This'd be hilarious if it wasn't so common

Spent some time today messing around tracking a chain email from a guy named Joe Porter out of Illinois who took the trouble as a purported independent to tout John McCain in a long-winded and substanceless way. I'm sure the piece is getting around, but has little web presence so far, probably because it's so stereotypical. It's theme is, essentially that the author is the possessor of immense Republican street cred, being:

46 years old, a born-again Christian, a husband, a father, a small business owner, a veteran, and a homeowner

And that, while being a POW for five years does not qualify someone to be President, John McCain is qualified to be President because he spent 5 years as a POW.

That's pretty much it.

Now, like the various evangelists that plague atheist blogs frequently claim to having been 'devout atheists until their lives were changed by Pascal's Wager or whatever nonsensical fluff they have to peddle today, I notice that Obama-bashing viral emails tend to be written by people claiming to be Independents. Sure, they're likely the sort of Independent carried on the rolls as a Republican, who votes the R ticket every time, or maybe they're registered Independent just in case the republicans go soft on the [insert culture war slur here] again. But I never see them claim to have voted twice for Bill Clinton.

Mind you, I doubt I'd believe it, but it seems odd they don't claim it. I suspect that they could simply never bring themselves to actually write the words, even as lies. Even the supposed 'Hillary Supporters' who are now campaigning for McCain don't say it. Maybe they'd turn to stone.

Anyway, I tracked it to a given web site, Republigal. http://republigal.bloggingus.com

Oh, boy, is this one fun. Or even so much as to not be fun any more. Surprisingly, there's another piece here by 'Independent' Joe Porter. More than one.

The site is loaded with the nastiest smears and the most sycophantic praises of the respective candidates. Guess which is which?

Correct.

But it's not just politics--it's religion, too. The lead piece currently http://republigal.bloggingus.com/?p=148 is a true call to action:

There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America. The United States of America and our citizens need prayer more than ever!!!
If you would like to participate: each evening at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, 8:00 PM Central , 7:00 PM Mountain, 6:00 PM Pacific, stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, for peace in the world, for wisdom and courage for our leaders, the up-coming election, and that the Bible will remain the basis for the laws governing our land and that Christianity will grow in the U.S.

Yeah, well. Good luck with that. Oh, the reason? Polls showing that Americans might vote for Obama.

But my favorite bit is in this piece "A Must Read of Obama Likeness" http://republigal.bloggingus.com/?p=106
of which the meat is:

According to The Book of Revelations:

The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal….the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

I wonder which translation that comes from?

Funny thing is, if Muslims were actually mentioned in the Bible three hundred years before they existed, it would actually give the book some prophetic credit. But it doesn't. And next week the same verse will mean something completely different.

They don't explain why they're trying to foil God's Plan for Apocalypse, though.

Steve "Need a shower now." James