Trickle Up Poverty (39 page)

Meanwhile, Scott Behenna, his father, a retired Special Agent with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and Vicki Behenna, his mother, an Assistant United States Attorney, have had to mortgage their house to save their child. Is this how we should treat an American hero who defended himself against this Iraqi terrorist who was caught planting IEDs and killed several of his men? What’s more, Vicki Behenna told me something startling: more Marines who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan sit behind bars right now than those imprisoned during Vietnam and the Korean war combined!

The Marine Corp was once the proudest division in the U.S. Military. But under George Bush—and now under Barack Obama—they’re sadly being reduced by the rules of non-engagement to rubberneckers, watching accidents on the side of the road. If they do fight, and if they do their job too well, they’re imprisoned and tried in court.

While the U.S. Army won’t do a damn thing to defend one of its own, thankfully the listeners of the Savage Nation have come to Behenna’s defense. To date, my loyal audience and I have contributed nearly $150,000 for Behenna’s legal expenses. I’ve gone to bat for a number of U.S. Marines over the years, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for their defense.

That said, none of us is looking for a pat on the back.

We want justice for these heroic men.

We want our heroes to know America is still on their side.

Of course, that’s a bit difficult for them to believe when the Commander in Chief blows off an opportunity to pay tribute to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield. Case in point. In what was a stark slap in the face to both tradition and the military, Mr. Obama did not attend the ceremony honoring fallen troops at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, 2010. Rather than participate, he dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to take his place.

Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to skip this important ceremony at a time when American troops are engaged in two active wars. Making matters worse is the fact that tens of thousands of additional troops were on high alert due to threats from North Korea and Iran. None of that mattered to this president.

We all know Mr. Obama has displayed contempt for the military. He has cut them off at the knees with oppressive rules of engagement that jeopardizes their safety and the ability to complete their mission.

He has slashed away at the military budget, cutting it until it bled. His military prosecutes brave soldiers for doing their job with excellence. Now, he has thumbed his nose at the tradition of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

America deserves better than a President who stabs the military in the back. America deserves better than a Commander in Chief who’d rather be at a cookout in Chicago vacationing with his family than a breakfast with Gold Star families—those incredible families who suffered the loss of a loved one on the front lines. American heroes in the military need to know that while they may not have the support of President Barack, America still has their back.

School Lunchrooms: Heroes or Food Fight?

As I was working on this chapter, studying the ways Obama the Destroyer is compromising our military and national security, I was stunned to read the following headline: “First Lady Credits School Lunch Program for Bolstering National Security.” That got my attention. I started scanning the article to see what possible link might exist between the cafeteria ladies who serve the junior sheeple mystery meat in middle school and our brave soldiers in the middle of combat fighting terrorism. The reporter writes:

First lady Michelle Obama said at the School Nutrition Association Conference in Washington, D.C. on Monday that individuals who work in school cafeterias across the country not only educate and feed children, but help to strengthen national44 security.

Help strengthen national security? Really?

Michelle Obama, who appears to be going after the cafeteria vote, said, “Whether it’s national security, education or child hunger, for decades we’ve looked to you for help in achieving our most urgent national priorities.” So, in other words your son or daughter, who may be serving as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan or Iraq or who is a trained member of the U.S. Navy stationed at the helm of a nuclear submarine, is now equal to the cafeteria worker in your elementary school. Maybe serving nutritionally balanced meals is a form of combat, especially when you have to serve pots of boiling tomato soup to kids who can’t stand the stuff.

What’s next? Maybe these heroic cafeteria workers—with little white nets on their heads instead of helmets and armed with a sixteen-ounce plastic ladles instead of M16 assault rifles—can qualify for burial in the Arlington National Cemetery because of their role helping defend our national security. After all, it’s the least we can do for the “food workers” who are “shaping the future of this country.”45

I knew it would be mad and bad under these radicals.

I just didn’t think it would get this bad, this fast.

Ironically, three short weeks after the First Lady sang the praises of the Lunchroom Battalion, a band of retired military officers took aim at the nation’s school lunch program, calling it a “national security threat.” What’s their beef? They cited a new study, which found “more than 9 million young adults, or 27% of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military.”46 Speaking on behalf of the officers’ group, Mission: Readiness, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr. said, “When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice.”47

This, of course, will end badly for the students.

No doubt Michelle will tell her Kitchen Brigade to declare war on dessert.

Big Brother is Not Watching—And Big Sis is Amiss

On February 15, 2010, Bob Thomas and his wife Leona were taking their four-year-old son, Ryan, to Walt Disney World to celebrate his fourth birthday. Keep in mind Bob is a police officer with Camden, New Jersey’s emergency crime suppression team. As they approached the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint at the airport, I’m sure little Ryan had visions of Mickey Mouse dancing in his head.

Fun was in the air and this was to be his first flight.

Did I mention that Ryan cannot walk without his leg braces?

When Ryan’s leg braces triggered the metal detector alarm, the TSA screener informed his parents that the young boy had to remove the braces and try again. Ryan’s father explained the obvious: Ryan needed them to walk. That meant nothing to the stern-faced screener who repeated the demand. Ryan’s mother suggested a compromise. She offered to steady Ryan as he went through the screening machine. Nope. Not good enough, said the screener with a mental capacity of a 40-watt light bulb.

The boy would have to walk unassisted.

With the line of passengers behind them growing longer by the minute, Laura passed through the metal detector first with Ryan just steps behind her. Bob followed closely behind his son in the event Ryan were to fall. While they made it through, Bob was fuming and demanded to speak to a supervisor. “I told him, ‘This is overkill. He’s four years old. I don’t think he’s a terrorist.” 48

That’s the kind of insanity you get under Janet Napolitano’s incompetent Homeland Security regime. In her world, four-year-old crippled children must walk to prove they’re not armed and dangerous, while true threats to our national security breeze through the system. Remember the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas “Underwear Bomber”? The Nigerian-born twenty-three-year-old Abdulmutallab, a Muslim whose head was filled with the explosive teachings of radical Islam, attempted to ignite a makeshift bomb in his underwear aboard Northwest Flight 253 bound for Detroit. He should never have been permitted on the flight. The warning signs were all there.

Even though he purchased his tickets in cash …

Even though he had no checked luggage …

Even though a month prior to this near-fatal incident his own father warned the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that his son could pose a threat to the United States …

Even though the Customs and Border Protection had documentation supplied by the Department of State indicating his possible extremist ties as Napolitano later admitted.49 Even after all those pieces of the puzzle were in place, the Christmas Crotch Bomber wasn’t put on the “no-fly list.”50 If it were not for the quick and courageous actions of the adjacent passengers and crew on that flight, hundreds of Americans could have died. Rushing to the microphones after the inexcusable security breach, Big Sis Napolitano told nervous Americans that “the system worked.” The Muslim fanatic smuggled explosives onto a U.S. airplane, didn’t he? How was he able to do that if the system worked? When a reporter asked this homeland security genius that question, Napolitano said, “We’re asking the same questions.”51

Two days later, Big Sis was backpedaling saying, “Our system did not work in this instance.”52 Which is it? How does this amateur keep her job? After what was clearly an attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day, and with the vacationing Obama avoiding his beloved cameras, Representative Peter King said, “We’re now, what, 72 hours into this and the President’s not spoken, the Vice President’s not spoken, the Attorney General’s not spoken and Janet Napolitano has now told two different stories in two days. First, she said everything worked; now she said it didn’t.”53 And when Obama finally did address the near-fatal act of terrorism, his first reaction was to say it was the actions of “an isolated extremist.”54 Is that so?

Let’s be clear: this was an act of Islamic terrorism hatched from within the bowels and terrorist training camps in Yemen. Big Sis didn’t acknowledge that fact. Nor did the president. If anything, that intel was covered up. Instead, we had to discover it from the twisted mouth of Anwar al-Awlaqi, a top al-Qaeda leader and Imam of mosques in Virginia and San Diego. After the attack, he bragged that he personally trained the Underwear Bomber and Major Nidal Hasan—the Muslim shooter in the Fort Hood massacre. This terrorist-training Imam said, “I am proud to have been their teacher.”55

Contrary to what the president said, the Underwear Bomber wasn’t acting alone. He was an al-Qaeda operative. That’s number one. Second, when it comes to the horrible, unspeakable, traitorous actions of Major Hasan, let’s not mince words: Hasan didn’t slip though the cracks—he was pushed through the cracks. In fact the cracks were widened by the Department of Defense. How so? By cultivating a climate within the military that bends over backward to make sure Muslim seeennnsitivities are not offended.

The fact is that Major Hasan, a mental case posing as a psychiatrist, was both a screw-up and a ticking time bomb. He was a keg of dynamite with a sizzling fuse. But nobody would fire him for fear of losing their jobs. They were too busy looking over their shoulder at some demented Red Diaper Doper Baby defense lawyer from NYU if they had fired Hasan for proselytizing the patients while treating them.

A columnist for the New York Post put it this way: “Hasan’s superiors feared—correctly—that any attempt to call attention to his radicalism or to prevent his promotion would backfire on them, destroying their careers, not his.”56 What is meant by Hasan’s “radicalism”? Among other things, did you know that Hasan would write “Allah be praised” on the medical reports of his patients? Imagine if a Christian doctor wrote “Jesus Saves” on a medical report—how long do you think he would have lasted in the military?

That just shows you how far we’ve fallen.

After the shooting, while families were grieving the unnecessary loss of their loved ones, President Obama offered this feeble comment:

I want to begin by offering an update on the tragedy that took place at Fort Hood. This morning I met with FBI Director Mueller and the relevant agencies to discuss their ongoing investigation into what caused one individual to turn his gun on fellow servicemen and women. We don’t know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts57 [emphasis added].

That’s code language designed to mask the fact Hasan was a Muslim.

That’s also his way of downplaying any connection to al-Qaeda.

Regarding the possibility that Hasan was inspired by his ideological views, television talk show host Dr. Phil said, “You don’t take the guy’s last name and impugn the Islamic nation. Are you kidding me? … That is irresponsible. It is ridiculous to say.”58 Really? How else do you explain that witnesses to the massacre heard Hasan shout “Allah Akbar” before opening fire on American soldiers?59 Why is it “ridiculous” to suggest Hasan was acting out his ideology with a gun?

Such cowardice is killing us—literally. It killed thirteen men and wounded thirty others! Which brings me to a number of difficult questions yet to be raised. Why were our men disarmed in that room? When did soldiers on military bases become disarmed? Think about it. How did Hasan get in with guns? Why was there no Sergeant at Arms at the door? Why was there a breakdown there?

A month later, a worthless hearing was held. The public wanted to know how this happened and who was behind it. One reporter timidly asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates whether this was an act of terrorism because Hasan shouted, “Allah Akbar,” as he opened fire. The reporter rightly wanted to explore whether there was a tie to militant Islam. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly said, “I’m not even going there.”

I say Gates better start going there! Why?

Read on.

From the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight to the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot At All

On May 1, 2010, New Yorkers dodged another terrorist attack—no thanks to the incompetence of Big Sis. The Pakistani-born, terrorist-trained, thirty-year-old Faisal Shahzad, who lied on his citizenship application to become one of us in order to kill us, parked a Pathfinder packed with explosive material and a timer in Times Square. If it were not for the quick action on the part of a street vendor who alerted police to the threat, more Americans would have died at the hands of a radical Muslim terrorist.