Archive | Tim Adams RSS feed for this section

Birther Tim Adams announces support for Obama

By on October 1, 2012 in 2012 Presidential Election, Tim Adams, Videos

The lesser of two evils

Tim AdamsTim Adams (right) made a big splash in 2010 when he appeared on a white supremacist radio show, Political Cesspool, telling a story about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, or lack thereof. Adams was a contractor and “chief clerk” for the Honolulu Elections Division and he claimed that Barack Obama had no Hawaiian birth certificate. In various follow-up statements and interviews, including one on Reality Check Radio in which I participated, Adams backed down on some of what he said after it was found that his office had no access to Hawaiian birth records, but he still maintained that Obama had no Hawaiian birth certificate although he says he thinks Obama was born in the US, somewhere else than Hawaii.

Adams is cited in birther lawsuits and remains a star in the birther sky, but now he’s come out with a YouTube video in support of Barack Obama for President in 2012.

It’s hard to tell just what Tim Adams is really about, particularly after his Master’s Thesis appeared putting himself in the role of a gonzo journalist.

Adams’ rationale for supporting Obama can be summed up in two words, “Romney / Ryan.” Romney, he believes, is part of the David Rockefeller legacy of corporate internationalists. We don’t actually see the “one world government Bilderberger Illuminati” conspiracy theories here, but I think that’s where he’s pointing.

Here’s his video:

Continue Reading →

Gonzo birtherism

By on August 23, 2011 in Jerome Corsi, Joe Arpaio, Media, Racism, Tim Adams

My short article on Tim Adams’ masters thesis garnered quite a number of comments (116 as of just now). Adams’ exercise in creative writing towards an English degree is, according to him, an example of “gonzo journalism” a style made famous  by journalist Hunter Thompson. (I’m a fan of one modern gonzo journalist, Jon Ronson, the author of several accounts of his travels with racists and conspiracy theorists.) Rather than an objective observer of events, the gonzo journalist is personally part of the story. This from Adams:

I’m wearing my most appropriate gonzo journalist attire; a fine braided men’s straw hat with pheasant feather band (birds were indeed harmed in the production of this product, and eaten too, no doubt). I have a single silver conch shell, a token from the Native Hawaiian people’s movement, given to me in the islands, with my black out sunglasses hanging from the brown leather thong that circles my neck. I’m wearing an Alfred Dunner plaid linen jacket, size 44 regular. It was an original from the mid-sixties, one I’d pulled out of second hand shop for three dollars, and in excellent condition. The light green/brown plaid on off white patterned fabric goes well with the mint green Hawaiian shirt I’m wearing beneath it, festooned with huge white plumeria blossoms. I’m also wearing a gold watch and new khaki colored trousers with a pair of dark brown Docksider shoes. Nothing in my ensemble is cheap, and the colors and style allow me to pull this off, just barely enough to appear professional, and I stay much cooler in the ninety-degree heat of this sticky, summer day than the stiffs  sweating it out in the gray pinstripes.

The rambling thesis is the personal narrative of what followed when Adams showed up at a white racist  gathering and subsequently gave a radio interview on a racist program where he said that he was an elections worker in Hawaii and from that knew that Barack Obama had no long-form birth certificate. When asked to explain what he was doing at a white racist convention1, Adams claims that he was covering it as a journalist. Adams is the center of his birther story.

I cast about in my mind for another example of a gonzo journalist birther (what I’m calling “gonzo birtherist”) and of course Jerome Corsi comes to mind. He acts as a journalist, writing articles for WorldNetDaily and what he describes as investigative books. Recently Corsi was in Surprise, Arizona, where he spoke to a Tea Party group that subsequently presented, along with Corsi, a petition to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, asking him to investigate Barack Obama for identify fraud.

Can you think of other examples of birther activists acting as journalists?

Read more:

1The Council of Conservative Citizens Statement of Principles forms the basis for calling them racist.

Clockwise v anticlockwise

By on August 22, 2011 in Media, Tim Adams, WorldNetDaily

The topic is Tim Adams’ May 2011 masters thesis. [The preceding link is to a PDF. I had problems opening it in my browser. I suggest you “save as” and read it offline.] Adams came to prominence in the Birtherverse, when he, a clerk at the Hawaii Elections Division, came forward to say that Barack Obama had no long-form birth certificate. He never explained exactly how he knew that, but he nevertheless became an instant celebrity among the birthers.

Now two news sources, WorldNetDaily and ConWebWatch are reporting on his thesis presented at Western Kentucky University, one defending Adams and one painting Adams and his paper in the worst possible light.

There are two issues here: fairness and accuracy. Neither article is fair: WND ignores anything bad in the thesis and ConWebWatch ignores anything good. They are both advocacy pieces. However, Cashill is not accurate and as far as I can tell ConWebWatch is. I left this comment at WorldNetDaily:

WND is an odd source. They will print some lies and they won’t print others. Joseph Farah defends the rights of his "commentators" to say whatever they want, so the demonstrably fake story of the 1981 Travel Ban to Pakistan by commentator Janet Folger Porter remains at WND since 2009 with no hint that it’s a lie. On the other hand WND has vigorously debunked the fake Kenyan birth certificates for Barack Obama.

The problem is that it is difficult to know when WND is engaging in reporting (where they won’t usually lie outright) or printing commentary (where the commentators are free to lie outright) and I’m not sure that even WND always keep that straight. Generally all of the "experts" saying Obama’s long form is a fake are commentary or reporting of commentary. I suppose Bob Unruh is a reporter, and I don’t know what Jerome Corsi and Jack Cashill are.

What you can be sure of is that WND is a highly biased web site that engages in spin, innuendo and taking things out of context. Accepting anything from WND without confirmation from elsewhere is a recipe for embarrassment.

I was in error on one point; it is clear from the story’s labeling that Cashill is a commentator.

The Adams thesis is turgid and rambling and, in my opinion, totally unsuited for a scholarly thesis. I read a little and got disgusted.

What do Jerome Corsi and Tim Adams have in common?

By on June 5, 2011 in Jerome Corsi, Racism, Tim Adams

Tim Adams

Jerome Corsi

You remember Tim Adams, an elections clerk in Hawaii, who claimed that someone in the office told him that Barack Obama had no long-form birth certificate? (How’s that working out for ya?) Since then, although he denies being a racist, Adams has been tied to a number of racist statements he made in the past, and Adams first came on the scene through an appearance on an unabashedly white-supremacist radio program, The Political Cesspool, hosted by James Edwards.

Well, Jerome Corsi appeared on the same program, and was scheduled to appear a second time, although he canceled in the midst of a firestorm of criticism following the disclosure of some of Corsi’s prior racist and bigoted remarks.

So what they have in common is this man and a history of racist remarks:

James Edwards, host: The Political Cesspool

Learn more (these are partisan links for the most part):

Apuzzo fulminates against Fukino

By on April 12, 2011 in Birth Certificate, Mario Apuzzo, Smears, Tim Adams

Given how much damage Dr. Chiyome Fukino did to the birther movement when she disclosed Barack Obama not only had a long form birth certificate, but that it was signed by a doctor and thereby forcing the “Obama was not born in the US” crowd onto the last bit of land still not covered by the factual flood: “everybody’s lying,” one would expect the birthers to come out slinging. Attorney Mario Apuzzo, representing one of the more angry of the angry birthers,  has met expectations with his article: An Analysis of the Current Revelations of Hawaii’s Dr. Chiyome Fukino to NBC News Regarding Obama’s Place of Birth. Keep in mind that when a birther titles something “analysis” they usually mean “smear.”

Apuzzo upholds that stereotype with logic such as:

  • We shouldn’t listen to what Fukino, who saw Obama’s birth certificate, has to say because she’s not the current Health Director. Rather we should ask the current acting director who hasn’t seen Obama’s birth certificate about it.
  • Fukino is criticized for not disclosing the second Health Department official’s name who accompanied her to look at the certificate, despite the fact that in her statement on the Department of Health web site, she specifies the title of the person, which can only be Dr. Alvin Onaka, who has been in that position for at least 2 decades.
  • Fukino’s disclosure that a doctor signed the certificate is invalidated by the fact that she didn’t say more about which hospital Obama was born in.
  • Her comments are invalidated by the fact that she didn’t make them earlier.
  • Apuzzo makes the false distinction between birth in Hawaii and registration of a birth in Hawaii. Hawaii only registered people born there in 1961, and now that we know a doctor signed the form, all that grandmother/family fraud rumor is disproved.
  • Apuzzo says: “Obama’s supporters are proclaiming Dr. Fukino’s recent revelations are the death of the ‘birthers.’” He doesn’t disclose who said that. I didn’t say that. I just say that Dr. Fukino’s recent revelations just make them all the more fringe.
  • Tim Adams contradicts Fukino. Tim Adams will not even tell us who told him that there was no long form nor explain how this alleged person could have possibly known. Fukino has seen it herself. Apuzzo plays on public ignorance of vital statistics procedures to suggest that there could be a registration without a birth certificate.

It’s basically crap. Read it if you want, but not before you eat.

Tim Adams on Reality Check Radio tonight at 9

By on March 31, 2011 in Media, Tim Adams
Tim Adams Reality Check Blog Talk Radio transcript

Transcript

If things go according to plan, Hawaiian election clerk and instant Obama denialist celebrity will be on Reality Check Radio 15 minutes from now (March 31, 2010) at 9 PM Eastern Time. Will we finally achieve closure on who claimed that who saw what when?

Well the show happened with Tim Adams in the spotlight for about 2 hours. You can use the link above to access the archived show shortly. Yours truly participated for part of the show.

Did Tim finally tell us who saw what records? He said specifically that Elections Division staff contacted the Hawaii Department of Health, Kapi’olani and Queens hospitals and were told that they had no records on Obama. So we now know what records he claimed were queried; however, he refuses to name anyone who queried the records, nor did he explain how anyone in the Elections Division legitimately asked about someone who was not registering to vote in Hawaii.

The show covered a lot of ground, and I hope folks who didn’t get to hear the show live will check out the archive or the transcript when available and continue the discussion here.

The transcript is now available now.

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

By on July 22, 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?

Older posts