Spokane7
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May 1, 2011 in City
Spin Control: Birther fantasies are gift that keeps on giving
OLYMPIA – It was with deep sadness that I watched Wednesday as President Barack Obama released his birth certificate. For nearly two years, nothing has generated comments on the Internet version of this column like a reference to whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, or in some other country, continent … or planet.
A full-blown birther story could boost my “hits” significantly, and the posting of an audio clip in March 2009 featuring Orly Taitz questioning Chief Justice John Roberts at the University of Idaho on the issue once generated 3,000 hits in one day.
For those who don’t follow this closely, if Donald Trump is the carnival barker of the birther movement, Taitz is its fairy godmother. She’s a California lawyer, dentist and real estate saleswoman involved in legal fights over Obama’s constitutional qualification to be president.
Just a snide aside would draw indignant comments from birthers daring me to check out the facts, lecture me on the distinction between the short-form “certification of live birth,” which Obama released during the 2008 campaign, and the “certificate of birth,” which they claimed was nonexistent. They insisted that anyone who checked with the appropriate state office in Hawaii would find out that the former isn’t good enough to get a passport or voter registration card. When told that wasn’t true, they challenged me to go to Hawaii and do the kind of in-depth investigative work a real reporter would.
Don’t think I didn’t pitch such a junket – umm, fact-finding trip – to my editors, who suspected an expense account full of hidden Mai-tais, and penuriously declined. Perhaps with better timing or better salesmanship, CNN’s Gary Tuchman got that junket this month as Donald Trump was making a big deal out of the birth certificate.
CNN had likely done its homework, and thus knew Trump hadn’t done his. The Donald was repeating things from birther websites that don’t hold up to scrutiny, like the claim Obama had spent millions keeping his birth certificate hidden or that it didn’t even exist somewhere deep in the bowels of the Hawaii health archives.
So on Wednesday, when Obama released his long-form birth certificate with an admonition to get beyond this silliness, I was bereft beyond measure. This was supposed to be like the Holy Grail, something to long for, quest after, write epic poems to … but never find. It was like getting to the last page of a murder mystery and finding the words “never mind.”
Less than an hour later, while driving to work, I heard on the radio someone explaining how, as commander in chief of the CIA, NSA and all those other alphabet soup agencies, Obama could easily have ordered a phony certificate of birth cooked up and planted in the Hawaiian archives. He probably just waited until now to make sure everything was in place.
To suggest this couldn’t be done is the same as saying we don’t have the best spooks in the world. And that’s just one step away from saying we aren’t the greatest nation in history.
A wooden stake had not been driven through the heart of birtherism. Suddenly, I felt so much better.
In passing
Ron Jackson, longtime Valley sports coach and sometime Valley political activist, passed away last week at age 83. With wife Sally, Ron was a mainstay of Democratic politics in the Spokane Valley, something that wasn’t rare when they got started many decades ago but required a certain amount of fortitude or stubbornness lately.
As colleague Mike Vlahovich reported in Saturday’s paper, Ron was a standout baseball player and coach. After retiring, he and Sally taught generations of kids to swim and to hit a curve ball. They taught generations of young politicians to work hard and shoot straight. They owned the Jackson Hole Tavern for more than a dozen years, and it was the kind of neighborhood establishment that sponsored sports teams and carried more than a few patrons on a tab when times were tough.
Slowed by Parkinson’s disease over the last decade, Ron still made it to many political gatherings and always had a smile or a wink for old friends. The fabric of the Valley community lost a colorful thread, and Ron will be sorely missed.
Spin Control, a weekly column by Olympia Bureau Chief Jim Camden, also appears online with daily items, readers comments and videos at www.spokesman.com/ blogs/spincontrol.
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
Cherish on May 01 at 12:37 a.m.
I would suggest the buffoonery resides in the entire US leadership, review the condition of the country.http://bit.ly/kquS0e
TomDegan on May 01 at 1:15 a.m.
Well! Heavens to Betsy and thank goodness! It’s all over! The proof is right there! Finally we can put this whole nasty question of the geography of Barack Obama’s birth behind us and get on with the business at hand, right? Right???
Oh, ye of such abundant faith.
We have had the evidence in the palms of our hands since the day Barack Obama announced his candidacy four years ago: There was the standard, state-issued birth certificate - which should have settled the issue right then and there. Then there was the August 9, 1961 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser, clearly announcing the birth - in Honolulu (which as we all know is part of the United States) - of the future president of the United States. Finally the other day the president threw up his hands and released the “certificate.of live birth” (as opposed to the perfectly legitimate “long form” version). This was the document that was signed by the doctor and certified by the state of Hawaii within minutes of baby Barack’s birth. You would think that this would be enough to convince these nitwits, wouldn’t you? As a matter of pathetic fact, you would think that this would be more than enough - that the matter could now be mercifully put to rest once and for all.
Think again.
In the 2008 presidential campaign, of the candidates from the two major political parties, only one of them was born in the United States of America - Barack Obama. John McCain was born in Panama. Do you find it as curious as I do that it is the black guy who has had his citizenship called into question? I’m sure that that’s just a coincidence though. I’m sure that the man’s race has not a thing to do with it.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
I just made a twenty dollar bet with myself that I could write that last sentence and keep a straight face. I lost.
There was Orly Taitz, the so-called “Queen of the birthers”, on MSNBC’s The Last word with Laurence O’Donnell, desperately trying to keep the lie alive. O’Donnell gave this idiotic woman a chance to show some real class by admitting that, yes, the certificate is official; Barack Obama was born in the USA. And yet she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Oily Orly has made quite a bitchin’ bundle of cash in the last two years from her persecution of the truth. As someone once noted, it’s easy for people not to understand the obvious when their paychecks depend upon them not understanding it.
Not that it makes a damned bit of difference, but Orly Taitz (the supposed “expert” on what it takes to be a honest-to-goodness, true-blue American) was born in Russia and raised in Israel - not that that makes any difference.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
misjustice on May 01 at 6:37 a.m.
I streamed the annual White House Correspondent’s Dinner on C-Span last night; a good time was had by all, except for the carnival barker, er, The Donald and his horrible comb over.
One of the funniest parts was the President’s “birth video”.
“Days after releasing his long-form birth certificate to refute claims he wasn’t born in the United States, the president began his address by showing what he called his birth video.
But rather than footage of a baby Barack being born in Hawaii, the clip was from Disney’s “The Lion King,” showing the grand unveiling of the baby Simba in Africa.”
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/01/white.house.correspondents.dinner/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn
Seth Meyers was great too, and continued the lampooning of The Donald, and that thing living on his head. It was clearly evident, as the camera captured his response, that The Donald was NOT amused.
Common_Sense on May 01 at 10:53 a.m.
Why hasn’t Orly Taitz been deported. If anyone has no right to talk, its her. She was not born here, was given great opportunities here and her goal the past two years has been to cause grief and havoc to our court system at taxpayer expense. Additionally, her calling into question the legitimacy of our President should be worthy of revoking her citizenship and sending her back to her homeland.
lovetheissues on May 02 at 1:04 p.m.
I am pretty happy this issue is over, now can we let the man work. If he did not have these types of issues to worry about, we would be on the road to recovry. GO BO!
cdabornandraised on May 03 at 11:30 a.m.
The birth certificate says “Barack Hussein Obama” … interesting that he didn’t change his name to “Barack” until much later in his life. He was born as Barry Soetoro so why doesn’t the birth say Barry Soetoro. It still does not explain how he was able to attend Occidental College on a foreign student aid grant … as an Indonesian citizen???? Also, why did he spend over 8 million dollars to keep this from coming out if it was so easy to just release it? ….This adds up about as much as the “kill mission”! I thought we were Americans here … land of the free and home of the brave? What happened to innocent until proven guilty in a court of law? Where is the war crimes trial? If they were close enough to shoot him in the head … they could easily have used a non-lethal weapon to take him alive for further interrogation. Saddam got a trial .. why not Bin Laden? And the burial at sea is quite a coincidence don’t you think? Wake up america … and quit watching your high def. TVs.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/english-translation-of-barry-soetoro-school-doc.png
gailandmarshall on May 03 at 8:45 p.m.
Ms J - haha, yeah the “birth video” was hilarious. I’m personally not much of a fan of this administration, but at least we have a president with a good sense of humor.
The birther issue is ridiculous. It casts a bad light on all people of conservative thinking. I know there have always been those people who believe in UFOs, the fake moon landing and other hilarious conspiracy theories, but to see people who are supposed to be intelligent believing this crap is really disheartening… Especially when one of those people might be running for president next year (please, God, nooooo).
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 03 at 9:34 p.m.
Got my first “bumper sticker” for the 2012 campaign in the mail today… it will be on my little Jetta tomorrow morning… BarackObama2012.com looking forward to working and contributing to his re election.. John…
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 03 at 9:38 p.m.
Oops barackobama.com J