When responding to and debunking right-wing chain emails, please...

[Ian David]

1) Use "Reply to All" and don't just reply to the person who sent it to you.

2) Go to the very bottom of the email, and reply to ALL the people whose names were exposed, and whose privacy was violated, by people who not only did not use Bcc, but also did not delete the email addresses of the people below them on the chain.

3) Ask them to donate to Larry Craig's Legal Defense at The Fund For Justice. You'll be protecting gay rights, privacy rights, and free speech, while also diverting funds from people who might otherwise have donated to a viable Republican candidate, AND you'll be pointing a finger at Repuke hypocrisy:



http://www.TheFundForJustice.com

The Fund for Justice is a Trust created to provide a proper means to accept transfers of money, property and services for the sole purpose of defraying costs that have been and will be incurred in connection with the ongoing proceedings in The State of Minnesota v. Larry E. Craig.

Contributions may be made to The Fund For Justice can be up to but cannot exceed $10,000 per year per source. The fund cannot accept contributions from corporations or labor organizations, from the principal campaign committees of any member of the United States Senate, from registered lobbyists, lobbying firms, agents of foreign principals, or any officer or employee of the United States Senate, or the spouse or dependent thereof.

The Fund for Justice Trust is established between The Honorable Larry Edwin Craig, the trustor, and The Honorable Gregory S. Casey, Sr, the trustee, in compliance with laws of the United States, the State of Idaho and the provisions of Senate Resolution 508 of the U.S. Senate, 96th Congress.




http://www.TheFundForJustice.com


Oh, and

4) There is no reason to post the entire email slander here on DU.

[Wapsie B]

1. The fundie secretary I used to have

wouldn't forward me the rwing emails her little friends sent to her. She'd print them out and circulate them around the dept. Then if you wanted to send something back to her list you'd have to type in every email address. They taught her well at the asylum.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Also, PLEASE don't post the chain emails here...

[Vincardog]

3. Larry E. Craig can pay for his own legal defense.

[emdee]

4. Is there any advise though...

when a nut who now has my email address starts sending hate mail?
That happened to me so I started telling the original sender that he/she should send the truth to all - which he/she does not do.
They really don't care about truth - that's the problem.
emdee

[Ian David]

5. Ask them to donate to The Larry Craig Fund for Justice.

Or start sending them stuff from Bob Barr or Ron Paul.

Let them donate to Larry Craig, Bob Barr, or Ron Paul and encourage them to support those non-viable candidates with their time, money and vote.

If you can't rehabilitate them, then just redirect them to where they will do less harm.

And if they start attacking you personally, take it seriously and deal with it as needed-- be it their SysOp, employer, or local police as the case may be.

[emdee]

7. Thanks - the creep that got my email address was scary! nt

nt

[Bigmack]

6. I got one of those recently...

sent a short "Reply All" and sent this:
"Jim... you keep sending this crap on... check snopes.com or some other debunking site first! Ever hear of lies during a campaign? Large - and RED - fonts don't make things true. There are at least 71 totally false internet rumors about Obama on snopes.com"

Claim: Three former Fannie Mae executives are linked to the Obama campaign as chief economic advisors.
Status: False.

That was nothing: I got a "Reply All" about the same email that certainly says it all... and well!
- - - - - -
Tom and Nancy,

This is what is called a "viral" email smear. You have apparently been duped into sending it on. Since I do know something about these people and the Obama campaign (although I am not working on the campaign) let me share it with you.

I knew Frank Raines 40 years ago, when he and I were the two Harvard National Scholarship winners from Washington. While we were not really friends, I have always followed his career with some interest. When he was CEO of Fannie Mae, he was responsible for instituting a number of free-market type "reforms", as were the fashion in the private finance industry, including paying executives huge bonuses for producing more loans for Fannie Mae to buy. These "reforms" led inevitably to abuses, and Frank was canned and charged with a list of Federal crimes. Several years later, he settled the charges, basically by giving back the golden parachute he received when he left.

In my opinion, Frank got off too easy. What he did at Fannie Mae was the sort of criminal greed which doesn't even belong at a private bank, let alone a quasi-public entity. He belongs in jail.

That said, it is not true that he is "Chief Economic Advisor" for the Obama campaign. As a matter of fact, when this rumor first came out, about a month ago, the suckers in the national press were all over it until they discovered that Frank had never had any role, paid or unpaid, in the campaign. This rumor was one of the things that led to the McCain campaign losing a lot of their credibility with the press.

Jim Johnson, who has never been charged with a crime, had handled the background investigations on potential Vice Presidential candidates for two previous Presidential nominees. He was asked to do the same, along with Caroline Kennedy, for Obama. When Obama learned that there were unresolved questions about possible improprieties at Fannie Mae involving Johnson, he immediately fired him from the campaign.

Tim Howard, who was involved with Frank Raines at Fannie Mae, has never had any role, paid or unpaid, in the Obama Campaign. He is apparently raising money for McCain.

Who starts these viral email smears? There is a certain group on the right wing of our politics who won't debate issues honestly or say why they oppose a candidate. In Obama's case, some are motivated by racism, some by fear that after Bush is gone their own crimes in office might be prosecuted (as is starting to happen this week in the Justice Department scandal), some just because they can't seem to oppose someone without hating them. Email makes it easy for someone to spread poison anonymously. Please make up your own mind about the candidates based on honest, open sources of information. Consider the source.

This kind of dirty campaigning does damage to our democracy. If you would like to help correct it, just forward this email back up the line to whomever passed it to you. Don't allow yourself to be used.