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Chris Matthews plays “hard ball”

by Dr. Conspiracy on 30. Aug, 2010 in Birther Politics, Media

Chris Matthews

MSNBC personality Chris Matthews took on Republican leader Mitch McConnell about his non-comment comment about Barack Obama’s religion. Speaking about McConnell’s remarks  on the Meet the Press program, Matthews said:

It’s really quite sleazy the way they’re doing it. They don’t have the nerve to go out and say he’s not American and he’s a secret member of another religion. They do it what Senator Mitch McConnell did Sunday, encourage that notion, underwrite the crazies – meanwhile, undermining any positive action by the government they’ve sworn to serve.

Quote courtesy of The Irish Times.

Matthews described McConnell as “playing ball with the birther crowd.”

So is this political correctness run amok, and unfairly chastising McConnell, or is McConnell engaging in a cynical smear campaign?

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Obama is a Muslim?

by Dr. Conspiracy on 21. Aug, 2010 in Birther Politics, Media, Muslim Myths, Polls

Perhaps not so much a conspiracy theory as it is a crank opinion, the meme that Barack Obama is a Muslim goes hand in hand with views that he’s a (insert bad thing here). A recent Pew Research poll says that 20% of Americans think that Barack Obama is a Muslim.

This is perhaps a little less crazy than some of the stories about Barack Obama. He spent 4 years as a  small child in Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country. His Indonesian school record lists him as Muslim. His step-father’s family was Muslim. His grandparents in Africa were Muslim, and he carries the middle name Hussein.

Obama was for two decades a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ congregation and is a self-described Christian, yet Obama’s consistent refusal to demonize Muslims has fed belief that he is one of them.

A recent article in the Washington Post attributes  birther sentiment and belief that Obama is a Muslim to more than rumors on the Internet. It also comes from remarks by politicians including: Sarah Palin, Jean Schmidt, Tom Ganley, Bill Posey, Randy Neugebauer, Dan Burton, John Campbell, Jim Inhofe, Richard Shelby, Marsha Blackburn, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, Charles Boustany, Aaron Schock, Dave Reichert, Jeff Fortenberry, Greg Harper, David Vitter, Paul Broun, Bull Hudak and Ken Cuccinelli. The Post article has all the details.

Wow! Perhaps this explains it.

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CNN covers LTC Terry Lakin

by Dr. Conspiracy on 08. Aug, 2010 in Media, Terry Lakin

Terry Lakin

CNN’s Rick Sanchez has named Terry Lakin to his list of “most intriguing” people in an article posted Sanchez’s CNN blog this afternoon.

CNN published a major article on Lakin Friday (August 6) on the date of his military arraignment, covering his career and the history of his case. CNN wrote:

Lakin wrote Obama in March, saying presidential contender Sen. John McCain willingly provided his own birth certificate and accusing the president of failing to do the same. Lakin alleges in the letter that Kenyan citizens claim Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city.

It is, of course, not true that John McCain ever released a birth certificate. This is further evidence that Lakin is acting on the basis of misinformation, perhaps having fallen in with the wrong crowd.

Is it just me, or is Terry Lakin totally lacking in affect?

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Obama birthday poll

by Dr. Conspiracy on 05. Aug, 2010 in Media, Polls

More than 25% have doubts

New CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 11% certain and another 16% saying probably that Obama was born outside the United States compared with 42% having “absolutely no doubts” and another 20% saying probably that Barack Obama was born in the good ole USA. No surprise that it’s mostly Republicans with doubts.

But CNN really screwed up on the commentary when they said:

Hawaii has released a copy of the president’s birth certificate – officially called a “certificate of live birth.” And in 1961 the hospital where the president was born placed announcements in two Hawaiian newspapers regarding Obama’s birth.

Anybody with even a cursory familiarity with the topic knows that the copy of the president’s birth certificate was released by the Obama Campaign and not the State of Hawaii, it is called a “Certification of Live Birth” not a “certificate” and the newspaper announcements were not from the hospital but from the state department of health. And didn’t anyone tell them that you’re not supposed to start a sentence with “and?”  I would have commented, but the comments were closed at CNN.

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Immigration cartoons

by Dr. Conspiracy on 31. Jul, 2010 in Birther Politics, Media

While peripheral to the topic of this web site, immigration issues are hot buttons for many of the same folks who take the view that President Obama himself is an illegal immigrant. I was sent this collection of cartoons and wanted to share them with you. Click on the image below to see the full-sized original. (The links are to a commercial web site that sells the images.)

Licensed for ObamaConspiracy.org

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Tim Adams on Reality Check Radio tonight at 9 (Updated)

by Dr. Conspiracy on 22. Jul, 2010 in Media, Tim Adams

If things go according to plan, Hawaiian election clerk and instant Obama denialist celebrity will be on Reality Check Radio tonight at 9 PM Eastern Time. Will we finally achieve closure on who claimed that who saw what when?

It was a “no show.” Adams didn’t appear. Maybe the electricity was off where he was. Ya think?

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Oh no!

by Dr. Conspiracy on 05. Jul, 2010 in Lounge, Media

Doc says, Oh No!I’ve spent hundreds of hours on this blog: doing research, writing articles, hyperlinking sources, analyzing arguments and informing the public about the antics of the birthers. But all of that effort, I fear, is a drop in the bucket compared to the damage done to the national discourse by one stupid tabloid article such as “Obama was not born in U.S.” from Globe magazine, July 12, 2010.

The article itself is nothing special. It’s a short rehash of various statements from Tim Adams, Hawaiian elections clerk, there inflated to “Gov’t official” on the front cover. It peppers the article with false statements like “America’s current Commander-in-Chief…has gone to … great expense…to seal records from his past” and “his paternal grandmother insists she witnessed his birth in Kenya” and “[Barack Obama] once mistakenly named two different hospitals where he was supposed to be born.” It labels Obama’s Certification of Live birth “FORGERY” and shows a family portrait of Barack Obama from 1987 with his Kenyan extended family and says the picture “haunts” Obama (they never explains what’s so sinister about this family photo). (more…)

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