Dr. Conspiracy
The birthers do a lot of that reading between the lines. One prime example is parsing statements of Hawaiian officials stating that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii into statements that his published birth certificate is a forgery, Obama’s birth certificate has been amended, and that they are all liars.
It’s actually fun to read between the lines and make up tales. I enjoyed reading between the lines of Mario Apuzzo’s response to the Order to Show Cause, turning it into some grand disinformation strategy cum appeal for more PayPal donations. A lawsuit filed for the purpose of failing is not so different than a statement of birthplace being turned into something else. One is not as far-fetched as the other, but they are both speculative.
Speculation spices up discourse, and I think it’s mostly harmless until folks start taking their speculations too seriously and substituting speculation for facts and evidence. Then you end up birther.
“I enjoyed reading between the lines of Mario Apuzzo’s response to the Order to Show Cause, turning it into some grand disinformation strategy cum appeal for more PayPal donations.”
Do you really think he is making enough money via paypal to offset filing fees and the possible cost of being sanctioned? Either you believe that there is enough of a grass root effort for many to give a few bucks or he’s got a few people people with deep pockets to actually be profiting from this or some combination? Same with Taitz. I don’t think Donofrio ever had a paypal set-up, but I don’t know.
This whole eligibility thing is all about reading between the lines IMO. I won’t rehash my views here because it is simply not worth it anymore. I’ll just give you one of the few issues I have ever raised (and one that has already been addressed) that is an example of reading between the lines. I’ll just put a few words of the snippet from factcheck:
“The campaign then rushed to release the document, and the rush is responsible for the blacked-out certificate number. Says Shauna: “[We] couldn’t get someone on the phone in Hawaii to tell us whether the number represented some secret information, and we erred on the side of blacking it out. Since then we’ve found out it’s pretty irrelevant for the outside world.” The document we looked at did have a certificate number; it is 151 1961 – 010641.”
It seemed strange, the “rush” and the not getting anyone on the phone. You have already said your piece on this and I have said mine. I am not going into that whole issue again but wanted to point out an example of reading between the lines that I did in the past. Another is, of course,
that there was no answer as to whether there was a receipt for the COLB. I didn’t see a specific regulation that requires denying access to whether or not the DoH released information (just a yes/no). There was an interpretation of the rules that could have gone the other way IMO. But again, been there, done that. I bring it up as an example of reading between the lines.
I say in the past because the whole issue has become tiresome for me. I could get caught up here for hours that I could better spend elsewhere. The courts are not going to get involved and no information is going to be released other than what has already been. Unless there is another court case or a law enacted requiring the verification of eligibility, there really isn’t anything new to discuss.
I went over the to the Apuzzo site just now, and I didn’t see a PayPal button any more, although there is a “donate” link in a comment from Kerchner. I have never thought that these web sites collected all that much money. Others believe the amount is huge. It’s all guesswork and speculation. There must be enough donations to warrant asking for donations, and that’s about all I really know.
Obviously we don’t know how much any of the birther lawyers are making off donations. However, it is certainly plausible that they get enough in donations to cover the expenses. Although there aren’t many birthers, it’s a big country. I wouldn’t be surprised if tens of thousands of people are willing to donate. That’s a tiny fraction of the population, but still enough to raise perhaps a few $100K. So again, all I’m saying is it seems plausible.
By the same token, I have little patience with people who claim that LTC Lakin is just in it for the money. He is facing the loss of a pension worth far more than can possibly be raised off grassroots donations.
Other than mere speculation, I don’t know that there are any meaningful or reliable figures on what these various Birther cites make from their Paypal buttons.
What amount they receive – whether a mere pittance or large is fairly beside the point, IMHO. The very fact that they *HAVE* the PayPal button is what is notable – therefore, the intent to profit is there, whether they succeed or not at it.
There is also the general issue of the questionable ethics and behavior of lawyers soliciting public funds and public profit for their “casework”.
Sites like this one have no profit motive at all.
Lakin may have no personal profit motive himself. However, I strongly suspect that the people who are using him and providing his media exposure & private legal team are profit-driven as one of their motives. I think their campaign rhetoric / fund drive for his “defense” and their stated monetary goals of such are ample proof of that.