Article of note

I call to your attention this interview on National Public Radio:

2010 In Review: The Year For White Americans

This in-depth interview with Professor Douglas Brinkley discuss how white people are impacted by social change and even delves into the birther phenomenon.

All I simply am trying to point out to people is that it was a big change and we did hear a lot of rhetoric, you know, cartoons of Obama in African garb in major magazines. And then the question about the birther movement. Where is his birth certificate? He wasn’t really born here. A man who’s a Christian that constantly has to explain to people he’s not a Muslim, well, I don’t know who’s doing it. It’s a minority of white people. But they’re out there and it certainly dominated a lot of our news cycle and energies of the past year. And we got to get over that. It’s not a good trend. And the new governor of Hawaii is trying to clear this up, because it’s been such an annoyance, this birther issue.

And I would say, anybody who’s promoting the birther issue has some kind of animosity towards Barack Obama’s lineage. There’s no other way you could accept it, because it’s kooky to be pushing this notion that the president is not an American and is lying about being born in Hawaii. And the newspapers of Hawaii were wrong about his birth. And this movement, birther movement, got a lot of credibility on mainstream, you know, cable networks and on the Internet. And even newspapers have had a – serious newspapers have had to confront it, and it’s coming from somewhere.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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36 Responses to Article of note

  1. Keith says:

    Another article of note by Richard Monbiot published on Alternet:

    Are Right-Wing Libertarian Internet Trolls Getting Paid to Dumb Down Internet Conversations?

    Some excerpts:

    Defining Astroturfing:

    The weapon used by both state and corporate players is a technique known as astroturfing. An astroturf campaign is one that mimics spontaneous grassroots mobilizations, but which has in reality been organized. Anyone writing a comment piece in Mandarin critical of the Chinese government, for example, is likely to be bombarded with abuse by people purporting to be ordinary citizens, upset by the slurs against their country.

    But many of them aren’t upset: they are members of the 50 Cent Party, so-called because one Chinese government agency pays 5 mao (half a yuan) for every post its tame commenters write. Teams of these sock-puppets are hired by party leaders to drown out critical voices and derail intelligent debates.

    Regarding target selection:

    Reading comment threads on the Guardian’s sites and elsewhere on the web, two patterns jump out at me. The first is that discussions of issues in which there’s little money at stake tend to be a lot more civilized than debates about issues where companies stand to lose or gain billions: such as climate change, public health and corporate tax avoidance. These are often characterized by amazing levels of abuse and disruption.

    How it applies to this site and others we denizens might be lurking around:

    For his film (Astro)Turf Wars, Taki Oldham secretly recorded a training session organized by a rightwing libertarian group called American Majority. The trainer, Austin James, was instructing Tea Party members on how to “manipulate the medium”. This is what he told them:

    “Here’s what I do. I get on Amazon; I type in “Liberal Books”. I go through and I say “one star, one star, one star”. The flipside is you go to a conservative/ libertarian whatever, go to their products and give them five stars. … This is where your kids get information: Rotten Tomatoes, Flixster. These are places where you can rate movies. So when you type in “Movies on Healthcare”, I don’t want Michael Moore’s to come up, so I always give it bad ratings. I spend about 30 minutes a day, just click, click, click, click. … If there’s a place to comment, a place to rate, a place to share information, you have to do it. That’s how you control the online dialogue and give our ideas a fighting chance.”

    Over 75% of the funding for American Majority, which hosted this training session, comes from the Sam Adams Alliance. In 2008, the year in which American Majority was founded, 88% of the alliance’s money came from a single donation, of $3.7m(13). A group which trains rightwing libertarians to distort online democratic processes, in other words, was set up with funding from a person or company with a very large wallet.

    A commenter (‘soficrow’) on another site (‘Above Top Secret’) had this to say:

    I CHALLENGE everyone here to run a search looking for online writing jobs

    – and guarantee that most of the “jobs” you find involve ‘blogging’ and posting on message boards. Pay for these “casual contracts” runs about $20 for 100 words in 5 or more posts. [By comparison, the lowest paid freelance newspaper journalist used to get about $ 0.15 per word.]

    …This phenomenon to short-circuit the Internet’s democratic process -and control the “anarchy”- started in the early 2000’s. I watched it happen – dismayed and powerless.

  2. Keith says:

    Just an observation with no basis in evidence or anything, but the name of the American Majority trainer is Austin “James”.

  3. G says:

    Keith: Another article of note by Richard Monbiot published on Alternet:

    Pretty sick that these people are so obsessive that they’ve got to waste their time down rating any book or idea they don’t like. Pathetic and sad need to try to false manipulate anything they disagree with.

  4. Slartibartfast says:

    G:
    Pretty sick that these people are so obsessive that they’ve got to waste their time down rating any book or idea they don’t like.Pathetic and sad need to try to false manipulate anything they disagree with.

    Astroturfers are not doing it because they disagree, but because they are being paid to do it – I would guess that the people paying for it are doing it because it is lucrative to do so rather than because they believe in the propaganda they are promoting. I think the birthers aren’t guilty of astroturfing (although they certainly use the same despicable tactics) – they don’t have rich people paying for astroturf birther campaigns because there’s no money in it. The birthers have no coherent goal beyond de-legitimizing the president.

  5. G says:

    To think that all people doing nutty obsessive manipulative stuff like this are always being paid for it is unrealistic and just as much of a joke as the birthers claiming that “obots” are paid operatives.

    Per the article, yes there is agenda based astroturfing going on, and from the evidence shown so far, those examples exist with big money interests driving them from the right.

    However, I’m fairly confident that a lot of their sheep waste time doing this, because they have that paranoid obsessive mentality already and need to try to manipulate and control what others think. Why do you think they always make claims that “obots are paid”? Because that is what THEY would do and how their mind thinks and how they choose to operate.

    I’m fairly confident that even where pay is occurring, the folks that would take work like this do it because they agree with the agenda being pushed.

    Why do you think we spend so much time having to swat down and refute the same birther posters and their sockpuppets and same arguments time and time again and its the same general group of obsessive birther folks that swarm to comment on any site they can find out there?…

    Because they have an obsessive need and desire to try to manipulate the conversation and spread propaganda in hopes of tricking people into thinking they are a bigger movement than they are and that their ideas have merit.

    Folks like this can’t stand the world the way it really is or deal with an open society full of various viewpoints. They desperately NEED to try to brainwash others into their POV.

  6. Keith says:

    Slartibartfast: I think the birthers aren’t guilty of astroturfing (although they certainly use the same despicable tactics) – they don’t have rich people paying for astroturf birther campaigns because there’s no money in it. The birthers have no coherent goal beyond de-legitimizing the president.

    Ah, but money is power, power is money. There are folks who hit the financial gold mine with Bush and Obama is a threat to that pipeline. Remember:

    An astroturf campaign is one that mimics spontaneous grassroots mobilizations, but which has in reality been organized.

    Monbiot notice that the campaigns he spotted in the Guardian were money motivated. Not that the individuals did it for money, that the organizers only targeted big ticket issues. It does not follow that all Astroturfing campaigns are specifically and directly money motivated nor that the agents are motivated only by money.

    Murdoch and the Koch’s have very deep pockets and could afford to do this kind of stuff. Even if it doesn’t bear direct fruit, it spreads FUD. The ‘Tea Party’ was promoting and training its members in Astroturfing techniques, what was their direct money motivation?

  7. Keith says:

    Keith: Another article of note by Richard Monbiot published on Alternet:

    By the way, it is, of course, GEORGE Monbiot, not Richard. Not sure how I Richarded that up so badly.

  8. Slartibartfast says:

    Keith: The Tea Party’ was promoting and training its members in Astroturfing techniques, what was their direct money motivation?

    The Tea party (or at least one of the major wings) is part of the Koch brothers astroturfing machine – the birthers don’t have any money behind them (in fact, the main birther figures all attempt to con people out of donations…) because there is no potential for power there. If that weren’t the case then Dr. Kate could have drawn more than 3 people to her Usurpathon and convicted felon Lakin could have had a real lawyer from the start…

  9. Keith says:

    Slartibartfast:
    The Tea party (or at least one of the major wings) is part of the Koch brothers astroturfing machine – the birthers don’t have any money behind them (in fact, the main birther figures all attempt to con people out of donations…) because there is no potential for power there.If that weren’t the case then Dr. Kate could have drawn more than 3 people to her Usurpathon and convicted felon Lakin could have had a real lawyer from the start…

    The beauty of astroturfing campaigns is that once you have planted the seed, you don’t need to do anything, go anywhere near it, you can even get brownie points off publicly turning on it and attacking it.

    As the article quoted by the Doc says:

    And I would say, anybody who’s promoting the birther issue has some kind of animosity towards Barack Obama’s lineage. There’s no other way you could accept it, because it’s kooky to be pushing this notion that the president is not an American and is lying about being born in Hawaii. And the newspapers of Hawaii were wrong about his birth. And this movement, birther movement, got a lot of credibility on mainstream, you know, cable networks and on the Internet. And even newspapers have had a – serious newspapers have had to confront it, and it’s coming from somewhere.

    Koch doesn’t need to directly fund Dr. Kate. But I cannot doubt that he or someone very like him financed the implantation of the seed. All he has to do is get somebody to find the right bigot and put the word in their ear. Was Berg was the first one to go public? Was the meme floating around the intertubes before that? Who ‘educated’ Kerchner? Who taught Berg, Taitz, Dr. Kate how to turn off comments so they could shout into an echo chamber? Did the Birthers not provide service to the Tea Partiers by adding their little bit of FUD to the discussion to ensure the captured mind doesn’t have time to start thinking for itself?

    You don’t think Koch is pragmatic enough to know that he can use the bigots to his advantage this way without any mud being thrown his way?

  10. Slartibartfast: The Tea party (or at least one of the major wings) is part of the Koch brothers astroturfing machine – the birthers don’t have any money behind them (in fact, the main birther figures all attempt to con people out of donations…) because there is no potential for power there. If that weren’t the case then Dr. Kate could have drawn more than 3 people to her Usurpathon and convicted felon Lakin could have had a real lawyer from the start…

    I’m surprised no one mentioned the elephant in the room, Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily/Center for Western Journalism. That source of rumors and misinformation dwarfs all the little nObama web sites.

  11. Slartibartfast says:

    Keith: You don’t think Koch is pragmatic enough to know that he can use the bigots to his advantage this way without any mud being thrown his way?

    I think the bigots would be bigots regardless of whether or not someone paid them to be. While I have no doubt that if the idea occurred to the Koch brothers that they wouldn’t hesitate, my guess is in this case that the movement started itself without someone external planting a seed. If there were any significant external support I think we would see more competence amongst the birthers…

  12. Slartibartfast says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I’m surprised no one mentioned the elephant in the room, Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily/Center for Western Journalism. That source of rumors and misinformation dwarfs all the little nObama web sites.

    The birthestani natives are restless on this front – I found this gem in the comments of one of Dr. Kate’s posts –

    Paula
    January 2, 2011 at 8:28 am
    Update from Ms. Tickly: http://obamasgarden.wordpress.com/

    Patriots, is it time to bombard Mr. Farah with emails? If he doesn’t jump on this, then I’d say we should not trust Mr. Farah to be reporting fair and balanced information at WND. Kudos to Ms. Tickly for her work & strong stand for her safety and shame on Mr. Farah for not accepting her work, merely because she will not divulge her real name. The work speaks for itself and he can take it and act on it if he were sincere about finding fraudulent activity.

    This info. that Ms. Tickly has found should not be given to government agencies to examine, but independent researchers that do not have a conflict of interest; same thing with the Kenyan bc that Lucas Smith has sent to Congress. Congress needs to get its tail in gear with some investigating. All questions that have been brought up need to be brought to their attention for investigation using independent investigators. It is clear that all 3 branches are not checking the balance of power between them, but, perhaps, colluding amongst themselves!

    http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-breach-of-article-ii/#comment-18444

    It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this dissension in the ranks…

    By the way, here is some high quality crazy from the seditious Dr. Kate:

    http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/watershed-politics/

    Dr. Kate on Einstein – don’t miss this!

  13. G says:

    Slartibartfast: By the way, here is some high quality crazy from the seditious Dr. Kate:

    http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/watershed-politics/

    Dr. Kate on Einstein – don’t miss this!

    Hilarious! How the crazy diseased conspiracy mind works… well it is truly a wonder to behold. LOL!.

    That is where we get bunk pseudo-science from. Kooks like this. Wow, what an Alice in Wonderland journey reading that was, as Einstein and watershed tributaries are woven into nuttiness about the NWO and biblical imagery of their needing to build a “Patriot Ark”….

    The only point of no return that they’ve crossed is the complete loss of their sanity.

    The comments get even crazier, as they move from emotional sadness (birthers still glum over their Lakin loss) to keyboard commando anger (anyone who is not a birther is a “traitor”) to going completely off the rails of paranoia and fretting about “Chem Trails”…

    The stupid, it burns!

  14. obsolete says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: I’m surprised no one mentioned the elephant in the room, Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily/Center for Western Journalism. That source of rumors and misinformation dwarfs all the little nObama web sites.

    Also, Jerome Corsi of the Swift-boaters had his fingers in birth of birtherism.

  15. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I’m surprised no one mentioned the elephant in the room, Joseph Farah and WorldNetDaily/Center for Western Journalism. That source of rumors and misinformation dwarfs all the little nObama web sites.

    On Friday I sent Bob Unruh of WND an e-mail pointing out that the cert petitions in Taitz v. MacDonald and Hollister v. Soetoro have been dead filed and that denial of cert is a certainty in both cases. It will be interesting to see if he acknowledges the e-mail. My expectation is that there will no acknowledgment and WND will continue to beat the drums for the next couple of weeks, particularly on the Hollister case..

  16. charo says:

    Slartibartfast:
    The birthestani natives are restless on this front – I found this gem in the comments of one of Dr. Kate’s posts –http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-breach-of-article-ii/#comment-18444It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this dissension in the ranks…By the way, here is some high quality crazy from the seditious Dr. Kate:http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/watershed-politics/Dr. Kate on Einstein – don’t miss this!

    I am breaking my NY’s resolution already to not become immersed in comments here. You probably have no interest in the controversy brewing between Miss Tickly and WND, but I would really like to hear some feedback on this. Miss Tickly e-mailed WND as follows:

    “Did Kapi’olani Hospital present WND the photo of the raised White House seal on cream paper with the false claim that it is a close-up of the incised seal seen on the full letter appearing on white paper?“ http://obamasgarden.wordpress.com/2011/01/

    The response from WND is that Miss Tickly needs to reveal her true identity. I don’t have any knowledge of graphics, etc. but it is easy to see that one copy of the letter is cream, and the other white. There are other claimed differences, but why wasn’t a simple explanation given? As in , there is no fraud; the reason for the difference(s) is(are) … .

    Someone must have e-mailed her an answer because this is a response from the last post of December:

    (By the way, it’s amazing how many of the usual Obots are out trolling on this blog post. I am flattered. Happy New Year, mindless Obot trolls! Just know, you expose yourselves trying to argue the obvious. We don’t need any Obot-expert opinions on the difference between cream and white. Give it up.

    In fact, some stupid Obot makes the wild claim that the ‘Kapi’olani Letter’ is on a “light blue” sheet of paper. That Obot must be so distraught because blue is not the same as cream either. Plus, the person is a newbie to the concept of cool and warm reflected light. Poor stupid Obot. And Obots, don’t bother to explain away the discrepancy in paper color through the concept of warm and cool light; because the typography, “The White House” and “Washington,” appears to be MORE blue in the close-up photo of the raised seal on cream paper than in the full view of the white letter. Therefore, the light on the cream photo cannot possibly be any warmer than the light on the full version on white. Plus, it still would not explain the visible difference in paper texture.”

    ***

    I have no problem that I have zero knowledge to explain away color differences. It seems such an easy answer for WND to provide. A so-called “Obot” made a response, but the answer of WND is that there will be no comment on the fraud issue until Miss Tickly reveals her name.

    Well, there you go.

  17. charo says:

    no problem admitting

  18. Keith says:

    charo: Miss Tickly e-mailed WND as follows:

    “Did Kapi’olani Hospital present WND the photo of the raised White House seal on cream paper with the false claim that it is a close-up of the incised seal seen on the full letter appearing on white paper?“

    The hospital published an image of the complete letter in its anniversary brochure. The complete brochure is available at the hospital’s web site. I understand that the original letter is on display in the lobby of the hospital. The hospital doesn’t need to present WND with anything.

    My take on the Farrah dispute with Ms Tickly is that he is trying to fabricate a veneer of ‘see I really do have standards – I don’t allow anonymous posters on my site’. Since Tickly’s views are anti-Obama but heretical to Farrah’s line the entire episode is rather contrived as a bit of theater that he can use to silence her while pretending to have ethics.

  19. Slartibartfast says:

    charo: I am breaking my NY’s resolution already to not become immersed in comments here.

    Sorry to be a bad influence on you. 🙁

    I posted the links to all four of Miss Tickly’s blog posts regarding this on the open thread here:

    http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/01/the-occasional-open-thread-2011-edition/#comment-84806

    For what it’s worth, my take is that what Ms. T has uncovered is of completely no significance whatsoever…

  20. charo says:

    Keith:
    The hospital published an image of the complete letter in its anniversary brochure. The complete brochure is available at the hospital’s web site. I understand that the original letter is on display in the lobby of the hospital. The hospital doesn’t need to present WND with anything.My take on the Farrah dispute with Ms Tickly is that he is trying to fabricate a veneer of see I really do have standards – I don’t allow anonymous posters on my site’. Since Tickly’s views are anti-Obama but heretical to Farrah’s line the entire episode is rather contrived as a bit of theater that he can use to silence her while pretending to have ethics.

    Maybe. I don’t even know how to comment there. Anonymity is not allowed to comment?

  21. charo says:

    charo: Anonymity is not allowed to comment?

    That is a horrible sentence, but I think you know what I asked.

  22. charo says:

    Slartibartfast:
    Sorry to be a bad influence on you.
    I posted the links to all four of Miss Tickly’s blog posts regarding this on the open thread here:http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/01/the-occasional-open-thread-2011-edition/#comment-84806For what it’s worth, my take is that what Ms. T has uncovered is of completely no significance whatsoever…

    It is not the uncovering, but the weird response of WND. Just answer the question.

  23. charo says:

    I meant for WND to answer, not you!

  24. charo says:

    Slartibartfast: Sorry to be a bad influence on you. 🙁

    My decision has to do with getting too absorbed when I really have to be doing other things.

  25. Slartibartfast says:

    charo:
    It is not the uncovering, but the weird response of WND.Just answer the question.

    I think Keith probably has it just about right (it seems a reasonable explanation to me). Also, I would note, if they were aware of Ms. T’s propensity for making mountains out of molehills (Hawaii had to make a law to stop her… ;-)) that may have effected their decision.

  26. Slartibartfast says:

    charo:
    My decision has to do with getting too absorbed when I really have to be doing other things.

    I understand, I’m the same way – I’m going to go do something productive now…

  27. charo says:

    Slartibartfast:
    I think Keith probably has it just about right (it seems a reasonable explanation to me).Also, I would note, if they were aware of Ms. T’s propensity for making mountains out of molehills (Hawaii had to make a law to stop her… ) that may have effected their decision.

    I’m sure we’ll come across any updates.

    I expect a productivity report! 🙂

  28. Black Lion says:

    LTC Terrence Lakin Court-Martial Aftermath

    LTC Lakin received a sentence of six-months and a dismissal; a lower sentence than expected. We have had many inquiries since the completion of the Lakin trial. The overwhelming majority of the inquiries have been supportive of our efforts to assist Dr. Lakin and applauded the tremendous success we had in limiting his punishment.

    As many of you know, the Army prosecutors sought a 24-month jail term. His sentence was only six months. Knowledgeable observers of the military justice process believed that the minimum punishment he could possibly get was a 12 months, matching the length of a standard tour in Afghanistan that he missed by refusing his orders during wartime.

    Military appellate procedure allows for an automatic appeal of a court-martial whenever a Dismissal is adjudged and approved. In LTC Lakin’s case, the issue of the military judge’s rulings on the admissibility of evidence pertaining to the eligibility of the President to issues orders can still be addressed. However, the Army Court of Criminal Appeals is unlikely to grant any relief.

    Most inquiries have asked how to support LTC Lakin and his family now that his trial is complete. The best way to do that would be to contact the Terry Lakin Action Fund: A Family Trust (TerryLakinActionFund.com)

    Marco Ciavolino, Administrative Trustee
    Trustees@TerryLakinActionFund.com
    Mailing address: PO Box 1116 Bel Air, MD 21014

    LTC Lakin can be reached at the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, KS at the following address: Terrence Lakin #89996; 830 Sabalu Road Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027

    http://www.puckettfaraj.com/contact-us/

  29. Black Lion says:

    From OFGS….

    Birthers Forever

    Huffington Post has started a dedicated news page about Birthers. Legitimate news outfits such as ABC News now give Birther candidates a forum–even a long-time anti-Semite who was rejected by the Illinois Bar Association for character and mental issues–who started the rumor that Obama is a Muslim, and who claims baby Obama was switched at birth and his father was not his father. Chris Matthews, the enemy of Birthers, now wants the President to show his long form birth certificate. The demented Harlem pastor and Birther Minister of Hate, James David Manning says all Obama has to do is order the birth certificate and put it online (haven’t we been here before?) and Birthers will accept that Barack Hussein Obama was born where he says he was born.

    Born where, with the full faith and credit of the State of Hawaii, the Department of Health certifies he was born, where Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie says he was born, where former Hawaii Gov. Lisa Lingle said he was born, where Honolulu newspapers, in 1961, said he was born, where little Barry’s fifth grade teacher said she knew he was born, where he had gone to Kindergarten and Sunday School, where the hospital in which he was born celebrated his birth with a reading of a letter from the President at its Centennial Dinner–in that exotic foreign land in America, where snow cones are called shave ice, therefore nothing is as it seems–even after the United States Congress unanimously passed a Resolution on the occasion of the State of Hawaii’s 50th Anniversary saying: “The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961.”

    This list is a little old and it’s likely to have been added to since, but it gives you an idea of what might satisfy Birthers:

    1 Certified copy of original birth certificate
    2 Columbia University transcripts
    3 Columbia thesis paper
    4 Campaign donor analysis requested by 7 major watchdog groups
    5 Harvard University transcripts
    6 Illinois State Senate records
    7 Illinois State Senate schedule
    8 Law practice client list and billing records/summary
    9 Locations and names of all half-siblings and step-mother
    10 Medical records (only the one page summary released so far)
    11 Occidental College Transcripts
    12 Parent’s marriage Certificate
    13 Record of baptism
    14 Selective Service registration records (Did Obama Actually Register for Selective Service? This supposed revelation of 0?s SS records has been debunked here and here.)
    15 Schedules for trips outside of the United States before 2007
    16 Passport records for all passports
    17 Scholarly articles
    18 SAT and LSAT test scores
    19 Access to his grandmother in Kenya
    20 List of all campaign workers that are lobbyists
    21 Punahou grade school records
    22 Noelani Kindergarten records are oddly missing from the the State of Hawaii Department of Education.
    23 Page 11 of Stanley Ann Dunham’s divorce decree.
    24 Why isn’t Barack Obama still a member of the Illinois bar and where are all of the relevant documents?
    25 Why isn’t Michelle Obama still a member of the Illinois bar, after only about four years of practice, and where are all of the relevant documents?

    Nothing will satisfy Birthers. Anybody who thinks a long form birth certificate is going to shut up these clamoring freaks is making a mistake. They will never be satisfied. They will never stop. Conspiracy freaks never do. These people don’t want to know where Obama was born; they want to know when he will be dead.

    http://ohforgoodnesssake.com/?p=15348

  30. Black Lion says:

    Bovril, it seems some of the old time GW birthers have migrated to the following site….

    http://gratewire.com/

  31. Black Lion says:

    January 3, 2011

    Obama Job Approval Reaches 50% for First Time Since SpringReturns to that level for first time since late May/early June 2010by Jeffrey M. Jones

    PRINCETON, N.J. — Barack Obama’s job approval rating reached the symbolic 50% mark in the latest three-day average from Gallup Daily tracking. Obama’s approval rating has been in the mid-40% range for much of the latter half of 2010. He last hit 50% approval in a three-day average near the end of May/beginning of June.

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/145442/Obama-Job-Approval-Reaches-First-Time-Spring.aspx

  32. Black Lion says:

    Interesting follow up to BZ’s ridiculous claim about the state of HI seal….As you recall she has claimed that it proves that the President’s COLB is a fake….

    From her blog…

    Aussie Says:

    January 2, 2011 at 10:49 pm | Reply
    Butter, what can you tell us about this seal? Do you think it is a fake?

    butterdezillion Says:

    January 4, 2011 at 4:13 pm | Reply
    Yes, Aussie, I do think it’s a fake. A colleague made a UIPA request to see the official Hawaii Department of Health seal. What she got for a response can be seen at http://obamasgarden.wordpress.com/about/facts-about-the-hdoh-official-seal/ . The Factcheck seal doesn’t match the official seal.

    In addition, the Factcheck “seal” remains almost perfectly round even though the paper it’s on folds. I had traced the outline of both the “seal” and the pre-printed circle on the top fold of the Factcheck image onto a transparency and compared it to a perfect circle I had drawn with a compass. The circle on the top fold clearly distorts. The “seal” doesn’t. I was discussing this with someone at http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/reader_feedback/public/display.php?thread=418886&offset=0&column=create_date&direction=DESC and had no way to show the tracings I had done so I tried doing the same thing on Paint. It’s too hard to keep the mouse steady so it doesn’t show as clearly as when traced on a transparency, but the image is round. When you look at the left edge of the paper you can see that the angle of the fold is nearly identical for the two folds so the degree of distortion in the top circle should also be seen in the “seal”.

    I tested that by recreating a tri-folded paper with circles on the two folds, holding the paper to my computer screen so that the left edge exactly matched the left edge on the screen, and taking a photo of my tri-folded paper. Then I traced both circles. The distortion in all the circles matched, except for the alleged “seal” on the Factcheck COLB. I’ve done that experiment several times with the same result.

    There is only one way you can hold the paper to get the left side to look like it looks on the Factcheck photo, and any time I’ve tried it with a real paper the “seal” ends up looking like the circle on the top fold. I can never get it to look round like the Factcheck image looks.

    So basically we know it’s a fake because it doesn’t match the official seal of the HDOH, according to the HDOH’s own disclosure.

    And because the “seal” doesn’t distort like a real circle on a fold would do we know that “seal” was never on that paper at all. It was digitally added after the photo was scanned. Which means that Factcheck never did see a paper with a seal on it. They lied. They participated in the forgery.

    But one of her own readers makes this interesting point…

    MJW Says:

    January 5, 2011 at 9:44 am | Reply
    At the risk of being accused of being an Obot for the second time this week, I think the seal looks legit. I compared it to the seals on Patrica DeCosta’s and Corey James Hideo Tomoyasus’s COLBs, and it looks very similar. The size is right — about the distance from the DATE OF BIRTH to the MOTHER’S RACE headings — and the reversed word OF from DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH is clearly visible and in the correct position. The perspective distortion is difficult to judge because of the close camera position. Notice the lower right edge of the form is almost vertical while the left edge has a pronounced tilt

    In order to verify my observation I analyzed the photo using the image editing program Paint Shop Pro. I almost certain the same steps could be done using Photoshop. First I applied a perspective correction to the bottom third of the document using the border and the lettering to align the quadrilateral that represents a pre-transformed rectangle. (I had to first increase the canvas size on the bottom and sides so the full image would appear in the transformed version). I then mirrored the transformed image so the seal was in the correct orientation. I used the magic wand, along with the “remove specks and holes from selection,” feature to select the brightly lit lower third of the document and adjusted the brightness, contrast, and saturation to approximate the middle third. Finally, I deselected the region and adjusted the overall brightness and contrast. The result is quite clearly Hawaii’s Dept. of Health seal.

    If you wish, I’ll be happy to send you the .png file.

    http://butterdezillion.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/factcheck-seal/

  33. Black Lion says:

    Moer bither insanity…

    My response to Mr. Elliott was as follows:

    Dear Mr. Elliott:

    It would be important to let you know I was formely in Grassfire Nation and some Tea Party groups, however all many in these type groups tried to silence me, & groups trying to unseat Obama. Since America has an illegal communist muslim usurper infiltrating our White House, this is “the” most dangerous issue America has ever faced.

    You can’t flip a house on a fallen Republic being dismantled by an illegal alien. Although we must be vigil during elections, I am now hearing from reliable sources that Obama will see to it the “fix” is in on this election for 2012. A Chavez like regime of thugs will see to it he terrorizes America for another 4 years, & it will not matter what we do to stop him, except successfully unseating him.

    There has been much talk about impeaching him, however to be impeached you must be a legal President to begin with. He will have to be unseated.

    The silence from not only your group, but all of the Tea Party groups, has been shocking to say the least. And then to ignore the brave and courageous Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, who has sacrified everything to protect & defend America, as required by all military personel under the Constitution was the last straw. This surfaced other problems with Patriot Movements, who were not trying to save this great American Patriot.

    Our country has no more time for this nonsense, and the cheerleader with pom poms mentality. This will not save America, unseating Obama will.

    Anything else is like putting a fresh coat of paint on a dirty surface. It just will not stick.

    Therefore I must decline your invitation to once again join Grassfire Nation because this is not your ultimate goal, nor the Tea Parties.

    UNSEATING OBAMA, THE ILLEGAL COMMUNIST MUSLIM USURPING JIHADIST IN OUR WHITE HOUSE IS THE ONLY ISSUE FOR TRUE PATRIOTS SO I WISH YOU THE BEST BUT I WILL NOT CONCENTRATE ON ANY OTHER ISSUE FOR 2011. FREE LT. COL. TERRY LAKIN, AND TRY OBAMA FOR HIGH CRIMES AND TREASON AGAINST
    THE U.S., UNSEAT HIM, THEN IMPRISON HIM.

    LT. COL. TERRY LAKIN SHOULD BE PRESIDENT, AND OBAMA SHOULD BE IN LEAVENWORTH PRISON. THIS TYRANNY MUST STOP FOR 2011.

    Jan

    http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/01/03/citizen-to-patriot-action-network-oust-the-usurper-first/

  34. Black Lion says:

    More Ms Tickly insanity….It is great that her and WND are going at it….

    Hawaii Pacific Health: The Hunt for the Original Photos”

    “In an effort to get at the truth absent WorldNetDaily’s cooperation, I wrote Hawaii Pacific Health (HPH) last night and requested the original photo files from which the ‘Kapi’olani Letter’ images published by WorldNetDaily were created.”

    http://obamasgarden.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/hawaii-pacific-health-the-hunt-for-the-original-photos/

  35. gorefan says:

    Black Lion: Interesting follow up to BZ’s ridiculous claim about the state of HI seal

    There is some additional follow up at her site. Even “Dr. Ron Polland” gets involved, while he says the COLB is a fake, he says the seal is legit.

    Also, poster MJW posts a link to 6 COLBs and says that the seals are all the same.

    On a side note 3 of the COLBs posted by MJW say “Date Filed” and 3 say “Date Accepted”.

  36. Majority Will says:

    gorefan: he says the COLB is a fake, he says the seal is legit.

    Now that is truly bizarre.

    Too many rabbit holes.

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