Bad birthday cake required by debt ceiling act - replay of 2009
WASHINGTON—After months of heated negotiations and failed attempts to achieve any kind of consensus, President Obama turned 50 years old Thursday, drawing strong criticism from Republicans in Congress. “With the host of problems this country is currently facing, the fact that our president is devoting time to the human process of aging is an affront to Americans everywhere,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who advocated a provision to keep Obama 49 at least through the fall of 2013. “To move forward unilaterally and simply begin the next year of his life without bipartisan support—is that any way to lead a country?” According to White House officials, Obama attempted to work with Republicans right up until the Aug. 4 deadline, but was ultimately left with no choice except to turn a year older.
How many people don’t know what The Onion is, and will assume this as fact?
Tip of the old scrub brush to William Keiser.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
“How many people don’t know what The Onion is, and will assume this as fact?”
Fox News has used The Onion as a news source more than once.
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You can’t tell the parody idiots from the real ones.
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For your entertainment:
“Well, he claims today is his 50th birthday.
Yet, incredibly, it is still only an unsubstantiated claim – and, perhaps, more suspect than ever.”
Joseph Farah, August 4. 2011
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Ed,
I received the same one you got. About three years ago.
I worked in Christian radio from 1980-2000 and, to the everlasting credit of Moody Radio and the second network I worked for, they actively tried to kill that untruth. I remember helping produce and write spot announcements debunking it.
But both stations aired Focus on the Family several times a day. And they had their own brand of lying and falsehood.
So we are not completely innocent.
I’m gonna have to write a book one day. “Tales from the Newsroom”. :-)
Jim
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I first heard that in 1972. We laughed at it in our media law class in 1974. I was astonished when it came back around after the internet, and I was still getting it years after her murder.
I must confess, though, I haven’t seen it in my own e-mail for at least three years. Is it really still circulating?
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Ed,
How many bizarre conspiracy theory emails regularly circulate among liberals? I know of none, but I could be wrong. Perhaps Snopes has some.
I definitely don’t buy the pantload that the “truther” movement surrounding 9/11 is a liberal one. It’s an anarchist movement with a surprising amount of support on the very far right. While there are some liberals (Cynthia McKinney comes to mind) who have dallied with trutherism, I don’t see much of it on the left or even on the mainstream right. Anarchists are a breed apart.
But I have kept track of chain emails, talk radio rumors and printed conspiracy theories over the last 20 years. Nearly every single one of them has been right wing. Many of the “best” (read: most truly surreal and bizarre) have come from the religious right. Here are just a few…
*The numbers and bar codes on the backs of some U.S. road signs were placed there by the Clinton administration. They are secret codes to aid United Nations forces that will occupy our country with the collaboration of Democrats and liberals in an effort to create a politically-correct, socialist utopia.
*The Clinton administration granted the United Nations sovereignty over all American rivers and waterways.
*President Obama’s real name is Barry Sotero and he is a Muslim with a secret plan to establish Sharia Law in the United States.
*President Obama spent tens of billions of dollars on his trade mission to India
*John Kerry had drafted legislation and was prepared to make it law if he became President that would ban the Bible in America because it contains “homophobic” doctrine.
*President Obama has a secret plan to intern evangelical Christian children and teenagers in re-education camps.
*Hillary Clinton engaged in Satanic, pagan rituals while in the White House and actually conducted seances during which she sought advice and counsel from demons masquerading as the souls of former First Ladies.
There were a slew of them about Al Gore, too.
Now, the only ones I remember about George W. Bush involved his many malaprops…some of which actually turned out to be true. And those sorts of urban legends…while never helpful…have been with us since the founding of the Republic and have crossed partisan lines with regularity.
I still have family who believe some of these things.
And this list doesn’t even touch on the many Federal Reserve, Anti-Semitic, Antichrist/end times or scientific/chemical conspiracy theories that are so enduring.
Have ya heard, Ed? Madalyn Murray O’Hair is trying to get Christian Radio Stations banned. Heh. Sometimes, I wish that one had been true. There’d be a lot fewer of these nutcase notions floating about.
And I might be able to digest my dinner at a family gathering just once without having to hear about supercomputers in Belgium or how Barack Obama’s name is in the Bible Code for “Beelzebub”. Or some such drivel.
Wonder why liberals so rarely engage in this sort of baloney?
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Curious — so many of the people hoodwinked come from the ranks of the supporters of the Tea Party and opposition to Obama. You can tell they’re humor-challenged. Is that also a sign of their being reason-challenged?
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“How many people don’t know what The Onion is, and will assume this as fact?”
Quite a few, apparently… http://literallyunbelievable.org/
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