Really, Matt? This is what you think ought to be upsetting wingnuts this morning?
Yes, the Customs and Border Protection office of the Department of Homeland Security is seeking "bagpipe and drum supplies" and has posted a routine invitation for bids -- and Drudge has made this his lead story.
Look, I don't know why, in multi-ethnic America, we still routinely play bagpipes at law enforcement funerals, as if policing in this country were still an overwhelmingly Irish profession. Nevertheless, it's what we do. It's not some frivolous, money-wasting idea Janet Napolitano dreamed up because she's a big liberal who loves government spending. Here's a picture of the Border Patrol Bagpipers Band playing at a memorial ceremony for customs, immigration, and border patrol agents killed in the line of duty, an event that took place in 2003, during the administration of that tireless budget disciplinarian George W. Bush:
Bagpipes played in 2003 at the Minnesota funeral of immigration agent Steven Nordmann (doesn't sound like an Irish name to me) who helped arrest 9/11 plotter and so-called "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui. Here are bagpipes playing at the 2001 funeral of a border patrol agent in Laredo, Texas. And so on.
If Napolitano had dared to eliminate the pipers, or even cut back on their use, or is somehow there weren't instruments and players for the funeral of a border agent (probably killed by an evil Messkin!), Drudge and the wingnut media would be all over her for that. So you can't win with these bastards.
