Please Check Your Facts

I get e-mails like this from time to time. I check them sometimes, but I usually don't because I know that they're bogus. The e-mail reads:

SOCIAL SECURITY CHANGES

It does not matter if you personally like or dislike Obama. You need to sign this petition and flood his e-mail box with e-mails that tell him that, even if the House passes this bill, he needs to veto it. It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone. If the government gives benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never contributed, where does that leave those of us who have paid into Social Security all our work ing lives?

As stated below, the Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens access to Social Security benefits.
Attached is an opportunity to sign a petition that requires citizenship for eligibility to that social service.

Instructions are below. If you don't forward the petition and just stop it, we will lose all these names.

If you do not want to sign it, please just forward it to everyone you know.

Thank you!

To add your name, click on 'forward'. Address it to all of your email correspondents, add your name to the list and send it on.

When the petition hits 1,000, send it to comment@whitehouse.gov

PETITION for President Obama:

Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned, protest the bill that the Senate voted on recently which would allow illegal aliens to access our Social Security. We demand that you and all Congressional representatives require citizenship as a pre-requisite for social services in the United States.

We further demand that there not be any amnesty given to illegal aliens, NO free services, no funding, no payments to and for illegal immigrants

[Then a huge list of dupes who didn't check their facts ensues followed by:]

If you don't forward the petition and just stop it, we will lose all these names. If you do not want to sign it, please just forward it to everyone you know. Thank you! Just think every time that the list hits 1,000 in all the forwarded e-mails, this petition will be sent not just by a thousand petitioners, but rather THOUSANDS of petitioners!

To add your name, click on 'forward'. Address it to all of your email correspondents, add your name and send it on.

1000th signer... please e-mail to:
comments@whitehouse.gov

I checked this at snopes.com. It's usually a good place to start with the understanding that such emails go through changes in wording and various other iterations. Following are some excerpts from the snopes article detailing this particular email and offering some common sense regarding this kind of email petition. I matched up highlights from the excerpts below to statements in the email above in like colors.

This item is a textbook example of the worst aspects of Internet petitions: It treats a non-existent issue, and suggests dealing with it in a largely ineffective manner.

As with all petitions sent via e-mail, the process of circulating them poses a number of problems. Forwarding a petition through e-mail duplicates the names of hundreds and thousands of earlier signatories as each recipient adds his name and then fans out his copy to multiple acquaintances. Moreover, there is no verification or validation process to ensure that completed copies were actually "signed" by the persons listed (rather than having their names added by someone else). As well, any "break" in one branch of the chain caused by recipients' not forwarding the petition along to others means that all the collected signatures unique to that branch will be permanently lost.

The designated target for the receipt of completed petitions - in this case the general comments e-mail address for the White House - is not a good choice. Petitions seeking legislative changes are best addressed to the legislative branch of government (i.e., the members of Congress who represent the petitioners).

The petition's goals are neither clear nor well-articulated.

Regarding not being clear or well-articulated, the article points out that The Departments of Social Security and Social Services are very different bureaucratic entities. I would add that the amnesty issue goes to yet a third area of government: The Department of Immigration. Bills for each of these areas would require different petitions.

The article also states that the issue goes back to an earlier email chain letter with a message based on a false premise. The snopes article for that one details the actual legislative activities behind the false claim that the senate voted to give social security benefits to illegal aliens back in 2006:

In a nutshell, the amendment...wasn't about "giving illegal aliens Social Security benefits"; it was about whether formerly illegal aliens (who had since become legal) should be credited for monies they themselves had paid into the Social Security fund while they were in the U.S. illegally. The senators...did not vote in favor of this proposition; they voted to withdraw the amendment from consideration.

So, please don't be duped by jokers who get their jollies off how many people they can get to propagate their lies by forwarding such emails. Email can be used to draw attention to legitimate online petitions with proper identity verification tools as well as for contacting your representatives directly. However, petitions such as this one and many emails with outrageous claims are entirely bogus. Check your facts before trusting forwards - even from people you otherwise trust. Those loved ones may be honest, but they are honestly duped.

Who Is: Star Parker

There are some people I agree with and then there are people I admire.

With all the national talk lately about Rush Limbaugh after his ascention to the head of the GOP in the minds of the administration, it's easy to miss out on other political conservatives who are holding the line. But Entertainer/commentators like Rush, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck don't do much outside of talk. So, while I like them and agree with them I reserve my admiration for the lesser-known people who are actively putting rubber on the road.

I just learned of one such person today. If you aren't already familiar with her, let me introduce you to Star Parker. Here's her bio:

The story of Star Parker is a stunning chronicle of how she left the seductive life of drugs, crime, abortions and welfare abuse through the power of the Gospel to become a leading advocate for the family. She is at the forefront of the Christian conservative movement to motivate and lead others away from the lies of the culture to a life full of grace and truth.

Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a 501c3 non-profit think tank that provides a national voice of reason on issues of race and poverty - in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy.

In addition to heading CURE, and its network of inner city clergy nationwide, Star is a syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, offering weekly op-eds to more than 400 newspapers worldwide.

As a social policy consultant, Star Parker gives regular testimony before the United States Congress, and is a national expert on major television and radio shows across the country. Currently, Star is a regular commentator on C-Span, MSNBC, and FOX News. She has debated Jesse Jackson on BET; fought for school choice on Larry King Live; and defended welfare reform on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Star Parker’s personal transformation from welfare fraud to conservative crusader has been chronicled by ABC’s 20/20; Rush Limbaugh; Readers Digest; Dr. James Dobson; The 700 Club; Dr. George Grant; the Washington Times; Christianity Today; Charisma, and World Magazine. Articles and quotes by Star have appeared in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. Recently she co-hosted an episode of The View with Barbara Walters, and her testimony went around the world on the television show of the Reverend Billy Graham.

Star has written three books, “Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats” (1996), "Uncle Sam’s Plantation” (2003), and “White Ghetto” (2006), works in Washington, DC, resides in Southern California and has a beautiful two year old grandson, Mr. James.

You can read her column at Townhall.com or the CURE website. But keep in mind that she's much more than a mere columnist, pundit or commentator.