Hoax Museum Blog: Politics

Fake Reporters — The Bush administration is getting some flack for a video it has distributed to news stations showing journalists commenting on the public reaction to the newly passed Medicare law. The problem is that those aren't real journalists. They're actors paid to read from a script. It's a subtle, ambiguous form of deception, since the White House can always say that they really are reporters. After all, they're standing there, in front of a camera, reporting. Doesn't that make them a real reporter? In a sense, yes. But really, no. They're White House press agents. There's still a difference between a press agent and a reporter.

The JFK-Marilyn Monroe Correspondence — Lex Cusack is in jail for selling love letters supposedly written in 1961 by JFK to Marilyn Monroe. The problem is that the letters contained zip codes, and zip codes only came into use in 1963. Now the FBI wants to destroy all the letters, and Cusack is crying foul. He argues that even if the letters are fake (he continues to claim they're real), they're still his property and the government can't just destroy them.

The Milton Mule and Henry Bull — In 1936 a candidate named Boston Curtis ran for the post of Republican precinct committeeman in the town of Milton, Washington. And he won. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to the people who voted for him, Boston Curtis was a mule. His name had been placed on the ballot by the Democratic mayor Ken Simmons who guessed, correctly, that no one actually knows anything about the candidates for the lower-ranking positions. They just vote along party lines. Simmons figured it would be funny to get the Republicans to vote in a mule (which is the symbol of the Democratic party).

Carrying on this tradition of involving animals in the electoral process, we now have Brenda Gould, from Newmarket, England, who registered her cows as voters. She listed their names as Henry and Sophie Bull. Oh, and she also registered her dog, 'Jake Woofles.' And on the same subject, check out this Aug 2002 entry about a basset hound who was registered to vote in New Zealand.

Sham-paign Contest — The Guardian is hosting a contest to see who can come up with the best doctored photo pertaining to the American Presidential campaign. It's inspired by the recent doctored photo of John Kerry and Jane Fonda (see below).

Hanoi John, Part II — Now that photo of Kerry with Jane Fonda that I talked about in the previous post may have been fake, but this new photo that has just surfaced is undoubtedly real. (via Eschaton)

Hanoi John — A doctored photo of John Kerry speaking with Jane Fonda (aka 'Hanoi Jane') at a 1971 anti-war rally has been making the rounds lately and getting a lot of attention. It was almost immediately debunked as a phony. As this Newsday article describes, the original photo was taken by Ken Light. The doctored version of it began popping up in conservative chat rooms a few weeks ago. As the political campaign heats up, I expect that many more photoshopped pictures of political candidates will surface. What I found surprising was not the picture itself, but the speed at which it was debunked.

Trophy Turkey — It turns out that the turkey President Bush was proudly holding on his recent visit with the troops in Iraq wasn't for eating. It's what's known as a 'Trophy Turkey': one that is just for decoration, not for consumption. I guess it wouldn't have looked as good for the cameras for Bush to walk around holding the slices of processed turkey meat that the soldiers really got.

State Seal of Kahlifoania — Apparently the great state of California, in which I live, has adopted a new state seal, as can be seen below.

Hitler Hoaxes — Mixing together some content that had been on the site before, with a little stuff from my book, I just created a small gallery of hoaxes involving Adolf Hitler. He was a strange man, and he inspired some strange hoaxes.

Howard Dean Confederacy Posters — Posters advertising a campaign rally for Howard Dean, and sporting a confederate flag in the background, appeared all over the campus of Dartmouth College. The group hosting the rally denies having created the posters, therefore they're obviously a prank, created by some group as yet unknown.

Not our governor, he just looks like him — Meet Lyndall Grant, professional Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, this guy earns almost $1000 a pop to imitate the Governator at corporate events and parties. Sometimes he does two events a night. When he's not imitating Ah-nold, he works as a landscape designer.

Flag-o-Rama — The Flag-o-Rama Flagstore: Gift items for truly fanatical patriots.

$200 George Bush Bills — This story has been getting quite a lot of attention. On Sep. 6, 2003 a man paid for $150 in groceries at a Food Lion in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina with a phony $200 bill bearing George W. Bush's portrait. The bill showed a white house with signs on its lawn reading 'we like ice cream' and 'USA deserves a tax cut.' The cashier accepted the bill and gave $50 change. The Smoking Gun was able to actually get a picture of the $200 bill used in the transaction.

What most people don't remember is that this scam is hardly new. Two years ago, on January 28, 2001 a drive-thru customer at a Danville, Kentucky Dairy Queen paid for his $2.12 purchase with $200. That $200 was handed to the cashier in the form of a single $200 bill bearing on the front the likeness of George Bush and a treasury seal marked "The right to bear arms." The back of the bill showed an oil well and the White House lawn decorated with signs. The signs read "U.S. deserves a tax cut," "No more scandals," and "We like broccoli." The cashier accepted the bill and gave the customer $197.88 in change. The customer quickly drove off. Speaking later in her defense, the cashier explained that she had believed the $200 bill to be legitimate because it was green, just like real money.

Update: A visitor pointed out that the link to the Smoking Gun (now removed) no longer goes to the Bush Bills story. In fact, I couldn't find the story on their site any more [wait... here it is in their archive section], but luckily the picture of the Bush Bills was stored in Google's cache. Here it is. And one more thing. I realized that the bills used in the recent incident (Sep. 6, 2003) sound identical to the ones used in the Jan. 28, 2001 incident. Actually, they don't just sound identical, they are identical. So the two events must be related. I wonder if the police realize there was an earlier incident in a different state?

How to Lie with Statistics — Interesting piece in the NY Post about how government economists can lie with statistics, making economic growth go up and down like a yo-yo.

Vote for the Vampire — Here's a guy that should be running for Governor of California. He's wasted on Crouch Hill ward.

Terry Tate for Governor — To the list of fictitious characters campaigning to become Governor of California we can now add Terry Tate, the 'Office Linebacker' in those ads by Reebok. Terry Tate is played by actor Lester Speight, but it's Tate that's running, not Speight. So we now have Gollum and Tate running, as well as Gary Coleman, Gallagher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the pornstar Mary Carey, Angelyne, and Larry Flynt. All elections should be this fun!

Gollum for Governor — Here's the latest entrant to the California recall election: Gollum, from Lord of the Rings. Considering the other candidates running, he just might have my vote.

Cherie Blair Dance Hit — A dance hit by Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is taking the clubs by storm in Spain. Or, um, maybe not. (Thanks to Keith Brogan for emailing me about this).

Update 8/14/03: According to this article, maybe it's not a hoax.

How Californias recall election can erase the states deficit — A lot of people have been wondering whether this whole California recall election is some kind of hoax, what with candidates for governor such as Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, and Angelyne. Well, it's no hoax. All it takes is $3500 and 65 signatures and anyone can announce their candidacy for governor. Personally I think people are failing to see the potential here to get rid of Gray Davis and solve our budget woes all in one fell swoop. Think about it. We've got a $35 billion deficit, and it costs $3500 to run for governor. So if the entire population of Los Angeles registered to run for governor, our deficit would be gone in an instant. Apparently we're already well on our way to achieving this goal.

King Bloop Zod of Mars — King Bloop Zod from the planet Mars strikes up an email exchange with Mel Martinez, the White House Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and gets a response.