Wingnut Daily brings the goods:
A U.S. soldier on active duty in Iraq has called President Obama an “impostor” in a statement in which he affirmed plans to join as plaintiff in a challenge to Obama’s eligibility to be commander in chief.
The statement was publicized by California attorney Orly Taitz who, along with her DefendOurFreedom.us Foundation, is working on a series of legal cases seeking to uncover Obama’s birth records and other documents that would reveal whether he meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.
“As an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the office of president of the United States,” wrote Scott Easterling in a “to-whom-it-may-concern” letter.
***Taitz told WND she had advised Easterling to obtain legal counsel before making any statements regarding the commander-in-chief, but he insisted on moving forward. His contention is that as an active member of the U.S. military, he is required to follow orders from a sitting president, and he needs – on pain of court-martial – to know that Obama is eligible.
I guess if he needs a lawyer, there is always Andy McCarthy. I was never an officer, and just an NCO, but this strikes me as an effective way to make sure you do not have a long and fruitful military career.
Xenos
I love how Obama has just shrugged off this issue. He could have cleared it up, but no, let the bedbugs get tempted out of the woodwork, to expose themselves. And when it finally does end up in court, three years from now, five minutes of keeper-of-the-records testimony will shut it the issue down.
Four years of freeper dreams, dashed and wasted in an instant. Four years of them failing to come up with anything better.
Incertus
I have to wonder, if he was actually face to face with the President, do you think he would snap to attention, or would he be just wingnut-stupid enough to demand to see the birth certificate?
Bob In Pacifica
There’s always a white militia.
Mnemosyne
I’d heard the officer corps was pretty strongly infected by wingnuttery, and this does nothing to dispel that impression.
As I understand it, the enlisted and non-coms fall along lines more similar to the general population — it’s the officers who always end up skewing surveys heavily conservative.
Quicksand
Obama not a citizen? ORLY?
(Sorry, someone had to do it.)
John Cole
@Mnemosyne: The higher ranking officers tend to be more conservative, but most of all, they consider themselves to be patriots and professionals. Trust me, the vast majority of them will be absolutely appalled by this.
I’m kind of curious how James Joyner will react to this. Let me rephrase that. I am kind of curious to see whether he will go ballistic (in his own measured way) or if he will just be disgusted and call the guy an idiot. This is the kind of thing he will just find appalling.
Polish the Guillotines
Sounds like a Cajun stripper.
Mnemosyne
Out of curiosity, would this count as insubordination or mutiny at the court martial? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Comrade Stuck
I think there are laws against smearing your CiC. Hence, likely a Bush supporter.
Atanarjuat
Although I don’t see any issue with Obama’s birth certificate or his qualifications to be President of the United States of America, the controversy doesn’t seem to be going away.
In fact, it seems to be picking up steam as more and more people are making their own inquiries. I begin to wonder if there is some fire behind all that smoke.
Sometimes, you just never know.
-A
MattF
Maybe it’s time for a big reduction in the officer corps– just fire bunches of career Pentagon desk jockeys. You know who I mean… the "My God is bigger than yours" division.
calipygian
I think this guy is just a fucking coward who wants an easy way out of doing his fucking job.
Ninerdave
There could be a video tape of his birth and the issue wouldn’t go away. It’s picking up steam because B. Hussein Obama will never be legitimate to some and they need something, however stupid, to hang their hat on. I mean hell the GOP is openly rooting for Obama to fail.
Mike
He’s a 40 year old Lt. in the Army. He has no career. While individuals in the Army may not like who the president is, idiots like this are dealt with.
gwangung
Shouldn’t this thread be combined with the "I’ll Take “They’re Not Very Bright” for 1000, Alex" one?
Scott H
"Scott Easterling" needs "counsel" in the chain of command. He doesn’t take his orders from the commander-in-chief.
T Paine
Friends, would it be irresponsible to speculate that Atanarjuat is a treasonous Islamofascist mole, given his attitude toward our duly-elected President? No, it would be irresponsible NOT to.
After all, sometimes you always just never know, on occasion.
fortygeek
I’m happy that I never served under officers THIS stupid in my 8 years in the Army. And, I can think of more painless ways to end one’s military career.
I’m thinking insubordination. The UCMJ makes one really nasty stipulation about insubordination or disrespecting superior officers…the truth is no defense.
The court martial should be over quickly.
Ash Can
Check your shoelaces.
Max
This is a controversy in exactly the same way that "the Earth is round" is a controversy.
srv
There will never be enough fire to melt the craziness of your insanity.
Sheeplenut. Watch out for those chemtrails.
Jon H
@Xenos: "He could have cleared it up"
No he couldn’t. There is no standard of evidence that would satisfy nutjobs like Taitz. They have a birth certificate that is good enough for every other conceivable official purpose. They have birth announcements from Hawaii papers that agree with the birth certificate.
That’s more than enough evidence.
Zzyzx
Just keep working on this issue guys. Feel free to waste the next 8 years of your life…
Warren Terra
Given that the videotape was invented later, such a videotape would presumably cause all sorts of problems with his eligibility.
But yeah, it’s pretty funny to see the Troll saying "gee, where there’s smoke there might be fire" after he and his brethren have spent months blowing smoke from their nether regions.
John S.
Although I don’t see Atanarjuat as a goat fucker, the controversy doesn’t seem to be going away.
In fact, it seems to be picking up steam as more and more people are making their own inquiries. I begin to wonder if there is some fire behind all that smoke.
Sometimes, you just never know.
BDeevDad
@John Cole: Do you include the Air Force in your assessment. They seem to have some issues due to religious zealots.
Brachiator
@Atanarjuat:
Neither does the persistent belief in UFOs, Big Foot, or the Loch Ness monster appear to be going away either.
The only "controversy" here is the degree to which desperation, fear, hysteria, and perhaps a tinge of racism infects a certain percentage of the population.
Shorter version: there is a desperate few people who simply cannot acknowledge the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency. They grasp at anything they can to validate their sick little fantasy. Their feverish fantasies are fed by Rush and other Wingnuts.
These people are in serious need of medication.
TenguPhule
Now Asshat has managed to contradict himself in the exact same sentence.
KJ
This is such a non-troversy:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
jake 4 that 1
Nah, Montgomery Sibley needs the work. Added bonus, you’d have two giant pricks on the same team.
Jon H
@Ninerdave: "There could be a video tape of his birth and the issue wouldn’t go away. "
If there was video someone would claim the hospital bed was clearly a model sold only in Kenya from 1960-1962.
Nellcote
When can we get RushL. off Armed Forces Radio?
nylund
Support the troops?!?
But seriously, the wingnuts are going to dig and dig and dig into Obama’s life like they did with travelgate, whitewater, Lewinsky, etc. for Clinton. Let them have this and let them dedicate years to it (let them go off to Kenya and Indonesia searching for proof), and, as said above, when they finally press forward after years of insanity, it’ll take one official from Hawaii 5 minutes to get the whole thing to go away. And all the wingnuts will just start screaming louder and looking crazier than ever.
El Cid
Is it Obama who lets the rods loose to feed on the chemtrails?
David
It’s sad the guy is going to do something that he could possibly greatly regret based on what is basically a For Profit® scam.
jake 4 that 1
Neither do you, but that doesn’t make you relevant.
anonevent
@John S.:
Yep, I wonder. Atanajuat, until we have tested all goats and made sure there are no traces of you on them, I’m just not sure we can believe you are goat pure.
Cris
Well, I have it on authority that Easterling is not a wingnut conservative:
Q.E.D.
Incertus
@nylund: Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said in my post on it–this is every bullshit story about Clinton just moved forward 16 years and peddled online and on talk radio instead of in "news journals" like the American Spectator.
joe from Lowell
I read on the internet that Atanarjuat fucks goats.
Has anyone else seen that?
This controversy doesn’t seem to be going away. Where there’s smoke…
Sam Simple
Execute the deluded cocksucker for treason. Fuck these bastards – they deserve what they get for being so retarded. Society should exact a high price for stupidity.
Zzyzx
OMG! I thought I’d check out BC conspiracist Texas Darlin’ to see how she was handling this story. When I went to her site, I found this thread.
I’m not quite sure what this is. I think it’s randomly choosing people and finding a vague attachment to Obama in order to prove some vast conspiracy. Here’s a sample:
It goes on like this for pages. It would be wingnut goldmine but it’s too incomprehensible to even be that.
Ninerdave
@KJ:
KJ…facts have a liberal bias. Duh.
JGabriel
Atanarjuat:
Fast Runner! Long time, no see.
I find it endlessly fascinating that a US conservative adopts a handle from a Canadian Inuit legend.
You keep wondering about the fire behind that smoke, Atanarjuat. We think it’s a wonderful use of whingenut time and energy.
.
southpaw
I’ve never seen my own birth certificate. I’ve asked the State of California, but all they’ll give me is a certificate of live birth.
Imagine my existential horror.
MikeJ
888. ART. 88. CONTEMPT TOWARD OFFICIALS
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Incertus
@Zzyzx: Oh Jeebus. I’ll bet my cousin-in-law hangs out there. It sounds like his kind of crowd.
Jay in Oregon
@nylund:
That’s already been done, but it’s not stopping the wingnuts. Reality does not deter them.
kay
It’s wrong-headed because it’s backwards. The onus is not on Obama. The onus is on the gossip-mongers to come up with something solid.
That isn’t a legal standard or test, and it doesn’t belong in a court room. It is a decent behavior standard. The settled societal rule for gossip that gets taken public is put up or shut up, and that applies not to the subject of the gossip but to the people spreading the rumor.
Anyone can say anything about anyone. What they can’t do is demand the subject of the nonsense step up and disprove their theory. That conservatives are turning to a court to keep this "controversy" alive is really reprehensible, and would seem to fly in the face of a lot of what they profess to believe. It’s lame, and it’s a misuse of process.
cleek
holy. fuck.
calipygian
I was thinking more like Art 94 Mutiny
OriGuy
It’s like putting out a dish full of beer when you have snails. You could just poison them, but it’s more fun watching them stagger around until the birds pick them off.
Shaina
Jon H:
ITA, that is why I’m a bit puzzled over why this citizenship issue is still a point of contention with anyone.
The birth announcement was published in a Honolulu newspaper. How much more proof is needed?
I believe they published a copy of the birth certificate online on that "fighting the smears" website.
One would think that if Obama was not eligible for the presidency, the Clinton or McCain campaign would find out during their opposition research and use it immediately to end his campaign. If someone found the Jeremiah Wright broadcast certainly someone could find a copy of the Kenyan or Martian or whatever birth certificate.
Next thing you’ll know, Obama will have to prove that Malcolm X is not his father ;-) (I say that in jest-but really I’m sure someone will bring that back up).
Mainer
And then there’s the PUMAs jumping on board – Via Rumproast
Shaina
Also, doesn’t the CIA, or Secret Service do a background check on the major presidential candidates? (I’m not positive though).
One would think that if Obama were ineligible due to citizenship issues they would know about it and stop his campaign.
Sasha
Perhaps it’s an elaborate ploy — he’s hoping to get thrown out of the Army so he doesn’t have to do (yet another) tour in Iraq.
4tehlulz
@joe from Lowell: Oh man. Kaus is going to be pissed that his goat is getting action behind his back.
Andre
@Zzyzx:
I don’t know that this is all that surprising. It’s been common knowledge that the majority of hardcore PUMAs, etc belonged to the conspiracy theorist camp from the get-go. They’re the sorts of folks who seem nice enough most of the time, until you’re chatting one day about hamburgers or clouds or something equally innocuous, and they suddenly mention the alien-technology invisible-to-medical-science microchip the government implanted in everyone’s scalp three years ago, but say it with exactly the same level of candour, as if they don’t even realise they sound crazy.
The folks who opposed Obama on more rational grounds realised all this stuff is inherently unhelpful to everyone involved and disassociated themselves from the crazies early on by simply shutting up.
kay
Dr. Orly Taitz has a dentistry office at LaPaz and Chrisanta, claiming thousands of satisfied clients, but she has also been a licensed California attorney since 2002. Taitz joined Ramona attorney Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation in filing the Writ of Mandate Petition in the Sacramento County Superior Court. The pair is representing former Reagan appointee, Ambassador Alan Keyes, who was a 2008 presidential candidate for the American Independent Party.
She’s a dentist who dabbles in constitutional law. Wonderful.
donovong
That stupid fuck will end up being lucky if he is given a court-martial for being stoopid. He is looking for way out, short of shooting himself in the foot – fucking coward. He is more likely to find his ass serving as the OIC of the coldest fucking rock in the Aleutian chain, monitoring the relative progress of ice not melting outside the frosted window of his guard shack outside the fucking latrine. And good riddance.
Xenos
@Jay in Oregon:
It has not been done in a court of law with proper jurisdiction. Obama has seen fit to get the various suits dismissed so far. If he let a case go to trial he would follow whatever procedural rule would let him introduce the records of the Hawaii vital statistics office, and it would be then that the wingnut lawyers would have to prove that the Hawaii Secretary of State is an impostor or that the records are false. I expect they would not last very long.
JGabriel
@Zzyzx: That thread is insane.
From the comments:
I’m pretty sure this kind of thing literally meets diagnostic criteria for paranoid schizophrenia.
But the really crazy thing is how many people are going along with this and treating her like she’s completely sane and really onto something. Our modern GOP – looking to schizophrenics for inspiration.
.
kay
I can’t believe Ronald Reagan appointed Alan Keyes, to anything. That I didn’t know.
demkat620
@Zzyzx:
WTF is Renee researching? How to be incoherent in 1000 words or less?
TheHatOnMyCat
Yes, but it’s consensual.
Jay in Oregon
@Sasha:
It has a nice side effect of fueling the wingnuts’ persecution fantasies. "This brave soldier, who only wanted to serve his country with honor, sacrificing his career to expose the truth about the Pretender-in-Chief."
You watch… five bucks says that you’ll see Malkin say something just this stupid once Easterling has been court-martialed and discharged.
SilverOwl
Unless she had a both frontal lobes of her brain removed she is looking to get out and could be hoping to do a Joe the Plumber train wreck. I do not think it will turn out quite the way she hopes.
Comrade Stuck
@JGabriel:
Or BoB spoofin PUMA land for kicks.
D-Chance.
Scott Easterling should go AWOL and run off to Canada. That always seems to impress the Liberalati…
Elie
Everytime that the Republicans support and fuel this thing, another nail goes into their coffin.
They don’t actually expect to overturn his presidency. They just want to act like a pack of dogs nipping at his heels to add drag and throw dirt at him to keep him from getting too popular and too exalted. They figure if they don’t do that from the get go, he might be too immense a figure in the future to try then. This way they can keep throwing loops of trash and theoretically mar the image from getting to be too good.
What they don’t realize is that its marring THEIR image further, putting them further and further away from the message and image they want to be giving. Fine with me!
Zzyzx
@JGabriel: Yeah that comment was one of my favorites too.
Krista
@JGabriel:
I really, really hope that’s a spoof. I’m still a sheltered enough individual to be able to deny to myself that there really are people like that running loose in society, and would hate to be disabused of my notions.
Comrade Stuck
The Crystalline Entity of politics
Gary "Atanarjuat" Ruppert
Obama isn’t ineligible because he’s Kenyan, he’s ineligible because he’s a lizard person.
Krista
Except for the fact that most Canadians rather like your president (which is quite refreshing.) So I don’t believe that Lt. Easterling would receive a very warm reception.
kay
@Xenos:
All due respect Xenos, that’s backwards. You can file a complaint naming me as a defendant. Anyone can. It is insane to suggest that Obama’s lawyers find a court with jurisdiction and "let" this go forward. That’s not how it works. If you’re moving, you’re proving, and you don’t have to prove much. You’re meeting the first bar for litigation or you’re gone. It’s a LOW bar.
If that wasn’t the case I could tie you up in baseless claims for a lifetime.
KRK
@kay:
As I recall, Taitz’s JD is from a non-accredited online law school, so her plaintiffs have that going for them as well.
Patrick at Yes to Democracy has been thoroughly documenting the nonsense (and sedition) being spread by Taitz, Berg, and the other "birthers." His posts can be quite a lot to wade through, but they’re certainly a comprehensive record of what’s happening in all of the court cases, what intra-conspiracy squabbles are going on between the different camps, and what kind of disgusting stuff is running through their comment threads.
YTD quotes Easterling’s full letter, which reveals that Easterling only joined the Army in ’06 after the enlistment age was raised to 40. Previously he had been in Iraq as a contractor for KBR. So I don’t think his wingnuttery can be taken as indicative of anything about career Army folks. More likely just a (further) sign of the extent to which standards have had to be lowered to keep the force numbers up.
Tsulagi
I’d go with that.
A good example would be recently retired (pushed out by Gates) LTG William Boykin. The man hated President Clinton with a passion. Virtually white hot.
But even after Clinton left office, publicly even if pressed he would not diss Clinton. By most accounts privately too. Boykin hated the man, but Clinton was and had been his CIC. Zero doubt if given an order by a President Clinton Boykin would have carried it out 100% to the best of his ability. He was a professional.
Boykin was a good guy, quite competent in many areas, and loyal beyond measure. Problem was he went a little looney with the Jesus later in life and you wouldn’t have wanted him within 12 planets of the big red nuke button. Guy actually thought he had a photo of Satan hovering over Mogadishu.
demkat620
@Krista: I like anybody who adds the word "rather" to a sentence. How very canadian. :)
Comrade Stuck
@Krista:
You want to see something really scary, take a trip into the American Right Wing Militia blogosphere, especially now that we have a Muslim Negro president. The level of crazy hate will make your hair stand on end. And we’re only a month in to Obama’s presidency.
Dave
Shouldn’t we be focusing on the real issue, which is Atanarjuat’s rampant goat-fucking?
TR
The weird thing here is that it doesn’t matter where Obama was born — Hawaii, Kenya, or in the middle of Red Square.
His mother was an American citizen, and therefore he is — by natural birth — an American citizen too.
But yes, wingnuts, please keep focusing all your attention on this. Meanwhile, the liberals will be running the country.
kay
@KRK:
Thank you for the link and the background, but I can’t go there. It makes me crazy. I hate that filing, well, any crazy rant seems to take people directly to "Obama has duty to disprove lunatic claims". This is not our process. I object.
I read a little of it when they were haranguing the Supreme Court. That was more than enough. It’s hard to follow.
Ed Marshall
Does anyone actually get prosecuted for sedition in the modern day? I think he is just blowing a bunch of smoke up peoples asses and when he is ignored that will be the proof that he’s right.
MikeJ
Not until you’ve fired up tor though. 99% of them are harmless blowhards, but there are real live McVeighs out there.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@jake 4 that 1:
Just had to recognize the best response evar.
Litlebritdifrnt
@TR:
Actually that is not true. (sorry) At the time Barack was born Stanley Ann was I think 18 or whatever, (can’t remember) and was not old enough to confer citizenship upon Barack *had* he been born in Kenya. However, the birthers have long since abandoned the "born in Kenya" theory they now believe he was born in Hawaii but they have firmly latched onto the "Law of Nations" theory which states for a person to be a "natural born citizen" (of their country) they must be born in the US of two US citizen parents (completely contrary to US law of course but we are talking about the birthers here) and cause Barack’s dad was Kenyan they claim he cannot be "natural born" they are claiming that there is a difference between "citizen" (a la anchor babies of illegal immigrants) and "natural born citizen" THIS is what they are now basing their lawsuits on, a treaties written in the 1700s which according to them takes presidence over US law. Who’d a thunk it considering their entire platform is ITS THE LAW AND THE CONSTITUTION OR DIE FOR US PATRIOTS!.
Atanarjuat
@Cris:
Thank you for highlighting this previous observation from the archives. It is true that Obama-Juicers and other fringe leftists keep endlessly flogging the news of anyone who is wondering about Obama’s birth certificate. Of this there is no doubt.
Maybe there’s fire behind all that smoke, and perhaps there’s nothing more flammable than partisan hot air, but it seems that liberals are all too willing — joyful, even — to give these different people a megaphone in an attempt to discredit conservatives in general.
Seriously, Obama-Juicers — that paintbrush you’re using to smear your ideological opponents is broad enough to paint the side of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Enough, already.
-A
Ned R.
@Atanarjuat: liberals are all too willing—joyful, even—to give these different people a megaphone
Like so much else they have, ‘these different people’ pulled their megaphones out of their own pants. (And tootled.)
Xenos
@kay: Kay, I was being imprecise in my language. Of course, there is no legal reason why Obama should allow a case to survive dismissal. But there is a political need, arguably, to have a court make a finding of fact that puts the issue to rest.
By allowing a case to get to a trial that would be over in short order, Obama could put the issue to rest in a truly definitive fashion. Since you can never absolutely predict what a court will do, though, it would probably be malpractice on the part of Obama’s lawyers to let such a case go to trial.
Martin
Why should we shut them up? If you think they aren’t representative of Republicans then shut them up yourself. I don’t see Red State and Hannity mocking these assholes, and we still have a few Republicans in Congress on the record as wondering openly about the validity of his citizenship.
I don’t think it’s a broad brush at all when you have official leaders of your party agreeing with this crap and *nobody* but us calling them out. If you think they’re idiots, say so, but the silence of basically all Republicans (including you) suggests that you don’t disagree with them.
Mike in NC
This is quite a smear and cannot stand! Clearly he must be fucking seals and walruses, not goats.
Incertus
@Martin: And I think a fair number of the birthers are, in name at least, on our side. They’re supposedly disaffected Hillary voters who’ve completely lost it, so it’s not like we’re avoiding mocking our own here as well as the right wingers who’ve jumped on the train to stupid world.
T Paine
I’m not entirely sure what this "Obama-Juice" is (something like Harvey-Milk, maybe?), but it’s got to be better than the Bush-Piss and McCain-Bile we’ve all been forced to drink this last decade…
Gary "Atanarjuat" Ruppert
Until you libtards can explain to me (and the Founding Fathers!) how a lizard person born in Alpha Draconis can suddenly be classified as a land-owning natural-American-born white male, Obama Is Not My President and he’s not Lt. Easterling’s Commander in Chief!
John S.
Oh my – is this direct confirmation from Atanarjuat himself?
He certainly doesn’t seem to be running fast from the allegation that he fucks goats (and perhaps seals and walruses). In fact, it seems to be picking up steam as more and more people are discussing the alleged beastiality. And if people are talking about, there must be something to it.
I believe there is some fire behind all that smoke.
KG
When the only lawyer you can find to take your case went to a law school that is not accredited by either the ABA or the California Bar, you probably don’t have a very good case. But then what do I know, I’m just a lawyer that would have laughed my ass off at him.
KG
@Incertus: sometimes you have to mock your own, it’s the only way a movement can stay relatively healthy.
Atanarjuat
@T Paine:
Here’s the original explanation, from the archives:
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=17393#comment-1153408
You’re quite welcome, T Paine.
-A
kay
@Xenos:
We just couldn’t disagree more. There are substantive, bedrock issues behind procedural rules. The procedure IS the process. It’s an issue of fairness, and, well, justice.
I can’t haul you in if I’m in the wrong court, or if I don’t state a claim. It’s not a nitpicky rule. It’s process.
Incertus
@KG: I’d take it a step farther and say you need to occasionally mock yourself. It’s the only way you can keep some perspective on your place in the world.
TenguPhule
Yes Asshat, we remember your behavior before the election too.
Dear Leader indeed.
TenguPhule
Projection, You Has It.
Chuck Butcher
You’ve got to love it, Attawhatever: smoke/fire and then, you use these maniacs to discredit responsible upright people like me…smoke/fire…
I sincerely hope this is a spoof working on his game because otherwise this is the opposition and it ain’t fair to stomp ’em with such obvious disabilities.
Tattoosydney
@Mike in NC:
Only when his goat isn’t in the mood. Seals and walruses are a bit bitey (although that adds to the thrill).
John S.
Does Atanarjuat speak from experience? Is he referring to animal emissions? Does an unabashed zoophile truly type amongst us?
The smoke is getting so thick, it’s getting difficult to believe there isn’t a fire.
priscianus jr
The mother of all these pseudo-controversies is the claim that William Shakespeare did not write the plays and poems believed to be by William Shakespeare. This "controversy" has been going on over 200 years and will probably never end. The similarity of all these pseudo-controversies is this. You can generate arguments for anything. But when you look at it from the other side: Why are you asking this question in the first place? THERE IS NO CREDIBLE REASON TO DOUBT THAT SHAKESPEARE WROTE THE WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM. There is tons and tons of evidence that he WAS the author he is generally thought to be. But as long as the opposing arguments rage (and they will, as they continue to generate their own sub-controversies ad infinitum), that in itself "institutionalizes" the assumption that there is a actually a question. So every fact about Shakespeare, no matter how well documented, remains under a question mark.Same thing with the flat-earthers, etc. Sadly, as we all know, there is another type of disinformation that tries to reverse this technique, e.g. the "official stories" on JFK, 9/11. and many others.
CPT Oregon Guy, JA
I think this guy is guilty of a violation of Article 88 of the UCMJ. Since he’s a commissioned officer, he has a special obligation not to speak contemptuously of the President, and I think denying that he is in fact the President may be contemptous.
Here’s the specifications:
In any event, he’s an idiot.
John S.
I prefer it that way. Then I get to use all the best jokes.
trizzlor
Here’s a nice summary of why this issue will never go away, from the Texas Darlin’ thread:
Any facts that disprove the conspiracy are simply evidence of a larger conspiracy. So it goes.
AnneLaurie
Well, it does tie back to so many of the Rethuglican Base obsessions… "If only we’d never ‘given’ immigrants, Negroes, women and teenagers the franchise! If only it were just Xtian white men of property who were allowed to vote, *then* we’d show them!eleventy-one!… "
Left Coast Tom
Now I have to object. There is no way to put "the matter" to rest among wingnuts. None. They’ve been presented with more than enough evidence in the case of Obama, who was born in Hawaii, they didn’t raise their voices in the case of McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone (under conditions which, nevertheless, made him qualified to be President if he had won, and not thrown in his lot with the batshit-crazy). They simply don’t care.
There is a political need to not dignify such crap by putting it to trial. Otherwise there’s no end to the insanity that wingnuts will expect Obama to prove in a court.
soonergrunt
Well, this idiot has been at it in other fora as well:
From the Yahoo! boards, Regarding the WND article:
http://tinyurl.com/aswjmd
And this question, regarding some part of the stimulus package:
http://tinyurl.com/b7jzfm
He’s about to get VERY familiar with Article 88, UCMJ.
Chuck Butcher
Chris Matthews points out that Obama has cut virtually all the ground out from under the Republicans except the far right, particulaly in his speech tonight.
Bennett
The Obama citizenship issue is currently the leading edge toward peak wingnuttia, but it also seems to be turning into the new version of the militia movement and the outlet for rightist anger. In part, it is the 75-year old vendetta against FDR and the New Deal, carried forward by Birchers & their successors, and picking up every conspiracy theory from the Illuminati to the Lizard People along the way. All that is funny, but it is becoming vicious and, depending on its leadership, can cause at least as much disquiet as the militia movement if we remain in bad economic circumstances.
Here are two current developments among these circles:
1. Taitz is now calling for Obama’s execution:
"The best thing Obama could do is resign after making a deal with Biden to pardon him. Otherwise, if found guilty, he could face execution," Taitz said during our phone conversation this afternoon.
http://defendourfreedoms.us/2009/02/24/tennessee-legislator-stacey-campfield-and-dr-orly-taitz-on-andrea-shea-king-show.aspx#AddComment
Taitz gets a lot of attention among these people, although she continually shows disorganization, inability, and ignorance of matters of general knowledge. I wonder what the legal status of her "Defend Our Freedoms Foundation" is.
2. The New Hampshire "10th Amendment Resolution" calls for secession if state sovereignty is violated. This is being used as a call for civil war by the commentators at the ghastly website of the odious warmongering Pat Dollard:
http://patdollard.com/2009/02/61532/
aarrgghh
it’s curious that few folks are talking about one the loudest clues that certifigate is a crank issue. from a recent post of mine about the telling absent of superstar lawyers fighting for a chance to put themselves in the history books (here quoting of all folks, a freeper!):
no, the superstar lawyers are staying far far away from this one. they like to win and they have careers and reputations want to preserve.
bayville
Scott Easterling: The next
Sarah Palin,Joe The Plumber, Rick Santelli.Phoenician in a time of Romans
this strikes me as an effective way to make sure you do not have a long and fruitful military career.
Nah – it’ll be long. It will probably not be fruitful though – you can’t get anything to grow stationed in some arctic DEW line station.
sus
@soonergrunt,
I think that site (his blog) is a spoof. ;)
I’ve been following the birther movement for some time. Just when you think you’ve seen it all… something even more crazy pops up.
Do you have any idea how nuts Leo Donofrio is?
a/k/a "Burnweed", "Jet Wintzer", etc. He has like 5 aliases. His writings are totally paranoid.
Orly is totally out of her mind.
Berg is crazy.
Oh… it’s great fun.
Patrick does a great job trying to round up the madness in his recaps at Yes To Democracy.
The folks at Politijab have fun with daily musing of the madness.
Dr. Conspiracy slices away all the crazy claims at obamaconspiracy.org.
It’s a hobby. A weird hobby. Wingnut sightings.
If Ed Hale can shoot and bury a Bigfoot, I can be a wingnut watcher.
Richard Stanczak
I am a strong believer in free speech, but don’t you guys [as a country] get tired of the amplification of idiot statements like this by your fearless media?
Xenos
It is not our media. We do not own it, our government does not regulate it, and any plutocrat who wants to shove misinformation onto the public square is free to do so.
We just live here.
Woodrowfan
Extra points for the references to "rods." For extra crazy fun Google "Sylphs "
The Birthers will never stop trying. Just look at the 9-11 Twoofers, and anti-vaccine nuts, etc. Eventually they all end up down a deep rabbit hole arguing with themselves.
Unfortunately sometimes they can cause real damage, such as Oklahoma City or the sick kids that never got vaccinated. Hopefully the Birthers will just end up harmless nuts like the 9-11Twoofers
Redleg
I was an Army officer and that douchebag seems typical of many of the wingnut officers I served with. I honestly felt that if I discussed my moderate political position (at the time) then my fellow officers would shun me as a lefty-commie-hippie-loser.
rewinn
This guy is begging for a court-martial. I suppose he’ll get his wish, then write a book about his Bad Conduct Discharge and flog it on talk radio.
The only real question here is how much of his insanity comes from listening to Rush’s anti-government propaganda on our Armed Forces radio. Balancing free speech with the need for good order among the troops may not be easy, but Command has got to grasp the nettle.
Kelly
here is a thought if he is courtmartialed then he will have his day in court and he can supeona for the messiahs birth cert (not certification of birth which there is a diffence in)or it will show that there is something hiding. BOH grandmother in idia is on TV saying she was there when he was born. Also he was registered in the indian school where there was no dual citizenship recognition. you have to be a indian citizen to go to school there.
Confused
Well I seem to remember that there was a controversy when Ex President Bush was "elected".
There was the issue of that non existent votes in California or Florida. The presidency was stolen from Mr Gore. It took a while for that controversy to die down. It will take a while for some people to get over the fact that the venerable Mr Mccain and Fantastic Ms Palin lose.