Still searching for bin Laden after all these years

It has been eight years since Osama bin Laden's band of terrorists executed the largest and most deadly attack ever assembled on American soil. While our government has taken significant strides in making sure such an attack will never happen again, the face of bin Laden continues to haunt the families of the victims and citizens of this country while he strolls free somewhere in the world.

Although our intelligence agencies failed us on Sept. 11. 2001, the bigger failure, aside from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been our government's inability to bring bin Laden and his partner, Ayman al-Zawahri, to justice.

In many ways our government has been successful at weakening the al-Qaeda network since 9/11, not to mention it has avoided another attack. Also a recent PEW Global Attitudes poll in Pakistan showed that support for the terrorist group has fallen to 9 percent, which boggles my mind, not necessarily as an American, but as a human being.

While we have shown progress in the war on terror, we have unfortunately failed to find its poster boy, bin Laden, who changed the way all Americans look at the world and our country on that tragic day. Since then he has stood as a symbol for many policy and social issues in America, including an excuse for why we should occupy such nations as Iraq and Afghanistan and political gain by politicians who used his image and ideology to strike fear in voters.

Today, bin Laden has become this sort of cultural villain in America much like Hitler did before him. His name and face grace merchandise and appear in comedy skits, and once a year when a "new" video of the mass murderer surfaces, many of us shudder in fear over the fact that he still lurks out there somewhere in the deep, dark depths of our planet.

9/11 is probably the one day, the one moment, the one event in my generation's short existence on this earth that we can say, "I remember where I was when..." Every generation has that day, maybe numerous days, where a tragic event holds a significant impact on not only the people involved, but a nation as a whole - that day for my generation and many others is 9/11.

While we will never forget 9/11 or the lives lost in our minds or our hearts, justice will never truly be served until we hunt down bin Laden and make him an example to terrorists, and our citizens, that if you attack us we will search for you, we will find you and we will kill you. Let's hope by next year's anniversary we are doing just that.

"You lie!" Mr. President

It has been a long time since President Barack Obama looked like the inspirational candidate that stole America's hearts and eventually their vote during last year's presidential election, but in the mouth of a storm that could have put an end to health care reform and potentially his presidency, the young president rose up Wednesday to give one of his best and most empowering speeches since taking office.

And no the speech I am talking about is not the cutesy little, "School is cool!" speech that he delivered to children across the country earlier in the week, but a clear, passionate and forceful speech that turned the president into a leader instead of a cheerleader on the issue of health care for the first time since the heated debate began three months ago.

Not only did he move us emotionally with anecdotes of people losing their battles with diseases like cancer and leukemia due to being dropped by their insurance companies in the midst of the fight to save their lives, but he was also able to make it clear, to the average American, what this whole health care reform thingy actually means for all of us. Heck he even promised to make sure all rich people get adequate health care without it costing them a dime! Now if that doesn't arouse Republicans I don't know what will.

Obama's tone and presence even felt presidential, possibly for the first time since he took office. Not that this stopped South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson from forgetting his Southern manners when he blurted out, "You lie!" while the President was attempting to debunk some of the pigeon brain lies that Republicans have been trying to sell week minded Americans on since the debate began. The remark was luckily not made over the supposed death panels, which would have made this disposable congressman look like even more of an idiot, but rather it was over Obama's assertion that illegal immigrants, Mexicans to the Republicans, will not be provided with free health care.

Oh no! I don't want to pay for Pedro, who already took my job, to get health care. How in the heavens will we stop Pedro from getting health care and then taking over our country if we intend to provide all hard working Americans, young or old, rich or poor, regardless of color, health care.

Well it is really quite simple Senor Wilson, you force people, just like in Medicare and Medicaid, to prove they are American citizens. Of course if you are a "Birther" I guess you already believe this will be easy, since your president, who according to Birthers was born in Kenya, was able to falsify documents to fool the federal government into letting him run for president, so how hard could it be for any other illegal immigrant to fool insurance companies into providing them with health care. If you are a sane American, like I believe most of us to be, you realize that since you have been asked to show proof of citizenship your whole life for jobs, school and heck even activities like little league, why would this be any different when it comes to health care.

Of course, Joe "You lie" Wilson was not the only idiot in the crowd. A number of other Republicans, or should we just start referring to them as idiots or pig f#%kers, what ever you prefer, held up stacks of paper that "supposedly" represented ideas they had for the bill. I know, I know, I thought it was funny too that Republicans actually thought they had an original idea, but it is nice to let them fantasize about such things - it makes them feel all grown up.

Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas also made a little protest of his own by holding up a sign that read "What Bill?" Luckily Gohmert and the rest of Texas will not have to worry about affordable health care once Texas secedes from the Union. Yee haw!

But getting away from the childish finger pointing and back to the real issue of health care reform, Obama did not give up on the public option, which is intended to create a government run insurance program for those who cannot afford to buy insurance from a private company. In my mind if we are going to force people to have health care, without the single-payer option, which would provide all of us with government run health care like in Canada, then we need to provide people with an affordable option. Because while President Obama talked about lowering health care costs, I still think he missed the point in terms of how we are going to convince these companies to actually lower their prices. The reason for all of our health care problems is not just the care itself, but the cost of the care. Obama argues it will create competition, but I argue, like most Democrats, that this will not be enough, because, in my opinion, they will just lobby one another, like every other industry, to make sure no one gets priced out of the market and to ensure they all maximize their profits. Then people like me, who can't afford health care on top of school loans and other bills, will be forced to pay out-our-asses for health care.

Since the speech, conservative Democrats, who met with Obama yesterday, said the president seemed as if he would be willing to bend on the public option. Well I hate to say it but without the public option, President Obama, you will be a failure! I know, I know, things like making it illegal to deny someone health care because of a pre-existing condition and not providing operations because your insurance doesn’t cover it will be eliminated from the debate. But affordable health care will be lost. And in the end isn't that what this is all about, money! I mean how can we expect to save the money we intend to save through a government run health care system if there is no government run health care in the bill.

There are to many Americans, and surely we all know at least one, who have been denied health care or denied an operation because their insurance company dropped them or wouldn't cover their surgery. There are to many Americans who go bankrupt and lose their homes everyday just to keep their parents, children, or their significant other alive because of the ruthless insurance companies, who have decided they are just not rich enough.

My friends, lack of affordable health care is not only costing Americans to lose their lives and live in fear of waking up one morning to find they have a disease like cancer with no way to treat it, but it is also costing them to lose their homes, jobs and everything else they worked so hard for in their lives. These Americans are not illegal immigrants, they are people who work as hard or harder than most average Americans do. So to morally deny health care to millions of Americans because you fear illegal immigrants from obtaining it or insurance companies going under due to their own sadistic business practices that have cost million of lives, is not only inhumane, it is in my mind un-American.

For we are the nation who has always been there for one another when we needed it most. Now if only are government could return the favor, not for political gain, but because it is morally the right thing to do.

Obamaducation and the brainwashing of our children's minds

If President Barack Obama's insistence on turning America into a socialistic state hasn't been horrifying enough for American adults, now the president is trying to push his Hitler-esque political agenda on future generations of Americans after he delivered a left-wing, communist speech to students across the nation on Tuesday.

Luckily, Republicans have been the one lone voice at trying to stop this crazed president from ruining America with his leftist political views once and for all. The newest outrage that came out of the Republican camp this week was over President Obama's speech he presented to students across the nation, or at least most of the students across the nation. I know, I know, how dare the President of the United States speak to our children about staying in school and achieving their dreams. I was as appalled by it as you were when I first heard the news concerning the speech. I mean Ronald Regan, George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush would never think of doing such a thing. Oh wait, they did? But they couldn't have talked policy like Obama had planned to do before a few good Americans, or should I say Republicans, swooped in to stop him. Oh wait, they did?

How could this be. I could have sworn that the Republicans were some of the most honest, forthright people in America today. I just felt terrible when that nice, shriveled up old man, Sen. John McCain, lost to that scary looking black fella with the name that sounds like a terrorist. I mean they have always done and supported what is right for Americans, rich or poor, black or white. I mean how could we forget the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have liberated us from the clutches of terrorism and made great men like Dick Cheney even richer through no-bid contracts. Or the passing of the Patriot Act, which gave our government the right to wiretap every Americans phone and subsequently led to some of the most important arrests in the war on terror, including Martha Stewart.

Oh if these people weren't delivered to us by the graces of God than I just don't know who was. It certainly wasn't that Jesus fella because he believed in things like trust, love and forgiveness. I bet when Jesus said, "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too," he had never met the likes of Osama Bin Laden or any other Muslim Terrorist for that matter. Thank god Jesus was never president or we would all be dead!

But we are not hear to discuss that hippie, tree-hugging Jesus fella. We are hear to talk about why we cannot let this African, I mean Democratic president ruin our children's minds like he has done to all those sick freaks that voted for him.

I mean can you believe the things that Osama, I mean Obama, told our children the other day. He said, and I quote, "Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork. I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in."

"So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse. But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country."

I mean what does this have to do with inspiring America's youth? They don't want to hear about how you, Mr. President, sucked in school. How you had crappy parents and your wife did too. Once again, what does any of this have to do with inspiring school children?

After some digging I did find it to be true that President Bush had spoken to kids about doing good in school. Here is what a real president with no political agenda had to say, "Any attempt to roll back the accountability in Washington D.C. (Speaking on No Child Left Behind). I'll fight any attempt to do that, I am just not going to let it happen."

Now that is how you speak to children. Clear, articulate and without any agenda. You don't go and say things like, "We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country."

This kind of talk does not inspire children. Instead it is just a bunch of subliminal, liberal bull-shit aimed at fooling us adults into believing he is not talking about policy, while turning our children into a bunch of little left-wing brainwashed freaks. We cannot stand for this. We must stand against such speech, if not as parents, as good, honest, conservative, gun touting Americans.

Now if you want to fight back against such speech by swines like Obama then I advise all of you parents out there to do what the good people in the Arlington, Texas School District did and just ban the speech, and take the children on a field trip to see George W. Bush speak at Dallas Stadium on Sept. 21. That is the only way we can assure what happened to our generation will not happen to future generations.

America is dead! Long live America!

The Last Lion: Kennedy dies at 77

The last lion is dead. And I am not talking about the feline. I am talking about the man, Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose finger prints can be found on most every major piece of legislation in the United States for the last 40 years. Whether it was civil rights, health care, education, labor, poverty, immigration or an array of other issues that bind us all, Kennedy has left an imprint on all of our lives, rich or poor, black or white, educated or uneducated, that none of us can deny.

Born in 1932, Edward M. Kennedy was the youngest of nine children in a prominent Irish-American family living in Boston, MA. For much of his early life, Kennedy was shadowed by his two older brothers, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, but in time he would surpass them both as politicians by passing more than 300 laws and writing more than 2,500 bills in his 46 years in congress.

However, prior to his success, Kennedy was a rising star in the Democratic Party in 1969, until a tragic accident marred any chances of him ever becoming president. In July, after leaving a banquet on Chappaquiddick Island, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge. He would survive the accident but 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne would not. Following the crash, Kennedy failed to alert the authorities - saturating him in controversy - and angering Republicans who felt he got away with murder. Kennedy would eventually plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident.

To Kennedy's credit, he did not run from the anger directed at him over the incident, but rather he took it head on, speaking openly on national television about his mishaps concerning the accident and asking the Massachusetts electorate whether or not he should stay in office - receiving a favorable response. A few weeks later he would be forgiven by Kopechne's mother and in 1970 won the support of his state by winning reelection. For Kennedy, it was just another tragedy in a life that had already seen the death of his sister, nephew, three brothers and his own near death experience after a plane crash left him with a broken back.

After being given a second chance, Kennedy did not step back into the shadows of embarrassment like most would have, but rather he rose above his mishap to pass some of the most important legislation in American history, including the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, the COBRA Act of 1985, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act in 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and 2008 and the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997. He also became one of the most important and well respected leaders in the United State Senate, due in part to his ability to bring Republicans and Democrats together, not to mention his intense work ethic and his expertise as a legislator. After all of Kennedy's mishaps during his early life, he grew as a person and changed into a man that turned tragedy into prominence.

But what might have been Kennedy's most important trait was his curiosity and compassion for his fellow man.

He came from privilege although you would have never known it by the way he fought for working class folk and those stricken by poverty. He saw no room for discrimination and spent much of his life fighting for others civil liberties that even included being one of the first advocates for gay rights, not to mention being instrumental in eliminating segregation in America. In many ways, the America we live in today is as much a product of Ted Kennedy as it is any other legislator in American history. He has instituted the laws that all of us hold so dearly to our hearts, because they are the ones that guarantee our freedoms, while other politicians are attempting to take them away in the face of their own political gain.

In the 21st century he continued his legacy by voting against the invasion of Iraq, which he called the "best vote" he ever cast. He fought for universal health care, which became the driving force in his political life, claiming health care as a right and not a privilege. And in a time of fleeting hope, he passed the torch onto a new leader, Barack Obama, who he believed embodied the Kennedy ideology that America could always do better. In many ways he was a voice for the voiceless in America.

While Kennedy's life has been marred by as much scandal as it has praise, and with good reason, in the end there is no doubt that Edward M. Kennedy is an American Hero, who took the ideology of his family and turned it into a lasting legacy that his brothers never lived long enough to complete. While Joseph, John and Bobby's faces now live in our minds as nothing more than still life's in a distant time. Teddy's legacy and the laws that he instituted will continue to touch our lives until the end of time.

"The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on." Sen. Ted Kennedy (1932-2009)

Farewell Mr. Bush

Is it just me or have the last eight years seemed like a nightmare? 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, a total disregard of the constitution, a horrifying change in the direction of our foreign policy, Hurricane Katrina, and finally the collapse of the American economy. We won’t even get started on issues like health care, education or the environment. This is not the America that was described to me when I was a child. This is not the America where I was told I could grow up to be anything if I put my mind to it. No, this is not my America – it is George W. Bush’s America.

It’s amazing that a little more than eight years ago all of these things were different. We had a fun-loving president who enjoyed the occasional extramarital affair and a cigar like most every other president before him. He was an intelligent, progressive man who played the saxophone on Arsenio Hall and jogged everyday to McDonald's for breakfast. It was an era in American history that was free of war, torture and economic catastrophe. It was a time of prosperity, and the idea that what we were doing was somehow right. Yes, Ol’ Willy Clinton sure knew how to be an effective leader, but poor George W. Bush just never had a clue, and that sick bastard Dick Cheney, along with the rest of the sociopaths in his administration, never gave him a chance.

For the last eight years we as Americans lived under an administration that ruled on faith, fear, greed, stupidity, deceit, and hate. Aside from the sick religious freaks and right-wing nuts that hate everyone and believe America is the only thing that matters in this world, although they don’t really believe any of that either, no American could have ever truly believed that Bush was taking this country in the right direction. I mean, if the last eight years had been a movie, which they are now kind of thanks to Oliver Stone, Bush would have been Darth Vadar. Or
maybe Cheney was the true villain, but the fact is Bush was the final decision maker. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a movie, it was real life, and unlike the characters in the movies we actually have to deal with the problems that Ol’ Bushy has left us all with. And unlike the movies, Bush will most likely never pay for his actions.

As Americans the one thing I did find throughout most of Bush’s administration was that while most people despised him, no one really wanted to believe that an American president could have perpetrated such crimes on purpose. And maybe Bush didn’t, but somebody in that administration sure as hell did, because as dumb as most Republicans look, they are not complete idiots. I mean, they did figure out how to use 9/11 as a spring board into Iraq with no-bid contracts and get rich schemes for their companies. But that is what I love about America, because even after all we have been through, we are still so naïve and trusting of our public figures that we allow ourselves to believe that even blood-thirsty murders aren’t so bad. We don’t trust walking down the street at two in the morning, but we trust our elected officials, even after they have failed us and disgraced our country.

But as happy as I was to bid farewell to Bush as a helicopter flew him off into the horizon on the afternoon of January 20, we cannot, as honest Americans, just allow him to disappear without any type of accountability. If I was to get drunk and get behind the wheel of my car and kill an innocent motorist on the road, I would be charged with manslaughter and thrown in prison. But if Bush makes a decision to start a war that leads to hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis deaths and the torture of thousands of others on purpose, he is aloud to go live out the rest of his days in peace and prosperity with family and friends and million dollar homes.

As much as I would like to just chalk up the last eight years to a bad dream and just say good riddance to Bush forever, as an honest, hard-working American I cannot in good faith do such a thing. We need to hold these thieves and murders accountable for their actions, if not for the innocent who suffered due to their actions, for the sake of all that America stands for. If we allow this administration to just go home without any accountability for what they did to our country and our people, we are just inviting another, possibly more deceitful administration to rise to power in the future.

There are a few senators out there who are currently calling for truth and justice, as it has been proposed that we offer every member of the Bush administration immunity if they are to come forward and tell the truth about what happened over the past eight years. If they do not tell the truth or decide not to talk at all, then they will subject themselves to possible criminal charges that, in their case, could be punishable by life in prison or even death.

This is our chance to make an example out of our elected officials and truly hold them accountable for their actions. We do not allow for average Americans to act negligently and badly
without repercussions, nor should we allow our public officials whose crimes affect our society and the world on a much larger scale to walk free without any consequences. So I hope this is not farewell to Mr. Bush but hello to Justice. The only time I expect to say farewell to that filthy swine is when I am watching his lifeless body hang for his crimes. Only then will, “Freedom and
Justice for All,” have meaning again.