"Authorities were investigating terror links after a government worker and his wife shot up his San Bernardino, Calif., office party Wednesday, killing 14 people.

"Syed Farook, 28, a devout Muslim, stormed out of the festivities and later returned with his newlywed wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27. Both donned dark, tactical gear and masks while toting assault rifles and handguns, police said.

"The murderous duo sprayed bullets inside a conference room, slaughtering colleagues who earlier this year had thrown a shower for their new baby."

"The new fad of blaming climate change for terrorism, or treating the two as comparable security issues, is troubling. It should make voters worry about the quality of their elected leaders. ...

"Terrorism is generally caused by bad people dissatisfied with the way the world is and determined to use fearful violence to bend it to their will. Terrorism is not caused by the weather. ...

"Today, terrorism is caused mostly by radical Islamist ideology. There are appropriate law enforcement, intelligence, propaganda and occasionally military responses to it. But when you hear politicians talk about global warming as the cause of terrorism, take it as an indication that they aren't serious people, and should not be trusted with complex affairs of state."

"Congress recently forbade President Obama from bringing Guantanamo inmates to the United States, or even preparing a place in the U.S. to which the terrorist prisoners might someday be transferred. The specific action Congress took was to renew earlier bans on the president spending any appropriated funds for those purposes.

"Republicans and Democrats spoke in a strong and unified voice; 370 members of the House and 91 members of the Senate voted for the defense authorization bill that contained the Guantanamo provision. Other than a measure passed by unanimous consent, it's hard to find Congress more united.

"Obama signed the bill into law, but at the same time released a signing statement making clear he might bring Guantanamo prisoners to the United States anyway -- no matter what Congress says. ...

"Barack Obama has exercised unilateral executive authority a number of times, but never in a case in which Congress was so clearly united against him. If the president decides to go it alone on the question of Guantanamo inmates, he might find that he has finally pushed things too far."

"Washington's debate over refugee policy assumes an unmet American obligation to the world. It is as if we were not already doing and sacrificing far more than every other country combined. It is as if there were not dozens of Islamic countries, far closer than the United States to refugee hot-spots, to which it would be sensible to steer Muslim migrants.

"Yet, there is nothing obligatory about any immigration policy, including asylum. There is no global right to come here. American immigration policy is supposed to serve the national interests of the United States. Right now, American immigration policy is serving the interests of immigrants at the expense of American national security and the financial security of distressed American workers.

"Our nation is nearing $20 trillion in debt, still fighting in the Middle East, and facing the certain prospect of combat surges to quell the rising threat of jihadism. So why is Congress, under the firm control of Republicans, paying for immigration policies that exacerbate our peril?"

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

"Insidiously and inadvertently, Barack Obama is alienating the people and moving the country to the right. If he keeps it up, by 2017 it will be a reactionary nation. But, counterintuitive as it seems, that is fine with Obama: Apres nous le deluge.

"By sheer force of his personality, Obama has managed to lose the Democratic Senate and House. State legislatures and governorships are now predominantly Republican. Obama's own favorable ratings rarely top 45 percent. In his mind, great men, whether Socrates or Jesus, were never appreciated in their time. So it is not surprising that he is not, as he presses full speed ahead. ...

"The more contrarian he becomes, and the more he opposes the wishes of the vast majority of the American people, all the more Obama envisions himself speaking truth to power and becoming iconic of something rather than the reality that he is becoming proof of nothing.

"Hold on. We haven't seen anything yet."

"It took us two months in late 2001 to overthrow the Taliban/Al Qaeda regime in Afghanistan. The reasons for our success in 2001 and our lack of success in 2014-15 are twofold: a far more intense air campaign and an indigenous ground force, led by Special Operations and CIA advisers, that could rapidly exploit the effects of air power. We conducted as many airstrikes in two months in Afghanistan in 2001 as we have in 16 months in Iraq and Syria. We should increase our strike tempo and weight of attacks significantly to bring both mass and precision to bear on ISIL's stronghold.

"Airstrikes are not enough, however. We must leverage the moderate Syrian opposition -- and they do exist in the tens of thousands -- to dislodge ISIL and Al Qaeda'€™s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, from their territory. As we did in Afghanistan, we must support the moderate opposition with overwhelming air power, substantially increase the flow of arms to the moderate opposition, and place special operations and intelligence advisers with them. With American assistance, a much smaller insurgent force defeated the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. With our many Sunni partners, we can do the same in Syria."

"Obama knew the media would take their eye off the ball if he distracted them with a passion play about GOP bigotry. He ridiculed Republicans for their cowardice and cruelty in raising concerns about the potential security threats posed by Syrian refugees. Never mind that such caution is informed in part by warnings from the heads of Obama's CIA, FBI, and DHS. Obama ludicrously mocked the idea that we prioritize Christian refugees -- victims of Islamic State genocide -- as an Islamophobic 'religious test' that was 'not American,' even though his administration already gives special preference to Yazidi refugees from Iraq and federal law requires taking religion into account when screening refugees. For Obama, politics ends at the water's edge, unless he's speaking abroad.

"Obama's dithering sparked the refugee crisis. He's now using a smattering of refugees as a cynical prop to prove he's the hero of his own morality tale. The reality is that he's a villain in his own theater of the absurd. And we're the suckers in the audience falling for it."

"If you've watched President Obama's various speeches and press conferences over the past few days, you can be forgiven for coming away with the distinct impression that he doesn't like you. ...

"If you doubt any portion of our current refugee policy, you're 'hysterical.' Never mind that a recent poll showed 13 percent of Syrian refugees declaring a 'positive' or 'somewhat positive' view of ISIS, or that at least one of the Paris attackers apparently arrived in France posing as a refugee. Never mind the 26 charges of terrorism brought up against foreign-born individuals in the U.S. in the past year, as Sen. Jeff Sessions documented this week, or the fact that in October, FBI Director James Comey testified that our current system likely can't effectively vet Syrian refugees.

"More importantly, never mind the fact that opposition to current refugee protocols doesn't necessarily translate into opposition to helping refugees altogether; had Obama led with an acknowledgment of the system's weaknesses and showed genuine concern towards fixing them, we might be in a different situation today. As it is, a new Bloomberg poll shows 53 percent of Americans opposing the current settlement plan."

"Obama's own policy decisions -- allowing Assad to convert peaceful demonstrations into an increasingly ugly civil war, refusing to declare safe havens and no fly zones -- were instrumental in creating the Syrian refugee crisis. This crisis is in large part the direct consequence of President Obama's decision to stand aside and watch Syria burn. For him to try and use a derisory and symbolic program to allow 10,000 refugees into the United States in order to posture as more caring than those evil Jacksonian rednecks out in the benighted sticks is one of the most cynical, cold-blooded, and nastily divisive moves an American President has made in a long time. ...

"To think that conspicuous moral posturing and holy posing over a symbolic refugee quota could turn President Obama from the goat to the hero of the Syrian crisis is absurd. Wringing your hands while Syria turns into a hell on earth, and then taking a token number of refugees, can be called many things, but decent and wise are not among them. You don'€™t have to be a xenophobe or a racist or even a Republican to reject this President's leadership on Syria policy. All you need for that is common sense and a moral compass."

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