Did You Know That Senator Obama Is A Terrorist?

Senator Obama is a Muslim extremist who wants to overthrow the government. That's the rumor I read about on the front page of the Washington Post today. They're evidently in the business of whisper campaigning now.

Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a "Muslim plant" in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year.

This appeared on the front page of the very serious Washington Post and was written by Perry Bacon, Jr., whose irresponsible reporting makes frightened, dickless hooples like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Weiner Savage seem Murrow-ish. (Their dickless status is just a rumor from an e-mail circulating the internet, by the way.)

Yes, the Washington Post has elevated itself to the level of Glenn Beck's awesome question to Congressman Ellison: Prove to me that you're not working for our darkie enemies, you America-hating darkie you.

Any first year journalism student knows that the phrase "despite his denials" implies a certain level of guilt, as if Senator Obama has been forced to repeat that he's not an Islamic terrorist wherever he goes, just as Rudy Giuliani has to deny that he exploits 9/11 for political gain. Everyone knows that Giuliani is guilty of bleeding 9/11 for his own nefarious ends, even though he has repeatedly denied it -- and as recently as in Wednesday's CNN debate in which his 2-minute response to this issue included four mentions of "September 11th, 2001."

So, in other words, whenever it's reported that a politician is denying something, the general assumption is that he or she is lying. And that's one of the reasons why Karl Rove and other GOP operatives are engaged in this brand of ratfucking so often and with such effectiveness. They know the trust angles. They know the fear angles. And they can easily manipulate both with just the right kind of agitprop and rumormongering.

The infamous South Carolina whisper campaign that implied Senator McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child is arguably the most dastardly whisper campaign prior to this current cycle. The phone bank question was, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?" The question doesn't outright accuse the senator, but it implies an accusation -- especially when shoved through the filter of bigotry held by certain white Americans.

Remarkably, the Washington Post and Bacon aren't that subtle. In the second paragraph, Bacon uses the phrases: "he is a Muslim" and "he had received training in Islam in Indonesia." Phrases like this, when printed on one of the most important front pages in the world -- and then taken out of context as I have done here -- have the very real potential of aiding the agendas of far-right fearmongers, racists and unapologetically ignorant rednecks.

How easy would it be for a radical right-wing 527 to produce a commercial using these phrases? Really damn easy. Imagine this:

DEEP VOICE GUY: Barack Osam--Obama. Is he or is he not working for our enemies?

Photo of Obama slowly cross-dissolves into a photo of Bin Laden.

DEEP VOICE GUY: The Washington Post says, "Despite his denials... He is a Muslim," and, "He had received training in Islam in Indonesia."

Photo of Bin Laden with an overlay of the al-Qaeda monkey bars. Slow push-in.

DEEP VOICE GUY: Prove it, Barack Obama. Are you with the terrorists? On second thought... don't prove it.

Smash cut to black. Sound effect of an explosion and people screaming.

TEXT: Paid for by Frightened Dickless Bigots For Truth.

There's nothing technically inaccurate about the wording, even though the implications are way beyond absurd. Yet considering what we've seen before, am I so far off the mark with the concept?

The Swift Boat Liars; the ads showing Senator Cleland next to pictures of Bin Laden and Saddam; that weird "call me" ad two years ago that implied Harold Ford was plotting to use his mighty African power to grab up all the white women in Tennessee... No matter how thoroughly these accusations were debunked, they all seemed to have worked. Senator Kerry, Senator Cleland, Senator McCain and Congressman Ford all came up short when squaring off against the GOP's shameless whisper campaigns. Now, in the case of Senator Obama, the GOP ratfuckers have some tasty quotes to pull.

So you watch. If Senator Obama wins the nomination, and I believe he will, this is the kind of wackaloon insanity his campaign will face every damn day, say nothing of the adversity he'll confront regarding the color of his skin.

Why? Because America has become the Fear Nation. To wit, Bacon quoted an anonymous internet freakdog who wrote:

"Be careful, be very careful."

The irresponsibility of printing this anonymous quote confounds reason, and only the quote itself is more outrageous. Give me 10 minutes and I can find anonymous internet quotes saying all sorts of crap on a stick. Why? Because most of the internet is anonymous and therefore unaccountable to the truth. That's why, for example, the Washington Post doesn't print anonymous letters to the editor.

Speaking of irresponsible journalism, there's a newspaper published locally here in eastern Pennsylvania called The Myerstown Herald. This week's banner headline: "Skid Loader Hits Boy, 2." Other headlines include: "Creepy Losers Swipe Dirt Bike," and "Dorks Damage Window With Rock, Pumpkin." Herald headlines routinely include the words "goons", "thugs" and "punks." Seriously, you have to read this thing. I thought it was a brilliant meta-joke, but it's eerily real.

Myerstown, despite the sensational tone of its headlines, is the home to roughly four people and a diner. Yet the conservative scanner-jockey who writes and publishes the Herald makes you believe that the world is being slowly digested by a Godzilla-sized version of the Hamburglar.

It occurred to me, however, that the Herald is indicative of the American fear pandemic. Be careful! Creepy loser Muslims are out to kill us all! Prove to me that you're not an Islamic goon! The Republican fear factory, which is presently injecting its distortions into the Washington Herald -- I mean, Post, can only survive by successfully producing enough artificial hysteria so as to keep half of America cowering under its security woobies and voting for authoritarians like Rudy Giuliani.

Senator Obama is clearly not a Muslim terrorist "plant." But if enough people believe it, the truth doesn't matter. That's the Republican strategy, and today they have the Washington Post to thank for the assist.

--
I've officially relaunched my personal blog at BobCesca.com. So in between my usual outraged, profanity-laced rants here, I'll be posting shorter profanity-laced rants over at my personal site.

Comments

[Asim]

Yah...yah...any one who disagrees with israel and/or with the neocons is either a terrorist or an anti-semit­e..remembe­r the Brits called George Washington a terrorist.

[marksiet]

Strange as this may appear beware the old double switch. That is even though it appears to be outrageous supposition this very fact makes it suspect in terms of its validity.

You see the old double speak knows no end of lies. You say no it couldn't be. They of course agree knowing all along that it very well is in fact the case.

Look at the money. It isn't about the man. Never! Look where it comes from if you can.

Put it this way. All those dollars flowing out of our country via the oil revenues leading to a weakened dollar. Hello Arab so called domination is already happening. Look who is buying up property in this country. It really is the money trail that matters most. Forget the personalities.

Obama as a secret agent plant? Why not? It makes sense if you are trying to take over a country to take the long view. Here we want things right away but our culture just doesn't have a clue as to the sultans of moolah over there who know that through waiting and family loyalites they will get what they want.

I say don't discount this evenuation out of hand. Give it scrutiny deeper perhaps than any other kind of inquiry.

This same scrutiny reveals that the Bush family and the Administration's ties with Saudi Arabia amount to the same kind of a threat. No one wants to own up to it here because that kind of a thing is unthinkable. Guess what? That is exactly the reason it can be successful.

These candidates have their own money trails as powerful interests view for control. The chilling factor in all of this is that perhaps the same money interests support all of them. Wouldn't you want to stack the deck so that no matter who gets in they are beholden to you.

If you think this kind of a thing doesn't happen you are deliberately naive.

Oprah said yesterday we're watching dancing with the stars to forget the problems of the world. Well she is right about that.

[marsrocks]

Very interesting article but I found one thing disappointing. The Huffpost is usually exceptionally good at providing links so you can fact check or read more in depth about something. The writer provided no link to the Post to confirm what was really said. I had to Google it and follow someone else's link. Please provide links to your sources in the future. Otherwise, your stuff is great. I think it's important that we *all* fact check because the other side is usually throwing stuff out there that is blatantly false. We have to do better. And the Huffpost does.

[Xsasa]

I am a white South African who once believed Nelson Mandella was a terrorist.
How ashamed I & many like me became when the truth was revealed & how we had wore blinkers for so long.
Obama is a great guy & what the USA may need.

[jakibaez]

I am one of the worst critics of Obama. First, it is not that he is denys his muslims blood as much as what lenght he will go to become President. If he would have gone the mile with Hillary and caught up with her in the race, I would have more respect for him, but, instead he runs and makes sure that Oprah is there to pay his campaign(which should be investigated) and uses her to get him to the finish line. It bothers me how he uses the Kennedy factor in his speeches and how much he sounds like Bobby Kennedy. If speeches are compare it is actually a copy cat. It bothers me how he walks, very negro, and uneducated, and I am black myself, so it is not racist on my part. Another gesture is the hitting of the shoulder greeting, this is a "negro" thing, and most uneducated blacks thinks its acceptable in our nation with all people. I could see Obama meeting with North Korea and instead of bowing or shaking hands, goes up to the leaders and hit their shoulders without thinking. He is an embarrassment to the Democratic party and when he goes against Romney, he will lose, why? Because until he comes clean about being a muslim blood, he will never capture the state from the deep south and westerns who are the "red" states. Yes, he will win the democratic primary with the help of Marvelous Oprah who has annointed him as the saving new messiah for our country, but he will lose the main election. I rather vote republican than vote for this "false messiah".

[thepainter57]

Let's face it - journalists have lost their profession to the likes of the Limbaugh,Savage, Chris Matthews and more.
Now that the Washington Post is following suit is kinda sad.
The Wall Street Journal is soon to fall to Murdoch, so I guess we will have to depend on Karl Rove to keep re-writing news, history and anything he sees fit.
It is a greedy world out there and yes the rich guy is always gonna get his way.

[JaseAllen]

"If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

One of the root problems of our society is that people refuse to learn from the past. The kind of shenanigans perpetrated by our politicians today are the same perpetrated for the last several thousand years.

[OmarSpence]

Who gets to be president should be based on whether they are capable of performing the task.
Bigotry has no place among sensible people, and not all Muslims are terrorists. Nearly all Muslims are decent hard working people. America seriously needs to improve its relations with the Islamic world, not piss off every Muslim it sees. That is the only REAL solution to terrorism. A Muslim president would actually help alot with this.
Better than some stupid redneck bigot who just wants to bomb some A'rabs and make more enemies.

[Truthortradition]

It's not his race that makes him an unelectable candidate for President, it's his Muslim heritage. Obama's dad was a Muslim. And obama is a Muslim name, trust me.
Would America have elected a man or woman of Japanese heritage after Pearl Harbor?
In politics, perception is everything.
I like obama, but I shameless want Hillary to win. She's 100 percent American, a Methodist, and best of all, a smart cookie. She's a warrior for ALL the people, not just the oil barons. Go Hillary.

[paulsa]

What matters is how to perform jiujitsu on this kind of attacker.

Imagine the Obama campaign sending out an EM to its supporters (espoecially a group of key supporters who would take this on as a project)saying in essence:

We're going to be getting a lot of this stuff, people, and it's going to get worse. We've got to find a principled and powerful way to fight back in a new positive way, and I am absolutel going to need your help to turn this around.

There is something very specific you can do.

Every time you see something like this in the news, or every time you get an e-mail with such a charge, you need to send out 10 EM's and letters (we'll supply the text for you on our website) saying "This kind of gutter politics is exactly what my candidate doesn't do. It reminds me all over again why we need to change things in this country and why Obama is exactly the person I support. I'm asking you to join me in rejecting this kind of politics, and doing what we can to actively put it out of business. Please send this along to your friends."


The only good way to counter this kind of politics is to respond with ten times the power, so that the people sending this stuff will realize that they are actually strengthening our resolve every time they do it.

[belladawna]

that is very funny considering that christian zealots abuse the bible while "in office". i hardly think obama would go that far. he's wet behind the ears, so to speak, but not THAT much a fool....

glad to know that there was url for the "ratfucking" line!! made my day so glad you let us know what that meant!! LMAO
cheers*
p.s. hillary is gonna have a field day with this news.... LOL

[TiaPaula]

Obama is not a Muslim Plant. Perhaps Mitt Romney is a Morman Plant, Or Mike Huckabee is a Baptist plant. Only this mentality could come from the sick mind of Karl Rove. What about secular humanists? Would the Republicans string them up by there balls? These Republocrats only feed to the bigots, and fraidy cats which unfortunately are everywhere. Whoever wins, I feel sorry for the poor schmuck. They have inherited a morally bankrupt and physically spent nation.

[KarenZipdrive]

Hey, we already have a President who's owned by the Saudi Arabians, so what's the difference?

[Wildboar]

I love to see this stuff happen. It will only help to convince more Americans that the only hope for sanity in the White House is Ron Paul.

[WebGuy]

I'm not a Glenn Beck fan, but was surprised to see that he said: Prove to me that you're not working for our darkie enemies, you America-hating darkie you.

Of course, when I clicked on the link you provided I quickly learned he didn't say that. If you are going to aggressively paraphrase, at least say it up front.