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One of the many blessings of the internet is that any idea, no matter how idiotic, can get exposure to the gullible public.  During the political season, rumors and urban legends abound and we take this opportunity to shed a little light on some of them.

• The Clintons are charging the Secret Service for the agency’s quarters on their New York property and the amount charged is equal to their monthly mortgage.  Therefore, we taxpayers are paying Billary’s house note.

Sorry all you Clinton bashers; none of this yarn is true and other, related, stories are also not true.  Here’s the Snopes.com link for those who would like to know more.

• Bill’s friends and enemies are dying by the double-handfuls.  This is an exhaustive refutation of this particularly vicious canard but reading it will arm the reader with a logical defense mechanism for avoiding being hoodwinked in the future.  It also demonstrates that conspiracy-mongers willingly – happily – lie to support their twisted conclusions.

Here’s the link.

• Hillary Clinton refuses to meet with “Gold Star Mothers”.  Way back in 2001 some mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq showed up at her Senate door unannounced.  Hilary wasn’t in.  From there the rumor spread on the internet that she refuses to meet with them.  Not true.  Here’s the link.

• Barak is a Muslim who took his oath of office in the IL legislature on the Quran and refuses to pledge allegiance to the American Flag.

Face away from Mecca and get the facts.  There are plenty of reasons to oppose anyone’s nomination for the nation’s highest office.  Resorting to oft-disproved lies and misrepresentations is nothing more than a confession that the writer is unable to craft a logical, philosophical or political reason for opposition.

• John McCain collaborated with his North Vietnamese captors and the CIA has all the dirt.  During the general election campaign, Hillary Clinton (who knows about it all through hubby Bill) will destroy McCain and win the election.

Here’s a link to this fable.  Read EVERY SINGLE WORD and you will find that it has all the newsworthiness of a Tom Clancy novel.  The main source of the story is someone known as “T” for “Translator”.  It might as well be “T” for “Tinkerbell”.  There is NOT A SINGLE SOURCE to whom one can turn to validate Jack Wheeler’s fantasy.  His article would not be published in any college newspaper because it has no journalistic quality whatsoever.  While you’re at Jack’s website, check out his bio – WOW!  To paraphrase Homer Simpson on the subject of doughnuts, “Is there nothing he can’t do?”

To expose this liar’s technique, here is the first three paragraphs of the screed with my comments in italics:

The number of fellow Senators who think John McCain is psychologically unstable is large. 

[How large?  Who are they?  How many in this mob are qualified to render a psychological diagnosis?] 

Some will admit it publicly, like Thad Cochran who says, “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

[Cochran DID say this.  But the Boston Herald (not a Kook website) reports that Cochran will support McCain for President.  Apparently his fear is not as great as one might think.  “Some” means more than one.  Who are they?]

Others relate times when McCain screamed four-letter obscenities right in their faces in the Senate cloak room, like Dick Shelby, Rick Santorum, or Jim Inhofe.  “The man is unhinged,” one Senator told me.  “He is frighteningly unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.”

[This one is complex.  “Others” must mean Shelby, Santorum and Inhofe but I searched the web in vain for any such comment.  The Oklahoman (also not a Kook website) reports that Inhofe will support McCain, albeit without a huge quantity of enthusiasm.  Some Senator whispered in Jack Wheeler’s ear that McCain is unhinged and not fit to be CinC but that person’s identity is unknown and the sentiment is, therefore, unverifiable]

That John McCain is clinically nuts is scary enough.

[Wheeler moves effortlessly from un-attributed speculation to the “fact” that McCain is “clinically nuts” – a diagnosis probably not found in the Physician’s Desk Reference.  Moving from speculation to “fact” is a time-honored tactic of conspiracy liars.  An unverifiable comment by an unknown “Senator” with no medical training regarding McCains mental condition could be true, but is equally likely to be the result of Martians radiating information through the aluminum foil inside Wheeler’s hat.]

What worries a small group of GOP Senators and Congressmen even more is a deep and dark skeletal secret in McCain’s glorified past to which they are privy, and which the Clintons will use to blackmail him.

[It is now time to apply the “What is More Likely” test.  Is it more likely that an unknown coterie of REPUBLICAN elected officials has decided to keep this information under their collective hats during the primary season and allow the party to be immolated in November by the Democrats rather than deal with the problem here and now and nominate someone else; or is it more likely that Jack Wheeler is a liar?]

Wheeler’s undocumented tale has been picked up by the internet Echo Chamber.  No fewer than thirty other sites reference it (and nothing else), thus giving it credibility to the credulous.

SEARCH FOR A VERIFIABLE SOURCE FOR ANY “NEWS” YOU FIND ON THE WEB.
And that does not mean go to another obscure blog.  Kook #1 is not verified simply because he is quoted by Kook #2.  Find a name – like Santorum, Cochran, Inhofe or Shelby and do what I did; see if that person has actually said something outside the padded confines of the conspiracy community.  If you find nothing, it is logical to infer that the information is false.

CHECK OUT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
We may all suspect that the mainstream media is biased, but the fact remains they have rules – honored in varying degrees – for what constitutes valid news.  Wheeler’s BS has not appeared in the Walla-Walla, Washington Weekly Wail; much less the New York Times.  That’s because real journalists recognize it for what it is.

THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD IS NOT A SOURCE.
The John Birch Society used to specialize in this scam.  One of their pet Congresscritters would place something in the Congressional Record for the sole purpose of allowing the JBS to quote the Record as the source.  A member of Congress can stand in the well of the House and accuse a private citizen of child abuse, kiddy porn, murder and jaywalking with complete ease.  The Constitution will not allow him to be prosecuted for it.  Thus, the Congressional Record is a tape recorder, not a work of journalism.

Here’s a link to an article by a fellow POW who knew McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.  He does not support McCain’s candidacy but doesn’t like base slander either.