Sleazeshow: Politics and Dirty Tricks 2008

Mailboxes both electronic and physical are being stuffed with sleaze and dirty political material this election season. You know, those fliers, leaflets or emails that slime one or the other presidential candidates as a baby killer, a sex fiend, a serial tax raiser, or as a pantywaist coddler of terrorists or commies. Some of it is generated by campaigns and organizations, others are produced by supporters. As a public service we are asking our OffTheBus readers to send along what they're receiving. Here are some samples. Hold your nose.

We at OffTheBus are not promoting or endorsing any of this material. But it exists, and we think you have a right to see what others are seeing. OffTheBus encourages you to use the comment section below at each of the entries to fact-check the material. Below is a list of organizations and websites that debunk material like this.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Emails:
* Hillary to replace Biden
* Green Watch America Claims Liberals Will Force Conservatives Offline
* Kenyan Missionaries Know Obama True Religious Devotions
* Biden and Wealth
* World Travels and Obama
* Not Exactly Pamphlet
* Obama and the National Anthem
* Obama and Fidel
* Obama and Alinsky
* McCain and Obama on the Issues
* Palin and the Banned Books
* Obama and the Anti-Christ
* Obama and Foreign Fund Raising
* Where is the Birth Certificate?
* Obama and Hindu Monkey Charm
* Obama's 757 Jet
* Obama and Bagram Visit
* Obama and citizenship

There are a number of websites dedicated to determining if what politicians, candidates and others say is true or not. If you hear shady information and want to check out if it's true, try searching one of these sites: the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania; the Washington Post's The Fact Checker; PolitiFact From St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly; and Snopes.com investigates urban legends. Factcheck.barackobama.com is the Obama campaign's official website devoted to debunking malicious rumors about the Senator. JohnMcCain.com lists McCain's official positions.

Comments

[alecsbook]

McCain is out of touch with reality...

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/09/mccains-healthcare-policy-out-of-touch-with-reality/

[alecsbook]

http://myrealitytelevision.com/2008/09/mccains-healthcare-policy-out-of-touch-with-reality/

[EricinMD]

There are some seriously sick and demented people out there. I am sure that most Republicans would not find any of the terrible racist ads acceptable. That being said, racism is still alive and well with a very small minority of people in the U.S. The Palin ads are way over the line too and very sexist.

[Danafink]

Racism is not only alive and well with a "very small minority of people" in the US. Racism is institutionalized, it is part of every aspect of society- working to privilege white folks at the expense of folks of color. The privilege is invisible to most white people, it's become so normalized. Unless you are white and you are actively working AGAINST racism, you are too part of the problem. Racism is often seen in this country as an act of hatred, an act of violence, or an extreme person. We should really be looking at racism as a system of power that works to privilege[whites] and oppress[folks of color]- in the housing market, in education, in the workforce, etc. By simply responding to racism as random acts of ignorance is not getting down to white supremacy, and that's what it's really about.

[BaltimoreSteve]

Let's get the tel. numbers and names of the people calling voters and saying that they are doing anti-Obama polling whereby they assert a false statement and ask if the voter knew about it. Let's nail these people. List their names here, and then report them to election boards.

[TrooAmerican]

Notice most of the Republican Anti Obama ads are racist?
thats the Republican Party Platform- White supremecist, liars, Racists, Bigots, and haters.

If you want to keep playing games with our soldiers lives, keep voting republican.
You desire more dead americans, vote republican.
You hate our troops and love Bin Laden and Al Quaida? Vote Republicans for the 3rd time in a row.

So you're against Abortion but for killing Americans after they have lived to a ripe old age of 19?
nice GOP platform.

[RealityBaseCamp]

Now somebody at the Post (hmm, who owns that, again?) is accusing Sen. O of "Stalling withdrawal from Iraq" for political reasons!! Sound like something they always deny?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09152008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/obama_tried_to_stall_gis_iraq_withdrawal_129150.htm

The righty blogs are pumping this out with the desperation of ShiftBaiters that think they have a real bone this time. They want to believe this really badly. I'm not familiar with the situation, and I don't have time to track it down now, but after wading through repost after repost of the same thing, it looks like the way they usually operate, so I'm skeptical at least. In fact, I'm gonna tentatively say it's the usual selectively-interpreted, lie-enhanced halftruth and fake outrage. Does somebody in the know want to tackle this?

[goldnchyl]

I've tried to find this elsewhere for two days now and haven't found anything that backs it up. I would think if there were truth to it, the pubby pundits would be all over it

[xac00fm]

Sarah Palin's Mother-In-Law: Considering Voting For Barack Obama
"I'm not sure what [Sarah] brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative. Well, she's a better speaker than McCain," Faye Palin told the New York Daily News. "People will say she hasn't been on the national scene long enough."

Meanwhile, Cindy McCain's half sister is planning on voting for Obama.
"I'm not voting for McCain," Kathleen Hensley Portalski told Us recently. "I have a different political standpoint."
Sources: New York Daily News and US Magazine

Full Story: http://www.usmagazine.com/sarah-palins-mother-in-law-may-vote-for-barack-obama

[xac00fm]

Palin Fought Polar Bear Protections
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5689165&page=1

[xac00fm]

"Reformer" Palin Accepted Donations From Indicted Alaska Oil Man
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-hopfinger/reformer-palin-accepted-d_b_124324.html

[xac00fm]

Oh My God! The GOP is planning to sell our oil from Alaska to Japan, & they will raise the price in the US beyond belief. Pass this along:

September 2, 2008

The Honorable Samuel W. Bodman
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20585

Dear Secretary Bodman,

On June 3, 2008 and July 30, 2008 respectively, your Department issued and affirmed an order pursuant to Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act that will allow two major integrated oil companies " ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil " to export 98.1 billion cubic feet of Alaskan natural gas to Japan and other Pacific Rim countries. This order, which will allow the export of as much natural gas as is used by 1.4 million American families in a year, comes at a time when the President had demanded that the moratoria on oil and gas drilling along our environmentally-sensitive coastal areas be lifted and Americans are being warned that their winter heating bills are going to be dramatically higher. The Administration is trying to have it both ways " arguing that we need to drill everywhere because we don"t have adequate energy supplies, while finding that we have so much energy that big oil companies can export it overseas and keep prices here at home higher than they would otherwise be.
http://www.dailykos.com/

[xac00fm]

USA TODAY: Palin's Town Used to Bill Victims for Rape Kits
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-10-rape-exams_N.htm
By Ken Dilanian and Matt Kelley, USA TODAY

[xac00fm]

Alaska National Guard General gets promoted after retracting damaging Palin statements
By: SilentPatriot on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 10:00 AM - PDT This scandal is as easy to follow as it is transparently outrageous. Since choosing her as VP, the McCain campaign has been trying it"s hardest to make the case that as "Commander in Chief" of the Alaskan National Guard, Sarah Palin has relevant national security experience. On August 31, the actual commander of the Alaska National Guard" Major General Craig Campbell " punctured a hole in that meme when the AP reported Campbell saying:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/13/alaska-national-guard-general-gets-promoted-after-retracting-damaging-palin-statements/

"[Palin plays] no role in national defense activities, even when they involve the Alaska National Guard."

On September 3, Campbell went even further, saying:

"The Alaskan governor is not in the site"s chain of command and has no authority over its operations."

[xac00fm]

Two Top McCain Officials Lobbied For Oil-For-Sex Scandal Companies

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/38546/thumbs/s-OIL-large.jpg
Here's something that could complicate the McCain-Palin reform message a bit: It turns out that McCain's national finance co-chair, Wayne Berman, is a paid lobbyist, and has been one for years, for two of the oil companies that are at the center of the sex, drugs and oil scandal enveloping the Interior Department.

One of McCain's high-ranking campaign officials also lobbied for the companies for years -- during time periods when the scandal has unfolded -- up until he joined the McCain campaign in the spring.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/12/two-top-mccain-officials_n_126089.html

[xac00fm]

OH NO HE DIDN'T!! McCain Claims That Palin Knows MORE ABOUT ENERGY Than Anyone Else In The ENTIRE UNITED STATES!!
FULL STORY: http://www.wcsh6.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=immersiveplayer&maven_referralObject=850878100

Is She SERIOUS!!! Sarah Palin DOESN'T KNOW What The Bush Doctrine Is ... Claims That She Wants TO GO TO WAR With Russia!!
STORY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z75QSExE0jU

[xac00fm]

Palin/McCain lied about Iraq visit to "battle zone"
Yet Another McCain-Palin Lie: She Did Not Visit Iraq
by sarabeth at 11:44 am on September 13th, 2008
Video: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/13/palin.iraq/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/9/13/163519/813?referer=sphere_related_content
http://www.1115.org/2008/09/13/yet-another-palin-lie/?referer=sphere_related_content

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"Palin in the hot seat for Bogus Lies"
CNN's Larry King and panel discuss Palin's first major interview as a vice presidential candidate.
Video on cnn