Ghostwriters in the sky
Author Obama
During the last election, rumors flew about saying that former radical and education activist Bill Ayers wrote all or part of Barack Obama’s book Dreams from My Father. This rumor morphed into a small cottage industry of analysis trying to prove Ayer’s involvement in the book including a series of articles by WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill.
These allegations have been repeated in a number of right wing web sites such as The American Thinker and The Free Republic. Now WorldNetDaily has a new article, Author confirms Bill Ayers helped Obama write ‘Dreams’.
Of course, the “author” WND talks about is not the author of Obama’s book, but that of a new book, Barack and Michelle: An American Marriage by Christopher Andersen. Andersen should know because he had access to unnamed sources close to Obama. I should say that Cashill claims Andersen supports his view (in fact I have no confirmation of this).
The scenario alleged is in the typical nobama style. If alleges a fact (Obama was facing a deadline) that no one can easily verify but might accept because it it plausibled, it alleges another fact (Ayers lived nearby) that is non-trivial to verify and then it offers another allegation (the neighbors knew…) that no one can easily verify, but might accept because it is plausible and asserted. It is a good example of substitution of speculation for evidence made in the form of an argument. But this claim has no more substance to it than the travel ban to Pakistan argument, the born in Kenya argument and the Indonesian adoption argument: none.
So did Bill Ayers write Dreams from My Father? There is nothing in the WND article that would lead a rationally thinking person to jump to any conclusion.
Executive Order 13489 – Presidential Records
Obama Conspiracy Theories received an email from a visitor expressing concerns about an executive order by President Obama:
I’d like for OCT to comment on Executive Order 13489, one of Obama’s first official acts in office, and which is largely interpreted as banning the release of his records without his permission and which also revokes Section 6 of Executive Order 13233 so as to ban Congress and the courts from interceding.
The preamble to the Executive order says:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish policies and procedures governing the assertion of executive privilege by incumbent and former Presidents in connection with the release of Presidential records by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pursuant to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, it is hereby ordered as follows
The key point in understanding what’s going on here is the definition of “Presidential records”. Here is the relevant passage from the Presidential Records Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22):
§ 2201 Definitions… 2) The term “Presidential records” means documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.
from which it is obvious that “Presidential records” are not those records being sought by eligibility doubters, documents created before Obama became President.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
I need all of you to support me before it is too late…
… says Tae Kwando black belt Orly Taitz, Esq, in a recent email to Obama Conspiracy Theories, making an appeal based on an article by Bob Unruh, that fount of anti-Obama propaganda over at World Net Daily.
I prefer to talk about the presidential eligibility conspiracy theories on this web site, but I suppose that to live up the name, I should cover this too.
You may have heard rumblings about how all the true patriots are going to be rounded up and interned in FEMA camps. Mr. Unruh was alarmed by a job notice found on a U. S. Army web site (GoArmy.com):
“Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.
Of course, instead of associating this with the WARs that we’re conducting, it was naturally taken as evidence that right-wing extremists are about to be rounded up. Oh, and who are those Unruh reports will be the first against the wall? It’s those who:
- Oppose abortion
- Oppose same-sex marriage
- Oppose restrictions on firearms
- Oppose lax immigration laws
- Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs
- Oppose continuation of free trade agreements
- Are suspect of foreign regimes
- Fear Communist regimes
- Oppose a “one world” government
- Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world
- Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more
