What the Death of Osama Bin Laden Means to Me

I’ve been trying to figure out the answer to that question ever since I saw the crowds of people gathering the evening of May 1, 2011 until 2am to celebrate the event in New York and Washington. What were these people so happy about? What was I so happy about? My wife, Lisa, took a much more somber stance on the whole ordeal—wondering whether or not retribution would follow or whether the wars would now end. I told her it felt to me like someone choosing not to cheer a victory for fear of some future defeat. My new daughter, Rachel, said she didn’t celebrate anyone’s death. That made sense to me, but I felt a need to explain to her why I felt this sense of relief…of joy.

The name Osama Bin Laden is linked in my mind to George W. Bush. It seems I had barely gotten over the Supreme (Court) insult that placed W in office over the rightful winner Al Gore before 9/11 happened and suddenly this man, who had hardly any respect in our country, became this hero to the media and the world. In some sense, Osama Bin Laden represented the day the world turned fully upside down.

The tilt began on election night 2000. Al Gore had been declared the winner of the election and there sat George Bush on TV saying quite comfortably, “Eh, eh, I would wouldn’t count Florida out yet.” Why not I wondered? His brother was the governor of Florida at the time and the chairperson of Bush’s election was the Secretary of State Kathleen Harris.  At the time I lived in Chicago, but I was considering a move to Fort Lauderdale. In Chicago the mayor at the time was Richard Daley Jr. His father had been the mayor for years earlier. Yet in all my time there, as dirty as Chicago politics was, I’d never witnessed anything so wonton as that declaration. “I wouldn’t count Florida out yet.”

The vote was close. Katheleen Harris then declared George W. Bush the winner. What? A recount was ordered. Votes were missing. Confusion. The Florida Supreme Court took up the matter. The justices there were liberals. They ordered a recount. Bush appealed it to the Federal Supreme Court, which promptly—against Bush’s own conservative “state’s rights” leanings—overturned the Florida court’s decision and stopped the recount that would have put Al Gore in office as the President of the United States. That was the tilt--the initial jolt that started the wobble. Something was wrong in the universe and we were stunned. Eight years of Clinton had left America in fantastic economic shape. We had a balanced budget and a surplus to begin paying down the huge national debt. Of course Al Gore got more votes. Bush had run Texas. Texas was number one in only one thing—death row executions. They were last in education. George Bush Jr. had been a drunk and drug addict until his forties. What the hell was going on?  The only business he’d run he’d been given by his daddy. Why did this man get any votes at all?

Then came Al Gore’s concession speech. Bizarre! Why was he conceding? Fight, damn it. Then Bush declared that the surplus he’d been handed by Clinton “is your money, so I’m going to give it back to you.” And he cut taxes. Everyone I knew at the time got $300 to $600 in a check. They were happy to get it too. It is what calmed their rage. Later, when I entered the mortgage business after I moved to California, I met people who’d not gotten $300 checks from that tax cut but who’d gotten $300,000 checks. And they'd taken those checks and bought collectible cars, fire trucks, and more cars and, of course, donated to republicans. The unnecessary and un-requested tax cut wiped out the surplus and set our nation back on the road we’d fought so hard to curtail after the Reagan/Bush I years.  The world tilted further.

Then Bush disappeared. He took vacation after vacation. He had nothing to do as President. He cleared brush. He golfed. 

Around that time, I had decided to change careers and move to California to become a screenwriter. While still in Chicago, I had producers calling to buy the script I’d written that placed in the Chesterfield Film Company’s Writer’s Film Project and a fresh new terrorism based action screenplay that was starting to attract some attention. So on August 31, 2001, I moved my family across the country to Burbank to start a new life.

Then came 9/11. And the world flipped completely upside down.

From that day forward the name Osama Bin Laden became synonymous with George W. Bush. Bush’s father had dealings in an investment venture called the Carlisle Group with other Bin Laden family members from Saudi Arabia. WHAT?! This is too much. But it was true.  Knowing Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan we promptly attacked there and… Iraq of course.  Sadaam Hussein, who had been good friends with Bush’s daddy until 1991, was suddenly the Butcher of Baghdad. Pictures of Sadaam smiling with Donald Rumsfield and Bush Sr. were surreal. Sadaam had Weapons of Mass Destruction even though the German inspector from the UN said he did not. Everyone said he did not. They had been destroyed as he said. There were no weapons—no reason to attack. But attack we did. Two wars in two middle-east nations—one small one to go after the guy who actually did something to us and one big one just for the hell of it. Politics became a 24 hour game and Fox News and every other News station became propaganda—beating the drums to wars that had nothing at all to do with 9/11.

I remember not being able to write for months. I was dazed and confused. I tried a comedy script. I rewrote other ones. Finally, I landed an agent right around the time Bush was running for re-election and I was certain we were finally going to correct the mistake of 2000. The Democrats ran a genuine war hero—not a draft dodger who didn’t understand war. Yet somehow, old men got on TV and lied about John Kerry. The term “swift boat” was everywhere. On top of that, it came out that Condaleeza Rice had brought a memo to Bush’s attention in the days before 9/11 entitled, “Osama Bin Laden determined to strike inside the US,” which detailed the plot to hijack commercial airplanes and fly them into buildings.  YET George Bush won reelection—this time by a substantial margin.  People everywhere claimed that Bush “had kept us safe” from another attack. It seemed they had completely forgotten who was president when we got attacked. And no one cared that we were all being spied on or that we could be arrested without reason and held indefinitely just because we were said to be "suspect." No one seemed to care that we’d been lied to about Iraq. No one cared that the news was lying to our faces and fearing to confront the president for fear of being thrown out of the Whitehouse press room or out of the embed truck. And no one cared that Bush was no longer saying he was going to get Bin Laden. He now began saying that he didn’t care much about him.

No Bin Laden. No end of war in sight. Crazy was ruling the world. It was everywhere. In the mortgage business, new loans started showing up. First there were “stated” loans—you just told the bank how much you made—no proof necessary. Then came “no income/no asset loans”—if your credit was good enough, you didn’t need money. But then came negative amortization loans. I remember the day the rep from World Savings came to our office to discuss the loans that didn’t even require the whole interest to be paid. You only paid 1% of a 7% or 8% loan as a minimum payment. The rest would simply go on the back end of your loan. After all, housing values were increasing $10,000 a month in Southern California, the two, three or four thousand that got tacked on to the back of the loan would easily be covered by the increase in value. In fact, you’d still be making six to eight thousand in equity growth. WOW! 

And why not? Everything else in the world was fucking nuts. Why not this too? Most of the guys in my office were in their twenties. I was in my early thirties. My direct manager was making $150,000 a month and there were others in the office on my level making $100,000. The two owners of the company were rumored to be making $1,000,000 a month. My best month I made $50,000. That’s because I was a screenwriter, remember? That was my part time job. Most of my days were spent going around to studios and pitching movies.

I thought the housing prices were crazy and that the same money that blew up the tech market (in which I’d lost a fortune in Chicago) was now in real estate. But when a house that was purchased for $400,000, given $25,000 in upgrades and resold two months later for $650,000 crossed my desk--and got financed on stated income--I knew I’d better jump on board and buy some property. Crazy was the way of the world. It took five years for me to buy into it, but buy I did.

Then reality came knocking. Stupidity had run its course. Those who understood the game had cashed in and gotten out. I was stuck with a $900,000 house that was now only worth $600,000. I was also stuck with a $620,000 house that was now only worth $450,000. The guys who owned our company did well. I saw one driving around in a $290,000 Ferrari just a few days ago. Most of us though… not so good.

But stupid wasn’t done yet. It was time to bail out the banks. They had been conned. Poor people had done them in. What?! Poor people? Really? No. Some poor people got homes, but most of the deals I saw were people with 700+ FICO scores buying way more house than they could afford with the idea they would refinance it or sell it later when it was worth $100,000 or $200,000 more. Actually, it wasn’t even that they were buying way more house than they could afford. My $900,000 house was only 2,000 square feet, three bedrooms and two baths. Anywhere else in the county it would have sold for $150,000—that’s all it cost to build—but the land was worth $750,000, or so everyone believed. People were just trying to buy decent homes that had the electrical systems to handle their new computers and what not. The cheap money simply inflated everything. But when your note is $6000/mo and you’re making $50,000/mo, it’s okay, right?

In 2006, when we first heard Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, someone suggested he might be the choice for 2008. I laughed—brilliant, yes, but too young…and black to boot. No way. Hillary. Hell, the GOP had a dynasty, right? Then came Huffington Post and blogs and organizing and somehow enough smart people came together that Obama won the nomination.

Now it was time for crazy to introduce their next champion—the gob-smacked stupidest of all stupidity stupid people I’d ever seen put seriously into the national political spotlight since Potatoe man Dan Quale—Sarah Palin. And I’ll be damned if it didn’t just keep getting nuttier and nuttier. She reads all newspapers. She sees Russia from Alaska. She’s for family values with a pregnant, unwed daughter that you can’t talk about. Yet Obama refused to play. When Obama’s pastor wasn’t Christian, Obama took the podium and gave us all an education in American racial history. We were impressed. Amazed. Educated. Still it continued. Obama’s a muslim. Obama’s a socialist…

But Obama won. The smart guy won. And he did what he said despite being opposed and lied on the whole way. He passed healthcare. And crazy, as Sarah Palin would say, reared its ugly head as people on Medicare (a government healthcare program) stood up to declare they wanted nothing to do with government healthcare. A new term emerged, “Astroturf”—fake protest paid for by GOP donors. And it turned out these were the same people behind stopping the recount in Florida. There was a genuine conspiracy afoot.  But healthcare passed. And dozens and dozens of other bills that made sense.

So we come to last few weeks. Huffington Post, began to get wacky with misleading headlines, then the once a reliable voice of viewpoints not owned by the corporate media sold out to AOL/Time/Warner—one of, if not the biggest media conglomerate in the world for $300M. Suddenly the GOP is on Huff Post. Meanwhile, the US media has given way to so much insanity that a game show host, that everyone knows has no plans whatsoever of actually running is the most respected candidate the GOP has for office.

Then came this past weekend. In one amazing fell swoop, President Obama released his long form birth certificate and then put Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann and all the GOP in their place at the White House Correspondents Dinner. During his speech Obama joked that Donald handled all types of hard decisions on his game show—decisions that would “keep me awake at night”—like whether to fire Gary Busey, Meatloaf or Lil Jon.  Everyone laughed. The absurdity of Donald Trump suddenly became apparent. The lights had come on. The lights came on. The curtain was pulled back. And at that very moment President Obama was overseeing the killing of Osama Bin Laden. President Obama kept his eye on the ball. President Obama proved that smart people are the best people for running this nation.

I didn’t lose loved ones in 9/11. I’m grateful for that. I’m in sympathy with those who did. My life didn’t stop in the way that other people’s lives stopped. What stopped for me was a world of reasonable, intelligent understanding. What the death of Osama Bin Laden means to me is the end of the error of George W. Bush. That’s what I hope. Not just the end of the “era” of Bush, but the end of the “error” of Bush—an end to stupidity’s reign in our nation. 

When President Obama released his long-form birth certificate, and again when he concluded his speech at the correspondent’s dinner, he said,  “America has serious issues to deal with and we don’t have time for these games.” The next day, those serious issues were vividly revealed in the killing of Bin Laden. Now if we can stay serious for a while longer, and let the smart guy run the nation as he was elected to do, maybe we can fix a few more things.

Gay Folk Need to Get in Line

I'm not hating on anyone, but I have to admit that this kind of thing happened in the past and I want to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I'm not saying gay folk don't have their issues and the right to protest and push their issues. All I'm saying is that they don't have the right to be at the front of the line. Not yet.

Remember when Clinton got elected? The first issue before he ever even got into office was "Gays in the military." What? Haven't they always been in the military? So what's the big deal? Whether they could be open about it or not? And my question then, as my question now is this...How the hell did this get to the top of the agenda? What about black folk, the homeless, the uninsured, the jobless, the screwed up economy, the immigrants? There's a lot of other people who've been standing the the "Waiting to be heard" line much longer than gay people.

This may be offensive to some people, but I honestly don't recall there being a serious gay voice or gay community--let alone a LGBT community anywhere outside San Francisco at all until the about the 80s. Black folk have about 300 more years of waiting on this line. Native Americans have about the same. Where I come from, you put in the work before you reap the rewards. LGBT folk just don't have enough seniority to be at the top of the agenda yet.

Now don't get mad. We're not forgetting you. But seriously, how many of you really want to marry anyway? I honestly believe there was a good number of gay folk who voted for prop 8. I'm sure there's plenty of LGBT people who are quite happy that there is a law forbidding them from marrying, if for no other reason than to have an excuse not to be bound to a particular partner who, if marriage was legal, would definitely be planning a huge wedding.

Now I'm not accusing gay people of working for conservatives, but sometimes I sincerely wonder what folk in the LGBT community are thinking? You work to elect a liberal (or a more liberal) politician and you...what? Expect them to throw away any and all ability to govern by trying to swing the country far left? Don't you understand that many people are afraid of you. Why do you think they pass these laws?

Consider this... LGBT folk cannot reproduce. That means the only way for their society to maintain it's numbers is for it to grow by (and this isn't the best word, I know) conversion. It is, in essence, the offspring of straight families that are required for the LGBT society to exist. That alone is enough to power the right for 1000 years.

But look too at how you affect the left. The headlines on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on Nov 5th read about Obama's victory as the first black President of the United States. And right beneath it and above the pic of Obama, it read that Gay marriage had been defeated. The days following the election and the ban were marches and rallies and even arguments about how black folk stripped gay people of their rights when gay people had helped elect the first black President. What? Black folk can't even celebrate for having gay folk yelling on TV about injustice.

And now with the economy in absolute shambles, banks going bankrupt everyday, and the end of economic world as we know it, LGBT folk want to posture as if the main issue on the table is whether or not they can call themselves husband and husband or wife and wife? Seriously folk? Really? Right now? You sure you want to do this now? Get in the back of the line already. And work for the other issues you value in the meantime. This is not the most important issue on the table for anyone.

And go get married. You've been doing it all along anyway. Get married! No one is stopping you. This isn't about not being able to live in a certain area or not being able to shop in a certain store, go to a certain school, or get a job. It's not even about not being able to get married. This is about making people see the world the way you see the world. This is about making conservatives no longer see you as sinners choosing a sinful lifestyle, but as being born gay. And honestly, do you really think that's going to happen? I'm not saying it won't happen eventually, but I am saying that we need to fix this economy, health care, the unemployment situation and lot of other things first. So get in line.

I saw Rachel Maddow say that LGBT people were "thrown under the bus" by the Clinton administration. They weren't thrown under any bus. They just weren't prioritized as they would like to be. All I'm asking is do you really deserve to be prioritized at this time? Do you really think Obama can afford to prioritize your issues at this time? Is that going to be the action that will help bring this nation together?

Please don't spend your amazing gifts and talents trying to undermine Obama because he didn't prioritize you or because he selected someone you feel is an enemy to pray at his inauguration. It's a prayer. Chill out. Right wingers have 24-7 radio and TV ranting, preaching, and deluding Americans into believing Obama is the Antichrist, dividing our nation and polarizing people essential to our healing. And they are counting on the LGBT community to help ignite the fires of fear that power their engines. Please don't do it. Not this time.

There's plenty for everyone. Just be patient and get in line. It will all work much smoother and all will be served much better if you do.

TRL.

Overwhelmed by a sense of patriotism

I'm actually blown away by the sudden expansion of my perception of America. I feel I've been drugged with patriotism.

Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America.

Wow. Our nation is crying tears of joy. We all know something truly amazing has happened. The whole world seems to be celebrating with us.

Wow.

I have to go out now and buy a flag and hang it on my house.

For the first time in my life I now actually believe this country is worth dying for. What I mean is that I've been willing to die defending myself against attack. Anyone would do that. Someone attacks your homeland and you're "willing" to die because "you don't touch what's mine." It's a reaction from pride, ego, machismo. It applies equally to country or automobile or gym shoes.

But for the first time in my life, I believe this nation is "worthy" of the lives it has cost its citizens. The idea of the United States of America is a worthy idea. There is a nobility and honorableness that calls for its citizens to sacrifice whatever is necessary for that idea to be preserved.

The America that elected Barack Hussein Obama as its 44th president is the America of my dreams--the America of promise. We're not fully there yet, but from all appearances, about 60% of us are seriously trying. And that makes America great to me in a way that it has not been in the past. I believe so much more now that she is worth loving, sacrificing and protecting. And what's more... I believe the world may feel the same way.
--TRL

If Obama Wins, have black folk overcome?

My wife just walked in and posed an interesting question, "So if Obama wins, does that mean we've overcome?"

Yes it does. Not that every problem is solved, but...

Think about that a moment… If Obama wins, history is forever altered in this country. A black man has become the most powerful man in the world. All those "negro spirituals" of old were sung about this day. On this day--Nov 4, 2008, the United States of America Elected a black man to be its President. On this day--the promise of America was truly fulfilled. No more was America a place of lofty ideals only, but its people have proven they are truly capable of overcoming their history and electing--as Martin Luther King once dreamed, a man "not judged by the color of his skin but rather by the content of his character."

Black folk are eerily silent because they don't fully believe it. They are happy, but they are eerily silent about what this means. It's like they don't want to jinx it. They don't want to mess it up. Yes, y'all the world is changing. But it's not just black people. The whole world is watching. You can feel their eyes.

Two hundred fifteen thousand people showed up to see Obama in Germany. Imagine how many would show if he went to other more populous nations--say Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, India, Japan, China?

In Colombia they print his image on lottery tickets to help sales. The whole world is feeling the change coming. The whole world collectively holding its breath to see if the great United States of America will turn its massive power away from the study of war and towards the establishment of peace and freedom for which it is supposed to stand, but for which it has failed to stand lately.

Imagine the excuses that go out the window for all those who claimed “the man” was holding them down. Even racists can find at least this reason to vote for Obama--that by doing so, they effectively receive full right to claim racism no longer exists in America.

Imagine, too, the story you tell your grandchildren--that you voted for the first black President of the United States. It is a collective social badge of honor to forever share with your family akin to having marched on Washington with King. Twenty years from now, everyone who voted for Obama will be American Heroes--and those who didn't, the equivalent of Bull Conner's firehose brigade in 1963 Birmingham.

What else could you be, given Obama's obvious trumping of John McCain on every single issue? The stubborn insistence of conservatives to vote for McCain is so far past any reasoned logic that it begs to be called either massive ignorance, blind partisanship, or outright racism--regardless of which it truly is, it won't be anything any grandchild would be proud of.

And, in the long run, whether the reason was party loyalty, misguided religious pressure, massive ignorance, or racism, eventually you won't be proud of voting for McCain either--especially after he loses overwhelmingly. So why not come on over and chose to make history? You'll be proud you did.
--TRL.

PLEASE TALK TO YOUR PARENTS

That's Wassup!!! True!

More McCainery!!!

The latest? How about sending a republican operative to ask Sen. Obama a question and then bringing that same operative up in a nationally televised debate so that he can go on the air the next day and expound on his ridiculous political views for free?

Do you call that brilliant or do you call it sinister? I like what one guy on Olberman said, "McCain and the Republicans are more concerned with a caricature of what they believe middle class America looks like than what middle-class America really is." That's really it, isn't it? They don't know what true middle class America really looks like.

I think I have to change my view of right wing folk now. I used to just call them stupid, but that's not fair. They have a huge number of closed minded people in their ranks, but the people leading that party are not stupid. They are, in fact, brilliant at what they do. Sinister, but brilliant.

The word "sinister" has lost a bit of it's proper meaning ever since cartoons of Boris Badinoff and other villains used it to describe their antics. What I mean is more the classic definition: "Stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonourable." I think we banished the concept of wickedness with the water Dorothy poured on the Witch of the West. And we celebrate it by linking it to behaviors which should better be termed "taboo." But what I believe I experience in watching the machinations and Mccainery of John McCain and the RNC/GOP and their leader George Bush Jr. is pure wickedness.

There is an intention of deception. It's not about evading questions or raising honest doubt about serious issues and flaws. Instead it is about intentionally deceiving and lying while trying earnestly to appear to be telling the truth. It is about using the naivety and sheepishness of the religious right to control them and manipulate them against not only the core beliefs and teachings of their God, but against their own best interest as well. It is truly about inciting murderous emotion by spreading lies and pretending it wasn't their intention in the first place.

Wickedness. Truly evil characteristics rooted in utter greed that feeds on the blood of conquered peoples of all types. They rejoice in their greed and pretend their policies don't hurt people.

The first time I heard it was with Ronald Regan when I was a teen. He declared that ketchup was a vegetable that was supplied to poor children as part of school lunch programs. I can understand to some small degree a person hating a poor man who must rely on the government for a handout. It's easy to consider such people lazy or derelect--especially when your days are full of hard work for whatever gains you enjoy. But to do so to children? What other word could be used to describe such people? What exactly are the children to do?

How Republicans managed to get poor white rednecks to vote for them is a demonstration of evil genius at its best. Republicans are the very last people who would ever lift a finger to help out Joe the Plumber. So it makes sense they would pretend they are his party. But what amazes me is that although that guy only makes $40K a year, he's still more afraid of a tax raise once he's making $250K than he is of all the stuff John McCain will do to him to keep him from ever being in that class.