Falling For The Old eRumor Trick

Randy Hollenbeck, the same CudahyNOW blogger that brought us such classic posts like the racist anti-Obama one (until he had to take it down, or it was taken down for him), brings us another sure to be classic.

In this new one, Randy schools us on how rotten those lying Democrats and tree-hugging liberals are. All because Big Oil can't take over even more of Alaska for exploitation, namely ANWR.

Well, let me tell ya, folks. Randy ain't much of an original thinker. A quick Google and Whallah! the first page shows three different sites on the first page alone with the exact same words and pictures on it.

I know that old adage about an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters, but I have a hard time believing that that many right wingers came up with the same idea.

So how did it happen. The viral email. I should know. I've been burned by it before. In Randy's case, truthorfiction.com shows that it is what they call an eRumor:

The part of the eRumor about Al Gore, Democrats, and gas prices is a political comment. We could not find an occasion when Al Gore advocated $5-per-gallon gasoline, but many environmentalists are in favor of steps that would reduce the use of fossil fuels. It's possible this is a reference to a speech he gave in the U.S. Senate on April 11, 1991 in which he voiced support of a National Academy of Sciences study. He said it, "rings the alarm bells again and tells us of the urgent need to take action now to combat global warming." Among the recommendations of the study was "restructuring energy prices to more accurately reflect environmental costs."

For another look at the bogus claims from the right's screed about the need to drill more and more, I would refer the gentle reader to my good friend, the mighty folkbum.