David Axelrod is spinning Republican victories in gubernatorial elections as victories for Obamaism. Is there anything this President can’t do? (Or lie about?)

George Neumayr in the American Spectator:

” ‘Victory has a thousand fathers,’ said John F. Kennedy, ‘but defeat is an orphan.’

David Axelrod, netting the prize for the most shameless display of post-defeat spinning, added an additional father to Bob McDonnell’s victory in Virginia: Barack Obama.

McDonnell ran ‘not as a Sarah Palin Republican, but more as a Barack Obama centrist,’ said Axelrod, according to liberal columnist E.J. Dionne.

Axelrod’s fanciful description of Obama as a ‘centrist’ betrays what he denies: that hundreds of thousands of voters in major states once thought permanently blue did recoil from a year of radical, Obama-led change, both real and proposed.”

Barack Obama as a centrist was always  a David Axelrod created myth. This is something we said before the election, and Americans who get their news from the New York Times are finding out afterwards.

If he survives, the Ft. Hood shooter will of course be charged with murder, but it’s reasonable to inquire whether treason should also be charged. After all, for a major in the U.S. Army, trained at taxpayer expense in the use of weapons, to shoot 40 unarmed comrades-in-arms would seem like a reasonable example of waging war on the United States.

However, the Constitution’s delineation of treason might not cover this:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

What does “levying war” mean? Although “levying” is sometimes today said to be the same as “waging,” that doesn’t appear to be the legal definition. In one of the the treason cases (Bollman) growing out of the still mysterious Aaron Burr conspiracy, the Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court ruled in 1807, “But there must be an actual assembling of men for the treasonable purpose, to constitute a levying of war.” In other words, “levying” means raising a body of warriors. Therefore, whether Major Hasan plotted solely alone or was conspiring with others, and if so, did they in some fashion “assemble,” would appear to be relevant.

On the other hand, the second type of treason, “or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort” would appear to be an easier hurdle to leap. The first time the Supreme Court upheld a treason conviction was in the 1947 Haupt case in which naturalized citizen Hans Mark Haupt was sentenced to life in prison for sheltering in his Chicago home his son, a German spy (one of the eight saboteurs landed by a German sub in a semi-farcical failed infiltration). The son was convicted by military tribunal and executed. In the father’s case, noted civil libertarian Justice William O. Douglas wrote the majority opinion upholding the father’s conviction, while Justice Jackson wrote a lonely dissent arguing that the father’s intentions were filial rather than treasonous.

Since the elder Haupt was legally guilty of treason for merely helping his son, then Hasan’s shooting two score American soldiers in cold blood would appear to be an even better example of “adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” However, that does raise the issue of who exactly our Enemies are, a question that has been left rather ambiguous by Congress’ refusal to issue a Declaration of War since 1942.

Peter Brimelow will be on The Bruce Elliott Show tomorrow morning to discuss his article, “After NY-23: Goldwater, Reagan, And The Mirage Of ‘Moderation.’” The program airs in Baltimore and the interview will run shortly after 6:00 a.m. Early risers can listen to the show here.

William Saletan [Email him] writes in Slate

“Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who confronted and shot him in an exchange of gunfire.”[Girls in the Hood | If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America. By William Saletan, November 6, 2009]

That’s stupid–the reason that none of the servicemen present on the scene shot Major Hasan because none of them had a gun. The Army has a mania for keeping loaded guns away from soldiers, which it not only exercises at Fort Hood and Fort Dix, but in Iraq, Afghanistan and on the Mexican Border.

Women can make good police officers, in spite of their physical weakness, but they can’t do ground combat.  Fred Reed explains why:

(more…)

A bunch of people have been shot in Orlando, Florida’s Gateway Center  office building. Police are seeking a man named Jason Rodriguez.

UPDATE: Suspect in custody.

Here’s the AP:

Details emerge about Fort Hood suspect background

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE (AP) – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive.[More]

The word Muslim, which you’ll notice does not appear as a modifier to the word “radical” in “radical Internet postings”. The word Muslim first appears in this story 365 words down, in reference to the fact that Islam is unpopular in the army.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Hasan’s aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had been harassed about being a Muslim in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and he wanted out of the Army.

“Some people can take it and some people cannot,” she said. “He had listened to all of that and he wanted out of the military.”

There’s more about the Muslim background, but they’re still radically puzzled about his motive.(The photograph above shows Nidal Malik Hasan wearing Muslim dress in 7-Eleven on the morning of the attack.)

More from Tim Blair:INFORMATION LEARNED, CONCEALED.

Mark Steyn is talking about it on Rush Limbaugh. (Listen here.)

The alleged Fort Hood shooter turns out to be alive, and there’s been a weird suggestion that he got Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from listening to war stories from patients:

“He would tell us how he would hear things, horrific things,” said cousin Nader Hasan, adding that dealing with soldiers returning from war zones was “affecting him psychologically.”

It is a cruel irony that the very mental disorder Maj. Hasan was trained to treat may have claimed him as a victim. PTSD is increasingly being linked to suicide and violence among troops returning from overseas combat. Media reports indicated Maj. Hasan is single with no children.[National Post]

He may have been unhappy hearing about the war, especially if he was an enemy sympathizer, since he would then feel bad hearing about successful operations as well as scary one, but that’s not the same as PTSD. You can’t get post-traumatic stress disorder without actual trauma.

From the Austin American-Statesman’s blog

Home > The Blotter > Archives > 2009 > November > 05 > Entry
McCaul says suspect had special training in shooting, parents hailed from Jordan

By W. Gardner Selby | Thursday, November 5, 2009, 05:40 PM

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, who has been briefed on the shootings at Fort Hood, said one suspect, Nadal Malik Hasan, was a physician who was born in Virginia to parents who hailed from Jordan.

He said he didn’t yet have the names of two other suspects.

“The background of these individuals is going to be critical,” McCaul said.

Hasan, McCaul said, “took a lot of advanced training in shooting.” He said he’s not sure why.

He said Hassan, with others, acted at Fort Hood using handguns.

“They did a tremendous amount of damage,” he said, considering they did not have AK-47s.

“It’s clear this was a coordinated attack,” McCaul said, adding that some have attributed it to the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, though it’s premature to say so. “It’s too early to jump to any conclusions.”

McCaul said he also has been told that Hasan had undergone rehabilitative alcohol counseling.

“Whether it was domestic or foreign, clearly when a U.S. military base is attacked in this kind of fashion, that is an act of terror in my book,” McCaul said.

If you remember The Godfather, you may remember that Michael Corleone was also the child of immigrants whose parents didn’t want him to go into the military. The fact that may have been born in Virginia doesn’t mean this isn’t an immigration story.

Fox News has an interview with a cousin of the deceased shooter, Major Hasan, called Nader Hasan.

A shooting rampage Thursday afternoon at the Army’s Fort Hood in Texas killed 11 and wounded 31 before the gunman was killed and two suspects taken into custody.

All three of the people believed to have carried out the shooting were soldiers, Lt. General Bob Cone told reporters Thursday evening, though the motive remains unclear.
…
The shooter’s cousin, Nader Hasan, told Fox News that their family is in shock.

“We are trying to make sense of all this,” Nader Hasan said. “He wasn’t even someone who enjoyed going to the firing range.”

He said his cousin, who was born and raised in Virginia and graduated from Virginia Tech University, became against the wars after hearing the stories of those who came back from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nader Hasan said his cousin, who was raised a Mulsim, [sic] wanted to go into the military against his parent’s wishes and was taunted by others after the terror attacks of Sept. 11.[Emphasis added.]
….

President Obama called the shooting a “horrific outburst of violence” on members of the nation’s armed forces. “It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil.”He said he doesn’t yet know all the details but promised the government would get “answers to every single question.”
…[Sources Identify Major as Gunman in Deadly Shooting Rampage at Fort Hood Fox News, November 05, 2009 ]

Note the bit about his father not wanting him to go Army, and him being “taunted” by family members after the September 11 attacks. Assimilation? Not hardly.

A doctor rating site says that Dr. Hasan, a Major in the US Army, got his basic medical training at

Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University or Faculty of Human Medicine, Damascus University
Completed: 1990

One of the assessments says:

Reviewer: Pvt J. Hammond

Although he was hard to understand (strong accent) this doctor helped me come to terms with my conscientious objector status.While I am still not thrilled about being deployed to Iraq, I at least understand how doing so to protect my fellow soldiers is a good thing.

The comment is dated Nov 5, 2009. (Via Lileks.)

Damascus is the capital of Syria, which the State Department considers, and has considered since 1979, a State Sponsor of Terrorism.