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Exposing "Expose Obama": Good Idea or Bad?
I just sent an e-mail to a guy named Bruce. He's apparently the macher behind Floyd Brown's grotesque website, "exposeobama.com." I'm guessing many of you are aware of the site; it's been getting some attention on HuffPo and elsewhere.
Floyd Brown, producer of the infamous Willie Horton commercial, has decided to celebrate his 20th year of sowing and exploiting racial fears by setting up a website dedicated to spreading lies about Obama. Currently the site features a web ad accusing Obama of being--you guessed it--a secret Muslim.
I sent Bruce an e-mail, the text of which I'll share below, but I want to throw out this question to the TPM community: What is the smart layperson response to these sort of slanders?
On the one hand, calling shenanigans on the bastards seems like the right thing to do--after all, the Obama campaign itself has resolved to do just that, aggressively responding to these internet rumors.
On the other hand, these folks feed on free publicity, good or bad. Any attention, after all, just helps them introduce their virus in the cultural bloodstream.
On the other other hand, the act of letter writing-- done either collectively or individually--probably won't do much harm, but can it do any good? Or is it just be a way for folks like us to blow off some steam? What do we hope to accomplish with this sort of action?
I'm curious as to what folks think about all this. I certainly won't discourage anyone from picking up their e-mail pen and sending a letter of their own to bruce@exposeobama.com. But I'm also happy to entertain other, potentially more effective ideas as well.
Here's the letter I wrote. Feel free to critique it, borrow from it, or ignore it:
Dear Sir,
Your deceptive, divisive, and sleazy tactics will not work this time.
This
election, you'll discover that real Americans are better than that: we
are not falling for race-baiting, fear-peddling, Islamophobia, and
plain old-fashioned lies.
Your campaign will only serve to hurt McCain's campaign and damage
his credibility by undermining any of his pretensions to
high-mindedness and dignity.
Best of luck with that, you un-American hate-monger.
Sincerely,
Comments (13)
Should we really be worried about this guy? his website is right out of 1998, Geocities and all. I mean, should we go after the timecube guy too?
June 12, 2008 1:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's a valid point-- his site does look like crap. But given this guy's legacy and body of work, he's been getting a fair amount of MSM attention for his newest effort. And besides, as the site says, Expose Obama's intention is to get their ads on TV. And that is of greater concern to me than their shitty site.
June 12, 2008 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if they had forums we could troll endlessly.
Until they implement that though, we're going to have to make do by signing them up for all the gay porn the internet has to offer!
June 12, 2008 1:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now you're talking!
June 12, 2008 1:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that if you were to post installments of an EXPOSED series of Reader Posts under your byline, dealing with these people and their lies, I'd certainly read and rec the effort, and I don't think you'd be doing your targets any favors by drawing attention to them in a place like TPM.
In order to avoid the temptation to slip into useless ad hominem attacks on these sick racist fucks, you probably need to focus each installment on a specific topic or lie, e.g.:
EXPOSED: America's biggest asshat, Bruce E. Hawkins
Or something like that.
June 12, 2008 1:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
All told, a stupid idea.
You pick your battles.
And if you've got a leader you're trying to help, you let HIM pick his battles.
Up to now, Obama has done a pretty good job of defining the terrain he wants to fight on.
He's just assembled a team to deal with internet and email assaults.
Leave it to the pros.
June 12, 2008 5:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
On second thought, how about ...
EXPOSED: TPM's biggest asshat, acanuck
In any case, I thought Customer0012's gay porn idea was the real deal. Seconded.
June 12, 2008 7:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Rated 5, Chino!
June 12, 2008 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Simple solution:
Post his address, phone number and picture online. It should be remarkable to view how having to take personal responsibility would change his tune. Being recognized daily as a walking talking sphincter should negatively impact his self esteem.
Just a thought.
June 12, 2008 1:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't do this, kids. That's the sort of stuff that nutjobs on the right do. We're better than that.
June 12, 2008 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't there ever be old-testament justice for this sort of thing?
June 12, 2008 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, acc'd to TPM this morning, the Obama site is up:
http://www.fightthesmears.com
That's a pretty good start!
Perhaps it's worth buying up domain names similar to exposeobama.com or other "smear" sites (i.e. exposeobama.org, exposeobama.net, exposeobana.com, foxnews.edu, and maybe daniel pipes and debbie schlussel's sites for good measure) and linking them over to fightthesmears.com. Or maybe, since the Obama campaign has more money than God, they'll be able to pony up for that themselves...
June 12, 2008 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Adding on that one, how about everyone who's got a solid internet background creates a site dedicated to exposing this douchebag but utilizes every SEO strategy possible for the phrase "Obama Exposed."?
Also, the gay porn idea is awesome. One tweak, make sure and sign this douche up for anything related to NAMBLA.
Last, why not start peddling demonstrably false stories about THIS GUY and make HIM play defense? A little child molestation accusation always seems to do the trick, right?
June 12, 2008 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
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