When my daughter was about 18 months old, I was entertaining the idea of moving to the lower-48 in the Southern regions (yes, it was February in Anchorage).  For the heck of it, I was checking out some "live-in" positions where high-powered, type-A folks were looking for personal assistants to be at their beck-and-call.  I started talking to a nice, older couple...a retired oil exec and his wife who were heavily involved in foundations, fundraising and event planning.  The position would have been perfect!  I sent them my resume, samples of my writing and made sure they knew I had an 18-month-old daughter.

They were impressed with my abilities and tickled at the thought of having a child in the house again.  It really looked like this was going somewhere.  As a proud mama, I decided to send them a picture of Morrigan and I together.

That evening, I received a curt (at first) phone call saying they were no longer interested in my services.  

Originally posted on Citizen Orange.

"I think Obama would be a disaster, and there's a lot of
reasons," said [Leroy] Pollard, explaining the rumors he had heard about the candidate from friends he goes camping with. "I understand he's from Africa, and that the first thing he's going to do if he gets into office is bring his family over here, illegally. He's got that racist [pastor] who practically raised him, and then there's the Muslim thing. He's just not presidential material, if you ask me."

Eli Saslow - Washington Post (30 June 2008)

Interviewer: Mr. McCain, what is the gravest long-term threat facing our economy?

McCain: Its Radical Islamic Extremism, Stupid

Well this wasn't the precise quote... but it sums it quite well. To quote then in the spirit of completeness:

NOTE:

Today I read two great articles today, and found myself unable to stop this snark, so it follows after these predicates, these fascinating links.

1.  NYTimes article, about how lies become something different in our wierd brains and then found this here:  mindgeek's "neuroscience of false beliefs."

2.  WaPo article about MacArthur scholar Danielle Allen's quest to trace the rumor mill emails that produced notable lies about Obama.

Running through the morning news pages, seeing if there was anything that happened in the 9 hours I slept (I'm addicted, I know) I saw a little piece on HuffPo that points out this:

The man Allen found who takes credit for the first posting of an article falsely asserting Obama is a Muslim is a man named Andy Martin.

More details below the fold...

I became a super hard-core Barack Obama fan early this year.  My enthusiasm began when election returns came in on the night of the Iowa caucases and continued to grow and grow with time.  For the first time, I could relate to a presidential candidate.  He seemed to speak directly to me and was exciting, inspiring, and poised to change the world.

I have been as big a fan as any, watching hours upon hours of MSNBC, CNN, Fox, poring thru every Internet article on Huffington, Kos, Yahoo, 538, Real Clear Politics, etc.  I've been pretty informed on his policy positions, his youth and upbringing, his emergence on the national scene, and the challenges he faced from the Clintons, Wright, and Mr. Sinclair.  

However, I am no longer sold on Mr. Obama, and am seriously contemplating sitting this election out.

I think that it is naive and immature of Obama Muslim Supporters that are going out of their way to embarass a candidate they support.

18 months ago Republicans (or as they claim, the Clinton campaign) launched the first salvo or Obama's "muslim unbringing" in an article on InsightMag.com

On the January 19 editions of their radio programs, conservative talk show hosts Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers and Rush Limbaugh, as well as Fox News' John Gibson on the same day's edition of The Big Story, forwarded the accusation, originally published on the website InsightMag.com, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) was responsible for spreading information about Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) -- specifically, that Obama "spent at least four years in a so-called Madrassa or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia." The article, bearing the headline "Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background," asserted that "researchers connected to Senator Clinton" disclosed the "details of Mr. Obama's Muslim past." Despite acknowledging near the end of his show that it "[d]oesn't seem" that "Hillary's fingerprints [are] on the story," Gibson said earlier in that program that "[t]he New York senator has reportedly outed Obama's madrassa past."  MediaMatters.org--Jan 19, 2007

Let's stipulate that Obama is indeed a secret Muslim, and that every one of the billion or so Muslims on the planet are virulent jihadists who hate America and devote their lives to killing Americans and damaging the United States. (wow, we've been damned lucky to survive with a billion homicidal maniacs so single-mindedly focused on our destruction!)

What's more, let's go with the batshit-insane conspiracy theory that Obama is some kind of Manchurian Candidate, trained in a radical madrassa -- the plot starting in 1967, when the U.S. was still in the throes of the red scare and devoting almost no attention to the Middle East.  

Ok, so this evil, secret, America-hating Muslim has devoted his life to ascending to the Presidency so he can somehow destroy the country from within.   It may have taken forty years, and endless time spent engaged in pretending to be a Christian, and very little liklihood of success (these brilliant long-term plotters started with a black child in 1967, after all).  How exactly is he going to achieve his diabolical ends?

A short diary, and my first. There's been some hoopla about an Obama staffer denying a pair of young muslim girls a seat directly behind Obama, in camera range, at a rally. There is a fairly good chance that this tempest remains in its teapot, but I'd like my fellow kossaks well-armed if it doesn't.

My original cartoon

Below is the response to the Obama smear email:
A Contradiction???
Malik Obama confirms his half-brother Barack grew up a Muslim
By Israel Insider staff  June 13, 2008

You will find a prepared email that you can send when you receive these types of emails at this url:  
http://www.dailykos.com/...

We can't just delete this stuff, we have to fight back!
Many times it is a friend or co-worker so we have to be a little diplomatic.
Check it out and spread the word.
Go to this link:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

MuslimMatters's Ruth Nasrullah, a hijab-wearing Muslim convert touches upon how some Muslim women with hijabs were "removed" from being behind Obama. Her thoughts are being cross-posted here with full permission

I'm currently reading The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics, edited by Jennifer Heath, which is an in-depth compilation of essays by different writers exploring various aspects of the veil, not just in terms of Islamic dress, but of veils from all over the world over the centuries - and of veiling as an idea.

Drudge has also picked up on this story earlier published by MSNBC at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/... . I was really surprised to read this, since even in 2004 (in a much stronger anti-Muslim atmosphere) the Kerry campaign had Muslim women with head scarves in many pictures and even in a rally that i attended with my wife (who wears a head scarf) in St. Louis we were greeted and cheared by the volunteers (even a thumbs up from the Secret Service folks passing by!).

While doing the daily business of my grinding, thankless job, I noticed two guys I worked with having an animated discussion and ducked myself into it.

The subject, of course, was Barack Obama and why my "perfect example of an American" friend did not want him in office.

First of all, he just doesn't think a black guy should win.

In response to the many emails I get regarding Obama with the lies, and innuendos, I have been, up to this point, researching and then emailing back the sender with the correct information.
What you will find below is a response you can send when you get these types of emails.
We can't just delete this stuff, we have to fight back! Many times it is a friend or co-worker so we have to be a little diplomatic.
It goes a long way to personalize the email by using the sender's name in a few places.
Lately, I have spent most of my spare time looking this stuff up but I will do it no more, I will just send the letter below and I hope you will also.
Since I can only do one posting a day, over the next two days I will be posting answers to the most recent attacks:
The Jihad Candidate by Rich Carroll
and
A Contradiction???   By Israel Insider staff  June 13, 2008
Malik Obama confirms his half-brother Barack grew up a Muslim

Steve O.

----------------------------------------------

The most recent attempt to paint Obama as a closet Muslim in based on a Jersualem Post article which reported on an interview Malik Obama gave to Israel Army radio.  The article has since disappeared from the Jersalem post website, but the Google cache is here.

Barack Obama's half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.

In an interview with Army Radio he expressed a special salutation from the Obamas of Kenya.

Leaving aside the multiple interpretations of what constitutes a "Muslim background", there's still really nothing there. See below the fold for more.

It recently came to my attention that FOX News host Brit Hume said something absurd (maybe thats not news?) on last night's broadcast. I have included the video below so that people can watch the segment and make their own judgments.

In a nutshell, he summarizes how Obama's new website Fight The Smears states that he has never been a Muslim and has always been a Christian. However, Brit says, Obama's half brother Malik Obama is "not so sure" that this is the case. His half brother apparently stated that:  "if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background."

While it is unclear exactly what context that was said in, or what was implied - Brit's statement of his half brother being "not so sure" about Obama's Christian faith seems distorted unless it can be backed up with a substantive quote (it was not during the Special Report broadcast).

Watch the clip and weigh in with thoughts / opinions below: