First Class, A-#1 American Crappola at its finest

The following is a good example of what the late George Carlin would call a "real bullshit story".  It’s also a glaring example of one of the big downsides to our Internet society.  It’s an e-mail that a good friend of mine passed along to me that someone had forwarded to him and countless other people out there who now believe its contents as the gospel truth.  Too bad it’s a total pack of lies…

[NOTE: I didn’t alter any of the text, but I did clean up the author’s abominable punctuation!]

Perhaps there are SOME out there who are beginning to get "the picture".  The following is a narrative taken from Sunday Morning's televised "'Meet The Press" and the author is employed by none other than the Washington Post!!  Yeah......the Washington Post of New York and Los Angeles Times fame!!  Must say that I'm dually impressed..................

From Sunday's Televised "Meet the Press", Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag. [Obama Explains National Anthem Stance Sun, 07 Sept. 2008 11:48:04 EST], General Bill Ginn' USAF (ret.) asked Obama to explain why he doesn't follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.  The General also stated to the Senator that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171...  During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.  At the very least, "Stand and Face It."Senator Obama Live on Sunday states, "As I've said about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides," Obama said. "There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression.  And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message.  You know, the ‘bombs bursting in air’ and all.  It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose.  I like the song "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing." If that were our anthem, then I might salute it.  We should consider to reinvent our National Anthem as well as to redesign our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love.  It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren.  If we as a nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails.  Perhaps a state or period of mutual concord between our governments.  When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts.  We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice.  My wife disrespects the Flag for many personal reasons.  Together she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past, many years ago.  She has her views and I have mine.  Of course now, I have found myself about to become the President of the United States and I have put aside my hatred.  I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path of hope.  My wife and I look forward to becoming our Country's First Family.  Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it right.  This could possibly be our next President. I, for one, am speechless.

I, too, would be speechless—if I actually believed this steaming pile of pigeon pellets!

There’s just one little problem with the above spiel—Sen. Obama never made these remarks!  A quick check of the "Meet The Press" transcripts (which can easily be found on msnbc.com) proves that neither Obama or this General Ginn character appeared on the show on September 7th.  Joltin’ Joe Biden was Tom Brokaw’s sole guest on that day, and even if Obama was indeed on the program, what the hell would this Ginn goomer be doing asking the questions?  That’s Brokaw’s (and formerly the late Tim Russert’s) job.  The cats over at snopes.com also shed plenty of light on this malarkey to explain how it got circulated in the first place.

Does anyone in their right mind think that Obama would really be THAT colossally stupid to make those remarks two months prior to the election?  It would be political suicide!  And even if he did say this crap, don’t you think the conservative media mongooses (mongeese?) like Bill O’Retard, Rush Limburger, Sean Calamity, (D)Ann Coulter, Michelle "Squawkin’" Malkin, et al, would’ve been all over this like flies on shit?  It’s all you would’ve heard on the nightly news for a freakin’ month!  Even if you despise Barack Obama with all your heart, you have to admit that this kind of deliberate misinformation that preys upon people’s biases and prejudices is downright irresponsible.  If you don’t like Obama (or any candidate, for that matter), then fine, but don’t just make up stuff to convince people not to vote for him!

Naturally, many of the recipients of e-mails like these WANT this stuff to be true so they can use it to justify their bias against on Obama instead of (or in addition to) just their usual hang-ups and/or ignorance in regards to him.  Shit, whoever wrote this thing could’ve claimed that Barack Obama also farts fire, owns white female teenage slaves and intends to appoint Michael Jackson as his Secretary of State if he’s elected, and they’d friggin’ believe it!  The Internet is a wonderful thing, but it can be a double-edged sword that allows misguided cretins to hide behind their computers and screen names, and I find it pathetic that so many people (including my friend) all too often base their political opinions on an e-mail originated by some schmuck that they probably never even met before passes along to them without even checking the facts.

As for the lapel pin thing, I covered this several months ago on here—I don’t give a damn if a candidate wears a flag pin on his lapel or a carnation that squirts water!  I wanna know what they plan to do to lead us out of the abyss we find ourselves in.  And as for the "Star Spangled Banner", I personally think it’s a stupid song—the melody is atrocious and it’s difficult for even trained professionals to sing, and like it or not, all you conservatives, it DOES make us sound like a bunch of war mongers to other nations.  I’ve long felt that "America The Beautiful" or "My Country ‘Tis of Thee" should be our National Anthem anyway—they’re much prettier songs in much the same vein as "Oh, Canada".  Then again, given the current state of our nation, perhaps "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones might be more appropriate.  But, I digress…

Getting back to the e-mail thing, sadly this kind of stuff also fosters hateful crap like this that our good friend Dr. Sardonicus posted over on his blog.  What sucks the most is there ain’t a damn thing we can do about it until people wise up and get educated about what’s what and who’s who.  I do give John McCain credit for attempting to muzzle some of his own followers who accuse Obama of being a terrorist.  Far too late to gain my vote at this point, but it goes to show he at least has some class and isn’t totally wretched.  So why does he continue to allow his own running mate, Ms. Winky Dink, to essentially do the same thing at her recent campaign stops?

And the band played on…