With Labor Day now past, we have entered political "silly season." Beware. All actions taken or statements made by any politician standing for election in November are oriented towards winning votes, not towards the best public policy. Case in point is the hoorah over the Disney 9/11 movie. The Democrats feel the movie plays fast and loose with the facts and makes the Clinton Administration look bad. Fair enough -- they are welcome to make their case. However, now the Senate Democratic leadership has asked Disney Company to pull the program, suggesting that it does not comport with federal legislation. This sort of threat starts to impinge on freedom of speech. I think that Captain Ed has it about right: "The Democrats do not do subtlety, or do not do it successfully. They plan on using the power of the federal government to demand political changes to a program before it airs, a dangerous precedent ..." JunkYardBlog takes the time to unearth some interesting historical material about the Clinton Administration's bungled opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden. Furthermore, the Democrats in the Senate should worry more about important issues, like immigration and homeland security, and less about a movie!
Personally, my view is that any book or movie of recent (or for that matter any) history is suspect, and likely influenced by the agenda and views of the author. The only way to really understand history is to go back and read the first hand and contemporaneous documentation, which unfortunately most of us don't have the time or energy to do. Regarding 9/11, however, Peggy Noonan does take us back to that terrible day and relates the messages that those that were about to die left their loved ones. They didn't blame Clinton or George W. Bush; they expressed their eternal love for their family.
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