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thedrifter
07-28-04, 09:34 AM
July 27, 2004, 2:10 a.m.
The Female Michael Moore
Cynthia McKinney, America’s most malignant political figure, Returns in Triumph (Well, Sort of).

By Bryan Preston

It's somehow appropriate that within the same week two remarkable events happened. One, the 9/11 Commission released a long-awaited report that neither exonerates nor excoriates the Bush administration. Two, the congresswoman who accused President Bush of knowing about 9/11 beforehand, yet allowed it to happen for political purposes, won a Democrat primary and is thus on her way back to power.

That's right. The reprehensible yet irrepressible Cynthia McKinney may be coming back to Washington after being exiled to the political wilderness.

Two years ago — which means prior to the invasion of Iraq — McKinney went out on a bit of a limb. In an interview with a radio station in Berkeley, California, McKinney declared the war on terror a sham and George W. Bush an accessory to mass murder:


We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th.... What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?... What do they have to hide?

Much has changed in two years. Accusing President Bush of lying and allowing terrorist attacks to happen for political gain was big stuff back then. Nowadays, Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe says he believes the war in Afghanistan was really all about laying an oil pipe across that benighted country and it barely makes a blip; two years ago, few outside the lunatic Democrat enclaves would utter such thoughts in public. Howard Dean's run for the White House began to implode when he echoed the "Bush KNEW" conspiracy theory. McKinney was thus ahead of her time, a regular prophet for the wild-eyed Left. And like Dean, her campaign nose-dived and she lost. But that was then.

Of course, something else has also changed in two years. The final report of the 9/11 Commission investigation proves that McKinney's 2002 assessment of that terrible day — and thus the war — is dead wrong. There were no numerous warnings, only little signs and portents, mostly kept away from law-enforcement officials barred from intelligence sharing. The Bush administration could not possibly have warned anyone to get out of the way of an attack it didn't see coming. The administration had nothing to hide.

But McKinney did. She accepted large and frequent political donations from Islamist donors and organizations. They kept her campaign awash in cash. She was their best friend on Capitol Hill.

McKinney ended up losing the Democratic primary in 2002 to Denise Majette. Majette rode to victory largely on the negative publicity that flowed McKinney's way both when the "Bush KNEW" accusation made national news and when her anti-Semitic and pro-Islamist beliefs were exposed. She supports Yasser Arafat's intifada. She was the only American to refuse to walk out on the 2001 Durban Conference on Racism, a United Nations confab that swiftly descended into an abyss of anti-American and anti-Semitic rancor. She has often taken to the floor of the House to defend her friends in radical Islamic circles — when she isn't busy attacking American policies. She has taken donations from a handful of "charities" the U.S. government has shut down for allegedly funneling cash to terrorists. And her father blamed his own August 2002 political defeat on Jews, who he claimed had "bought everybody." He even helpfully spelled it out — "J-E-W-S" — just in case anyone got confused.

And now Cynthia McKinney is back representing Georgia's Fourth Congressional District (which is 70 percent registered Democrat, rendering a primary victory there as good as a win in the general election). Vindicated, she says, by the voters who are returning her to office.

Not quite. She only won because Majette decided to run for the Senate, so vacating her seat in the House. McKinney won primarily on name recognition and voter amnesia. And she is already reverting to form. According to radio talk-show host and blogger Neil Boortz, McKinney's shock troops pushed and shoved a reporter from a radio station known for filing fair, and thus unflattering, stories about McKinney's antics from a post-campaign celebration earlier this week. It seems two years in the wilderness has made Cynthia a bit testy.

But no matter. Radical Islam will get its voice back in the halls of power. America, prepare to be simultaneously entertained and disgusted as the most virulent and anti-American and anti-Semitic elected politician in the nation rejoins the Democrat fold. Two years ago, the Democrats may have been a bit embarrassed to have such a noxious presence on their side of the aisle, but much has changed in two years. Who knows — she just might get a standing ovation and a slap on the back from McAuliffe himself at the next caucus meeting.

— Bryan Preston is coauthor of JunkYardBlog.

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/preston200407270210.asp

Ellie

eddief
07-28-04, 11:46 AM
Greg Palast reveals that Mckinney never said Bush knew about 9/11 before it happened. There is no record whatsoever. You may disagree with her politics but she said no such thing about Bush.
Read on.

The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney

By Greg Palast, AlterNet. Posted June 18, 2003.


How the New York Times, NPR and others drove a U.S. congresswoman out of office based on a quote that was never uttered.

Have you heard about Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman?

According to those quoted on National Public Radio, McKinney’s “a loose cannon” (media expert) who “the people of Atlanta are embarrassed and disgusted” (politician) by, and she is also “loony” and “dangerous” (senator from her own party).

Yow! And why is McKinney dangerous/loony/disgusting? According to NPR, “McKinney implied that the [Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and deliberately held back the information.”

The New York Times’ Lynette Clemetson revealed her comments went even further over the edge: “Ms. McKinney suggest[ed] that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war.”

That’s loony, all right. As an editor of the highly respected Atlanta Journal Constitution told NPR, McKinney’s “practically accused the President of murder!”

Problem is, McKinney never said it.

That’s right. The “quote” from McKinney is a complete fabrication. A whopper, a fabulous fib, a fake, a flim-flam. Just freakin’ made up.



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Hi, Lynette. My name is Greg Palast, and I wanted to follow up on a story of yours. It says, let’s see, after the opening -- it’s about Cynthia McKinney -- it’s dated Washington byline August 21. “McKinney’s [opponent] capitalized on the furor caused by Miss McKinney’s suggestion this year that President Bush might have known about the September 11 attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in a war.” Now, I have been trying my darndest to find this phrase . . . I can’t. . .

Lynette Clemetson, New York Times: Did you search the Atlanta Journal Constitution?

Yes, but I haven’t been able to find that statement.

I’ve heard that statement--it was all over the place.

I know it was all over the place, except no one can find it and that’s why I’m concerned. Now did you see the statement in the Atlanta Journal Constitution?

Yeah....

[Note: No such direct quote from McKinney can be found in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.]

And did you confirm this with McKinney?

Well, I worked with her office. The statement is from the floor of the House [of Representatives].... Right?

So did you check the statement from the Floor of the House?

I mean I wouldn’t have done the story. . . . Have you looked at House transcripts?

Yes. Did you check that?

Of course.

You did check it?

[Note: No such McKinney statement can be found in the transcripts or other records of the House of Representatives.]

I think you have to go back to the House transcripts.... I mean it was all over the place at the time.



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Yes, this is one fact the Times reporter didn’t fake: The McKinney “quote” was, indeed, all over the place: in the Washington Post, National Public Radio, and needless to say, all the other metropolitan dailies--everywhere but in Congresswoman McKinney’s mouth.

Nor was it in the Congressional Record, nor in any recorded talk, nor on her Website, nor in any of her radio talks. Here’s the Congresswoman’s statement from the record:

“George Bush had no prior knowledge of the plan to attack the World Trade Center on September 11.”

Oh.

And I should say former Congresswoman McKinney.

She was beaten in the August 2002 Democratic primary. More precisely, she was beaten to death, politically, by the fabricated quote.



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Months before the 2000 presidential elections, the offices of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 90,000 citizens from the voter rolls because they were convicted felons . . . and felons can’t vote in Florida. There was one problem: 97 percent of those on the list were, in fact, innocent.

They weren’t felons, but they were guilty . . . of not being white. Over half the list contained names of non-whites. I’m not guessing: I have the list from out of the computers of Katherine Harris’ office -- and the “scrubbed” voter’s race is listed with each name.

And that’s how our President was elected: by illegally removing tens of thousands of legal African American voters before the race.

But you knew that . . . at least you did if you read the British papers -- I reported this discovery for the Guardian of London. And I reported again on the nightly news. You saw that . . . if you live in Europe or Canada or South America.

In the USA, the story ran on page zero. Well, let me correct that a bit. The Washington Post did run the story on the fake felon list that selected our President -- even with a comment under my byline. I wrote the story within weeks of the election, while Al Gore was still in the race. The Post courageously ran it . . . seven months after the election.

The New York Times ran it . . . well, never, even after Katherine Harris confessed the scam to a Florida court after she and the state were successfully sued by the NAACP.

So, I can’t say the New York Times always makes up the news. Sometimes the news just doesn’t make it.

eddief
07-28-04, 12:02 PM
At BBC Television, we had Florida’s computer files and documents, marked “confidential” -- stone-cold evidence showing how the vote fix was deliberately crafted by Republican officials. Not a single...

eddief
07-28-04, 12:06 PM
I suppose it’s my fault, McKinney’s electronic lynching. Unlike other politicians, McKinney, who’s earning her doctorate at Princeton School of Diplomacy, enjoys doing her own research, not relying...

enviro
07-28-04, 12:09 PM
90000 "convicted felons" may have been injustly removed from the rolls - doubt it, but it could have happened - doesn't mean squat to me when the democrats pushed election officials to not count the Military absentee votes until a Judge ordered them to do so.

To me, both parties played the game. We know who minorities traditionally vote for and we know who the military traditionally votes for.

enviro
07-28-04, 12:11 PM
Note to Congresswoman McKinney: Silence is Golden



by Michael King



A New Visions Commentary paper published October 2001 by The National Center
for Public Policy Research * 777 N. Capitol St. NE #803, Washington, DC 20002, 202/371-1400, Fax 202-408-7773, E-Mail Project21@nationalcenter.org, Web http://www.nationalcenter.org.
Reprints permitted provided source is credited.


Georgia residents have an embarrassment on their hands. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has planted her foot so deep in her throat it may take surgery to remove it. So much so that her constituents ought to remove her from office.

When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal visited Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center remains, he offered New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani a $10 million check to help with relief efforts. Along with the check came a letter condemning terrorism and offering condolences to the people of New York City. Attached to the letter was a press release from the prince pointing out that the disaster and associated problems were directly related to American middle east policy in general and the Israel-Palestine face-off in particular.1

"Rudy the Rock," to the collective cheers of most of the country, turned down the prince's money.2 The next day, Prince Alwaleed called into CNBC to salvage his reputation. He told the network, "The crime that took place in New York will have no justification whatsoever," but added that there are those in the Arab world who believe the United States is siding with the Israelis over the Palestinians.3

Then Congresswoman McKinney jumped into the fray. The same day the prince called CNBC, she sent him a letter apologizing for Giuliani's rebuke. She suggested the prince instead donate the money to "the poor" and "people of color" in the United States who "could use the $10 million." McKinney essentially agreed with Prince Alwaleed's political machinations, writing that reports of "excessive, and often indiscriminate, use of force by Israeli security forces... breeds a hotbed of anger and despair that destabilizes peace in the Middle East and elsewhere."4

McKinney further suggested accepting the money was a free speech issue. "Whether [Giuliani] agreed with you or not," she wrote, "I think he should have recognized your right to speak and make observations about a part of the world which you know so well."5 Unfortunately for her, her views and those of Prince Alwaleed run counter to that of the heart and soul of America.

Zell Miller, one of Georgia's U.S. senators and a fellow Democrat, called McKinney's letter "disgraceful." Many of her 4th District constituents are also upset with her, including many of her black constituents. Surprisingly, and shocking to me, many people in the poorer sections of DeKalb County - which comprises her core constituency - reportedly support her actions.6

Congresswoman McKinney issued a written statement defending her stance and the letter, saying: "My point was simply that the $10 million donation should have been accepted whether or not we, as Americans, agree with every position taken by the prince."7 But, wait, it gets better. In the midst of all of this, it's been revealed that she was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a function hosted by the Council for American-Islamic Relations, a group which allegedly has ties to terrorist organizations.8

By the way, this isn't the first time McKinney has been an embarrassment. She whined loudly when her oddly-shaped congressional district was redrawn from a shape that facilitated the election of a black candidate to one that more correctly reflected the geographic area. After initially making a racial issue out of it, she stopped yelling when she won reelection.

In Congress, McKinney is known for camping out on the House floor for five to six hours to get a choice seat when the President speaks. This ensures that this "aisle bird" will be seen on national television.9 Her colleagues reportedly call her "the cutest Communist in Congress" for some of her policy stands.10 Her advocacy for African leaders who've wooed her have some critics charging she does more for people in Africa than she for her Georgia district.

But, with her letter to Prince Alwaleed, Congresswoman McKinney has outdone herself. She has tried to equate the number of black prisoners in jail in America with the problems facing Israel and Palestine. In her letter, she essentially said, "Prince, you're right. We Americans are so insensitive and stupid that we deserved to have four planes hijacked and used like missiles, killing more than 5,000 people. Oh, by the way, can I have that check for $10 million now?"

All Americans should be insulted by Cynthia McKinney's behavior. Many Georgians, myself included, are insulted. Her actions indicate she does not have the comportment to represent the interests of American citizens. Let's hope that her constituents are insulted enough to trundle her out of office in the next election.





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Footnotes:

1 "Saudi Prince Donates $10 million to NY, But Giuliani Sends Check Back to Him: Prince Alwaleed Criticizes U.S. Stand on Palestinians", New York Times article reprinted by Atlanta Journal-Consitution, available at http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/terrorism/homefront/1012donation.html.
2 Melanie Eversley, "McKinney Apologizes to Saudi for Snub in NY," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 14, 2001.
3 Allison Romano, "CNBC Gets Royal Phone Call," Broadcasting and Cable, October 12, 2001.
4 Letter from Congresswoman Cytnhia McKinney to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, available at http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/news/1014mckinneyletter.html.
5 Ibid.
6 Melanie Eversley, "Letter to Saudi Prince: McKinney Isn't Sorry for Comments on Israel," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 17, 2001.
7 Ibid.
8 Alexander Bolton, "Rep. McKinney to Headline Muslim Fundraiser," The Hill, October 3, 2001.
9 Neil Boortz, "This Time Cynthia's Not Just Pathetic... She's Disgusting," available at http://www.boortz.com/oct15-01.htm.
10 Ibid.



(Michael King is a member of the African-American leadership network Project 21 and an Internet and radio broadcaster in Atlanta, Georgia. He can be reached at mhking@bellsouth.net and http://www.geocities.com/mhking1/. A downloadable photo of Michael King is available at http://www.nationalcenter.org/StaffP21MHKingHead.jpg.)


Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.

enviro
07-28-04, 12:13 PM
Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot <br />
By Juliet Eilperin <br />
Friday, April 12, 2002 <br />
<br />
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other...

eddief
07-28-04, 12:15 PM
enviro
Forget about if the election fraud happened or not. That's water under the bridge. The point is Mckinney was pushing for an investigation, and that, along with her call for an investigation into Bush41's dealings, made her a target for one of the biggest hatchet jobs I've ever heard of.

eddief
07-28-04, 12:17 PM
enviro
Greg Palast blew your article out of the water (did you read all of Greg's article?). He checked the transcripts to the radio show in question and she said no such thing. All she wanted was an investigation into intelligence failures.

enviro
07-28-04, 12:20 PM
You're probably right Eddie - but I think she could have chosen her words a bit more carefully. She sounded fanatical and her own constituents were embarrassed to the point to elect someone else. Even her fellow congressmen and senators that were basically questioning the same things as her distanced themselves from her.

She didn't cover her own six on this one. I don't feel sorry for her.

enviro
07-28-04, 12:24 PM
(April, 2002) Came under slight scrutiny when it was reveled over 75% of donations given to her after 9-11 were from Arab-Muslim organizations outside her district. Her campaign manager, in her defense, responded in such way as; not everyone who contributes to her has to like America.

(August, 2002) McKinney's bizarre comments and questionable campaign donations cost her the primary election as she was voted out. The Congresswoman blamed democracy for losing her election.

eddief
07-28-04, 12:25 PM
She crossed the Bush family and got hammered for it. I don't feel sorry for her, because she is obviously a strong woman that doesn't need any pity from me.

enviro
07-28-04, 12:33 PM
No Eddie - your guy disputes a direct statement that she said Bush DID know about the attacks prior to 9-11.

What she said OFFICIALLY is what I posted above. Unedited:

"Instead of congress investigating what went wrong, President Bush placed a phone call to Majority leader Tom Daschle asking him not to investigate the events of Sept. 11. And hot on the heels of the president's phone call was another phone call from the vice president asking that Tom Daschle not investigate," McKinney told Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein. "My question is what do they have to hide?"

And for that matter, her mouth got her exactly what she deserved. Her point was the same as the paraphrased version of her comments. It was only after she took so much heat that she and a few supporters said she didn't say that.

She pulled a Clinton. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" - and later "Oh, when I said that, I didn't think a blow job was sexual relations"

eddief
07-28-04, 12:44 PM
I don't see all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists so I wouldn't be concerned about these organizations. When you connect the groups that contributed to McKinney to terrorism then tell me about it. American Arabs and Muslims have every right to participate in our political process. Bush was getting Saudi money when he was drilling dry holes in Texas. How many of the hijackers were from Saudi? See how the game can be played with both the left and the right?

eddief
07-28-04, 12:53 PM
enviro
It's true that Bush didn't want the 911 commission. Only political pressure from the families forced him into creating it. When she asked what did Bush have to hide what she meant was intelligence failures. I was asking the same question. If you have nothing to worry about, then you should be welcoming an investigation to make sure another 9/11 doesn't happen. Bush is not an emperor or king that is above criticism. I feel the criticism was justified because the Bush administration was trying to block an investigation into the events of 9/11. Can you imagine if a Democrat were in the White House and tried to do the same thing. Republicans would have been screaming bloody murder and would have had the same type of criticism. You know Gore would have been called a despot (and worse) if he tried to block an investigation.

enviro
07-28-04, 01:07 PM
For once we are in agreeement.

But she had to have known that by not having any tact at all, she was opening herself up to criticism. She could have raised the questions better - not to the point where everyone thinks she's a conspiracy theorist.

Gore would have blocked a commission that could implicate him and Bill as ineffective appeasers of terrorism.