When the Right accused Bill Clinton of using Arkansas state troopers to help him procure women, they at least had a couple of state troopers who were willing to back them up. And when they accused Clinton of running a cocaine ring out of the Mena, Arkansas airport, they were only half-wrong. The CIA/Contras, not the governor, probably were running cocaine into Mena, and weapons out…When they accused the Clintons of having their dear friend Vince Foster killed, they at least had a dead body. No matter how crazy their theories, in the Clinton Era they had some level of surface plausibility. Not so with the Birther Movement.
The State of Hawaii has certified that Obama was born there, and there was a birth announcement in the local paper. Obama has provided all the documentation it is possible for him to provide without actually having possession of his original certificate. Obama’s father was a student at the University of Hawaii at the time in question, He was a colleague of Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI). Obama’s mother was living in Hawaii at the time in question, and she never lived in Kenya. These facts are not preventing Lou Dobbs from treating the Birther Movement with respect by giving them a platform on radio and television to air their addled theories. I suppose that CNN is not really doing the Republicans any favors by promoting the views of their fringe-base. It’s a variant of the FOX News model, where the only liberals allowed are the ones with crazy beliefs. But spreading the idea that the president was not lawfully elected is dangerous because a certain small percentage of people believe anything they hear on television and because there is a certain logic that follows from believing the president is an usurper. That logic is that removing the president from his position through violence can be justified because he isn’t eligible to be president in the first place.
I’m not calling for the suppression of free speech. But I don’t think CNN should be promoting a meritless conspiracy theory that has marginal news value and that carries dark implications.
They have nothing on him. Nothing.
McCain’s citizenship was more questionable than Obama’s.
What’s sad is how frothing at the mouth people get over this.
And they won’t listen to reason, they won’t accept the State of Hawaii’s acknowledgment that he was born there, they just want to scream and shout and make noise and get their rage on.
Because he is a Black Man.
It’s effing ludicrous.
From the St Petersberg Times PolitiFact site:
I’ve been following today’s discussion in the comments section over at SFGate, Steven. I want to let you know that FactCheck.org is comprised of Obama’s minions, you poor, gullible liberanazi.
Besides all the facts and the idea that the State of Hawaii is part of a massive hoax, you have to include that the Passport Agency is playing along, that the FBI is playing along (as they investigate Senators for security purposes) and that the Republican Party would have had to have sat on this through the campaign, through his nomination, through the election and through his swearing in.
All pretty silly. Then play on.
Please ask FAIR to launch a campaign against such irresponsible reporting.
Write fair@fair.org and ask them to go after him. FAIR actually has a lot of credibility with the press.
.
ROBERTS: My, my, Senator.
Members of Congress questions on health care on visits home, but that’s not the only thing on constituents’ minds. Check out this extraordinary video of Republican Congressman Mike Castle’s recent town meeting in Delaware. The woman you’re about to see is waving her own birth certificate and demanding proof that President Obama is himself an American citizen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to go back to January 20, and I want to know why are you people ignoring his birth certificate.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is not an American citizen. He is a citizen of Kenya. I am an American. My father fought in World War II with the greatest generation in the Pacific Theater for this country. And I don’t want this flag to be changed. I want my country back.
REP. MIKE CASTLE (R), DELAWARE: If you’re referring to the president there, he is a citizen of the United States.
(CROSSTALK)
CASTLE: He is a citizen of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The crowd’s reaction just unbelievable. That clip has been viewed more than 465,000 times on YouTube.
A troubling story out of Boston tonight. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, one of the nation’s preeminent African-American scholars, arrested in his own home.
[transcript]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I’m glad to see that there is finally a backlash after such a long track record of Lou Dobbs bigotry. Whatever works, I guess.
Dobbs should have been kissed-off after his prima-donna hissy fit thrown in ’99 and left to do his own thing.
Unfortunately, CNN decided Entertainment was more important than NEWS (the second ‘N’ in its own name), allowed Dobbs to return after Kaplan left, and now we have a more regionalized, Republicanized, ‘news’ source than before.
Makes me kinda pine for the days of Bernie Shaw…..
Why won’t the authorities in Hawaii clear this up?
Oh, I forgot. The governor is Republican.
That percentage is almost certainly a lot larger than you would like to believe.
Fraudulent speech is not protected under the First Amendment. Arguably, the establishment clause carves out a big honking exemption for religious fraud — redundant, I know — but the question of the President’s citizenship is not a matter of religious faith, it’s a simple matter of fact. Frankly, I think it would be a good thing if news agencies were fined for promulgating gross errors of incontestable fact. Liars and kooks should not be able to hide behind the First Amendment.
It so weird that are Republican governors going around talking secession, you know, treason, and these birthers are worried about stealth Obama.
CNN feels that they have a pass on Lou Dobbs in this issue. After all aren’t they running their big showtime feature “BLACK IN AMERICA 2” tonight?
These fellow citizens of ours are a complete embarassment. At least Dobbs is doing what he gets paid to do.
Hear hear!