Morning rounds and links

Montel Williams: The New Rosie? Cf “Montel Williams ambushes military families”. I took a lot of guff for that second one when I posted it back in March. Here’s what Williams has done for me lately.

Keli Frasier, meanwhile, sat in front of the television with her mother, Audrey Babbel, curled up beside her.

“This is an example of America’s troops today,” Williams said, gesturing to Frasier, the 24-year-old Clifton mother who served 11 months in Iraq and returned home with her unit and appeared on the talk show to talk about her experiences in Iraq and back home.

Frasier suffers anxiety attacks and bouts of unexplainable anger and has been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She has been unable to hold a job since returning, but did marry and has a son, 8-month-old Evan. Once Evan is ready for school, Frasier has said, she might consider returning to work or Mesa State College.

Evan toddled and crawled along the floor as his mother was asked whether she wakes up in the middle of the night, sweating and remembering the three attacks she survived.

For Frasier, the sharpest memories are of moments that never made the air from the show taped in New York.

When she told Williams she was treated well by the Department of Veterans Affairs, he seemed to lose interest and moved quickly to another segment, she said.

During a commercial break, though, he gestured to her and commented, “This soldier’s not going to complain,” Frasier said.

She was whisked away to the airport and never spoke again to Williams, she said.

Squeaky wheels, I guess.

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News flash: The Democrats are mad at President Bush about something. The word “Swiftboat” features prominently.

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A prof at Brigham Young University doesn’t want VP Cheney to deliver commencement at the univeristy. Says he isn’t honest enough. Yet the same professor just thinks the world of Jimmy Carter, the man who ran interference for the likes of Kim Il-Sung, Hugo Chavez and Yasser Arafat.

Nooo politics to see here. Move along.

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Via IP, al Qaeda wants to kill the Dalai Lama? Did he have troops based in Saudi Arabia too? What’s his stance on the Palestinian right of return? Why do they hate him?

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One more: the liberal Brookings Institute refused to employ Ayaan Hirsi Ali because her views on Mohammed might jeopardize a Brookings outpost in Qatar. What’s Brookings’ view on Mohammed?

Blowback