September 11

A Thrilling Moment Of Patriotism And Pride!

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It was absolutely thrilling to witness on television last night and today a rare moment of patriotism and pride, as Americans spontaneously celebrated the successful military mission to kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan!

Seeing college students celebrating on campuses all over the nation; witnessing a large crowd outside the White House gates; sharing the joy at Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center was obliterated on that horrible September 11, nearly ten years ago; and just generally realizing that the young, who were children affected by that terrible tragedy a decade ago, were joining with Americans of all ages singing the National Anthem and shouting “USA, USA”, made one extremely proud to be an American! And the pride at the flawless performance of our Navy SEALS was boundless!

It is so rare to have the American people rejoice in unison about any event, so this is a moment to savor, and to hope somehow that a sense of national purpose can be accomplished to solve our many domestic problems in a spirit of unity and sacrifice similar to those brave young men who promoted justice for the three thousand people who died on that fateful day, September 11, 2001!

Adolf Hitler And Osama Bin Laden: Two Most Hated Tyrants Die A Day Apart 66 Years Apart!

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Without any question, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was the most hated man in American eyes in the 20th century, and when he died by suicide on April 30, 1945, the nation celebrated!

Now, 66 years and one day later, Osama Bin Laden, the most hated man in America in the 21st century’s short history, has been killed in a joint operation with the assistance of the Pakistani government, and his body was claimed by the Americans as proof through DNA testing that it was, indeed, the mass murderer who was responsible for the September 11 attacks and the ongoing War on Terror, the greatest threat since Nazism on American national security!

Evil exists in the world, but one has to believe that justice will be served, and that good will ultimately wins out against the forces of darkness. This worked both against Hitler and Osama Bin Laden, and the thrill felt on V-E Day in 1945 is now spreading throughout America as we celebrate a great moment in American history, which helps to heal the wounds of our losses.

We must remain united against any other evil terrorists who might wish to attack us! This is not time to let down our guard!

PS.  I  have just learned that the German Government announced the death of Adolf Hitler on May 1, the day after his suicide, so at least the announcement of the death of Hitler and Osama Bin Laden were exactly 66 years apart!

Two Events To Commemorate On May 1: Holocaust Remembrance (Yom HaShoah) And The Death Of Mass Murderer Osama Bin Laden!

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As we come to the end of the first day of May, we have two developments to commemorate–both Holocausts of different sizes!

Today is the day we commemorate the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, which killed 6 million Jews and 7 million other victims! It is called Yom HaShoah, and it is a day to remember the sacrifices of these millions of victims!

Ironic that on Yom HaShoah that we learn that Osama Bin Laden, the most sought man in the world, responsible for 3,000 deaths at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has been killed by the United States through the CIA, with a statement due soon by President Obama as we near midnight!

Bin Laden also hated the Jews, so this is a double day of remembrance for those people who support Israel and Jewish survival through the thick and thin of world history!

This is a great moment, and it unites Americans like nothing since September 11!

It is thrilling to witness tourists outside the White House singing the National Anthem, and it is a time for all of us to rejoice that justice has been done!

It also makes President Obama look great, that this happened on his watch, and it strengthens him in his re-election contest in the fall of 2012! What can the Republican Party say in opposition to Obama, considering that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were unable to resolve this matter in seven years after September 11?

This will make Obama look strong on defense matters, and overcome the old myth that Democrats are weak on defense!

It will give some solace to the families of the 3,000 victims of September 11, and will make May 1 a special day in the history of the United States, to be commemorated every year as one of the major events of American history for all time!

It, however, also makes us need to be more cautious and on alert, as the odds are that Al Qaeda will want to strike back at the United States in retaliation for Bin Laden’s death!

As John King of CNN just stated, this is an HISTORIC day in capital letters, and we will applaud this as one of the major successes of Barack Obama’s great leadership in the War On Terror!

The Ignorance Crisis In America: Belief In Conspiracy Theories Runs Amuck, Danger Sign For America’s Future!

Ronald 6 Comments

America is in deep trouble for the future in so many ways, but it is likely that the greatest crisis the country faces is the Ignorance Crisis, in which Conspiracy Theories run amuck!

It is shocking how many people, and we mean adults over the age of 18 but working its way up to include even the elderly, display such ignorance and lack of a sense of reality, that they truly believe in conspiracy theories, accepting false evidence as factually true. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but millions of citizens seem to be unwilling to face reality and accept factual details, choosing to believe what they want to believe, no matter how crazy or loony it is!

Among the Conspiracy theories widely believed are the following:

1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt engineered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, crippling our naval fleet, in order to get us into World War II!

2. Aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, and our Defense Department has covered it up ever since, keeping the aliens under lock and key!

3. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was engineered by elements within the government, and involved multiple gunmen who made Lee Harvey Oswald the patsy!

4. American astronauts did not land on the moon in July 1969, but were instead part of a great coverup by the news media and government officials, and they actually were landing in the deserts of Arizona!

5. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld engineered the attacks of September 11 on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, in order to increase Presidential power and put us into a world wide war against Islamic civilization!

6. Barack Obama was born in an Islamic country, either Kenya or Indonesia, not the United States, and there was a great conspiracy to plant a birth announcement in Hawaii newspapers in 1961, so as to allow us to elect him the first black President, and allow him to promote Sharia law and Socialism in America fifty years later!

7. In a more generalized way, the Masonic Order has been involved in a conspiracy to control the government and economy of the United States from George Washington to the present!

8. The Federal Reserve Banking System, created under Woodrow Wilson in 1913, is part of a great conspiracy by powerful capitalists and bankers, many of them foreigners, to control and manipulate the American economy, so as to exploit the average American citizen, and enrich the international conspiracy against America’s interests!

9. There is a great conspiracy by people from Latin America, particularly Mexico, to take over the American nation, and dilute it with the “inferior” racial stock that Hispanics and Latinos represent!

10. The United States is threatened by “old Europe”, the “inferior” nations and laws of nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other countries all over Europe, who are trying to undermine our laws and traditions! Also, all international organizations, including NATO and the United Nations, are working to undermine American “exceptionalism” and values!

When one examines all of these conspiracy theories and how many Americans truly believe them, despite lack of evidence and facts, one must mourn for the long term future of this great nation, which has allowed the development of an inferior education system and poor family values to undermine what was once a great nation, but is now in great danger and under great threat of collapse over the next few generations!

All good, educated, sensible people want our nation back to what it once was, and mourn the serious mental illness we are now suffering through!

America’s Mistreatment Of Veterans Continues, While Military Industrial Complex Prospers!

Ronald 1 Comment

It is well known that we live in the midst of a Military Industrial Complex that has seen swelling budgets in the past decade, supposedly due to the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

However, even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has admitted that there is waste in defense, and that any further introduction of ground troops in other nations would be crazy in the future, both strategically and budget wise!

But while there is always a major push for MORE defense spending while cutting education and health care and other human needs, we fail to see equivalent concern for America’s veterans who have fought courageously in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The reality is that large percentages of veterans of those two wars have suffered PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that suicides have occurred on military bases and in private life in alarming rates, plus murders of wives and children by veterans.

This is in addition to the horrific physical injuries visited upon our courageous troops by improvised explosive devices, and yet little attention is paid to this in the news media. Since Americans are not paying taxes for the wars, most are unaffected, since there is no draft, so it is easy for the average American to wave the flag, claim they are patriotic, and yet go about their business undisturbed!

We do not see a ground swell of support for INCREASED funding for veterans programs, and many Republicans, who love to claim they are patriots, have never served in the military, and have no interest in dealing with the reality of the lives of veterans after they return from war!

Better treatment of veterans, and efforts to cut the murder and suicide rate, MUST become a priority of our government, at the same time that major cuts in defense projects that enrich corporations must be implemented!

The Changed Image Of Japanese In America From A Century Ago! Is This The Future For Muslims And Latinos In America?

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When one considers the horrible mistreatment delivered on Japanese in America in the first half of the 20th century, and how much things have changed, as witnessed after the recent Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant disaster, one has hope that maybe some day, the same change in treatment for Muslims and Latinos in America will be witnessed!

A century ago, newspapers regularly referred to Japanese Americans as “Japs”, particularly the papers published by William Randolph Hearst. California witnessed the segregation of Japanese American school children in San Francisco, until Theodore Roosevelt intervened and asked for the end of the policy because it was affecting US-Japanese relations. The California legislature later passed a law barring ownership of property in California by people of Japanese ancestry. The Japanese were depicted in popular culture, such as cartoons and movies,as inherently inferior, and as an “alien” race which could never be integrated into American society. And, of course, tragically, during World War II, about 110,000 Japanese Americans were interned in prison camps in seven states, while their military age young men were fighting in a segregated unit in Europe, winning more medals and honors than any unit of World War II in any theater of the war! When they were released in 1945, they were offered no apology or compensation, although it finally became accomplished for the 50,000 survivors under President Ronald Reagan in 1988!

But now, there is tremendous sympathy for the Japanese, and admiration at their courage and strength in difficult circumstances. Japanese Americans are now treated with dignity and respect by most Americans, and we do not hear any more racist or “alien” denunciations. We, as a society, tend to respect the contributions and accomplishments of Japanese Americans and regard them as “achievers”. We do not complain about their religion of Shintoism, or say they are unable to be assimilated. We salute them and praise them profusely, and prejudicial feelings are extremely rare. We have recovered from our hate of everything Japanese, due to their attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Now Japanese Americans are seen as truly Americans!

Will this happen in the future when,hopefully, we will not constantly remember September 11, 2001 as something to be blamed on all Muslims? Will this occur that we stop being so paranoid about illegal immigration from Mexico and Latin America, and consider Latinos to be good Americans as well?
The hope is that this change in attitude will come soon, and that politicians will stop exploiting the issue for their own advantage, much like they did before World War II regarding the Japanese!

Does The Republican Party Have No Shame? The 9/11 Responders Health Legislation Rejected In The Senate! :(

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One always likes to think that the Republican Party of 2010 has SOME conscience and decency, but it is obvious that this party, which is soon to gain control of the House of Representatives, and six more seats in the Senate, has ABSOLUTELY no shame or sense of dignity! 🙁

The “Party Of NO” has just filibustered, and prevented the passage of 9/11 Responders Health legislation in the US Senate, declaring they cannot back it because of its COST! 🙁

The fact that these “first responders” sacrificed their health, and many sacrificed their lives, to help the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center, does not seem to be enough of a reason to support any and all health coverage that these heroes need. 🙁

The fact that the tax agreement reached with President Obama by the GOP will add tremendously to the national debt does not perturb Republicans, as the super wealthy MUST have their outrageous tax cut, but the first responders are simply not that important, even though the GOP is quick to support action in Afghanistan and Iraq, costing more than a trillion dollars added to the national debt over the past nine years.

But, apparently, anything involving health care for ANYONE is not the business of the American government, and veterans in our military should keep that in mind, as they apparently do not do, assuming that the GOP will support veterans AFTER their service, which historically they have NOT done. 🙁

When, oh when, are military people, and the American people at large, finally going to realize that the Republican Party is ONLY concerned about the wealthy among us, and give not a damn about those who sacrifice for our country, whether on September 11, 2001, or on the battlefields far from home? 🙁

The Strange Relationship Of Joe Lieberman And John McCain

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The story of the strange, odd relationship between Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona continues to amaze.

Lieberman was the Vice Presidential running mate of Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election.

After September 11, Lieberman became very fixated on national security, including giving full support to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, joining McCain and many Republicans in that view, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

By 2006, Lieberman had alienated many Democrats, lost the Democratic Senatorial primary for another term, and ran as an independent Democrat, winning back his seat.

By 2008, he had antagonized the Democratic Party further by refusing to support Barack Obama, and endorsing John McCain for President.

He was on the short list of McCain to run for Vice President, which would have been a path breaking bi-partisan ticket.

There was some consideration by the Democratic Party to deny him a chairmanship because of his disloyalty, but Obama made clear that he did not support such an action.

Lieberman and McCain have continued to be the best of friends, and on national security and defense, they are united.

But as McCain turned further right in order to win back his Senate seat, Lieberman continued to be a liberal on domestic issues, other than homeland security.

So Lieberman is working very hard to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military, while McCain is leading the charge to keep it the policy of the defense establishment. Lieberman has even said that he is working on McCain but is having no success in changing his mind.

The two men are on opposite ends of the abortion issue as well, along with all other domestic issues, and yet they remain good friends and socialize a great deal with each other.

A book will be written someday analyzing the strange, odd friendship and alliance of Lieberman and McCain–of how a basically liberal Democrat and conservative Republican could become such strong allies on things they believe in common, and strong opponents of each other, in a very civil way, on issues that they totally disagree on.

This may be the greatest, but oddest relationship of two opposing Senators since the famous one of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch!

George W. Bush: Two Years Later, Is He Delusional? :(

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George W. Bush has been out of the White House now for two years, and has been avoiding the public spotlight, while preparing his memoirs, which will come out next week!

But excerpts of the memoir have been leaked to the press, and it does not make Bush look very good! In fact, it makes one almost wonder if he has taken to drinking again, something he writes about in his memoir!

Well known as an alcoholic, joining the short list of Presidents who are defined as such (the others being distant relative Franklin Pierce, and Ulysses Grant), Bush reveals a great deal about himself in his memoir!

He tells us that he thought of replacing Vice President Dick Cheney with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, an interesting scenario, because had it happened, Frist might very well have been the Presidential nominee in 2008, rather than Senator John McCain!

He feels that Barack Obama has not been a success, forgetting the mess that he left for the new President, the worst situation since Herbert Hoover handed over the Presidency to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933!

Even more interesting is his assessment of his greatest failure: the inability to privatize Social Security in his second term! This would have led to the total destruction of the whole system had it occurred, with the stock market crash in 2008!

But somehow, Hurricane Katrina, September 11, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War–all of these are not depicted as failures, as compared to Social Security privatization! What planet is George W. Bush on? 🙁

Also, what was his greatest disappointment and upset? Not any of the above events, but when recording artist Kanye West called him a racist for his slow reaction to the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly the flooding of New Orleans! Not the hurricane, but Kanye West calling him names, is the greatest upset Bush experienced!

By this statement of Bush, President Obama should be constantly upset over the crazy, loony verbal attacks on him by the “wingnuts” and the talk show hosts who don’t give him a pass on ANYTHING! 🙁

George W. Bush seems to the author to be a very troubled man who fails to face reality, and can too easily be “upset” by words of criticism!

Bush needs to learn the following: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” He needs to get off liquor and have some serious psychiatric help!

The question is how will the American people be able, finally, to overcome the damage he has wrought on this nation! 🙁

Flight 93 And Shanksville, Pennsylvania Heroism And Unity: Why Can’t We Emulate Them Nine Years Later?

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Today, September 11, is not only the 9th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but also the heroic action of strangers who united together in courage and conviction to overcome terrorists on Flight 93, who intended to crash into the White House or Capitol Hill!

These people–heroes and heroines–came from different parts of the nation, different backgrounds, different traditions–but they all united in a cause they knew they would not survive, the overcoming of the terrorists on board!

Their plane smashed into the ground at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard, but saving the country from an even worse tragedy, and an appropriate memorial is being planned to honor these decent people who sacrificed themselves for the betterment of their nation!

Why, oh why, can we not today, as a nation, show the same level of sacrifice and commitment to our nation, that these courageous passengers on Flight 93 demonstrated nine years ago today? 🙁

A true honoring of these courageous, brave citizens would be to rededicate ourselves to emulate their behavior, as that would be for the benefit of ALL of us, rather than the self serving, selfish, narrow minded exploitation of September 11, that has become endemic as the years have gone by! 🙁

We owe it to them to reconsider whether making September 11 something to politicize is moral and ethical, and rather to see it as something to be respected and honored and to unite us!