Free Republic

BOCA RATON — Confused Palm Beach County voters helped thwart Al Gore's 2000 bid to become president of the United States, but he was introduced as "president of the planet" when he returned here Saturday night to deliver an environmental lecture. The former vice president spoke on climate change at the Mizner Park Amphitheater to a crowd of about 800. More than 200 protesters gathered across the street from the event, and their boos and chants could be heard inside the amphitheater as Gore began his presentation. Gore lost Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes to George W....

First Amendment: Diversity czar Mark Lloyd's FCC votes Thursday on the issue of net neutrality. Advertised as providing access to all, it will do to the information superhighway what Lloyd proposed for talk radio. Not much was said when $7.2 billion was included in the stimulus bill "to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas and to strategic institutions that are likely to create jobs or provide significant public benefits." The administration has big plans for the Internet — like controlling it. Susan Crawford, the so-called Internet czar, told the Wall Street Journal in April that the broadband billions...

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. .. Video 4:11 min

Here’s the audio from Jim’s interview with Ed Morrissey from Hot Air this morning.(September 17, 2009) Ed’s got plenty to read over on Hot Air on a daily basis and his weekly column over at American Issues Project. His column today dives into static and dynamic analysis of tax policy – which really is an easy topic to understand – and how Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) health care legislation proposal is a good example static tax policy analysis.

Kudos to Jon Stewart, who doesn’t sugar-coat the embarrassment at all — to the apparent delight of his audience, who get kudos of their own. How can the national news media ignore the many allegations of corruption at ACORN, which gets millions of dollars in federal funding, and allow a couple of independents with $3,000 and a bad wardrobe scoop them on the undercover story of the year? It’s easy when newsrooms are more concerned with political direction than truth. Stick around to the end, when Stewart zings Michelle Malkin haters:

Iranian report: Teheran developed anti-cruise missile system By JPOST.COM STAFF Iran has developed an anti-cruise missile system, state-run Press TV reported on Sunday. Announcing the latest milestone in the domestic military industrial achievements, Air Force Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani said, "[Despite] thirty years of military sanctions by the enemy, the armed forces have taken appropriates steps toward self-sufficiency and have been able not only to update their equipment, but also to achieve wide-ranging progress in the military and aerospace sector." The Khatam al-Anbiya Air Base, which operates under the supervision of general Miqani, is the unitary supreme body coordinating and...

Mac Freepers I need your help! Every time I load hotair.com, Safari loads 3/4 of the way, then crashes. These are the plug-ins I have now: -MoveNetworks Quantum Media Player -iPhotoPhotocast -Java Plug-in for Cocoa -Shockwave for Director -QuickTime Plug-in 7.6 -PhotoCenterPlugin1.1.2.2 -Quartz Composer Plug-In -Flip4Mac Windows Media Plugin 2.2.1 -Flip4Mac Windows Media Web Plugin 2.2.1 -Verified Download Plugin -Shockwave Flash -Microsoft Office Live Plug-in -QuickTime Plug-In 7.6 -DivX Web Player I already tried "resetting" Safari in the menu. Please help! Safari works so well, but I always forget and go to hotair and then it crashes all my windows....

NORFOLK If Congress wants meaningful health care reform, its leaders must stop rushing to pass a bill and hold legislative hearings to air the pros and cons of specific proposals, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb said Thursday. "My thought right now is to slow this down," the Virginia Democrat said. "Open it up. Have some hearings. Let people get their different viewpoints out in a very public way." The problems today with angry people shouting at each other during community forums around the country and the confusion over what might be included in any health care overhaul have their roots in...

Has anybody else had issues?

'Cloud ship' scheme to deflect the sun's rays is favourite to cut global warming Ships with giant funnels which travel the world's seas creating more clouds to deflect the sun's rays could help cut global warming, say scientists. The "cloud ships" are favoured among a series of schemes aimed at altering the climate which have been weighed up by a leading think-tank. The project, which is being worked on by rival US and UK scientists, would see 1,900 wind-powered ships ply the oceans sucking up seawater and spraying minuscule droplets of it out through tall funnels to create large white...

The Democratic National Committee has released a new video to push back against protests happening at town hall meetings across the country, and according to ABC's Jake Tapper, these demonstrators are being depicted as "irrational birthers who want to 'destroy' President Obama."

I think Jamie Kirchik has the politics pretty much exactly right. Eugene Robinson, Joe Conason and E.J. Dionne, in addition to all the politicians and bloggers Jamie mentions, have been pumping the birther story in order to tar Republicans as extremists at precisely the moment their own agenda is being rejected by the American people for it's own extremism. Even the folks at Mother Jones think this is a plausible explanation of the administration's behavior: If the White House thinks the birther movement is hurting the Republican party, they might refrain from doing anything that could cause the GOP to...

This thread at the Right Side of Life, keying off of a FreeRepublic.com thread, is actually a pretty useful look at the way facts bounce off of the “birther” community like so many eggs off of a Humvee. David Wiegel (sic) is a regular poster at the Politijab Forum. Actually, no: I joined the site in order to read the threads at that superlative Web forum for “birther”-debunkers. I’ve never posted a comment there. The rest of the argument posits that “Politijab is an astroturf site” because its inbound links come from AOL News, Daily Kos, Topix, and Democratic Underground....

Here is video last night of CNN's Lou Dobbs joking with reporter Candy Crowley after she said the word "birther" on his broadcast as she made the point that the White House is trying to discredit protesters at ObamaCare Town Hall Meetings by saying they are all members of "fringe" groups. After she used the word "birther," Dobbs interrupted saying, "Oh God, don't say 'birther' whatever you do, not on this broadcast." Dobbs has been under fire for reporting on the Obama Birth Certificate controversy, even to the point that some have called for CNN to fire him for doing...

Since his arrival at the White House, Barack Obama has been touted as `King of the World’ rather than USA president. As King of the World, does Obama really need born-in-USA status? On the occasion of their president’s 48th birthday yesterday, Americans still don’t know for certain from whence he came, only where he is leading them. There was a mammoth picture of the Birthday Boy on display outside the White House, but no pictures of him pursing his lips to blow out the candles on a birthday cake, which may have served as a reminder that this is a...

I've never really been called a "Broad" -- but I've been told that once upon a time it was actually a compliment. A Broad could hold her liquor, make a guy laugh, comment about a ballgame... Think Maclaine or Dickinson in the Rat Pack days. I like to think I'm a Broad. (Ok the liquor thing -- not so much anymore. I'm a lightweight now. Practically a teetotaler.)Shirley Maclaine when she was a fun broad -- not a New Age quack.And I've managed seldom to be called a "Witch with a B" -- to my face anyway. I deliberately chose a husband who does not use such...

Cliff Kincaid, the editor of Accuracy in Media, has released a copy of his own birth certificate, in order to demonstrate what needs to be done to resolve the growing controversy over the alleged birth certificate of President Barack Obama. "My birth certificate includes the names of my mother and father, my mother's doctor, and the hospital in which I was born," said Kincaid. "This certified copy of an original long form document is what anyone who wants to be president should be prepared to produce. Why is this a controversy?" Kincaid went on, "It reveals that my mother's maiden...

Along with the introduction of what appears to be the most valid-looking Obama birth certificate came an almost immediate attempt to debunk it. This attempt was immediately eaten up by MSNBC, Obama’s main propaganda network, by hosts like Keith Olbermann.  The main argument of this attempt to debunk the certificate is that Kenya hadn’t yet become a republic at the time the document was dated: Feb 14, 1964. The argument is that Kenya was officially declared a republic in December of that year. The second most important argument is that the region he was born in wasn’t called Mombasa at the time:...

In my personal opinion, Obama is a disaster for America. I believe future historians will describe this period as the OBAMA CATASTROPHE - the time when America collectively lost its mind and voted for a man and a group of leftists who quickly destroyed the nation in favor of socialism and income redistribution. However, if people want to save the American nation and way of life - the best and most benevolent society in human history; opposition must be passionate and RATIONAL. The entire legitimacy or birther issue is indeed passionate but definitely not rational. It has been frustrating to...

Lou Dobbs, and his network, have been receiving a lot of criticism lately for the host's promotion of a debunked conspiracy theory. But Dobbs has a new ally: actor and former Mike Huckabee supporter Chuck Norris. Norris writes: "I agree with CNN's Lou Dobbs, who was chastised by his own media outlet for demanding the release of your original birth certificate."

Before reading the "affidavit" comment text below please take note that Hillary Clinton is scheduled to take what appears to be a surprise visit to Kenya today - August 3rd! She departed Andrews AirForce Base for Nairobi, Kenya and has nothing scheduled for August 4th. Is she rushing off to do damage control and buy the existing photos for Oba-Hussein now that the Kenyan BC has surfaced or indulging her own curiosity? Or to threaten or bribe Kitau and others into silence? Remember that during her campaign, a lawyer who supported her for President had announced that two certified copies...

rovided it stays on schedule, the Senate will confirm Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday. All 60 senators in the Democratic caucus are expected to vote aye, and about half a dozen Republicans will go along. One, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, explained that Judge Sotomayor would not be his choice, but Barack Obama won the election, and should get to decide who goes on the bench. Reason. House Minority Leader John Boehner sent out a release, warning the Democrats' proposed health-care legislation will “start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia.” Lunacy. One of the...

Is there a real story to track regarding where Obama was born and his records? I have been called many names, Islamaphobe, Homophobe, racist and now birther. I and others leading the charge to find the truth about who Obama is and where he was really born are called Right wing extremists and now we have a special category of scandal and strangeness…..we are BIRTHERS! I am planning to break ground on a museum highlighting all my assigned syndromes, mental illness , domestic terrorist classifications and stigmas. It will be a very large and grand building highlighting the many labels...

Stanley Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother, was registered for college classes in Seattle only 15 days after reportedly delivering her first-born child in Honolulu, according to school records obtained by WND. How Dunham was able to travel the 2,680 air miles from Honolulu to Seattle only a few days after the birth of her baby – at a time when trans-Pacific travel likely was at a speed half of today's jets – is not disclosed in the currently available public record concerning President Obama's birth. Nor is there anything on the public record to explain how Dunham managed to find...

I have become increasingly infuriated over the condescending and outright insulting reporting of the "Birther" issue in the news media. As such, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to locate a news article describing the concerns about John McCain's eligibility that existed back before the primaries and compare the tone of the reporting to a more recent article that describes the current concerns about Barack Obama's eligibility. As I am publicly decrying bias, I should take a moment to describe where my own bias lies. It is important to note that I really believe the birth certificate issue...

Why did Michelle Obama give up her license to practice law in 1993? Records listed at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois list her status as "voluntarily inactive and not authorized to practice law." It further states that Michelle license is "on court ordered inactive status." The statement has many bloggers wondering why a court would issue an order to stop Michelle Obama from practicing law, and some have even suggested the first lady faced may have been facing allegations of misconduct. Michelle Obama, known as Michelle Robinson at the time, attended Princeton University...

A document unveiled by a California attorney in her quest to determine President Obama's place of birth has been condemned as a forgery by critics who deride as nonsense the challenges that have been raised to the president based on the U.S. Constitution's demand that the Oval Office occupant be a "natural born" citizen. But those on the other side, who would like to see the original documentation of Obama's birth place revealed, say there are factors that indicate the Kenyan birth document could be real. WND reported when the document was submitted to a California court by California attorney...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A birth certificate a California lawyer claims shows President Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen is a fake, a blogger says. In a post on the Politjab.com Web site, Steve Eddy of California said he discovered through an online search that the document released by "birther" Orly Taitz was a doctored version of the birth certificate for David Jeffrey Bomford, born in South Australia in April 1959, Salon.com reported Tuesday. Salon reported that Taitz responded by saying, "Obama's thugs in mainstream media came up with this Bomford report in order to...

In the realm of street art, the posters portraying President Barack Obama as the Joker, as played by the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, aren't high art. They aren't like the iconic images of "Hope'' that sprouted during the Obama camapign. But then, these are the post-campaign portraits of discontent in some quarters. And, like their predecessors, the newest posters are becoming an Internet sensation among those for whom a picture is worth 1,000 words--or one word, in the case of this poster campaign: "socialism." Looking at the anonymously created posters that started on the streets of L.A....

Aug. 5, 2009 | There are, sadly, a lot of Birthers out there. A recent poll showed that 11 percent of Americans -- including 28 percent of Republicans -- don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S. Another 12 percent aren't sure. So, at some point, you're likely to find out that a friend or relative is a Birther. Your Uncle Floyd will forward you a chain e-mail that says Obama was actually born in Kenya and there's a Kenyan birth certificate that proves it and hundreds of government officials and reporters are in on a conspiracy to hide...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A California lawyer who has filed a lawsuit alleging President Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen says she has a copy of his Kenyan birth certificate. Orly Taitz of Mission Viejo, a leading "birther," filed a motion over the weekend for quick action on her lawsuit, The Orange County Register reported. She acknowledged the Kenyan document might be a forgery and asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to request verification from the Kenyan government. "There are no ready means of authentication except by recovery of the original document," she said in...

Obama’s father was never a US citizen, nor was he ever permanently domiciled in the US. At birth, Obama was a British citizen. [He's also been a Kenyan citizen and perhaps a citizen of Indonesia as well.] Obama admits his birth status was governed by Great Britain. The question presented then is whether the US is willing to allow persons who were born without a single allegiance to the US to be Commander in Chief of our military. For it is this specific fear that prompted our first Supreme Court Chief Justice – John Jay – to suggest to George...

Political conspiracy theories – like the so-called “birther” allegation that Obama is not a legitimate US citizen – are as old as the nation. In the late 1700s, it was rumored that the Freemasons were actually a Satanic cult and George Washington was a member who was elevated to the presidency so they could control the country. Such views were generally held by a few fringe groups and were viewed by the mainstream culture as a bit nutty. But in the past few decades, conspiracy theories have tended to become a part of mainstream political culture, say political analysts. They...

The big story I promised you last week on eligibility issue was NOT the Kenyan birth document. I didn't even know about that last week.

On Aug. 2 there came to light a birth certificate showing that Barack Obama was born in Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya in 1961. It was published far and wide, but was quickly shown to be a forgery: It says it was issued by the Republic of Kenya on Feb. 17, 1964, before there was a Republic of Kenya, and when Kenya was still a British Dominion. Who would have an interest in publishing such an obvious forgery at this time? How did the Obama birth certificate question, so widely ridiculed by both the left and the right, become...

Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck says people should be focusing on the goals President Obama is pursuing and the way he is reaching them instead of questioning his eligibility to be president. "I have to tell you, the – I mean, first of all, the birther thing, what are you going to do. Even if it was true, what, are you going to take him out of office?" he said today on his radio show. "You can't do that."--WND We should do both! As Joe Farah correctly observes if Obama would simply make public his long-form birth certificate, all...

Silly me. Silly you. Here we were thinking that the presidential election of 2008 was over and done with in—well, in 2008. And that the winner was a certain junior senator from the great state of Illinois, who rolled up a victory margin of landslide proportions (at least by modern-day standards, and certainly by George W. Bush standards, to pick a name at random). Anyway, you were somehow under the impression that all of that was settled business. Fat chance. Not that you were expecting the loyal opposition to roll over and play dead. That was never in the cards—not...

47O44. I think I can see where the number comes from now. Its the 47th Copy Birth Certificate issued that year/month/day, by O for Oduya, the Deputy Registrar, and 44 refers to the Register/book it's recorded in.

I have to admit, I had never heard the term “birther” before. I don’t watch tv much, so I guess that’s why. Dictionary.com doesn’t have a clue what “birther” is either. So, whenever a word is used I don’t know and dictionary.com doesn’t either, I go to urbandictionary.com. They of course have it. According to them, birther has several definitions: A conspiracy theorist who believes that Barack Obama is ineligible for the Presidency of the United States, based on any number of claims related to his place of birth, birth certificate, favorite birthday, or whether or not he has heard...

Journalist are often sent to places — a war zone, a natural disaster, or a crime-ridden slum — that are physically scary. Those assignments routinely win prizes. Sometimes they may be asked to cover a story that is intellectually scary. Those assignments are less dramatic but can reveal more about human nature. Perhaps the most intellectually scary assignment I have had in recent years was to cover a meeting of the so-called "9/11 Truth Movement" in the East Village, New York. This gruesome assortment of conspiracy theorists insists that the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001 were an...

What I find so amazing about the "birther bashers" (or "afterbirthers" as I call them) is that they have so little appreciation for the complexity of Obama's citizenship dilemma. They also do not appreciate the trap doors that exist at various points in his life regarding adoption and immigration between countries where he resided. Most of all, though, they don't understand the basic terms that they banter about. In short, Obama's life path is fraught with potentially disqualifying conditions for the office he holds. As a constitutional law instructor, perhaps no one understands these conditions like he does, and that...

In case you haven't heard, President Obama is a member of a secret Kenyan terrorist cell who is scheming to dispatch waves of government bureaucrats to tell grandmas and grandpas how to off themselves. Such is the intellectual weight of a segment of the Republican Party these days. Or as one commentator recently put it, the GOP has decided "to double down on crazy." We're talking about two controversies here, one involving the so-called birther movement, which questions the citizenship of the president; the other involving mandatory "end-of-life" counseling that's supposedly part of the president's health care plan. The controversies...

If someone intentionally tried to thwart the workings of the United States government by fake documents and misinformation, we would normally call them “espionage agents” and try them for treason if they were exposed and caught. So what about the people who have several versions of a fake Obama birth certificate that purports to prove he was born in the Republic of Kenya and therefore can’t serve as President? Isn’t that treason? The best of these forgeries has several versions, some better Photoshop products than others, but the funny thing about all this is that they are all so bad...

Here is video today of MSNBC's David Schuster getting into a complete screaming match with who he called the attorney for the "birther" movement. I must say everyone involved in this knock-down-drag-out was pathetic. Schuster and the co-host repeatedly called the woman "crazy" and "crank" and never really gave her a chance to speak. However, the attorney did not really come across as believable as well, though she was harassed the entire segment. . . . . (Watch Video)

I haven’t run too many stories on this Obama birth certificate stuff. It seemed too far out, at least at first. Many of the lawsuits brought up on this subject were thrown out. Several of the original movers and shakers were people with, um, a bit of a wobbly reputation. But the story persists. Just last week I watched Ann Coulter cut the Birthers off at the knees, write them off as nut cases, and distance herself from their quest. Birthers are the new 9/11 Conspiracy Truthers. But unlike the Truthers, the Birthers questions can be answered. It really does...

There are now modified photos of the COLB that broke here yesterday. The changes are so slight, that no one is noticing them. The original one posted in breaking news: One of the modified ones: The changes are so subtle, you can barely tell which one you are looking at. This modified one is showing jokes like: The Font of the Certificate=Schmutz (A Schmutz is a chump, as in you are a chump) #5733=The number of the Certificate, is code for : "Problem with Windows REGISTRY", a sly reference to your claim that Obama does not appear on the Hawaii...

The Associated Press is wrong and Lou Dobbs is right. This past weekend, the AP published a story entitled "CNN's Dobbs Under Fire for Hosting 'Birthers'". The AP began their highly critical story on Dobbs: "He's become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his boss and hosted a show that seemed to contradict the network's 'no bias' brand." And what is Dobbs' "crime?" He has said on air that Obama should release his birth certificate and has had on his show guests who suggested Obama was born outside the U.S. Dobbs does not believe Obama was born outside the U.S.,...

The Left and the MSM are filled with stories about the "crazy" Republican base melting down regarding where Obama was born. Politico gives us a quantitative view of the political battle space with this Daily KOS/Research Poll on July 31, 2009. A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn't born in the US (28 percent) or aren't sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was. Stories about similar "crazy" Democrats during the Bush presidency never made it much past the right side of the blogosphere. Rasmussen published this poll May 04, 2007. Democrats in America...

And then one of our moderators spotted this: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18018714/Fake-Obama-Kenya-birth-certificate It has several clues, but also there's this question: Who is E. F. Lavender? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=earth+friendly+lavender&aq=f&oq=&aqi Earth Friendly Lavender detergent?

It appears that some people are still not convinced that the 44th president of the United States legitimately assumed the office. What exactly is the issue? With all the problems still plaguing the country – health care, the economy, unemployment – why are so many people intent on keeping the supposed controversy of the citizenship of the President of the United States in the forefront? The Birthers “The birthers” as they’ve come to be known, are a group of activists, theorist and attorneys dead set on proving that this particular president, under constitutional grounds, should not be in office (which...