Rick Santorum has agreed to become a columnist for the notorious World Net Daily, a site best known for advancing the birther movement. Think Progress:
The former Pennsylvania senator, who was voted out of office in 2006, will use the perch to remain in the conservative consciousness as he eyes another presidential bid in 2016. His column will be featured on the site every Monday.
Santorum’s extreme views will fit in well at WorldNetDaily. In the past, he has compared homosexuality to bestiality, told rape victims they shouldn’t be permitted to get an abortion but rather should “make the best out of a bad situation,” and said food stamps are unnecessary because obesity rates are so high.
Culling WorldNetDaily’s conspiracy theories to a manageable list is a herculean task, but here are a few choice headlines:
Not even the promise of crooner Pat Boone singing oldies from a spinning stage could save what was intended to be the premier birther event of the year later this month in Arizona.
Organizers of the gala, which would have featured Boone alongside Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and some of the nation’s other prominent conspiracy theorists, broke the news online Friday that it was canceled “due to inadequate ticket sales.”
The Sept. 22 event was meant to bring together people from throughout the nation who believe Barack Obama’s birth certificate is fake and therefore he is ineligible to be president. Organizers planned to use it to call on Congress to take up Arpaio’s yearlong investigation into the documents.
“I love being home in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised. ”
At a campaign event in Commerce, Michigan, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a naked appeal to racist birthers, telling the crowd “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate.”
Days after MSNBC’s Touré pointedly refused to include Romney in his apology for using the n-word to describe the campaign’s tactics, it appears the commentator’s critics owe him an apology.
The Obama Campaign's response via Ben LaBolt, Obama’s National Press Secretary:
“Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has embraced the most strident voices in his party instead of standing up to them. It’s one thing to give the stage in Tampa to Donald Trump, Sheriff Arpaio, and Kris Kobach. But Governor Romney’s decision to directly enlist himself in the birther movement should give pause to any rational voter across America.”
Our despicable former Vice President, War Criminal and War Monger, Dick Cheney, gave a nod to birthers on Hannity yesterday, said President Obama “doesn’t believe in a lot of those things that I think most Americans do believe in” and cries big tears because Obama refuses to war monger:
“I think what’s happened at least in my own convention is here’s a man who doesn’t believe in a lot of those things that I think most Americans do believe in. In terms of a strong international role for the United States of America. We’ve all kinds of developments under way in the Middle East, and he’s heading for the exits.
Our friends and allies over there, Israel, the Saudis, United Arab Emirates, a lot of countries over there who look to the United States who look to the United States, especially when security is threatened, and what they see is the United States heading over the hill pulling out as fast as they can.”
If there is anyone who is un-American, it is the Republican thugs, including Dick Cheney, who have taken this country so close to fascism.
The 112th majority Republican Congress now has at least two birthers to call its very own. The latest lawmaker to claim birther status is Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO). Think Progress:
Another Republican member of Congress has stepped forward as a birther, calling into question President Obama’s birth certificate at a town hall meeting. Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) told a crowd of her constituents that she is no more convinced of President Obama’s birth place as anyone asking the question:
I don’t know, I haven’t seen it. I’m just at the same place you are on that. You read this, you read that. But I don’t understand why he didn’t show that right away. I mean, if someone asked for my birth certificate, I’d get my baby book and hand it out and say ‘Here it is,’ so I don’t know.
The questioner asked Hartzler if she believed the certificate of live birth that President Obama released last year was a forgery, citing Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s comical news conference from last month as evidence of a conspiracy. To her credit, Rep. Hartzler appeared to dismiss Arpaio’s investigation, saying “I have a lot if doubts about all that.”
But in case there was any question of her birther bona fides, Hartzler doubled down on her skepticism at a press availability after the event:
I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of Americans do, but they claim it is, so we are just going to go with that.
Vicky Hartzler was not the first member of Congress to out herself as a birther. Yes, indeed, we have at least two known crazies in Congress, people! The first was Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) back in March, who outed himself at at town hall:
New video of a February town hall shows Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) pandering to birthers and raising questions about the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate.
When Stearns met with constituents on February 25 in Belleview, one of the first questions came from an elderly gentleman who insisted that Obama was not born in the United States and ought to be impeached. Rather than correcting the man and informing him that the president is indeed a natural-born American citizen, Stearns coddled the conspiracy theory by implying that Obama’s birth certificate may be a forgery — “is it legitimate?” Stearns wondered aloud.
Adding.......Apparently, Vicky Hartzler is also the most virulently anti-gay member of Congress.
Lawrence O’Donnell has been on Donald Trump for a while now, and no one deserves it more than Trump.
In this clip, among other things, Mr. O’Donnell suggested that Trump has signed with NBC to do another season of the mind-numbingly stupid “Celebrity Apprentice”. That said, of course, Trump will not be running for president. O'Donnell (approx 6:10 in the video):
This fake campaign will be over by May 16 when NBC announces Trump's position in next seasons primetime schedule.
And while NBC won’t be making the announcements about next season until May 16, now we know, and now that we do, can the media please leave this racist buffoon to himself and stop with the interviews and the constant damn coverage?! I dearly hope so.
I’ve always understood that the root of Birtherism was the racism inherent in a not inconsequential portion of the American electorate.
And, despite Tea Party cries of “foul” when called on their racist leanings, many of us also understood that racism was always the heart of the Tea Party movement1, and that many Teabagger Republicans were also Birthers.
That said, the Birther movement did not really surprise me, but Donald Trump…..the current, rabid, carnival barker for the Birthers, managed to do just that.
Donald Trump's disrespect of our president, of the very institution of the presidency, is unforgiveable.
Trump's intentional humiliation of a man who has always exhibited stunning dignity, decency, intellect, and honor, and who is our president, dishonors us all as Americans. Add to that the fact that we have become the laughingstock of the world, and images of Donald Trump tarred, feathered, and run out of the country begin to seem too kind a punishment.
On CNN today, acclaimed historian and author, Douglas Brinkley called on NBC to drop Trump’s show from it’s lineup or face a loss of corporate sponsors and massive boycotts. Via Think Progress:
We don’t have to blame “the media” for dealing with this issue. We have to blame NBC Entertainment. They need to dump Trump from his primetime news show. He’s a poison toad on the airwaves. What corporate sponsor is going to be buying ad time for Donald Trump’s show. Any company that goes into Trump and is willing to pay is going to find consumer boycott like they’ve never seen before. If you are going to do what Trump did and go after the President of the United States in such a grotesque and disingenuous way you better cough up the goods. Today the Obama administration has shown what a charlatan Donald Trump really is.
Watch:
I could not agree more! The new battle cry should be “Dump Trump”!
Current corporate sponsors of Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” include the following, from Think Progress:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Now, let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions -- (laughter.) I was just back there listening to Chuck -- he was saying, it’s amazing that he’s not going to be talking about national security. I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.
It’s good to see that there are still some people of good conscience, even at Fox News. Shepard Smith:
Fox News can confirm that the President of the United States is a citizen of the United States, period.
Watch:
Now, Birthers, STFU. Forever.
Adding....I wonder if Shep had to threaten to quit or something. My guess is yes.
Adding again....pardon my naiveté. I have been told (by more than a few friends) that this doesn't matter. That Shepard Smith is slightly sane, and therefore the teabagger birthers will just ignore this. sigh....
Sullivan on the Republicans Birther/racism problem:
Many thought America could not elect a non-white president. They were wrong. It turns out America could elect a non-white president, but only with a hefty segment of the country denying his legitimacy.
In an ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos last night, President Obama was asked about Donald Trump and the birther nonsense Trump has been spewing recently. President Obama responded by pointing out that he doesn’t have horns, and he was born in Hawaii, along with a smackdown to the Republicans Southern Strategy.
President Obama:
I think that over the last two and a half years there’s been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short-term for Republicans. But [it] creates, I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in a general election where most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii. He– he doesn’t have horns…we’re not really worrying about conspiracy theories or– or birth certificates.
Watch [Stephanopoulos asks President Obama the question about Trump and birtherism at about 1:50]:
Every damn Republican in the primaries had better be prepared to cough up an official, long-form birth certificate or get called on it.
Donald Trump made headlines earlier today when he provided what he said was a copy of his birth certificate—but a quick check reveals it’s actually not an official document. [...]
Trump's mother, it should be noted, was born in Scotland, which is not part of the United States. His plane is registered in the Bahamas, also a foreign country. This fact pattern -- along with the wave of new questions surrounding what he claims is a birth certificate -- raises serious doubts about his eligibility to serve as President of the United States.
WTH? I can not understand these people BIrther morons, who are either completely nuts or are just evil, take your pick. Donald Trump is the latest idiot to jump on the crazy train, and he used an appearance at CPAC to go full Birther:
Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: the people that went to school with him, they don’t even know him. They never saw him. They don’t know who he is. It’s crazy. [Wild applause.] With no track record — and, I will tell you, he’s got nothing to criticize. He’s a wonderful guy, he’s a nice man, but there was no record. Nothing to criticize. He didn’t go in wars. He didn’t go in battles. He didn’t beat this one, that one, have enemies all over the place. Nobody knew who the hell he was. He’s now our president! He’s our president!
Birther. Russell Pearce, the originator of SB1070, the Arizona anti-immigration law that resembles something you might see in a fascist state, bragging on said law during a panel discussion recently:
A little levity is okay, I hope cause I like to [inaudible] at most things. But I can tell you that the best thing about [SB]-1070 is that Obama may not be visiting Arizona because we actually require papers now.
Today, a right-wing organization called Judicial Watch hosted a panel discussion on the “current and upcoming fights over immigration enforcement” featuring Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce (R). Pearce, the author of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, railed against the Obama administration for “siding with a foreign government” against the state of Arizona.
Russell Pearce has a propensity for making nutjob anti-Obama statements, so it’s no surprise that his “moment of levity” tied in with entirely serious statements he has made in the past.
Pearce may have been joking, but it’s not the first time he has indicated that Obama isn’t fit for office. Back in November, Pearce accused Obama of waging jihad against the state of Arizona and stated that it was an impeachable offense. “When you talk about jihad, that is exactly what Obama has against America,” said Pearce. “It’s outrageous and it’s impeachable.” At a tea party rally in August, Pearce similarly stated, “I think it’s treasonous, in my opinion.”
Arizona Immigration Bill Sponsor Russell Pearce Has White Supremacist Ties, Nativist Views
In 2006, Arizona state legislator Russell Pearce got himself into a bit of trouble. Pearce is the chief sponsor of Arizona's brutal new immigration law. In '06, he circulated emails from the National Alliance, a white supremacist group. The email defended a racially conscious white person who "looks askance at miscegenation or at the rapidly darkening racial situation in America." (Miscegenation refers to interracial relationships.) The email went on to blame the media for forcing on the public the notion of equality of the races, the truth of the Holocaust and "the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of non-White aliens pouring across our borders ... ." Pearce claimed later to not know what the group was or what was in the email, but the chairman of the state Republican Party called the email a "severe mistake." Then-U.S. representative J.D. Hayworth, who is no softy himself on illegal immigration, said: "Given the regrettable and disturbing nature of the e-mail Russell Pearce circulated earlier this week, I cannot in good conscience lend my endorsement to his candidacy for State Representative." If the email "slip" had been Pearce's only tie to racism and nativism, maybe it would be no big deal on the scheme of things. But there's more.
Pearce, who is now a state senator, has been videotaped and photographed palling around with nativists and white supremacists at anti-immigrant rallies, including with neo-Nazi and white power activist J.T. Ready. [......]
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the latest Birther case, Anderson Cooper makes an effort to get through to this man nutjob, Leo Berman, a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives. Berman is among those Birther conspiracy nuts who simply refuse to accept President Obama as the legal president.
Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has again cast aside an appeal that raised doubts about President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a grass-roots legal issue that has gained little legal or political footing, but continues to persist in the courts.
The justices without comment Monday rejected a challenge from Charles Kerchner Jr., a Pennsylvania man who sought a trial in federal court forcing the president to produce documents regarding his birth and citizenship.
Obama produced a copy of his birth certificate when he was running for president in 2008, and the Supreme Court has refused to hear any of the Birther cases referred to it thus far. It is truly time to give it up, nutjobs.
REALITY: The Tea Party is a rebranding effort by the Republican Party, led by the billionaire Koch Brothers and their organization, Americans for Prosperity. Read this report, and don't forget to look at this fabulous graphic, which is worth at least 10,000 words all by itself. The corporate takeover of our government is in process.
2. The stimulus was a failure.
REALITY: Not only was it not a failure, but a huge number of Republicans not only had their hands out to grab the money while the "failure" word came flying out of their mouths at regular intervals, 114 of them took credit for the same stimulus that they voted against. Additionally, the stimulus cost $787 billion, not $1.2 trillion, and created 3.3 million new jobs, and prevented an even deeper recession.
3. The President is a Muslim Kenyan Socialist who has never produced his birth certificate.
REALITY: The President is an American Christian centrist who produced his birth certificate for public display when this ridiculous meme first began during the 2008 election. Socialism requires a more left wing point of view, and this president is not even center left, much less far left.
4. Nowhere in the constitution does it state that there must be a separation between church and state.
REALITY: It is important to understand that this meme was not born out of ignorance, but out of a desire to intertwine religion and government, and thus the Far Right has re-interpreted the first two clauses in the First Amendment to be more to their liking. Constitutional scholars agree that these clauses denote the doctrine of the separation of church and state. Because our SCOTUS is Far Right, it is a dangerous meme.
5. The health care reform bill enacted by Democrats hurt Medicare and recipients of Medicare.
REALITY: Not only did it not harm the Medicare program, it actually strengthened it.
6. There is no difference between union funding of election ads and funding by secretive Super PACs.
REALITY: The difference between them is enormous. Union funding comes from the workers, the people who belong to the unions, and thus we know who is funding these ads. Secretive Super PACs, on the other hand, are funded by anyone, including in some cases foreign interests or multi-national companies, and no disclosure is required. There is also NO limit on donor contributions. Individuals funding union pacs are limited to specific, and low, dollar amounts, and there is disclosure.
These last two are from Dave Johnson, in his words.
REALITY:Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.
Please re-blog this post, email it, and link to it. This stuff matters.
Links to Obama Administration / Democratic Party Accomplishments:
~ Rachel Maddow recounts what the Democrats accomplished in the past two years, and in the face of unrelenting opposition from the Republican Party. Maddow says that the Democrats, who controlled both Housees and the Presidency, were about policy, not politics.
~ Crowd-sourced on Twitter, a well sourced listing of the achievements of the Obama administration.
Bill O'Reilly attacked comments from former President Jimmy Carter about Fox News' race baiting and its role in promoting falsehoods about President Obama's citizenship and religion. But Carter was right: birtherism, race baiting attacks on Obama, and lies about his religion have all found a home on Fox News.
O'Reilly: "Carter can simply not back up what he says."On the September 21 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly aired snippets from an interview in which Carter offered criticism of Fox for having "attempted to twist around what [Obama's[ religious faith is and whether or not he's an American" and their tendency to "inject race" into their coverage of Obama. O'Reilly then criticized Carter for "not telling the truth":
O'Reilly cropped video to hide Carter's statement that Fox "called Obama a racist" -- a clear reference to Beck. While O'Reilly claims that Carter "can simply not back up what he says" and says that "it is beneath a former president to accuse FNC of injecting race into the political process," O'Reilly crops Carter's quote to cover up the fact that he said that Fox has "actually called Obama a racist on television.”
On the July 28, 2009, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Glenn Beck said that Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" and "is, I believe, a racist," a statement he subsequently claimed to stand by, in spite of growing criticism. Beck's comments were condemned by a wide variety of media figures. A year later, Beck "amend[ed]" his statement and said he meant to attack Obama's theology.
Much more about this on Media Matters. It is astounding that these morons consistently tell enormous lies, always get caught, and yet they just keep on with it.
Retired Lieutenant General Tom McInerney, Fox "News" military analyst, revealed himself as a Birther, when he made a signed affidavit in support of Lt. Col. Terry Lakin.
Lakin, the [moron] Birther who refused deployment to Afghanistan because of his belief that President Obama is ineligible to serve as the President despite all evidence to the contrary, and despite the fact that other cases of military personnel refusing orders on the same basis, i.e., questioning Obama's eligibility to serve as commander-in-chief, have been dismissed.
McInerney's affidavit:
For the foregoing reasons, it is my opinion that LTC Lakin's request for discovery relating to the President's birth record in Hawaii is absolutely essential to determining not merely his guilt or innocence but to reassuring all military personnel once and for all for this President whether his service as Commander in Chief is Constitutionally proper. He is the one single person in the Chain of Command that the Constitution demands proof of natural born citizenship. This determination is fundamental to our Republic, where civilian control over the military is the rule. According to the Constitution, the Commander is Chief must now, in the face of serious -- and widely-held -- concerns that he is ineligible, either voluntarily establish his eligibility by authorizing release of his birth records or this court must authorize their discovery. The invasion of his privacy is utterly trivial compared to the issues at stake here. Our military MUST have confidence their Commander in Chief lawfully holds his office and absent which confidence grievous consequences may ensue.
One has to wonder if the Birther morons such as Lakin and McInerney had any issue with a president who wasn’t elected but was appointed by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision who ordered his country to invade, and occupy another country for years based on lies and a poorly constructed neocon fantasy.
Anderson Cooper shines the light on Terry Lakin's claims.
U.S. military officials tell NBC News that the U.S. Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he considers orders from President Obama to be “illegal.”
Army doctor Lt. Col. Terry Lakin believes Obama does not meet the constitutional requirements to be president and commander-in-chief, because he believes (incorrectly) that Obama wasn’t born in the United States.
Lakin refused this week to report to Fort Campbell, KY for deployment to Afghanistan, but instead showed up at the Pentagon, where he was confronted by his brigade Commander Col. Gordon Roberts, a Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient.
Lakin was informed by Roberts that he would face court martial, and his Pentagon building pass and government laptop computer were seized.
The 112th majority Republican Congress now has at least two birthers to call its very own. The latest lawmaker to claim birther status is Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO). 
New video of a February town hall shows Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) pandering to birthers and raising questions about the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate.
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