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Another week, another slew of dangerously dumb people in the news. I thought I'd go with a theme this week, and what better theme than to focus on the people who refuse, despite the insurmountable evidence to the contrary, to give up the idea that President Obama was not born in this country.
The nonpolitical website FactCheck.org and the State of Hawaii, among others, have verified Obama's birth certificate as authentic. Yet the conspiracy theories continue, even months after his inauguration. Anyone who believes in the "birther" theory despite all of the evidence to the contrary is either idiotic, paranoid, or racist -- and likely a combination of the three.
http://www.factcheck.org/e
And so, here we go...
3rd: G. Gordon Liddy, who was trounced by Chris Matthews during Hardball this week. As Liddy struggled to respond to any question Matthews asked, Matthews finally showed him a live birth certificate. Liddy noted that the birth certificate was "redacted". Matthews then showed a copy that wasn't. "What do you think now?" As the awkwardness of the interview continued to its inevitably painful and obvious conclusion, the increasing agitation of Matthews at the insanity of Liddy's arguments combined with Liddy's increasingly outlandish theories were enough to convince even the dumbest people in the world whose side sounds more reasonable, logical, and correct here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.
2nd: Liz Cheney, for her obvious attempt to keep alive the "birther" debate by insinuation and fear-mongering. On Larry King Live earlier this week, she pretty much sealed the deal that evil in that family is a genetic trait.
I think the Democrats have got more crazies than the Republicans do. But setting that aside, one of the reasons you see people so concerned about this, I think this issue is, people are uncomfortable with having for the first time ever, I think, a president who seems so reluctant to defend the nation overseas...
She did not say (and, in fact, said she was not saying) that Obama was born in Kenya, as asked by King. But she, sadly, did not stop there.
I'm saying that people are fundamentally uncomfortable and fundamentally I think increasingly uncomfortable with an American president who seems to be afraid to defend America, stand up for what we believe in.
http://www.huffingtonpost.
See what she did there? People are uncomfortable with a President who seems to be afraid to defend America. Like a person who isn't American. Nor did she denounce the "birther" movement, especially in her nonchalant response to the absurd Mike Castle-meets-the-disturbed
1st: Lou Dobbs, ex-journalist (for which that is even debatable). His stance is that there is a "document issue".
http://thinkprogress.org/2
He further claims that the entire Presidency may be illegal.
http://politicalwire.com/a
Then he lashed out at his critics the following day.
http://mediamatters.org/mm
See, the problem, Lou, is that a certificate of live birth IS an official document and is considered synonymous if not identical with a birth certificate. (It's a certification of the original "long form" of the birth certificate.) A certificate of live birth has been provided by Obama, and the State of Hawaii has already authenticated it. What is so difficult about this to understand?
Media Matters for America issued a stern statement denouncing Dobbs and claiming that CNN has a "very serious Lou Dobbs problem".
http://mediamatters.org/pr
http://www.youtube.com/wat
Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center has demanded CNN fire Dobbs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.
Specifically, about the "long form" of birth certificate, it is well-known these were destroyed in 2001 when Hawaii's Health Department went digital. The following quote is from TVNewser, with the inside quote from CNN President Jon Klein, to staffers for Lou Dobbs:
"It seems this story is dead- because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef." Klein asked CNN researchers to dig into the question of why Obama couldn't produce the original birth certificate. The researchers contacted the Hawaii Health Dept. and confirmed that paper documents were discarded in 2001 when the department went paperless. That reportedly includes Pres. Obama's original birth certificate.
http://www.mediabistro.com
As if the "long form" is even necessary, as FactCheck confirmed with the State of Hawaii that the short form is sufficient for any "reasonable" means of documentation.
Mr. Dobbs, RESIGN. For the very least, for being this week's...and maybe even this month's...dangerously dumb person in the world.
