Economical with the Truth, and the Code

Today's battle takes an interesting turn.

Over at Montgomery County, Maryland, as I've blogged about before, there's a "scare campaign" being run through the Maryland Citizens for Responsible Government. Their website is http://www.notmyshower.net.

The html source code of this site has an interesting second line, commented out:
<!---<?php include_once("/var/www/vhosts/saveourkids.net/httpdocs/oneadmin/config.php"); include_once("/var/www/vhosts/saveourkids.net/httpdocs/oneadmin/common/css.php"); include_once("/var/www/vhosts/saveourkids.net/httpdocs/oneadmin/common/session.php"); include("/var/www/vhosts/saveourkids.net/httpdocs/oneadmin/geotraffic/home.track.php"); ?> --->

http://www.saveourkids.net is quite coincidentally the website for another "scare campaign", this time

our campaign to protect innocent children from sexual indoctrination.

It is equally as economical with the truth. From ProudParenting:

An initial response of the civil rights bill screams, "Mom and Dad as well as husband and wife have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose."

Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families said, "Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles. This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms."
...
Read Senate Bill 777 for yourself to see if there's any mention of restrooms or locker rooms.

There isn't of course. Go to the ProudParenting site for the hyperlinks to the legislation. And the use of the phrase "Mom and Dad" continues in California schools. But these campaigns don't even have a passing acquaintance with the truth. The Big Lie is more effective at getting the campaign donations rolling in, and people's memories are short. When the promised Dire Consequences (tm) don't result, they shrug their shoulders and move on. And fall for the same thing next time.

What most offends me is that the ones running this scam are so arrogant, they don't think anyone would notice the connection. They didn't even bother to wipe off the fingerprints. As a Software Engineer, of course I approve of the authorised re-use of working code. But at least they could have gone back to the original source:
/****************************************************
Author: Eric King
Url: http://redrival.com/eak/index.shtml
This script is free to use as long as this info is left in
Featured on Dynamic Drive script library (http://www.dynamicdrive.com)
****************************************************/

If you're going to run a conspiracy of like minds, formal or informal, at least be professional about it. I wonder if they've left a money trail too? It wouldn't surprise me.

More on the subject at TeachTheFacts.org.