Would that be when I said the Jersey Girls were idiot Truthers who just wanted someone to lynch?
-Gumboot
Yes. To be fair to the truther at DU, Mark does link to that review, but it is way down the list (the truther said the link was up at the top - truthers are always truth-challenged).
And you phrased that a little more sensitively in the review as well. I do disagree with your take on the documentary, though. Of all the CT movies, it's the one I can deal with, because a) it barely flirts with the hooey, and b) I found most of its points fairly well made. I think the Bush Administration can take its fair share of the blame for a lot of the conspiracy theories out there. They certainly do act as if they have plenty to hide, and they most likely do. I know that it's not the planning and execution of 9/11, and I doubt strongly that it's certain or general knowledge of the actual attacks.
But there was a distinct and obstinate disregard by the Bush administration for the lessons learned by the Clinton administration concerning the al-Qaeda threat. We continue to learn about the full court press being made by people in the government to instill some responsible awareness of this general and looming threat, and we can see how they were marginalized and dismissed and stonewalled, right down to Bush telling a CIA briefer trying to follow up that 6 Aug PDB, "Alright, you've covered your [rule8]." When Bush sat in that classroom after Card's message, you'd better believe those words were floating through his mind at some point.
Is this LIHOP? No, this is LIHBTWIFWDGAD - they (the Republicans in Charge™) let it happen because they were incompetent [rule8]s who didn't give a [rule8]. Please note, I am not talking about anyone's actions on the day of, and I'm not even saying that they could have stopped the attacks. But the Clinton Administration might not have stopped the Millennium plot either. Only the chance arrest by a border guard gave them a clue - and by then, the Clintons were looking for clues. The Bushes weren't looking.
The defining character of this administration is that of George Bush - an incuriosity that should be criminal in our Chief Executive, and 9/11 changed that not at all. The only posterior George Bush has ever been interested in covering is his own, and that is what the Jersey Girls, Democrat and Republican alike, were fighting through their grief, and I for one applaud that fight. It's a fight the first citizens of this country picked with their own insufferable George.
The Jersey Girls' woo is their problem. But the overall point of the documentary I saw was that this foot-dragging, rear-covering administration has provided much of the fertilizer for the conspiracy theories that we argue against today. Even if the questions be sometimes stupid, they deserved answers provided in a way that is recognizably just. Their husbands died and they expected their government to protect them. The Bush Administration owed it to them AND to the people who fought their hearts out to stop the attacks on 9/11 to have a free, open, and trustworthy examination of what led to that day.
And, no, it has not happened yet, not publicly. And judging by their conduct of the Iraqi war, not privately either.
Sorry to get political here. Ron, feel free to take me down.
The only way to prevent them at home, is to lock down your own society. That means depriving people or rights, unjustified arrests, ridiculous security precautions, and so forth. The things we don't want.