Old newpapers in Pennslyvania can be seen reporting Democrats referring to “Lincoln’s War” nearly 140 years ago.

Have you looked at Jack Cashill’s site, his books and his articles. I didn’t know if he was a nut or the prize winning journalist he claims to be. So I asked Mark Tapscott (formerly at Heritage, now with the Washington Examiner). He said that Cashill is legit. If so, there is a whole lot of stuff that you dismiss as CDS that looks to be true.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone like you actually looked into the facts so that we could get an honest appraisal?

The BDS folks claim that W’s policy (on, say, GitMo imprisonment of unlawful combatants) might lead to some US citizen who opposed W’s policies maybe in the future maybe being sent to GitMo and tortured. Or (unnamed thousands of conspirators in and out of the government) colluded to, in the dead of a single night, rig WTC7 to collapse on cue just after their buddies flew the jets into WTC1 and 2. Or that “powerful forces” in the Republican party would impose a draft if W were elected in 2004 — when the only “powerful forces” suggesting same were high-ranking Democrats.

No specifics: like “my friend Bob is in GitMo right now, because he waved a “Kerry/Edwards” flag at a Bush rally” or “Fred W. Philbin of New Jersey was a demolitions expert who directed one of the WTC7 demolition teams.”

If Monica hadn’t saved her souvenier, she’d be just another byword in the endless “CDS” pantheon.

Ironically a recent broadcast of NPR’s On the Media had some discussion/debate as to whether the internet is actually encouraging people to seek/consider alternate viewpoints, or whether it will ultimately stratify into various echo chambers. The proliferation and popularity of liberal rant sites such as Crooks and Liars suggests the latter.

One of my colleagues at work is a total nut into conspiration theories. 9/11, Illuminati, New World Order and so on. Basically, we disagree on almost anything with regard to Islam, War on Terror etc.

However, he is no idiot. He is a very capable programmer with master degree in Physics, and he is a very clever person with original research & development ideas, reads Russian etc. Quite a libertarian in economical questions (rarer in Europe than in the US)

The problem with him is precisely his scientific/engineering mindset. He basically refuses to acknowledge that “shit happens” and that a lot of conflicts or international problems stems from short-sightedness of some politician or bureaucrat. He is mentally inclined to search for patterns and frameworks everywhere. Sometimes it borders on ridicule, like claiming that “the US politicians knew that after toppling of Saddam independent Kurds would attack Turkey, provoking military response and that this destabilization would be used to increase military spending of the USA and closer ties with Georgia and Armenia, which would provoke Russia” etc.

Your specific mention of Vince Foster is interesting in that the final Fiske report was never made public and a preliminary report prepared for Ken Starr which pointed away from suicide was reject by Starr for a more “politically correct” result. Combine that with all of the incompetence and arrogance with law enforcement and the white house behavior and you will find the term “CDS” to not always be accurate.

Vince Foster, Ron Brown and TWA 800 are three example of extremely flawed investigations and a great deal of arrogance on the part of the government.

While at the end of the day, the truth may be the same as the official position, but a reasonable person can still wonder if some other explanation is valid.

Now the 9/11 conspiracy theories, that is stuff for complete whackos!

The internet and blog-a-sphere has become the perfect platorm for the Conspiracy Theoriest. What seems worse is that more-and-more people seem to get caught up into it all the time.

Like a famous comedian said a 1/2 century ago, “There is a Sucker Born every Minute”, is being proven so right.

1) There are many bad things to be said about Hillary Clinton both personally and politically but what she and her husband were accused of during their tenure in office is so far beyond reality that it gives those of us who wish to critique Mrs. Clinton rationally a bad name. Those on the left who have spent the last seven years realistically critiquing the Bush Administration know what I’m talking about. It is easy to get lumped in with the nuts.

and

2) That Keith O has pretty much jumped the shark.