-bounds, ever-returning to earlier themes, pummelling their audience not with a single punch to the head but through a series of muffled and hazy blows to the lower torso… a war of attrition.”“It’s as though the music of Jex Thoth is designed to be heard only in brief snatches as though the musicians had been expected to hawk it from farm to farm, day after day, month after month, their hoary themes gradually… ever so gradually intoxicating their recipients for want of any other tunes to be had in the neighbourhood. But, while it’s good work for the Trolls when they can get it, it’s damned peculiar that such a divine chanteuse should have chosen – of her own free will – to hook up with such a gang of ne’er-do-wells” – Julian Cope, Head Heritage.
Norway’s SHINING is indisputably one of the most hard-hitting and progressive bands from that kingdom. They are constantly pushing musical boundaries, whether avant-garde metal, jazz, prog-rock or psychedelia. The band excels at melding these disparate musical elements into a unique genre of their own, called Black-Jazz. Over the top and sophisticated at the very same time, Shining (NO) create energetically original and thrilling music.
There’s nothing common about the music of Los Angeles quintet ANCESTORS. To peg or try to pigeon hole the art they create would be missing the point. Ancestors weave an unorthodox mixture of sonic textures, down-tempo riffs and rhythms, accented with well-crafted melodies and at times full-throttle assaults. Their music is a journey through the past into the future; a signpost for a quickly emerging force of musical power and creativity.
Ancestors is the shit. I was just thinking to myself that it would be cool if they played Roadburn and, Holy-Shit, They ARE!
I am occasionally asked to give recommendations for tech/software, based on my own usage. I don’t know that I would necessarily follow my own example in terms of tech usage if I were not me, but for everyone who is curious, here’s the hard-and-software I currently use, and the short form reasons why.