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07/29/2003 Archived Entry: "Well, that didn't take too long."
Well, that didn't take too long.
Thank goodness some members of Congress are thinking straight. The Terrorist Betting Pool idea goes by the wayside.
The Pentagon will abandon a plan to establish a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said he spoke by phone with the program's director, "and we mutually agreed that this thing should be stopped."
Warner announced the decision not long after Senate Democratic Leader Thomas Daschle took to the floor to denounce the program as "an incentive actually to commit acts of terrorism."
Warner made the announcement during a confirmation hearing for retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, nominated to be Army chief of staff.
"This is just wrong," declared Daschle, D-S.D.
Warner said he consulted with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and they agreed "that this should be immediately disestablished."
My question, though - if Daschle hadn't spoken up, would Warner have called on the Pentagon to pull the plug?
And while we're on the subject, consider the way that this administration does things - they put these stories out in the press, after funding is already in place and the program is ready to go, and they only call it back if someone protests.
You have to wonder how many stupid ideas are now in 0practice because no one actually protested them.
