According to MLive.com, self-identified Democrat and “conservative populist” candidate to be Michigan’s governor Mark McFarlin:
…claims the term “African-American” appears on the line for race on the birth certificate and Mr. McFarlin says at the time Mr. Obama was born the term was not in use. He argues the term should have been “Negro.”
Of course, anyone who has actually looked at Barack Obama’s birth certificate knows that the term “African-American” doesn’t appear anywhere on it. I would have expected better from a “licensed private investigator.” (“Just the facts, Ma’am.”)
But even if “African-American” had appeared, there’s nothing odd about that, according to the 1961 Vital Statistics manual:
“Considered Negro” in this context does not mean “changed to Negro” but that the category “Negro” should be used when applying the rules to determine the race of the child for statistical purposes. Of course, Barack Obama Sr.’s birthplace wasn’t in the United States in the first place, and the birth certificate doesn’t say “African-American.” I suppose we must excuse McFarlin who was only 3 years old in 1961.
Speaking of cheesy, you should visit McFarlin’s web site and listen to the synthesized string music.
McFarlin is strongly “pro-life” and wrote that if elected, “the trophy hunting of wolves will not be tolerated.” He also supports random drug testing for all state employees, including the governor. That latter may stem from his experience managing the Chinese Buffet restaurant.
McFarlin ran for County Executive of Bay County in 2008 as a Democrat, and previously in 2004 as a Republican (source MLive.com). He also ran for sheriff in two counties, state senator and governor—all unsuccessfully.
Read more:
- Look! A Birther Running for Governor in Michigan! National Review
Another birther whose career is defined by failure? Color me shocked.
I don’t often like to conflate birtherism with racism, but I’ve long felt that the racist overtones are among their strongest in this claim.
Because the argument kinda boils down to “Barack Obama’s daddy was legally a Negro. Not black or African or even colored, but NEGRO. And for the state of Hawaii to call him anything *other* than a Negro is evidence of fraud.”
It speaks to the tone-deafness of some people that they don’t realize what this argument sounds like to outsiders.
It’s the top story on Birther Report this morning and, no surprise, the first comment is from………
★FALCON★ 136p 17 hours ago
Looks like the first Democrat in 100 years with a lick of common sense. The Communists will get his mind right, or plug it full of holes./
To that I would add this from his home page:
” Nationality: American
Race: Caucasian
Ethnicity: French Canadian, Sicilian, Irish”
fred flintstone should sue this guy for stealing his mug.
YABBA DABBA DON’T!
Now, Doc, “Just the facts, Ma’am” was the parody version(see St. George and the Dragonet) of Joe Friday’s standard disclaimer. And Friday was a city detective, not a private eye. 😛
A birfin’ detective … what an oxymoron. He who hires a birfer for a detective has a fool for both client and contractor!
Some of the geniacs at BR are speculating that this guy is a “sleeper” candidate, an undercover Red trying to pass as a Dem in order to split the blue vote. Well, 1) He’s off to a fine start 😀 and, 2) unless MI has nonpartisan gubernatorial elections, this subtle (haha) strategem only works if goofball wins the Dem nomination. Good luck.
I’m not a fan of prolix prose. Isn’t “misinformed birther” redundant? 🙂
The first draft of my story acknowledged the redundancy.
“I don’t belong to an organized party, I’m a Democrat.”–Will Rogers
That is the version that exists in popular culture, whatever its origins.
Stan Freberg. Yes, he’s still alive.
I wonder how many people under 40 know who he is.
As I recall, wasn’t it a so called Private Investigator who handed Orly the sure fire incontrovertible Brunel information? Would seem to be a pattern here.
Last I heard, our bright light here is a Democrat in name only, as the state party wants nothing to do with him, he would seem to be sort of a party of one electorally. Kind of reminds me of a couple of Orly’s clients come to think of it, sure fire presidential winners both, considering they couldn’t even get a minuscule percentage of 1% of the vote.
Michigan birthers.
I hate Michigan birthers.
Al Hendershot was a “skip tracer.” Mike Zullo was a private investigator as were Neil Sankey, Takeyuki Irei, Susan Daniels and Jorge L. Baro.
Turn off that Bubble Machine!
Ahhm no… I’m not under 40
This is the one I wanted to use. Took me a minute to find it.
Stan Freberg on the Dick Cavett Show
Wasn’t there a she thing claiming to be a PI involved in that mess with the endless list of names? She made some really ridiculous claims based on where the information really came from, I can’t remember her name now at all, and she was signing affidavits all over the place for Orly at one time, and has since dropped out of the picture.
[Please do not post off-topic comments on the articles. Use the Open Thread (see site menu). Doc.]
The movie was o.k.
I think it’s weird that you spend so much time and effort on this when it would be smarter to make the prez show his stuff and then move on.
Claiming beyond expertise, tsk, tsk. It’s easy to spot the BS. Professional expertise, employed with diligence and caution, reveals itself in an air of reluctance. Meanwhile, poseurs readily rush in where experience fears to tread.
Even when the birthers appeal to expertise of a questionable nature, the result is silence (“Why won’t these guys just say what we want them to say?!?”).
Every time Hendershot’s name comes up, I picture Clint Eastwood trying to pass by that name in Unforgiven … and getting a sound beating for it!
Not funny.
Even if the birthers had a valid argument or concerns, does it ever cross their minds that the type of comments they routinely make on BR and other birther blogs would turn off and scare away most anyone in positions of power from becoming involved with them? (obviously not — they aren’t known as being smart people)
They constantly make remarks about how they think anyone who voted for Obama “should be killed,” not to mention all of their racist and disgusting comments about Obama himself.
I wonder if even Arpaio has read the type of sludge that they produce? Seems like anyone with an ounce of respectability would feel their stomach turn at the negativity and disgusting remarks these people make. Stockman and anyone else who has even considered playing “footsie” with birthers should be directed to that cesspool (B.R.) so they can see what that movement is truly all about.
I think there are probably a lot of birthers turned off by some of the really nasty obscenities at BR, but birthers tend to tolerate almost anything, so long as it is against Barack Obama.
It’s probably a good thing that I got banned at BR. Commenting there brings out the worst in people.
Absolutely. It’s not good for the spirit to be around that too much. It says a lot that your guys “worst” is leaps and bounds above “their best” though. =)
If I was a conspiratorial minded person, I might think that the B.R. site is an “inside” job to discredit birthers. They’ve done more harm to their own cause than you guys could ever hope to. Fanatical, paranoid, delusional people are inevitably going to be self-destructive. It’s really no surprise that they’ve sunk to the level that they have.
It’s not going to end well for some of these people, I just hope none of them take out their misery on others beyond what they’re doing already.
Agreed. That’s exactly why I only check out Above Top Secret maybe two days out of 60.
The comments section on MLive is also pure birther comedy gold. I especially liked the guy who, when confronted with the question which other President he ever asked to see the BC of, replied “All others were born here”. That’s beyond circular reasoning, that’s Moebius reasoning. 😉
I pretty much avoid these sites, but given this conversation, I went to take a look. Beyond the radioactive toxicity on display all over the place there, I saw a post highlighting an Investor Business Daily’s editorial which plays the Bill Ayres card, that he said he wrote Dream from my Father, as if he wasn’t actually ridiculing the very notion. I immediately felt nauseous.
Long ago, I used to subscribe to IBD. Even then, I avoided the editorials, as one does with the Wall Street Journal. I long ago stopped reading them even for investor information, but this? To indulge this? Garbage like this that cannot even masquerade as anything resembling journalism?
And I once upon a time gave them money? Excuse me, I have to crawl to the toilet…
I think BR’s banned list probably has at least 10-20 times more people on it than people who actually read/comment at this time.
Yep that’s always my question when people talk about the BC. I’ve heard a lot of birthers claim every president has shown their BC (despite BCs only being normal in the US since the 1900s.) Of the Presidents I’ve only seen about 5 (Obama, Nixon, LBJ, JFK, Reagan) Using birther logic though Obama’s is the most normal of the others. Nixon’s, Reagan’s and JFKs were all delayed. Nixon’s was created through court order in his 30s. LBJs had only his last name on it at birth and was amended when he was Vice President. Reagan’s was created in his 30s. I was able to get the official BC for JFK by contacting the JFK Library and they provided me a link to their files on JFK and his family which can be found here: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-001-002.aspx
I think I will now go through the process of emailing the remaining Presidential Libraries research departments for other president’s BCs so I can do a compare and contrast. There are currently 13 libraries in the Presidential library system under the National Archives jurisdiction. It would be nice to see the others I am missing of the more recent presidents.
Another thing I notice in all these claims by birthers is the lack of comparison birthers do of other presidents. I call them out consistently on this. Like when they claim there’s no plaque at the hospital Obama was born in and no signs in the town he was born in. Well there is no plaque for George W. Bush either. The more recent is Dr Elwyn’s claims about Obama’s children claiming there are no baby pictures of sasha and malia when pointed to them they claim they’re photoshopped. “Dr Elwyn” posted one picture of Laura with the bush twins but makes no similar claims of photoshop. She also claims no birth announcements for the Obama children yet Elwyn was pointed to one for Sasha. Elwyn failed to do research to find the announcements for the Bush twins. Also no research done for Chelsea.
Umm, what? LOL! New one to me. Assuming this one dates back to the 2008 election, why should the birthplace of a presidential candidate be memorialized? Memorial comissions are expected to swing into action … when? Inauguration day? Day after election day? Before the candidate even announces a run?
Hey, why are there no memorials to all the great things I might do some day? 😉
Not new to me at all. I hear it a lot including recently on the Mike Vollin show. One of his guests mentioned it and a Phil from Connecticut brought it up during a question. Living in Connecticut myself I have been to George W. Bush’s city of birth, New Haven multiple times including going to college there. There are no road signs saying New Haven is the birthplace of George W. Bush on the highways nor is there a plaque at Yale New Haven which bought Grace New Haven (the hospital Bush was born in). The only recent president I’m aware of who has some sort of Plaque is Bill Clinton. The hospital was torn down and a spot where the hospital used to be has a plaque with Bill Clinton mentioned on it. Also the city of Bill Clinton’s birth has information as it was added to the historical landmarks under an Act of Congress when Bill Clinton was President. I haven’t been to Georgia so I don’t know if there is a plaque or sign for Jimmy Carter. The bigger question would be if there is when it was erected.
There used to be something at the Yale New Haven Hospital, actually. I ran across it while waiting for my husband who was undergoing a colonoscopy. In the Family Waiting Room in the North Building IIRC, there was some sort of sign saying that GWB was born in the hospital. This would have been 2003-ish. I don’t remember the format, but I do remember thinking that it was pretty measly. (Cardboard maybe?)
I’ll have to check this out. I still live within driving distance of New Haven and can ask the hospital in person. Vollin claimed there is something in their pamphlets at the hospital. Then again how many birthers actually went to Kapiolani and checked for signs?
In 100 years? That’s all the way back to 1913…let’s see, that includes James D. Cox, William S. Davis, Alfred E. Smith, Cactus Jack Garner, Albert Ritchie, Jimmy Byrnes, Adlai Stevenson, and, of course…George Corley Wallace.
Some of these folks will end their days in ugly confrontations with authority…heck, I just had one here at work two minutes ago…a crazy woman whose problem was, as far as I could tell before she left in a huff, was that the federal government was sabotaging her car.
In addition to having had two open-heart surgeries, being disabled, having two grandchildren, and seeing a psychiatrist, she was not impressed when I asked her what the problem was. She asked if she could talk to a “person of color.”
I told her what I tell all these people…”I’m Polynesian. I AM a person ‘of color.'” She dribbled off into saying she would take her case to the local daily newspaper of record, which is two blocks away. I hope she has fun.
These folks can be dangers to a lot of people.
hey somebody infiltrated my posts and deleted them
wordophobe!
Any and all who have made the claim, I’m sure.
No. Just moved to the ‘open thread’. You’ll find them there.
Doc does that if you insist on posting off-topic comments.
Dr. Ken:
If you look at Lucas Smith’s draft lawsuit at Scribd, http://www.scribd.com/doc/186850009/2014-Lucas-Daniel-Smith-v-PENGUIN-GROUP-USA-PENGUIN-PRESS-MARK-HALPERIN-JOHN-HEILEMAN-BARACK-HUSSEIN-OBAMA-II-JOHN-DOE-1-100-JANE-DOE-1-100
you will see as an exhibit George Bush’s birth certificate.
Actually, it is a poor forgery. It is from Massachusetts, and everyone knows he was born in Connecticut.
It is called a “Return of Birth.” Everyone knows that it is not valid unless called a “birth certificate. It’s in the Constitution. Or Declaration of Independence. You can look it up.
And clearly it was filled out by multiple people as there is multiple handwriting as they try to make the Walker baby into a Bush.
I could go on.
As yes the always dubious lucas smith provides a claim. Yes we’ve been told he was born in New Haven, CT. I will make sure to reach out to the George Bush library to make them aware of this. I can’t see it from where I am right now I assume this is W’s and not the father’s
Dr. Ken: The birth certificate is for Bush 41, not 43. It also reports that he was born at home. (As were the vast majority of our presidents.) As everyone knows, an alleged home birth allows a family to sneak a child born abroad into this country. The Walker family owns a compound in Maine, which, as we all know, is relatively close to Iceland. Or Canada. And the witnesses to his birth are all dead so there is no one Dr. Taitz or Sheriff Joe can terrorize into telling the truth.
Okay according to his bio he was born at 173 adams street in Milton, MA. What was the registration date since I can’t see it?
Dr. Ken: The birth certificate shows a birth date of June 12 and a “registration” date of June 13, a very suspicious one day delay.
Yeah using birther logic that’s definitely too quick had to have been manufactured
Dr. Ken: You really need to look at it to see the different handwriting between “George Herbert Walker” and “Bush.” Clearly two different people writing. Very suspicious.
Birthers do tend to be a one-sided lot.
Isn’t that convenient.
The National Review has the story:
http://nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/365235/look-birther-running-governor-michigan-jim-geraghty
I’m pretty sure it’s in the Magna Carta.