Here’s something that really, really bugs me. Despite the fact that anyone with email presumably also has the interwebz at their disposal, there are still tons of emails that get circulated that are just plain false and misleading. They are designed to scare people into thinking something terrible is about to happen/has already happened and the recipient of the email is supposed to be outraged and then forward said email to all of his/her friends. Then those friends get outraged, etc., until everybody is plenty mad about something that isn’t going to/didn’t happen. What a complete waste of energy and time.
To demonstrate this, have a gander at the email that was forwarded to me today (copied verbatim, with emphasis in original):
MUST READ! THIS HAPPENED YESTERDAY!
INTERNAL SECURITY UPDATE – YOUR GOVERNMENT
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know….
Something happened… H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday, behind our backs. You may want to read about it. It wasn’t mentioned on the news… just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA. This is the news that didn’t make the headlines…
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in “migration assistance” to the Palestinian refugees and “conflict victims” in Gaza.
The “presidential determination”, which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States, was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.Let’s review…itemized list of some of Barack Obama’s most recent actions since his inauguration:
His first call to any head of state, as president, was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
His first one-on-one television interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.His first executive order was to fund/facilitate abortion(s) not just here within the U. S., but within the world, using U. S. tax payer funds.
He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
He ordered overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and the “terror attack” on 9/11.
Now we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being “lost” in the blinding bail-outs and “stimulation” packages.
Doubtful? To verify this for yourself: www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488 <http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488>
PLEASE PASS THIS ON… AMERICA NEEDS TO KNOW! WE are losing this country at a rapid pace.
There’s so much wrong with this email I almost don’t know where to begin. First off, the email says that HR 1388 was passed “behind our backs.” What does that mean, “behind our backs?” Also, it says that HR 1388′s passage wasn’t mentioned on the news, except on the “ticker tape” on CNN. Guess CNN no longer counts as news? Oh, well, maybe there’s a point to be made there. But ticker tape? What do parades have to do with this?
Next, we learn that the big secret is that President Obama just got the ability to use $20 million to bring a bunch of HAMAS refugees to the United States, complete with housing and food allowances. It’s a secret because it didn’t make the headlines. Like that wouldn’t make the headlines.
Third paragraph: Read those first three words very carefully. “By executive order…” What? I thought this was about HR 1388? In fact, the next paragraph reveals that this executive order was signed on January 27, 2009. Of course, executive orders aren’t part of legislation. They are enacted without legislation. That’s why they’re called executive orders.
Next, we’re treated to a litany of horrible, traiterous, revolution-inciting things that President Obama has done while in office. To the best of my knowledge, these assertions are true, but they’re not as outrageous as the email makes them sound. The only one I’m not sure about is the last one, the one about withdrawing charges against the USS Cole bombing masterminds. Truthfully, I’m just too lazy to look that up, but feel free to comment if you’re in the know.Anyway, the point of listing all these things is to make President Obama look like a total terrorphile.
The second-to-last paragraph is so funny that it deserves a reprint here for dramatic purposes.
These important, and insightful, issues are being “lost” in the blinding bail-outs and “stimulation” packages.
I mean, who writes these things? What exactly is an insightful issue? And what about the bail-outs is blinding? And “stimulation” packages? Um…
Finally, just so you’ll be sure to believe every word of this call to outrage, there’s a link provided for you to read the text of the executive order referenced above. You’ll note that the executive order does authorize $20.3 million for refugee assistance, not to HAMAS refugees, but to Palestinian refugees, and specifically those in the Gaza strip. Also, the executive order does not say a word about bringing all of them to the United States for free meals and housing and a bouquet of flowers. It’s humanitarian assistance, and the United States has been providing this type of money to people all over the world for a long, long time. Not that that has anything at all to do with HR 1388.
As an aside, let’s just suppose for a minute that everything in the email is true as asserted. HAMAS is on the State Department’s official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. As such, according to the State Department’s own website, it is illegal for a person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide it with material support or resources. Also, again according to the State Department, representatives of and members of HAMAS would be inadmissible to the United States. Presumably Barack Obama is subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, making his executive order illegal. Again, like this wouldn’t make the news.
**********
Here’s the deal, people. First of all, any email that contains seemingly jawdropping news, while at the same time claiming that this jawdropping news hasn’t been covered by the major media, should be subjected to skepticism. Secondly, as I have just demonstrated, a careful reading of these types of emails can reveal discrepancies that should alert you to the fact that something’s not right about the content. Finally, there are several websites you can use for some fact checking. Here are two:
There’s plenty of real stuff out there on which you can focus your outrage. So the next time you get an email that makes you say OMG! out loud and makes you want to barricade yourself in your home, take some time to investigate the truthfulness of it before you send it to all your friends. If you don’t, you will experience bad luck for the next three weeks.
Hi, interesting post. I have been pondering this issue,so thanks for sharing. I’ll definitely be subscribing to your posts.
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This is the response I sent to a family member who forwarded this email to me:
1. H.R. 1388 is the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and has nothing to do with the Presidential Order or Hamas. See text at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show
An error like this is typical of spam and attempts at deceiving us into believing something that isn’t. It suggests something that is not so. Usually I throw it out when the first line is this blatantly in error.
2. The U.S. government has been sending aid to Palestinian Refugees in Gaza for years now. Mr. Obama is not the first President to do this funding for Palestinian refugees. The President’s orders merely continue the funding precedent for another period. It does not bring Hamas individuals to the U.S. The order, FR Doc E9-2488 (not H.R. 1388), was signed January 27, 2009. The letter given to you tries to make like this was done just “yesterday”. See text at http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488.
See also http://www.usaid.gov/wbg/home.html
“Since 1993, Palestinians have received more than $2.2 billion in U.S. economic assistance via USAID projects – more than from any other donor country.”
See also http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/02/world/fg-clinton-mideast2
“US to limit its aid to Gaza.”
See also http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/02-4
“Taken together, the announcements underscore how little the Obama Administration’s policy towards the Palestinian issue has so far differed from the Bush administration’s.”
See also http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ARAB-US+RELATIONS+-+May+26+-+Bush+Promises+Abbas+$50m+Gaza…-a0133103122
“Pres Bush welcomes the PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas to the White House with a promise of $50m in direct aid to develop Gaza after Israel’s planned withdrawal and renews US commitment to an independent Palestinian state.”
See also http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/aid-as-a-weapon-us-using-gaza-aid-to-sink-palestinain-reconciliation-efforts.html
“Obama administration is repeating Bush’s mistakes by using Gaza aid to sink Palestinian reconciliation”
3. As to the dropping of charges against the mastermind of the USS Cole attacks, a judge did this, not the President. The President ordered a freeze on all of the Guantanamo proceedings until the issues of constitutional rights and Geneva Convention issues are decided. The judge’s order follows in the footsteps of President Bush’s administration. The following quote is from the Christian Science Monitor, a generally fair yet conservative publication. See full text at http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0206/p99s01-duts.html
“The Washington Post writes that Judge Crawford’s decision to dismiss charges without prejudice means that the Obama administration could reinstate charges against Nashiri at a later date. Had the trial continued in defiance of Mr. Obama’s request, reinstatement of charges may not have been possible. The tactic was also used by the Bush administration when it wanted to stop various proceedings at Guantánamo. The Pentagon under Bush dismissed without prejudice charges in six cases and reinstated them later in three of those cases. If the case had proceeded against Nashiri, a Saudi facing capital charges, a guilty plea could have boxed in the administration. The legal principle of double jeopardy would apply, and it would have been very difficult to move his case to another court, according to defense attorneys.
4. As to the closing of the CIA interrogation centers, I found out that they were already no longer in use prior to Mr. Obama’s orders. His orders will prevent them from being used again.
See text at http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/09/CIA-to-close-overseas-interrogation-sites/UPI-83191239326276/
“Citing a statement delivered to intelligence employees Thursday by CIA Director Leon Panetta, the newspaper said the agency will stop using contractors to carry out interrogations. Panetta said the sites were already out of use and will be decommissioned.”
I’m too tired to research further. When I find this many holes in a document claiming urgency, I shrug my shoulders and toss it away. Too many people on both sides of the fence try to use loose wording and inuendo to rile people up. I’d like to see us wipe all of the political candidates off the map including both the DNC and RNC organizations and start with a fresh group of Washington, Hamilton, Adams, Hancock, Lincoln, Franklin types. Too much money drives our politics today.
By the way, I had a friend who was attending Oral Roberts University in 1993 who was a Palestinian. As Palestinian Christians, his family was despised by both the Israelis and the Muslims among whom they lived. According to him, there are many Christian Palestinians suffering due to the violence in Gaza and West Bank. I wish there was a way that these families could more readily immigrate to the US.
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