Topic: WorldNetDaily
For the past few weeks, WorldNetDaily has been flogging a petition "demanding that the constitutional eligibility requirement be taken seriously and that any and all controlling legal authorities in this matter examine the complete birth certificate of Barack Obama, including the actual city and hospital of birth, and make that document available to the American people for inspection." But the petition itself lacks the transparency WND is demanding from Obama.
First of all, there's no way for anyone to inspect the signatures, as WND has not made them available. Not only is there no independent way of verifying that (at the time of this writing) 195,039 signatures actually exist, there's no way to check how many Mickey Mouses and Donald Ducks and other fake names have signed it.
Third, the petition accepts only a name, email address and zip code, with no verification that the signer be a registered or even eligible voter. But why ask for an email address? Could it be that this is all one big harvesting operation to gather addresses forWND's mailing list?
It appears so; as part of signing the petiiton, you agree to let WND "keep me informed about the upcoming constitutional crisis over Barack Hussein Obama's eligibility for the presidency, as well as other breaking news and special offers from WND." And once you click the button to sign the petition, you're taken to another page where WND tries to sell you some factually challenged anti-Obama books.
Another WND petition asking President Bush to pardon two Border Patrol agents appears to be structured the same way, down to the sales job on the follow-up page.
There's no genuine sincerity here on WND's part here. It's all just marketing -- another way to make money off readers.
