Friday, May 08, 2009
Absolute moral authority
Almost four years ago, Maureen Dowd declared that lefty surrender* activist Cindy Sheehan had "absolute moral authority" for having lost her son in the war in Iraq. The press responded with wall-to-wall coverage of Sheehan, acting as if her cause were sainted on account of her family's loss.
Well, if that is true, what about the families of people who suffered casualties elsewhere in the war, such as in New York, Washington, or on the USS Cole? How short of absolute is their moral authority? A lot, apparently, if their treatment at the hands of David Axelrod and Barack Obama is any indication. Debra Burlingame, widow sister of the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, knows when she has been used as a public relations prop, and is not happy about it.
Disclosure: We are a peripheral 9/11 family.
8 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri May 08, 07:45:00 AM:
Debra Burlingame is the sister of the pilot, Chic Burlingame. Not the spouse.
Point well taken anyway.
By 
TigerHawk, at
Fri May 08, 07:54:00 AM:
Doh! I even knew that. Corrected, and much obliged.
By , at
Fri May 08, 08:54:00 AM:
Who knows how much time elapses before, but I remain convinced that the real war on terror has yet to begin ... with such a man in command, and an unwillingness to even call these people what they are. I think the pressure is going to build, like a fault line before an earthquake, as it is in the hope and change being used to manipulate the markets, and convince the unwashed that the recovery has already started.
I cannot imagine what it feels like to be a family member of someone lost to scum like al qaeda, but I do know some who lost loved ones that day. I believe I'd want justice, and that justice would include that the person or persons responsible were dead, and the people who control the levers to prevent future losses committed to that prevention. I do not have that comfort in this administration.
By , at
Fri May 08, 09:41:00 AM:
Everyone is so polite! To say the president "isn't sincere" falls short somehow in conveying the disdain one should have with his actions. Axelrod et al too: they all disgust me.
It goes on: the radio reported this morning that the new Obama budget framework, the one for which we ourselves can't pay and so the administration is desperately hoping the entire nation of China will work to support, cuts needed anti-terrorist funding for the city of New York, used to detect bio weapons.
By Georg Felis, at
Fri May 08, 09:53:00 AM:
Absolute Moral Authority = Criticizing Republicans
Nutty Crank = Criticizing Democrats
Didn’t you get the memo?
By Matt, at
Fri May 08, 12:41:00 PM:
Georgfelis beat me to it. That's the point. Similar to the fact that Obama will go on and on about Bush's horrible deficits, and then put them to shame in his first couple of months in office. What's morally or fiscally wrong for the goose is morally or fiscally wrong for the gander.
By , at
Fri May 08, 01:08:00 PM:
17 more months of this Horror of Mordor. And the legacy media sees nothing , nothing, nothing. After the November 2010 election every Orc in the Orcbama Administration needs to be impeached,indicted,or censured for their acts. Unfortunately it can't be done with the weasels in control of both houses although every day I muse over the hopey that some group of Demonscrap will realize that every orgy ends sometime and try to save their butts by calling for their Republican associates to help provide adult supervision.
By Elise, at
Fri May 08, 03:14:00 PM:
I've gone back and forth on whether I think Mary Ann Glendon did the right thing by refusing to accept the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. On the one hand, I understood it was probably the only decision she could make in good conscience; on the other hand, I thought there was a lot to the argument that by appearing she could provide a counter-weight to Obama's views.
After reading this WSJ article, however, I'm utterly convinced she made the right decision all the way around. Obama would simply have used her presence the way he used the presence of the USS Cole and 9/11 families: as a photo-op to shore up an unpopular policy. Like the Cole families who skipped the White House meeting, Ambassador Glendon saw the joint appearance with Obama for what it would have been - and how it would have been reported. Smart lady.
