Dead Men Tell No Tales (But Their Wives Won't Shut The Hell Up)
Topic: politics
So I was listening to C-SPAN Radio on my way home from work (as is my custom), and I caught part of the congressional hearings on the 9-11 commission report. I turned on the radio in the middle of a long, detailed question from a Congressman to a witness about national ID cards. The answer seemed a bit vague and ill-informed, so I was trying to figure out what kind of dumbass "expert" had managed to get to testify in front of Congress. Turns out this was no expert all, but one of the sainted 9-11 families:

Family members have said they will maintain a watchdog list tracking who does and doesn't co-sponsor legislation implementing the commission's recommendations.

"We will be pushing you as well, we promise," said Robin Wiener, whose brother, Jeffrey Wiener, died in Tower One.

I feel safer already, now that our national security in the hands of a gynocracy of rich, bored housewives from New Jersey.

Can you imagine this pathetic scene taking place in any other era of American history? Could you see FDR lavishing praise on the "inspiring" deeds of the families of Pearl Harbor dead, before asking them to pick a spot for the Normandy landing? Or McKinley thanking the USS Maine families for their courage while seeking their advice on how best to whip the Spaniards?

This kowtowing to the 9-11 families by our supposed "leaders" in Washington is just the latest and most disgusting example of the cult of victimization that has gripped our country. But unlike most of the gag-inducing episodes brought on by this trend, this spectacle has serious consequences.

President Bush, the leader of the goddamned free world, has been buffaloed into swallowing the recommendations of 9-11 commission almost unaltered - partly as a result of the unassailable moral authority bestowed upon the 9-11 families. People a lot more well-informed than I have pointed out the flaws in the commission's recommendations:

Okay, America, here's our intelligence reform agenda: The CIA recognized six years ago that America was at war with al Qaeda, so let's demote it. . . . Pentagon officials dragged their feet on dealing with terrorism, so let's give them more power. . . . The White House politicized the intelligence process, so let's create a new intelligence czar in the White House and give him control over domestic spying, too. The intelligence community suffers from too many fiefdoms, so let's create a few more.

But the odds of having a reasoned debate on the 9-11 commission's recommendations is close to nil, because the American people have decided that the death of a loved one in an especially tragic or public fashion confers wisdom unavailable to you and I.

Marc