Monday, July 23, 2007

The Latest Nuttery

The 9-11 Truthers have made peace with some forces of the antiwar movement, the impeachment movement and the anti-globalization movement to try to get rid of Bush. Now, I know that might sound attractive to some of you, but it's going to happen anyway come January 2009. And aligning yourself with the Truthers is a guaranteed method of marginalizing yourselves, as this statement of sheer fruitcake reveals:

We appeal to leftists, progressives, conservatives, libertarians, independents, and those entering or re-entering politics to transcend the artificial divisions that have diminished their impact. The antiwar, impeachment, anti-globalization, labor, civil rights, veterans, anti-tax, civil liberties, honest election, and 9/11 truth movements—along with civic and progressive religious groups and other issue groups—have been weakened too long by single issues and narrow focus. It is time for these movements to unite as a national coalition on a common platform for independent action. We call for a united front of all organizations and persons of good will based on the following:

1. Impeach, remove, and indict Bush, Cheney and their henchmen.

2. End all wars. All U.S. troops must be brought home at once from Afghanistan and Iraq by any means necessary, including the immediate cutoff of funding.

3. No Bush police-state dictatorship. Repeal the Patriot Act, restore full habeas corpus, respect the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention.

4. Government by the People, not by cliques of bankers and financiers.

5. 9/11 truth. Publish the full 9/11 documentation, and re-open the investigation.


I know that #2 looks attractive to a lot of people, but face the facts. If the Democrats couldn't get it done with the control of the House and the Senate, then what good is running a bunch of crackpot candidates in 2008 (one of their proposals) going to do? And any candidate who adopts #5 as part of his or her platform is going to be marginalized. Heck even the "Truthers" don't demand that Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich come out more explicitly for them.

They've got a radio ad that's probably just going to confuse anybody who hasn't been listening to Alex Jones for the last couple of months:

"Are we on the verge of a third world war? Dick Cheney's neocon war party is running the White House again...."

Gee, that's funny I didn't even notice that they'd left. Of course this refers to the fact that the president is undergoing surgery and will be anesthetized and as a result Cheney will temporarily assume the responsibility of the Presidency for a couple of hours.

"....a Canadian NATO officer says that a new 9-11 is needed to stay the course in Iraq and Afghanistan..."

And only a kook would think that means they're planning one....

"A Massachusetts congressman talks about an attack on Iran, followed by martial law in the United States".

He's John Olver and despite these unique ideas and others (he also believes Bush will suspend the 2008 elections) he does not support impeachment which leads one to question just how sincere those beliefs are. They come second-hand:

He is deeply concerned whether we will actually have an election in Nov. '08, as he believes this administration will likely strike Iran from the air, declare a national emergency, and cancel the '08 elections. He sees ending the war as his primary goal, and he believes the brilliant Nancy Pelosi has a strategy more potent than impeachment. He thinks impeachment is a futile waste of legislative energy, will be harmful of democratic '08 victories, and further tighten the "gridlock" he has complained of for the past few decades.


"Peace activist Cindy Sheehan foresees a staged incident to trigger martial law under Bush's new executive orders."

The orders that the ACLU yawns at?

“These presidential directives on the continuity of government have existed for a long time,” says Mike German, ACLU policy counsel. “All it does is establish that they should have a policy and coordinate that policy with legislative and judiciary. It doesn’t change the order of succession, or anything like that.”

Plus, he praised the Bush Administration for making the document public, since previous ones have remained classified.

“I’m glad they made it public,” he says. “The fact that this was done in an open and transparent manner should be applauded.”


There's more, including the Gulf of Tonkin and "another fake 9-11". Because, we've already had one.