It seems to me this may be the year of the spam campaign. I'm not on mailing lists, but I do get emails forwarded from relatives, etc. So far I've gotten a handful of really nasty anti-Obama emails. I find that conservatives are just better organized about these sorts of things for the most part and it is easier to run a scare campaign against a newcomer. The one's I've gotten are typical fear-mongering stuff, mostly based on half truths or even outright lies, but what really surprised me in one recent one was the last line in one about how Obama wants to disarm America. It read: "Let's go coon huntin'!" Are you kidding me? I had no doubt there would be people who would never vote for a black man for president and I even expected racism to rear its ugly head, but I have to admit, this surprised me, particularly considering the email was forwarded around to a BUNCH of people.
Jeff, I wish I could share with you some of the nastygrams I've received on my blog. This stuff is just beyond the pale, all from Obama supporters. I also want ot highlight that Obama has paid bloggers who run around and intimidate internet posters/bloggers/columnists and attempt to control the dialogue on their sites. Then there is the coordinated strategy of instructing the lefty blogs (Kos, Huffington, etc) to post smears (many bigoted) and then having CNN/MSNBC/ABC report them in the mainstream since 'the blogs are talking about it'. There is simply no denying the media is supporting Obama. There is no denying that. The internet warfare is on both sides, you have to admit that.
From my experience, conservatives in general dominate spam chain mails. If they aren't grabbing the pitchforks about the evil liberals they are letting me know about god or immigrants. I get quite a few, saying that I'll get untold amounts of luck if I send it along to x amounts of people. Maybe the wrong people have my mailing address, but I don't think I've ever received a liberal chain mail.
The sewage being thrown out by right-wing nutcases in email is unbelievable. If it gives you any comfort, a person in my office who used to believe much of their garbage (as recently as a couple of months ago) is now disgusted by them also. Not that she is necessarily a representative sample, but I think their effect is wearing off.
With all due respect, I never understood why one would be surprised at this. This is why alot of people say racism is alive and well. I work in the IT field and I see deragatory racial, sexist, etc type emails from people you would never expect it from. What disappoints me the most is these people actually take these emails as if its the gospel, when all they have to do is do a google search on said topic to find out if its true. News from blogs and emails is probably the easiest way to divide the races, cultures, sex's, etc...
Hmmm. This one came to me today... This lady has a point. Obama's 143 Days of Senate Experience Posted by Cheri Jacobus May 5, 2008 at 5:35 pm Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much. From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. 143 days -- I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that. In contrast, John McCain's 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever. At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride. Think about IT!!! Think you know who this man is? This possible President of the United States !! Read Below and ask yourselves, is this REALLY someone we can see as the President of our great nation!!!! Below are a few lines from Obama's books; In his words! >From Dreams of My Father: 'I ceased to advertise my mother's race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.' From Dreams of My Father : 'I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.' From Dreams of My Father: 'There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.' From Dreams of My Father: 'It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.' From Dreams of My Father: 'I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa , that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself , the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.' And FINALLY the Most Damming one of ALL of them!!! >From Audacity of Hope: 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.' * If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!
To be fair, I have a lot of conservative friends, and I've never seen the email Jeff has eluded to. Perhaps it was written by a liberal to incite outrage.
I get propaganda forwarded to me by my parents every day. Select, Delete, View Trash, Delete. I don't want to read political stuff when I check my e-mail. I also don't want to hear political stuff at church, and they have a different opinion on that as well.
Maybe I don't have enough conservative friends but I feel like I'm getting too many spam and forwarded pro-Obama or anti-McCain / Republican emails. From what I've seen these aren't quite as vitriolic as the Anti-Obama emails but they are annoying and also have a lot of questionable facts.
Jeff . . . I find your surprise . . . refreshing because . . . it shows a hopeful soul however it does not surprise me at all Heck look at the responses in this very thread some . . seem like they ready to yell and scream H*LL YEA!! "Let's go coon huntin'!" it is out there. .. and it is ugly after the whispering campaign about McCain in 2004 [Black Baby!!] nothing is truly beyond the vile evil bilefilled masses of that hatefilled group of people that only want to TERRORIZE . . .er .. . scare people into voting one way or another Rocket River
Jeff I get the exact same thing from relatives too..it's always some skewed anti Obama "fact" about his "cousin in Africa, the evil warlord" or "his Islamic past no one talks about." It's really ridiculous and I know that the people that send it to me believe it to help justify their hate of Democrats
I should say that I know liberals do it too. I have no doubt because I've read some of it online. I'm not really surprised racism exists. I'm not blind and I know how difficult it is for some of my friends who are black - despite this being the 21st century and all. But, I was just surprised at how blatant it was and how easily it was distributed without any thought at all. Fatty Fat: That email has been circulating for months.
This is freaking scary...I would like some bonafide refutation from the left for peace of mind...Please...
Especially when it's CC'ed to people, you should do a reply-all and point out how factually incorrect and stupid the emails are. It will shame people into not propagating this stuff. If you just let it go, it will continue.
I know you know how to use Google or type in www.snopes.com. http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp Basically most of the passages have been reworded and/or taken out of context. Duh.
