Free Republic

A state appellate court in California has dismissed a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs including a former Southern Baptist Convention officer claiming that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and therefore is not eligible to occupy the White House. California's Third District Court of Appeals threw the lawsuit out Oct. 25, ruling that election officials are not required to erase doubts about Obama's eligibility. Some individuals around the country-- who have come to be known as "birthers" -- continue to harbor doubts about whether Obama qualifies as a natural-born citizen. Retired Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland, sitting...

Congressman running for governor calls on president to produce birth certificate. It's the question that keeps poking its head up through piles of debunking documents: Is Barack Obama eligible to be president? U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal says Obama can dispel it with a birth certificate showing he's a U.S. native and therefore qualified for the White House. Deal, a Republican running for governor in 2010, called on Obama on Tuesday to "put the matter to rest ... and provide the documentary evidence." But two independent fact-checking groups and the state of Hawaii say he already has. Their conclusion: Obama was...

I have discovered something quite startling about myself. As a blogger for startribune.com, I have become one of the things I detest most in American politics. I am one of those adding fuel to the fire of political discontent, bickering and the general "take no prisoners, never mind the facts" bickering that has become the sad hallmark of our arena of public discourse.... The Internet is a marvelous communications tool but it has one great flaw. That flaw is the anonymity that the Internet provides. Unless moderated, as the startribune.com reader responses are, an individual can hide behind that anonymity....