Birthers Score a Victory of Sorts

The birthers just won't go away. They started with President Obama's birth certificate, claiming it wasn't the "long form" or the "certificate of live birth." They insisted that the long form be released, and while they waited, they came up with endless loopy theories. When they ran up against 1961 birth announcements in two Hawaii newspapers, a bunch of birthers bailed. I mean, it takes a hell of a tinfoil hat to try to spin a theory that explains that one away. Still, some birthers have heavy duty foil and lots of time. Some still think Obama was born in Kenya or Canada or elsewhere.

Orly, with the of an equivalent of an "I'm with stupid"
sign. The arrow should go both ways. Image
from ThinkProgress.org.

Then, Obama released the danged long form, and the birthers gave up.

Just kidding. That probably peeled off quite a few more of them, but the true nuts are still on board. They said the long form was fraudulent, and had many "experts" "prove" it, by dissecting the "layers" in the White House's scan of the document. Let me say that again, this was the scan of the document, not the document itself that the birthers were examining. Zooming in, talking about pixels. . .it was insane. And I proved them wrong here.

Since the birth certificate thing just makes them sound nuts, the after-birthers arrived. They've mostly ditched that issue, and the issue of the President's birthplace, in favor of a variety of technical issues that they believe will retroactively disqualify Barack Obama, and send him packing. Things like Obama's dad having been born in Kenya, obscure legal theories on the term "natural born citizen," among others. They really think they're going to bounce Obama on a technicality.

They got a tiny glimmer of hope from a daft Georgia judge, who thinks he can compel a sitting President into his courtroom, so that Orly Taitz can go on a fishing expedition on this and other issues (she insists he's had several invalid Social Security numbers, among other things). Obama obviously will not go, and nothing is likely to come of this. But they'll keep tilting at that windmill, you can count on it.


[Excerpt]

Georgia Judge Thinks Obama Needs To Testify In Birther Case 


In a decision that broke with every other judge to consider the issue, including at least one judge who effectively fined birther queen Orly Taiz $20,000 for pressing the absurd claim that President Obama is not a citizen eligible to serve as president, a Georgia administrative law judge sided Taitz and several of her clients’ in an effort to force President Obama to testify in a birther case. . .

Read more at: Think Progress