Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lies, damned lies, and the internet...

I'm home sick. I'm REALLY sick. Upper respiratory crud with headache, cough, chills, and fever, 'nuff said.

So I was really in no mood for a *$*#*@! "helpful" email that turned up in my inbox today, bashing Obama, purportedly giving the "real" story on his visit to Afghanistan, supposedly from a soldier serving in Afghanistan. The jist of the drivel was that Obama "shunned the opportunity to talk to Soldiers to thank them for their service" and "really he was just here to make a showing for the American's [sic] back home that he is their candidate for President". The writer finished by saying, "I just don't understand how anyone would want him to be our Commander-and-Chief [sic]". Uh-huh. That may be the only honest statement in the email. And while I'm at it, for what it's worth, Article Two of the Constitution establishes the President as commander-IN-chief of the armed forces, not commander-AND-chief. The icing on the cake was an Einstein quote at the bottom of the email: 'The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who do nothing about them'.

Rrrrrrriiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhttttttt.

Not wanting to be included in that group,
I considered it my civic duty to find the Snopes article pointing out that the report is false and totally outrageous, part of a chain email campaign smearing Obama. The Snopes article is accompanied by photos (one of which I've included here) and a video that belie the accusations.







I cut and pasted the link, with a note asking people to please check it out before disseminating the misinformation any further, and hit "Reply All". And if that ticks people off...well, frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

6 comments:

Chris said...

My father forwarded that to me (as well as a group of a million others) and I was "blessed" to get all of the reply alls blasting him for the same thing. You were probably one of them (ha ha).

I wanted to call him and say keep me the #%*# off your mass emails!

emmapeelDallas said...

LOL! My sentiments exactly! And in the guise of "enlightenment"...it really chaps my hide...

Jan said...

Good for you. GET WELL!!

TJ said...

Me too, damn sick of the politics and games.
The summers here are so short so every day counts.
I hope you get feeling better fast...Love TJ

Diane M. Roth said...

I'm glad you did this. I love snopes and wish more people would use them before they send out these emails.

but, of course, for some people there is a "will to believe"....

Stratoz said...

made me think of seeing my parents a little while back// good food, good jazz... but the hotel bar had the news on big screens and led to lousy conversation at times.

love that "reply all" I do it to when nonsense comes my way.