Latest From NYC-CANT

The jokers have their final week of letters to the NYC District Attorney. I do have to love this part:

Over the last three weeks you have been informed about the overwhelming evidence that World Trade Center Building 7 was demolished with explosives. I trust that you understand the serious implications of this crime and that you are resolved to prosecute the guilty parties.

And yes, speaking of set up to fail, they did fail at their new, lowered goal of 500 letters or faxes in Week 3; they came up about 279 short. Instead of increasing their numbers by 130%, they increased them by 1.5%.

Speaking of Set Up to Fail

Gotta love this latest exhortation from Ted Walter on the NYC-CAN push to get the NYC District Attorney to open an investigation into the collapse of WTC-7. Remember, the prior week they got 133 letters or faxes written and sent. This week?

Thank you and congratulations! Together we finished Week 2 with 217 letters sent to the District Attorney's office.

In Week 3 let's make it our minimum goal to reach 500 letters, and in Week 4, 1000 letters! How do we do it?

My question exactly. Okay, a jump from 133 to 217 is about a 63% increase. That's pretty significant. But what would they need to get in Week 3 to reach their "minimum" goal?

Another 130% increase. And in Week 4 they would need a further 100% boost.

Spam Scam

I've sort of ignored the "Building What?" campaign by the NYC-CAN branch of the Troofers. They've been contacting the various NYC council members, demanding an investigation into WTC-7's collapse. They apparently think that being pests is going to get the council on their side.

But Orphia Nay at JREF has been getting their updates via email, and I had to share this one:

"We’ve decided to continue sending email blasts. To make it possible, we kindly ask you to donate to help cover the extra $250 it will cost to send 12 more email blasts, AND, your donation will go toward a new NYC pubic opinion poll. Please donate a manageable amount of $25 - or more if you can manage. The poll will allow us to show the City Council that a majority of New Yorkers support a new investigation, and that a vast majority who've seen footage of Building 7 collapse do not believe office fires were the cause."

Email blasts run $20 apiece these days? Who knew? At any rate, it's clear that this is just another scam on the gullible Troofers.

New WTC-7 Photos Released

Kudos to JREF Forum member Big Al for pointing these out (zip file). This photo shows once again the substantial damage to the southwest corner of the building:

Also note this for the "minor office fires" as Box Boy Gage would claim:


Update: Bob McIlvaine pushes the WTC-7 smoking gun nonsense for NYC-CAN and Box Boy.


Note in particular that McIlvaine's son died in WTC-1, but Bob's pushing an investigation into WTC-7. Note as well the moronic inclusion of the Silverstein "pull it" clip.

I saw Bob's presentation at the Treason in America Conference; apparently the Troofers have convinced him that his son died in the "explosion" that Willie Rodriguez reports came before the plane hit the North Tower. Sad stuff.

Update: See this video of McIlvaine discussing his belief that his son died before the plane hit (starting about 7:10):

Yet Another Glorious Failure for the Troofers

And you won't hear about it anywhere else other than here and at JREF. Remember the thrilling NYC-CAN effort last year, that turned out to be NYC-CANT? Well, they decided to duplicate their failure in New Hampshire, where apparently it only takes a handful of signatures to get a measure voted on, and a voice vote at that will get it on the ballot. How'd they do?

Gloriously.

A petition article on several town warrants instructs the state’s congressional delegation to pursue a “new and independent investigation” into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Here’s how it fared in local towns:

u Chesterfield: Failed

u Harrisville: Failed

u Marlborough: Failed

u Nelson: Passed over

u Richmond: Passed

u Swanzey: Failed

One out of six!

Meanwhile, NYC-CANT is still urging funds for their NYC efforts:

Starting on Monday, March 15, 2010, NYC CAN will ask thousands of concerned citizens in New York and across the country to begin calling and faxing three city council members each day. All 51 council members will be contacted over the course of 17 business days.

Each morning, NYC CAN will send out an action alert with the contact info for three city council members’ offices. In our action alerts we will include a set of suggested talking points to use when you call or fax the council members.

Boris, send them some money! I can assure you it will not be used for Luke's tuition.

Hat Tip to our longtime blog-buddy, Orphia Nay at JREF, who's been covering this story like a blanket.

What, Me Worry?

Terrific photoshop from Mr Herbert of the JREF Forums.

Still Moron NYC-CAN'T

LashL, the Goddess of Legaltainment at the JREF forums reveals that the people behind the effort knew it was doomed to failure well before the final decision by the judge:

I guess this would be a good time to add that NYCCANT did actually consult a real election lawyer (an experienced and well respected one) after they submitted their horrifically doomed-to-fail petition, but the real lawyer told them that their petition could not and would not possibly succeed.

So, NYCCANT carried on with its doomed-to-fail petition and its doomed-to-fail non-practicing lawyer, Dennis Whatsisname, instead of retaining the real lawyer, and instead of telling its membership that the petition could not possibly succeed.

NYCCANT chose to fleece as many naive truthers as possible for a few more dollars before it went down in flames, as it knew would happen.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

NYC-CAN'T

Well, Troofers, your pie-in-the-face ending has arrived. Despite the greatest election lawyer in the history of the universe, despite 80,000 signatures, despite that massive march through New York City:



You can see Judge Lerner's order here (PDF file). Key bit:

While petitioner's counsel argues that the severability provision of paragraph 20 of the Petition allows the court to strike any provisions thereof that are unconstitutional or invalid, the extent of the impropriety of the proposal, as correctly set forth by the referee, would result in a substantial evisceration of the Petition, and even if legally permissable, would be inappropriate as inconsistent with the law sought by the signatories to the Petition.

Not surprisingly, the Troofers did not have a backup plan:

The deadline for inclusion on the ballot falls just before the election, making it possible to appeal Judge Lehner’s decision. NYC CAN is weighing all options and will make an announcement early next week on this issue, as well as on how it will be moving forward on other fronts. Regardless of the outcome in court, the quest for answers continues full throttle. This fight is only the beginning.

Translation: Send more money!

Hat Tip to LashL, the Goddess of Legaltainment at the JREF forum.

Update: Jon Gold threatens to throw it all away:

I may be participating in this. It all depends on whether or not I decide to give up my job, my apt, etc... If you don't care about those things, then I recommend you participate.

Under "this" he links to Cindy Sheehan's blog, where she calls for volunteers:

We are calling for 5000 people to commit to come to this Nation’s Capitol to participate in daily civil resistance to stop “business as usual,” because “business as usual” in this town is so corrupt and disordered.

We are not calling for this commitment for a day, a week, or a month. We are not even interested in making symbolic gestures. We are calling for this commitment until our demands of: All troops and para-military mercenaries, are ordered out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the drone bombings in the tribal regions of Af-Pak are discontinued and we get about the business of healing, reconciliation and REPARATIONS.

However, Jon will have to find another way to waste his time, because Cindy's project is not exactly imminent:

Hopefully we can begin Peace of the Action by the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 19th.

NYC-CAN'T Get Any Marchers

Here's a video of the march by JREF Forum Member Big Al:

80,000 people signed their petition, and about 80 of them showed up.

The Fat Lady Is Moving Towards the Front of the Stage

And it appears that the comic opera known as NYC-CAN'T is headed for the final curtain.

Today the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) filed its Memorandum of Law with the New York State Supreme Court, beginning a 6-day count down until the historic March For Answers to be held on September 27 at 2pm. The march will start at Battery Park and work its way towards Ground Zero, the New York City Clerk, and the State Supreme Court, before arriving at City Hall.

The legal memo is here (PDF file), and while for the most part it is "legal" (i.e., more boring than high school geography), there is some entertaining "Truth" to it as well:

1. "Set up to fail."
2. "Pull it." (No, I'm not kidding, see page 11).
3. Stand-down order.
4. Sibel Edmonds.

Mingled in with the legal citations are footnotes referencing YouTube videos and the Journal of Nine-Eleven Studies. I'll leave it to the lawyers to figure out whether the Troofers get the pie in the face on the 30th; but the fact that the Troofers are talking about the countdown to the "historic" day they march rather than the day the decision will be announced is probably a pretty good clue.

And typical Troofer dolts, note that they are marching on the NYC Clerk's office, the State Supreme Court, and City Hall. On September 27, which happens to be a Sunday. Yes, I assume that's the only day they can muster some support, but it's like the old joke:

A Response to Diane

One of the more thoughtful 9-11 Truth activists writes:

Screw Loose Change has been pouring scorn (here
and here) on NYC-CAN’s ballot initiative. The SLC folks assume that the NYC government’s legal challenges are valid and irrefutable, and that we stupid “troofers” just didn’t even bother to look at the election law, or hire a lawyer.

That's a reasonably fair summation of the way I look at things. Oh, I'm sure they bothered to look at election law and may have hired a lawyer. Although, again, the question is how thorough they were given the specific objections raised, like the fact that the Commissioners could not, by NY State Law, be out-of-state residents. That strikes me as pretty basic.

She responds:

First off, last I heard, the ballot initiative does indeed deal with the funding question, about which I heard lots of discussion back in 2007/2008. The funding is to be accomplished by raising money from private sources. And, from what I remember hearing last year, Pepper has claimed that he already has a bunch of rich donors lined up. So the funding may be a non-issue.

If the funding is to come from private sources, this also implies that the commissioners aren’t, properly speaking, government officials. Hence Pepper might be able to argue that some aspects of New York State election law, such as the residency requirement, are not applicable. (I have no inside info on whether Pepper actually intends to make such an argument, nor do I have any idea how well it might hold up in court. I’m just guessing here.)

Funding via pixie dust is not a viable option, and I doubt very much that the rich donors exist. After all, if they had sugar daddies, why were they constantly begging for money to hire petition-gatherers and a lawyer to represent them? The amount of money required for those things is peanuts compared to the proposed $50 million price-tag for the commission.

And the bit about how the private funding means that the commissioners aren't government officials is so much hand waving. Remember this commission is supposed to have subpoena power and the ability to place witnesses under oath, which implies that lying to the commission would be perjury. How can you have those powers without being part of the government?

The latest update on the status of the ballot initiative was posted by Orphia Nay at JREF:

The court-appointed referee will begin a line-by-line review of the disputed signatures on Wednesday, September 9, and is scheduled to complete the review by Friday, September 18. If the referee and court accept at least 3,996 of the disputed signatures as valid – meeting the requisite number of 30,000 signatures – and if 15,000 of the 28,000 signatures from the September 4 submission are deemed valid, the only remaining hurdle to getting the referendum on the ballot will be the ongoing court case over the legality of the petition.

Update: According to NYC-CAN, the 30,000 signature requirement hurdle has been cleared:

In a last minute decision, lawyers for the City of New York have conceded that the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN), a group comprising 9/11 family members, first responders and survivors, indeed did submit over 30,000 valid signatures to put the referendum for a new 9/11 investigation before the voters of New York City this November.

But:

NYC CAN must deliver its memorandum of law in response to the City’s motion for summary judgment by Monday, September 21. The City will be given an opportunity to reply before the referee’s decision is made on Monday September 28. Fast-track appeals will likely follow no matter who wins. A final decision will have to be made by September 30.

So, What's the Latest With NYC-CAN?

I'm hearing crickets from all the usual suspects which certainly indicates that the news is going to be hilarious when it finally hits.

I Question the Timing

Just as the sheeple were waking up to the Alex Jones Deception, this happens:

Troy Palmer Sexton, 36, of Summit Ridge Road, Hurricane, is facing domestic battery charges after carrying his 6-year-old son across a field by one ankle and allowing the child's helmeted head to hit the ground "more than once," according to a criminal complaint filed in Putnam Magistrate Court.

Okay, so I don't really question the timing; that would be doing like the idiot troofers do. I am very disappointed in Troy; given the incident at Riverfront Stadium (Correction: Great American Ballpark), and some of the phone calls he's made, he's clearly got anger management issues. I'm not going to judge him guilty or innocent; let's let the legal system handle it.

In other news, NYC-CAN claims to have found about 7,000 additional signatures; since they only needed about 4,000 more, I'm a little confused about why they asked for an extension of time. Oh, yeah, maybe this has something to do with it:

"First, the federal government has jurisdiction over an investigation into the attacks that took place on September 11 as well as the causes of those attacks. Establishing a local commission to conduct an investigation far exceeds the proper scope and purpose of the petition process of the MHRL (Municipal Home Rule Law). Second, the petition fails to provide an adequate financing plan for the Commission as required by section 37 of the MHRL. Third, the petition's method of designating Commissioners conflicts with state laws relating to the election or appointment of public officers and the residency of public officers, Fourth, the petition overreaches in its attempt to confer a range of law enforcement and prosecutorial powers on the Commission."

Truth Movement Held Hostage: Day 3

As predicted here last week, NYC-CAN has not updated their website this weekend, despite a Friday deadline to file a rather extensive amount of paperwork relative to the proposed Troofer ballot initiative. In fact, despite the supposed urgent need for this issue to be on the ballot to answer the families' questions, there has been no update on 9-11 Flogger, Truth Action, Truth Move, or 9-11 Truth dot nutbar.

Crickets. So here's a question that I'm sure the families would like answered:

Why is NYC-CAN stonewalling on the current status of the ballot proposition?

And I can answer my own question. Like everything the Troofers have done, it was half-assed and fell into its own footprint at faster than freefall speed. They don't want to admit it, because it turned out to be a typical colossal failure.

NYCCAN: Time Running Out?

They have until tomorrow to file an amended petition:



I'm going to make a bet here and now that there will be no update on NYCCAN's website over the weekend.

Kooks Continue to Pin Hopes on Signatures

Apparently forgetting that the ballot initiative is fatally flawed for several other reasons.

Today we began the signature review, and with much promise! The first step: to do a recount of the signatures the Board of Elections did validate. And, after counting only 5 out of 52 volumes, we have found the Board of Elections reported 229 signatures fewer than what they actually validated inside the volumes. If their count continues to be off at the same rate, we will gain some 2,300 signatures - SIMPLY BY RECOUNTING THE ONES THAT WERE ALREADY VALIDATED. And we have already identified one petitioner who collected hundreds of signatures and was wrongly invalidated, along with all the signatures he gathered! And there are thousands of invalidated signatures ripe for challenging because the signer is on the voter roll but put their wrong address - these signatures will also be deemed valid if the signature on the petition matches the signature on their voter registration form.

Obvious question here; how dumb do you have to be to sign your name but put down the wrong address? Troofer dumb, I suppose.

Now That It's Dead...

NYC-CAN gets some publicity in the NY-NJ media. The Newark Star-Ledger runs a soft-focus piece on the ballot initiative and some of the supporters, including Lorie Van Auken.

Efforts like those of NYC-CAN face the danger of becoming overwhelmed by the more radical elements of the so-called "truther" movement, some of whose members already have reached their own conclusions about 9/11 -- including a contention that the destruction of the Twin Towers was not caused by the airplane crashes but rather internal demolition.

Except Van Auken herself has expressed some kookery herself:

“There are just so many unanswered questions,” says Van Auken. “I would say you need roughly 400 hours of research to graduate from 9/11 kindergarten class. That’s why it’s so hard to keep people on the same page, because they’re coming at this issue from a million different angles. A friend might tell them about building 7, or they might watch Loose Change on the internet, or they’ll say, ‘Hold it a second, you can’t make cell phone calls from an airplane.’ And then suddenly a little alarm bell goes off in their brain, and they say, ‘Wow, we don’t know the whole story about this.’ That’s all it takes, the little alarm bell, and then, bam, welcome to the place we’ve been living in for the last six years.”

No discussion of Edgar (UFO) Mitchell. Little discussion of the problems with the ballot initiative, including the fact that Van Auken cannot serve as she is not a New York State resident.

But the real enjoyment is in the comments, where all the fruitcakes come out to party. I particularly enjoyed this one:

Look no further than Larry Silverstein.He had the motive,the means,and the opporunity.He had a photo op that previous Friday with Di Francesco and Pataki to cover his tracks.

Afterwards,instead of showing compassion for the victims,he had the temerity to ask for double indemnity by claiming that it was two separate attacks.It certainly was:,the Muslims he trained and hired,and the dynamite he planted.

Hat Tip: Anonymous in the comments.

Amazingly Moron NYC-CAN

Well, now the goofs are going to comb through all 24,664 rejected signatures, in the hopes that that they will be able to come up with 3,997 that were mistakenly rejected. In other words, they are praying that one in six of the rejected ballots turns out to be a legitimate voter.

NYC CAN is asking for volunteers over the next two weeks to help review the signatures invalidated by the City Clerk and Board of Elections. If you will be available at least three whole business days between August 10 and August 21 and you live in or near New York City, please email your name, schedule of availability and phone number to volunteer@nyccan.org, and please put VOLUNTEER in the subject field. NYC CAN will provide lunch!

Yet another example of how the Troofers can't do anything right. Look, this is really simple. Take the first 200 rejected ballots, and find out how many should not have been rejected. If you don't find at least 20 (or one in 10), then you might as well not bother. Remember, there are multiple reasons why a signature might be rejected:

* AI Address illegible or so abbreviated it cannot be identified.
* ALT Alteration (date/signature)
* DI Date incomplete
* DUP v._p._l_ Duplicate of same signature located in the petition at volume identification # ___, page__, line__
* DSP Date of witness statement is prior to date of signature
* F Forgery
* ILLS Illegible signature
* ILLD Illegible date
* NA No address stated
* ND No date stated
* NFN No first name\name is so abbreviated it cannot be identified
* NPN No page number –petition page not sequentially numbered
* NR Not registered as stated in BOE records
* OD Out of the district of the contest
* P Pencil or not in ink
* PR Signature is printed or not handwritten
* SH Similar handwriting
* TE Date of signature is prior to first day for circulating petitions
* TL Date of signature is subsequent to last day for
* circulating petitions or subsequent to date of witness signature
* SAP v._ p._ l_ Signed another petition for the same office on same or prior date designating another as candidate, at petition volume identification #______ page ___, line___.
* SW Signature is that of the subscribing witness to the page
* SWALT Subscribing Witness information altered (not initialed)
* SWNQ Subscribing witness not qualified
* SWNR Subscribing witness not registered, as stated
* SWDI Date incomplete in subscribing witness statement
* SWA No address or wrong address stated in subscribing witness statement
* SWND No date stated in subscribing witness statement 11
* SWNN Name of subscribing witness omitted from body of subscribing witness statement
* SWNS Signature of subscribing witness omitted
* SWNSO Number of signatures omitted from subscribing witness statement
* SWWNS Wrong number of signatures stated in subscribing witness statement
* SWTE Date of signature is prior to first day for circulating petitions
* SWTL Date of signature is subsequent to last day for circulating petitions
* WA Wrong address stated on petition

Note particularly that one about duplicate signatures; that means they're going to have to compile a database of all accepted signatures before they can even green-light one of the signatures as wrongfully rejected. I will also be interested to hear what the applicable date is on SWTE; remember the idiots claimed that 2008 signatures would be accepted.

Hat Tip: Big Al for Gold's post at OpEd News, Orphia Nay for the list of reasons for rejection, both at JREF.

Update: One very oddball thing about NYC-CAN that was pointed out in the comments section: If you do a Google search for NYC-CAN or NYC CAN, it shows up eventually, but nowhere near the top. Either the Troofers haven't done a good enough job of linking to the site, or NYC-CAN hasn't done the simple things that would move them up the search rankings. Are they self-sabotaging?

Still Moron NYC-CAN

David Ray Grifter offers his endorsement and shakes the cup for NYC-CAN. I almost doubled up with laughter at this bit:

Having anticipated that this would happen---that no matter how many signatures it submitted, the city clerk would declare a sufficient number of them invalid to prevent the 30,000 number from being reached---NYC CAN was prepared to go to court, if necessary.

NYC CAN will go to court this Monday, August 3, for its first hearing. But its formal plaintiffs---four 9/11 family members and one survivor---are proceeding without the aid of an experienced election lawyer.

Heh, they were prepared to go to court if necessary. "Okay, are we all set? Clown car, check! Two-dollar suit from Salvation Army, check. Signs saying '9-11 Was An Inside Job', check. Lawyer? Oh, crap, who forgot to hire the lawyer?"

Quick Hits

Good to see that Victoria Ashley and Jim Hoffman have noticed the problem with Gregory Louis Hoover. They even give us credit for finding it, although that really belongs with JREF forum member Sleahead, who was the first to find out about the story.

Update: I see Alex still has his interview up with Hoover, on his channel at YouTube. It's got 4,000+ views and 189 ratings, the average of which is 5 stars. C'mon Alex, take down the video for this segment; why would you give airtime to a conman? Oh, snap!

Luke's trial for trespassing at the Bloomberg event has been postponed until October.

NYC-CAN's fatal flaws will surely prevent it from ever reaching the ballot stage. Consider this language in the petition:

Commissioners may come from any part of the world and shall not be required to maintain a residence in New York State.

And then the applicable part of NY State Law:

No person shall be capable of holding a civil office who shall not, at the time he shall be chosen thereto, have attained the age of eighteen years, except that in the case of youth boards, youth commissions or recreation commissions only, members of such boards or commissions may be under the age of eighteen years, but must have attained the age of sixteen years on or before appointment to such youth board, youth commission or recreation commission, be a citizen of the United States, a resident of the state, and if it be a local office, a resident of the political subdivision or municipal corporation of the state for which he shall be chosen, or within which the electors electing him reside, or within which his official functions are required to be exercised, or who shall have been or shall be convicted of a violation of the selective draft act of the United States, enacted May eighteenth, nineteen hundred seventeen, or the acts amendatory or supplemental thereto, or of the federal selective training and service act of nineteen hundred forty or the acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto.

Bolding added for emphasis. Lincoln Chafee is a resident of Rhode Island, Laurie Van Auken of New Jersey, Bishop Gumbleton (IIRC) is from Detroit. As far as I know, Ralph Schoenman is the only actual NY resident. So you have several commissioners specified who cannot even serve.