I don’t know why, but one of the very frequent tweets tagged #birther says in various forms that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement.
One Twitter message had this picture attached:
Obama Conspiracy Theories, after extensive research, has gotten to the root of the phenomenon, and here are the graphic results:
I think these tweets are indeed the result of the principle, “monkey see, monkey do.” One of the promoters of this “monkey business” threw some Monkey Chow™ to the birthers last April. Jerome Corsi at WND wrote an article titled “Sheriff Joe Expands Obama Probe to Hillary Supporters,” by which he means that (according to Corsi) Sheriff Arpaio is going to find out what Clinton supporters in 2008 knew about Obama’s eligibility. Corsi gets in the monkey swing of things by saying that there are “dozens” of unnamed Clinton supporters ready to come up with evidence and affidavits. Corsi makes his story more attractive by putting lipstick (Arpaio) on it.
“Oh, any day now! Any day now! Oh please, I want it to be true! Zullo and Arpaio will save us from shame. We will be vindicated and all the Obots will go to jail. We birthers will rise from the nut heap of history, and become the patriotic saviors of America.” Not.
This is a story that I have generally ignored. I ignored it because there’s no evidence to sift, no logic to analyze. The claim originally came allegedly from a Hollywood film producer Bettina Viviano1 who said (and that is all there is) that she heard Bill Clinton say Obama is not eligible. To explain why Clinton never raised the issue in the campaign, they say Obama threatened to kill Chelsea Clinton. That’s silly. Rather than allow his daughter to be threatened, Bill Clinton (as every good “Clinton Body Count” conspiracy theorist knows) would just have had Obama killed.
The Clinton’s were never birthers, because neither of them is stupid enough to believe that garbage. If you really want to know where the birthers started, read Loren’s article, “The Secret Origin of the Birthers.”
1The Internet Movie Database credits Viviano with 9 films.
One of Viviano’s films, Jack and Jill, received three favorable reviews out of 105 counted by rottentomatoes.com.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jack_and_jill_2011/
It was the only one of her films I had ever heard of.
here’s huckabee’s statement:
“I just don’t think it’s completely necessary for us to delve into such extraneous matters. And I’ll tell you, the idea that he’s not a citizen – you know why that’s nonsense? Because if there was a shred of truth to it, Hillary Clinton and her wonderful investigative opposition research team would have found it and would have used it,” he told me. “And for Republicans to even be bringing it up, I think it’s a waste of energy and time. Let’s focus on the issues with which we have disagreement, not on really the extraneous personal things that are immaterial.”
if i remember correctly even if viviano’s claim were true ( and unicorns delivered free beer ) the story is still pre-dated by the first birther post on freerebublic.
–there’ll always be folks that enjoy their words in print, it helps stabilize them. Let’s not wake them. Their comfort clashes with truth, bitterly because truth is his president is the one that submitted the bc proven to be false as proof of his identity, now wasn’t it. Or is he convincing us now that it was Hillary?
It wasn’t.
This is one of my favorite Birther stories!
Yep- Hilary was a birther until that scary black man from Chicago threatened Chelsea and then she kept running- but didn’t raise the issue out of fear for Chelsea.
Which is just ridiculous to anyone with a brain.
The Clinton’s had had 8 years of Secret Service protection, were still under Secret Service protection and why they would have feared in anyway the threats of a guy from Chicago rather than just siccing the Secret Service on him- thus ending both the threat and the only viable political opposition within the Democratic Party is something only Birthers can believe.
But I like your answer better than mine.
And Birthers usually believe Hilary was behind Vince Foster being killed too….which makes it even more ridiculous.
Birthers always say Hillary started it as if that somehow gives their claims more credibility.
They also seem to think that because James Manning and Alan Keyes are birthers, they can’t possibly be racist.
Just like their faux-Democrat ballot challengers. They got some nutjob to register as Democrat, then as write-in candidate for a primary and then shouted “look, a Democrat is challenging Obama!”.
This is a symptom of their black-and-white world view. As soon as a Democrat criticizes Obama, it’s “he’s abandoned him, he hates him now”, because in their world, you cannot possibly be anything but 100% for or 100% against somebody.
It’s an attempt to deflect charges that birthers are all right-wing racists.
That Jack and Jill film is a real curiosity.
Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes and it got only a 3.4 rating on the IMDB.
In fact, I think she only produced one film that got over 6 in ratings.
Here is an interesting comment to an upcoming film of hers:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731696/board/nest/203168879?ref_=tt_bd_1
I think one of the reasons why this claim got any traction is that a good chunk of the early protobirthers were in the PUMA movement, and the birther claims found very fertile ground there.
Philip Berg was a Hillary Clinton supporter.
Helen Tansy, Bettina Viviano, “TexasDarlin”, Pamela Barnett, Dr. Kate, Kevin DuJan, Linda Starr Belcher, and Mara Zebest were all PUMAs.
The blog “No Quarter” was a very fertile ground for both PUMAs and the protobirthers.
Montgomery Sibley showed up at a PUMA gathering representing Larry Sinclair.
Jerome Corsi showed up at an early PUMA gathering as well.
Both “Polarik” and “Techdude” got a lot of support from PUMA blogs.
As for Bettina Viviano and “Jack and Jill”, I will note it’s an award winner. Indeed, it swept the 2012 “Razzies”, getting the Razzie for:
Worst Picture
Worst Actor
Worst Actress
Worst Supporting Actor
Worst Supporting Actress
Worst Screen Ensemble
Worst Director
Worst Remake, Rip-off, or Sequel
Worst Screen Couple
and Worst Screenplay.
It was the first movie to sweep the Razzies, earning more “Worst” awards than Battlefield Earth did 10 years previously.
I thought Leonard Part 6 swept the Razzies.
Nope. Leonard Part 6 only got Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Screenplay.
Bill Cosby actually accepted his Razzies on Fox’s The Late Show. (Cosby was so disappointed with the film, he told people not to see it.)
Sorry for continuing the off-topic thread, but as much as I can’t endorse that admittedly crappy movie, the Al Pacino “Dunkaccino” commercial made the whole thing worthwhile for me. Plus, Johnny Depp wearing a Justin Bieber t-shirt…
I remember watching that and I remember how Cosby’s acceptance speech for each award reminded everyone he could not have done it alone.
Funny.
And obvious proof that ebil librul Hollywood knows she is onto something and was trying to oppress her – or something. Therefore, birthers are right. The end. *lol*
Nothing could be worse than “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”
Objection. Plan 9 is so bad that it’s good again. There’s many other movies that are so bad you simply can’t sit through it.
For me, “Meet the Spartans” is an example, or “Hereafter”.
Ed Wood trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CawVaHxWvnA
“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” with 8-year-old Pia Zadora playing the role of one of the Martian children.
Zadora was once married to Meshulam Riklis, an Israeli, who bankrolled much of her “career.”
I can think of four that are worse:
1) Barn of the Blood Llama
2) Manos – Hands of Fate
3) A Polish Vampire in Burbank
4) Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars
The worst movie I remember is one called “Sno-Line” (aka Texas Godfather) starring Vince (Ben Casey) Edwards. I have never found anyone else who admits seeing this movie.
http://twitpic.com/c7uioj
There are several UFO and paranormal “documentaries” that are unwatchable.
Sorry, Misha, but “Plan 9 from Outer Space” isn’t even Ed Wood’s worst film. That’s got to be “Glen or Glenda”, Wood’s defence of cashmere sweaters and cross-dressing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_or_glenda
Listening to Bela Lugosi say “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” as he describes what little boys are made of is … baffling and yet uninteresting. I can’t think of another film like it, though maybe, as “Glen or Glenda” is a “documentary”, you could still give the prize to “Plan 9″…
Bill Bixby hosted two “Is Elvis Alive?” specials.
I watched a few minutes of one and couldn’t bear it.
Agreed, Ed Wood’s movies are bad, but they aren’t boring. I saw Plan 9 at the Film Forum in New York City back in the nineties and the audience laughed so much that it almost seemed like being at a comedy.
I’m trying to find the title of a movie that is so bad it has apparently been removed from IMDB. It was a ‘science fiction’ flick ‘starring’ Michael Cole (of The Mod Squad) where all these people were trapped in a small town and kept running into an invisible wall. They finally came to the conclusion they were in some alien version of a kids ant farm.
The promo posters showed Cole in a defensive stance holding the damsel in distress around the waist with one arm and a gun in the other. There were space ships with ray guns firing in the background. In the film there was no damsel in distress to rescue, no space ships, no ray guns.
That is my nominee for worst movie of all time.
A close second is the Mel Gibson dog called “Signs”. What made it especially egregious beyond its ordinary badness was that it was supposed to be a mainstream thriller, not a ‘B’ or ‘C’ like Woods stuff or the above Michael Cole piece of doggend.
One of “Jack and Jill”‘s Razzies was for being the worst rip-off. Theoretically of “Glen or Glenda”.
sorry, but you haven’t suffered until you’ve seen “puma man”
“star donald pleasence once cited this as the worst film he had ever been in.”
i lived through it even before mystery science theater got to it.
Okay, I’ve never see Puma Man, but could it really be as bad as Robot Monster? That is the worst Sci-Fi film I’ve ever seen. I watched it in disbelief. The “monster” in question refers to itself as “Ro-Man” (because he’s half robot and half man) but he’s in a gorilla suit while wearing a deep-sea diving helmet. I noticed Puma Man got a slightly lower score than Robot Monster (2.2 to 2.8 audience average score) on IMDB, so I’m reserving judgement as to which is worse, but if you’re right, aarrgghh, then there’s no legitimate reason for you to still be a sighted person. (If you are sighted!) ) I almost poked my own eyes out while watching Robot Monster. I can only imagine (in horror) what you wanted to do to yourself.
OMG — I remember that movie! Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth in 3D, AKA The Bubble. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060396/?ref_=ttrel_rel_tt
It’s tied on my total worst movies of all time with “Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn” which we retitled “Minor Irritation of some dude, in 3D”.
Whatever4: I scorn your “worst movie ever” attribution for The Bubble. It’s got an IMDB average rating of 5. That puts it in the category of films very like Citizen Kane when compared to Puma Man.
Also, I saw it when I was a kid and I really liked it. It seemed “cool”.
(The Simpsons movie copied the “bubble” concept, by the way.)
Another one which is right up there (or down there) with Robot Monster is The Creeping Terror. A giant carpet terrorizes the countryside. The original soundtrack was lost so the actors had to dub their dialogue (badly) in the studio afterwards.
Okay, Rickey, you win! I’d like to both thank you and curse you, since I’ve wasted an hour and change of my time on earth watching The Creeping Terror. It’s on Youtube in its entirety. At my first view of the walking carpet – a carpet with a train, so it’s kind of half carpet, half wedding dress! – I knew I’d found a movie weirder than Robot Monster. But the narration! Wow. Frank Zappa had a song celebrating bad movies. It was called “Cheepnis”. It’s a song that could have been written for this movie!
Yeah that’s the one! I knew it had 3 or 4 different titles because its reputation as a stinker preceded it where ever it went.
I saw it as ‘Invasion of Planet Earth’ or some such and didn’t recognize it on Cole’s filmography where its listed as ‘The Bubble’.
I also saw it in 2D and had no idea it was filmed in 3D. What a waste of film stock.