Nasty. Brutish, And, At 13 Minutes, Not Short Enough
Check out this video that attacks Barack Obama as a secret Muslim fanatic. Among the questions it poses is this one: “When we are at war with Islamic terrorism, can Americans elect a man with not one, not two, but three Islamic names?”
While watching it, I thought of the ways in the which the often-successful Hindutva crowd raises the bogey of the Muslim predator. Who is behind the video? Wired has an answer. Turns out it is a right-wing Christian nut with the word “Zealot” tattooed on his arm:
The video was made by Mitchell’s company, Illuminati Pictures. Mitchell is former wedding videographer who now produces and hosts a weekly Christian television show called Flamethrower, which began airing on the satellite network Faith TV last October. A round-table show featuring Mitchell and three other Christian panelists, Flamethrower is best known for a segment that never aired. Produced in January, Mitchell’s video Making Mohammed Cookies! shows a chef, wearing Islamic headdress, baking a cookie in the shape of the Muslim prophet. He’s interrupted at one point by his roommate, whom he shoots with a handgun while yelling, “Jew.”
Are such smear campaigns effective? Here’s a news-story titled “Hoax Anti-Obama E-Mails Still Fool Dumb White Guys.” The Obama campaign has a website called Fighting the smear.
[Update: Are the Republicans playing dirty? Sure they are. Check this out. Just count the number of times the McCain campaign has made false claims and compare it to the number of times the Obama campaign has done the same.]
[Further update: “The golden age of political signage is upon us.” Via]
