Odds & Ends

9-11 Denier and British Member of Parliament Michael Meacher has dropped out of the race to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

A funny bit here:



Blogger reactions to Rosie's latest bit of 9-11 Denial:

IMAO:

It's nice to see that Hasselbeck did some research since the last time this was brought up. I hope she stays true to her threat to get the Popular Mechanics guys on the show for The Big National 9/11 Conspiracy Debate (featuring Rosie O'Donnell). After they figure out whether the U.S. government bombed itself and framed Saudis to get us into an illegal war with Iraq, they can explore whether the Holocaust actually happened or did the Jews kill themselves and framed the Germans to get us into an illegal war with Japan.

Hot Air:

On ABC’s “The View” this morning, host Rosie O’Donnell once again brought up her kooky 9/11 conspiracy theory about WTC #7, this time involving then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. According to Big Ro, Giuliani ordered steel from WTC #7 be moved to China before any testing could be done. Pregnant co-host and conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck couldn’t help but laugh.

Newsbusters has the complete transcript of the exchange.

As I commented earlier, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, despite undeniably excellent intentions, has not studied this enough to try to engage in full-on debunking.

Meanwhile, Dr. W. Gene Corley, who led the investigation into the collapse of the towers, is honored with the National Engineering Award:

Dr. W. Gene Corley, P.E., who led the federal investigation into the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center, received the National Engineering Award from the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) on 7 May. He was one of six honorees during the organization's 28th annual awards ceremony in the Great Hall of the National Academy of Engineering.

Corley, a preeminent expert on building collapse investigations and building codes, is senior vice president of CTL Group. He serves as the company's managing agent for professional and structural engineering and is active in earthquake engineering projects. In 1995, the American Society of Civil Engineers selected him to lead a Building Performance Assessment Team investigating the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In addition to heading up the building performance evaluation of the World Trade Center, Corley also served as a team member evaluating the structural performance of the Pentagon following the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Of course, to the kooks, the fact that the same guy led the investigations of OKC, WTC and the Pentagon is very suspicious. What this award tells us is that his peers think he was chosen because he's the best in the business.

British Denier MP to Stand for Prime Minister

Not that he's got a chance in hell of winning:

The former environment minister Michael Meacher today launched his bid to succeed Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party under a banner promising "peace, social justice, climate survival".

Mr Meacher insisted it was not a "foregone conclusion" that Gordon Brown would be the next leader, and said he was "fully confident" of receiving the 44 MPs' nominations needed to get on to the ballot paper alongside the Chancellor.

Launching his bid at Westminster, he unveiled a policy platform including complete withdrawal from Iraq and no involvement in any military action against Iran, opposition to Trident and nuclear power, a £7-an-hour minimum wage and measures to reduce the difference in pay between the richest and poorest.

Meacher of course has been probably the most prominent 9-11 Denier in UK politics. He has appeared in several 9-11 kook films, including Terrorstorm and (IIRC) 9-11 Mysteries. He was the MP who planned a parliamentary screening of Loose Change, although in that case he apparently came to his senses.

Here he highlights the Pakistani ISI connection, which Do-Over Dylan is going to feature in Loose Change Final Cut:



He repeats the claim that the wire transfer has been confirmed by the FBI, which is nonsense, based on one unsourced article in the Times of India.

Meacher was apparently a rising star in the Labour Party in England in the early 1980s, until he decided to sue a newspaper for supposedly libeling him, when it claimed that his father became a farm labourer by choice after being an accountant.

Meacher lost the trial, became something of a laughingstock, and worse still, had to pay the newspaper's attorneys' cost, all of which pretty well scotched his ambitions for higher office.