Lies and Dastardly Liars

Zeb Bell may be entitled to his own opinions and he may be entitled to spew them endlessly from his "Zeb At the Ranch" radio show for as long as his sponsors and the people of Idaho allow him to do so, however he is not entitled to his own facts.  As part of his vitriolic ranting about the Democratic presidential nominee (if you think vitriolic is exaggerated check out Tara's post at The Political Game today), somewhere in between accusations of inspiring race riots and, ironically, dismantling the Constitution if elected, the topic turned to Senator Obama's religion.

Zeb and callers missed no opportunity to question the authenticity and depth of Obama's Christianity; one caller even took the time in questioning his religion to misquote a line from Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope.  As the caller described it, Obama is supposed to have said in the book, "I would stand with the Muslims if the political winds blow angry," to which Zeb responded, "That's right.  Yeah, it's true."

The discussion then spiraled into accusations that as president, Obama would impose "Shia law," referring to Islamic religious law of Sharia.  All of this for no apparent reason other than to scare people within listening range of the KBAR airwaves.

The lie about this supposed quote has been circulating via email for some time and has been debunked by snopes.com.  The actual quote, from page 261 of the book, is as follows:

Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.

What exactly is it about that quote that frightens Zeb Bell?  It's hardly a precursor to the imposition of Sharia.

Here, take a listen to a bit of the conversation for yourself:

What is it called when a man maliciously uses lies to scare people?  Maybe dastard would work; that's just how Zeb Bell rolls.

Comments

[Tara Rowe]

Spiraled is a good word for it, what a trainwreck!

[MountainGoat]

Yeah, no doubt. His whole show today was a complete trainwreck!