INTRO by Sander Hicks:
The anti-Free Speech spirit of this editorial in Bloomberg is alarming: Writer Jonathan Bernstein attacks Howard Dean for suggesting that Trump was coked up at the debate. I actually had the same suspicion, and so did author Daniel Hopsicker, who posted in on Twitter that night. How else to explain Trump's sputtering and megalomania? It was extreme, even for Donald.
But to call on Hillary Clinton to denounce Dean for making this observation is just unnecessary. The spirit of the First Amendment is to allow a diversity of opinions, and the "truth will win out" as Milton said in Areopagitica.
Bernstein suffers from an acute sense of Conspiracy-Phobia. He's in denial that great people like Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Rep. Alan Grayson have something important to say. So, he gloats in their political defeats and holds up their silencing as the new standard for Democratic Party behavior. But let me remind you that Alan Grayson alone, as a member of Congress, had the courage to levy hard questions at Fed Reserve officials after the meltdown of 2008. (They make for educational, and very entertaining viewing on YouTube here and here.)
Then there's the defamatory swipe that Bernstein makes at former Representative Cynthia McKinney. McKinney, in a similar way, had the courage, to confront the negligent Donald Rumsfeld, about missing trillions at the Pentagon budget, defense contractor DynCorps involvement in child prostitution, and the mysterious "war games" on 9/11 which distracted normal air defenses.
As you can see from these videos, these instances were not about "peddling conspiracy theories" but were sourced, professional, and severe for Rumsfeld and Richard Myers.
Here is Cynthia McKinney in her own words, responding to Bernstein, today.
Bloomberg refused to publish this, so I would like to do my part, in a small way, by welcoming McKinney today as a guest blogger:
The anti-Free Speech spirit of this editorial in Bloomberg is alarming: Writer Jonathan Bernstein attacks Howard Dean for suggesting that Trump was coked up at the debate. I actually had the same suspicion, and so did author Daniel Hopsicker, who posted in on Twitter that night. How else to explain Trump's sputtering and megalomania? It was extreme, even for Donald.
But to call on Hillary Clinton to denounce Dean for making this observation is just unnecessary. The spirit of the First Amendment is to allow a diversity of opinions, and the "truth will win out" as Milton said in Areopagitica.
Bernstein suffers from an acute sense of Conspiracy-Phobia. He's in denial that great people like Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Rep. Alan Grayson have something important to say. So, he gloats in their political defeats and holds up their silencing as the new standard for Democratic Party behavior. But let me remind you that Alan Grayson alone, as a member of Congress, had the courage to levy hard questions at Fed Reserve officials after the meltdown of 2008. (They make for educational, and very entertaining viewing on YouTube here and here.)
Then there's the defamatory swipe that Bernstein makes at former Representative Cynthia McKinney. McKinney, in a similar way, had the courage, to confront the negligent Donald Rumsfeld, about missing trillions at the Pentagon budget, defense contractor DynCorps involvement in child prostitution, and the mysterious "war games" on 9/11 which distracted normal air defenses.
As you can see from these videos, these instances were not about "peddling conspiracy theories" but were sourced, professional, and severe for Rumsfeld and Richard Myers.
Here is Cynthia McKinney in her own words, responding to Bernstein, today.
Bloomberg refused to publish this, so I would like to do my part, in a small way, by welcoming McKinney today as a guest blogger:
Truth Foretold, Specious Journalism, And Spurious Assertions:The Case of Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg View, and The Charlotte ObserverWhile it is true that I was “booted” by pro-war Democrats who worked in concert with like-minded Republicans, your assertion of my being booted for “peddling conspiracies” deserves a deeper look. My booting, by the way, resulted in the GOP takeover of my home State of Georgia, an outcome that seemingly makes both pro-war Democrats and Republicans (now called “globalists”) comfortable. Therefore, I want to take a deeper look at what I did “peddle:”1. That Presidential candidate George W. Bush worked with his Florida Governor brother, Jeb, to orchestrate election theft in the 2000 Presidential election. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2000 and 2001 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdPhXuTzQeI), this position is supported by evidence that is available to all; 2. That President George W. Bush received warnings about an impending attack on the US (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/cia-director s-documentary-911-bush-213353) and actively blocked an investigation (http://edition.cnn.com/2002/A LLPOLITICS/01/29/inv.terror.pr obe/) into the September 11, 2001 attacks. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2001, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all; 3. That the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (https://www.vcf.gov/faq.html) was really set up to thwart 9/11 wrongful death lawsuits because it prevented victims’ survivors from getting justice in US Courts; I felt that victims and victims’ survivors should be able to sue the culprits as well as receive support from the Fund. The President recently vetoed legislation that would allow lawsuits to move forward against Saudi Arabia and Congress just overrode his veto. Fourteen years later, I am pleased that, once again, my position has been supported by evidence that has been clearly available to all for at least a decade;4. That the US was not justified in attacking Iraq in 2003. The most thorough investigation into the 2003 decision to go to war against Iraq is the Chilcot Report (http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-report/) which found that war was not the last option and that U.S. allegations of Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq were not justified. Now that the public has caught up with the facts that I put on the table in 2002, this position is supported by evidence that is available to all; 5. That the then-Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, failed to perform his job during Hurricane Katrina and that thousands needlessly died because he failed the Gulf States and the country. After joining with Republicans and writing a Congressional Report on the subject that is available to the public (www.nola.com/katrina/pdf/mainreport.pdf), my position is supported by evidence that is available to all; 6. That a specific allegation had been made to my Congressional Office that thousands of bodies had been dumped in Louisiana swamps after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, we know that 9/11 human remains were dumped in a landfill (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/us/panel-recommends-more- oversight-and-training-at- dover-mortuary.html?_r=0) with such action having been deemed “dereliction of duty,” so who has conducted an independent investigation into what happened in Louisiana, in particular, with respect to body disposal? 7. That racism exists in Capitol Hill Police Department similar to what exists in other police departments around the U.S. and that I was a victim of that discrimination after I supported a lawsuit filed by Black police officers after one of their superior officers used the word “nigger.” Black police officers have been waiting fifteen years for justice and recently held a demonstration in support of their claim (http://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/former-capitol-police-c all-attention-discrimination-l awsuits). One need only hear the moving testimony of the U.S. Senate’s lone Black GOP Member and his interactions with the Capitol Hill Police (http://thehill.com/blogs/floo r-action/floor-speeches/tim- scott-black-republican-emotion al-powerful-dramatic-race- speech-targeted-capitol-police ) to understand that my experience was surely possible. Now, again—after the fact— that the public has caught up with the evidence that I put on the table in 2006, my position is supported by evidence that is available to all, sadly now most of all, the family of Keith Lamont Scott and all of those young people who were just recently in Charlotte’s streets. If only the press had decided to investigate my assertions rather than castigate me for making them! Maybe things would be far different than they are today in Iraq, Libya, Louisiana, and elsewhere. But, instead of investigation of the inconvenient or unpleasant facts that I repeatedly put on the table, the response was a frenzy of specious journalism and spurious assertions where true journalism was needed. Your column, with mention of my name, is an example of that. Such “reporting” is precisely why Trump’s attacks on the media resonate so well with the American and global public. The polling data on the public perception of the U.S. media is a damning indictment of the role the media has played in this country for too many years. That is why the U.S. public more and more now seeks its information from foreign media outlets, the internet, “alternative” media, and less and less from “newspapers” like yours.Cynthia McKinney, Ph.D.------------------------------------------------------------+
| __o CONTINENTAL CRITICAL MASS
| _`\;,_ come ride with me
| (*)/ (*)
| Bike4Peace Across the USA
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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction. OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING!"My weapon is media, lectures, protest, organization." Kenneth S. Carr (Dedon Kamathi)"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“It’s organized crime. All you do is you call the Republicans the Genoveses and you call the Democrats the Gambinos. The people at the top, they treat it like a crap game. It’s their crap game, like they’re making lots of money. Occasionally, somebody at the table shoots each other, but the moment anything threatens their crap game, they all unite to protect it. ... They’re both controlled by the same financial, economic and corporate interests.” -Michael C. Ruppert (excerpted from the film America Freedom to Fascism)
"The biggest weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the minds of the oppressed." Steve Biko
"Make your spirit flexible, and nothing will ever bend you out of shape." Wisdom by Taro Gold
Cynthia, you make me proud to be a Georgian. You are a warrior poet. Thank you for continuing to speak out.
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