Oh brother, this again?
If you thought 2010 was the future, think again. A phony new email chain letter — one of the antiquated viral sort leftover from the AOL era — is claiming that the case against President Barack Obama’s citizenship has reached the Supreme Court, based on a forged and typo-riddled Associated Press “report.”
The birther movement of angry citizens who believe President Obama was not born in the country and is thus ineligible to be president seemed to lose steam in the year since the 2008 election, but this new email spreading takes the accusations to a new level of ridiculousness based on fake news done poorly.
via Birther Chain Email Uses Fake AP Story To Question Obama’s Citizenship – Mediaite.
This is the main reason why I quit giving that birther crap any space on my blog. Because they know they are wrong. But that will not stop them. What they cannot prove; they make up. Which is horrible, but they are entitled to free speech, like everyone else — like me.
The problem is, there are well-meaning Conservatives, who actually believe this bunch of nonsense. The problem is, not many of them know this theory’s origins; which was on the White Nationalist website, Stormfront. It was then picked up operatives in the Hillary Clinton campaign, and then finally by political operatives within the Republican Party. It was quickly dumped by the Republicans and somewhat by the Hillary people. But it still festers out there. There are some, who are still angry at Obama from the Hillary camp, and some angry Republicans, who still, to this day, forward these e-mails around. It is, as Charles Johnson noted in the interview that I posted, a nuanced racial message, that basically says, “Go back to Africa, nigger!” I will be the first to admit it, there are some racists still in the ranks of Conservatives, especially in the south. Some of these people, at some point may have voted Democrat. Some not. It depends entirely on the person. This is not to say, that they all are, but there are some who hold that well-nuanced feeling towards blacks.
I think one of tragedies of the Conservative Blogosphere is that some of them, including me, got caught up into that birther nonsense. Especially when Orly Taitz started bringing out her “supposed” Birth Certificates. I was burned on that story once; it will never happen again, I can assure you of that. I went as far as to add a retraction to the story and went out of my way to slam that pathetic woman, for even trying to deceive the American people. I also slammed the owner of WorldNetDaily for giving Taitz the space to spout her nonsense too. Most of the rest that covered it, never bothered, and that to me, is a real issue. I mean, if you going to cover a story, at least have the common decency to say that it was a hoax.
I agree that those creating, believing, and circulating fake (in this case, obviously fake) stories like this do not help their cause. But I would be careful not to paint all birthers with the same broad brush that you paint them with. Furthermore, I cannot reach the conclusion you seem to reach that since the e-mail is fraudulent (and originates from a terrible group, to boot), then all birthers must be wrong.
I take the view that there are varying degrees of birthers. The ones that yell the loudest and get noticed the most are the crackpots and extremists, but there are plenty of us out here that believe the questions are legitimate and that they deserve answers in a court of law. That hardly makes all of us crackpots.
Here’s my take on it, which I wrote a while ago: http://johnnyconstitution.com/2009/08/06/birthers/
Thanks Johnny for the comments. When someone presents to me factual evidence that the President is not a U.S. Citizen, then I will believe it. Until then, they’re just crackpots.
Let’s turn up the volume and accuse the Left of perpetrating birtherism as a giant mind-frak.
To an extent, that is what it was, and still is.
Y’all, like most folks, aren’t looking at this whole thing from the proper angle.
First off, let me make one thing clear. I firmly believe that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
The whole “issue” has come about because he probably claimed to have been born in Kenya in order to get preferential Foreign Student status when he went to College, and possibly even to Law School.
Nobody ever pursues that angle, but it’s not that he’s foreign born. It’s simply that a complete release of the records would prove him to be a liar of the first water, whenever it suited him.
But that’s hardly a surprise to some of us. The Media would have a whole lot of egg on their faces, but again, that’s about par for the last 10 years or so.
Heh.
Definitely a different way of looking at it. 😉
This is about the most intelligent discussion I’ve seen so far on this issue. Personally, I think birtherism is bullcrap, and conservatives need to stop passing on chain letters, and they also need to yell very loudly whenever left-wing people pass on their own propaganda chain letters, because everyone knows chain letters are hoaxes, misinformation etc. And that’s why the left gets away with smearing the right and center by hollering every time they see chain letters that appear to come from right or centrist people. And at least some of these hoaxes, particularly the ones that are meant to look extreme and racist, come from left-wingers trying to hoax, “lulz” at and smear the right as foaming extremists not to be taken seriously. Sadly, there are way too many right-wing and moderates who buy right into that stuff and spread it. The left doesn’t want people it tries to persuade, knowing it’s guilty of its own chain letter activity. They call it “recruting” or “outreach” whenever they spread their own virals, but when it’s right-wing or center, then it gets called “chain letters” which is what they are no matter where they are from.
Well, I’m certainly glad someone thinks I’m smart! 😉 😛 😀
Thanks for the comments Capri, and yes, I agree on all of the above.
-Pat
So maybe the Brit, Neil Sankey can succeed where the Russian immigrant (from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic) has failed, bring it on.
Poor little Birthers (still in denial about their losses), Judge Land and now judge Carter, smack down the crazies (case dismissed).
Not even “Fake News” Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly believes the crazies, how funny.
http://trueslant.com/erikkain/2010/01/05/glenn-beck-mocks-the-birthers/
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/10/29/bill-oreilly-slams-orly-taitz/
http://tesibria.typepad.com/whats_your_evidence/BIRTHER%20CASE%20LIST.pdf
To all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true (TOUGH WHEN YOU KEEP LOSING CASES), if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up. I heard Orly Taitz, is selling a tape (I think it’s called “Money, Lies and Video tape”). She is from Orange County, CA, now I know what the mean when they say “behind the Orange Curtain”, when they talk about Orange County, the captial of Conspiracy Theories. You know Obama has a passport, he travel abroad before he was a Senator, but I guess they were in on it.
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
I heard that she now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC). She wants to re-establish a family values party.
I can only hope that Taitz will resist the state collectors that will be hounding her like the “ruff ruff” that she is to collect the $20K.
Preston,
thanks for the comments.I wholeheartedly agree, when it comes to the birthers. They’ve become their own little movement. Not for me man. I deal with facts, not hype and B.S.
-Pat