Sleeping Through Speeches [Victor Davis Hanson Defends Littlegreen Footballs]

pajamasmedia.com ^ | September 23rd, 2009 | Victor Davis Hanson

[WaterBoard]

Little Green What?

Some bloggers sent me postings the other day about Charles Johnson’s Little Green Footballs website, and suggested that the site has changed—as in flipped sides. I have not followed the controversy, but I once rode a bike down in LA for an afternoon with Johnson and found him both a serious and bright guy with all sorts of original ideas about radical Islam and the anti-Enlightenment dangers it posed.

Out of curiosity I went to the site today. All I discovered different was a change in emphasis, but not necessarily attitude. He still is strongly anti-jihad; the difference is that he now worries just as much about creationism, paleo-right tribalism, and the white supremacists’ piggy-banking onto efforts to stop radical Islam. Those are legitimate worries for any liberal (as in 19th-century liberal) minded. Almost monthly I am smeared by the far far right for defending the Anglo-American effort in World War II or support for the melting-pot traditional of racial integration and intermarriage. So I understand some of his concerns.

Johnson, it should be remembered, did a masterful job of debunking the Rather nonsense, and in the dark days of 2001-2 of identifying the idiot fringe that appeased radical Islam. He was also always attuned to the anti-Semitic elements on both left and right that sought to blame Israel for our challenges in Iraq and elsewhere.

Sorry to those who wrote me, but I can no more get on the anti-Johnson bandwagon than I could the birth certificate allegations about Obama (why he won’t release his college transcripts is a far more interesting and valid inquiry).

[hellinahandcart]

No, sauropod and I just happened to be part of the best-timed freep ever-—outside the CBS office in DC, immediately after the Rathergate sh!t hit the fan (and I do mean “immediately”, I think it was that Tuesday, with the fake memos being shown on Sunday night. There were maybe 10-11 of us, and we were outnumbered by the press by about 4 to 1.

Glad to have been a part of it all, but we’re not going to take any credit for the discovery/debunking.

[GunningForTheBuddha]

First he started attacking Robert Spencer. He then used information he gained through his PayPal donation system to “out” a few Lizards that disagreed with him - at this point I surmised that CJ had lost it, and haven’t been back there since.

[hellinahandcart]

My mistake, it was a whole WEEK later. It took that long for the spit to hit the fan nationally.

[backhoe]

Here you are:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1211904/posts
60 Minutes to Infamy- those forged memos and The Shot Heard Round the World
various FR links | 09-10-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

And Buckhead was the original discoverer.

[The Shrew]

Here's a pretty thorough discussion of Rather's Ruin. This should help refresh everyones memory banks.

Regards,

TS

[Just A Nobody]

Glad you and pod were able to be a part of that historical event, regardless. How you guys doing? Were you in DC for 9-12?

[Just A Nobody]

backhoe, you ROCK! Thanks for the link to your outstanding archiving. It is now saved for future reference so I do not mess up again! ;*)

[Just A Nobody]

Thank you! I remembered reading it, just not all the pertinent details.

It was still FR that broke Rathergate. ;*)

[sauropod]

You give me too much credit. I was not directly involved in the debunking.

I *was* involved in heckling the SeeBS Washington offices at the time.