The Real Post-Moussaoui-Sentencing Smackdown:
After the announcement of yesterday's verdict of life in prison for Zacarias Moussaoui, the Pete Best of al-Qaeda, we got to hear from 9/11 victims' families. The fact that Moussaoui had about as much to do with 9/11 as a polar bear has to do with rising gas prices didn't seem to matter to prosecutors, who were determined that Moussaoui, being Muslim, crazy, brownish and bearded, would be the nutzoid canvas onto which the bloodlust of revenge fantasies would be painted. So, yeah, sure, this is the "first 9/11-related case" brought to trial only because they called it the "first 9/11-related case."

Over on the CNNMSNBCFox, we heard from the family members who wanted to rip open Moussaoui with their bare hands and squeeze his squishy viscera while laughing at his screams. And we also heard from those less bloodthirsty family members who actually believe that Moussaoui, the Gummo Marx of jihadis, is just a loser who likes to shout stupid shit like, "America, you lost; I won," as he did after the verdict was read, or "God curse America," as he did today at his formal sentencing. This is Moussaoui, the barroom braggart, the asshole who makes up stories about all the gooks he offed in 'Nam when, in reality, his happy ass stayed in Mama's living room because of his flat feet. You kinda wanna kick him in the nuts, but mostly you just feel sorry for him.

One of those family members was the cute-as-a-kitten Carie Lemack, a founder of Familes of September 11, who lost her mother, Judy Larocque, on that day. The quote of hers that's made the rounds of the news is her smackdown of Moussaoui: "He's going to be in jail for the rest of his life, which is exactly what this man deserves. He's an al Qaeda wannabe. And he does not deserve any credit for 9/11, because he was not part of that. And I am so glad the jury recognized that and realized that he just wanted to kill Americans, but he wasn't even skilled enough to be able to do that." Or the shorter quote: "[T]his man was an al Qaeda wannabe who could never have put together the 9/11 attacks."

Of course, Lemack gave great soundbite there. And it's perfect - it fits our national master narrative: young white girl stands up to mean dark person. However, Lemack also said a great many other things in her same statement, things she's been saying for the last four years:

"This country needs to understand the real risks that we are facing. We can't even get our Congress people and our president to lock up nuclear material, even though terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, have said he wants to kill four million Americans. This country can't screen all of the cargo on the planes that we fly on, that I flew on here today to be here.

"We have to look at the real problems in this country. If we're going to blame Zacarias Moussaoui, he's not the real problem. The real problem are the terrorists who do want to kill us, like Osama bin Laden, who is still not captured."

Moussaoui was a tool, a useless idiot, and a deranged, deluded bit of flea spittle on the sore-ridden ass of a mangy dog, and his "trial" degraded all of us: remember, all this time, testimony, and torment wasn't about establishing any kind of guilt - it was simply to determine whether he would spend the rest of his life in a concrete box where he'll be alone for 23 hours a day or be killed. Would that the money spent on this sham of a show trial had been spent on some of things that Carie Lemack and other 9/11 families and victims are asking for.

Note: The Rude Pundit will be guest-posting over at Jesus' General later today. And the good JC Christian allows comments. Just sayin'...

Update: The Rude Pundit's "Christ Weary of the National Day o' Prayer" is up at Jesus' General. Hang out for a while and enjoy other guests of the General's, like Michael Berube, the Sadly, No gang, Attaturk, and more.