I’m a big fish in a little pond. I don’t think that’s a problem so long as I remember that there are bigger ponds, lakes and even oceans out there. This Obama conspiracy business is a pretty small pond insofar as it is made just of birther activists and their critics. There are a lot of birthers, but most don’t do anything about it.
Last night I listened to RC Radio and to their guest Terry Krepel, writer of the ConWebWatch web site. (He’s in a bigger pond covering the extremes of the Conservative media). Terry noted that the number one birther pollutant on the Internet, WorldNetDaily, has larger written off birtherism in their coverage, and RC commented that a number of birther and anti-birther web sites have shut down or cut back. The pond is shrinking. The next big thing for the anti-Obama fringe according to Terry, and I tend to agree, is Obama impeachment theories. I’ve added ConWebWatch to the Good links at the bottom of the page.
To take up the slack in my time due to the shrinking of the pond, I have started volunteering to record public domain audio books at LibriVox.org.
Other ramblings:
Orly Taitz and Montgomery Blair Sibley have their crack at the Supreme Court tomorrow. Yawn!
Happy Valentine’s day. I left Ms. Conspiracy a card addressed to Occupant (of my heart). I thought it was kind of cute. That line may have been used a thousand times before, but it worked just fine in the small pond of the Conspiracy household.
> WorldNetDaily, has larger written off birtherism in their coverage
No wonder since WND has always been about swiftboating Obama and that issue is moot now.
> The next big thing for the anti-Obama fringe according to Terry, and I tend to agree, is Obama impeachment theories.
Which, however, is not much different from impeachment theories about most other presidents. Because even among the birthers, the calls for impeachment for Benghazi, Fast & Furious, “taking away our guns” etc. are much louder than those based on birther theories. It seems many of them have (more or less openly) realized that those pathways are more promising than the foreign birth theory or the Vattelist nonsense (since even a close-to-zero probability is infinitely higher than the zero probability of birtherism succeeding).
Of course those who have invested heavily in the birther core issues (like Orly) will continue because they can impossibly admit that they have pursued a lost cause for years.
Their only connection to the non-birther impeachment theories is the crazy idea that any politician who speaks out in favour of impeaching Obama over something else would be all too willing to jump on the birther train. Again, Orly’s constant calls for her flying monkeys to write to anyone who publically criticizes Obama and “inform them about his forged records yadda-yadda” is the best example.
I am going to be curious to see if the Vattelist birthers stay true to their beliefs and try to stop Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal when/if they run for the Republican nomination in 2016.
There will be noise about impeachment, but obviously it is a non-starter. There might be a few Tea Party Republicans in the House who would go for it, but even if the House voted for impeachment how would they get a conviction in the Senate? They would need 67 votes and they only have 45 seats.
My prediction is that they would split The True Followers of St Emerich would reject the Infidels of the Polluted Foreign Blood and go with Rand Paul on the Tea Party ticket. The Reformed Faithful of the Blessed Reagan would make up some nonsense about how their parents eventually became citizens and the Holy Swiss One really meant that the parents only had to be citizens at some point not necessarily before the child was born.
The one thing I am positive of is that if any Republican releases a birth certificate in any form whatsoever, even scrawled on a bar napkin from a strip club, it will be accepted without question.
Some will, some won’t. “Anything but another Democrat” will prevail for a large part of them (I’ve actually seen some birthers defend their Rubio love by claiming “Obama set a precedent, so now it’s OK for me to favour a non-NBC”).
They might try it for the pure propaganda value if the outlook for the 2014 elections promises to be meek. Or did anyone ever assume Clinton would be convicted?
kevin, you are a big fish in the big pool in my mind. you may be the most biggest since you work alone. i respect that.
That’s a valid point, although there is an argument to be made that the Clinton impeachment, in the end, only served to make him more popular.
And of course Clinton actually was guilty of something. Nixon obstructed justice in a criminal investigation. Obama hasn’t even opened the FEMA camps yet.
As many people know, I am a registered republican, but I consider myself middle of the road on many subjects. Aside from the abject stupidity of birtherism, my biggest complaint stems from the lack of respect shown to the office of the President of the United States. I do not care one agrees or disagrees with the policies, there will always be debate over such topics, and that is healthy, but my party has allowed itself to be taken over by the tea party and birthers and it has made the party all but irrelevant on a national scale.
I am curious to see if the tea party and birthers (and I think that there is a lot of overlap there) will continue this through 2016 nomination process. If it does then, in my opinion, the Republican Party will can wave bye bye and perhaps that is a good thing. People like me have been driven away from the party. Perhaps if the RWMJ decide to start their own party and nominate someone like Rand Paul, the Republican Party can rebrand itself.
The scariest part to me has been the mouthpieces of the republican party, the Limbaughs and Hannity’s have not learned anything from the last two presidential elections. Both times we heard that the reason why they lost was because the candidate was not conservative enough. It was not that the conservative message was being rejected. There was no acceptance of that that stupid statements that were consistently coming out of the ‘tea party” candidates alienated a significant segment of the voters. There was no distancing itself from the birthers. I would have had a lot more respect for Romney and would have seen him as a stronger leader if he had told the Donald to take a flying leap.
In other words, the Republican Party has essentially committed suicide by by not eliminating the cancers within the party.
Conviction doesn’t matter really.
It would paralyse Congress for a year and distract ‘We the People’ from real problems like back in Clinton’s day. .
Good. Because that’s what I have, a scrawled fountain pen signature on an eighteenth century cloth fom a bar, signed by John Jay saying that any descendants of my forebears (namely, me) are excluded from the natural-born requirement, whether or not any of us were to ever be born American, because my proudly foreign family loaned him some money to cover some card bets.
Oh wait, my family has been American for many generations. Well, except for that, the rest is true.
Back in the beginning of this, there was a small conspiracy theory about Obama’s “allegedly uncircumcised penis” being proof of his Kenyan birth.
I’ve tried to goad birthers into taking that ball and running with it, just for the utter laugh value.. But it hasn’t gone anywhere.. Maybe somebody could whisper it in the ear of Orly Taitz?
I imagine Obama as sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles, up on the podium.. “Pardon me while I whip this out”.. Think they’d demand to see his “long form”?
Since Muslims are circumised, wouldn’t that prove he is not a secret Muslim?
My Republican-voting brother feels exactly the same way. We both remember when the debates were about how to interpret facts, and how to use those facts to develop plans to improve the future. Democrats and Republicans naturally disagreed on how to proceed.
Those were good times. But for quite some time the Republican party (and I blame Karl Rove for this) has embraced the plan of creating and selling to their constituents a competing alternate reality of pseudo-facts.
Here’s how the global warming debate would have gone back in the days of a sane GOP:
Headline: “Scientists world-wide have found that the planet is getting warmer because of human activities, and it could have dire consequences for humanity.”
Old Democrat: “We need to take drastic steps immediately!”
Old Republican: “Now hold on. The science looks good, but we don’t know how things will play out yet. Much of what you propose would harm the economy, cost jobs, and stress businesses. How about we take it slowly, phase in changes gradually, in such a way that it won’t cause trade disruption?”
Now, the New Republican response:
“That’s a lie! Communist propaganda! It’s just a conspiracy to destroy capitalism! How dare you? Global warming is a proven fraud! The world is actually cooling! Why do you hate America?!”
Republican Leaders Worry Their Party Could Divide in Two
This also shows the importance of keeping things in perspective. There aren’t that many hardcore birthers in the sense of seriously deranged people whose lives would be empty and indeed would be devastated if they didn’t have this obsession. We know for instance that Orly can muster only 9 people for her last protest, although that is admittedly a 200% increase on the one before. And can you imagine what hell it must be for her family and colleagues? She only keeps going because the attention feeds her ego and because she has no life outside her birther fantasy.
I think they will split into The True Followers and the more pragmatic, If Obama Can, So Can We! group. This time around, I have an inkling the party bigwigs will form a unified front and actually poo-poo the birthistani.
Yes, but since when have Republicans ever learned from their mistakes?
My theory is that birtherism has also had beneficial effects on Obama’s re-election – e.g. I believe the mass-mailing of that Gilbert movie increased voter turnout for Obama as most recipients must’ve gone “So *that’s* the kind of stuff Romney supporters believe? No way I’m gonna let those looneys win.”.
If it was beneficial overall (i.e. if birtherism made more people vote “against stupid” than it encouraged people to vote for Romney) I don’t know, but I guess it was, though likely not decisively.
So you can fully expect them to try something (and not just once) that will end up making the Democratic Party more popular.
And the Tea Party people will very likely try to ride the “If you want Obama impeached, vote for me” train.
I listened to the show too. I agree with Terry. I tend to believe Donald Trump was probably the driving force of getting Obama to release his long-form birth certificate. I also think Dr. Corsi’s book, “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” played a role too. Recall that Corsi’s book was the Number #1 item on Amazon just prior to Obama’s releasing the BC. Between Corsi and Trump, Obama’s reluctance to release the BC was starting to gain traction in the MSM. I believe this force Obama his hand and released the BC.
one the biggest moments I remember that really was compelling was when Chris Matthews of Hard Ball (A strong anti-birther) actually came out and began to question why Obama wasn’t releasing the long-form BC.
http://www.newser.com/story/108524/chris-matthews-demands-obamas-birth-certificate-now.html
I also believe the killing of Osama Bin Laden may have been contrived; perhaps as a Wag The Dog action to take the light off the forgery claims of Obama’s long-form BC.
Much of what I’ve seen from “establishment Republicans” complaining about the Tea Party et.al is related to the problem that years ago, they decided to pander to the religious right and nativist elements of the right to win elections. It was a winning strategy, but in the process, they ended up being in the position of having handed the keys to the car to the nut jobs, and are now realizing that the car is being driven off without them.
I said elsewhere that I’m willing to have debates over any particular element of government spending, taxation, or regulation, but not whether they’re necessary in the first place.
Unfortunately, I think the Republicans aren’t going to jump off the crazy train until after 2016, and I think it’ll take several really bad election cycles for them to actually change.
I agree for the most part, the GOP will have to hit rock bottom before it adjusts. But to me, the Tea Party is nothing new. It was called McCarthyism in the 50s and the Moral Majority in the 80s. It is really the religious right popping its ugly head up every thirty years or so under different names.
Supreme court published orders for 2/15/2013, note no Orly case
big surprise WOW
http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/021513zr_k5fm.pdf
I disagree. It was called the John Birch Society in the 50’s.
Yoda:
the koch brothers had the “usteaparty” website since 2002
the Quarterback study reveals that in 2002, the Kochs and tobacco-backed CSE designed and made public the first Tea Party Movement website under the web address http://www.usteaparty.com. Here’s a screenshot of the archived U.S. Tea Party site, as it appeared online on Sept. 13, 2002:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html
Yeah, that is a better reference.
I didn’t know that, thanks
It doesn’t take a lot of pre-orders on Amazon go to Number 1. The NY Times reported substantial bulk orders of Corsi’s book. I wouldn’t be surprised if more folks visited my web site in May of 2011 than bought Corsi’s book.
You just permanently jumped the shark.
You’re officially FUBAR now, congratulations.
Supreme court published orders for 2/15/2013, note no Orly case
big surprise WOW
http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/021513zr_k5fm.pdf
Yes, it is no surprise. The Justices probably never saw Orly’s petition. At best they a case number with a recommendation of deny from a law clerk. The Justice merely rubber stamped the recommendation in conference.
for john: You just permanently jumped the shark.
.
john doesn’t even know how stupid that comment makes him!
These are miscellaneous orders. Orly’s case will show up on Tuesday as cert denied.
Some are hoping for a sanctions order but I doubt SCOTUS cares about Orly’s ‘musings’
First, all birther cases have been rejected. Second, this was a petition to stay something that has already taken place, namely the swearing in of the President for a Second Term. So the Petition itself was moot.
There are two kinds of birthers, the evil ones and the stupid ones. I can understand that some people are evil and I can understand that some people are stupid–but I cannot understand why the stupid birthers, such as John, even in their dumbest moments, cannot understand that it is impossible to issue an injunction to prevent something that already took place. Even if you believe the system is corrupt, even if you believe that there is a conspiracy, even if you believe that treasonous law clerks are making the decisions for the Supreme Court justices, John, can for the love of god, can you please explain to me how a Petition to Stay the Inauguration could possibly be granted after the inauguration has taken place?
Do you know what the word moot means?
WND published the book and then, as separate entity, buys them in bulk and most were given away (Free Bestseller!) as a promotion. The cost to WND can then be deducted as a cost of doing business or advertising and the gullible think that Corsi wrote a bestseller and are lead to believe that the Birther movement is bigger than it is.
But John, that belief is just a comfort station for you on the way to ultimately admitting that you really believe that the rise of Western Civilization, and in particular, the Industrial Revolution, were also “contrived, perhaps as anticipatory Wag The Dog actions to take the light off the forgery claims” insanely directed at Obama’s long-form BC.
How long does God have before you accuse him of being complicit in hiding, if not actually executing, the so-called “forgery”? After all, its got his fingerprints all over it.
Yes, John, you will see on Tuesday that Orly’s application (not petition, btw) was summarily denied with 400+ others. She did make it easy for the clerks since an application is much easier to consider if there was actually a petition.
Even with an open and shut case, Orly’s would have failed.
Dear Dr. Ignorance,
” In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has Released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College … Released today, the transcript school indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.”
So, you as a traitor knew that the negro was not a bona fide citizen. You should be hanged with him too, you love him so much.
The author concludes: “If you do care then Forward this to as many patriotic Americans as you can, because our country is being looted and ransacked!”
See Dr, Ignorance, this is what traitors do! You know like you!
[The preceding release was a 2009 April Fool’s joke. These things never die. I don’t usually edit user comments like this, but I didn’t want a dozen folks to feel like they needed debunk the obvious nonsense. However, feel free to call the guy an idiot 😉 Doc.]
Nothing became of Orly’s Taint, and John cries foul.
Gee, who saw THAT coming? 😉
orthland10
john:
Supreme court published orders for 2/15/2013, note no Orly case
big surprise WOW
.
john did not write this, I did to state there’s no mention of Orly in the orders which suggests a well deserved DENIAL is enroute. That is no surprise (the WOW), please do not confuse me with john again, it is highly offensive, if you do I will notify Soros.
.
by the way, john seems to have gone insane, poor guy.
Is there any particular reason you chose to repeat this April Fools joke from 2009 today?
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/06/obama-occidental-blast/
“Shame on Liberals Shame” been punked again, it so easy to punk birthers, what a shame, is that why you chose your screen name?
I don’t see much difference between this confused drive-by birther and Bob Gard. Oh wait, there IS one difference: Gard can’t shut up. This April Fool birther, however, will only drop and run.
You birthers really are stupid. There is no such group as Americans for Freedom of Information. Did you notice the date of that release and also that the subjects are total jokes?
I was actually responding to John’s extra comment below yours (which he copied but did not quote.. big surprise). My point to John was that, even if she had a case with merits, which she does not, it would be denied also since she never bothered to submit a cert petition.
For Orly, a big surprise would be actually submitting the appropriate paperwork in the appropriate format. For John, a big surprise would be having a clue.
Didn’t you ban Mr. Racist Shame?
But… but… they have a web site and everything!
Hahahaha, you birthers are so gullible. You think the negro is the greatest thing since slice bread.
For one thing the negro to get in there had to be a foreign citizen. This is a well-known fact but liberals don’t believe in facts they believe in a April fook joke.
Two, they are ransacking and looting the treasury but for some reason liberals don’t like to be told the truth.
They rather believe the lie that an illegal skinny dog-eating Kenyan negro can be president.
Birthers will believe anything. How fitting that Shame on Liberals’ initials are SOL.
Dear Dr. Ignorance,
You liberals are so gullible. There is an “Americans for Freedom of Information”. It’s people like you and me. It’s a play on words idiot. What we all like it to be. Can’t you see the humor? I forget, liberals don’t like to be joked. They look stupid enough already.
There was no Americans for Freedom for Information when that April Fools joke came out. Somebody created a web site for them back in ’09 but it was a just a front, not an organization. This from that web site:
You call me stupid? I’m not the one dumping 4-year-old April Fools jokes in February.
Personally, I have never held that high an opinion of sliced bread.
No there is no such group. The only time there was one was after this april fools joke went out and the page for it says the group doesn’t exist. Oh so now you’re going to back up and say you were only joking with your posting
If anyone wants to follow SOL’s links you will learn everything you never wanted to know about her.
Prepare to be repulsed.
So you get caught looking stupid and then you try to weasel out of it by claiming you were speaking metaphorically.
It is to laugh.
Her puerile ignorance is repulsive enough.
As an example, she claims that to be a natural born citizen you have to be born to two parents who were themselves born in the United States. So now you not only need to provide your own birth certificate, you also have to provide the birth certificates of your parents.
She further displays her ignorance by claiming that Obama lost his U.S. citizenship in Indonesia, which as we all know is impossible.
She also doesn’t know how to spell.
john: I listened to the show too. I agree with Terry. I tend to believe Donald Trump was probably the driving force of getting Obama to release his long-form certificate. I also think Dr. Corsi’s book, “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” played a role too. Recall that Corsi’s book was the Number #1 item on Amazon just prior to Obama’s releasing the BC. Between Corsi and Trump, Obama’s reluctance to release the BC was starting to gain traction in the MSM. I believe this force Obama his hand and released the BC.one the biggest moments I remember that really was compelling was when Chris Matthews of Hard Ball (A strong anti-birther) actually came out and began to question why Obama wasn’t releasing the long-form BC.http://www.newser.com/story/108524/chris-matthews-demands-obamas-birth-certificate-now.html
It seems to me that the president held the press conference to release his birth certificate prior to the release date of Corsi’s book, so in actuality the presidents birth certificate proved how wrong Corsi was before the book even came out.. I have no doubt that Corsi and company did the same thing Palin did- buy up his own books and gave them away.