Seeking the Source on Obama smear emails.
An Attack That Came Out of the Ether
Scholar Looks for First Link in E-Mail Chain About Obama
PRINCETON, N.J.
The e-mail landed in Danielle Allen's queue one winter morning as she was studying in her office at the Institute for Advanced Study, the renowned haven for some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The missive began: "THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO."
Laid out before Allen, a razor-sharp, 36-year-old political theorist, was what purported to be a biographical sketch of Barack Obama that has become one of the most effective -- and baseless -- Internet attacks of the 2008 presidential season. The anonymous chain e-mail makes the false claim that Obama is concealing a radical Islamic background. By the time it reached Allen on Jan. 11, 2008, it had spread with viral efficiency for more than a year.
That search showed that the first mention of the e-mail on the Internet had come more than a year earlier. A participant on the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com posted a copy of the e-mail on Jan. 8, 2007, and added this line at the end: "Don't know who the original author is, but this email should be sent out to family and friends."
Allen discovered that theories about Obama's religious background had circulated for many years on the Internet. And that the man who takes credit for posting the first article to assert that the Illinois senator was a Muslim is Andy Martin.
Martin, a former political opponent of Obama's, is the publisher of an Internet newspaper who sends e-mails to his mailing list almost daily. He said in an interview that he first began questioning Obama's religious background after hearing his famous keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In an Aug. 10, 2004, article, which he posted on Web sites and e-mailed to bloggers, he said that Obama had concealed his Muslim heritage. "I feel sad having to expose Barack Obama," Martin wrote in an accompanying press release, "but the man is a complete fraud. The truth is going to surprise, and disappoint, and outrage many people who were drawn to him. He has lied to the American people, and he has sought to misrepresent his own heritage." Martin's article did not suggest an association between Obama and radical Islam.
link
(this is a long article but well worth the read)
OBAMA?
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JamesH
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All,
I found this clip on the Military Fredom From Religion site and I have looked around here to see if it had already been posted but I can not find it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcvbnzNIjg
It is very interesting and hopeful for those of us that lack faith in any ghost.
I found this clip on the Military Fredom From Religion site and I have looked around here to see if it had already been posted but I can not find it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcvbnzNIjg
It is very interesting and hopeful for those of us that lack faith in any ghost.
JamesH
"Knowledge will set you free, but freedom comes with responsibilities." I know that someone had to say that before me.
"Knowledge will set you free, but freedom comes with responsibilities." I know that someone had to say that before me.
I've only seen one small portion of this that they play on the MSM, but I'm glad to get to see more of it.
It will be so refreshing having an intelligent, well-spoken president for a change, and this clip is a good demonstration of how intelligent he really is. And brave.
It will also be refreshing to have a president who understands that there should be a separation between church and state, AND WHY!
It will be so refreshing having an intelligent, well-spoken president for a change, and this clip is a good demonstration of how intelligent he really is. And brave.
It will also be refreshing to have a president who understands that there should be a separation between church and state, AND WHY!