Sadly Many See This As True

He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action -

and a blessing to all his faithful followers

By Gerard Baker

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City
of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet
Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and
said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and
minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving
Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of
Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the
appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the
light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue
that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He
ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the
Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world. And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats
that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces
of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms
raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no
more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the
great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen
Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to
destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge
of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of
vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very
presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to
speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the
mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their
uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the
Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the
lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long
enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and
McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his followers that the Child was the one generations had been waiting for. And there were other wonderful signs. In the city of the Street at the Wall, spreads on interbank interest rates dropped like manna from Heaven and rates on credit default swaps fell to the ground as dead birds from the almond tree, and the people who had lived in foreclosure were able to borrow again.

Black gold gushed from the ground at prices well below $140 per barrel. In hospitals across the land the sick were cured even though they were uninsured. And all because the Child had pronounced it.

And this is the testimony of one who speaks the truth and bears witness
to the truth so that you might believe. And he knows it is the truth for he saw
it all on CNN and the BBC and in the pages of The New York Times.

Then the Child ventured forth from Israel and Palestine and stepped
onto the shores of the Old Continent. In the land of Queen Angela of Merkel,
vast multitudes gathered to hear his voice, and he preached to them at length.

But when he had finished speaking his disciples told him the crowd was
hungry, for they had had nothing to eat all the hours they had waited for him.

And so the Child told his disciples to fetch some food but all they had
was five loaves and a couple of frankfurters. So he took the bread and the
frankfurters and blessed them and told his disciples to feed the multitudes. And
when all had eaten their fill, the scraps filled twelve baskets.

Thence he travelled west to Mount Sarkozy. Even the beauteous Princess
Carla of the tribe of the Bruni was struck by awe and she was great in love with
the Child, but he was tempted not.
On the Seventh Day he walked across the
Channel of the Angles to the ancient land of the hooligans. There he was
welcomed with open arms by the once great prophet Blair and his successor,
Gordon the Leper, and his successor, David the Golden One.

And suddenly, with the men appeared the archangel Gabriel and the whole
host of the heavenly choir, ranks of cherubim and seraphim, all praising God and
singing: “Yes, We Can.”

Alan Colmes off of Hannity and Colmes said, "What in this is not true."

Sean Hannity replied, "Really?" and then looked at Alan in disbelief.

Too many believe as Alan. Barack Obama is seen as a savior, a savior of the world. Gerard Baker uses the absurd to point out the fallacy of the great Barack, but all good humor has a thread of truth in it. Not the truth of Obama being "the Child", but of peoples misconceptions of him. Obama is no Jesus!!! And he will never save the world.

Citizen of the World

We are the world, we are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day

So lets start giving

Theres a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives its true we'll make a better day

Just you and me

Is Barack Obama running for President of the United States or for President of the World? Hard to tell, especially when you listen to him speak to Europeans. Check out his speech to the world:

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let
me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me
earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most
of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in
this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born
in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His
father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the
British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others
in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required
the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after
letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his
prayer for a better life.

That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that
yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know
that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better
life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on
the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of
this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across
Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of
their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.
This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army.
And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely
rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog
filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping
off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry
families who had no comfort from the cold. But in the darkest hours, the
people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to
give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to
the Tiergarten, and heard the city's mayor implore the world not to give up on
freedom. "There is only one possibility," he said. "For us to stand together
united until this battle is won...The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done
our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your
duty...People of the world, look at Berlin!"

People of the world - look at Berlin!

Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together
and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field
of battle.

Look at Berlin, where the determination of a people met the generosity
of the Marshall Plan and created a German miracle; where a victory over tyranny
gave rise to NATO, the greatest alliance ever formed to defend our common
security.

Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber
stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our
common humanity.

People of the world - look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a
continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great
for a world that stands as one.

Sixty years after the airlift, we are called upon again. History has
led us to a new crossroad, with new promise and new peril. When you, the German people, tore down that wall - a wall that divided East and West; freedom and
tyranny; fear and hope - walls came tumbling down around the world. From Kiev to Cape Town, prison camps were closed, and the doors of democracy were opened. Markets opened too, and the spread of information and technology reduced barriers to opportunity and prosperity. While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope. But that very closeness
has given rise to new dangers - dangers that cannot be contained within the
borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in
Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on
American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the
ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing
drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. Poorly secured nuclear material in
the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help
build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the
heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of
tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

In this new world, such dangerous currents have swept along faster than
our efforts to contain them. That is why we cannot afford to be divided. No one
nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone. None
of us can deny these threats, or escape responsibility in meeting them. Yet, in
the absence of Soviet tanks and a terrible wall, it has become easy to forget
this truth. And if we're honest with each other, we know that sometimes, on both
sides of the Atlantic, we have drifted apart, and forgotten our shared
destiny.

In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our
world, rather than a force to help make it right, has become all too common. In
America, there are voices that deride and deny the importance of Europe's role
in our security and our future. Both views miss the truth - that Europeans today
are bearing new burdens and taking more responsibility in critical parts of the
world; and that just as American bases built in the last century still help to
defend the security of this continent, so does our country still sacrifice
greatly for freedom around the globe.

Yes, there have been differences between America and Europe. No doubt,
there will be differences in the future. But the burdens of global citizenship
continue to bind us together. A change of leadership in Washington will not lift
this burden. In this new century, Americans and Europeans alike will be required
to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a
choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and
advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide
us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the
Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those
with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and
immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls
we must tear down.

We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people
of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a
column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace.
Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast,
where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans,
where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to
justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated
apartheid.

So history reminds us that walls can be torn down. But the task
is never easy. True partnership and true progress requires constant work and
sustained sacrifice. They require sharing the burdens of development and
diplomacy; of progress and peace. They require allies who will listen to each
other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other.
That is why America cannot turn inward. That is why Europe cannot turn inward. America has no better partner than Europe. Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared
sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the
21st century. It was this spirit that led airlift planes to appear in the sky
above our heads, and people to assemble where we stand today. And this is the
moment when our nations - and all nations - must summon that spirit
anew.

This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of
extremism that supports it. This threat is real and we cannot shrink from our
responsibility to combat it. If we could create NATO to face down the Soviet
Union, we can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks
that have struck in Madrid and Amman; in London and Bali; in Washington and New York. If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand
with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate
instead of hope.

This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the
terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who
sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous
difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing
that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people
of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America
cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our
support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their
economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to
turn back now.

This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without
nuclear weapons. The two superpowers that faced each other across the wall of
this city came too close too often to destroying all we have built and all that
we love. With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further
spread of the deadly atom. It is time to secure all loose nuclear materials; to
stop the spread of nuclear weapons; and to reduce the arsenals from another era.
This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without
nuclear weapons.

This is the moment when every nation in Europe must have the chance to
choose its own tomorrow free from the shadows of yesterday. In this century, we
need a strong European Union that deepens the security and prosperity of this
continent, while extending a hand abroad. In this century - in this city of all
cities - we must reject the Cold War mind-set of the past, and resolve to work
with Russia when we can, to stand up for our values when we must, and to seek a
partnership that extends across this entire continent.

This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets
have created, and share its benefits more equitably. Trade has been a
cornerstone of our growth and global development. But we will not be able to
sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many. Together, we must
forge trade that truly rewards the work that creates wealth, with meaningful
protections for our people and our planet. This is the moment for trade that is
free and fair for all.

This is the moment we must help answer the call for a new dawn in the
Middle East. My country must stand with yours and with Europe in sending a
direct message to Iran that it must abandon its nuclear ambitions. We must
support the Lebanese who have marched and bled for democracy, and the Israelis
and Palestinians who seek a secure and lasting peace. And despite past
differences, this is the moment when the world should support the millions of
Iraqis who seek to rebuild their lives, even as we pass responsibility to the
Iraqi government and finally bring this war to a close.

This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let
us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and
famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all
nations - including my own - will act with the same seriousness of purpose as
has your nation, and reduce the carbon we send into our atmosphere. This is the
moment to give our children back their future. This is the moment to stand as
one.

And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a
globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a
battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin
did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful
children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military
victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from
the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did
here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with
this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of
this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security
and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the
refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the
blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words
"never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one
each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for
the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun
discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and
keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our
time.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled
to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made
our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world
have not lived up to our best intentions. But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great
cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other
nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular
tribe or kingdom - indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every
culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our
public squares. What has always united us - what has always driven our people;
what drew my father to America's shores - is a set of ideals that speak to
aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from
want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and
worship as we please.

Those are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this
city. Those aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is
because of those aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of those
aspirations that all free people - everywhere - became citizens of Berlin. It is
in pursuit of those aspirations that a new generation - our generation - must
make our mark on history.

People of Berlin - and people of the world - the scale of our challenge
is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are
heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us
build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.

New Yorker Cover

The cover of the newest New Yorker Magazine is drawing a lot of attention. At first glance, you might think the magazine is making fun of Obama and his wife, Michelle, but that is not the case. According to the New Yorker, the cartoonist was actually making fun of the crazy accusations the "right" makes about the Obama's, and their position on terrorism (The Guardian).

Funny though, most people who see the magazine cover will never know what the intent of the magazine really was, they will simply have the image of the Obama's in the White House with a portrait of Bin Laden as the focal point of the Oval Office. So, when they go in to vote, they won't picture a noble President Obama sitting with the faces of all those dead, white guys we call the founders sitting over his shoulder. No, instead they will see Bin Laden.

The next time the New Yorker wants to point out the misguided ideas of those on the right, they might want to leave their guy out of the picture. Sometimes a little help from your friends can actually hurt.

Russia As An Ally?

I am not sure what presidency Barack Obama is running for. He seems to want to protect every other country in the world’s rights, while laying ours aside. He is like the parent who is more concerned about the neighbor’s kid’s well-being than that of his own.

In his latest appeasement, the Democratic Nominee argued that Russia should not be excluded from the G8, as John McCain suggested. During a CNN interview, Obama stated that Russia was a needed ally in the fight against nuclear proliferation. “Without Russia’s cooperation,” Obama said that, “our efforts on that (stopping proliferation of nuclear materials and technical knowhow) will be greatly weekend” (Reuters, July 12, 08).

The question that arises is this, What has Russia done over the past eight years to stop nuclear proliferation? NOTHING! While we have been fighting a two-pronged war against terrorism and the spread of “weapons of mass destruction” through that war, Russia has actually aided Iran in developing their nuclear program.

“WHEN Russia announced it had started shipping low-enriched uranium fuel to power the civilian nuclear reactor it is helping Iran build at Bushehr, George Bush tried to squeeze some comfort out of a piece of news which—for the international effort to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions—was a disappointing about-turn. “If the Iranians accept that [Russian] uranium for a civilian power plant, then there's no need for them to learn how to enrich,” he said on December 17th.

True, in theory. But Iran refuses to follow such logic. By making long-delayed fuel shipments to Bushehr now, Russia will weaken further the UN Security Council effort to end Iran's defiance. It also risks undermining plans to limit the spread of dangerous nuclear technologies at a time when many governments, including a number in the volatile Middle East, plan to invest in nuclear power” (Ecomomist.com, December 19, 07).

John McCain’s reason for excluding Russia from the G8 was their new clampdown on political freedom. The presses freedom as well as the freedom of political dissension is taking hold in parliament.

"Not a single private TV channel is left at the national level, and a similar process is under way in the regions," says Boris Nemtsov, a parliamentary leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces. "Freedom of the press is gradually being squelched in Russia" (Rusnet, July 13,08).

“Amnesty International examines the pernicious effect of arbitrary interpretations of vague legislation and increasing harassment on the freedom of people in Russia to express their opinions and to stand up for their rights. The report comes after a tumultuous period under Russian President Vladimir Putin that has seen armed police attack peaceful 'Other Russia' demonstrators, new laws that have harassed NGOs and their personnel, the unsolved murder of outspoken journalists and the closure of nearly all independent media outlets” (Amnesty.org, Feb.2008).

Politically, Russia is beginning to move back to the days of its Soviet past. A weak hand and a naïve belief that the Russians want a relationship with the United States will only increase the proliferation of nuclear weapons around the world. Strength is the position they and the rest of the world respect and understand. The Reagan model of working with the Soviets is the premier that should be followed. It was the only one that ended the proliferation of nuclear weapons up until that point in history.

Obama needs to remember his history. The only relationship we have ever had with Russia that has worked long term in controlling rouge nations and the spread of weapons of mass destruction was the cold war. It seems that he wants to be everyone’s friend, but he needs to remember that no one wants to be the friend of the United States. Russia hates our position, and our power as does every other nation in the world that is not already our close ally. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Failed Policy

Not only should John McCain compare Obama’s economic policies with the failed policies of the Carter administration (up and coming post), he should also compare his homeland defense policies with the failed policies of the Clinton administration.

The voice of the Democratic Party coming from the Obama camp calls the war on terror and the reaction to 911 pursued by the Bush administration wrong. John Kerry (not such a new voice) said in relation to the Obama’s vision for handling terrorists that the policy of prosecuting terrorists used in the 1990’s, especially the way the World Trade Center bombing was handled was the right course to follow in dealing with terrorism. He said the perpetrators were tried, convicted and sent to prison, problem solved.

Well, that might be the case, but that prosecutorial method most favored by democrats never addressed the overall picture of global terrorism, and never acted as a deterrent to those who wanted to destroy the United States and her allies.

In the 1990’s under this system of national security, the following attacks on the United States at home and abroad dominated the news:

• 1993: World Trade Center Bombing
  The World Trade Center bombing took place on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One. The device was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into Tower Two, bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042.
  The Attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Yousef, Abouhalima, Salameh, Ayyad, Rahman Yasin, and Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle. In March 1994, four were convicted of carrying out the bombing. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November, two more were convicted, one being Yousef, the mastermind of the attack” (Wikipedia).



• 1996: Khobar Towers
  The Khobar Towers bombing was a terrorist attack on part of a housing complex in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia. It was being used to house foreign military personnel.
  On June 25, 1996, members of Hizballah Al-Hijaz exploded a fuel truck next to the housing complex. The eight-story building housed US Air Force personnel. In all, 19 airmen and Saudis were killed and 372 of many nationalities were wounded
  In June 21, 2001 and indictment was issued charging 18 terrorists with murder, conspiracy and other charges related to the bombing, most of those charged being Saudis.
  The 9/11 Commission noted that Osama Bin Laden had been congratulated on the day of the Khobar attack (Wikipedia).




• 1998: Embassy Bombings
  August 7, 1998 the US embassies in cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzanie and Nairobi, Kenya were bombed killing hundreds of people simultaneously. These attacks were tied to local members of al Qaeda, and brought bin Laden and al Qaeda to the international community for the first time.
  The Clinton administration sent cruise missiles into key locations in Sudan, where terrorists were believed to be located, but the only target damaged was a civilian pharmaceutical factory.
  The investigation into the bombing was handled by the FBI and local authorities resulting in several men being charged with the bombing.
  The son of Saddam Hussein of Iraq, following the bombings, praised Osama bin Laden. He called him “an Arab and Islamic hero.” A court in Afghanistan declared bin Laden “a man without a sin” following the bombing.
  Twenty-one people were indicted in relation to the bombing: two were killed in war on terror since 9-11, since 2001 four are serving life without parole, three have been held in the UK since 1998/99, two are held in Guantanamo Bay, ten still at large including bin Laden (Wikipedia).
  



• 2000: USS Cole
  A suicide bomber attacked the USS Cole on October 12, 2000, while it was harbored in Yemeni. Seventeen sailors were killed, and thirty-nine were injured in the attack, orchestrated by bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
  All those convicted in the attack escaped from prison or had been freed by Yemeni officials by May 2008.
  Dr. Rice (national security advisor at the time) stated the decision not to respond militarily to the Cole bombing was President Bush's. She said he ‘made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al Qaeda one attack at a time. He told me he was 'tired of swatting flies.’The administration instead began work on a new strategy to eliminate al-Qaeda.
  On November 3, 2002, the CIA fired a AGM-114 Hellfire missile from a Predator UAV at a vehicle carrying Abu Ali al-Harithi, a suspected planner of the bombing plot. Also in the vehicle was Ahmed Hijazi, a U.S. citizen. Both were killed. This operation was carried out on Yemeni soil.
  On September 29, 2004, a Yemeni judge sentenced Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Jamal al-Badawi to death for their roles in the bombing. Al-Nashiri, believed to be the operation's mastermind, is currently being held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.[26] Al-Badawi, in Yemeni custody, denounced the verdict as "an American one." Four others were sentenced to prison terms of five to 10 years for their involvement, including one Yemeni who had videotaped the attack.
  On February 3, 2006, 23 suspected or convicted Al-Qaeda members escaped from jail in Yemen. This number included 13 who were convicted of the USS Cole bombings and the bombing of the French tanker Limburg in 2002. Among those who reportedly escaped was Al-Badawi. Al-Qaeda's Yemeni number two Abu Assem al-Ahdal may also be among those now on the loose. (Wikipedia)




• 2001: 9/11
  On the morning of September 11, 2001, an al-Qaeda orchestrated terrorist attack murdered 2,998 people in the United States. Terrorists hijacked four airplanes. They intentionally crashed two of those airplanes into the World Trade Center, which both fell, another into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers attempted to stop the hijackers and retake the plane.
  Following this attack, the United States declared the War on Terrorism and launched an offensive against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan (Wikipedia).
  

The policy of prosecution did not lead to an end of terrorism against Americans at home and abroad. Following the failed attempt to destroy the World Trade Center in 1993, al-Qaeda became stronger, more aggressive, and finally successful in terrorizing the United States. The small missile strikes used by the Clinton Administration and the indictment process used by his justice department did not threaten men who desired to destroy western civilization. They willingly used their bodies as weapons of war, so why would going to jail deter them?

The War on Terrorism, initiated by President Bush and his administration lead to the death and capture of not only those responsible for 9-11, but it also lead to the capture or death of those responsible for the embassy bombings of 1998 and the attack on the USS Cole as shown above.
An active, offense is the best defense. Since 2001 there has not been a terrorist attack carried out on US soil, nor against our military outside their service in war. The Bush Administrations War, ended the string of attacks led by bin Laden and al-Qaeda that ran through the Clinton years of prosecutorial indictments, and which culminated in the deaths of thousands of Americans on September 11, 2001.

Barack Obama and those in the Democratic Party would take us back to the failed policies of the ‘90’s. He would have us return to September 10, 2001, but, with his philosophy of defense, all that would lead to would be September 11, 2001.

The following link reveals Barack Obama’s defense plan. Pay close attention to his goals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfwKKxVC7_o&eurl=http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/2008/02/27/obama-plans-to-disarm-america/

If Obama is elected president, we might as well give Iran all our nuclear weapons now. If we stop developing new weapons, if we take our nuclear system off alert, if we surrender our position as super power, we will return to pre-9/11 terrorist attacks. Worse than even that, we will find ourselves in a world controlled by rogue nations, which we are impotent to stop.

Grasp Equality

Not grasping equality, letting go of rights. Foreign concepts to Americans? All men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Women were excluded by name (all men created equal) in the Declaration of Independence, but they attempted to rectify that problem at Seneca Falls, NY. Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott tried to grasp their equality when they wrote the Declaration of Sentiment. Which states:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a absolution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

These ideas and words may have been penned in 1848, but they are the ideas that shaped the 20th century's Women’s Liberation Movement. They are the foundation for the modern world we now live, and the one in which most of us as women are thankful to live in, yet struggle to understand.

If we are created equal, endowed by God with certain rights, should we not demand equality at every level with the men in our lives? If we demand equality, what does that equality look like? Is it equality of treatment, equality of position or equality of standing? What equalities do we fight to obtain, why do we have to fight at all?

In the end, if we are equal we should not have to demand nor fight for our rights. The Creator took Eve from Adam’s side, creating her equal to Adam. In Christ, we are neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all one. It is because we are equal in value before God that we as women or more specifically wives are called to submit to our husbands. If we were not equal in worth, God would not ask us to surrender our ability to lead to our husbands. It is because we are of equal standing in Christ that we as women must yield our desire for equal position or even dominate position in our families to our husbands.

The principle of submission is even more difficult to live out today than it was for women who lived prior to the Declaration of Sentiments given at Senece Falls. In the modern era, girls are no longer raised to care for children (children are a “choice”), love their husbands and keep their houses well. Instead, they are told that they need to stand up for their rights, taught to debate, discuss, and argue their point.

Men are raised to believe that there is no difference between them and their female counterparts, chivalry died with the Feminist movement. No longer are doors held, groceries carried out, or women protected by men. Women are expected to earn a living on their own as well as have children. They are no longer valued for their willingness to serve others, and are only as valuable as their bank accounts. The rate of abandonment and divorce has skyrocketed in the years since feminism has taken root in our culture.

Women wanted equality, and to their own detriment at times, they got it.

Don’t get me wrong. I am thankful for the right to vote, thankful that my voice and the voices of millions of other women are valued in the United States of America. I am grateful to Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton and others just like them who stood up to say, “Hold on, aren’t all people created equal?” To women who held up the words of the Declaration to the light of reality and questioned the divisions within our society.

The problem that often arises in reform movements is that enough is never enough. When a revolution careens past its stated goal, and moves into a frenzied madness. I am sure those women who went to Seneca never imagined that women’s rights would lead to a mass movement condoning abortion on demand. The main “right” that defines women’s rights.

Freedom is one of the greatest gifts God gave to humanity. It needs to be valued, defended and at times fought for. Sometimes it demands sacrifice, even a sacrifice of itself for the good of another. In grasping, we often grasp beyond our rights and end up destroying the rights of another.