Posted on 07/25/2009 11:40:30 AM PDT by pissant
Most political town hall meetings are pretty dull affairs. Not this one.
The YouTube clip of an irate woman waving her birth certificate in a plastic bag and telling Delaware congressman Mike Castle that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States, has become an online sensation. Castle, a mild-mannered moderate, was booed when he insisted that our president is in fact a citizen. It's been on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh and just about every political website out there. The session was so embarrassing that a Castle staffer felt obliged to tell a local columnist that the hecklers were from out of state.
The birther controversy has a tight grip on rightwing opponents who argue that Obama is not the lawful president. FactCheck.org took a thorough look at the issue – and the birth certificate itself – and concluded: "It meets all of the requirements from the state department for proving US citizenship."
The website went further: "We suggest that those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat." But the birthers seem immune to the lack of evidence. As Michael Tomasky points out: "He can't prove he's not a space alien either."
The nutty theories didn't end with the birth certificate. Members of the crowd told Castle that global warming is a hoax and just a theory like evolution. You can't tax carbon dioxide, he was told, because "trees need CO2 to make oxygen!"
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
” Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled on a U.S. passport in 1981?
A: No, it is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State Department’s “no travel” list in 1981.”
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Sigh. One more time: There was no “travel ban” to Pakistan in 1981. This stuff (almost always copy-and-pasted) keeps reappearing on these threads. I’ve even seen copy-and-pasted stuff that I’ve written, the person apparently unaware I’m debunking the story!
1981 NYTimes travel section article on visiting Pakistan:
Letter to NYTimes from Reagan’s Ambassador to Pakistan, welcoming more tourism to Pakisstan:
U.S. State Dept. travel advisory on how 30-day tourist visas available at airport:
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/travel/cis/southasia/TA_Pakistan1981.pdf
Not that this will make any difference. These threads will still be clogged with the “Pakistan Travel Ban” months from now.
Ultimately the only battles which are effective are ones which end in persuasion of people to one’s point of view, outlook ideas etc.
So, unless conservatives can convince others that conservative values and ideals about governance are better than liberals’, there is no point to any of the so-called ‘battles’.
The birthers are counter-effective in this regard. Not only do they not persuade others toward conservative values, they put them off ... and they put off other conservatives as well.
Even if they ‘win the battle’ of the birth certificate, they haven’t advanced conservatism. If, however they used all that energy to persuade others’ that Obama’s values, proposals, policies etc are bad for the country and bad for individuals ... then each person persuaded is a battle that was ‘worth the effort’.
It’s never any actual reporting, just a lot of foot stomping.
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