Madelaine Albright's Turn to Meet the Troofers

I wonder if these kooks realize just how much they are turning people off with their antics? I'm a card-carrying member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, and yet I have been applauding people like Madame Albright, Bill Clinton, Noam Chomsky, George Monbiot and others who've forthrightly stood their ground against these fruitcakes.

Don't get me wrong; I think these videos are effective, so far. But the problem is that as soon as they attract new people to the movement, the newbies discover that all the evidence is phony.

Rudy Taken Down by Fruitcakes?

I gotta laugh at this analysis; it's right up there with Alex Jones' claim that Ron Paul won Florida.

Typically, you now see every reason under the Sun espoused by so-called pundits as to why Rudy Ghouliani's candidacy died — except the most probable reason:

The effect all of the 9/11 Truth and Justice Movement activists made as they dogged Rudy from venue to venue, city to city, state to state, pointing out why he should not be considered. (and pointing out all of his flaws, lies, asininities, etc., as well)

Not to mention all of the extensive online truthination on top of it.

Yep, it wasn't the decision to wait until Florida, it wasn't that McCain built momentum with his victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

It was teh troof!

Troofers Heckle Bill Clinton Again

As long time readers of this blog know, neither Pat nor I share much with Bubba in the political spectrum, but we whole heartedly endorse the way he treats the troofers. This time a blog at ABC News has the story, and the video.

“Are you one of those it was an inside job guys?" the former president asked. Continuing, "Hillary agrees we should end the war, but we have heard from you now, now you hear from me. I let you be rude and interrupt me screaming at the top of your lungs. Nine-eleven was NOT an inside job, it was an Osama Bin Laden job with 19 people from Saudi Arabia, they murdered 3000 Americans and others foreigners including Muslims and we look like idiots, that the people who murdered our fellow citizens did it, when they are continuing to murder other people around the world. So we heard from you, you go away," Clinton said to the cheering crowd.

He does get the detail about the 19 hijackers wrong though.

Double Congrats to N.O'Brain!

I caught this in the comments over at Protein Wisdom:

Comment by N. O'Brain on 1/31 @ 7:19 am #

In news of someone who is a little more grounded than Britney Spears, my son, Matt the Marine, arrived home yesterday after a 6 month deployment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Perfect timing, because Matt the Marine and Kelly the Marine Wife’s daughter, our first grandchild, is due on Feb. 10.

As you know, N.O. has been a longtime commenter here as well. Thanks for your son's service, and yes, you can show us the pictures of your grandchild (in a couple weeks)!

JONES Seeking Submittals

I found this comment by Steven Jones at 911 Blogger a little odd.

Pls consider submitting to J911Studies
We're looking for a shorter (than Prof. Griffin's book) response to Popular Mechanics.Please consider submitting your article to Journal of 911 Studies -- would be appreciated.(send manuscript to hardevidence@gmail.com, or to one of the other editors Ryan or Legge).Thanks for your work.

Uhh, yeah OK. So when is Griffin going to respond to the decimation of his work by Ryan Mackey? Or is that too long for you?

What Are Those Troofers Smoking?

I was reading the headlines over at conspiracy monger site Prison Planet, when I came across this one.

Ron Paul Wins Big in Florida

Uhh, let's check those election returns one more time...


McCain 36%
Romney 31%
Giuliani 15%
Huckabee 14%
Paul 3%
Thompson 1%

Well at least he beat Thompson, but then again, he dropped out last week. These political geniuses add these comments in the text.

This gives Ron Paul a good chance of pushing himself into a solid number three position.

Hello, that is because it is becoming a two man race. This kind of explains how they come up with some of their theories.

The Troofer Michael Shermer Harassment Series

Michael Shermer posts the series of videos from his recent troofer harassment, including the one I made at Powell's. Even more interesting though is the second video at the also excellent Elliot Bay Bookstore in Seattle, in which he thoroughly schools a troofer in the nature of proof. Well worth a quick watch.

NAU Fruitcake Jerome Corsi Goes Truther

He goes with (MP3) the iron microspheres.

I have a lot of common friends with Jerome Corsi. But the guy is a nutbar, and a lot of conservatives cottoned onto that even in 2004, when Unfit For Command, the book he co-wrote with Swift Boat Veteran John O'Neill rocketed onto the New York Times bestseller list. Now he's signing onto 9-11 Trutherism?

The microspheres are interesting, but there are many potential rational explanations for them.

Alfons Rides a Bike

And the winner for "Truther Most In Need of Mental Health Treatment" is...

Correction: Mike Gravel Is Still Running

As requested by Justin Martell, this is to correct an earlier post wherein I indicated that Mike Gravel had dropped out of the race. Apparently Gravel's still running, according to his website. Of course, according to his website, Gravel was on the ballot in South Carolina, which will come as news to CNN. According to Wikipedia, Gravel racked up 214 votes in South Carolina, or about 1/25th of 1%. The chicken may still be running around, but its head is cut off.

For Justin's benefit, here's a tribute to Mike Gravel:



Go, Mike, go!

Paranoids for 9/11 Truth

Bill Douglas, the guy who has been annoying the other troofers for his repetitive shilling of the Shell Game, has some rather, uhh... interesting stories to tell of his 9/11 truth heroics at Op Ed News:

The strange events began when I was up sending out emails at about 4 am one night, and I got this email from someone who claimed to be from the NSA and warned me, “We are watching what you are doing . . .” followed by a threat. I sluffed it off as a crank, but it felt creepy anyway. Then the next day the creepy factor went into overdrive.

Outside my home office window, which faced a quiet residential street ONLY used by people who lived in my neighborhood normally . . . a black SUV pulled up and parked on my house’s side of the street. It had heavily smoked black windows. No one ever parked here unless they were coming to my house, or the house across the street, or were lost and looking at map. It’s a very quiet street. A man about 6 feet 5 inches or so, got out wearing black pants and a black t-shirt. This guy was a wall of solid muscle, wearing black wrap around sun glasses. Stretched across his muscled torso on his black shirt was the word in bright yellow letters, “SECURITY.”

This guy got out of his SUV, walked around it to stand on the edge of my lawn, and simply stood there staring in at me through the large ceiling to floor window my computer desk faced. He stood there staring directly into my window for about 3 or 4 minutes . . . and then he left. Later that same afternoon, an Army truck drove by filled with troops in the back. Again this is a quiet little residential street. This extra activity was way beyond bizarre.

Since when did NSA operatives wear black t-shirts with the word "security" written on the front? Sounds more like he was visited by Snoop Dogg's entourage. Fashizzle.

Skeptical Thinking Alive at Ohio U

We salute Jesse Hathaway:

9/11 conspiracy theories require not only willing suspension of belief, but an encouragement of poor reasoning. The human brain is not good at accurately processing vast amounts of information, because it soon gets lazy and starts looking for patterns. The human brain looks for patterns in information, as a way of easing the reasoning process. Even where none truly exist, false patterns will begin to emerge. Soon, these patterns will start to build on each other, until the cycle repeats, and an overarching mega-conspiracy is created.

Solid article, Jesse!

Brother of Pilot of Flight 11 to Run for Senate

John Ogonowski may have been one of the very first to die in the terrorist attacks on 9-11. His brother Jim is running for the Senate as a Republican against John Kerry in Massachusetts.

The official policy of this blog is to be non-partisan. I will note that Ogonowski seems very unlikely to dethrone John Kerry in Massachusetts in a presidential election year. Massachusetts typically goes 60% for the Democrat in the presidential sweepstakes, and that means that fully 1/6 of those people would have to cross over and vote against Kerry after casting their ballots for Barack or Hillary.

Call me crazy, but I doubt Jon Gold is going to be rooting for this 9-11 family member.

It's a Losertarian Thing; You Wouldn't Understand

Michael Badnarik, who ran for President on the Losertarian Party line in 2004 and got 0.32% of the vote, endorses the kookery to our buddy, Justin Martell. Sadly, Justin's personal candidate, Mike Gravel, bowed out of the presidential race, after receiving 402 votes in New Hampshire. Hang onto that Gravel for President Button, Justin! It will be worth something someday.

Badnarik endorses just about every conspiracy theory out there; pyrotechnics brought down the WTC, the Lusitania was sunk to get us into World War I (two years later), Oklahoma City was an inside job (although I forget which war that was supposed to get us into).

Lynn Margulis, Space Cadet

The late Carl Sagan's first wife appeared on "Hangman" Barrett's radio show last night and talked about "billions and billions" of anomalies regarding 9-11. She only had two concrete things to contribute. First, a friend of hers went out on a boat on that day, and noticed the lack of planes in the sky. Then he saw one plane, a big cargo plane, that was all white with no markings on it, flying very low and very slow. Her other claim is that another friend was not allowed to park in the WTC parking garage that morning, because the computers were down or something.

She said that she first discovered Trooferism when a copy of Griffin's New Pearl Harbor was given to her daughter.

Steeling Their Thunder

Our buddy Victor Chalabi looks at the fire never caused a steel building to collapse myth. Good job, I would add the Enigma Business Park fire to the list, although he seems to be sticking with pre-9-11 examples.

Maybe This Explains Richard Gage?

Looking for a side career perhaps? From today's Journal:

It's a good time to be in the market for an architect.

The housing slump has freed up residential architects who wouldn't even return phone calls during the boom. Many say they are hungry for business, seeking projects ranging from designing houses from scratch to taking on small renovations they would have turned down a year or two ago.

Looks Like Alfons Is the Sane One

James highlighted a recent video by one of the founders of Veterans for 9-11 Nuttery. It was pretty pathetic; Alfons spent the first nine minutes shopping for food, after which he tried some "man in the supermarket" interviews on the topic of whether 9-11 was an inside job. This video does not fail to grip, mostly because of the lunatic performance by the Troofer in question, who is apparently Alfons' original co-founder.

Barrett Picks Up A Supporter

A fruitcake "Truther" himself:

Without going into details easily found on the Internet, a considerable army of architects, engineers, physicists, logicians, commercial and military pilots, first responders, military figures all the way to general officer, and government personnel including FBI and CIA agents has amassed a solid case countering the official story. That army is all the greater for the addition of similar experts from countries all over the world.

As it happens I am reading about that "general officer" right now, Major General Albert Stubblebine III in Jon Ronson's book, The Men Who Stare At Goats. Stubblebine's service is honorable, but he's something of a wack-job at the same time. In the early 1980s he began trying to walk through walls, by using his mind-power. He tried having psychics divine where Manuel Antonio Noriega was hiding during the invasion of Panama. He hoped to find soldiers who could stop an enemy's heart just by looking at him.

Fascinating stuff, and you know how it is; it doesn't hurt to try. But the notion that Stubblebine lends any credibility to the fruitcakes is quite a stretch.

The professor writing the letter, Bill Willers, is, of course, a structural engineer. Sorry, just kidding, he's a professor emeritus (retired) of biology. He's a fruitcake leftist himself. See if this bit from one of his posts at OpEd News reminds you of anything:

After an early debate, when a national poll revealed that viewers considered him the winner, mainstream media declared him "unelectable" and began to ignore him completely. Nevertheless, he has won polls by ABC, MSNBC, CSPAN, Democracy For America, the John Edwards Campaign (!) and every online poll I'm aware of that would attract progressive democrats and independents.

Nope, he's not talking about Ron Paul, he's talking about Dennis Kucinich. Bill's also a sculptor and painter. While not without some talent, he's a hack when it comes to themes as you can see here:



Ann Althouse replies here.

AE911 Truth Watch

Number of days that have gone by since Richard Gage admitted that his squib claim was false, without removing it from his website.

18

I even sent them a friendly reminder in the comments section of their site.

Tick, tick, tick...

The Troofer From Another Planet

Not a huge fan of Trent Franks, but he does pretty well here.

Steve Cuozzo Notices the Kooks

Over at the NY Daily News:

Ground Zero's borders deserve a patina of dignity for anyone wishing to recall the World Trade Center that was, to mourn the victims of 9/11 or to contemplate the site's future.

It's bad enough the view remains bracketed by the blackened hulks of 130 Liberty St. and Fiterman Hall. But at least there's a theoretical, contamination-related excuse for the eyesores' continued presence.

But not the flimsiest justification exists for the rowdy, open-air bazaar of illegal junk-peddlers and in-your-face conspiracy-mongers along Church, Vesey and Liberty streets - an indefensible rupture of civic order in a city that's managed to shut down squeegee men and three-card-monte games.

No one can object to the First Amendment right to display or sell 9/11-con- spiracy nonsense (or plain junk). But that doesn't absolve the city and the PA of enforcing their own rules - and making sure visitors can watch what's going on without being hassled as if they're in a Third World flea market.

Michael Shermer on the Truthers

Uber-skeptic Michael Shermer discusses the troothers stalking his book tour in his latest podcast, and gets a couple of good shots in. The video I posted of the troofers in Portland comes in for a mention. He also discusses his book on economics, pretty much saying what he said at the signing. I haven't read the book yet, so I will have to take his word for it.

Alten Takes on Kevin "Hang 'em All" Barrett

The author Steve Alten was on Kevin Barrett's radio show last night. It frequently got quite weird, because although Barrett was trying to push his book, Alten, who is Jewish and a supporter of Israel, was obviously uncomfortable talking to someone who doesn't believe Israel has a right to exist, and that there is no such thing as Islamic extremism.

The whole interview has this surreal quality, but probably no part more so than when Barrett declares that the Islamic Wahabbi sect, known even among most Muslims as an extreme interpretation was in fact the pro-Western faction.

Actually, as an Islamologist, I have been studying this stuff, and actually they have nothing against the west at all. The Wahhabi movement is actually pretty conservative in supporting this nasty corrupt Saudi monarchy that you depict fairly accurately I am afraid to say, but the Wahhabi movement is far from radical, it is extremely conservative, and it is extremely pro-US.

While he may be semantically correct in that it is more accurate to call them conservative than radical, in this case it makes little difference. To somehow conclude from this that this makes them pro-western is just bizarre. As Globalsecurity.org describes the history of Wahhabism:

Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's emphasis on the oneness of God was asserted in contradistinction to shirk, or polytheism, defined as the act of associating any person or object with powers that should be attributed only to God. He condemned specific acts that he viewed as leading to shirk, such as votive offerings, praying at saints' tombs and at graves, and any prayer ritual in which the suppliant appeals to a third party for intercession with God. Particularly objectionable were certain religious festivals, including celebrations of the Prophet's birthday, Shia mourning ceremonies, and Sufi mysticism. Consequently, the Wahhabis forbid grave markers or tombs in burial sites and the building of any shrines that could become a locus of shirk.

His instructions in the matter of extending his religious teaching by force were strict. All unbelievers (i.e. Moslems who did not accept his teaching, as well as Christians, &c.) were to be put to death. Immediate entrance into Paradise was promised to his soldiers who fell in battle, and it is said that each soldier was provided with a written order from Ibn 'Abd ul-Wahhab to the gate-keeper of heaven to admit him forthwith. In this way the new teaching was established in the greater part of Arabia until its power was broken by Mehemet Ali. Ibn'Abd ul-Wahhab is said to have died in 1791.

The Troofernomic Recovery Program

Conspiracy theorist and former Lyndon Larouche followed Webster Tarpley posts his economic recovery plan on Rense.com. There is so much wrong with this that one could write a PhD dissertation on it, but I will just touch on some lowlights. Even more incredible is the fact that the truthers consider this nutjob some sort of intellectual.

1. Stop all foreclosures immediately for at least five years and for the duration of the depression by means of a compulsory federal law carrying criminal penalties. No foreclosures on homes, family farms, factories, public utilities, hospitals, transportation and other infrastructure. Outlaw adjustable rate mortgages.

Woot! Five years of free rent. I am buying a BMW tomorrow!

2. Raise the federal minimum wage immediately to a living wage of at least $15 per hour, with the short-term goal of attaining a federal minimum wage of at least $20 per hour.

Why stop at $20, let's just raise it to $100 while we are at it. Everyone can afford to retire at 40 and live on their yacht!

3. Immediate enactment of a securities transfer tax (STT) or Tobin tax of 1% to be imposed on all financial turnover in all financial markets to include the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, the Amex, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the market in federal securities, the foreign exchange market, the New York Mercantile Exchange, and all other financial markets. This tax will be paid by the seller. This tax will be extended to the notional value of all derivatives, including over-the-counter derivatives, exchange traded derivatives, structured notes, designer derivatives and all other financial paper. Derivatives will become reportable under penalty of law. It is conservatively estimated that the securities transfer tax will yield approximately $5 trillion of new revenue in its first year of application.

Conservatively estimated? Considering that would be around 40% of GDP, and about twice what the federal government gets from every other tax combined, I am dying to hear what their more wild estimates are. Of course what anyone with more than a 10th grade education realizes, is this would lead to an immediately seize-up of the markets, and zero liquidity. Yeah, that is a great recipe for a recovery.

Sorry, I can't go on, I can feel brain cells dying by the word...

That Was the Year That Was

Over at JREF, they are voting on the dumbest quotes from 9-11 crackpots in 2007. Some of the finer examples:

Try this.

Stack four eggs one on top of the other. Glue them together and make a tower out of them. Ensure the structure is stable and will not topple.

Now break the top egg. Hit it with your spoon and similate an aircraft hitting it.

Will the three eggs below the top egg break all the way to the floor?

No because the mass of the top egg will be difused and free to deflect around the shells of the lower eggs.

Exactly like the towers.

Or the Looser Boys:

Like Rosa Parks, Simon Wiesenthal, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela, we will not veer from our course and we will not shut up.

Or this one:

you suck and your comment too. [Zeitgeist] is one of the best alternative independent documentations you will ever see. even when 100% of the information therein would be a lie, you would still find a lot of truth in it.

But I went with Mr January:

My see-saw analogy renders any need for "calculations" moot.

Shilling the Shell Game

James talked in the post below this one about Kevin Barrett's nutty comments about Hezbollah and Hamas being heroes, in the context of Barrett's endorsement (with reservations) of The Shell Game. Barrett mentioned some other criticism of Alten's book, and for the fun of it, I checked out the site he referenced. Wow, it's almost enough to make me feel sorry for a fruitcake like Alten.

I am glad that you believe Israeli agents were following the hijackers before 9-11, but I am surprised that you don’t seem to be aware of the Israeli spies high-fiving it while taping the attacks themselves (google “dancing Israeli spies”) which pretty much proves they had foreknowledge and were actually probably taping the results of their own efforts while working for the Mossad— as in it is very likely that they planted the explosives themselves in the World Trade Center buildings 1, 2 and 7 (which was not even hit by a jet)– all buildings owned by Larry Silverstein, who is best friends with super Zionist hawk Netanyahu— one of the writers of PNAC (Project for New American Century— the blueprint for 9-11 and rolling out the war on the Middle East, starting with Iraq and Afghanistan as called for in this document which was based on “A Clean Break” which was based on “The Wolfowitz Doctrine”). As you can probably see by now, I firmly believe that the Israelis and Israeli-Americans, such as Silverstein, such as Netanyahu, such as Wolfowitz, such as Perle, and their colleagues actually orchestrated 9-11. In their PNAC doctrine, they stated that they needed a “Pearl Harbor-style event” to happen to start on the empire building, and so that was 9-11.

But even if the Israeli agents were just “following” the hijackers as you believe, then doesn’t that make them complicit collaborators? Or at the very least, why didn’t they directly tell authorities which could have prevented 9-11 from happening? Please don’t tell me they wanted not to reveal that they were Israeli spies! Surely there could be a way around that! At the very least, like for instance when the Israeli company Odigo (actually a front for the Mossad) headquartered in WTC got the warnings that there was going to be a hit— couldn’t any of the Mossad agents who knew what was about to happen have at least anonymously called into the building authorities and the NYC police and NY fire dept to warn people of a bomb or something (instead of just calling their own pals at Odigo)?

Lotsa fish in that barrel, let me get my shotgun! To take the easy ones first, Benjamin Netanyahu was not one of the writers of PNAC; it would be strange indeed for an Israeli politician to be writing for the Project for a New American Century. PNAC did not say they needed a "Pearl Harbor-style event"; they said that their goals would have to be achieved over a period of time absent a new Pearl Harbor.

Odigo was not headquartered in the WTC. The warning they received was sent to two Israeli employees of the company, and was not anywhere near as specific as is commonly claimed:

Diamandis today in a telephone interview also said the warning message did not identify the World Trade Center as the attack target. Diamandis declined to reveal any other information contained in the message, including whether the warning named the targets for the attack.

"Providing more details would only lead to more conjecture," he said.

He did confirm that soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees notified their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the FBI was informed of the instant-message warning.

Note as well the comments on Barrett's post, which contain the usual "Israelophobia" from the anti-semitic wing of the Troofers:

what kind of neocons? if they are of the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld ilk only and not of the Zakheim/Zelikow/Feith/Netanyahu ilk, then i have no desire to read this book.

Wendy Campbell at the above URL engages in an email exchange with anti-Semitic, Zionist shill Steve Alten and gets him to reveal his True Shillness, and who he is really working for (Israel and their American “fifth column”). I know the other day I was being all nice and mellow, and saying how we should not overly concentrate on calling out the shills, but some people are so damn transparent that you could pretty much spray paint “SHILL” on their front lawns, and do so with little guilt or doubt.

A democracy that allows it's military to censor the news or anything else ? Sorry, but Israel is a bandit-nation.

Like I say, it's hard not to feel a little sorry for Alten, but then again he is a nutcase himself.

Kevin Barrett Praises Hamas, Criticizes Steve Alten

As you probably know, I have criticized the novel (coming out today I guess) the Shell Game for its factual errors, and the cluelessness displayed by its author, but most of his flak is coming from his fellow truthers. Last night the author, Steve Alten, was on with Avery and Bermas on their radio show, but tonight he is on with Kevin "The Holocaust was a Myth" Barrett. Barrett ironically, is promoting this interview, while largely attacking Alten.

Steve Alten's new thriller The Shell Game promises to take 9/11 truth to the bestseller lists. It's about a neocon plot to stage a mega-9/11 to trigger martial law and an attack on Iran. It's studded with quotations from David Ray Griffin, Mike Ruppert, and other well-known truth advocates. What's more, it's got its own terrific 9/11 truth website: http://www.theshellgame.net/ What 9/11 truthseeker could argue with that?

Well, a few have. Alten has recently taken some heat for ignoring Israeli connections to 9/11: http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=624 And some of my Muslim and Muslim-friendly friends have found parts of the book painfully Islamophobic. One friend--a well-known 9/11 truth movement figure--found the book too painful to read.

My two cents: Let's not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. The Shell Game isn't perfect, either artistically (Shakespeare it ain't) or politically (the author doesn't have the good taste to share all of my views about everything). But it's a gripping read that packs a huge 9/11 truth wallop, and if we're smart we'll help push it to the top of the NY Times bestseller list.

I disagree with Alten on some important issues. For example, Alten casts Hamas and Hezbullah as among the villains, while for me--as for virtually all of the planet's 1.5 billion Muslims, and everyone else who supports the right to resist illegal occupation and aggression, a right granted by international law--those groups are heroes.

Alten also apparently believes that "Israel is one of our most important allies, the one true democracy in the Middle East" (http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=624) which I think is a load of hooey. As I told a shocked Sandra Lubarsky, Jewish co-editor of 9/11 & American Empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims Speak Out http://www.amazon.com/11-American-Empire-Christians-Muslims/dp/156656660...comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa is an insult to the Afrikaaners.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

When Troofers Annoy

I went and saw Dr. Michael Shermer at a booksigning tonight, for his new work on biology and economics, The Mind of the Markets. The speech was rather interesting, being rather interested in economics myself. Shermer seems likes a rather big Adam Smith fan (go invisible hand) and I picked up a signed copy myself.

Based on the fact that he has spoken quite vocally against the troofers, I was expecting them to interrupt his event yet again, so I brought my camera. Sorry for the shoddy camera work, I was just sitting in the audience. This isn't everything they did, since I didn't keep the camera running, and had no idea when they would start to rant. Amazingly this is the first YouTube video I have ever done, so I hope it looks OK. My editing leaves a bit to be desired, especially at the end where it looks like my blog is "pot.com". Well, in Portland that might actually be rather popular.

Final Cut Floating

Okay, so the Loosers have opened their third forum, and it's actually getting some traffic. 170 members and a total of 1,532 posts already, looks like an active community.

But what are they discussing? That hot new film in the 9-11 Truth Movement, Loose Change, Final Cut, which is still breaking records in London?

Uh, No:



That's right, there have been a grand total of two posts on Loose Change Final Cut over there. One was the announcement of the add-on chapter on the planes. That got zero responses. The other was an add-on chapter produced by someone other than Dylan Avery; that one got four responses.

No, the hot film being discussed over there is... try not to laugh:

Book Irony

Since I had the day off for the holiday, I decided to spend some time perusing the local bookshelves, and was rather amused to see the ironic title tucked in next to David Ray Griffin's book. Sorry for the poor quality, all I had on me was my camera phone.

Frequent Daily Kos Poster Cites Neo-Nazi Hate Site Run by FBI Informant?

Okay, I'm just getting my arms around this story, so there may be some changes along the way, but it's just such a deliciously nutty tale that I can't resist running with it as is.

First, we have mentioned David Lindorff a few times. Lindorff's a regular poster on DailyKos. His bio over there reads:

Journalist Dave Lindorff writes for Counterpunch, the Nation, and Salon. He has written four books. The most recent, co-authored with Barbara Olshansky is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press).

He's also a 9-11 nutbar, which is why we have covered him. Lindorff has gotten away with posting "Truther" diaries at DailyKos, despite the standing ban on those diaries from Markos himself.

Back in July, CounterPunch published a hyperventilating article from Lindorff, entitled "Martial Law Threat is Real". He also posted it as a Diary at DailyKos.

Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way--courtesy of a $385-million grant by the US Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc--of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing "insurgency" within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.

These, of course, are the infamous "FEMA Death Camps" of Alex Jones' fevered fantasies. Paranoid Left, meet the Paranoid Right.

Give the commenter Moody Loner at Kos credit; he asked for a citation for the part I bolded above. Lindorff replies here:

It was provided to a radio host in Bergen, NJ. He's got it.

It reads like it's real, and having obtained the whole plan for Rex-84, the Ollie North plan for Martial Law, myself, I can say that this is of a piece with that document, and appears actually, to build on it, which would be logical.

He provided a link to "HalTurnershow.com" which is now a defunct website. To their credit several commenters noted that Turner is a notorious Neo-Nazi kook. And, at least according to this article, an FBI informant.

He was an FBI informant, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that monitors hate groups and extremists.

According to the center, hackers confronted Turner on his Web site Jan. 1 and told him they had broken into Turner's computer server.

What they found were e-mails between Turner and an FBI agent who was apparently Turner's handler. The unidentified hackers posted a July 7 e-mail to the agent. In it, Turner gave the agent a message from someone threatening to kill Sen. Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, the center said in a story on its Web site, www.splcenter.org.

"Once again," Turner wrote to the agent, "my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy."

Now, of course, this still leaves some question in my mind as to where Turner really stands. Is he a Neo-Nazi, who got the squeeze put on him by the Feds? Or was he some guy playing a Neo-Nazi to gain the trust of those losers in order to funnel information to the G-Men?

Regardless, isn't it plain that the Nation, CounterPunch, Salon, and the Daily Kos are doing themselves no favors by publishing a writer who uses such poor judgment as to cite a Neo-Nazi as evidence for his paranoid claims?

Hat Tip: Emailer Michael P. Great find!

Update: Longtime friend of this blog, Damian Penny, points us to this over the top OpEd of Lindorff's where he muses on the "bright side" of global warming:

So what we see is that huge swaths of conservative America are set to face a biblical deluge in a few more presidential cycles.

What Price Truth?

Our buddy Ref did a terrific job of compiling a list of 9-11 "Truth" products and services over at the JREF Forums.

Dylan Avery:

* Loose Change Final Cut DVD $19.95
* Sleeved Loose Change 2nd Edition DVD Special $9.95
* Loose Change Trilogy $44.95
* Loose Change Baseball Cap $14.95
* Loose Change 'Final Cut' T-Shirt $16.95
* Loose Change 1st Edition Remastered DVD $14.95
* Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut DVD $17.95
* Loose Change 2nd Edition DVD on Spindle (10 Pack) $45.00
* Loose Change 2nd Edition DVD on Spindle (25 Pack) $100.00
* Loose Change 2nd Edition DVD on Spindle (50 Pack) $175.00
* Investigate 9/11 Rubber Stamp $10.95
* Investigate 911 T-Shirt $16.95
* Loose Change Final Cut Stream $6.95
* More Beats of Loose Change CD $14.95
* LC Soundtrack – The Beats of Loose Change $14.95
* Remo Conscious, Infiltration $14.95
* Michael Parker – Phantasmagloria $15.00
* Investigate 911 T-Sweatshirt (Hoodie) $34.95
* Loose Change Final Cut Poster $3.45
* Loose Change Bumper Stickers (10-100 Packs) $8.95
* German LC Version 10 Pack Spindle $49.50
* German LC Version 25 Pack Spindle $110.00
* German LC Version 50 Pack Spindle $192.50
* Donations of $5, $10, $50, $100, $250 and an amount of choice

Terrific job of research, Ref!

Kevin Barrett Interviews the Economic Hitman

Quite a while ago I made a post on my Chief Brief blog on the book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, and was not too impressed. It seemed too much like the non-fact based anti-globalist paranoia, that I now know as part of the 9/11 truth movement. Perkins, although a hero of the troofer sect, has not specifically endorsed their claims, but now he is getting more familiar with them, after being interviewed by Kevin Barrett on one of his radio shows.

Perkins, as is apparent in his book, shares the paranoid view that the US is the focus of evil in the world, as he describes his nonsensical "techniques".

Perkins: We work many different ways, but perhaps the most common one is that we will identify a third world country that has resources our corporations covet like oil, and then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or one of its sisters, but the money doesn’t actually go to the country, instead it goes to one of our own corporations, US corporations which build big infrastructure projects, in that country, power plants, roads, industrial parks, things that our companies that build those projects, and a few wealthy people, but don’t help the poor people at all, a majority of the population, the people who don’t use very much electricity if any, and don’t have the skills to get jobs in industrial parks, don’t use highways or ports .

Now I am certainly not one to defend the efficiency of the international development process, but the idea that poor people don't use roads or electricity is just bizarre. Even more ironic, he spends much of the rest of the interview denouncing the exploitation of poor third world workers, those very workers he claims don't get jobs at industrial parks.

Later, Barrett and Perkins share a similar view of the United States, as Perkins apparently agrees with Barrett's "worse than Hitler" outlook:

Barrett: You make a charge that a lot of folks would find extreme, but I certainly don’t though, when you say that the “US empire has enslaved more people, its policies and actions have resulted in more deaths than those under the regimes of Rome, Spain, Portugal, France, England or Holland, or at the hands of Stalin and Hitler. And yet these crimes go almost unnoticed. Disguised in the ropes of eloquent rhetoric “

His most bizarre claim was actually covered a while ago in a blog post by Pat, but he extends the claim here:

Perkins: So I went off to Saudi Arabia [after the OPEC oil embargo] and we eventually struck this deal, that is a long story, and the longer version is in the book, the short version is that we get the Saudis to agree to send basically most of the money that they make selling oil to the world, their petro-dollars back to the United States, invest it in US government securities, the interest from those securities would be given to the US treasury department , this has amounted to trillions of dollars, the US treasury would use that money to hire US corporations to westernize Saudi Arabia, build petro-chemical complexes, desalinization plants, industrial complexes, etc.

Setting aside how silly it is to think that the Saudis would just let us force them to let us steal all the interest, the claim that this reached into the trillions is absurd. We are getting into Leo Wanta territory here. Just for perspective, according to the US treasury, $127 billion in US treasuries are held by foreign countries in the "oil exporters" category. This includes 15 different countries, but even if we assume that a full half of this is owned by Saudi Arabia, at an average 5% interest rate (a 10 year note is currently yielding just 3.6%, but they certainly have been higher in the past) it would take over 300 years to pay out over a trillion dollars of interest, much less many trillions over the past 30 years. Keep in mind that this guy claims to be an expert in international finance, not just someone who wrote a book on the subject.

Kudos to Mike McConnell

Broadcasting out of WLW 700 AM, Cincinnati, Mike took on the local Troofers and absolutely pwned them. The local Troof squad was not particularly amazing but Mike hit every pitch out of the park.

Kicking troofer butt, Mike McConnell!

A Challenge to Richard Gage, Steven Jones, or David Ray Griffin

Our buddy Ron Wieck of Hardfire fame is looking for a 9-11 "Truther" who is willing to debate the WTC-7 issue with Mark Roberts. That's the bad news. The good news is that the BBC would be filming the debate for a special that they are planning on WTC-7.

Now the really bad news. Mark doesn't want to debate one of the mental basket cases that form such a large part of the 9-11 fruitcake movement. So far only Uncle Fetzer has indicated a willingness to step into the ring with the undefeated heavyweight of 9-11 debunking, and Jim's not quite going to make it over the sanity bar. Of course, the CIT nutbars want to get on, but the BBC isn't interested in "North of the Citgo".

So, Richard, how about it? It would result in more publicity for your website, get your fizz on the Beeb. Steven, you could talk about those red and grey chips for awhile. David, Ron promises not to tease you about seances and life after death.

Gage Shakes the Money Tree

I gotta laugh at this particular claim:

The founding members and current volunteers and staff of AE911Truth have donated, truly and literally, thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to AE911Truth. This is a full time effort for a dozen staff.

Thousands of hours? Anybody's who's been paying attention knows that the only difference between David Ray Griffin's presentations on 9-11 and Gage's consists of three letters: AIA. Aside from that, there's not a dime's worth of difference between them.

This is all about the moolah, not about the "Truth".

The Most Pathetic Truther Video Ever

I have mentioned before about how I considered Alfons, the founder and head of the inaccurately titled Veterans for 9/11 Truth, one of the most pathetic members of the movement. I mean, how can you not feel sorry for someone who managed to retire from the Army at the rank of E-4, and appears to be about 35 cents above the poverty line, but he keeps on slandering the United States, not to mention the US Army, so sorry Fons, you won't get that much sympathy from me.

So with that said, this self videotaped 20 minute long epic bit of filmmaking of Alfons shopping at K-Mart easily has to be the most pathetic thing I have ever seen, even eclipsing that riveting scene where the Loose Change boys could not figure out how to use the token machines in the New York subways. I suppose, if anything, this could be used in a documentary to expose the poor state of mental health care in the Veterans Administration.




And no, I have not watched the whole thing. I am not willing to make that large of a sacrifice for this blog.

Troofers Take on New World Order

It is pretty silly when they go after presidential candidates, but now the troofers are congratulating themselves for confronting that NWO kingpin, Michael Shermer.





Incidently, Shermer is on a book tour, so if I can work it into my schedule I will try and go see him next week. I was thinking of picking up the book anyway, and I can give him an official Screw Loose Change New World Order t-shirt.

Death Rattle of the Truthers?

Nice little editorial at Op-Ed News.

But “daylight is the best antiseptic” and the 9/11 “truth” fad is a victim of its own internet success. Practically everyone on the planet has heard conspiracist rants on U-tube, in blogs, forums, books, and videos, and found such claims to lack veracity. Thus hot air is rapidly seeping out of the “truth” balloon. One reason is because of the oxymoron that there are so many claims on the truth. No planes “theories,” artificial voice recordings from air phones, laser beams, flight 93 passengers killed in Cleveland - you name it, and it’s a “theory.”

AE911 Truth Watch

One of the characteristics of the 9/11 "truth" movement, and charlatans of all persuasians is that they constantly repeat things, even after they have been proven to be false. In this case , it has been 10 days now since Richard Gage, the founder, and as far as I can tell, the only active member of the increasingly inaccurately named Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth had this to say:

We will strike the controversial WTC7 squibs (in the upper right corner) from the online PPT and upcoming DVD update. I agree with the analysis - particularly the impossible "stationary explosions". ((Damn - I thought these were the real deal!)).

Of course, that doesn't mean he actually has to get around to it any time soon. A quick check of his site shows the powerpoint still has this claim, which incidently was shown to be fake well before it finally dawned on him.

In fact, not only is this in his ridiculously long 322 slide deck (talk about death from Powerpoint) this claim is still displayed prominently on their home page:

4. Squibs, or “mistimed” explosions, at the upper 7 floors seen in the network videos

Maybe we can start a contest and everyone can guess how long it takes before they remove the claim? And yes, "never" is a choice.

Is Korey Rowe Still a Deserter?

We haven't heard much on this lately, so I was surprised to hear this bit on the Jeff Farias show from the 15th.

Farias: Hey one more thing, on a more personal note. A few months ago we were getting reports that the military was going after Korey Rowe, trying to get him, saying that he was being called back in, stop loss, whatever. What's his status, what's going on with his case?

Bermas: Well I really can't comment on what Korey's case is, I just hope that it is hurried along, and that we can find a resolution to it. Korey is a veteran, he served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and I really don't think it is fair that they are trying to send him back to the Middle East.

A Request to Our Commenters

Once again, we ask that you keep it civil. We ask that you stop impersonating people. It may seem funny to you but it's a pain in the neck to me. I hate to say this but the Truthers are not the problem in the comments section 90% of the time; it's people who are supposedly on our side. If you feel tempted to respond to something Boris says with an obscenity, I suggest that you go out for a walk instead.

Please, I don't like playing Mod Squad. Every now and then people put terrific stuff in the comments, but most of the time I feel like I'm about to take a carful of ten-year-olds on a 400-mile drive whenever I click on the comment links.

Canadian MTV Promotes Trooferism, Airs Clips from LCFC

I suppose we can expect another group of Jeff Hills, eh?

It's the usual tripe; "Osama isn't wanted for 9-11", "Norm Mineta's testimony", "only three buildings in history ever collapsed from fire". Danny Jowenko's comment about Building 7 being a controlled demolition is replayed, but (of course) not his ridiculing of the controlled demolition theories of the Twin Towers.

Solid urinalism from "Johnny".

Gravy on the Goofballs

Lots of inside jokes here; love the signs!

I Warned Him He Would Get Dirty...

I posted earlier regarding author Steve Alten's claim of being harassed, and pointed out that he was not being harassed by those in opposition to the truther movement, but by members of the movement themselves. At first I kind of felt sorry for him, but then I realized that he brought this whole thing upon himself, and besides, it is just too funny to watch others accuse him of being some sort of government agent, while he accuses them of the exact same thing, while neither seems to realize the irony.

I am a mainstream author who now believes that Bush and Cheney let/made it succeed. I have read Michael C. Ruppert's incredible book and continue to research the truth sites. Am I a truther? YES. At the ame time, I have come to learn that there is a 9/11 front that is well-funded and targets the real truthers. These groups are paid to create chaos within the movement, discrediting individuals and organizations...AND ALL OF US MUST STAND AGAINST THEM!

Read The SHELL GAME. I promise that if you are a real truther, you will LOVE the book, and if you like pageturners, you will LOVE the book. Then help us spread the word about te book...because MAINSTREAM FICTION can influence mainstream readers in ways that picket signs and rallies will never achieve.

Finally, do not allow anti-9/11 truthers like this Amanda to attack thoe of us who are to carry teh message above the radar or the movement will wilter. WE CAN MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES!

Steve Alten

I couldn't make up this stuff if I tried.

Another Call to Action

Dylan Avery posts on his Myspace page calling his minions to action. Apparently he thinks his movie in undebunkable.

With that being said, we could not be more proud of how the project turned out. We have a solid two hours of information that is extremely difficult to dispute. Our debunkers and skeptics have! been virtually silent. The mainstream media has refused to cover it. Their only responses have been, "It's boring" or, "It's too long," instead of actually addressing the information within.

OK, well to say we have been virtually silent is a bit of an overstatement, we have had several posts on the movie, far more than the Loosers have ever written or said disputing the hundreds of errors which have been pointed out in their films. And while I do believe I have said the movie was boring, I never gave this as a reason for not going into the movie more in-depth, the main reason is that THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NEW OF SIGNIFICANCE IN YOUR 4TH VERSION OF THE SAME MOVIE. Pat and I may get around to writing something more comphrensive at some point, but for now I see no reason to bother given that everything in your movie has already been addressed. Of course, because it is so freaking boring and repetitive, I don't doubt that some in the media have used this as an excuse. Hey, it could have been worse, they could have just been honest and told you that your movie sucks.

Dylan Starts Another Forum?

He's almost had as many different forums as he's had versions of his film. I don't quite know what to make of this; back when he opened the second forum, a lot of the original members dropped out. It seems inevitable that this will result in a further reduction in the number of members.

When Religion and Science Don't Mix

The Journal of 9/11 Studies once again maintains its reputation for academic work expected of a poorly run alternative high school, this time with a paper by retired Religious Studies professor Graeme McQueen regarding the words of firefighters describing the damage to WTC7, as put forth by Ryan Mackey, Mark Roberts and others. The logic employed, is rather fascinating, to say the least.

But let us turn to the third statement I listed in my summary of Mackey’s argument. Is it true that FDNY members rationally concluded from what they perceived that the building was in danger of collapse? Only seven appear to have done so, whereas 50 accepted the collapse prediction from others, typically superiors.

With regard to the fourth point in the argument, is it true that the collapse warnings were mainly the result of a rational conclusion based on observation and training? No. As far as we can tell, no rational conclusion based on direct perception was made in the vast majority of cases.

Basically he is arguing that since not every description of the damage, and the collapse was withing the parameters that he would accept as definitive, that we should ignore all of them, despite the fact that he does not have a single witness to back up a contradicting argument. Amazing.

Alex Jones Sends a Message to the Future

Hot Air tips us off to this gem. Alex Jones has certainly not lost any of his insanity as of late.

Doctor (Paul's) Strangelovers

This is OT, but it's so good that I felt I had to link it. A blogger catches a Ron Paul supporter's wrestling with his conscience over the New Republic's scoop last week about Ron Paul's racist and homophobic newsletters. Eventually the conscience loses and the supporter remains a cult member.

Hat Tip: Longtime commenter Edmund.

Please Tell Me He Is Joking

From the comments on 9/11 Blogger regarding a couple of people from We Are Idiots, "bravely" talking to a Congressional staffer:

Anyway, thanks again guys, you are real life heroes. I am going to name any new children I might have after you. Though my wife thinks that other kids will make fun of him or her with a name like WeAreChangeLA.

Yeah, going to a congressional office is such dangerous work. I mean, sometimes they even make you sign in with the receptionist and all. A regular bunch of Andrei Sakharovs.

Terrific Article on CTs And "Counterknowledge"

Here's a good one to savor on a Sunday afternoon:

Do any of these theories sound familiar? Has someone bored you rigid at a dinner party by unveiling one of these "secrets"? If so, it is hardly surprising. In recent years, thousands of bizarre conjectures have been endorsed by leading publishers, taught in universities, plugged in newspapers, quoted by politicians and circulated in cyberspace.

This is counterknowledge: misinformation packaged to look like fact. We are facing a pandemic of credulous thinking. Ideas that once flourished only on the fringes are now taken seriously by educated people in the West, and are wreaking havoc in the developing world.

Hat Tip: Emailer Stephen

Loosers Exhort the Troops

I don't know who "Joe" is at 9-11 blogger; Dylan's something like enigs.

Happy New Year to everyone from Louder Than Words. As hard as it is to believe, 2007 has come and gone. Reprehensor at 911Blogger has written a comprehensive overview and assessment of the year's major events. With all of that behind us, a year of monumental potential is ahead, and its outcome lies entirely in our hands.

The movement has come a long way since its inception, but the ever-present question is: What next? What needs to be done to ensure that we see some accountability? The release of films such as “9/11 Press for Truth” and its companion “In Their Own Words”, and our own film “Loose Change Final Cut”, and books such as Steve Alten’s “The Shell Game”, it is becoming easier and easier to approach the uninitiated with the concept of 9/11 Truth.

They've all heard about it and know you're a bunch of fruitcakes.

With that being said, we could not be more proud of how the project turned out. We have a solid two hours of information that is extremely difficult to dispute. Our debunkers and skeptics have! been virtually silent. The mainstream media has refused to cover it. Their only responses have been, "It's boring" or, "It's too long," instead of actually addressing the information within.

As I've said before, there's no there there. The real problem with Final Cut is not that it's boring or too long, although it is both. It's that the film represents yet another retreat from the real conspiracy theories that the Troofers believe in, but have decided to downplay in the hopes of getting some more public support. Dylan said in one interview that he hoped that after watching his film people think that at least there was negligence on 9-11, which isn't even LIHOP. But at that point who cares besides the Jersey girls?

Changers Hit Radar's Screen

I had heard about this piece but couldn't locate it online; thanks to emailer Gary for pointing it out.

Rudkowski, who has a thick Brooklyn accent and an implacable, heavy-lidded stare reminiscent of Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, was not directly affected by the attacks. On the morning of September 11, 2001, he was sitting in a ninth-grade Spanish class at a public high school eight miles south of the towers. None of his friends or family members died that day. But exposing the perpetrators of the plot—not the 19 patsies with box cutters, but the real criminals—had in recent years become the focus of his life. He spent Saturdays at Ground Zero with banners and pamphlets, proselytizing to passersby. He knew the material in Loose Change by heart. When he was free on weekday afternoons, which was often, he'd listen to streaming audio of the Alex Jones Show, an immensely popular conspiracy radio program out of Austin, Texas. Jones was his guru. "Seeing Alex Jones's documentaries made me realize that there are a lot of things people don't know," Rudkowski says, "that they should know."

It's a solid piece, perhaps a trifle too balanced in its approach towards the Troofers but the subtitle has got to sting:

How a ragtag group of conspiracy nuts is changing public perception of 9/11

Be sure to read through to the end, where the writer talks about a failed bit of hecklivism towards Stephen Colbert. Typically for the goofballs, they all think he must secretly know that 9-11 was an injside job, so they go nuts when he fails to acknowledge it. Unfortunately, they've decided not to release that video.

Recommended!

Kevin Barrett "No Such Thing as Radical Jihad"

We are used to Kevin Barrett saying off the wall things, but this has to be at least in the top 10%. On his radio show a couple of weeks ago he was interviewing Kyle Hence, the producer of Press For Truth, regarding the upcoming novel Shell Game. The actual author will be on the show later in the month. In any case, Barrett continues his complete denial of Islamic driven terrorism or even the concept of jihad, apparently he knows something that the rest of the Islamic world does not.

Barrett: The whole notion that there is such a thing as a radical jihadist ideology and we know what it is, is already a little bit of a leap. What I have discovered based on experience....

Hence: Well people are always strapping bombs on themselves…

Barrett: Well right, but the idea that that has some connection with Islam or with Muslims is completely ridiculous. There is a study out of the University of Chicago that shows that suicide terrorism, it is called the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, I’ll remember the author’s name in a bit. He points out that whenever there are foreign occupations, there is always suicide terrorism to fight back the occupiers. The world’s biggest suicide terror outfit is the Tamil Tigers who are a secularist group out of Sri Lanka. There is absolutely no statistical correlation whatsoever between Muslims and suicide terrorism, some of the most ferocious Palestinian terrorists are Christians, atheists or agnostics. In fact the Palestinians, the violent Palestinian resistance has been disproportionately led by people from a Christian ackground. It is only recently that Hamas has become so well known. There is actually no connection there to Islam whatsoever, number one, and number two, most of this resistance is utterly justified. If you accept any sort of
political violence anywhere, if you are not saying that every army in the world has to lay down all of its arms and never so much as bunch anybody, then you would have to say that the most just struggle in the world is the Palestinian struggle, and that Hamas and Hezbollah are carrying out the most absolutely, the struggle that is totally in line with the ideals of the American founding fathers, who struggled against imperial oppression.

Oh really. Well I suggest that Barrett do some post-doc research and travel to Waziristan, Darfur, Khandahar or Fallujah so that he can see for himself that there is no such thing. In fact I would even be willing to chip in for the airfare.

Incidently, continuing in the tradition of Kevin Ryan, Barrett is now suing the University of Wisconsin for not hiring him, and his begging for money for legal expenses. Gee, you think it might have something to do with the fact that you are an Islamic Studies professor who has less of an understanding of Islam than the average 19 year old PFC who has served a tour in Iraq? Maybe the troofers should just set up a permanent "Kevin legal fund".

My Local Fruitcakes

Get some attention from Phoenix radio station KTAR.

"9-11 was an inside job. There's no way to doubt that," said one of approximately two dozen protestors.

Typical job of spelling by the Troofers.

Hat Tip: Nico's Bloglines.

The Artsiest No-Planer Video Yet

Apparently dedicated to nutbar supreme, Morgan Reynolds.

Yet Moron the Ron Paul Nuts

Here's a clip of a particularly vile group of Ronulans harassing Sean Hannity. Warning: Lots of filthy language, definitely NSFW.



Ron Paul answers a question about his 9-11 kook supporters in last night's debate:



Asked about whether the Troofers should abandon the "9-11 was an inside job" rhetoric, he replies:

"Well, it doesn't do me any good, so if they care about me they should."

Of course, the fruitcakes twist themselves into knots trying to convince each other that he doesn't really mean it:

Just my personal opinion, but I thought Ron Paul handled himself very well with this question. I know you guys don't want to hear this, but anyone who has been paying attention to the recent trends with the issue of 9/11 truth and the presidential race knows well that if Ron Paul had answered any other way, FOX News would never have let him get past it.

BTW, with all the talk about John McCain's age, how many people know he's actually a year younger than Ron Paul?

Update: Our buddy the Feathered Bastard has his own inimitable take on Ron and his KKK supporters:

Hess explained that he and Paul are the best of pals. He stated that Paul's message resonated with a lot of folks, not just the Sand Land schutzstaffel.

Oh, man, I wish I had half his writing talent! Highly, highly recommended!

Why Weren't They Complaining Before?

According to Bill Douglas, who has been promoting Steve Alten's upcoming Shell Game so much even the other troofers on 911 Blogger are complaining, Mr. Alten has become the victim of harassment, where someone, among other things, "put a map of his home and his personal private phone number and home address up on the internet".

Now I of course condemn such behavior, but where have I heard this before, where someone put up the personal information of people they don't like on the Internet? Oh yeah, Kevin Barrett, in fact he created a web site http://www.wheretheylive.org/, solely for that purpose. And strangely enough, I don't recall a single truther ever questioning this in any way, or characterizing it as "harassment". In fact, when we did several posts on this, the troofer community completely ignored it.

Now the ironic thing is, Steve Alten is scheduled to appear on Barrett's radio show on January 22nd to promote his book. I am sure we can expect Steve to demand that Barrett renounce all such behavior.

Update: I e-mailed Mr. Alten to get his response, and he blamed this on a "bogus 9/11 group that claims Israel is behind 9/11". Of course, given the huge number of people in the 9/11 truth movement who blame Israel, there is absolutely no reason to think that they are "bogus", these are just the people in the 9/11 truth movement! The ironic thing is, I warned Mr. Alten about getting involved with these people in the comments of the original thread I made on this book.

Nut Eleven

I'd love to incorporate more parody into the blog, but parody requires taking reality and stretching it to a ridiculous extent. As we have seen, these kooks are already stretching so far they make Plastic Man look normal.

For example, the Ron Paul nuts noticed something highly suspicious in Rudy Giuliani's vote count:

According to this stat: http://ronrox.com/paulstats.php

Campton - 604 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Hand Counted Paper Ballots
- Giuliani = 55 votes = 9.11%

Hampton - 3,141 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Diebold Accuvote optical scan ; contractor: LHS Associates/John Silvestro
- Giuliani = 286 votes = 9.11%

Sandwich - 395 votes
VOTE COUNT METHOD: Hand Counted Paper Ballots
- Giuliani = 36 votes = 9.11%

And check out the comments:

# ACE6969 Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

WOW - these guys are sick.

phil robertson Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

I just have to say…. Americans, please take your country back! Look at what these criminals are doing to you. This example is outrageous.

Maureen Mellon Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Compton, Hampton, and Sandwitch need to be investigated. These are really sick people and shoving our faces in their crimes. Giuliani getting 9.11% of the vote is really sick. These people need to be checked out and if crimes have been committed they need to be charged and sentenced.

Dave Toma Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

This is one of two things.

Its either the universe directing our attention to Rudy’s complicity in 9/11 (not that Rudy hasn’t done that enough already)

Or the criminals are deliberately fixing the vote to create those percentages so as to rub their crimes in Americans faces.

The universe did it!

I mean, how do you parodize that?

How To Win Friends and Influence People

Yeah, this will make them popular. I call DISINFO!

Since our mainstream media continue to censor 9/11 truth, I urge everyone to begin “mass emailing” 9/11 truth messages now! It is not difficult to disseminate thousands of emails per day. Here are some tips to get you started:

Copy or compose your own 9/11 truth message & open free email accounts at Yahoo, Gmail, etc. These accounts let you send hundreds of emails a day. (Better yet, open an unlimited number of these accounts via an “anonymous proxy” service like the free “TOR” network.)

The Yarn Company Conspiracy Unravels

Now this is pretty funny.

BG: No listen. I think it may be a conspiracy, because I'm sure that if anyone really tries to piece this sweater together? You know, get some experts in who actually know something about construction of a garment? I swear, if you get some experts to actually look at the evidence, you'll see, this sweater cannot actually be worn. It's full of holes!

News of the Tautological

The Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today has a regular feature that they call News of the Tautological, where they post an amusing headline using circular logic, for example, from yesterday:

Olmert: No Peace Unless Attacks Stop"--headline, Associated Press, Jan. 9

Now we have the troofer version of this, with an article addressing the argument that the Bush administration, hardly known for its widespread competence, could not have carried out such a ridiculously complicated plot.

Many who deny government complicity in 9/11/01 maintain that some of the best evidence against official involvement in the crime of the century lies in the Bush administration's unbroken record of sheer incompetence, an argument bolstered by the perception that key members of the administration, notably The Commander Guy, spent that entire day running around like headless chickens.

On the contrary, they did no such thing. Rather, the administration was highly competent and enormously successful that day -- they just had different criteria for success than would sane people. And they've been highly competent ever since. You just have to adjust your standards for evaluating success, then view the past six years through the PNAC/neocon lens. Let's review some of their primary accomplishments -- on 9/11 and in the six eternal years since:

Of course they argue their point, by insisting that of course they are competent, because they pulled off this ridiculously complicated plot and managed to blame it on Al Qaeda.

They got the entire world to believe that a ragtag organization called Al Qaeda, fronted by a seriously ill guy in a cave armed with only a laptop and a phone, managed to orchestrate an unbelievably complex plan that had involved years of planning and training, much money, split-second timing and ridiculously good luck.

Once again, they are beyond parody.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

And David Ray Griffin will be there to relieve him of his wallet. DRG is coming out with a new book (his sixth?) on 9-11 fruitcakery. Here's a sneak preview of the first chapter, which solely concerns Bush at Booker Elementary.

Griffin tries a new tack, one that I hadn't seen before. He claims that Bush and the media conspired to change the official story so that it seemed like only a matter of moments before he spoke to the nation and left the school:

On the first anniversary of 9/11, however, the White House, with Andrew Card taking the lead, started giving a radically different account. On September 9, 2002, Card told Brian Williams on NBC News: "I pulled away from the president, and not that many seconds later, the president excused himself from the classroom, and we gathered in the holding room and talked about the situation." In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on September 11, Card said that, after he had informed Bush about the second attack, the president “looked up -- it was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed like minutes... And he just excused himself very politely to the teacher and to the students and he left.”

Now, of course, everybody knows that Bush actually sat there for something like seven minutes. This is easy to criticize, which is exactly why administration figures began to try to minimize the amount of time he sat there.

But not to Griffin, who sees a sinister motive. Bush's allies tried to minimize the amount of time he sat in the classroom because it was becoming obvious that the reason he sat there is because he knew he was safe:

This behaviour seemed especially reckless in light of reports, issued at the time, that as many as eleven planes had been hijacked. The Secret Service should have feared that one of those planes was bearing down on the school at that very moment. The Secret Service’s behaviour, however, suggested that it had no fear that the school would be attacked.

Griffin contrasts this with Cheney:

The Secret Service’s failure to hustle Bush away seemed even stranger in light of the reports that Vice President Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and several congressional leaders were quickly taken to safe locations. Should not protecting President Bush have been an even higher priority? As Susan Taylor Martin of the St. Petersburg Times put it on July 4, 2004: "One of the many unanswered questions about that day is why the Secret Service did not immediately hustle Bush to a secure location, as it apparently did with Vice President Dick Cheney."

But this raises an even more obvious question: If the Secret Service knew Bush was safe, how come they didn't know Cheney was safe? After all, no plane crashed into the White House that morning.

Of course, to a non-conspiracist there is very little difficulty explaining this. Cheney was hustled out of the White House because it was an obvious, recognizable target. Booker Elementary would have been much tougher to spot from the air; one elementary school looks pretty much like any other, and there are lots of elementary schools in Sarasota; Google lists 42 within the city limits. In addition, moving the President is not just a matter of hustling him into a waiting limousine; routes have to be cleared, police have to block side streets, etc.

Get Those FEMA Camps Working Already

All we have been hearing is how the fascist government will swoop down immediately on any dissenters and fly them off to Gitmo without trial, and I just want to say to this, I am disappointed. I mean come on, they can't even imprison top 9/11 investigator Christopher Bollyn, and he is an escaped felon for God's sake!

Bollyn is apparently worried so little for his safety that he has time to regularly update his site, which actually looks quite nice for a raging lunatic anti-Semite. I mean, come on, what kind of police state are we living in here? Don't the jack-booted thugs have any sense of duty and commitment?

Maybe our international man of mystery has just been too difficult to catch, as he describes himself on his site:

His extensive travels and knowledge of German, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Hebrew and Arabic complement his ability to analyze international politics and events.

He can just blend in, disappear...

He does also talk about the new 9/11 book he is working, although he needs to write faster to catch up with David Ray Griffin:

Bollyn is currently working on a book entitled Solving 9-11, which is dedicated to explaining what really happened and bringing the events of 9-11 into historical perspective. The research is underway and will take months to complete. This essential work to increase understanding and clarity of the subject can only be completed with the support of readers and interested citizens.

Bollyn's latest discovery is that of Swedish Naval Engineer Anders Bjorkman, who I found out posts as Heiwa on the JREF forum. I guess Steven Jones is no longer his favorite scientist. Bjork does advance this humorous theory though:

1. Introduction - a bird cage

The structural design of the World Trade Center Twin Towers is very simple as its very lightweight steel framework is similar to a box shaped bird cage in which human beings are working. Most skyscrapers or office towers in the world are built according similar principles. None has ever globally collapsed in seconds before or after 911 except WTC 1, 2 and 7.

Hmm, where have I heard this before....

Adios to the Ronulans

I was listening to Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters on blog talk radio today, and he mentioned that he put up a post yesterday linking to the now famous piece in the New Republic which exposed some of Ron Paul's newsletter's choicer bits (as James posted last night). But what surprised Ed was that none of the Paulestinians responded. As all bloggers know, if you put up a piece critical of the Doc, you get an avalanche of negative comments.

Paul finished fifth in New Hampshire, and realistically if the story had broken earlier he might have done even worse. Some of the folks who decided to back him are having second thoughts:

After everything, this is McCain's night. After the awful news about Ron Paul's ugly, repellent past newsletters, I find myself rooting again for the man who was my second choice.

I do feel a little sorry for the Paul fans; they really do have passion for their man. Too bad they chose such an unworthy vessel for their affection.

Update: Let me add here that Ron Paul actually did extraordinarily well in New Hampshire; 8% is far more than anybody with any political experience thought he'd get even a few months ago. The problem was that the Paulbots had done such a terrific job of spamming internet polls that they actually began to believe that he was electable. Here's a good recap of what went wrong with the "freedom movement" (from a sane supporter).

84% Watch

I just about fell out of my chair laughing, while reading this post on 911 Blogger by Jon Gold:

Tonight was the second night for what we're calling 9/11 Truth Tuesdays. Between the two movies shown, "Loose Change Final Cut", and "9/11: Press For Truth", about 10 people showed up. Thank you all for coming out.

"About 10"? How hard was it to get an exact count?

A Statistical Summary of the JONES Papers

Earlier, both Pat and I had discussed how Steven Jones had been bragging about the number of "peer reviewed" papers that had been published at his self-styled journal, and how the true number was only a fraction of what he claimed. We did not address the type and quality of the papers though, so I fired up my copy of Excel and did some low-grade data mining (send me an e-mail if you want to see the data set) and categorized the papers listed on their main page.

There are actually 45 papers listed, they claim 43, but two of them are actually interviews, so I am assuming they are omitting those. That is just a guess though, you could reasonably not count many other papers for similar reasons. Four of the papers are not actually original works, but correspondence, including a response from NIST, who I seriously doubt was interested in being submitted to such a prestigious publication.

In any case, out of those remaining 43, Frank Legge was the most prolific author, with an amazing 7 papers, or 16% of the total. Legge is actually one of the more educated authors, with a PhD in chemistry, although oddly enough, none of his papers are within his speciality, a trend that continues throughout most of the papers. The next two most prolific authors are Steven Jones and Kevin Ryan who appear on 5 and 4 papers (two of them are on the same paper) respectively. Why are these names significant? Well, look at the JONES homepage:

Our mission is to provide evidence-based, peer-reviewed research that furthers the cause of truth and justice. More about our efforts toward this goal can be found at the website for Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice.

Sincerely,
Steven Jones, Kevin Ryan, and Frank Legge co-editors

They are the editors of the "journal". Fourteen of the 43 papers, or nearly a third of the papers accepted by the editors, are written by the editors themselves.

It gets even worse if you look at the qualifications of the authors. Of the 43, only 23 were at least partially authored by someone with a PhD. Note, this still does not imply that the author even has experience in the field they are writing on, as I pointed out, 7 of those 23 are by Frank Legge, and not in the field of chemistry. Once again, it is mostly the editors, of those 23 PhD level papers, 12, or 52% are by our two PhD editors (Kevin Ryan only has a bachelor's degree). Even worse, 3 of these papers are rebuttals to the no plane theories. While they ironically are among the best work published, they are about as scientifically relevant as publishing a paper arguing that the dinosaurs were not made extinct by the eating habits of Fred Flintstone. If we take these papers out of the count, that brings the number up to a ridiculous 60%.

Explain to me once again how this is a "peer reviewed" academic journal? I am now going to e-mail this post to Steven Jones, and see if I can get it accepted as a paper in his journal.

Update: This could go on forever, but I forgot to mention that 1 of those PhD level papers is a rebuttal by Dr. Frank Greening to a previous paper, and 3 of them are by theology or English professors. So in summary, of the original 43 papers, the numbers of papers written by someone with a PhD in a science, who is not one of the editors of the journal themselves, and who is not merely rebutting another previously held conspiracy theory comes out to a grand total of... 4, or a mere 9%.

Why I Didn't Apologize to Sibel Edmonds

Because she's still a fruitcake. I linked to the piece on her in the Sunday (UK) Times, because I was impressed that she managed to get a newspaper of that caliber to run her latest explosive allegations. Brad Friedman was pleased, but bitched about the fact that I didn't pull down some of my less complimentary pieces on Sibel.

Well, typically, she's back doing the hootchie-kootchie again at BradBlog:

From one side of the globe to the other, as expected, the explosive whistleblower allegations concerning highly-placed, well-known U.S. officials in the Departments of State and Defense involved in an illicit, for-profit scheme to develop and protect a network of spies, who then stole and sold American nuclear secrets to the international black markets via Turkey, Israel and Pakistan, is now worldwide news!

That, even though the Times only covered "about 20%" of the story she has to tell, according to Edmonds, with whom we spoke late last night.

Let's see, she accused major state department and defense officials with selling nuclear secrets to Pakistan who sold them to North Korea, and she accused those same people with getting some people who knew about 9-11 beforehand out of the country, and that's about 20% of what she knows?

There's a compound word for that, and the first part is bull. Come on, low-level contract translator for the FBI turns out to be Nancy Drew who knows everything after six months? The stuff that she really had, which got her on 60 Minutes, was petty bureaucratic fief-building. Appalling in the post 9-11 era, but pretty small beer compared to what she's claiming now.

We get the usual moaning about how no US outlet will touch her story:

Here in the United States, the mainstream media coverage included:

That's right. Nobody. None of them. Zilch. Not a one.

You know how it is; that's evidence that it must be true, because we all know the American media is in on every coverup.