Hoax Museum Blog: Politics

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.

Bush Learns to Read — This picture of Bush reading a children's book upside down is a fake. Read the explanation here.

Saddam Hussein Doubles — Apparently Saddam Hussein employs many doubles of himself. The men shown below are apparently not the real Hussein. They're his doubles. So will the real Saddam Hussein please stand up?

NZ Electoral Pranks — Pranksters play havoc with New Zealand's new online electoral rolls, changing one woman's name from Kylene Soar to 'Mr. Fat Ass.' They also manage to register a basset hound to vote, listing its occupation as a cable-layer.

Sham Economic Forum — Bush to Hold Sham Economic Forum. At least, so claims the Democratic National Committee. I find it amusing when politicians start accusing each other of shams and staging events, since modern politics has become all about manipulating appearances and posing for photo ops anyway. Though in this case I'm inclined to agree with the DNC. The economic forum does appear to be what the historian Daniel Boorstin would describe as a "pseudo-event." Boorstin offered 3 criteria for identifying a pseudo-event:
1) It is not spontaneous;
2) Its success is measured by how widely it is reported;
3) Its relation to the underlying reality of the situation is ambiguous.
This checklist comes from Boorstin's book THE IMAGE: A GUIDE TO PSEUDO-EVENTS IN AMERICA. First published back in 1961, but still relevant reading today.

Cheney Cracks Down — Cheney promises crackdown on corporate fraud. I don't know. Somehow it seems a little fishy.

Dr. Pepper Pledge of Allegiance — Got a few e-mails about the Dr. Pepper/Pledge of Allegiance issue that's circulating through e-mail. Here's the text of the e-mail that people are receiving:
Just sharing the info with you that I received!

For those who have not heard, the bottlers/manufacturers of Dr. Pepper and their other products, have started a "new" can campaign. They are putting patriotic scenes on them. One, is the Empire State Bldg. with the pledge of allegiance...but ... they left off the words..."under God". They felt it might "offend" some. I don't know about you, but as a Christian, I am boycotting their products! They said they didn't "have room" for those words, but yet they had room for "indivisible" on the can Please pass this along to others and see if we can get a message out to Dr.Pepper ....ifhaving "under God" on cans offends them, then they don't need our money with "in God we trust" on it!!!
It turns out that Dr. Pepper did quote part of the Pledge of Allegiance on a patriotically themed can, and they did leave out the phrase 'Under God.' But then they only quoted three words from the pledge: "One nation... indivisible." So they also left out all references to the flag, the republic, liberty, and justice.

Here's Dr. Pepper's official response to the controversy: Dr. Pepper