The timing of the 9/11 911 tape releases

Let's be clear: the story revealed on these tapes is simultaneously heart-breaking and transcendent. The courage, clarity, and acceptance of so many who suffered and died on that day doesn't need audio evidence (and one more time for the NYC police and fire who charged into those burning buildings).

But can I just observe that the timing of this release--and the absurd, exploitative, necrophilic response from CNN in airing the audio excerpts and re-running ad nauseum the videotapes of the Day--is suspect? What is the point of releasing these to the media? Why not just to the families, who might wish to do their grieving in private?

I can't help but note that the timing of this release, reminding Americans of the human suffering of that day at a time when the Shrub's numbers are comically low, is just the kind of timing a half-bright marketing dweeb like Karl Rove might think was useful.

The irony, of course, is that the anger aroused by remembering that day is not going to be directed at Iraqi guerillas, but at the liars who led us into a war with the wrong nation. Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld/McClellan blaspheme the memories of the 9/11 victims every time they open their mouths.