Both Sides Now

Our buddy the Bird reports further on his weekend with the Deniers:

Santa Claus-bearded geezer Jim Marrs, who could pass for a cross between Wilford Brimley and Windfall Willie (the mascot of the AZ lottery), came to Williams' defense.

"Can I lay this to rest right now?" tweeted Marrs. "Eric Williams is right here. Did people get killed in World War II as a result of state policy?" he inquired of the Holocaust denier.

Williams replied in the affirmative. To the heavily mustachioed Marrs, that ended the matter.

But as the taloned one continued his queries, the crowd grew restless with demands that this bluebird be booted. That'd be The Bird they wanted tossed, not the adored Sir Eric, who wrote a vile volume asserting there were no mass executions via gas chambers at Auschwitz. How ironic, since The Bird was the only member of the working media present.

Eventually, the pep rally turned ugly for this feathered fiend, to the extent that a security guard forced The Bird to leave the hall. Therefore, for a few minutes, there was no press at the press conference. How, um, de-press-ing! Sanity prevailed in the form of Philadelphia lawyer Phil Berg, the moderator for the event. Berg came outside and instructed that this journalistic jaybird be let back in. He then told the crowd that members of the working media (that would be moi) must be given deference, since (ahem!) it was a press conference, after all. The Bird was allowed to interrogate the panelists unmolested after that.

As you can see, Stephen really has a way with words; his column is definitely one to savor. Let me add too that Berg was quite sensible in allowing him to ask a little more than his share of questions, seeing as how he was the only real MSM representative at the confab. And he even kindly deferred to me on one question, which allowed me to have my little fracas with Uncle Fetzer (not that the Bird didn't have his own tussle with the McKnight prof, as you'll see if you read the entire article).

Devvy Kidd was also at the conference, but her quarrels were more along political lines:

On Saturday morning I attended a networking/political action workshop. After fifteen minutes I wanted to simply gag. Although I'm sure it will be denied, there was a whole lot of socialism being pushed at that conference. The instructor was a very nice lady, but her presentation, using an overhead projector, was all about social action, collectivism, working together for human rights around the world, workers rights; an endless laundry list. I'm sorry, but I have spent the past 17 years studying world history (not the bunk one gets in the public indoctrination centers called public schools or from the boob tube), but actual events. This includes understanding socialism, communism, fascism and delivery systems for these ideologies, i.e., specific dialect. I saw no reason for this type of activism to be a focus of networking to bring facts about 911 to other Americans. As Phil Berg pointed out in his flyer available to attendees: "Accountability = responsibility and that we must unite and move forward on points that we agree with and put aside our differences." That's why I was turned off with the inserting of social causes from "progressives" into this conference. It was distracting and will push people away who understand the game and how it's played.

She has somewhat of a different take on Stephen's performance at the Pep Rally--err, press conference:

Instead of reporters and media attendees asking a question and the panel returning with a response, virtually without exception, questions from the media "gallery" was endless proselytizing for their favorite cause or complaining that organizations like MoveOn.org and Cindy Sheehan have refused to join with them in the effort to get accountability regarding the events of September 11, 2001. It was quite nauseating and some of the panel members fell for it instead of simply providing crisp, concise and clear answers to questions that only arrived after endless speeches. One local reporter in attendance disrupted the press conference for a full 30 minutes by repeatedly insisting one of the organizers was "anti-Semitic." Apparently, local media were comparing those attending this conference to holocaust deniers.

This is a dodge that I've seen over at 9-11 Blogger too. For the last time, we are not accusing all 9-11 Truthers of being Holocaust Deniers. That would be almost as stupid as some of the things you guys come up with. What we are saying is that if you hang out with Holocaust Deniers, we're going to point out your obvious lack of critical thinking skills. We're going to use that against you every single time, because it's a whole lot easier than arguing whether the hijackers are alive, and it moves large quantities of folks off the fence to our side very quickly.

One thing they both agree on is Phil Berg:

I also had the pleasure of meeting Phil Berg; see here for his latest. Media hacks who get paid to promote the government's fairy tale will call people like Mr. Berg a crack pot or lunatic. Funny, I didn't get that impression from this former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania.

I'm not a big fan of Berg myself, but he handled himself extremely well at the press conference. Speaking of which, Devvy reminds me of something particularly loony that one of the supposed "press" members suggested:

During the press conference one media rep gave his speech and then said that "they" (never did find out who "they" are) intend to shut down every major freeway in this country early next year.

You want to see Troofers getting their heads handed to them, just try this freeway shutdown.