Posted on 08/04/2009 11:16:06 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
LUNACY in America has become so bad that, last night on a cable news TV network, Orly Taitz, the queen of the “birther” movement, called those who believe that Barack Obama is an American citizen by birth “brownshirts”.
Birthers are the fringe lunatics challenging Obama’s eligibility to be president of the United States. They insist that he is not a natural-born citizen — a US constitutional requirement for the presidency. Brownshirts were the armed and uniformed Nazi party militia of 1930s Germany — the Sturmabteilung.
Russian-born lawyer, dentist and estate agent Taitz, on the eve of Obama’s 48th birthday yesterday, told programme host David Shuster that “your listeners need to know the truth”.
“They are sick of the lies coming from the mainstream media,” she said. “Eighty-five percent of American citizens believe that Obama was not verified [sic]. He needs to provide an original birth certificate. The only ones on the fringe are Obama’s Brownshirts in the media — and they are the ones who insult people and will not let them speak the truth.”
Daily Kos, an influential political blog, reported that you had to be there to believe the interview: “It had everything! Nazis, screaming, yelling, ignorance, racism — you name it! She refused to use the car [the TV station] sent to pick her up because the driver has a name that sounded (Shock! Horror!) Muslim! HA!”
You might think this is all mad, extreme thinking but, according to a poll released last week by Research 2000, 28% of Republicans think that Obama was not born in the US and another 30% are “not sure”.
Adding “credibility” to the birther movement are Alan Keyes, a former Republican presidential candidate, who has filed a lawsuit questioning Obama’s eligibility for office, and Republican senator James Inhofe, who says he can’t bring himself to “discourage” the movement.
A few days ago, Taitz released what she said was Obama’s authentic Kenyan birth certificate, which she said she obtained from an anonymous source.
What this lawyer-cum-dentist says is incontrovertible proof that Obama was born in Kenya, has already been beautifully debunked as a third-rate forgery.
The certificate says he was born at “Coast General Hospital” in Mombasa, Kenya. In fact, the hospital is called Coast Provincial General Hospital. Names aside, Kenya was a British dominion at the time the certificate was purportedly issued and became a republic eight months later. Mombasa, where the certificate says he was born, belonged to Zanzibar at the time, not Kenya. And so on.
CNN has allowed its resident birther, Lou Dobbs, time to promote this fringe movement — even though he has denied that he believes in a conspiracy. His coverage led Media Matters for America, a progressive research and information centre, to challenge CNN to address “its Lou Dobbs problem”. A Media Matters ad, aired this week, showed how CNN had allowed Dobbs “to promote racially charged conspiracy theories about President Obama’s birth certificate”.
As Americans go on summer vacation, and the news flow begins to slow, you would be forgiven for wondering why TV stations and websites are giving so much time to Taitz and her ilk.
Is it a credible national debate? Does it have anything to do with the negative reaction to Obama’s proposed new health legislation?
He has been planning an overhaul of the US health system, one of the worst and most expensive systems in the developed world.
Many Americans, already struggling with financial setbacks, are nervous about the effect Obama’s health proposals might have on their pockets.
The backlash is especially strong from Republicans and the right wing.
Those arguing against the reform could be giving the birthers licence by opening up the political space for reactionary sentiment to express itself, however unfounded the allegations.
Obama’s falling popularity ratings might also be adding to the birther movement’s momentum: the honeymoon is definitely over for the new president.
In a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, his overall approval rating dipped to 49%. Yesterday, it was back up to 50% of voters saying they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance.
This is mostly a reflection of healthcare and its reform. Obama and his team have been hammering out the health reform bill they had hoped to get through Congress before the holiday season began. But now, with the House already gone and the Senate adjourning in the next few days, the battle will have to continue after the recess.
And as Congress goes on holiday, so the birthers are finding themselves able to capitalise on the resulting news slowdown.
Orly Taitz is getting more than her five minutes on prime time television and right- wingers are furiously ramping up their bid to delegitimise Obama’s presidency.
Yesterday, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson said that there has never been a more clinically insane political phenomenon in his lifetime than the birthers.
He hopes that this “bunch of lost, confused and frightened people” is harmless, and that they seek help.
I hope so too.
I think they've been spending time under his desk.
Wow, what objective reporting.
/massive sarcasm
Where was Jackie May when the lefty loons came out with 9/11 was an inside job perpetrated by Bush?????
Well, Jackie, there is an easy solution to this whole
controversy. The question is, Why doesn’t obama provide it?
Where are his school records? Why is all this hidden?
Mind you own business, yo.
well, there seems to be a ratcheting up of worldwide attention on this. let’s hope Obama’s got a good explanation, cause if he has to go, the whole world might just riot.
“He has been planning an overhaul of the US health system, one of the worst and most expensive systems in the developed world.”
Wow. Objective.
When the best cancer centers and Mayo Clinics are shut down, South Africans, Canadians, Australians, Russians, English, Spanish, Mexicans, French, Polish, Taiwanese, Kenyans, etc. can wait five months to see a doctor and four years for the surgery.
Fortunately, they still exist. A relative of mine was just diagnosed with breast cancer. She has three appointments in the next five days. And surgery is scheduled for the 10th of August.
Yeah, it's sheer lunacy to demand Obama prove his eligibility by releasing his birth records. /s
Since this article is for local Johannesburg consumption, they’ll think all is normal when the “necklacing” starts.
While Jackie May may have invested a large amount of intellectual energy to debunk the “Birther†Movement, he has failed to put the same amount of effort researching what is known about the question. This recent piece is very revealing. It shows that he lacks the intellectual capacity to do the research. That should alert any reader that he is a knee jerk hack and does not belong in the profession. What would be worse would be, if he knows the significance of what is out there, but uses the media cover up the truth. He operates as a shill to deceive the public into thinking Zer0 is beyond any question. That would be almost criminal in the use of his position to create propaganda. It is this symbiotic relationship with the media that is the most threatening aspect that has deep consequences for our freedom and our nation’s future.
Our exposure is increasing internationally, the Senate floor to the White House!!
He finalizes it with that we need to seek medical health before we become terrifying out of hand!!!
I wonder if they are putting that kind of help into the obamascare plan???
He hopes that this “bunch of lost, confused and frightened people” is harmless, and that they seek help.
*******
I feel so sad for Pulitzer prize-winning Robinson.
1. He seems to have suspended/abandoned his responsibilities as a respected journalist: As a respected journalist, his mission is to search for the truth wherever the search takes him, good or bad.
2. For instance, we have a very serious controversy concerning Obama's birth: Where was he born?
3. I'm not a journalist, but it seems to me that the first logical document that a reporter would want to look at would be Obama's original 1961 birth certificate.
4. As a reporter, I would want to look at not only the birthplace but also the doctor's signature and the hospital name to make sure that what Obama told us about his birth and himself were correct.
5. Sounds like very routine and basic reporter stuff to me.
6. But, as we have come to find out, this "routine" and "basic" reporter stuff has turned into a horrible, painstaking and name calling investigation of Obama's birth certificate.
7. Now, we even have a Pulitzer winner reporter, Robinson, calling such routine investigative reporting as being undertaken by clinically insane birthers.
8. Doesn't Robinson have a journalistic duty to seek the truth about Obama, even if what he finds is harmful to Obama?
9. Shouldn't Pulitzer winner Robinson---instead of badmouthing birthers---demand that Obama release his 1961 Hawaii long form birth certificate and his Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard records in order to clear up this ugly controversy surrounding Obama's birth certificate and Obama's college records?
10. Can the prestigious Pulitzer journalism award be taken away from Robinson for the way he has abandoned his duty as an investigative journalist in order to protect and kiss up to Obama?
“Yesterday, Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson said that there has never been a more clinically insane political phenomenon in his lifetime than the birthers.”
Ol Eugene never heard of “truthers.”
Eugene Robinson is the one of the most insane political phenomena of my lifetime. The others have shows on MSNBC.
From Wikipedia: “Robinson appears frequently on MSNBC as a political analyst on shows such as Race for the White House, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball with Chris Matthews.”
Nice paragraph!
Did you learn non sequitur in J-school or just from watching Family Guy?
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