The elephant in the room
Conservative leaders and pundits are suddenly teeming to address the elephant in the room, the Birthers. For months, there was scant Media coverage of the Obama denialist phenomenon, save bits in the Washinton Independent and the papers in Chicago and Honolulu. Now there are major articles almost every day. (For samples of the stories, see the Obama Conspiracy Theories Media page.)
From the liberal side the articles ridicule the birther movement. Conservatives not only ridicule the birther movement, but they say that the birthers are hurting the Republican party. It’s not only the birthers that are hurting the Republicans. The Conservative fringe has driven out moderates and literate folk, leaving not much more than stupid old southern white guys (according to the Daily KOS birther poll). Republicans in the last election, by running the likes of Sarah Palin (fundamentalist, unqualified) and stooping to the worst kinds of propaganda and mud slinging, already set the tone for the fringe ascendency: the Birthers, the Tea Parties and the Citizen Grand Juries. This is what happens when Rush Limbaugh becomes leader.
Obama birth poll shows striking regional divide
“Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America
or not?”
A poll conducted for the Daily KOS (and this is a real poll, not one of those unscientific citizen grand jury polls) asked the simple question: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?” The results were incredible:
Daily KOS Birther Poll Results
Graphic source: The Washington Monthly.
In most of the country, denialists are in the fringe, but in the South, the view is almost mainstream. (more…)
Where did “Born in Africa” Start? (Part 1)
Blog Fossil
There are any number of groups whose special interest would be better served by a president other than Barack Obama.
- Conservatives
- Right-wing extremists
- Anti-abortion activists
- Anti-gay activists
- Gun activists
- Anti-Muslim activists
- White Racists
- Pro-Israel activists
- Hillary supporters (more…)
Jay McKinnon admits to forging Obama COLB
According to an article in Israel Insider:
Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of palpably fake Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same Daily Kos blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears.
This article makes one strong point (which no one is really disputing): someone can fake an authentic looking Hawaiian COLB image using Photoshop that would easily fool the casual observer. (more…)
