Birther

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Orly Taitz)
(General birthers: tyop)
Line 39: Line 39:
  
 
==General birthers==
 
==General birthers==
[[File:Birthers.png|right|thumb|300px|Were the birthers live.]]
+
[[File:Birthers.png|right|thumb|300px|Where the birthers live.]]
 
Polls in late July 2009, showed that only 42% of Republican voters believed Obama was born in the US, with 23% believing he was born outside the US. In comparison 93% of Democrats and 83% of independents say he was born in the US. Birthers are more prominent in the South where ''overall'' only 47% of poll respondents believed Obama was born in the US compared to an overall 90% in the Northeast and Midwest.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/31/new-poll-less-than-half-o_n_248470.html Huffington Post] (retrieved 17th of August 2009)</ref> This strangely enough seems to be a highly partisan issue.
 
Polls in late July 2009, showed that only 42% of Republican voters believed Obama was born in the US, with 23% believing he was born outside the US. In comparison 93% of Democrats and 83% of independents say he was born in the US. Birthers are more prominent in the South where ''overall'' only 47% of poll respondents believed Obama was born in the US compared to an overall 90% in the Northeast and Midwest.<ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/31/new-poll-less-than-half-o_n_248470.html Huffington Post] (retrieved 17th of August 2009)</ref> This strangely enough seems to be a highly partisan issue.
  

Revision as of 06:13, 15 October 2009

A birther is anyone denying that Barack Hussein Obama is eligible, by birth, to be the president of the United States, even though his birth certificate is publicly available. In addition to the right wing of American politics, a populist contingent of birthers has grown around "news" channels, which appear to be working according to the following maxims:

1. "Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings or otherwise moves units."

2. "Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough."

3. "Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it."
—Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free, Charles Pierce

Contents

Prominent birthers

Orly Taitz

"Dr." Orly Taitz[1] is a crank "lawyer" who has been representing several people in legal cases against Obama. She obtained her law degree from William Howard Taft University, a correspondence-only university which is not accredited by the American Bar Association,[2] although she is a member of the State Bar of California.[3] She is also allowed to appear before the Supreme Court;[4] this basically means that she has not been kicked out of the State Bar of California and had a spare $500. Taitz obtained a large amount of TV coverage for waving around a birth certificate that she claims is Obama's Kenyan birth certificate, it however looks strangely like ones issued in South Australia at the time of Obama's birth.[5]

Philip Berg

Berg is a Hillary Clinton supporter who has filed several lawsuits against Obama. These are routinely rejected as the plaintiff (usually himself) has no standing; i.e., he has not been injured by Obama or his actions and therefore can not sue.[6] At least one case was thrown out for being self-contradictory; in an attempt to cover all his bases, he claimed Obama was not born in Hawaii (using his grandmother as evidence) — but also claimed that Obama lost his citizenship when he went to school in Indonesia. The judge was not impressed.

Berg runs a blog called Obama Crimes.[7]

Alan Keyes

Alan Keyes, the well-known perennial candidate for the U.S. presidency, is Orly Taitz's star client. Unlike most people suing Obama, he actually has standing to challenge the ruling; he was on the ballot in California, and Obama possibly stole 69,456,897 votes from him, although seeing as he had 47,694 votes nationwide, it was unlikely that he would have won even if Obama had not run.

Stefan Cook

US army reservist Major Stefan Cook volunteered to go to Afghanistan in May 2009 and then in July sued the army, saying that he wanted proof Obama was eligible to be president.[8] He rambled on a lot about needing legitimate orders lest he be counted a war criminal; the army then retracted his orders saying he didn't have to go if he didn't want to (for active duty soldiers who want to try this stunt, brush up on Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice).[9] This was spun like a Ferris wheel by WorldNutDaily, which claimed that "the Generals at the Pentagon" were unsure about Obama being legitimately president, and that every soldier now has a get out of war free card.[10] Cook is now claiming that the Pentagon is trying to have him fired from his civilian job.[11] Unsurprisingly, his lawyer in his two failed lawsuits is Orly Taitz.[12]

Joseph Farah

Joseph Farah is the founder of WorldNetDaily. He believes that he is fighting the lone fight in the media about Obama's eligibility.[13] He is, of course, wrong; WorldNutDaily does not count as media at all. He also is of the opinion that there is a conspiracy against WND and him involving Google, the "mainstream media" and the Obama administration, who all have it in for him.[14] Though he says he just "wants the truth,"[15] his ramblings have become more obsessive. By the end of July 2009, he was sure Obama was not President and would soon be outed, hinting at a removal by some extralegal means:

If we had a Congress and a Supreme Court with guts and convictions and believed in the oaths they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution, Obama would already be out on his ear. I've said all along the only way to ensure the Constitution is respected now is through the people demanding it. We are a lot closer to that consensus today than we were a few weeks ago.[16]

His delusions grew to the point where he crowned himself the de facto ringleader of the birther movement.[17]

Early birthers

Judah Benjamin

Judah Benjamin was the online pseudonym of one of the earliest birthers. Benjamin contributed two articles to the pro-Hillary Clinton blog TexasDalin, where he out lined the original theory that, regardless of Obama's place of birth, he is not a natural born citizen, as his father is Kenyan, and therefore Obama is a subject of Queen Elizabeth and at best a dual citizen. In making this claim he has to ignore the 14th Amendment, but that is okay, because he thinks it is invalid along with the 13th and 15th Amendments - the Reconstruction Amendments. Oh, and Judah P. Benjamin was the name of a confederate General. He does seem to come off as a little bit racist.[18]

Arthur Hinman

Arthur P. Hinman was the original birther, out stripping these Johnny-come-latelies by 128 years. Hinman was hired by the Democrats back during the 1880 presidential election to dig up dirt on Republican vice-presidential nominee Chester A. Arthur. He concocted the story that Arthur was born in Ireland and only moved to the US at the age 14. After this failed, due to being ridiculous and easily proven false, he moved onto the theory that Arthur was born just over the border in Canada and stole the birth papers of his brother that died in infancy, who was born in the US. This was slightly more believable, but without the Victorian equivalent of the internet to stir things along the rumour never gained as much traction and there were no billboards or bumper stickers. However, in a style that Farah would have been proud of, he wrote a book called How a British Subject Became President of the United States, to cash in.[19][20]

General birthers

Where the birthers live.

Polls in late July 2009, showed that only 42% of Republican voters believed Obama was born in the US, with 23% believing he was born outside the US. In comparison 93% of Democrats and 83% of independents say he was born in the US. Birthers are more prominent in the South where overall only 47% of poll respondents believed Obama was born in the US compared to an overall 90% in the Northeast and Midwest.[21] This strangely enough seems to be a highly partisan issue.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. She has not shown a copy of her doctorate.
  2. WHTU's FAQ
  3. Her member profile.
  4. Her certificate (which is less convincing than Obama's)
  5. Is This the Source of the Forged ‘Kenyan Birth Certificate?’ - The Washington Independent (retrieved 6th of August 2009).
  6. Although we seem to recall that a similar ruling, denying atheists legal standing to challenge the White House's program for faith-based initiatives, was roundly condemned by the same sort of people now decrying the birthers.
  7. The webshite
  8. Birther Stefan Cook vs Obama
  9. http://usmilitary.about.com/od/punitivearticles/a/mcm92.htm
  10. WND - Bombshell: Orders revoked for soldier challenging prez
  11. WND - Pentagon orders soldier fired for challenging prez
  12. examiner.com Stefan Cook's birth certificate case gets short shrift in Florida
  13. Farah's ramblings - July 27 2009
  14. Farah's ramblings - July 25 2009
  15. Farah's ramblings - November 11 2008
  16. Farah's ramblings - July 29 2009
  17. Farah's ramblings - August 7 2009
  18. Submitted to a Candid World - The racist origins and core of the "birther" movement
  19. Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. NY, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
  20. Note also, that those who "owe allegiance" to the Sceptered Isle are not called "subjects" any more. They are called "citizens". So much for stupidity.
  21. Huffington Post (retrieved 17th of August 2009)
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support