Take Me To Post Comment Form Musca's Thought for the Day:

I'm not given to conspiracy theories.I don't see sinister motives behind every act ,and I don't believe what should be considered as a matter of coincidence should ,at least in most cases, be regarded as anything more than simple coincidence.But after reading two separate postings by two separate bloggers, I'm beginning to wonder whether something is afoot.

The first blog included a posting allegedly written by Thomas Sowell, a very conservative and very old academic with an impressive list of credentials.The diction in the piece seemed utterly at odds with everything I know about the man.It seemed as if the piece had been written by someone else,a much younger someone since the piece included vulgarisms that have just earned a measure of acceptance in polite discourse and would probably have not found a place in the speech patterns of an older man.The piece was written in the vernacular and did not make use of the language of academics.Perhaps Sowell was slumming ,but it seemed to me that someone was trying to put words in his mouth.If my suspicions are correct, it was a rather inept attempt to manipulate public opinion but probably quite persuasive for those not familiar with the man or his works.

The second blog posted an article allegedly written by Ken Blackwell of the New York Sun.Apparently, the posting was false.Fortunately,the lie was detected ,but what if it hadn't been detected? How many people would have been swayed by a black man criticizing another black man, criticism obviously free from the taint of racism?

Is it a coincidence that both posts were ascribed to successful black men critical of Obama or is something more at work? Both posts seemed to dwell on familar criticisms.Did some ghost writer have talking points firmly in hand as he or she distributed these "editorials" through cyberspace? I don't know ,but such things are not impossible. President Nixon come to grief for political dirty tricks.Republican or Democrat,politics can be a dirty game and far too many are so partisan that they are willing to win at any cost.

If there is a lesson in any of this, it must be that voters need to be vigilant and informed. Democracy is hard work so voters can not be so credulous to believe every blog,every news commentator ( stentorian voice or no ) or everything that they read.We must be engaged and hold every politoco's feet to the fire.A healthy democracy should trump partisan politics and the dirty tricks that corrode our democratic society.

Musca