The American Spectator : The Religious Left Goes Truthing

Text Size

Among the Intellectualoids

The Religious Left Goes Truthing

By Mark Tooley on 2.18.11 @ 6:07AM

Why is Jim Wallis's Sojourners giving voice to 9/11 conspiracy theories?

Blogging recently for Jim Wallis's Sojourners, former CIA staffer Ray McGovern described how he was ostensibly roughed up by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security detail during a recent speech at George Washington University. A few years ago, he had a less violent scofflaw during a Donald Rumsfeld speech. "I wonder if this show of brutality may be a signpost on a path to even wider and more brutal repression," he darkly suggested for Sojourners. McGovern is with a leftist group called "Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity" and is often aligned with 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

Why Wallis's Religious Left group, which aspires to be mainstream, would uncritically publish a 9/11 "truther" is unclear. Wallis is a prominent Obama supporter and boasts of access to the White House. In his Sojourners article, McGovern complained his treatment possibly foreshadows an impending "fascist" state in America. Such rhetoric recalls Wallis's own angry and radical anti-Vietnam War years but not his last decade of more soothing appeals to suburban evangelicals.

McGovern recounted that on February 16 he was "grabbed from the audience in plain view of her [Hillary Clinton] by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes, brutalized, and left bleeding in jail." Apparently security personnel tried to remove McGovern after, by his own account, he stood and turned his back in protest while Clinton delivered her speech. He also surmised that his black "Veterans for Peace" T-shirt was an additional provocation.

"Blind-sided by security officers who pounced upon me, I remarked, as I was hauled out the door, 'So this is America?'" McGovern recalled. "I am now covered with bruises, lacerations, and contusions inflicted in the assault." His Sojourners piece helpfully includes photos of the wounds. He also described his 2006 confrontation with Rumsfeld when, after some protesters attempted to disrupt the speech, McGovern asked the then Defense Secretary about his "lies" regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Afterwards, McGovern cited Rumsfeld as a "war criminal" and implicitly compared himself to famed civil rights activist Fanny Lou Hamer, who was beaten by 1960s-era segregationist police. He also likened the crowd's applause for Rumsfeld to the compliant hordes that Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels once manipulated. Responding to Rumsfeld's defense, McGovern claimed that U.S. troops in Iraq had worn anti-chemical warfare suits only as part of a charade, while the Australian troops, supposedly knowing full well that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, did not bother.

McGovern noted that during Rumsfeld's speech, another "fearless" co-belligerent stood silent in protest with his back to the speaker, without being "beaten, arrested, and jailed." So obviously the emerging police state has tightened its grip just in the last five years, with the current administration even more despotic than the dreaded last one. "There does seem to be a subtle, but successful, campaign to get people gradually accustomed to increasingly repressive measures; and many, perhaps most, Americans seem oblivious," McGovern warned for Sojourners. "After 9/11 Norman Mailer saw a 'pre-fascist climate' reigning in America," he ominously concluded. "If we don't stand up for our rights, it may not be very long before we shall have to drop the 'pre.'"

"Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity," whose most high profile member is probably McGovern, formed in 2003 to oppose the impending U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam. It has a special preoccupation with Israel, is prone to dark conspiracy theories, and espouses a Cindy Sheehan worldview. But more problematic is McGovern's association with 9/11 "truthers," particularly David Ray Griffin, who insists the Bush administration blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Griffin, a "process theologian" who directs the Center for Process Studies at United Methodist Claremont Seminary in California, claims that U.S. intelligence and police agencies brought down the World Trade Center through controlled demolition. In books like his 2006 Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11, he's less clear on how the Pentagon was exploded. But he's certain both contrived attacks were false flag operations, similar to Hitler's spurious 1939 claims that Poland was attacking Germany, to justify ongoing U.S. imperialism around the world. Of course, literally thousands of federal, state and local civil servants would have to be been complicit in a 9/11 conspiracy. But "process theology" posits that God is not sovereign and complete but instead is constantly evolving. As such, conspiracies and dark forces can persist for centuries, millennia or eternity. There is no final judgment. Griffin thinks the U.S. is worse than Nazi Germany or Stalin's Russia because it has murdered over 100 million victims over the last century though its conquests and exploitation.

McGovern has embraced Griffin's 9/11 theories, and Griffin prominently advertises the former CIA staffer's endorsement of his work. "WARNING: If, like most Americans calling themselves Christian, you prefer the comfort of acquiescing to the official version of 9/11 and the imperial wars it facilitated, DROP THIS BOOK NOW," McGovern enthused in his blurb for Griffin's 2006 9/11 conspiracy book: "But if you are open to the grace of honest inquiry and the risk of following the historical Jesus in confronting the evils of empire, this rigorously argued book is a MUST READ." McGovern reputedly told Wisconsin Public Radio in 2005 that he "used to be an agnostic" about U.S. official complicity in the 9/11 attacks, but Griffin had persuaded him otherwise.

Affirming another Griffin 9/11 conspiracy book, McGovern rambled:

It has long been clear that the Bush-Cheney administration cynically exploited the attacks of 9/11 to promote its imperial designs. But the present volume confronts us with evidence for an even more disturbing conclusion: that the 9/11 attacks were themselves orchestrated by this administration precisely so they could be thus exploited. If this is true, it is not merely the case, as the Downing Street memos show, that the stated reason for attacking Iraq was a lie. It is also the case that the whole "war on terror" was based on a prior deception. This book hence confronts the American people -- indeed the people of the world as a whole -- with an issue second to none in importance and urgency. I give this book, which in no way can be dismissed as the ravings of "paranoid conspiracy theorists," my highest possible recommendation.

In his Sojourners piece, McGovern reported he now works for the publishing arm of the Church of the Saviour, a liberal "ecumenical" congregation in Washington, D.C. It's not clear to what extent McGovern shares Griffin's heterodox "process theology." But he certainly shares Griffin's kooky politics.

Why would Jim Wallis want to showcase a 9/11 "truther" who thinks his own arrest exemplifies the Obama administration's purportedly encroaching fascist police state? Maybe Wallis and Sojourners are returning to their earlier radical roots, when protest theater was more important than political reality, and when equating Lyndon Johnson with the Third Reich was common fare.

About the Author

Mark Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. and author of Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (66) | Leave a comment

Appleby| 2.18.11 @ 6:36AM

These hippie scum who long for the 1960s when girls adored them and their wee-wees did not droop are so tiresome that they ought not to get any publicity from anybody. If you have to write about them at all, just make fun of them. Its the one thing they cannot survive and many of them will go away.

Chalkdust| 2.18.11 @ 6:57AM

Shut-upppp. you're killing me.

Eric Cartman| 2.18.11 @ 9:23AM

Eeesh! Droopy wee-wees! Doesn't help imagining them smoking a bong, does it? "Wow man! I'm so stoned I can't get up, Dude!" ;-)

Clint| 2.18.11 @ 9:56AM

Uh Oh ! Earth Mommy Got Them Saggin' Funbags & Michelle Obama's Fat Booty.
Bad Scene.
Pass The Buddha.

ENOUGH ROPE| 2.18.11 @ 12:22PM

Recognize that Obama is a saboteur who wants America to become a third world country. Obama regards America and its upper and middle classes as oppressors of the world and the poor in the same way that European colonial powers exploited their colonies.

Obama is an HABITUAL LIAR in order to bankrupt and destroy America. He is a SMILING COBRA.

DLB| 2.18.11 @ 6:37AM

So, does he think Hillary and Rumsfeld are in cahoots?

Chalkdust| 2.18.11 @ 6:54AM

My dog thinks the nutty fringe on the right is but a oil sheen compared to the thick bark covering the nutty left. He also wonders why the nutty left believes that a political movement that could pull off a fake Islamic attack on 9/11, couldn't find a better canidate than John McCain to oppose the nutty Obama?

Chalkdust| 2.18.11 @ 7:05AM

Or do a better job running Amtrak.

Spartanfan| 2.19.11 @ 10:27AM

And if the administration could pull off a successful False Flag operation as massive as 9-11, wasn't anyone smart enough to plant some fake WMD in Iraq?

Judester| 2.18.11 @ 7:35AM

When twenty thousand gallons of jet fuel suddenly heats up a buildings structure something has to give but when an all metal oil rig sags and falls into the sea it's a different story. General science 101.

Chalkdust| 2.19.11 @ 8:15AM

WTF?

Walkthetalk| 2.18.11 @ 7:36AM

The religious left uses "Christian" as a free pass to legitimacy. I remember reading that there was a group that examined the "red" words of Jesus and dismissed most of them. Lefty "Christians" generally dismiss God, Jesus, the word "he," and all truth. Those who call themselves Christian who in action and words demonstrate disdain for Christ are not unlike any other lefty, RINOs who constantly cross the aisle, or "Americans" who work diligently to destroy America. The alarming thing about these so-called Christians is that they occupy so many positions in seminaries throughout America. Congregations take their pastors from seminaries, but the pastors have been tainted by their professors. Since this has been going on for decades even older pastors are suspect. Many churchgoers have been lulled to sleep spiritually by these fifth columnists in white collars. A site that can open your eyes to the glory of the Bible and the God of life can be found at www.christforamericans.com. People should not be getting their Bible exposure on Sunday's only, or from the sermons of a Pastor. They should read their own Bibles and awaken to the plan for life that God has ordained. They should be hearing from the pastor the things they already know, and love. If they hear the pastor presenting lefty positions then they should act to correct him/her or to oust him/her. This a spiritual war that has been quietly going in the direction of the lefties for far far to long. It is time people got properly informed about Jesus. The first step is to repent. That means to turn away from a self-centered focus and embrace Jesus. He is the only way the Bible says that one can have life. Then when you know Jesus and Jesus knows you, you will be ready to participate productively in the spiritual war being waged in this world.

Alice de Tocqueville| 2.18.11 @ 12:20PM

So...would Jesus say to beat and drag away someone who disagrees with him? Without a word of warning, or of any kind to the person? Not in my Bible!

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 10:37AM

"Without a word of warning, or of any kind to the person?"

Did he give the speaker "a word of warning, or of any kind" that he was about to protest the speech?
Being a guest during a speech you're supposed to remain silent and listen to the speaker.* It's not a forum for showboating leftist anarchist dribble for the audience to see. They came to listen to the speaker, not the clown show. Jesus martyred himself to bring about the start of the overthrow of the Roman Empire that had enslaved the Jewish people, a just cause. He brought himself to the attention of the Roman Radar Screens, during the most religiously charged atmosphere, passover, in a way that made it certain his death** would follow. Jesus who preached non-violence would of abhorred a person highlighted in this article, as a gutless asset of Rome (Today's Iran, N. Korea)

Keynotes
* God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth so we'd listen twice as much as talk. Leftist who cowardly inspired Timothy McVeigh to murder innocent women & children do just the opposite, hence The 'Hatriot' movement, defined as "People who think it's 'Patriotic' to 'Hate' ones own elected government." IMO the man should of been given a very long jail sentence or worse. Much worse.
** It was well known in all towns and city's that the Romans would act brutily to the slightist insurection. Jesus sought anniliation in the most violent manner possible .... Crucifixion.

Ryan| 2.21.11 @ 9:06AM

Where did Christ preach overthrow of the Empire? Where did He speak of any earthly kingdom?

How does that correlate with "Render unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's?"

JP| 2.18.11 @ 7:38AM

Considering the bang-up job the CIA and FBI did in tracking Al Qaida operatives world wide in the run-up to the 9/11 attacks, I would keep a very low profile if I was a CIA employee (former, or otherwise).

The only thing that worked on 9/11 was the guts a few forlorned passengers showed on Flight 93 as it veered towards Washington DC.

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 10:45AM

"I would keep a very low profile if I was a CIA employee (former, or otherwise)."

Can you imagine that? Accusing the innocent in order to exculpate the blame away from the perp's? NOT ONE WORD is mentioned about (D) laws enacted to limit CIA/FBI contact with each other. The CIA WANTED TO CONTACT THE FBI AND TELL THEM ABOUT THESE TERRORIST ENTERING THE US BUT WERE FORBIDDEN BY LAW BECAUSE THEY WERE IN THE US AND OUT OF THE JURIDICTION OF WHERE THE CIA WAS ALLOWED TO ACT. THIS IS A TYPICAL LEFTWING BACKWARDS READING OF EVENTS.

Ryan| 2.18.11 @ 8:16AM

"following the historical Jesus in confronting the evils of empire,"

--flipping through Bible--

Uhh....not in this one...

"But "process theology" posits that God is not sovereign and complete but instead is constantly evolving. "

--going through again--

Ummm...must be in a different book...

William R| 2.18.11 @ 8:31AM

I don't know anything about David Ray Griffin, but Ray McGovern gave Ronald Reagan his daily CIA briefing. He prepared President George H. W Bush's daily intelligence brief.

McGovern was a mid-level officer in the CIA in the 1960s where his focus was analysis of Soviet policy toward Vietnam. McGovern was one of President Ronald Reagan's intelligence briefers from 1981–85; he was in charge of preparing daily security briefs for Reagan, Vice President George H.W. Bush, the National Security Advisor, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Cabinet. Later, McGovern was one of several senior CIA analysts who prepared the President's Daily Brief (PDB) during the first Bush administration.

Upon retirement, McGovern was awarded the Intelligence Commendation Medal from Bush (which he later returned, see below[1]) and worked for Washington-based non-profits before becoming co-director of the Servant Leadership School in Washington. Now, McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_McGovern#Career

And there's plenty of stuff about 9/11 that has been covered up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpWc_suPWo

Ken (Old Texican)| 2.18.11 @ 10:35AM

WOW, William,
talk about a mid-life crisis on steroids. McGovern is having a doosey.

William R| 2.18.11 @ 11:28AM

I don't see it that way. I see an old CIA analyst who briefed Presidents and sees the corruption of our policies .

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 11:00AM

"I see an old CIA analyst who briefed Presidents and sees the corruption of our policies"

I see a Mark Lane * who see's every defensive movement against tyrany ** by the US as a offensive against the freedoms of the world, and ready to take political and personal profit advantage by slander and libeling his strawman enemy's. Both are digusting and should be banished to 'Coldballs' Russia.

Keynote
* Mark Lane, first CONspiracy superstar of the 60's, was paid $6K/Mo. to develope CONspiracy Theories for Jim Jones, told the 'People's Temple' members to stay put, nothing to be afraid of, soon 903 people suicided at gunpoint after drinking cyanide laced Kool-Aid, in which has been labeled 'The largest mass suicide in modern history' .... Thanks goes out to lefist Mark Lane.
** Leftist don't seem to mind when our enemy's use violent force against us or our allies. Leftists have aligned themselves with our enemy's, plain and simple.

William R| 2.20.11 @ 10:58AM

Defensive movement. Hilarious. Going six thousand miles and invading and occupying a country that wasn't any threat to the USA is defensive? I see a NeoCon hack.

Stormzeye| 2.20.11 @ 8:25PM

You're an idiot if you can't see that the popular uprisings now going on in the Islamic world are a direct and consequential result of George W. Bush's destabilization of Saddam's regime. Once again, the USA brought democracy to oppressed people of the world. Progressives like you hate the thought of it.

William R| 2.21.11 @ 12:25AM

You are delusional.

A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.19.11 @ 1:48AM

Yeah, and one day Colonel Kurtz decided to go to airborne school.

bookworm| 2.19.11 @ 6:28PM

Perhaps he has Jimmy Carter's Disease, which sets in when a career military man becomes a born-again Christian and equates his newfound faith with pacifism.

JimH| 2.18.11 @ 8:44AM

I was going to say that ‘religious left’ is an oxymoron. But then belief in socialist nostrums, after they have been thoroughly discredited must require a major act of faith.

Ellios Wyatt| 2.18.11 @ 9:03AM

Truthers - yawn. To date every scenario the truthers have thrown out regarding what would have to be the largest conspiracy ever, involving hundreds of people, has been thoroughly disputed. So much so that is has become boring.

GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 11:44PM

Not just 9/11 truthers, but other grand conspiracy theories as well involving thousands of people, like JFK, chemtrails, Illuminati, etc. Prisonplanet.com and Infowars.com provide a hive of lunatic nut-jobs. The lunatics are certainly running that asylum.

davelnaf| 2.18.11 @ 9:52AM

It’s enlightening, and sometimes even entertaining, to know what the professional Left is up on any given day. Increasingly, though, it resembles a rather dreary parade of information about what the crazies are up to in the open air mental ward called the Leftist continuum. Still, it’s good to know about these things. And it’s particularly good to know when these people are around so you can bring in the cats and dogs for their own safety.

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 4:22PM

As Robbin's & Post observed about the
‘9/11 Paranoid Message’ ....

"The ‘9/11 Paranoid Message’ will give more and more and then it will give even more ....

* The entertainment resources of the ‘9/11 Paranoid Message’ are unrivaled. It offers puzzles, drama, passion, heroes, villains, and struggle.

* As always when the storyline is tied to an historical event especially one that involves ‘live characters’ and ‘unexpected death’ then ‘fiction'
‘history’ and ‘popular delusion’ can be joined in the pursuit of profit

The story moreover need never end ....

If evidence appears that refutes the 9/11 conspiracy

* The suppliers of the discrediting material will themselves be accused of being part of the conspiracy

* The ‘Paranoid Explanatory System’ based upon ‘Circular Thinking Patterns’ is a closed one

Only confirmatory evidence is accepted

Contradictions are dismissed as being naive or more likely part of the conspiracy itself"

Steve Hoffmann| 2.18.11 @ 10:35AM

One doesn't have to dispute the author's concern about "truthers" to wonder why the author doesn't seem concerned that McGovern was beaten by security.

Yosemeti Sam| 2.18.11 @ 11:00AM

" The Religious Left Goes Truthing ...."

There you go - et al Leftoids.

It's a - Meme, Meme, Meme, Meme WORLD.

LOL.

artesian jacket| 2.18.11 @ 11:55AM

The author is not concerned because McGovern did not receive nearly his just desserts for his stupidity.

Alice de Tocqueville| 2.18.11 @ 12:28PM

Really? People should be beaten and arrested for stupidity?
I wonder what the 'monitors' of this site would consider "profane, bigoted, or grossly impolite" ? Do they read these comments? These are supposed to be individuals who revere the words of Jesus Christ?

Alice de Tocqueville| 2.18.11 @ 12:13PM

The author doesn't express himself on the appropriateness of violently manhandling a person who silently protests a public employee's speech, nor the obvious irony that this public official is speaking about freedom of expression. Amazing.

The author also leaves out some details of McGovern's background. He not only is a war veteran, but spent 27 years in the CIA as an analyst; rising to the job of Presidential briefer, that is, giving daily briefings to GW Bush, among others in the White House. He is not mainly known for his skepticism of official, unproven allegatations about 9/11's catastrophe, but for his truthtelling about US subversion of democratic processes around the world. Of course, one can be in the CIA for that long, and still be clueless, but his background does indicate at least some degree of probity.
One minor quibble; in the sentence:
"A few years ago, he had a less violent 'scofflaw' [my quote-marks] during a Donald Rumsfeld speech "; the word 'scofflaw' isn't something you have with a government thug, but it could be used to describe a government thug. It's not the same thing as a 'scuffle'.

Ray McGovern's Rump Swab| 2.19.11 @ 1:34AM

Alice hit all the points I wished to discussed. I am especially impressed with her spinning his torture and abuse claims even more melodramatically than he does himself.

KyMouse| 2.18.11 @ 12:32PM

I read David Ray Griffin's book "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action" when it came out in 2006, because I received a review copy from the publisher.

I wasn't surprised to see that it was published by Westminster John Knox Press. The eagerness of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to promote such nonsense, and to spend as little time as possible explaining John 3:16 to people, was Reason #4,398 for my leaving the denomination.

PolishKnight| 2.18.11 @ 1:37PM

I'm not surprised. The left are a bunch of hypocrites and even sublimely so. They believe in a variety of crazy conspiracy theories while deriding any questions the right raises with cherished leftist dogma as heresy including:

1) Questioning whether Obama was a natural born US citizen due to his international background and thinking. Anyone applying for a security clearance knows this is a perfectly reasonable question to ask.

2) Questioning the merits of "global warming" theory and becoming a "denier" when the predictions of global warming hysterics haven't come to pass. When the weather is good, they say weather doesn't matter but when there's drop of rain, it proves their God is about. And they make fun of religion.

3) And the biggest leftist tenet of all: The superiority of leftist socialism and the USA will achieve this via multiculturalism even as the left in Europe has secretly embraced nativism for decades and is now openly doing so.

The left is now reeling at a poll that shows that a majority of Republicans question Obama's credentials as a natural born citizen. This is because they prefer to have a monopoly on conspiracy theories and will claim that GW "stole" an election for reasons they cannot support. ("There was a republican governor in Florida so that PROVES that there was election fraud!")

They worry, rightly, that this is a charge that could stick to Obama for decades while simultaneously undermining their cherished white guilt agenda. Be careful what you wish for guys...

paul Clare| 2.18.11 @ 2:10PM

Well, we closed the state mental hospitals in the 1970's. For all those wondering where the released inmates or should be inmates have gone, here is obviously one place.

GavInTucson| 2.18.11 @ 11:56PM

Actually, the lunatics are posting on Alex Jones' websites.

Bill Sundling| 2.18.11 @ 3:28PM

I don't understand why there's a story about people nobody knows about or listens to.

Rank Hypocrisy| 2.18.11 @ 3:38PM

Okay so here's an interesting one...let's excoriate Jim Wallis for giving a voice on his site for a nutbar...while at the same time pandering to nutbars on our own. Is this conservative hypocrisy example number 1,975,000? Christopher Ruddy whom this rag admires got his start plugging the hilarious Vince Foster conspiracy for Richard Mellon Scaife. Jerry Falwell plugged the equally repugnant and even more hilarious Clinton Chronicles (which this snot rag helped create, you were sourced) and yet...you call anyone else out on having something to do with conspiracy theorists? I could go on and on...the list of wingnut conspiracy hacks (especially with President Obama in office) is pretty easy to come by and you people swim in very shallow waters. What was it the Bible says? You know this book you righties are so enamored by you've tried to create your own ethnicity from it? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"...this is a bit like Andrew Breitbart calling anyone else a lying hack or a racist. I'll tell you what...if you will go ahead and repudiate (notice I used a real word...conservatives seem to stuggle with those) your past as a conspiracy trawling trash heap of righ twing boilerplate then you can go ahead and get your little hackles up when you see someone else walking down that road. All this article accomplishes is proof of your always funny levels of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance (if you conservatives ever deigned to use your brains for something other than faux outrage the pain of the dissonance would be blinding) it also proves another constant: it's okay if a conservative does it. I'm not going to stand up for the 9/11 theories because I think they're ridiculous (imagining Dubya succeeding at something clever and diabolical? Not in this lifetime) but I'll happily call you out on hypocrisy anytime, any place. Oh, and while you're calling other people crazy and such...you probably should stop publishing birther trash which has even less of a grip on reality than the 9/11 conspiracies do...just FYI. Thanks for the laughs though Mr. Tooley, you have a talent for ironic comedy...it's too bad you're not aware.

Martin Treptow| 2.18.11 @ 7:24PM

Rank,
You lost me on the jump from Christopher Ruddy (who??) to Jerry Falwell. Nobody on this site has breathed Mr. Ruddy's name in as long as I can remember, and Rev. Falwell isn't exactly any AmSpec reader's cup of tea.
But, thank you for these gems:
" You know this book you righties are so enamored by you've tried to create your own ethnicity from it?" Huh??

And: ""Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"...this is a bit like Andrew Breitbart calling anyone else a lying hack or a racist"

I'll put my own money, based on what I've seen of Mr. Breitbart, and what I've read of you, on the proposition bet that Andrew's more grounded in the truth on a day-to-day basis than you are.

BTW, it's 2011. After the first Tuesday in November, 2010, "conservatives" don't get bothered when you call us names... for the same reason no member of the Green Bay Packers would mind if you said something about his football team.

Scoreboard.
And it's only the beginning (and you know it).

Troll.

Fail.

Cheers!

bookworm| 2.19.11 @ 6:48PM

Calm down. ... It is entirely reasonable to wonder if Vincent Foster might have been eliminated, and to conclude that the Clintons are dangerous people. It is. however, irrational to believe that the POTUS would have over 3,000 civilians murdered in his own country. And, for the record, Christopher Ruddy, whose secretary I used to be, is a fine man and you are beneath contempt for ranting publicly concerning a subject about which you know nothing.

celebs4truth| 2.18.11 @ 8:52PM

I love the deceptive left/right paradigm play on this gibberish rant blog! Why would anyone in their right mind hate those seeking truth? This is the most repugnant example of the brainwashed American sheeple minded rhetoric designed to keep you in the dark about the New World Order, and keep you from seeking the truth yourself! It really is sinister, and shameful to those who support this totally out of touch mindset, whether willingly or otherwise!

GavInTucson| 2.19.11 @ 12:02AM

Oh boy, an Alex Jones disciple. Please, enlighten us some more. Please speak "truth to power" with all of your nutter "theories."

GavInTucson| 2.19.11 @ 12:06AM

I'd also like to add that I enjoy listening to Alex Jones' feed on my phone when I'm working out. You see I hate working out, and listening to such a hilarious and ridiculous rants make might workout much less painful.

GavInTucson| 2.19.11 @ 12:07AM

Meant, "makes my"

My keyboard is possessed.

celebs4truth| 2.21.11 @ 4:31PM

LOL, I work out as well. However, the difference here is that I also work out my mind, not just my muscles. But hey, to each his own...

A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.19.11 @ 1:45AM

You are not seeking the "truth." You are seeking a convenient bogeyman on whom to focus your paranoia.

A 9/11 Truther complaining about gibberish is like a concentration camp guard complaining about brutality.

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 3:13PM

"A 9/11 Truther complaining about gibberish is like a concentration camp guard complaining about brutality"

I don't appreciate "concentration camp guard" funnys, I had a relative * who was killed in a concentration camp during WW2. Remember WW2, it was in all the newspapers?

Keynote
* Damn fool got drunk and fell out of a guard tower :-(

Am Freemen| 2.18.11 @ 9:22PM

---Retroactive impeachment of our past 4
administrations.

----OPEN, audit and end the FED

----Convene a new HUAC meets NUREMBERG
to expose, examine and rigorously prosecute
the over a century of Globalist/FREE trade
and EUGENICS intrigues of our capsatone
'chairitable' tax free foundations, NGO's
and 'think tanks' with MAJOR siezure,
dismantling and prosecutory powers.

----ANY QUESTIONS?

A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.19.11 @ 1:43AM

I have a question: Has your prescription run out?

A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.19.11 @ 1:41AM

Any 9/11 Truther should be relieved to only be roughed up a bit-if that is even what happened.

These leftwing "Christians" who love to selectively quote verse should consider the one against bearing false witness against the hundreds and maybe thousands of officials, and law enforcement personnel who would have at least have to have remained silent in order for a conspiracy of this magnitude to succeed.

Hey 9/11 Truthers, where is your whistle blower? After ten years, not one person has come forward who claimed to have been involved in the plot or to have known people who were. Hundreds of people, and not one guilty conscience amongst the lot. Right.

A Balrog of Morgoth| 2.19.11 @ 1:47AM

P.S. One would think a veteran intelligence official like ol' Ray the heroic briefer of Presidents would be just the sort of fellow to know who to talk to and what questions to ask.

JustSaying| 2.19.11 @ 9:20AM

While I doubt that the public ever got the whole story about 9/11, I'm pretty skeptical about some monstrous conspiracy.

Nonetheless, I am taken aback that people here would rush to mock a man who was apparently roughed up for a peaceful, quiet protest directed against Hillary Clinton.

It's irrelevant whether we agree with the man, it's not my view of America that public officials are so high and mighty that they ought to be immune to public objections from either the left or the right.

jake123| 2.19.11 @ 10:51AM

"While I doubt the public ever go the whole story about 9/11"? What are we missing? You say you aren't a Truther but you are, your post states you are. As for his being roughed up, are we sure? The man obviously has issues and is attempting to relive his 60s childhood by portraying himself as a victim. Note to you, the 60s nuts were all about theater antics and drawing attention to themselves. I highly doubt his version of the story about being "roughed up" and if I had to guess was walked out while he made an axx of himself. You see, that's what crazy old 60s loving leftists do best.

mike| 2.19.11 @ 11:38AM

Leaving other issues aside, if his account of his treatment at the Clinton speech is accurate, I don't understand how a silent, stationary protest, isn't protected under the 1st Amendment.

tom lowry| 2.19.11 @ 3:32PM

"I don't understand"

As a member of an 'audience' * you are to remain silent and listen to the speaker. If prompted you can applaude, whistle, boo, or bare yer hillbilly ass in protest as long as it's not for any great length of time. It's not about an opportunity for leftrantic's, silently or otherwise. That takes place off the property line, in the right of way (sidewalk or street).

Keynote
* Merriam-Webster .... Definition of 'Audience'
(1) The act or state of hearing .

Will| 2.19.11 @ 7:11PM

Ray McGovern may be a nut, and/or a friend of nuts. But he was peacefully protesting and he got hauled away and beat up. That's the point of the Sojourners piece, and most likely why Sojourners let him publish it. Your wild arm-waving about it makes you look about as nuts as McGovern does.

Robert R. Larimer Jr| 2.20.11 @ 5:28PM

This Is What The Religious Left Is All About:
------------
A Complete New Faith Being Pushed On America

No one takes on a public policy stance without some firmly held belief, some foundational principle or worldview which they embrace, and from which they reason.

What has been happening in our society for decades is a titanic battle between two powerful, competing worldviews. Unfortunately, one of those worldviews has had the advantage of pretending to be a 'reasonable' belief that is 'free from religion,' and which has gained access to your tax dollars. We have been financing a takeover by a Christianity-replacing faith.

The new PC faith, the belief system of true-believing liberals, is actually a thoroughly developed, reasonable-sounding worldview. It is self-identified as a "Bold new faith" which must be "Established" in "All mankind's institutions and associations," in Humanist Manifesto I.

And in Manifesto II we find the ultimate goal:

"World Community

TWELFTH: We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus we look to the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government. This would appreciate cultural pluralism and diversity."

Many citizens see the symptoms and the effects, but most people do not realize that there is a battle of major cultural significance, an all-out tug-of-war of ethics and ideology, happening in America.

This is how the new secular/progressive 'faithful' are organized and how they behave:

The ACLU are the legal enforcers of the new faith (obedience), brandishing their flaming secular legal sword at any slightest whiff of Christianity that dares to pop up anywhere in public life. The ACLU has been very visible and vocal in public policy struggles, though most citizens are mystified by the motives and strange positions taken by this so-called defender of 'rights.'

The ACLU goes to court to enforce 'separation of church and state' found, NOT in America's Constitution, but found in the Humanist Manifestos and the old, failed Soviet Constitution, Article 52: "The church shall be separate from the state, and the schools from the church."

'Gay rights' activists are the shock troops (march onward, true-believing soldiers), the politically astute, PC Inquisitors, the aggressive vanguard of the Humanists. Dare to question their 'Diversity!' mantra and you will face rage and possible lawsuits.

Environmental extremists are the preening, 'righteousness' arm of the Humanists, 'saving the planet' (salvation) whether you want their messianic ministry and their Big Brother garbage-monitoring e-chips forced on you or not.

The 'Choice' crowd makes certain that the blood of innocent unborn children (regular rituals) is offered up to their cause. Their noble efforts are not to be questioned, and regarding their ghoulish practices...just do not think about the 50 Million babies butchered so far.

Liberal politicians enforce charitable 'tithing' (sacrificial giving) through confiscatory taxation, scolding about 'fairness' and equitable 'redistribution' of wealth and resources, then use the money to advance Humanist principles and grow their influence through tyrannical public policies.

Publicly financed education - K-12 and university - provide training in the correct manner of thinking and behaving (5-day-per week Sunday School and missionary outreach), constantly demonstrating or subtly hinting that Christianity is as primitive, dangerous, irrelevant or as 'harmful' as other world religions, lawfully sanitizing any last vestige of a Christian heritage from our society, and teaching students to earnestly - and wholly erroneously - chant that "America was founded on freedom from religion!"

Teachers Unions and 'International Unions' are the fraternal organizations associated with the Religious Left, they give votes, money and activist shoe leather to the Humanist movement.

"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers that correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being... The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent with the promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of 'love thy neighbor' will finally be achieved." -- "A Religion For A New Age," The Humanist magazine, January-February 1983 [Volume 43, Number 1]

For any who remain skeptical about the influence of Humanism on education, just plug in the terms 'Life long learning,' a comma, and 'Humanism' into Google. You will get a tremendous amount of documentation that will demonstrate just how fully saturated with this new belief system education, and the training of educators, really is.

The dominant media culture - and entertainment media - are the high priests of the faith (evangelism), always attacking the 'Religious Right,' but never once doing an expose' on the 'Religious Left.' Have you ever seen a 'news' program about the Religious Left?

Gatherings of Humanist-indoctrinated faithful (worship services!), usually involve someone quoting disjointed poetry about someone's village and someone else's children. They can include inspiring music by special guests, and ghastly spectacles such as screaming, chanting crowds, wearing theme T-shirts at the memorial services of innocent people gunned down in Arizona. Not much decorum or solemn assembly there? Well, it is after all, a different kind of faith.

In the meantime, the naive are trampled, totally overwhelmed by the insistent, uniform, relentless nature of this full-scale, taxpayer-financed attack on traditional American values and Bible-believing Christianity.

The ACLU and Humanism are philosophically and historically tied together.

Roger Baldwin, ACLU founder, stated categorically: "Communism is the goal!" He refused for the rest of his life to modify the statement or take it back. "In later years Baldwin occasionally wrote for The Humanist. On one occasion he reviewed a book for The Humanist by Corliss Lamont whose credentials as a Humanist include being named "Humanist of the Year" for 1977, being signatory to Humanist Manifesto II, and serving as honorary president of the AHA. Baldwin gave this evaluation of Lamont's book: "It reads like an expanded annual report of the Civil Liberties Bureau."(6) In addition to Lamont's Humanist affiliations, he also sat on the ACLU board for many years, thus further demonstrating the compatibility of Humanism and the ACLU. (Eventually, Lamont did reject the ACLU because of its stand against communism.) Baldwin served as Director of the ACLU until 1949, but thereafter continued to influence the Union as a member of the National Advisory Council." --Truthmagazine

All of the groups above consistently chant the 'Diversity, Choice, World Community, Cultural Pluralism, Consenting Adults, Redistribution, Separation' mantras of the Humanist Manifestos.

If you study the issue, you will find that none of these PC worship words were used in 'the news,' in city councils, county commissions, state legislatures, Congress, the courts, public schools and college campuses, entertainment, music or public policy battles until AFTER the Humanist Manifestos were promulgated, first in 1933, then revised and expanded in 1973.

The outcomes of the influence of Humanist goals and beliefs on American society have been devastating:

http://www.c4cg.org/humanist.htm

Having been shown these things, no one can plead ignorance or attempt to employ false equivalences regarding the Religious Right and the Religious Left. Can you guess why you've never read, heard or seen a 'news' story exposing the Religious Left? Why would religious fanatics expose their own destructive goals?

America's future hinges on which worldview our society ultimately embraces. If we allow the wrong choice to be thrust on us, we will not survive as a nation.

The Humanist movement is evil, manipulative, tyrannical and wholly dishonest. It will destroy us if we allow it.

When you hear 'Diversity' being chanted, know that Humanism is being preached.

Still skeptical that Humanism is a religion? See Torcaso v. Watkins, U.S. Supreme Court, where a Justice remarks that Atheism and Humanism are indeed religious beliefs.

Hetware| 2.22.11 @ 9:41PM

I hope it doesn't come as a surprise that people are talking about a neocon imperialist agenda. The PNAC/AEI crowd were unabashedly and explicitly advocating aggressive war for purposes of "regime change" and imperialism. See for example "U.S. Imperialism: A Force for Good " by Max Boot http://www.cfr.org/iraq/us-imp.....good/p5959

I will concede that comparing these actions to those of Nazis is a bit threadbare. There are plenty of similar well-know acts by others, ideologically and politically closer to the signatories of "Rebuilding America's Defenses". For example, the Lavon Affair, the overthrow of Mosaddegh, etc.

Reebok| 8.11.11 @ 3:19AM

is good

العاب بنات| 4.11.12 @ 5:01PM

Perhaps he has Jimmy Carter's Disease, which sets in when a career military man becomes a born-again Christian and equates his newfound faith with pacifism.