Are YOU one of the 400??

(Cross posted from my post at Yes to Democracy)

On another political blog, a PUMA snottly dismissed the comments from myself and a few other non-PUMAs with "Are you one of the 400?" and "you must be one of the 400, I hope you're happy with your blood money!"

400?

So I got curious. And overturned yet another rock in the PUMA garden and saw the things under it.

The legend goes that an information scroll running during a Fox News broadcast said that "the Obama campaign has hired 400 bloggers to influence the public discourse and sway Hillary voters to "remember we are all Democrats"

( Myth Busting behind cut )

Are YOU one of the 400??

(Cross posted from my post at Yes to Democracy)

On another political blog, a PUMA snottly dismissed the comments from myself and a few other non-PUMAs with "Are you one of the 400?" and "you must be one of the 400, I hope you're happy with your blood money!"

400?

So I got curious. And overturned yet another rock in the PUMA garden and saw the things under it.

The legend goes that an information scroll running during a Fox News broadcast said that "the Obama campaign has hired 400 bloggers to influence the public discourse and sway Hillary voters to "remember we are all Democrats"

( Myth Busting behind cut )

Obama's Birth Certificate - Fake or Myth? (Part 1)

(Crossposted from my article at Yes to Democracy)

That seems to be the concept some PUMAs are running with - that there's something......funny about Sen. Obama's birth certificate.

Like the vast majority of PUMA attacks on Sen. Obama, the recipe for this is one part wishful thinking, one part wingnuttery, one part lies and smears, a dash of racism, baked for weeks in an echo chamber, and devoured by the JSND crowd unthinkingly.

There seem to be two main sources for this constant myth. The formerly sane "NoQuarter", and the blog of PUMA "TexasDarlin". "TexasDarlin" is the one who cross-posts the latest round of myths to "NoQuarter" as the old ones get busted.

Now to anything with more than two brain cells to rub together, it's obvious that the whole thing is a fishing trip designed to find ANYTHING they can use to claim that Sen. Obama is not a "Natural-born US Citizen" and therefore cannot be president. It beggars belief that someone could get a passport, run for state office, run for FEDERAL office, get the security clearances senators require, be vetted to run for President, etc., unless there was solid, hardcore evidence they met the qualifications.

But to the tinfoil hat brigade, there's some sort of cover up that stretches across three or four countries, three continents, more than one state, and anyplace else they can drag in. Next thing I expect is a claim that the Illuminati or the Gnomes of Zurich are behind it.

( Timeline behind cut )

Obama's Birth Certificate - Fake or Myth? (Part 1)

(Crossposted from my article at Yes to Democracy)

That seems to be the concept some PUMAs are running with - that there's something......funny about Sen. Obama's birth certificate.

Like the vast majority of PUMA attacks on Sen. Obama, the recipe for this is one part wishful thinking, one part wingnuttery, one part lies and smears, a dash of racism, baked for weeks in an echo chamber, and devoured by the JSND crowd unthinkingly.

There seem to be two main sources for this constant myth. The formerly sane "NoQuarter", and the blog of PUMA "TexasDarlin". "TexasDarlin" is the one who cross-posts the latest round of myths to "NoQuarter" as the old ones get busted.

Now to anything with more than two brain cells to rub together, it's obvious that the whole thing is a fishing trip designed to find ANYTHING they can use to claim that Sen. Obama is not a "Natural-born US Citizen" and therefore cannot be president. It beggars belief that someone could get a passport, run for state office, run for FEDERAL office, get the security clearances senators require, be vetted to run for President, etc., unless there was solid, hardcore evidence they met the qualifications.

But to the tinfoil hat brigade, there's some sort of cover up that stretches across three or four countries, three continents, more than one state, and anyplace else they can drag in. Next thing I expect is a claim that the Illuminati or the Gnomes of Zurich are behind it.

( Timeline behind cut )

Paranoia and Blogspot

(Crossposted from Yes to Democracy)

Okay, Blogspot seems to have had an outage. Several sites got flagged as spam. These things happen....

Except in PUMAland, where everything is usually happy shiny ponies and sunshine, and all bad things are the result of satan incarnate, Barack Obama.

For example, according to this New York Times article called "Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers"

( Rest behind cut )

Paranoia and Blogspot

(Crossposted from Yes to Democracy)

Okay, Blogspot seems to have had an outage. Several sites got flagged as spam. These things happen....

Except in PUMAland, where everything is usually happy shiny ponies and sunshine, and all bad things are the result of satan incarnate, Barack Obama.

For example, according to this New York Times article called "Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers"

( Rest behind cut )