The first openly birther Senator
It’s James Inhofe, just as you’d expect:
“They have a point,” he said of the birthers. “I don’t discourage it. ... But I’m going to pursue defeating [Obama] on things that I think are very destructive to America.”
I wonder now long people like Greg Pollowitz can keep pretending the media is only keeping this story alive to make Republicans look bad.
Here’s a question: do you think that we’ll any birtherism from mainstream opinion writers? I guess I probably mean someone at the Times or Post, presumably the WSJ has already gone there.
July 27, 2009 10:03 am
Posted in: Burkean bells, Hoot-Smalley
90 Comments
90 Responses
dmsilev - July 27, 2009 | 10:11 am · Link
Define “mainstream”. The David Broders of the world won’t touch it with a fifty foot pole; far too uncouth and screaming-mob for their tastes. On the other hand, I could see someone like Charles Krauthammer going there (using the “questions have been raised” dodge).
-dms
cleek - July 27, 2009 | 10:12 am · Link
i’m sure we’ll see some jackass Postie say something like “if there are questions, then let there be an investigation. what harm could it do? it won’t become a political witch-hunt or a distraction if it’s handled properly and our country can finally move on from these troubling accusations.”
Ella in NM - July 27, 2009 | 10:12 am · Link
Perhaps he should have a talk with his colleague, or read a reputable journalistic resource once in a while:
McCain Campaign Investigated, Dismissed Obama Citizenship Rumors
http://washingtonindependent.c.....hip-rumors
Oh, that’s right. It’s Inhofe, evolutionist and climate change denier. Truth is a completely malleable concept in his world.
unabogie - July 27, 2009 | 10:13 am · Link
James Inhofe has got to be the most openly anti-reality person ever to hold public office.
Whatever is real, he thinks is a hoax. Whatever is a hoax, he buys hook, line, and sinker.
That might be the true definition of Peak Wingnut.
DougJ - July 27, 2009 | 10:14 am · Link
Define “mainstream”.
Someone who works for the Post or Times.
burnspbesq - July 27, 2009 | 10:15 am · Link
I know it’s not the right thing to do, but there is a part of me that just wants to round up these loonies and stick them in an internment camp somewhere in West Texas.
JenJen - July 27, 2009 | 10:15 am · Link
What I found even stranger was, as Think Progress noted, “It’s unclear why Politico characterizes Inhofe’s decided support for the “birthers” as an “elusive middle ground” stance.”
I was not aware there was a “middle ground” on the question of the President’s citizenship.
joe from Lowell - July 27, 2009 | 10:16 am · Link
Just a head’s up – the wingnut response to the observation that there are numerous Birfers among Congressional Republicans is to pretend that there are a comparable number of Troofers among Democrats. For example, Cynthia McKinney, who…uh…lost her next primary and was kicked out of the party. And…uh…uh…I saw this blog once.
The Moar You Know - July 27, 2009 | 10:19 am · Link
Fear not, for Inhofe’s steady hand is on the tiller of the ship of state, steering us directly towards that giant white thing that he and the screaming pants-soiling birfer mob assure us is a nice, fluffy white cloud.
aimai - July 27, 2009 | 10:20 am · Link
Liz Cheney, Ann Coulter and others have been very clear that white racist republican discomfort with Obama’s presidency is Obama’s fault. The particular expression of that fear and anxiety and rejection doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it is felt at all. I can’t really think of any examples, from the other side, of such blatant feelings mongering. I mean, if a female student feels she’s being sexually harrassed in class the right wing doesn’t tell her she can go complain to the President of the College that she has been raped by aliens to make the point more juicy. Hell, if she has been sexually harrassed by the professor they are more likely to blame her for being too pretty, or too sensitive.
So shouldn’t the correct, hard headed, conservative response to these people be “get back to work you crazy motherfuckers, ain’t nobody here going to feel your pain?” I mean, that’s pretty much what I got from the right wing for the entirety of Bush’s reign of error.
aimai
gex - July 27, 2009 | 10:23 am · Link
@JenJen: Is up down? It would be irresponsible not to ask.
wilfred - July 27, 2009 | 10:23 am · Link
Yeah, but the article was about being put on the spot with a question:
In fairness to Inhofe, he was on the spot, it’s not like he has taken up the mantle of the birthers, is it? I give money to Code Pink and I’d like to hear what, say, Chris Dodd has to say about their disrupting Senate hearings on Iraq.
Fair play’s a jewel. Inhofe is an asshole for lots of reasons, his response to the question isn’t one of them.
geg6 - July 27, 2009 | 10:24 am · Link
The more the elected GOPers say shit like this, the more likely that becomes. Kristol will probably voice his doubts from his perch at the great whorehouse, the WaPo. Douthat will most likely wonder if we shouldn’t look into it and somehow drag S-E-X oh noes! into the discussion, probably by insinuating that Obama’s mother was one of those slutty non-abstinent types so you can’t trust her much like you can’t trust any woman who has sex. Broder will surely come along with some concern about how it would be bipartisan to look into the matter as that is always what is best for the nation’s welfare. And the NYT will give column space on the editorial page for Orly Tate to lay out her case. And the blogs will certainly be bashed for not doing their fact-checking when they post that suspicious image they’ve been disseminating of the birth certificate. Who knows if it’s real or just one of those photo-shop thingies?
cleek - July 27, 2009 | 10:24 am · Link
OT: anyone else having trouble seeing Kevin Drum’s site these days? i keep getting bounced to a Mother Jones sign-up page, whenever i try to bring up his blog….
different church-lady - July 27, 2009 | 10:24 am · Link
When you’re too nuts for Ann Coulter, you’re officially nuts.
Brick Oven Bill - July 27, 2009 | 10:26 am · Link
For the last and final time…let’s see the birth certificate. Let me touch it, feel it, and then I will pass my final judgment as to whether Obama is a legitimate president.
Until then, I will strike at him daily for whatever reason I feel is warranted.
gex - July 27, 2009 | 10:26 am · Link
@wilfred: “They have a point” is a fair response to questions about the birfers?
Comrade Jake - July 27, 2009 | 10:29 am · Link
The best part of this whole thing has got to be Orly Taitz, the Russian-born attorney/dentist/real-estate agent. Have you guys seen her on the teevee? She is the epitome of wingnut.
cleek - July 27, 2009 | 10:29 am · Link
odd of him to say “They have a point” now, when he was saying something quite different back in December.
ChrisS - July 27, 2009 | 10:30 am · Link
In fairness to Inhofe, he was on the spot, it’s not like he has taken up the mantle of the birthers, is it?
It’s a pretty simple question. Like:
“Senator Inhofe, did Americans land on the moon?”
“Well, I don’t discourage people from thinking that we didn’t, they have a point.”
If a United States Senator’s best answer to a simple question is to encourage the conspiracy theorists for political gain, then he’s a fucktard.
wilfred - July 27, 2009 | 10:31 am · Link
@gex:
To me, no. But he has to satisfy his constitutents I suppose. It was hardly a ringing endorsement, was it? I think Kennedy freaks have lots of good points, too, but that doesn’t mean I agree with them.
Inhofe has said far worse things, far more racist things with intense political consequences, but he’d never get skewed for some of them.
Brick Oven Bill - July 27, 2009 | 10:35 am · Link
I’m now convinced that “Brick Oven Bill” is not real: “he” is merely a parody troll handle that we all get to use at will.
schrodinger's cat - July 27, 2009 | 10:35 am · Link
OT: I am using Firefox and the BJ web site seems to have lost all its formatting and looks weird. I don’t have problems with any other sites. Is anyone else having the same problems?
used to be disgusted - July 27, 2009 | 10:36 am · Link
The thing that really gets me about Inhofe is …
“Start your journey now, my Lord.”
I’m sorry. What were we talking about?
Bob In Pacifica - July 27, 2009 | 10:36 am · Link
I want Inhofe to prove he was born in the U.S. And every other Republican. I’ve got an old piece of paper that says I was born in New Jersey, but, hey, it could be a fake. I suspect that Inhofe was the spawn of Satan and a Nazi, and born out of country along a ratline where escaping war criminals scuttled, heads down to South America.
Oh wait, that’s my governor.
MattF - July 27, 2009 | 10:37 am · Link
I’d be astonished if any of the mainstream (i.e., Times or Post) right-wingers took up the Birther cause. Howie Kurtz has already condemned it—and, e.g., George Will is far too solicitous of his own dignity to carry on with the likes of dentist-turned-lawyer types. Krauthammer is getting somewhat obsessive about Obama—but, OTOH, he is, after all, an ex-psychiatrist. You can never say never with these guys—but I don’t think so.
The Moar You Know - July 27, 2009 | 10:37 am · Link
I have an interesting problem along these lines; my original birth certificate is lost. Now, I obtained a certified copy from the state agency that handles birth certificates, and it was good enough to get a passport with, but apparently none of this is good enough to be president.
Will I never be president because of this heinous act of fate? It sure looks that way, and that is making me sad.
ellaesther - July 27, 2009 | 10:38 am · Link
@unabogie: “Anti-reality,” is, to my fevered mind, about the best description of a particular slice of American political/ideological scene that I can think of. And I will be stealing it, so thank you.
Also, and not incidentally, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
When elected officials, the so-called responsible face of any opposition group, stop distancing themselves from purveyors of hate-speech (because that’s what this is) and start acknowledging them/granting them any kind of legitimacy—that’s when people get shot. I’m Israeli-American, and I watched it happen to Yitzhak Rabin (and frankly, we over here watched it happen to George Tiller), and this is part of why I don’t always sleep well at night.
I would really like the POTUS to govern from inside Cheney’s man-sized safe, I think. Or at least his Undisclosed Location.
Comrade Jake - July 27, 2009 | 10:38 am · Link
Jesus, check out the front page of Politico. This birther/GOP headache is taking up half the screen.
This is all fun and games, but I think there is some danger in giving the birthers too much attention. These are precisely the type of folks who try to sneak hunting rifles into town-hall meetings.
schrodinger's cat - July 27, 2009 | 10:40 am · Link
Update: Balloon Juice is back to normal on Firefox and everything is fine with the world again.
gex - July 27, 2009 | 10:41 am · Link
@wilfred: So it is okay for people in positions of authority to just mumble something non-committal to keep this story alive just because it might alienate some people?
Listen, I know why he answered the way he did—he doesn’t want to alienate his voters. I’m just curious why you are defending it.
John S. - July 27, 2009 | 10:41 am · Link
Something I’m sure you’ve demanded from all previous presidents, who like Obama, were born in the United States.
Racist clown.
Joey Maloney - July 27, 2009 | 10:42 am · Link
@Brick Oven Bill:
Oh, if only.
I have the birth certificate right here in my pants. It’s the “long form”, too. You can touch it, feel it. Go ahead, I know you want to. Mommy doesn’t have to know.
forked tongue - July 27, 2009 | 10:42 am · Link
I bet not.
So it’s supposed to be passed hand-to-hand among every wingnut in America? Hate to tell you, Bill, but Obama’s two terms will be over by the time that happens.
Punchy - July 27, 2009 | 10:43 am · Link
Nice list, libtard. Those lefty rags the only ones you know, eh? Figures. Cant name a quality moderate paper like the WashTimes or St. Pete Times?
Activist blogger.
dmsilev - July 27, 2009 | 10:43 am · Link
@Comrade Jake:
Jon Stewart’s take on her was classic. Loosely paraphrasing, “If you want someone to botch a root canal, sue for damages, and use the settlement to buy the house of your dreams, I’m your one-stop-shop”. The whole segment is worth a watch; a brutal takedown of the birthers, and most especially Lou Dobbs.
-dms
Neddie Jingo - July 27, 2009 | 10:43 am · Link
Right at the tops of their heads.
Keith - July 27, 2009 | 10:43 am · Link
The great irony (well, one of them, at least) is that it was only a year ago that a decent number of Republicans were advocating getting rid of the “native born” requirement so allow Schwarzeneggar to run for POTUS. Guess that plan went…swimmingly.
wilfred - July 27, 2009 | 10:45 am · Link
@gex:
I’m not defending it, just pointing out that he should be treated fairly and that entails pointing out that he was put on the spot with the question. Nothing more complicated than that.
Like I said, he has volunteered far worse things without being asked.
ellaesther - July 27, 2009 | 10:45 am · Link
@Comrade Jake: ... jinx? I owe you a Coke? Or some Kevlar. Let’s go shopping for Kevlar together.
Different church-lady - July 27, 2009 | 10:45 am · Link
@Keith: That is such a brilliantly ironic observation I can’t believe no one’s thought of it until now!
Ye Cats - July 27, 2009 | 10:49 am · Link
@schrodinger’s cat
Fellow feline, same here. It’s like the style sheet is missing; ah, I remember when all websites looked like this… still not as ugly as the Drudge Report, though.
I’m using firefux, but internet exploder (8) looks the same—actually worse because it has a dark pink background.
Edit: seems to have been fixed while I was writing this!
different church-lady - July 27, 2009 | 10:51 am · Link
@Keith: That’s such a brilliant (I mean BRILLIANT) yet obvious catch that I’m having a hard time believing nobody’s thought of it until now.
(P.S. Sorry for the duplicate post—BJ is acting weird for me this morning because I… uh, well, I did something naughty to make a point.)
JenJen - July 27, 2009 | 10:53 am · Link
@Brick Oven Bill: BOB, it’s really too early to be hitting the Scotch.
You know, even the aptly-named “Orly” Taitz told Lou Dobbs that even if Obama produced the so-called birth certificate he’s already produced, that doesn’t end the “issue” by a longshot. You’re fooling exactly nobody, here.
Molly - July 27, 2009 | 10:54 am · Link
@burnspbesq: “I know it’s not the right thing to do, but there is a part of me that just wants to round up these loonies and stick them in an internment camp somewhere in West Texas.”
I was going to say “We don’t want them,” but after being out there this weekend, in the middle of the summer heat, go ahead, bring ‘em over. It’s hellish out there anyway.
ellaesther - July 27, 2009 | 10:54 am · Link
@Keith: Well, I’m guessing that these are two different groups of people living in the GOP narrow tent.
Also, I can imagine one of them coming back with “but the law hasn’t changed yet and he’s been lying to us all this time. WHAT ELSE IS HE LYING ABOUT?”
My hobby: Trying to get into the heads of wingnuts. (Warning: Hobby not for the faint of heart).
David - July 27, 2009 | 10:55 am · Link
Do the Birthers have any other issue(s) besides making a particular type of birth certificate a requirement for POTUS eligibility? And how would this work since part of their requirement, is that every single person certify it as authentic?
different church-lady - July 27, 2009 | 10:56 am · Link
@Molly:
Is that property in Crawford still available?
john b - July 27, 2009 | 10:59 am · Link
am i the only one who thinks his wording is unintentionally unfortunate?
Ned R. - July 27, 2009 | 10:59 am · Link
Actually this is my favorite part from the article:
That’s the approach House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana takes. “On that issue, I’m pretty distinctive that the president is from Hawaii,” he said. “I just don’t know where he’s coming from on health care.”
...he’s pretty distinctive?
Napoleon - July 27, 2009 | 11:01 am · Link
@The Moar You Know:
Moar said: “my original birth certificate is lost.”
I had forgotten this, but it was something that I learned when a woman who worked for me in one of my law offices asked me to look into her being adopted but there is no such thing as an original in the ordinary sense of the word. This is a good explanation.
http://www.samefacts.com/archi.....yrants.php
Basically there is a master registry in each jurisdiction which is not avail for public viewing, to anyone, anywhere in the US. Every “birth certificate”, or as they are nearly universily called a “certificate of live birth” (see below) is a certification of what is on the registry.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/d.....al-ACC.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_certificate
jcricket - July 27, 2009 | 11:03 am · Link
You know, I wanna see those moon rocks that Buzz Aldrin claims to have. And while we’re at it, let’s start exhuming the graves at the concentration camps and counting femurs – otherwise all we have is the memories of some old folks and Germans who were coerced into confessing. And until you can take me up in a space ship and show me the earth personally from space, the earth is flat, I say.
These birfers are fucking nuts, and the Republican party’s serious flirtation with them shows all that’s wrong with the GOP. They’re either seriously on-board with the ideas, in which case none of them are fit for office. Or they are just using the birfers as sops, like they’ve been using the Christian right for years, in which case they’re dishonest hypocrites not to be believed on anything.
Basically there’s no world in which the GOP’s behavior is acceptable anymore.
cleek - July 27, 2009 | 11:15 am · Link
the birfers are a rampaging cancer that’s about to eat the GOP alive.
and sadly for them, racially-tinged conspiracy-theorism in the GOP is a pre-existing condition.
Barbara - July 27, 2009 | 11:26 am · Link
Cleek: Re Kevin Drum—I couldn’t get his site to work properly until I changed to IE version 8, so if you haven’t done that, that might be the problem. He has said multiple times that the site has various kinks.
mistermix - July 27, 2009 | 11:26 am · Link
One of the birfers at a local wingnut blog was pissed about an AP story that treated the existence of Obama’s birth certificate as a fact, and titled his post:
“AP Chicaney Strikes Again”
The chicanes are coming home to roost on this one, my friends.
mlm - July 27, 2009 | 11:31 am · Link
I’m using the Camino browser and all the ads and formatting here are gone. But I kinda like it this way.
(But now that I’ve added this comment, everything is back to normal)
Montysano - July 27, 2009 | 11:39 am · Link
@mistermix:
Well done.
Are these the Hunter Thompson-style chicanes, with bloody fangs and talons, and a coterie of giant black condors?
Comrade Darkness - July 27, 2009 | 11:43 am · Link
@Ella in NM: McCain Campaign Investigated, Dismissed Obama Citizenship Rumors
http://washingtonindependent.c…..hip-rumors
Heh, more like McCain (AKA Panama John) Campaign Sees Rough Road Ahead in Opening Pandora’s Birth Certificate Box.
Really. Imagine handing the hitherto compliant press that license.
Peter VE - July 27, 2009 | 11:47 am · Link
Orly Taitz is actually a KGB sleeper agent. She is part of Leonid Brezhnevs grand plan to destroy the United States. Vladimir Putin is waiting patiently until the US goes through an internal collapse, so that Russia can recover Alaska. For confirmation, see the map by the KGB analyst Igor Panarin.
jcricket - July 27, 2009 | 11:50 am · Link
@cleek:
They’re moving much faster than the religious right has, which was kind of a slow-moving infection. I for one think we should deny the requisite antibiotics to the GOP - they don’t believe in evolution, so why should they benefit from modern biologicals?
b-psycho - July 27, 2009 | 11:50 am · Link
Sounds like how Tony Montana would pronounce “Chickens”.
Kirk Spencer - July 27, 2009 | 11:58 am · Link
@Brick Oven Bill:
Let’s be blunt. You can’t see it because it no longer exists. You can see a copy that’s made from the archival (microform or digital) copy, but the original doesn’t exist. What that means is that even if you got to go into the archives and see it directly from the reel you wouldn’t believe it. NOTHING can disprove your belief that Obama’s parents were in Kenya when he was born, then rushed back to the US to get a birth announcement in the newspaper and a US birth certificate entered into the archives. You are demanding a level of proof that is literally impossible to achieve.
And worse, you will accept no proxies. You want to see it yourself, to handle it yourself. Nevermind that this is the position of several thousand others, many of whom would be more than willing to destroy it and then insist since it no longer exists it never did exist – “prove it by showing the original”.
Put it another way. You should be deported as an illegal alien. Your state does not have your original birth certificate. If you want to prove your birth you either need your original copy (which you claim you lost and had replaced) or a certified copy. By your standards of test, you cannot prove you are a citizen and so should be deported.
And yet, the certified copy which is good enough for literally everything else is insufficient for you in this case.
When you demand the impossible, do not be surprised when you become the target of ridicule.
slip - July 27, 2009 | 11:59 am · Link
format fix. go about your business.
Fulcanelli - July 27, 2009 | 12:06 pm · Link
All you need to know about why wingnut birthers are the way they are and do what they do you can find in this book: High Conflict People in Legal Disputes by Bill Eddy, Esq., LICSW, and the other books he and his organization offers (and no I’m not affiliated).
Personally, I see no benefit in rehashing their personality disordered difficult and disruptive behavior over and over again in post after post. But hey, who the fuck am I right?
I don’t have all the answers, and I will admit they are funny, in a black comedy sort of way, but maybe it’s time to start a serious discussion on how we can shut these assholes down, instead of wasting hour after hour trying to one-up each with snarky blog posts and wise cracks.
Martin - July 27, 2009 | 12:07 pm · Link
Further, since the birfers have already ruled that the certificate already posted has been falsified, any document you hand them will also be declared falsified, evidence being that if Obama could get the state of Hawaii to falsify a document, he could get any other document falsified.
Why bother trying when the outcome is so clearly pre-ordained?
Nellcote - July 27, 2009 | 12:12 pm · Link
Why doesn’t Lou Dobbs ever mention that he was born in Mexico?
kay - July 27, 2009 | 12:14 pm · Link
Orly said today that Republicans have to “act”.
They should have anticipated that. At some point, they were going to be called on to do something, other than offer a wink and a nod and a pat on the head.
Are they canceling town halls yet?
jcricket - July 27, 2009 | 12:26 pm · Link
This is how all conspiracy theories work. The more you try to offer proof, the deeper the nuts bury themselves into the conspiracy. Suddenly trying to disprove their facts is proof you’re covering up the truth. And so on, and so on, and so on.
This is one of the first times I’ve seen the conspiracy nutters really attach themselves to a political party in public, so it’s entertaining for that reason.
wilfred - July 27, 2009 | 12:32 pm · Link
@jcricket:
Foucault’s Pendulum.
jcricket - July 27, 2009 | 12:39 pm · Link
@wilfred: Sounds French. And Gay.
So it’s anti-christian and anti-american, and so false.
I demand only pat robertson approved proof.
Englischlehrer on vacation - July 27, 2009 | 12:40 pm · Link
At the start of my two-month vacation in the States, Palin is out as governor, the birfers are infiltrating the GOP and the Dems are acting like pussies on health care and well, just about everything else. Good to see nothing changes…
re: the Birfers,
1)Are they saying his mother was not an American citizen?
Besides that point, what else could there be? And it’s amazing that these people are allowed to be commented on when the “left crazies” who think Dick Cheney was running war games on 9/11 to distract from the attacks he knew was coming are called exactly that, “crazies”. I almost felt bad for that Republican from Delaware who had that woman stand up at his townhall with her birth certificate and then make everyone do the Pledge of Allegiance. He probably is a “moderate” Republican, too, the poor bastard.
Kirk Spencer - July 27, 2009 | 12:40 pm · Link
I want to point out a reason the whole birther thing really bothers me.
It’s violent in tone. It’s already as well developed as the statements used to justify threatening, attacking, and killing those who work at women’s clinics regardless of their connection to abortions. It is only a short step further to ‘get your gun and march on Washington’.
Kirk Spencer - July 27, 2009 | 1:15 pm · Link
@Englischlehrer on vacation:
They are saying he was born in Kenya and smuggled back to the US. There’s an interesting phrasing of the law of the time upon which they are relying. It says that if the child is born outside the US one of parents must be a US citizen who has lived in the US for five consecutive years AFTER THE AGE OF 14 for the child to be a US citizen automatically. Since the mother wasn’t quite 19 when Obama was born, the argument is that this would mean Obama did not qualify.
It’s worth noting that this law was changed to “was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years…” (8 USC 1401)
kay - July 27, 2009 | 1:21 pm · Link
“The point that they make is the Constitutional mandate that the U.S. President be a natural born citizen, and the White House has not done a very good job of dispelling the concerns of these citizens. My focus is on issues where I can make a difference to stop the liberal agenda being pushed by President Obama.”
That’s good. Blame the White House for the lunatics.
I think he has to make another statement to clarify that last one.
zoe kentucky - July 27, 2009 | 1:28 pm · Link
The Birther movement is a comfortable home for paranoid, xenophobic, unhinged, ignorant, factually-challenged wingnuts whose lives are ruled by fear and irrational beliefs.
Sounds just like the modern GOP to me. I just hope that Sarah Palin jumps on the birther bandwagon and then they all race to pile on.
Ron - July 27, 2009 | 1:30 pm · Link
@Brick Oven Bill: Can I have your birth certificate? Until I see it, touch it, feel it, I will remain convinced you are actually an escapee from a mental institution.
asiangrrlMN - July 27, 2009 | 1:30 pm · Link
I have a suggestion for the birfers. I am willing to go forward with a full investigation of President Obama’s birth if you are equally willing to go forward with a full investigation of all the laws the W. posse broke during their eight year regime. If you can prove that President Obama was not born in the States, then you win and President Obama steps down. If we can prove W. and his posse broke every fucking Rule of Law that we have on the books, then WE win, and the whole damn crew of thugs goes to jail.
What do you say, Birfers? Ball is in your court.
zoe kentucky - July 27, 2009 | 1:36 pm · Link
The white supremacist who shot up the Holocaust Museum was allegedly a birther. Although to be frank these kinds of lunatics hardly need a reason to resort to violence, if it weren’t Obama’s birth certificate it would just be something else—he’s really a Muslim, a Manchurian candidate, hates white people, has secret plans to kill white babies, etc. Hell, Glenn Beck’s first response last week to Obama’s presser on health care was to talk about how Obama’s real secret master plan is reparations. Yup, he got a message about reparations out of Obama’s press conference.
They’re hateful and crazy first and looking for an excuse and justication second, not the other way around.
Smilin' Bob - July 27, 2009 | 2:04 pm · Link
Clearing the Smoke on Obama’s Eligibility: An Intelligence Investigator’s June 10 Report
Editors Note: In December ‘08 a retired CIA officer commissioned an investigator to look into the Barack Obama birth certificate and eligibility issue. On July 21, 2009 westernjournalism.com obtained a copy of the investigator’s report. Here is an unedited version of the report.
http://www.westernjournalism.com/?page_id=2697
BDeevDad - July 27, 2009 | 2:15 pm · Link
(via Radley Balko) The most convincing argument yet that Obama is not a U.S. citizen
Kilkee - July 27, 2009 | 2:24 pm · Link
@Kirk Spencer: Re this section of the law. I’ve seen other comments (on BJ, I think) that suggest that this is a red herring, and that the residency requirement only applies to NATURALIZED American citizens. Any immigration experts out there? Is that true? Seems odd to have such a requirement for native-born citizens, but maybe it is some sort of historical anomaly.
ominira - July 27, 2009 | 2:30 pm · Link
@different church-lady: I’m curious. Did you do BOB @ 22 or is it something else?
Mike P - July 27, 2009 | 3:22 pm · Link
We have our answer:
Still, I see no reason why Obama should not produce the original copy of his birth certificate. Well: I can see a cynical one. This stuff just marginalizes the GOP more. Still, I have no doubt whatever that Obama was born in Hawaii, but believe in total transparency from politicians. So show us the original.
I have to say I am surprised he went there.
gex - July 27, 2009 | 3:26 pm · Link
Deleted – this has already been covered.
CalD - July 27, 2009 | 3:30 pm · Link
UPDATE:
Apparently, while the gentleman from Oklahoma may feel birthers have a point of some kind, Mr. Imhofe himself does not question the legitimacy of Mr. Obama’s presidency—according to a spokesman for his office.
via PlumLine. (h/t Politicalwire)
Librarian - July 27, 2009 | 3:32 pm · Link
My take is, Inhofe said this for the same reason Lou Dobbs did: not that they actually believe it, but if they said that they didn’t, they would enrage their wingnut base and also would be seen as siding with Obama, which simply cannot happen. Inhofe and Dobbs are so anti-Obama that they have to agree with any batshit insane conspiracy theory that comes along, no matter how bugfuck insane, bacause if they didn’t it would ruin their image. Can you imagine Dobbs ever giving Obama the benefit of the doubt on anything? He can’t, because if he did, he wouldn’t be Lou Dobbs.
Comrade Darkness - July 27, 2009 | 3:43 pm · Link
@Smilin’ Bob: I’m with AsianGrrl, you can have your investigation into a public filing that occurred when Obama was an infant, if we get the same scrutiny on Bushco. All the wiretaps, all the Darth Cheney Death Squads, all the torture authorizations and renditions. The whole thing. All prosecuted properly as it’s revealed. The investigators’ reports will have to be on all the networks and cable news channels every night for three hours, going over everything in exactly this minutia. Everyone goes to jail who is revealed to have broken the law.
Sounds like a great trade.
Mike P - July 27, 2009 | 4:04 pm · Link
Sully’s stepped back from the ledge already.
But he does mention something that really should end this and that is the statement about Hawaii discarding paper records in favor of shifting to all electronic records. The document produced by Hawaii is the only thing that could serve as the birth certificate as they have no other backup. In other words, what we’ve seen is the official document. End. Of. Story.
Kirk Spencer - July 27, 2009 | 9:14 pm · Link
@Kilkee: No, it doesn’t apply to naturalized citizens. Let’s take an extreme example to show what’s happening.
Jane Doe is born on US soil to two Hungarians who’ve illegally immigrated. The parents are found and deported before she’s reached her first year of age and she goes with them. She never returns, and at age 18 she and her Hungarian husband have a child. Is that new child a US citizen? After all, her mother is.
If she is, then all of Jane Doe’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great great… you get the picture. Get enough generations and pretty much every Hungarian in this case is also a US citizen.
daybaron - July 28, 2009 | 3:42 pm · Link
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