Thought the despitethesmears dot com website is a riot in response to Obama's some what misguided Fight The Smears.

Yesterday, Father's Day, I finished reading your book and I found it extremely interesting & relevant to the current political climate.

In 2004, to tell you a personal story, my father and I had a argument that was so intense that we didn't speak to one another for nearly two years. There were many factors at play, obviously, family and personal dynamics, the fact that he is a religious, right wing Christian, and I am not. But the tangible subject of our disagreement was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. I was so angry with him that day for seeming to support an actual lie against a candidate. My father isn't stupid, as much as I disagree with his views. He's well educated (a Ph.D. and a consummate reader, thinker, with an extraordinary memory) and I thought that he was being shockingly corrupt. He--my father--was *personifying* or perpetuating the corruption I saw in the Bush white house...to put it bluntly. I had read so many debunkings of the Swiftboat veterans, from multiple credible sources, I could not believe that he could believe them. He said something like "how can you know they're lying" and I was in tears by that point, "how can you not know they're lying?" (Unfortunately, we share a passion for politics, just not for the same side of the political coin...)

Since then, we have made up to some degree. We treat one another as if we were foreigners from different countries, with different languages and only a few conversational phrases in common, and have treated one another with greater kindness since we did that day. But I hadn't quite put into words the idea of a diversified media being a source of our falling out. That, as you put it, we weren't arguing about opinions or ideas, liberal and conservative, but about the very nature of reality itself. And his truth was that the media debunking the swiftboat veterans was corrupt and liberal and therefore suspect. My truth was the opposite, obviously, given Fox News' abominable record when it comes to fact checking stories.

We haven't talked much about politics in the years since then, but I am thinking of sending him a copy of your book and just saying, "look, you don't have to agree, but here's a theory about what we were arguing over." I'm not sure he will buy the theory, of course, since, unfortunately, you, and Salon, may still be for him a part of the biased, liberal media. (alas!) And yet, I know through my mother that he has been disillusioned to the point of some contempt for Bush and friends. Maybe there is some common ground to be gained in seeing the way the other side sees the world, at least to a small degree.

It's worth a try at least. Thank-you for the page turner. I liked the rest of the book as well, and not just the first part that described the swiftboat veterans, but it struck me as interesting that you started there. For me too, that was a signal of something deeper and darker at work in the new dividing lines of how people see the world. Since then, I have seen dividing lines even in this primary, and over the 9-11 conspiracy theorists of course. And we will see fragmentation in the months to come.

The idea that trusting those in a small circle (like a small town--or people who read the same blog) actually can increase your distrust of those in the larger society is also intriguing. I'm still mulling that one over a bit, but thank-you for the ideas.

Thanks for your amazing letter. It's always wonderfully surprising to me when someone who's read it finds it personally relevant in some way. If you'd like to chat more about it beyond Salon's letters section, feel free to e-mail me. Thanks sincerely for reading it!

d1al 1t d0wn, h0lm3$

The problem is Obama's response is tailored to address only one report and not additional materials. There were several different sources for the claim Obama was Muslim but Obama only refuted a select few and ignored the rest. This drew people's attention away from the sources of his Muslim origins. Most problematic about Obama is his name and heritage and race reveal some more troubling matters. His dad is Muslim. Obama, while black, is not racially negro but Caucasian and Arab. From Africa yet, but his heritage is Arab.

kufir77: [Obama's] father was a Muslim, therefore, according to Muslim tradition, he is a Muslim.

Not according many if not most Islamic jurists:

___________________

Sherman A. Jackson, a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Michigan, cited an ancient Islamic jurist, Ibn al-Qasim, who said, "If you divorce a Christian woman and ignore your child from her to the point that the child grows up to be a Christian, the child is to be left," meaning left to make his own choice. Jackson said that there was not total agreement among Islamic jurists on the point, but Luttwak’s assertion to the contrary was wrong.

___________________

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01pubed.html?pagewanted=2&_r=5

myfreedomfirst: "Obama is his name and heritage and race reveal some more troubling matters. His dad is Muslim. Obama, while black, is not racially negro but Caucasian and Arab. From Africa yet, but his heritage is Arab."

Per an extensive genealogical history going back several generations, there is no indication that Obama is "racially Arab":

http://genealogy.about.com/od/aframertrees/p/barack_obama.htm

Even if there was, however, to assert that being of Arab descent is "troubling" is nothing short of naked racism. Do you also think that it's "troubling" that, for example, the former Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) John Abizaid, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and rock star Sammy Hagar, amongst many others, are racially Arab, myfreedomfirst?

Crawl back under your rock, "myfreedomfirst".