Around the rumor mill, the Par-3 neighborhood bar in Coal Township is changing ownership this weekend. This leaves Nolter's Cafe as the longest owned neighborhood tavern in Coal Township under one family.
If John Patrick had his way, this was the final song on the jukebox:
Reposted from Andrew Sullivan's The Dish.
I trust polling and political science ... up to a point. But seriously, the idea that this event does not transform the arc of the Obama presidency is to miss the moment.
Obama avoided a plunge into the second Great Depression. He saved the auto industry. His bank bailout may make a profit. He has withdrawn most troops from Iraq. He has ended the ban on openly gay servicemembers. He has appointed two women to the Supreme Court. He muscled universal healthcare through the Congress into law. He ended torture as the law of the land.
Abroad, since his Cairo speech, democratic revolution after revolution has occurred. From Tehran to Tunisia to Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, the march of freedom George W Bush imagined has actually swept the region under his successor. Where Obama has failed - Israel/Palestine - he may still prevail.
But the capture and killing of bin Laden eclipses these. It does two things instantly: it tells us that an American named Barack Hussein Obama ordered the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. A man who symbolizes an integrative, tolerant, multicultural future defeated the symbol of a twisted, dark, fundamentalist past. A man who represents the human continuum of the developing and developed worlds defeated a man who seeks only one world and Shariah rule over all of it. And it also tells those who have been bombarded with lies and rumors and disgusting smears that this president, whatever they have been told, is no weakling, no terror-lover, no alien. He is as American as every new passport holder and every ancient Southern or Yankee family.
He found and killed the man Red and Blue America equally wanted found and captured or killed. And in that specific fact, a certain narrative - the narrative the degenerate right has been trying to fix to him for years - must now die. And it must die in the heart of the red states as well as in the mind of the blue ones.
Far from being somehow un-American, this president is only conceivable in America. Which makes this moment so rich with meaning and justice and, yes, hope.
Over the last quarter century I have been ribbed why does one actually golf?? Mark Twain once said, "It is a good walk wasted."
I could list a few of my reasons in no particular order:
On Sunday, Obama went to play golf in the morning at Andrews Air Force Base. He played 9 holes in chilly, rainy weather and spent a little time on the driving range, as well. Meanwhile, the principals were assembling in the situation room at the White House. They were there from 1:00 PM and stayed put for the rest of the day.
At 2:00, Obama met with the principals back at the White House. At 3:32 he went to the situation room for another briefing. At 3:50 he was told that bin Laden was "tentatively identified." At 7:01 Obama was told there was a "high probability" the high value target at the compound was bin Laden. At 8:30 Obama got the final briefing.
ABC News has reported that US forces have killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. The US has been looking, hunting and searching for Bin Laden since September 11, 2001 and finally the effort has paid off.
For nearly a decade, many US troops have hunted for the face of terrorism and have met with mixed results along the way. Many of our troops and their families have sacrificed and paid the ultimate the price for our freedom here and abroad.
Today, we may have killed the face of terrorism. Have we stopped the movement? Only time will tell. That is not the reason to celebrate.
Let us lift our glass to celebrate and remember the efforts of our troops for the past decade both home and abroad. May we remember their effort and never forget their sacrifice.
Peace out!!!!
