Conspiracy nuts' rhetoric troubling ("Birthers")

The issue: Conspiracy theories that President Barack Obama isn't a natural-born citizen.

Our view: Such claims have been disproved, and those who tout them are in danger of provoking violent lunacy.

Please allow us to take a moment to wish President Barack Obama a happy birthday.

No, his birthday isn't today; Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, meaning he will turn 48 on Tuesday. We know this because it says so on his birth certificate, which has been available for the world to see on Obama's campaign Web site since last year and which has been examined by government officials and journalists.

Of course, the reason Obama's birth certificate has received so much scrutiny and attention isn't because some people suspect he was actually born Aug. 2. It's because of bizarre rumors that Obama wasn't really born in the United States, but rather in Kenya, his father's homeland. Under the theory promoted by so-called "birthers," Obama isn't a natural-born citizen, and is therefore ineligible to be president.

Last week, the director of Hawaii's health department - who presumably has better things to do than field calls from conspiracy nuts - released a statement verifying she'd seen Obama's original birth documents and that he indeed was born in the United States. She'd issued a similar statement last year; however, as a department spokeswoman told The Associated Press, "They just keep asking over and over and over again."

As with most conspiracy theories today, this one has been incubated in the recesses of the Internet and fed by talk-show hosts such as CNN's Lou Dobbs. And as with conspiracy theories since time immemorial, evidence that disproves the theory will be dismissed as part of a grand cover-up.

Conspiracy theories have long dwelled on the fringes of American politics, dating back to Cold War fears of communism. More recently, Bill and Hillary Clinton were accused of drug-running and murder, while others claim George W. Bush secretly plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Perhaps such spurious claims could be laughed off if they weren't taken seriously by so many people. Witness, for example, the YouTube video showing an angry audience outburst when U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., dared to say Obama was a U.S. citizen.

While the claims about Obama fit familiar patterns, they also veer into dangerous territory. Instead of objecting to Obama's policies, "birthers" object to the very fact he is in the Oval Office. Some have taken the law into their own hands: "Citizen grand juries" have sprung up in several states and "indicted" Obama for treason. While such claims undoubtedly will be laughed out of court, it's worrisome to think that some on the lunatic fringe might have other ideas of "justice." Consider the fact that James von Brunn, the neo-Nazi accused of killing a guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in June, espoused "birther" views on the Internet.

Those involved in political movements - even fringe ones - aren't responsible for the actions of sick individuals. Nonetheless, they are responsible for whipping up anger with lies. If "birthers" wish to challenge the president, they should do so with legitimate political arguments, not outlandish claims.

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Could someone please explain to me how a document expert can honestly examine a document and form an opinion while examining the document only through a computer monitor screen?

1. Doesn't the glass or LCD screen get in the way?

2. I mean, wouldn't it be much better if the document---like a long form birth certificate---could be examined by an expert in person while the expert was holding the document in his own hands?

3. And if the birth certificate on the monitor screen does not display the birth doctor and the birth hospital names, then how can we be sure that the information on the short form birth certificate itself is correct and has not been tampered with by the Obama camp?

4. That is, how can we be sure that a parent, way back in 1961 in Hawaii, did not simply fill out the long form birth certificate himself/herself and mail it in, unless we can examine the 1961 long form birth certificate itself to be sure that there is a doctor name and hospital name on the birth certificate?

5. NOTE: Yes, way back in 1961 in Hawaii, parents were allowed to mail in a child's birth certificate in order to help out Hawaii's large legal and illegal Asian population who were working in the pineapple fields scattered all over the several Hawaiian islands.

6. And what happens if we examine Obama's 1961 long form birth certificate and there is no doctor signature and no hospital name?

7. Then I say that Obama and Hawaii officials have a lot of explaining to do, and Obama could be in a lot of political and legal trouble.

8. I'm sorry, but this Obama birth certificate mess has gone way, way past the time when we voters meekly take the word of incompetent and evasive Hawaii officicals that Obama was born in Hawaii, and way past the time when we are meekly going to take the word of the Obama camp that a piece of paper that they showed on Obama's web site---a site that is NOT there anymore---is an authentic Obama birth certificate.

9. We want to see the real thing: We want to see Obama's 1961 long form Hawaii birth certificate, and we want Obama to give Hawaii permission to release the 1961 birth certificate NOW!

10. Let me emphasize this: I don't want the Obams camp to release Obama's 1961 long form birth certificate, because I don't trust anything that comes out of Obama's camp.

11. Rather, I want Obama to give Hawaii permission to release the 1961 long form birth certificate directly to the public so that the Obama camp doesn't have to get their dirty hands on it.

12. Or else we voters will take our WRATH out on those poor Democrat Senator and Representative candidates in the 2010 elections who continue to support Obama: We simply won't vote for them.

13. One last thing that we must not forget:

Obama and his people are very smart and clever. They can be very ruthless when cornered. This means that if they sense that someone is getting close to finding out what is on Obama's long form birth certificate and in his Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard college records, that person could be putting his family in serious mental and physical danger.

14. In other words, the Obama camp is not going down without a bloody fight, and in that fight, Obama could try to destroy a lot of his enemies along the way.

Yep! Not to mention the 'Buck Fush" stickers, etc.

Years of media dirven 'hate' which only intensified after Dan Rather got the axe, fauxteaux-shopped images of the Middle East were exposed, and other nonsense about the War on Terror, from Gitmo to the posers who tried to pull a "Winter Soldier" on our troops in Iraq, the list is extensive, it is long, it is incredible in its complexity from the people who attributed 9/11 to Bush and others.

But we are nutsjobs for wanting the pres__ent to show a piece of paper every kindergardener has to produce, to prove he is qualifed as the Constitution states he must be to be POTUS.

Obviously, there is a variance in the standards applied to be considered a "nutjob".

On the left, as with other behavioural aspects of Leftists, anything goes--and not just for 'kooky' theories, but behaviours which far exceed those required of those on the right to be labelled "criminal", "hater", "sexual deviant", "racist", "crazy", "immoral", etc.

I guess that is what happens when people who have no standards set the standards for the conduct of others.

Of course, they consider themselves to be the knowledgeable elite who do not have to abide by the rules of conduct they set for everyone else.

We have gone from the 'rule of law' to the double-standard.

The cetifigate issue is driving leftists crazy. Just a short list of what people are saying... I'll update every now and then:

Birthers are “unhinged” and “delusional.” (Editors of Durango Herald News)

Birthers are “dumb” and “need to be stopped” (Bill Maher in L A Times)

Certifigate is a “deluded right-wing obsession that is a total waste of time.” (Bill Maher in L A Times)

Birthers are a group “group that critics say includes right-wing militants, racists and Holocaust deniers.” who are “fundamentally opposed to the notion of an African American as president” (Virginie Montet of AFP)

Birthers “are people who are fundamentally either racist or extreme right-wingers" (Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center)

Birthers “persist despite definitive proof offered time and again by officials in Hawaii and others in a position to know.” (Editorial Staff of Houston Chronicle)

Birthers are “plain nutters and above all frustrated racists” (Matthew Norman of the UK Independent)

Birthers are “conspiracy nuts” who “are in danger of provoking violent lunacy.” (Tim Giffey of the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.

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