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May 6, 2009 in Opinion
Smart Bombs: Misinformation pandemic
It’s always interesting to check in with factcheck.org to see what strains of virulent misinformation are metastasizing in the nation’s blogs and e-mail inboxes. One of the following claims is true. Can you guess which one?
A. President Barack Obama intervened to delay the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from the clutches of pirates for four days.
B. Obama paid for Hamas affiliates to emigrate to the United States.
C. Eighty-four members of Congress have been arrested for drunken driving, 71 of them cannot qualify for credit cards, 14 have been arrested on drug charges and 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted businesses.
D. Congress is on the verge of granting Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants.
E. Illegal immigrants cost the government $338.3 billion a year.
F. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has failed to pay property taxes on his home.
G. The stimulus bill includes $5.2 billion for ACORN, the community organizing group.
H. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded a 200-seat jet for personal use.
I. Obama was not born in the United States.
J. Congress wants to implement a health system like those in Great Britain and Canada.
K. More than 90 percent of recovered crime guns in Mexico come from the United States.
L. U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., has joined Democratic senators in putting forward a bill to review the dangers of soot or black carbon to public health and the environment.
Let’s review. A and B are false. C is false and was also untrue when all of that was alleged 10 years ago. D is false. E is an exaggeration. Studies conflict, but most put the cost of illegal immigration at a fraction of that. F, G, H and I are false. In fact, factcheck.org has looked over Obama’s birth certificate. J is unfounded speculation. A conservative interest group launched an ad making that claim, but there are no bills that specify health systems that would mirror those countries. Obama doesn’t want a government-run plan. K is a false claim made by Obama.
That’s right; you had to go to L to find the correct answer. Yes, it is true that Inhofe, who has called global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people” and suggested that Al Gore’s claims are “full of crap” has signed on to a bill that seeks to curb black carbon.
So does this mean Inhofe is a convert to the Green Team? The bill does say, “Black carbon … is thought to be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide.”
Not likely. He explains that soot is a particulate, not a pollutant. Hey, whatever rationalization gets him to a smaller carbon footprint is fine by me.
Smart Bombs is written by Associate Editor Gary Crooks and appears Wednesdays and Sundays on the Opinion page. Crooks can be reached at garyc@spokesman.com or at (509) 459-5026.
Smart Bombs: Greatest generation? Not us 
prsmith on May 06 at 1:40 p.m.
> In fact, factcheck.org has looked over Obama’s birth certificate.
WHO?? Have done WHAT??
What a load of malarkey that is. How did factcheck.org get a copy of Obama’s birth certificate? Was it a certified copy mailed, sealed and delivered direct from Hawaii’s vital records division? Are factcheck.org‘s employees document experts capable of detecting a forgery?
Answer: NO.
So how can you make such a ridiculous claim?
If Obama was born in Hawaii as he claims, why would he not simply order a long-form birth certificate and direct that it be delivered to any member of the Supreme Court? Why would he hire law firms and spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars fighting lawsuits in 35 (+/-) states? Why would he freeze his Occidental College, passport, Kenyan, Indonesian, etc. records?
WHAT IS HE HIDING?
omaha on May 06 at 2:33 p.m.
Although F. (White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has failed to pay property taxes on his home.) is false, there was a real housing issue concerning Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Here is the link to a Feb. 24, 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune entitled, “Questions Raised About Rahm Emanuel’s Housing Arrangement in D.C.”:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-emanuel_feb24,0,6696332.story
Here is a little except from the article:
WASHINGTON— White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s Washington lodging arrangements, a rent-free basement room in a Capitol Hill home owned by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn) and her pollster husband, have inspired debate among tax experts and in Republican-leaning parts of the blogosphere.
One issue is whether Emanuel, who served in the House with DeLauro until early January, should have listed the room either as a gift or as income on his congressional financial disclosure forms. Emanuel’s disclosure filings contain no mention of his use of the room.
A murkier question is whether Emanuel has a tax liability for the arrangement. The matter may have particular sensitivity in the early days of an Obama administration in which at least four picks for high posts have had confirmations delayed or derailed by tax irregularities.
Gary D Rhodes on May 06 at 6:20 p.m.
LOL prsmith,
I have been conversing with Gary C for 7 months about this.
He agrees, I think, that there is an “official” long form BC on file in Honolulu. Two health department employees have seen it, and the Governor says it is on file.
Obama will not show this one. He has shown a certificate that doesn’t prove he was born in Hawaii,(these were given to parents whose babies were born in other countries) even if it is real.
That factcheck is considered by Mr. Crooks as an unbiased source tells you all you need to know about him.
I have told him about the Annenberg/factcheck connection, but he still considers them above suspicion.