Pen-Elayne on the Web

I'm Sure Feeling More Secure!

The timer on our TV went off at 7 AM, and my bullshit detector rang about 15 minutes later, as Katie Couric interviewed Stephen Flynn about the Department of Fatherla-- I mean, of Homeland Security, the new megabureaucracy brought to us by the We Hate Big Government folks. "You're going to look him up on the 'net now, aren't you?" inquired a sleepy Robin. Well, um, yeah. I mean, the Council on Foreign Relations (where Flynn is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies) may be characterized as "centrist" by FAIR, but I admit to being a tad more skeptical. Flynn seems to be one of the nation's leading fearmongers; at least that's how I read this darling little speech he made before the US Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs a month after the September 11 tragedy. Back in August he released a paper under the aegis of a group called The Century Foundation "analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the National Strategy for Homeland Security," basically suggesting the Bush Administration throw more money at it, streamline it (oh yeah, a Cabinet-level department's sure gonna do that!) and suggests that the strategy "must also place special emphasis on forging partnerships between the public and private sectors, internationally." What's good for business, after all, is good for the continued erosion of our hard-earned liberties, or something like that.