I'm emailing this to everyone I know. If you use the BCC line to put everyone's address in, the people you send it to will only be able to see their own email address. They won't know who else you sent it to so you can protect everyone's privacy.
If anyone sends you one of the email smears against Obama, you can reply with this. You can also SEND THIS TO EVERYBODY YOU KNOW so they'll have an easy response as well. We need to get this in front of as many eyes as possible and get people to foward it on if we're going to counter the smear campaign. More than 250 people are involved so far.
Anyway, here's the email:
Subject: End the smears
I hope you will take the time to read this. It’s not an attempt to sway you towards a particular candidate, it’s an attempt to end the reckless smear campaigns that plague this nation. When Sen. John McCain ran for president eight years ago, the far right ran a smear campaign against him in South Carolina, accusing him of fathering an illegitimate black child. Such tactics were an outrage then and they’re an outrage now. Their new target is Sen. Barack Obama. They claim he’s secretly a Muslim, went to an extremist school as a child and doesn't say the pledge of allegiance (among other things). Yet not ONE word of this is true. The bottom line? Obama is a Christian, he attended a secular (non-religious) school in Indonesia and he has led the pledge of allegiance on the Senate floor numerous times. Whichever candidate you support isn’t the point here, the point is this: are we going to tolerate such negative and baseless attacks that have nothing to do with the real issues? Unfortunately, some people might take such emails at face value and believe them to be true. There are also those who forward such emails simply because it fits their agenda.This is made especially worse by the fact that Fox “news” ran some of these rumors without bothering to even try to verify them. So much for being “fair and balanced” or even responsible, for that matter. Real news organizations, such as CNN, have debunked these rumors and they’ve done so without the “unnamed sources” and innuendo used by the smear campaign.
Again, this email isn’t an attempt to sway you to towards a particular candidate. I feel as strongly about this as I did when the far right went after McCain eight years ago. It’s about negative, baseless attacks and trying to put an end to them. If anyone forwards any such emails to you, PLEASE send them this email or at least send them these links. Look at it this way, if they’re going to send you a pack of lies that they haven’t bothered to verify, they certainly can’t take issue with you responding with the truth.
These first few are video, so they don’t even have to read a thing. Obama LEADING pledge of allegiance on Senate floorhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIyBwkuqF4E Discussion of the pledge of allegiance mythhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPT6edfURTI&feature=related Obama As A Muslim Extremist - CNN Counters FOX Lieshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhWaiULqkp4
Obama responding to dirty trickshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7INpMhtG3g&feature=related
Visiting the troops in Afghanistan—The claim: an email sent by a soldier in Afghanistan claimed that Obama “blew off” soldiers who had lined up to meet him and was more interested in publicity pictures (playing basketball) than meeting the troops.
The reality: Military brass say the email is a lie and the soldier that wrote the email has recanted it. The Pentagon’s own video of the visit even shows Obama meeting and dining with the troops in Afghanistan. The email is also wrong in that Obama didn't play basketball in Afghanistan (he played basketball in Kuwait).
Video: Obama Visits With Troops:Obama meeting and having breakfast with the troops in Afghanistan.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smXwiGOCDXg&eurl=http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/afghanistan.asp
Army officials refute claim of Barack Obama snub in Afghanistan:N.Y Daily News"These comments are inappropriate and factually incorrect," said Bagram spokeswoman Army Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, who added that such political commentary is barred for uniformed personnel. Obama didn't play basketball at Bagram or visit the Clamshell, she said. Home-state troops were invited to meet him, but his arrival was kept secret for security reasons.
"We were a bit delayed ... as he took time to shake hands, speak to troops and pose for photographs," Nielson-Green said. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/24/2008-07-24_army_officials_refute_claim_of_barack_ob.html
From the Army Times:Army Times sent an e-mail to Porter, a Utah Army National Guard member assigned to the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion, asking if he could verify that he wrote the controversial e-mail and requesting an interview.
Porter’s reply declined the interview request, but said:
“I am writing this to ask that you delete my e-mail and not forward it, after checking my sources some of the information that was put out in my e-mail was wrong. This e-mail was meant only for my family. Please respect my wishes and delete the e-mail and if there are any blogs you have my e-mail portrayed on I would ask if you would take it down too.”http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/Military_blog.Obama_072508w/
The “Wake Up America!” Email—This one is a whopper. Among other things, it claims Obama wants to replace he National Anthem with the song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.” It has a long quote, allegedly from Obama, that says some pretty unkind things about America.
The reality: the "article" is a work of fiction by a conservative columnist who meant it as a joke. Someone took this column, added to it, and is sending it out as an email smear.http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/blackwell.asp
The Anti-Christ email—The claim: Obama is a Muslim and fits the description of the anti-Christ in the Book of Revelation. The email claims that Revelation describes the anti-Christ as being “a man, in his 40s, of Muslim descent.”
The reality: This passage is not in the Book of Revelation, nor any other part of the Bible for that matter. It's pure fiction. As mentioned above, Obama isn't a Muslim either.http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.aspMaureen Dowd and campaign funding—The Claim: Dowd’s June 29 column asserted that Obama’s campaign funds came from the Middle East and China. The Reality: Dowd herself said the “column” is a fake. She told Politifact.com that she did not write it and "It just seems like anyone who is familiar with my column would know this wasn’t me."http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/558/ Dowd’s actual column that day:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinion/29dowd.html?_r=1&oref=sloginMichelle Obama’s thesis—The claim: her thesis is unavailable to the public because it refers to black solidarity and white oppression. The reality: The University did not originally release the thesis, but changed its mind after the Obama campaign gave a copy to Politico. In her thesis, Michelle Obama writes that black solidarity in the 1970s was likely caused by feelings of oppression—she is clearly referring to students of the past and not herself.http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/thesis.asp http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html
Alleged racist statements in Obama’s books—The quotes in the email making this claim are altered, taken out of context and in some cases completely made up.http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ownwords.asp
Obama’s real name and birthplace— The claim: He was born in Kenya and named Barry Muhammad Obama The reality: He was born in Hawaii and named Barack Hussein Obama You can even see a copy of his birth certificate at this link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/12/11012/6168/320/534616
Obama’s position on Iraq—The claim: Obama told the Chicago Tribune in 2004 that he agreed with President Bush about the Iraq war.The reality: Obama was talking about how to stabilizing Iraq—he was NOT claiming agreement with Bush on the war itself. The Tribune article notes that Obama “opposed the Iraq invasion before the war. But he now believes U.S. forces must remain to stabilize the war-ravaged nation -- a policy not dissimilar to the current approach of the Bush administration."http://mediamatters.org/items/200801140002
NAFTA— The claim: the email repeats the lie about what an Obama aide allegedly told Canadian officials about NAFTA.The truth: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported the story turned out to be false. Obama advisor Austin “responded to Canadian questions by clarifying that Obama wasn't pushing to scrap NAFTA entirely, but that the agreement needed labor and environmental safeguards, basically what Obama had been saying in public. The memo was simply inaccurate, as even the Harper government now acknowledges.” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the leak "blatantly unfair," pledged to get to the bottom of it, and said "there was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA."The Leon Weinstein letter/email— Weinstein writes an “open letter” to Obama, in which Weinstein pretends to be a neutral party with concerns about Obama. In reality, Weinstein is a far-right Republican and his “letter” is chock full of lies. Book lie No. 1— The claim: In “Dreams of My Father” Obama wrote: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race". The reality: Obama didn’t write this, the quote is a flat-out liehttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/517/ Book lie No. 2— The claim: Obama wrote "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." The reality: Weinstein intentionally edits this quote to change its meaning. Here’s the actual paragraph: "When people who don't know me well, black or white, discover my background (and it is usually a discovery, for 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) I see the split-second adjustments they have to make, the searching of my eyes for some telltale sign." Voting “present”— The email takes issue with the fact that Obama sometimes voted “present” in the Illinois Senate. The reality: Present Votes Are an Accepted Legislative Strategy in the Illinois Senatehttp://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/01/21/present_votes_are_an_accepted.php Also: Abner J. Mikva, a former Illinois state legislator, congressman, federal judge and White House Counsel from 1994 to 1995 backs Obama on the use of “present” votes.http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/mikva-021608/index.html The march on Selma— The claim: Obama lied in a speech that his parents met during the historic march to Selma Alabama. The reality: Obama never made this claim. Rather, he said the civil rights movement (such as the march on Selma) made it possible for his parents to marry.http://www.barackobama.com/2007/03/04/selma_voting_rights_march_comm.php Michelle Obama's thesis (claim No. 2)—The claim: Michelle Obama claims in her thesis that she feels obligated to serve the black community “first and foremost.”The reality: Michelle was writing about how she felt when she first entered college. Later in the thesis, she states that her views on that issue have changed. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/505/
Raising taxes—The claim: Obama will raise taxes on almost everything, items that are too numerous to list here.
“This widely distributed message is so full of misinformation that we find it impossible to believe that it is the result of simple ignorance or carelessness on the part of the writer. Almost nothing it says about Obama's tax proposals is true. We conclude that this deception is deliberate.”http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/would_obama_tax_my_profits_if_i.html
Obama’s finances—The claim: Obama’s education and house were paid for with money from questionable sources.The reality: Obama and his wife paid for college with scholarships and student loans. They paid off these debts largely from Obama’s two bestselling books.http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/money.asp
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