Among the many outlandish rumors that have erupted since Barak Obama became President Barak Obama, the claim that his upcoming trip will cost $200,000,000.00 a day would seem to be one that would be the easiest to dismiss out of hand. But of course anything that can be used to smack around the Obama Administration manages to have a life of it's own. Don't worry, snopes is on the job.
I first heard(read) this rumor Wednesday during a discussion among some friends on FB. An old hometown friend brought it up. I must confess, I didn't rebut it at the time. I thought it was just a silly claim and didn't need to be highlighted. I have since sent my friend a Personal Message via FB with the snopes link. I hope he takes my note in the friendly manner it was sent. (I also suggested he needs to ignore the claims of his friends who watch Fox News.)
Later on Wednesday I heard the claim again, and for the first time realized it was an actual number being thrown around as fact by the Right Wing Noise Machine. Why was I not surprised? That it was something from an un-sourced item in an Indian newspaper didn't matter to those wanting to use anything to bash the President.
Among the associated rumors was one over the confusion of where the President was staying. He is staying at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai.(The whole hotel [570 rooms] has been rented for security reasons.) People actually inquired as to whether or not he had rented out the Taj Mahal. A couple of points here; 1) The Presidents visit is to Mumbai. 2) The Taj Mahal is in Agri. 3) Agri is 200 miles SE of New Delhi. 4) Mumbai is on the West Coast of India approximately 600 SW of Agri. 5) The Taj Mahal is a Tomb. If you're going to pass on rumors you should at least do a little research, otherwise you just add to the perception that Americans are naive and ignorant about world geography. (Well, that's probably true.)
Another associated rumor was the claim that the US Navy was sending 34 Naval ships in support of this trip. The Pentagon dismissed this as "comical". (I would think the reporter who asked this would be ashamed to show their face at the Pentgaon again, but then I thought it was probably someone from Fox and said; "nevermind".)
During the previous Administration I was as guilty as others to jump on wild rumors and claims about the Bush/Cheney cabal, but I did the courtesy of announcing I was putting on my tinfoil hat prior to making the statement. Too bad everyone else doesn't use the Daily Kos standard; If you continually engage in Conspiracy Theories (CT) you'll be banned from the site. I guess that would mean Fox reporters would be banned from every sane gathering.
On with the games!!
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- TexDem (that's me) is not bound by the guidelines. Heh
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B. 100 recommends for each comment, at least.
C. Stay on Recommend List at least five hours (this requires some strategic planning by you guys, refer to guideline #3)
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H. Overload the servers with recommends, not to mention dominate Top Comments Mojo list. (we do tend to mess with the site with all of our recommends at one time)(also, to dominate the Top Comments Top Mojo we need at least 50 comments with over 200 recommends, see guideline B)
I. That's enough for now. (Have a suggestion? Post it.)
MKinTN posted a diary to help everyone achieve greater success called How to Succeed at Mojo Friday Without Really Trying.
For those of you new to MF (Mojo Friday) we have our own lingo about a few things. Thank's to MF'er Jez (the link will explain) go to this diary for a little more fun and explanation. Official Mojo Friday Snecktionary.