Regarding all the OBL diary action today (L C Johnson, Nick Lento, Reagan Smash, Son of Beale, AnotherObamaGirl, adigal, cscmm, etc.) to me the point is that the person responsible for 9/11 is (a) still at large and (b) talking to us.
I live in NYC and watched the towers fall from my office, so I'm somewhat personally involved in this, as is every American (and indeed global) citizen who is against religious zealotry as an excuse for mass-murder.
That said, here's why I think we should not only quote OBL the SOB, but listen to him, too...
As for point (a) above -- he's still at large -- Bush failed to catch OBL when he could have at Tora Bora, so I place the blame for his freedom to lecture/taunt/mock us squarely on G's shoulders. Apparently it was too important to start killing Iraqis than to catch OBL.
As for (b) -- still yammering at us -- he is, like it or not, injecting himself into American politics. Plugging your ears and going "La la la!" doesn't change the fact that he's the lead story on many front pages and cable shows.
So, what he is saying, why he is saying it, and why he's saying it now are all important things to consider, despite the fact that he is a reprehensible mass murderer.
GWB says OBL hates our freedom. OBL says he hates the presence of our military in the Middle East. Call me an idiot, but if the guy committed to killing you says why he's committed, it doesn't hurt to analyze what he's saying.
Not so you can forgive him then sing Kumbaya, but so you can better understand how to capture or kill him, or diffuse the power of his misguided arguments.
Either way, he's not going to go away if we pretend he's not there, and the fact that he's still issuing videos is more of an indictment of Bush than anything else.
So, don't demand we ignore him, demand answers from the people who have let him chill out in his comfy cave/condo, where ever it may be, for the past six years.
On a side note, Pol Pot loved cats but I'm not going to drown my kitty as a result.
On another side note, apologies to Paul Simon for the title of this diary.