Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

TINY CROWD PRAYS SUPREME COURT WILL INVALIDATE PRES.-ELECT OBAMA'S ELECTION




A small but virulent group of rightwing fanatics is hoping the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Donofrio v. Wells, which argues that Obama's placement on the New Jersey presidential election ballot was invalid because he is not a natural born citizen. The justices are expected to dismiss the case.


Undaunted, this tiny, noisy group of deluded nutcases showed up on the steps of the Supreme Court on Friday to pray that the justices will nullify the election, where 67 million Americans voted to have Barack Obama as their next president.

Certain elements on the right have been at this underhanded villany since they tried to get Bill Clinton thrown out of office and nullify that election as well. And then there's the group of agitators in December 2000 who showed up in Florida and bullied and screamed all during the recount. Rush Limbaugh had suggested that Obama's trip to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother, who died not long after, was somehow connected to the controversy. Others, like Michael Savage, followed Limbaugh's lead, saying Obama was going to Hawaii to alter the record.


It appears that these people, when they lose an election, need to invalidate it at any cost and by any means. When we see this sort of behavior in third world countries, we are aghast and are thankful for the legal and orderly way we conduct our elections. How have these poor, misguided, misinformed losers become the face of the Republican party?
(And what's up with this "praying" that the Supreme Court will hear the case and invalidate Obama's election? Do these people actually believe GOD will step into American politics and somehow influence the SCOTUS to throw out the election results of Nov. 4? Whew! That is serious crazy.)

The essence of the case being appealed to the Supreme Court, Donofrio v. Wells, is that Obama does not meet the Constitution's requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen because his Kenyan father was a British Citizen when Obama was born in 1961. Plaintiffs argue that Obama would have had dual US and British citizen when he was born, making him ineligible.Roger Bredow, who traveled to Washington from Bethlehem, GA, helped organize the small protest. He said the case rests on an interpretation of Article II of the Constitution and immigration laws written in 1790 and 1795.


He did acknowledge that citizenship laws had been substantially amended in the last two centuries. But, "The reason that you look at those is to determine the intent of the Founding Fathers," he said.To be clear, the questions of Obama's birth have been roundly and convincingly debunked.


More on this from Slate:


The faux controversy isn't going to go away soon. Yes, Obama was born in Hawaii, and yes, he is eligible to be president. But according to several experts in conspiracy theories, and in the psychology of people who believe in conspiracy theories, there's little chance those people who think Obama is barred from the presidency will ever be convinced otherwise. "There's no amount of evidence or data that will change somebody's mind," says Michael Shermer, who is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and a columnist for Scientific American, and who holds an undergraduate and a master's degree in psychology. "The more data you present a person, the more they doubt it ... Once you're committed, especially behaviorally committed or financially committed, the more impossible it becomes to change your mind."



Any inconvenient facts are irrelevant. People who believe in a conspiracy theory "develop a selective perception, their mind refuses to accept contrary evidence," Chip Berlet, a senior analyst with Political Research Associates who studies such theories, says. "As soon as you criticize a conspiracy theory, you become part of the conspiracy."
Evan Harrington, a social psychologist who is an associate professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, agrees. "One of the tendencies of the conspiracy notion, the whole appeal, is that a lot of the information the believer has is secret or special," Harrington says. "The real evidence is out there, [and] you can give them all this evidence, but they'll have convenient ways to discredit [it]."



Whatever can't be ignored can be twisted to fit into the narrative; every new disclosure of something that should, by rights, end the controversy only opens up new questions, identifies new plotters. Perhaps the most common argument of those questioning Obama's eligibility is that he should just release his full, original birth certificate, rather than the shorter certification, which is a copy. His failure to do so only proves there is reason to be suspicious, they say, and if the document was released, the issue would go away. But that's unlikely. It was, after all, the Obama campaign's release of the certification this summer that stoked the fever of conspiracy mongers.



For believers, it works like this: So what if Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the director of Hawaii's Department of Health, released a statement saying she has verified that the state has the original birth certificate on record? So what if she said separately that the certification looks identical to one she was issued for her own Hawaii birth certificate? Why didn't her statement specify Obama's birthplace? So what if a Hawaii Health Department spokeswoman later clarified that Fukino meant that Obama was born in Hawaii? So what if researchers for FactCheck.org actually saw the physical copy of the certification and debunked much of the key "evidence" supposedly proving that the image posted online is a forgery? They're not really independent. They're funded by the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Obama once (with Bill Ayers, no less) ran an entirely unrelated program that happened to be paid for with money donated by Walter Annenberg. And on and on and on.


If the long-form birth certificate were released, with its unequivocal identification of Hawaii as Obama's place of birth, the cycle would almost certainly continue. Rush Limbaugh already
suggested that Obama's trip to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother, who died not long after, was somehow connected to the controversy. Others, like Michael Savage, followed Limbaugh's lead, saying Obama was going to Hawaii to alter the record.



Not surprisingly, almost all of the people who've been most prominent in pushing this story have a history of conspiracist thought. There's Jerome Corsi, who's best known as the co-author of the book that launched the Swift boat vets; he's a chief proponent of the claim that the government is secretly planning to form a "North American Union" with Canada and Mexico.


Philip Berg, who filed the lawsuit that had until now drawn the most public attention, is a 9/11 Truther.


Andy Martin, who's credited with starting the myth that Obama is a Muslim and has been intimately involved in the birth certificate mess as well, was denied admission to the Illinois bar because of a psychiatric evaluation that showed he had "moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character." He also has a long history of anti-Semitism.


Robert Schulz, who's responsible for the ads in the Tribune, is a fairly notorious tax protester. In 2007, a federal judge ordered Schulz to shutter his Web site because he and his organization were, in the words of the Justice Department's Tax Division, using the site to promote "a nationwide tax-fraud scheme."

22 comments:

Ted said...

Seems the Supreme Court is waiting to hear from me before issuing a decision on Donofrio, so here goes: While the Court is more than loathe to enter this dispute, currently it has no choice (thanks to the audacious one — and I don’t mean Leo, I mean Barack) and the ONLY WAY to bring closure, knowing CLOSURE IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL before any Presidential inauguration, is to back the original intent of the Constitution, meaning, Obama is NOT an Article II “natural born citizen” (albeit Obama may or may not be a “citizen”, a question heated by the steadfast refusal of the DNC or any of the Secretaries of State to require his birth certificate, which the Court will now not have to confront).

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dear, dear Ted,

No one but you and your very small, tiny, crazed group needs closure. Please. Try dealing with Reality. It's so...liberating.

The state of Hawaii and the majority of Americans accept the fact that Barack Obama is a US citizen.

Deal with it.

Once you get over the fact that he won the election, your life will be easier.

dmarks said...

"tried to get Bill Clinton thrown out of office and nullify that election as well"

An impeachment does not nullify an election, just as Bill Clinton leaving the usual way after 8 years does not nullify an election.

"Limbaugh, Hannity, et.al. apparently encourage this idiocy. "

I have not heard Limbaugh about it. I first heard about this issue from Hannity, and he did not take it seriously.

From my point of view, if you are born in the US you are a native.

Dave Miller said...

Ted, the state of Hawai'i has deemed Obama a US citizen of natural birth.

Are you advocating that the SCOTUS overturn what is clearly a states right issue?

The facts clearly state that Obama was born on US soil. Where is your argument?

Were you also part of the crowd arguing against McCain based on his birth at an overseas military base?

You are right on one thing though. The Supreme Court, with a majority of members having been chosen by conservative republican Presidents, will affirm Obama's right to seek the Presidency, and his citizenship, thus paving the way for his inauguration.

Enjoy it! We will.

Patrick M said...

Dmarks is right here. Rush mentioned it briefly and cautiously, and hasn't harped on it.

Because he, and you, and Dmarks, and Ted, and I, and everybody except maybe Alan Keyes and the handfull of conspiracy goofs (some of whom are abandoning the "9/11 was an inside job" mantra for this) know it's as dead as fried f'ing chicken.

To those nutberries, I say this:

Give it up. Obama is our next President. Suck it up and find something useful to do with your lives other than sitting in your parents' basement photoshopping Obama's face on Bin Laden's body and go get yourself laid.

Shaw Kenawe said...

To those nutberries, I say this:

Give it up. Obama is our next President. Suck it up and find something useful to do with your lives other than sitting in your parents' basement photoshopping Obama's face on Bin Laden's body and go get yourself laid.
--Patrick

Well.

I couldn't have said it more honestly and nor more eloquently than Patrick has.

Anonymous said...

Ted typed:

CLOSURE IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL


Nonsense. This is nothing less than a smear in the same way the Obama is a

1.) Terrorist
2.) Marxist
3.) Muslim
4.) Racist

etc. etc.

For this crowd there can never be closure. This will fester amongst this tiny pathetic group of none too bright 'patriots' for the next eight years.

Funny though how constitutional questions raised by numerous secret actions undertaken by the VP, Yoo, Addington, Gonzales, GWB hisself et. al. in the areas of energy, overturning environmental regulations, domestic spying and torture seem not to matter much at all to these clowns who claim to hold the Constitution in such high regard.

Go figure.

dmarks said...

"... racist..."

President-Elect Obama might be a racist. There are indications he might support quota, preference, etc based affirmative action. That would make him a racist, since that type of affirmative action means punishing and rewarding people for their skin color. But I do not know yet for sure if he favors that. He certainly is not hardcore on this.

Shaw: Yes, I second, or third, or fourth what Patrick said also.

Anonymous said...

dmark typed:

'President-Elect Obama might be a racist. There are indications he might support quota, preference, etc based affirmative action.'

See what I mean?

I do as well.

That make me a 'racist' or 'self-loathing, guilt-ridden white liberal'? Yet another 'war' as insidious as the 'war' on christianity. The 'attack' on the white male. Oh woe is us.

This is worth considering before we head too far down that road:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmative1.html

TAO said...

All I know is that Obama was born in Hawaii and it is acknowledged that he had a father and a mother...so, we can give up on the Messiah thing...

Then, after seeing what the old white guys have done to this country in the last few years I was desparate to vote for the black guy...

I think all these nutcases need to either be taxed to the point that they do not have any money left to promote these causes that they love to promote, which in turn makes my fellow citizens look pretty stupid when they repeat them OR I wish they would go out and get real jobs...

dmarks said...

Arthurstone: If you believe people should be punished just for having the wrong skin color, that makes you some sort of racist.

Regardless of what your skin color is.

I consistently oppose all racial discrimination, whether it is like Jim Crow or is a form of affirmative action. As long as race is used as any sort of criteria, the policy is racist. That is all we need to consider.

Me, Myself, And I said...

Thanks for you visit to my blog. I would just like to tell you that you don't have to go to Harvard to be a political moron.
You should know that...

ZmudasExpress said...

dmarks said...
Arthurstone: If you believe people should be punished just for having the wrong skin color, that makes you some sort of racist.


Oh here we go again folks.
If you are a Obama-hater, you are a racist.
An obvious bullshit fakery. With a mission to rile up gullible white folks.
When will people understand that whites can voice their opinions about blacks with-OUT being a racist? ...

Ruth said...

The praying for SC decisions is directly descended from Pat Robertson's praying for a Supreme or so to be offed by his got so that Pat R. could have things go his way. After all, the balance did change for Pat. Q.E.D.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Oh here we go again folks.
If you are a Obama-hater, you are a racist.
An obvious bullshit fakery. With a mission to rile up gullible white folks.
When will people understand that whites can voice their opinions about blacks with-OUT being a racist? ...
--ZmudasExpress

People will understand that when you understand that when someone states that Sarah Palin is woefully uninformed as well as inarticulate and naive, that doesn't mean he/she is a sexist.

When will conservatives understand that people can voice their opinions about her without being called a sexist?

Go right ahead and hate all you like. Unfortunately, it seems to be the only thing a number of you conservatives do well.

Some day you will understand that the majority of the American people don't wish to belong to a party of haters. You'll continue to be a minority party so long as you profess this unfounded hatred for others.

Anonymous said...

Affirmative Action is equivelant to Jim Crow.

Of course it is. I love how white, middle class whites decided skin color no longer mattered. Once our privileges began to dwindle and persons of color began to enjoy a measure of improvement in opportunity race no was no longer a consideration.

I wish.

Ruth said...

You got me to an inspiration, Shaw, see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2008/12/sunday-sermon.html

Patrick M said...

Tao: Then, after seeing what the old white guys have done to this country in the last few years I was desparate to vote for the black guy...

I think all these nutcases need to either be taxed to the point that they do not have any money left to promote these causes that they love to promote...


Wow. You've managed to successfully convince me by these statements that 1. you were ignorant when you cast your vote for Obama and 2. you seem to have a liking for using the tax system to manipulate people.

You fit the liberal template in ways Shaw even doesn't.

BTW, Shaw, that's a compliment to you.

Shaw Kenawe said...

BTW, Shaw, that's a compliment to you.


*THUD!*

Sound of Shaw's body hitting floor after falling off chair in dead faint.

Patrick M said...

LOL

libhom said...

Like American Atheists say, "nothing fails like prayer."

Patrick M said...

Libhom: In that case, I'll pray for you. :)