Mitch McConnell Falls for Obvious Satire

Oh, McTortoise. How embarrassing.

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Mitch McConnell falls for parody news report about Guantanamo Bay prisoners being eligible for GI Bill benefits

A fake news story claiming that Guantanamo Bay prisoners can apply for GI Bill benefits found a credulous victim in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who posed a serious query to the Pentagon about the unbelievable report. Wired reported that McConnell fell for a far-fetched story on The Duffel Blog, a parody news site with fake reports about the military. . .


Read more: New York Daily News

Romney in the Homestretch: Banking on Gullible and Stupid

Image from source, NewsCorpse

As a blogger, there are often times when I want to write a post on a subject, but haven't quite got my brain around it yet. . .and then I read the post I wanted to write, by another (more talented) blogger. Such is the case with this last week of campaigning by Willard Mitt Romney. Many is the time over the duration of this campaign that I've thrown my hands up and said, "do they really think we're that stupid?" And usually my next utterance is, "yes, yes they do."

It's a similar strategy to the rest of Right Wing World, such as FOX "News," particularly FOX & Friends; Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity. . .ehrmahgerd, the list is endless. Their framing and their topic selection is so often based on false premises, debunked hoaxes, inflated non-stories, bogus "facts," and faux outrage, that I'm literally stunned for a moment when I hear them. I think, "Wow, they have ZERO respect for the intelligence of their audience." And that is where we are with the Romney campaign: they have no respect for the intelligence of their voters, and are actually hoping that they are stupid enough to buy a load of bullshit.

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Romney’s Home Stretch Pitch Aims For The Gullible And Ignorant

With less than a week until election day, the campaign of Republican contender Mitt Romney is pulling out all the stops to appeal to a voter demographic that is often neglected: the irredeemably stupid. . .

Read more at: NewsCorpse

Alan Grayson on Stephanie Miller: Paul Ryan, "Throw Grandma from the Train"

Jim Ward's comment, "Psy-Ops for Morons" and Grayson's observation that the GOP has swept the gullible vote are runners up to the quote in the headline. Good stuff. I really hope Grayson gets back into Congress this fall.  From Tuesday's Talking Liberally: The Stephanie Miller Show on Current TV.

FOX Nation Publishes Onion Satire Piece as Fact

If you've never been to FOX Nation, it is a far-right outpost on the interwebs, kind of like FreeRepublic.com only with the FOX "News" brand name. When it started out, FOX Nation was touted as a place for all political viewpoints, but much like its "fair and balanced" parent, it is frequented by conservatives of the extreme end of the spectrum. FOX Nation has a lot in common with Tea Party Nation.


Also like its parent, FOX Nation seems content to jump right into a story if it supports their preferred narrative, fact checking be damned.

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Fox Nation readers confuse Onion article with real news

Fox News' opinion website Fox Nation and their readers don't seem to know satire when they see it.  Fox News' opinion website Fox Nation and their readers don't seem to know satire when they see it. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Stuck on Stupid: Polls Show Conservatives Believe Falsehoods

Image from source, The Plum Line

Unbelievable. And you know, the rest of the population isn't doing a whole lot better. Are we as a people really that gullible?

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Poll: Majority Of Republicans Believes Health Reform Bill Will Force Elderly To Decide When To Die

. . .The poll finds that 53% of Republicans believe that “the government will require the elderly to make decisions about how and when they will die.” By contrast, only 31% of independents and 14% of Democrats believe this, according to this poll of 600 adults nationwide.

Note the word “require.” A majority of Republicans believes that the health care reform will force old people to decide in advance “how and when they will die.” This is far more out there than anything we’ve seen polled before. . .

Read more at: The Plum Line

Ann Coulter Falls for April Fool's Joke

Image from source, Think Progress

This just in: Ann Coulter is an idiot. But you knew that.

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Coulter Falls For Fake Obama NASCAR Story That Limbaugh Said No One Would Believe

As an April Fool’s joke, Car and Driver magazine posted a made-up story on its website claiming that “President Obama had ordered Chevrolet and Dodge out of NASCAR after the 2009 season.” The magazine “pulled the fake story” after it “turned into a sizzling Internet topic,” especially on anti-Obama right-wing websites.

As Media Matters notes, one person who took the joking claim seriously was Ann Coulter. In her Human Events column yesterday, Coulter wrote. . .

See what she wrote at: Think Progress

Where Did the Barack Obama Urban Legends Start?

Shocking image from Big Dan's Big Blog

There are so many ridiculous Barack Obama falsehoods out there, that a quick check of Snopes.com shows them to be #1 with a bullet in their top 25 urban legends. These legends usually begin in hokey emails with a very "concerned" title, and a list of dire warnings about Obama. They usually close with send this to everyone you know! And people who believe them have either just gotten their very first computer, or they have the reasoning capability of a bag of hair.

Is that harsh? Good. Because I can't count how many times I've had to sling a Snopes link back to a "concerned" acquaintance about any number of topics over the last 10 years. Why do people believe anything that comes to them this way? Do your homework, people!

That said, did you ever wonder where these things get started? The following excerpt is from an article that tries to track down the origins of the Obama legends. Check it out.

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An Attack That Came Out of the Ether

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. . ."

Read more at: Washington Post