Posted on 07/20/2009 1:06:50 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
One hundred seventy soldiers may be on the verge of refusing to serve—because their president might not be a natural-born citizen. Welcome to the world of the Birthers, right-wing conspiracy theorists whose anti-Obama movement is spreading to Congress.
Last week, a U.S. Army major named Stefan Frederick Cook made news when he refused deployment to Afghanistan on the grounds that President Barack Obama might not be a natural-born citizen and therefore is constitutionally ineligible to give orders as commander in chief. Now Cook’s lawyer says she has 170 more soldiers willing to file similar protests against the president.
Welcome to the world of the “Birthers”—right-wing conspiracy theorists committed to undoing the 2008 presidential election by trying to prove that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The movement is evidence that Obama Derangement Syndrome is going viral from the far right, proliferating beyond fringe-festival Internet sites. It’s in danger of a quiet mainstreaming along partisan lines—reaching into talk radio, cable news, the armed services, and even the halls of Congress.
The 170 number thrown out by Cook’s lawyer has the feel of Joe McCarthy’s claim that he had a list of 205 communists working in Harry Truman’s State Department—i.e. pseudo-specific, intentionally inflammatory, and ultimately bogus. But what’s not in question is the nine Republican congressmen who have co-sponsored a bill that, in response to this much-debunked conspiracy theory, would require presidential campaigns to provide “a copy of the candidate’s birth certificate.”
Asked whether Obama “is a U.S. citizen,” bill co-sponsor Randy Neugebauer, a Texas Republican, replied: “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him produce documents that would say one way or another.”
Major Cook—a distinguished combat veteran—appears to have been a willing pawn in the Birthers’ efforts to bring attention to their cause. He re-enlisted as a reservist in May, with the apparent intention of carrying out this political performance-art litigation. When the military shrugged and said he didn’t have to go to AfPak (issuing a statement saying, "This in no way validates any of the outlandish claims made by Major Cook") and a judge threw out the case, Cook’s legal team celebrated it as a smoking-gun victory. WorldNetDaily—whose editor and CEO has been a major supporter of Birther petition efforts and roadside billboards—trumpeted it as “Bombshell: Orders Revoked for Soldier Challenging Prez.”
In the wake of this “success,” Cook’s lawyer, Dr. Orly Taitz, and her frequent plaintiff, Ambassador Alan Keyes, appeared on CNN to debate the issue. I’d hit the Birthers in my “Wingnut Watch” segment on the Campbell Brown show earlier in the week and was asked to counter their claims alongside New York Daily News columnist Errol Louis.
Before going on air, Keyes had his eyes closed as if in prayer while Taitz was jumpy and pie-eyed, like a patient off her meds. Anchor Kitty Pilgrim then went through a thorough 3-1/2 minute dismantling of the Birther arguments, including the long-ago issuance of Obama’s August 1961 certificate of live birth, its validation by Hawaii’s Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, and two birth announcements published in Honolulu papers. (Both FactCheck.org and Snopes have published detailed investigations and refutations of the non-scandal.)
Asked what more he needed to be convinced, Keyes’ response was an instant classic in the clueless overconfidence of conspiracy theorists: “Some evidence.”
Keyes can be considered patient zero in the spread of Obama Derangement Syndrome. The one-time protégé of Reagan U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick and three-time presidential candidate was recruited to run against then-state Senator Barack Obama in 2004 for the Illinois U.S. Senate seat, despite the fact that Keyes lived in Maryland. (That the GOP could not find an African-American candidate to run in all of Illinois is its own evidence in the Party of Lincoln’s fall.)
In his book Audacity of Hope, Obama recounts Keyes’ campaign claim that “Christ would not vote for Barack Obama.” The tone went downhill from there.
Keyes has only ratcheted up his rhetoric since then, both in his 2008 third-party campaign for the presidency and in February 2009 comments outside a Nebraska antiabortion fundraiser.
“Obama is a radical communist, and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it’s true,” Keyes told a reporter from local station KHAS-TV. “He is going to destroy this country, and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist.”
While Keyes calls Obama a radical communist, Taitz reaches for the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, repeatedly referring to the Obama administration as the “Gestapo-SS establishment” on her blog. She extends the metaphor with an ugly call for investigation and execution: “They all should and would be tried in Nurenberg (sic) style trials for harassing, intimidating, blackmailing and terrorizing fellow citizens, for defrauding the whole country. Patriots of this country didn’t fight and defeat Nazi Germany to end up with Obamas, McCuskill (sic), Soros, Brunner and the rest of this squad.”
Keyes and Taitz are connected by their relationship to Orange County Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake, who served as Keyes’ VP nominee in 2008 and Taitz’s first plaintiff in the Birther lawsuits. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because a few months ago Drake announced that he was praying for Obama’s death after his prayers for the death of Kansas abortionist George Tiller were “answered.” He has been offering “imprecatory prayers” against “the usurper that is in the White House…B. Hussein Obama.”
It’s the “usurper” line that ties the whole deranged tale together. Since the 2008 campaign, the far right has ginned up a steady stream of Internet rumors and rhetoric that are variations on the idea that Obama is fundamentally un-American. These range from “Obama is the Antichrist” emails passed on by people, including a South Carolina mayor, to the “Obama is a Manchurian candidate” theories posited by WorldNet Daily, among others. The underlying theme is not just paranoid politics, where a center-left president is called a socialist and then communist, but also discomfort with the idea of an African-American president—especially one who emerged from obscurity so quickly that there must be a sinister conspiracy at work.
All this might be laughable, if there weren’t deadly serious hyper-partisan hatred behind it all. There is plenty to debate over the administration’s policies, but Obama Derangement Syndrome is not healthy for our democracy—it is pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism.
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John P. Avlon is the author of Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics. He writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
McCarthy was right ...Keyes in right ...Show us the birth certificate ; college records ; passport used to go to Pakistan ...Nothing to hide nothing to lose .
Rudy needs to find better help.
The speech writer tells me a lot about Rudy. Rudy is a Rino.
How come the crowd that challenged McCain’s eligibility in court never were called “birthers?”
So he's paying him a compliment ?
No mention of a birth certificate that anyone else would have to produce to join the military or get a SSN or drivers license.
What if the Justice Department finds out the court documentation submitted by ‘Bammie was fraudulent, then the Zero is in deep doo doo.
leftists have no idea how much of a compliment that is.
Blah blah blah...
It’s amazing how scumbags like Avlon can write so many words and yet completely ignore Ubama’s own relentless legal efforts to prevent proper investigation of his birth.
That's a CERTIFICATION of Live Birth, not a CERTIFICATE, and therein lies ALL the difference. It's just a printout that omits ALL the important information that's found on the true CERTIFICATE - information that would allow verification.
its validation by Hawaii’s Republican Gov. Linda Lingle
Linda Lingle didn't validate ANYTHING. This is an outright lie.
two birth announcements published in Honolulu papers
Try using those to obtain a passport, and see how much weight they carry.
Badge of honor.
Lets just see what happens to Cook as he files in Florida for loss of his private job.
Notice the writer only states the case was dismissed in Georgia. Clearly not writing the truth.
When other military personal decide to files suits, will the pentagon will do to these people.
0 is so lucky to be a communist democrat, because no one would let a republican get away with the kind of suspicion hanging over his head.
What is honesty in truth now days? Just so silly words.
MINOR PROBLEM....
Joe McCarthy was later proven CORRECT by history. Would it be too much to exect the writer to know this?
> Giuliani Speechwriter compares Orly Taitz to Sen. Joe McCarthy
That could only be a favorable comparison then. The Senator was right, and Ms Taitz is also right, and both of them had Enemies Domestic in their sights.
Has anyone else noticed that with all the controversy regarding Obama’s birth cetificate not one single person from the two alleged hospitals where Obama was supposedly born have stepped forward and stated they were present at his birth or attended to Mrs. Ann Dunham-Obama after the birth. And what about follow care after Ann left the hospital? Who did the follow up care? When your child was born did he/she not have appointments with the Doctor to check on the health of the baby?
Most of you have children and were either in the waiting room or the delivery room when your child was born. And there was usually an Ob/Gyn or attending physician and two or three nurses in the delivery room. I know there was when my child was born. After the birth there were nurses in the nursury on three shifts and nurses on three shifts attending to the mother. So about 12 to 15 nurses and a couple of doctors involved in the delivery and follow-up care. Some were probably in their twenties, thirties, and maybe forties.
I seriously doubt if they are all dead so why hasn’t anyone stepped up and claimed to have been present at the birth or follow up?
Barack Hussien Obama isn’t as common of name as Smith, Adams, Jones, etc. but rather a memorable name which I’m sure those who were involved in the birth would remember to this day especially since he was elected President. Would they not want to acknowledge they were in fact present at the birth and/or follow up? Doesn’t that make sense with all the controversy over Obama’s birth certificate? Wouldn’t you step up and share your piece of history with the rest of the country? I certainly would.
So where are all these people? Why are they remaining silent on this issue?
Oh, and I had to present my birth certificate to the U.S. Army when I enlisted to prove citizenship and age.
I thought campaign funds were to be used for just that purpose not for legal expenses to defend against legitimate concerns regarding Obama’s birth certificate.
So many questions, so few answers, such a cover up.
Orly looks sort of like a dude, but she is a woman. Her russian features throw people off all the time. LOL.
Oops ! I never saw a pic, I always thought Orly was a dude. :-P
We’ve needed another hero like Joe McCarthy for a long time!!!!
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