Liberals, police your truthers

[DarrinS]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091003408.html

So Van Jones, the defenestrated White House green-jobs czar, once called Republicans "assholes." Big deal. I've said worse about Democrats. I've said worse about Republicans. I've said worse about members of my family (you know who you are).

How prissy have we become? Are we allowed no salt in our linguistic diets?

Having once written a column praising Vice President Cheney's pithy deployment of the F-word -- on the floor of the Senate, no less -- I rise in defense of Jones. True, Jones's particular choice of epithet had none of the one-syllable concision, the onomatopoeic suggestiveness, the explosive charm of Cheney's. But you don't fire a guy for style.

Another charge was that Jones was a self-proclaimed communist. I can't get too excited about this either. In today's America, to be a communist is a pose, not a conviction. After the Soviet collapse, Marxism is a relic, a pathetic anachronism reduced to its last redoubts: North Korea, Cuba and the English departments of the more expensive American universities.

In any case, every administration is allowed a couple of wing nuts among its 8,000 appointees. As long as they're not in charge of foreign policy or the Fed, who cares?

Other critics are scandalized that Jones once accused "white environmentalists" of "essentially steering poison into the people of colored communities."

In fact, from a global perspective, Jones is right. Environmentalists -- overwhelmingly white and middle/upper class -- have blocked drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. From where do you think the world gets the missing oil? From the poor, exploited, poisoned people of the Niger Delta, the Amazon Basin and other infinitely less-regulated and infinitely dirtier regions of the Third World.

Affluent enviros are all for wind farms, until one is proposed that might mar the serenity of a sail from the crew-necked precincts near Nantucket Sound. Then it's clean energy for thee, not for me.

Jones's genius as an ideological entrepreneur was to mine white liberal anxiety -- they are quite aware of their own NIMBY hypocrisy -- by selling them the "green jobs" shtick to reconcile class/racial guilt with environmental enthusiasm, thus making them feel better about themselves.

That's why Jones rose so far. That's why he was such a "progressive" star. That's why, as top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett put it, "we've been watching him" and were so eager to recruit him to the White House.

In the White House no more. Why? He's gone for one reason and one reason only. You can't sign a pe ion demanding not one but four investigations of the charge that the Bush administration deliberately allowed Sept. 11, 2001 -- i.e., collaborated in the worst massacre ever perpetrated on American soil -- and be permitted in polite society, let alone have a high-level job in the White House.

Unlike the other stuff (see above), this is no trivial matter. It's beyond radicalism, beyond partisanship. It takes us into the realm of political psychosis, a malignant paranoia that, unlike the Marxist posturing, is not amusing. It's dangerous. In America, movements and parties are required to police their extremes. Bill Buckley did that with Birchers. Liberals need to do that with "truthers."

You can no more have a truther in the White House than you can have a Holocaust denier -- a person who creates a hallucinatory alternative reality in the service of a fathomless malice.

But reality doesn't daunt Jones's defenders. One Obama administration source told ABC that Jones hadn't read the 2004 pe ion carefully enough, an excuse echoed by Howard Dean.

Carefully enough? It demanded the investigation of charges "that people within the current [Bush] administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war."

Where is the confusing fine print? Where is the syntactical complexity? Where is the perplexing ambiguity? An eighth-grader could tell you exactly what it means. A Yale Law School graduate could not?

No need to worry about Jones, however. Great career move. He's gone from marginal loon to liberal martyr. His speaking fees have just doubled. It's only a matter of time before he gets his own show on MSNBC.

But on the eighth anniversary of 9/11 -- a day when there were no truthers among us, just Americans struck dumb by the savagery of what had been perpetrated on their innocent fellow citizens -- a decent respect for the memory of that day requires that truthers, who derangedly desecrate it, be asked politely to leave. By everyone.

[clambake]

mr. birther wants to police truthers. lol

[jack sommerset]

mr. birther wants to police truthers. lol

Mr Truther wants to make fun of Mr Birther. lol

[DarrinS]

For the record, I'm not a birther. Assbake just doesn't have anything to add.

[ChumpDumper]

Conservatives, police your birthers.

[DarrinS]

birthers == truthers

Nice.

[ChumpDumper]

Nice.

He likened them to the Birchers, so why not the birthers?

[doobs]

Truthers are worse than birthers. Truthers are paranoid and think up sick fantasies that demean the memory of 3000 innocent civilians. Birthers are more akin to those who think Bush stole the 2000 election because his brother was governor of Florida.

But, definitely, birthers are re ed.

[Gino]

Dont forget the people who think the Bush administration blew up the levees in New Orleans.

The Huffington Post just ran a huge piece on what a great guy Van Jones is and how stupid the right is etc.

But the dude screwed up. BIG TIME. He should have known better.

[ChumpDumper]

Truthers are worse than birthers. Truthers are paranoid and think up sick fantasies that demean the memory of 3000 innocent civilians. Birthers are more akin to those who think Bush stole the 2000 election because his brother was governor of Florida.

But, definitely, birthers are re ed.

Eh, there are legitimate concerns about just how the government could have so badly blown 9/11, and there are certain pieces of cir stantial evidence that make a "let it happen on purpose" scenario seem plausible without really looking into it. There are actually good reasons for some further investigations on some aspects of 9/11, but signing such a loaded set of statements just isn't smart.

[clambake]

But, definitely, birthers are re ed.

i think i've been much kinder to you, don't you think, darrin?

[DarrinS]

i think i've been much kinder to you, don't you think, darrin?

I agree with doobs that birthers are re ed. doobs probably agrees with me that you are a ing .

[boutons_deux]

"collaborated in the worst massacre ever perpetrated on American soil"

typical right wing slime. LOTS of people, myself included, saw how head exploited 9/11 for Repug/wealthy partisan objectives, including using 9/11, falsely tied to Saddam, as a pretext to invade Iraq for oil.

The Repugs' absolute refusal to clarify WTF they were doing about terrorism between 1/20 and 9/11 is lot of smoke saying they have lots to hide, including intentional passivity for the impending/well-chattered attack. "Bring 'em on" and then we'll invade Iraq for oil, which was their platform going back to the late '90s.

I don't think head knew specifically about 9/11 but they clearly, CLEARLY, didn't defend the USA with all the defenses available.


The birthers have all the evidence, clarification, they need to STFU.

otoh, the Repugs have totally sealed their activities from 1/20 to 9/11.

[Gino]

Truthers are worse than birthers. Truthers are paranoid and think up sick fantasies that demean the memory of 3000 innocent civilians. Birthers are more akin to those who think Bush stole the 2000 election because his brother was governor of Florida.
But, definitely, birthers are re ed.

I guess that includes Hillary Clinton, huh?

[clambake]

I agree with doobs that birthers are re ed. doobs probably agrees with me that you are a ing .

he didn't say anything about s. you're upset, so you're projecting.

[doobs]

he didn't say anything about s. you're upset, so you're projecting.

No, I agree with him. You're a bit of a .

[DarrinS]

"collaborated in the worst massacre ever perpetrated on American soil"

typical right wing slime. LOTS of people, myself included, saw how head exploited 9/11 for Repug/wealthy partisan objectives, including using 9/11, falsely tied to Saddam, as a pretext to invade Iraq for oil.

The Repugs' absolute refusal to clarify WTF they were doing about terrorism between 1/20 and 9/11 is lot of smoke saying they have lots to hide, including intentional passivity for the impending/well-chattered attack. "Bring 'em on" and then we'll invade Iraq for oil, which was their platform going back to the late '90s.

I don't think head knew specifically about 9/11 but they clearly, CLEARLY, didn't defend the USA with all the defenses available.
The birthers have all they evidence, clarification they need to STFU.

otoh, the Repugs have totally sealed their activities from 1/20 to 9/11.

Did you forget to take your Zoloft?

[clambake]

No, I agree with him. You're a bit of a .

good for you. friendship is a beautiful thing.

[jack sommerset]

Eh, there are legitimate concerns about just how the government could have so badly blown 9/11, and there are certain pieces of cir stantial evidence that make a "let it happen on purpose" scenario seem plausible without really looking into it. There are actually good reasons for some further investigations on some aspects of 9/11, but signing such a loaded set of statements just isn't smart.

truther

[ChumpDumper]

truther

Dumbass.

[mookie2001]

Eh, there are zero legitimate concerns about just how the government could have so "badly blown" 9/11, every piece of cir stantial evidence makes a "let it happen on purpose" scenario look totally stupid, these tinfoil hatters dont even really look into it. There are no reasons for any further investigations on any aspects of 9/11

[ChumpDumper]

Girder.

[iggypop123]

there is a difference from letting it happen on purpose and being stupid and having it happen. i believe the latter

[Nbadan]

Yep, there are three distinct types of 'truthers'....those who think the Bush administration negligently let it happened, those who think the Bush administration helped it happen, and those who think the Bush administration made it happen...


....there's only one type of Birther and tea-bagger...

[boutons_deux]

"every piece of cir stantial evidence makes a "let it happen on purpose" scenario look totally.."

... credible.