I've piled enough compliments upon the writings of actor/blogger Steven Weber in this space in the past. This time I'll just say. . .what he said.
[Excerpt]
Impossible Truths
. . .It's deeper and darker than the Right's dislike for, say, Bill Clinton who, while an out n' proud Democrat was also very clearly a good friend to big business (NAFTA) and a thorn in the side of the poor (his welfare reform initiative) and despite his being brought down in a concerted effort by genophobic forces bent on instilling morality at the expense of governmental effectiveness, he was always regarded by the Right with respect, however grudging.
And that speaks to the glaring double standard which was and still is at the heart of the lion's share of Right Wing opposition to Barak Obama:
UPDATE: Thanks to friend and contributor Stupid Monkey Planet for doing the legwork and confirming that it is indeed a hoax. Had to be! Thanks, Monkey.
Really? It's not April Fool's Day, Ashton Kutcher stopped making Punk'd years ago, and this doesn't seem to be from The Onion. But I'm still suspicious. Could there really be a group of people so out-of-touch in 2010? Really? I'm just having a hard time believing it's true.
[Excerpt]
New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the ‘street-ball’ played by ‘people of color.’
new professional basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) sent out a press release on Sunday saying that it intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.” AABA commissioner Don “Moose” Lewis insists that he’s not racist, but he just wants to get away from the “street-ball” played by “people of color” and back to “fundamental basketball.” Lewis cited the recent incidents of bad behavior by NBA players, implying that such actions would never happen with white players. . .
This morning, on the right wing talk radio program (Morning Source with Alan Stock), the topic--this being Nevada--was still Harry Reid's comments from the political gossip book Game Change. And for the gazillionth time, I heard right-wing jabberers making a false equivalency. "Can you just imagine," the line goes, "if a Republican said the same things Harry Reid said?" Well, yes, we can imagine it, which kind of proves my point.
Reid has worked for many years for minority rights, and has no history of malice toward black people or anyone else. That is called "context," and I know that some Republicans have difficulty understanding why this is not the same thing as Trent Lott wishing that segregationist Strom Thurmond had won the 1948 presidential race, so that we wouldn't be having "all these problems" now. So let me help you out.
Suppose you heard that "Larry the Cable Guy" had called Britney Spears an inbred, white trash, trailer slut. Given his accent and delivery, you'd probably laugh or possibly not even react at all. Now, imagine Barack Obama said exactly the same thing. Yeah. It's not the same is it?
For the second time in the past two weeks the antiquated term "negro" has been in the news. Last time, it was the use of the word in the census. This week, it has been revealed in a tabloidy political book that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the word in relation to then Senator Barack Obama. Now, to be fair, Reid was not using the word in a pejorative way.
His statement--saying essentially that in America today, a fairer skinned black person with an educated, middle-American speaking style would do better running for President than would a darker skinned person with a more colloquial speaking style--is true. It may be uncomfortable, and it for sure was inartfully articulated, but it is true. Predictably, conservatives are making hay with it. But true to form, they're taking it way around the bend. Having Michael Steele, lord god king foot-in-his-mouth--with his own racially insensitive statement last week--be their point man is just bizarre. Comparing Reid to former Leader Trent Lott, who said that a segregationist would have solved all of our problems as President in the forties is even weirder. And demanding that Reid step down as speaker is just stupid.
As a Nevadan, I have my gripes with Reid. But we also have Senator Ensign, so come on now, which has had a worse offense?
[Excerpt]
Sen. Harry Reid and the 'double standard'
GOP Chairman Michael Steele and other Republicans on Sunday accused Democrats of a double standard, saying they accepted Sen. Harry Reid’s apology for racial comments about President Obama, but they also should have demanded that the Nevada Senator step down. . .
Oh papa-tuney, we've got a looney! What kind of business puts up something like this? Sure, you're gonna draw in some rabid-right birthers. But how many people are going to be put off by something like this? And are they really still trying to maintain that this sort of attitude is in no way racist? Really?!?
[Excerpt]
Billboard in Colo. links Obama with jihadists
A billboard showing President Barack Obama wearing a turban has sparked a lot of attention at the suburban Denver used car dealership that put it up. . .
I don't think I've written anything about the whole Officer Crowley/Professor Gates/President Obama brouhaha on the blog. I did discuss it with my former-cop friend Les, who was--shall we say--animated on the issue. Understandable, since he can easily put himself into the situation.
Me, I just assumed both sides overreacted, and that the President--who knows Gates personally--used a few ill chosen words describing the incident. I was frankly surprised the story had enough legs to stomp around as much as it has. But the story keeps chugging, egged on by both sides. I personally tend to try and give the benefit of the doubt in stories where I have no personal knowledge
In my mind, it goes something like this: The cop checks out the situation, hears from the witness, and goes up to the house. Gates, taken aback by the appearance of the cop, flies off the handle (having just travelled from China, probably already irritable). Gates--who has likely been in racially charged confrontations before--rightly or wrongly assumes his race has something to do with it, adding to his irritation. The cop--who I won't assume was racially motivated--is now irritable too. "Hey, I'm just doing my job, and this guy's busting my balls" he might think. So, when Gates steps outside, the cop sees a way to "win" this particular argument, and does. He probably shouldn't have done that, arresting somebody for being annoying. And Gates probably shouldn't have flown into a rage on the assumption that the cop was a racist.
In my view, there's every possibility that both men were right and wrong in their own way. I'd be irritated if a cop was still acting like I was a suspect after I produced ID. And I'd be irritated if I was accused of being a racist if I wasn't. Both had reason to get upset, and both took it too far. There, all done, right? Especially after the truce being drawn, and an agreed to meeting at the White House. Something tells me, it's not over though. Betcha this just keeps finding new ways to irritate people. For instance, this clip from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, with fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell. I enjoyed the segment, but I'd wager it will start a new round of grousing. . .
I've been doing a little more reading about the whole "birther" phenomenon, since the topic of President Obama's "natural born citizenship" has been bubbling to the surface in the mainstream media of late. What I've found has done nothing to suck me into the conspiracy theory, and reinforced my notion that the whole controversy is utterly, completely and thoroughly ridiculous.
But what are the motives behind the adherents to this idiotic theory? For a goodly number of them, I'm convinced that racism--whether unconscious or overt--is at the root of most birthers' reasons for believing it. They simply can't believe that a black guy won. Possibly some of them are more xenophobic than racist, and have a problem with the fact that Obama had a father and a step-father who were both foreign, and had non-Christian beliefs. So, I'd guess that a majority of the birthers are some combination of racists, xenophobes and Christian fundamentalists who can not tolerate any hint of non-Christianity.
But what of those who insist that "all they want" is to see the long-form birth certificate? What is on it that they think they're going to find? Some say they want to see the doctor's signature, and some want to see the hospital of birth. Both of those items would be confirmation that Obama really was born in Honolulu (or not), and would say for sure, one way or another, if Obama was a natural born citizen. But is that all they're really after? I suspect that the reason that they really want to see it is for the potential reasons that Obama has not released it.
Of course, Obama may be withholding it for perfectly logical reasons like a) the original is lost, or b) he knows there is no reason to do so, and that confounding these crazies is more fun. They wouldn't likely believe the document was real if they saw it anyway. But there are all kinds of potentially embarrassing things on the document that Obama doesn't want us to see, if you try to speculate about it. I got out my own birth certificate to see what sorts of things I might not want people to know.
I was born in 1966 to teenagers. Mom was still in high school, and Dad was a college freshman. My birth certificate affirms that they were 18 and 19, that they were married, both white, and Dad was a student, and they didn't even ask if Mom had a job. Mom was asyphilitic. Whew! Mom didn't have syphilis! Other information confirms that we lived in the city limits of Columbus, and that we did not live on a farm. Mom didn't have any miscarriages, terminated pregnancies, stillbirths, or other children living or dead. I was delivered by a doctor, not a midwife, D.O. or "other." I was not part of a twin or triplet birth. And my birth certificate was recorded 27 days after I was born.
Now, there is nothing there that I find embarrassing. But if I was a public figure, and my birth certificate did say something, like that Mom and Dad weren't married, or Mom was under age, or had syphilis, or that Dad was a soviet spy rather than a student, I suppose I might want to suppress my "long form" document. So, when you hear "there's simply no other reason he'd withhold it, unless he's not a citizen!" I'm sure you can think of other explanations.
If you can't, I've got a website for you. It's a "birther" debunking site, and it absolutely demolishes the entire, tangled conspiracy theory. The things that birthers keep barking out, like "his grandmother insists Obama was born in Kenya" are absolutely untrue, and are extensively documented. That's another way you can tell the whole theory is bogus. . .they almost never have anything to back up what they're saying, and when they do, they take it out of context.
If you don't watch cable "news," or read the blogs very much, you might not yet have stumbled upon the conspiracy theorists known (sometimes derisively) as "birthers." I've written about them before of course. They're the ones who were very disturbed by the peaceful transition of power from the George W. Bush era to Barack Obama. Hey, I was as surprised as anyone, figuring that Bush/Cheney/Rove would come up with something, anything to hold on to power. But I digress. . .
These are the "Obama's an Arab/Mulim/Muslin/Manchurian Candidate/Socialist/Marxist/Communist/Fascist" people, and they were mightily vexed that America could or would elect a black guy. If you think otherwise, you're kidding yourself. So, they assign all of those labels to him, and maintain that he only could have been elected with the help of ACORN and dead people, and oh yeah, he lied to the rest of us, fooling us into voting for him. But there's icing on their demented little cake.
Through a series of suppositions and wild conclusions, they maintain that Obama is not a "natural born citizen," and is thus ineligible for the Presidency. They basically want his Presidency annulled. Most of this hinges on the fact that there hasn't been a public airing of his original "long form" birth certificate. Never mind that he has a passport, had an American mother, was sworn in as an Illinois state senator and as a US senator. Never mind that there was a birth announcement in 1961 less than a week after he was born. No matter what argument or piece of evidence is presented, they swat it down, and add another layer to their conspiracy theory.
Like any conspiracy theory though, the thing starts to fall apart when the theorists can't keep their allegations and conclusions straight. Various claims have him being born in Kenya, Indonesia, Canada and the Pacific Ocean. They claim various alleged dual citizenships in other countries, and travels to places that were supposedly barred to Americans. They claim that Obama could obtain his long form certificate for $8, $10, $12 or $15. They claim that Obama has spent a million, two million or "millions" of dollars to pay a fleet of lawyers to keep it all covered up. But nowhere--at least not that I can find--are those claims verifiable.
The one thing they are consistent on, is that they say if Obama would simply show them the long form (I'm assuming to each one of them individually), this "would all go away." Like hell it would. No other bit of evidence has convinced them, not the State of Hawaii's verification, not FactCheck.org, not even people on their own side of the political aisle who dismiss the claim. They would contend that it was phony, and you can bet on that.
Further speculation is spent on why he won't show it. And here they are all over the place. But I can come up with a few reasons myself. Here are some of my best guesses.
• He doesn't have it, and Hawaii can't produce it. Certainly possible after 48 years.
• He doesn't feel the need, since what he's already provided satisfied Congress and others.
• There's something big or small on the certificate that he doesn't want to release to the public such as: - Maybe Mom & Dad weren't yet officially married
- Maybe there was something embarrassing like an STD (they used to ask that)
- Maybe his Doctor's name was Damien Thorne, or his weight was 6.66 pounds
- Maybe a mistake was made, like the F box was checked instead of M
- Maybe his original name was misspelled or weirder than Barack Hussein Obama (unlikely)
- Maybe there was a notation "that's one goofy looking kid" or something
• He'd rather let the birthers go about ranting, making the GOP look like a big bag of crazy
I'm thinking that last one is the closest to the truth.
Ain't they clever? And so up on their history. Why, President Obama is exactly like a Nazi! And ACORN is indistinguishable from the SS! Of course! I don't know why we didn't see it before. Oh yeah, it's because we're not stupid, bigoted, crazy people.
[Excerpt]
Jacksonville Tea Party Protest Features Signs Comparing President Obama To Hitler
During July 4th celebrations last weekend, anti-Obama protesters again assembled for tea parties across the country. The Washington Independent has noted that the tea party movement has lost steam since April, and that the protests last weekend were sporadic. In Jacksonville, FL, attendance was estimated to be 4,500 people for the April protest, but last week drew only 1,000. . .
