« Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize and Wins and Wins and... | Main | Starbucks Mocks Town Hall Patriots »

I would have no problem using either of the first two pictures including their captions. The day is long, long gone that anyone believes the right has exclusive hold on supporting our troops and honoring their sacrifice.

Arbitrary power is still as much a concern of the left as it has always been and we are watching, with care, moves to retain the powers granted by the patriot act.

As for the last one, hey, laughter is good for you. I'll stick with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The first two pictures go well with this story just off the AP:

*******************************
An Iraqi's trek from Sadr City to Monterey, Calif.

10/10/2009 12:18:00 PM
Associated Press/AP Online

By SHARON COHEN

On one of his first days in America, Hussein Albayati visited the Statue of Liberty.

He'd seen photos, of course, but he wanted a firsthand look, so shortly after the former Iraqi translator arrived in this country, he made the trek with a friend, also an Iraqi.

"It was really an experience I'll never forget," he says. "Maybe some Americans don't recognize how important this symbol is for people who live under dictatorships."

It was the start of Albayati's remarkable journey. He moved from the squalor of Sadr City to the scenic beauty of Monterey, Calif. He went from unemployment to grueling labor at a chicken plant and construction sites to his current job as instructor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, located on the California coast.

Albayati, 34, knows his is the typical immigrant success story in many ways: Hard work, determination - and in his case, some helping hands.

Albayati also points out he regarded every experience in his adopted homeland - even a brief stint at the chicken plant - as part of a larger education that would lead to better things.

"It was a new place, a new culture, a new system, a new way of life," he says. "The way I looked at it was it's OK for me to struggle in the beginning. We are babies here. ..... I need to learn everything. You never learn without struggle."

Albayati made it to America with help from some members of the U.S. military, including Allen Vaught, now a Texas state lawmaker who was an Army reservist when the Iraqi was his translator.

Albayati helped Vaught understand the ins and outs of life in Sadr City, the tribal lineage, the religious makeup of the region and local customs and he identified the locations of schools and police and fire stations.

"He was a great friend," recalls Vaught, whose mission was to restore and rebuild Sadr City. "He really wanted his country to succeed. ... He helped me really understand how big the task was."

"You have to understand this is guy," Vaught adds, "that at any time I needed him to go on a mission with me, he did it. No questions. He said, 'OK, captain. Let's go.'"

When it became clear Albayati had made many enemies who wanted to kill him because of his translating job, Vaught and other members of the U.S. military worked to get their Iraqi friend here. They finally succeeded in 2007.

Albayati remembers pledging to the friend who picked him up in Chicago on his first night in America that he'd name his first-born son after him.

And he did. Daniel is now 14 months old. He also credits his success to Vaught, who opened his Dallas house to Albayati and his wife and helped them get their bearings.

"That first year, I couldn't have survived without Allen," he says.

Albayati still has family in Iraq and thinks often of the simple things he can do they can't because life remains difficult there. "It gives me some kind of sadness," he says. "My family says forget about it, don't think about it. Sometimes you can't help think about it."

Albayati, who travels in his work teaching Arabic and offering cultural training to members of the military, is a permanent U.S. resident. He hopes to get his citizenship in 2012 and is eager to vote.

"I don't really refer myself as an Iraqi," he says. "I say I'm from Iraq. ... Deep inside I don't really need a document to certify that I belong to this land. For me, sometimes I feel more American than some people born in America
*******************************

Two lines that are particularly poignant:

"Maybe some Americans don't recognize how important this symbol is for people who live under dictatorships."

"Deep inside.....I belong to this land. For me, sometimes I feel more American than some people born in America"

TWEET,TWEET,TWITTER,TWITTER,RRRAAWWWKKK,SQUAWK,SQUAWK,SSSSKKKKEEEEKKKK SSSKKKAAAAKKK

Where can we get more Americans like Hussein Albayati?

Show your patriotic decent REFUSE A SWINE FLU SHOT and REFUSE TO AKNOLAGE OBAMA AS DICTATOR

Arbitrary power is still as much a concern of the left as it has always been and we are watching, with care, moves to retain the powers granted by the patriot act.

...you're concerned about the rights of people within the US caught talking to terrorists and planning activities designed to kill innocent people, but you aren't concerned about the revival of the Fairness Doctrine, designed to snuff out talk radio, or the return of the assault weapons ban?

Maybe you ought to tell your "concerns" to your fellow travelers. I don't even do them the honor of calling them liberals anymore. What they are is socialists...and some actively believe in communism.

The trouble with you left-wingers is that you see all kinds of threats that aren't there, while simultaneously ignoring the ones that are real.

As for the last one, hey, laughter is good for you. I'll stick with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Tells me all I need to know about how you think. Those dipsticks are about as funny as an infected toenail.