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Stopped clocks, 9/11 Truthers, and other attempts at self-marginalization


I really hate it when this happens.

When I end up agreeing with Eric Dondero, I mean.

Dondero is a self-styled Libertarian Republican who concept of Libertarianism is about as far from mine as you can get.

(Take, for example, his recent article on Dubya as a Libertarian President, or his insistence "that if we flee Iraq and al Qaeda takes over in the MidEast the price of oil will be $250 a barrel and our economy and civil society will be destroyed"--which is actually a quote from Dondero's talk-show partner, but reflects his views accurately.)

To put Dondero in context for Delaware non-Libertarian readers, he is to the LP as is Mike Protack to the DE GOP.

But this time he's right.

Third Party Watch just published a post on the Libertarians for Justice (a 9/11 Truther organization) gaining enough credibility within the party to land several presidential candidates as signatories on their petition for a new September 11 inquiry.

At this point, Mary Ruwart, Steve Kubby, Daniel Imperato, Mike Jingozian, and Mike Gravel have all signed the petition, either out of misguided Rosie-style conspiratorial belief or just sheer Hillary-style pandering for delegate votes.

Refusing to put their name on the paper are Bob Barr, Wayne Allyn Root, and George Phillies.

Here's what Libertarian Republican writer Andrew Murphy (supported in a postscript by Dondero himself) has to say about the significance of this issue:

With one of it's presidential candidates now running at 7% nationally in the polls(Bob Barr), one would think that the LP would be more focused on turning that 7% margin into 14% or 21% by November but instead they are insuring that once again the LP will be stuck with less then 1% of the national vote. Even if Bob Barr is smart enough to stay away from such revisionism, if he does get the LP nomination, this pledge will hound him for the entire presidential campaign.

Don't kid yourself. This is not some minor side show that is going on with these Libertarians for Justice. This year already Dylan Avery, director of Loose Change, was the keynote luncheon speaker at the 2008 Libertarian State Chairs Conference. Loose Change, is the You Tube hit from 2005, a documentary claiming that 9/11 was an inside job. A documentary so full of mistakes and distortions that even members the 9/11 truth Movement like Michael Green have separated themselves from some of the theories in the documentary.


http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/green/loose_change.htm

Make no mistake, allowing the 9/11 Truth movement to take over the LP is not going to be good. It is not only bad history but it is bad politics. Like the albatross in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, this will hang around the LP candidates neck and may even ultimately hang the entire libertarian movement with them.


While I certainly can't agree with Dondero's assignation of the term "hate group" to the Libertarians for Justice, I must reluctantly agree that here is another great way to marginalize yourself as a party.

Besides, assuming that you believe that the people who brought you the Iraq War were competent enough to pull off 9/11 as an inside job blamed on the guiltless Al Qaeda, then there's pretty much no point in voting anyway, is there?

As a postscript, I give full credit to Dr George Phillies for refusing to sign this statement, and feel validated in my support of his candidacy. Go George!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Gravel's position on this is nothing new though, he's been in favor for it already half a year. But he handles it absolutely sovereignly. Not as if he actually believed it, simply on the basis that the concerns of a significant group of people deserve attention.

And if in actuality 30% of Americans have doubts about it... well, what better way to establish common ground again than to have an investigation.
Tim
Van you cite a source that substantiates the claim that 30% of the American people have doubts about it?
Eric Dondero said…
Delaware Libertarian Party:

Thanks so much for linking to our article and to Libertarian Republican blog. We may disagree often, but when we do agree, I appreciate working with you fine folks.

That said, don't know if you are aware of this, but I actually grew up in Delaware. That's right, off Kirkwood Highway in Newark, up Possum Park Rd. Spent the formative years of my life there. Graduated from Newark High School. I returned briefly after the Navy, and actually ran on the Libertarian Party ticket for State House one year. I got 3%. My opponent got 97%. Oh well.

Also, there's a radio talk show host down in Rehobeth whose a hardcore libertarian. He has me on his show every 6 months or so to discuss "Blue Collar Libertarians." You all ought to get up with him.

Anyway, may I have permission to reprint your article?

Thanks

Eric Dondero
Houston, Texas
Eric Dondero said…
Another point: You say you "can't agree" with my assertion of Libertarians for Justice as a "Hate Group." Why the hell not?

It is a well-known fact the vast majority of their members are Anti-Semites. Take Ohio Libertarian Party member David Macko for instance, well known to Yahoo Libertarian Group participants. Macko is a diehard Ron Paul guy. He's a Holocaust revisionist. He believes that the actual number of Jews who died in the Holocaust is less than 1 million, and most of those died of starvation and disease, "not in gas chambers."

He's one of those defenders of that nutty Nazi guy in Austria who wrote all those books on Holocaust revisionism. And Macko is a local Libertarian Party Chairman, and a big supporter of the 9/11 Trutherism garbage.

I know a Jewish guy who heads up the Pittsburgh chapter of the John Birch Society. He told me that Macko showed up one time driving in from Ohio, and handed out Nazi literature at the JBS meeting. They had to kick him out. This is the JBS we're talking of. Macko, was even too extreme and nutball for them.

And Macko is but one example. Take a look at the rampant Anti-Semitism from "Andy" over at ThirdPartyWatch.com or his other friends, who are all stidently Anti-War in Iraq.

It all comes down to hatred for Israel.

I know how these people think. I worked as a Senior Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul for 12 years, and Ron used to drag me to all sorts of meetings where many of these kooks would be. Ron himself, while not outright Anti-Semitic, is quite dismissive of the views of Jewish Americans.

Calling the 9/11 Truthers a Hate Group is entirely justified. And I would urge you to look into the matter further, and to change your view.
Eric Dondero said…
I hope you don't mind me doing this, but here's a copy of a post on my LR Blog in relation to the story:

Andrew Ian Dodge has left a new comment on your post "9/11 Truthers push Libertarian Presidential candid...":

Great post and perfectly spot on. The truthers are going to turn back all the gains the LP has made. Many of the conspirazoids have used 9/11 as a cover for their jew-hatred. Reading between the lines makes this pretty clear.


As you can see, backs up completely my assertion in the above post about the "Truthers" I prefer to call them 9/11 Deniars, are a front group for Jew Haters.

So, to call them a Hate Group is entirely appropriate.
Eric
For the record: Delaware Libertarian is not the official website of the LPD, any more than Libertarian Republican is the official website of the GOP.
Anonymous said…
http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll
Anonymous said…
Steve Newton writes : "the people who brought you the Iraq War were competent enough to pull off 9/11 as an inside job blamed on the guiltless Al Qaeda"

You don't have to believe Al qaeda is guiltless to question what really happened on 9/11.

The idea that the messy Iraq war didn't turn out exactly the way the military industrial establishment, big oil, and all other kinds of war profiteers wanted is pretty damn naive.

The problem with the anti 9/11 truth people is that most are just as black and white - all or nothing - as the hardcore 'truthers'.

The truth is that there are plenty of people who have made trillions from what 9/11 was used to justify.

To think this was just their good fortune without questioning who really benefited from 9/11 is a way more dangerous set of blinders than the ravings of some of the more far flung people raising questions about it.

World changing events like 9/11 should never be taken at face value.

We should welcome and face all the hard questions until they are answered truthfully and factually by our government.

This has not yet happened with 9/11.

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