Sites all over the Net picked up a claim by EPIC that the White House had prematurely pulled down a petition regarding TSA when it was nearing its "signature" threshold.

People who really should have known better started claiming an Obama "conspiracy" to block the petition from completion.

This of course made no sense on its face. What would be accomplished? How would it be explained? After all, even if the threshold were met, all the White House has to do is issue a boilerplate response and that's that. Why risk subterfuge? Totally illogical!

The whole White House petition gimmick was silly from the outset, and I said so publicly when it was first announced.

A Web site problem seemed a much more likely cause for the petition vanishing, but in fact the creator of the petition, Jim Harper of Cato, now says it ended correctly on schedule. EPIC apparently simply assumed it had ended prematurely.

Anyone feeling at least a little bit like a gullible fool? Maybe some common sense, next time?

--Lauren--