Thursday, August 06, 2009
Research is hard!
At some point yesterday, Nancy Pelosi gave an interview in which she said about the recent town hall goon squads: "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."
The super-sleuths of the internet were outraged! And after conducting a pathetic search, cyber-forensic expert Kevin Aylward of Wizbang proclaimed the Speaker's words "Bullshit."
Psst. Kevin. This search took 0.10 seconds.
The fourth result of this search leads you to a Washington Monthly post by Steve Benen who notes:
Now if you follow that last link, you'll be taken to this page, which notes:
And, lo and behold, at 2:03, there's this image:
At the top of the photo, just to the right of the "Stop" sign there's a guy waving this placard that appears to say:
The super-sleuths of the internet were outraged! And after conducting a pathetic search, cyber-forensic expert Kevin Aylward of Wizbang proclaimed the Speaker's words "Bullshit."
Psst. Kevin. This search took 0.10 seconds.
The fourth result of this search leads you to a Washington Monthly post by Steve Benen who notes:
Let's not forget the protestor carrying a tombstone with Rep. Lloyd Doggett's (D-Texas) name on it -- at the same event with an activist carrying a sign with Nazi "SS" lettering.
Now if you follow that last link, you'll be taken to this page, which notes:
See, as one Dem points out, the much-watched Lloyd Doggett video today. Go to about a [sic] the 2:00 minute mark and you'll find a guy carrying a kid on his shoulders and hoisting a sign with the Nazi "SS" lettering.
And, lo and behold, at 2:03, there's this image:
Above: Patriotic American Cleverly Compares Health-Care Reform with Nazis
At the top of the photo, just to the right of the "Stop" sign there's a guy waving this placard that appears to say:
"SStop SSocialized Medicine!"
Nice touch with the SS lightning bolts! In case you're not familiar with the Schutzstaffel, it was the personal guard unit for Hitler, whose leader was Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the final solution. The SS was in charge of the concentration camps. They murdered millions. Here's a helpful primer in case you want to learn more! So if I understand the reasoning, the man waving the placard believes that health care reform is akin to Nazi death squads murdering innocent civilians. Okey-dokey.
Yeah, it's one guy, and it's not a swastika (let's be accurate!) But jeez, how hard is it to find this?
.
Above: No swastikas here! Alle ist gut.
LATER: Aylward is alerted by a commenter that he's all wet, and notes: "Verdict: Not Swastikas, Still Bullshit." I agree! Pelosi should come out and apologize immediately! I've drafted a statement for her:
"Yesterday, I said that Nazi imagery, specifically, a swastika, was appearing at rallies against health care reform. Sadly, I was wrong. The image was, in fact, of the SS, the Nazi Germany secret police, which was responsible for the administration of concentration camps, which resulted in the deaths of millions of innocents. I was wrong to mistake the image, and apologize profusely to any non-SS Nazi who may have been offended."
Also, right-wing groups would never, ever use swastikas or other Nazi-style imagery at rallies.
LATER: Obvious forgery
Permalink posted by Jonathan : 10:07 AM
