Canada was impressive today. If it weren't for the security guards the attack by one man had the potential to be devastating. 

It would seem Wednesday morning was the perfect time to catch all the MPs and the Prime Minister and his cabinet in one building. The assault was well thought out. 

Perhaps some car barriers at the war memorial where the soldiers stand guard. Wednesday mornings are a sensitive time for Canada's security. Good habits are hard to break, but, perhaps it might be rethought. At least this time it was only a single gunman with no other materials.

Canadians are absolutely wonderful people. It isn't right two of their own were estranged from being loyal to their government and loving the life Canada affords their citizens. 

Condolences to the people of Canada, I can only imagine the devastating news and it's effect on them. 

Can we please have a Middle East with young men dedicated to sports than war?

There is a lot wrong with the American suicide bomber. To begin he was complaining about feeling depressed. Not all young American men feel depressed. 

He was angry in the presence of his jihadist peers. I should have a nickel for very time someone points to the fact there are so many angry young men that become jihadists. 

What is it about the Muslim faith that brings about the idea a young man's masculinity lies in war? Is there no other definition of masculinity. I know there wasn't for George W. Bush. But, why is it that war has to be the testing ground for masculinity? 

The young men in the Middle East should be focusing in athletics, no different than most American young men do at some point in their growing years. That is how my sons and many, many others worked out their integration of masculinity. 

Mr. Abusalha doesn't scare me. He is unfortunately lost to his family and if there were monies provided then it explains all the more how a disenfranchised young man stated to be depressed easily made the choice to kill others along with himself.

I might ad his father was part Palestinian in his ancestry. Here we are again with Palestine at the center of anger turned loose in the Middle East.

Was this American ever paid large sums of money to carry out a suicide attack?

It has been the case that many times the suicide bomber's spouse, but in this case family, would have received large amounts of money before they died. He states when he arrived in Syria he had only $20 in his possession. He wouldn't need much more than that if he was going to die.

It is fairly obvious from this story he did not have the support of his family, but, why didn't the family turn him in before he left the USA for the last time?

July 20, 2014

By Michael S. Schmit

Washington — When Moner Mohammad Abusalha (click here) drove a truck packed with explosives into a restaurant in northern Syria in May, American authorities conceded that they knew little about how a young man who grew up a basketball-obsessed teenager in a Florida gated community had become a suicide bomber.

And they have never publicly acknowledged the startling discovery they made weeks into their investigation: that after receiving training by an extremist group in Syria, Mr. Abusalha had returned to the United States for several months before leaving the country for the last time....

...“From there I had no money; I didn’t have nobody to even help me get to Syria,” he said. He did not say how he had gotten from Turkey to Syria.

Before leaving the United States, he said, he walked five miles to the airport.

“I asked Allah the whole way to make it easy for me, and Allah made it easy for me,” he said, adding that he had tried to recruit other Americans to go to Syria....

A word of caution.

Crazy stuff have always happened in the USA, but, at one time it was just the military with Humvees and tanks. Now the local police department has all kinds of military equipment.

The country needs to secure their armaments so it isn't used on innocent citizens.

I would be surprised it this attacks is not connected to Malala Yousafzai ceremony today.

The person going into the ambulance was a soldier with a severe gun wound. Wound not life threatening according to hospital.

Authorities in Canada are worried there might be an exit from Ottawa by one of the perpetrators.

NORAD was stepped up.

...1 shooter dead, (click here) 1 still believed at large in downtown Ottawa.

• Police searching cars leaving Ottawa trying to go to Quebec.
• Report of additional shot fired near Chateau Laurier hotel, east of Parliament Hill.
• Police going door to door in downtown core; downtown schools in lockdown.
• All three main party leaders, Harper, Mulcair and Trudeau, reported safe....

One person is not dressed in black as has been reported.

"Suddenly I saw a small guy with long black hair... with a long rifle, and he ran away after the shots, across streets in the direction of ParliamentHill," he said.

Scott Walsh, who was working on Parliament Hill, said he saw a man running with a double-barrelled shotgun, wearing a scarf and blue jeans.

There is a figure at the far end of the halls that appears to be in control of the gun and then as the police come closer he turns and runs out of the building. I would enhance that person and see what can be discerned. It is easiest to see him in the doorway at about 0.57 seconds.


It is amazing to realize someone actually shot this footage. The police are incredibly brave as they walk right into the gun fire. And no one is dead. They did an excellent job. Obviously, the gun wanted to kill them all and make their way into a chamber of the building.


If this is about Malala, she wasn't there yet, but, was soon to be to receive an honorary citizenship awarded to her by the Canadian Prime Minister.

This is exactly the problem with minorities coming in conflict with police. It escalates out of control.

October 22, 2014
By Justin Moyer and Lindsey Bever

...But a St. Louis Post-Dispatch (click here) analysis of Brown’s official county autopsy it has obtained suggests the teenager may not have had his hands raised after all. Experts told the newspaper Brown was shot Aug. 9., at close range — and may have been reaching for Wilson’s weapon. The autopsy found material “consistent with products that are discharged from the barrel of a firearm” in a wound on Brown’s thumb. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist in San Francisco, said this “supports the fact that this guy is reaching for the gun, if he has gunpowder particulate material in the wound.”...

I don't care what incident one points to regarding the ability of police to fire on a young, black man; the response is always the same. Sean Bell or Oscar Grant or many other such young black men; The first reason by police is kill when there was no valid reason to do such a horrid act at all.

Michael Brown, Jr. was jaywalking. It is a minor offense with a fine after citation. The circumstances escalated when Wilson tried to strong arm Brown into his police car. Michael knows what comes next. No one knows the intention even if Brown's DNA were on the gun. It was he that was shot not the office.

I guarantee you Michael Brown, Jr. didn't even understand the actions of the police officer. He didn't even think about jaywalking and the ASSAULT by Wilson was all Brown needed to be scared for his life. Young black men die for absolutely no sound reason at all.

Jay Walking and Brown ends up in a wrestling match to end his life. Well, it isn't Brown's problem, it is Wilson's problem. He took a minor offense and turned it into a funeral.

What was Wilson doing in the back of the police car at all? Whenever a police officer makes an arrest the perpetrator is suppose to be handcuffed and put into the back seat while the officer is outside the door of the car. This is completely hideous. Brown was never even handcuffed.

Wilson didn't see the escalation coming nor did he care. If Brown was protesting his arrest and believed he was innocent and Wilson could not handcuff him alone, Wilson should have called for back up while Brown was still alive and there wasn't a four foot stream of blood coming out of his head. Hideous and stupid mistakes cost Brown his life and this was his fault? No it wasn't.

A minor offense should never get out of control to ultimately kill anyone, either African American or Caucasian. The death should have never happened. The fact of the matter is Wilson is a lousy police officer. He received a citation because his records reflect someone who can get the job done. Well, hell, anyone can get the job done if someone like Wilson is killing people or using unnecessary force. 

Ferguson police buy into the fact young black men, armed or not, will kill them if they are not killed first. Wilson allowed himself to believe Michael Brown, Jr. was a dangerous black man because jaywalking turned into a death sentence. This is an officer who decided he was judge and jury for Michael Brown, Jr. Wilson wasn't in danger, Brown was walking away from him AFTER Brown was shot while struggling to get out of the police car. I'd get out of a police car too if someone shot me. Why let him finish the job?

The point is every circumstance where an unarmed African American young black man is confronted by police they die. 

On October 18, 2014 a young white man was arrested for playing his guitar in a subway. He didn't break any laws and was unarmed. How many people responded to the arrest or ejection of the talented singer and instrumentalist? I counted four police officers. Why four? Because the one officer could not conduct an ejection from the subway SAFELY by himself. Now. A young African American man is walking down the street and jaywalks. How much back up did Wilson ask for? None. He took out his gun and offered that as backup causing the death of an innocent young man.

Police across the USA have given themselves permission to identity African American men as dangerous criminals; therefore when confronted it is best to draw their gun rather than be killed themselves. 

A police officer only has the right to draw their gun if facing life threatening circumstances. Wilson was not even close to facing life threatening circumstances. Wilson pulled his gun out to issue CONTROL of an unarmed young man as Michael walked away from him. Michael Brown, Jr. was no eminent threat to anyone besides himself and sure enough he died for it because he wasn't fearful enough. Michael Brown, Jr. wasn't fearful enough of a Ferguson Police Officer and walked away. He died because he wasn't fearful enough of a Ferguson police officer with a weapon. Michael Brown, Jr. didn't realize he was on a battlefield on the city streets of his hometown.

 A couple of things. He is out of touch with the Working Poor. The cost of college has turned full time students into part time students working full time at the minimum wage. Governor Christi needs to have a plan for the Working Poor and for the college bound high school graduates that is real and practical. Simply being tired of hearing about the minimum wage because he wants to dismiss it isn't real. There are many people who are struggling and they should not be.

The minimum wage is no longer about 'kids,' it is about families. American laborers are no longer paid their worth.

Mark Schauer has an ad out that is short and to the point, "Hi, I am Melissa Gilbert and I am a registered voter in the State of Michigan. Women if you care about your rights, if you care about children, if you care about the elderly you'll vote for Mark Schauer. That is what I am going to do."

Completely painless. It addresses the candidate and the fact he cares about the issues most important to Michiganders and he'll bring those issues to Washington, DC.

No fancy doctrine of constitutional rights or impending doom. Just plain and simple, he cares about the issues that you care about. What is so difficult about this?

It is called validating and empowering the electorate to make the vote most important to them. "I'm voting because Mark cares and you should vote too."

A candidate has to ask the electorate to vote and to vote for him or her. People have to be asked. They need to take a small part of their day to go to the polls to vote. They need to be important enough to ask. And let's hope it is only a small part of anyone's day and not a 24 camp out at the polling station to exercise their right to vote.

Republican and Voting for Obama, "If the Affordable Care Act were repealed there is no way we could afford ..."

This is the reality of Republican politics. There are Americans afraid of the Republicans. There is plenty of testimony in the country whereby the President is their hero.

There is no reason to fear President Obama. He is "The People's President." When Republicans play their obstruction-avoidance game to put fear in the hearts of Americans, it is a chess match of fear. 

President Obama is not about rhetoric, he has been a President about action. He has never backed away from a challenge facing this country or one creating danger for Americans in the way of lacking health care coverage. 

President Obama is a great president. He is not a war President, he is not an oil president, he is a president focused on the lives of Americans in insuring their lives are secure with opportunity. He wants the American Dream for everyone. That is good thing and that is what every person regardless of party can be proud of.

I imagined for a minute to be President Obama and having to run on the record and the poisonous venom of the obstructionists. Then I realized if he had to bring forward examples of where he has improved the lives of all Americans and rescued them from a basically destroyed economy. The elections in the USA since 2008 should be a point of pride for the people running, especially if they are incumbents and have facilitated great legislation that turned the corner for MOST Americans. Even Wall Street should be talking up the pride in the president. Perhaps the candidates haven't noticed the historic highs in the financial markets.