The occasional open thread: In the summertime when all the leaves and trees are green. And the redbird sings, but you don’t want the birthers

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Dr. Conspiracy

Place your Obama Conspiracy comments not related to the current articles here. This thread will close in two weeks.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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135 Responses to The occasional open thread: In the summertime when all the leaves and trees are green. And the redbird sings, but you don’t want the birthers

  1. RanTalbott says:
    June 30, 2014 at 12:40 am  (Quote)

    Today’s “News of the Weird”:

    Lucas Smith is now claiming the DR will ship him off to (though he would probably say “back to”) Kenya unless he successfully turns bounty hunter for them.

  2. Rickey says:
    June 30, 2014 at 2:07 am  (Quote)

    RanTalbott:
    Today’s “News of the Weird”:

    Lucas Smith is now claiming the DR will ship him off to (though he would probably say “back to”) Kenya unless he successfully turns bounty hunter for them.

    I wonder what that video is supposed to prove – that it’s possible to walk around in the parking lot?

  3. Dave says:
    June 30, 2014 at 8:50 am  (Quote)

    BR has a post by Wayne Allyn Root — he is attempting to rebut a Right Wing Watch article about what a dumbass he is — but it contains a statement I find interesting:

    “What they don’t seem to understand (or don’t want to understand) is that I’ve NEVER anywhere said Obama didn’t go to Columbia.”

    Never. He never said this.

  4. Bonsall Obot says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:09 am  (Quote)

    Dave:

    Never. He never said this.

    If pressed, he’ll claim all he said was it was remarkable that “not one person remembered him!”

  5. bovril says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:44 am  (Quote)

    In a bad news, possibly long term good news, the Supreme Court has ruled in the Hobby Lobby v Obamacare case.

    In a 5-4 split the SC ruled that for closely held companies (single family basically) with religious objections to the contraception mandate, they should be treated in the same manner as the existing exemption for religious institutions. So a knock against right of choice…..

    However, the ruling also stated that they see no reasons why the government should not be able to provide and fund said contraception. Much weasel wording but it definitely is in there.

    So, we see FedGov getting even more into healthcare provision, if I was a rabid RWNJ I might see this as a “stealth” way of gradually moving towards a single payer system….. 😎

  6. Arthur says:
    June 30, 2014 at 1:08 pm  (Quote)

    bovril: f I was a rabid RWNJ I might see this as a “stealth” way of gradually moving towards a single payer system….. 😎

    One can only hope.

  7. Bonsall Obot says:
    June 30, 2014 at 1:37 pm  (Quote)

    bovril:

    … if I was a rabid RWNJ I might see this as a “stealth” way of gradually moving towards a single payer system…..

    Of course; these people see everything as a threat. It’s all Creeping Socialism, and there are communists under the bed.

  8. Arthur B. says:
    June 30, 2014 at 1:57 pm  (Quote)

    bovril:
    In a 5-4 split the SC ruled that for closely held companies (single family basically)…

    Not quite on topic, but maybe one of the lawyers here can help me answer a question.

    If corporations are people, what happened to the principle that, at least in the United States, people are not permitted to own other people?

  9. GLaB says:
    June 30, 2014 at 2:14 pm  (Quote)

    bovril:
    However, the ruling also stated that they see no reasons why the governmentshould not be able to provide and fund said contraception. Much weasel wording but it definitely is in there.

    So, we see FedGov getting even more into healthcare provision, if I was a rabid RWNJ I might see this as a “stealth” way of gradually moving towards a single payer system…..

    I think it’s far more likely we will see “accomodations” granted to private companies in the same manner as religious groups. Alito’s decision signs off on that approach:

    “In the majority opinion on Monday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the government had other, less restrictive ways of achieving its goals. And he pointed, for example, to an “accommodation’’ devised by the White House for certain nonprofit religious organizations, like hospitals and universities, that have “religious objections’’ to providing contraceptive coverage.

    Under this arrangement, a nonprofit organization must fill out a Labor Department form certifying its objections. It gives a copy of the form to its insurance company or the administrator of its health plan, which then becomes responsible for paying claims for contraceptive services. In this way, the Obama administration says, the nonprofit entity can exempt itself from any requirement to “contract, arrange, pay or refer for contraceptive coverage.”

    Justice Alito suggested that this “accommodation” could be extended to closely held corporations like Hobby Lobby that object to providing contraceptive coverage to employees.” http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/live-coverage-of-supreme-courts-decision-in-hobby-lobby-case/

    Also, I think this decision clearly foreshadows a coming decision against Little Sisters of the Poor, et al.

    side note: for those not from the Denver area, the Little Sisters may be the most well-known religious organization in the state. Any sad-sack area sports team from t-ball to NFL has always been described as “couldn’t beat the Little Sisters of the Poor.”

  10. GLaB says:
    June 30, 2014 at 2:17 pm  (Quote)

    bovril:
    In a bad news, possibly long term good news, the Supreme Court has ruled in the Hobby Lobby v Obamacare case.

    I think we can further expect the very first shoe to drop will be some company refusing to continue to provide daycare or other parental benefits to gay employees. We all know it’s coming, and it won’t be long.

  11. JPotter says:
    June 30, 2014 at 3:34 pm  (Quote)

    Just another glaring example of the obvious need to get employers and private insurers out of the business of healthcare coverage. The People should be covered by … The People.

  12. sfjeff says:
    June 30, 2014 at 5:24 pm  (Quote)

    JPotter: Just another glaring example of the obvious need to get employers and private insurers out of the business of healthcare coverage. The People should be covered by … The People.

    The linkage of health insurance to our employers works against our interests- and the employers interests really

  13. Thinker says:
    June 30, 2014 at 7:49 pm  (Quote)

    Twelve US Presidents would have been eligible to play on other countries’ national soccer teams under the rules FIFA uses to determine nationality. 🙂

    http://thesportspost.com/blogs/view/which-world-cup-nations-could-us-presidents-represent

  14. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    June 30, 2014 at 9:00 pm  (Quote)

    A single-payer system is a way to subsidize exports.

    sfjeff: The linkage of health insurance to our employers works against our interests- and the employers interests really

  15. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:27 pm  (Quote)

    Lucas Smith says he had an extradition hearing last week, spinning quite a tale. I think he should give up his present career in favor of writing fiction.

  16. RanTalbott says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:54 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy: I think he should give up his present career in favor of writing fiction.

    I thought that was his present career.

  17. James M says:
    July 1, 2014 at 12:55 am  (Quote)

    bovril:
    In a bad news, possibly long term good news, the Supreme Court has ruled in the Hobby Lobby v Obamacare case.

    I’ve had a difficult time engaging any genuine opponent of Obamacare, in order to hear their views on today’s opinion, which, if you ignore the “Plan B” aspect, is a robust and thorough affirmation of the law.

    Today’s majority opinion does more to affirm the ACA’s authority than even the 2012 decision where it was decided that the law is not unconstitutional.

    Any opponent of the law would be crestfallen, if only they were able to comprehend what just happened to their hopes.

  18. Dave says:
    July 1, 2014 at 8:15 am  (Quote)

    As far as I know, it is true that Root never clearly stated that Obama didn’t go to Columbia. He just insinuated it, over and over, and became a widely quoted wingnut source in the process.

    Well, now he has very clearly and forcefully repudiated his insinuation, and I’d say this BR article is now a prime source to point to when wingnuts bring up the “Obama didn’t go to Columbia” meme.

    Bonsall Obot: If pressed, he’ll claim all he said was it was remarkable that “not one person remembered him!”

  19. The Magic M (not logged in) says:
    July 1, 2014 at 11:21 am  (Quote)

    Dave: now he has very clearly and forcefully repudiated his insinuation

    So he’ll be off their Christmas list once they realize what he just said. If they ever do, that is. They have never had a problem with believing mutually exclusive theories (“Obama never went to Columbia, but when he went there, he inhaled Marxism”).

  20. sfjeff says:
    July 1, 2014 at 12:27 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy: A single-payer system is a way to subsidize exports.

    Exactly- and legally within the international system.

  21. Crustacean says:
    July 1, 2014 at 1:48 pm  (Quote)

    Thinker: Twelve US Presidents would have been eligible to play on other countries’ national soccer teams under the rules FIFA uses to determine nationality.

    I’m all for it!! Hey, our Germans only lost by one goal to Germany’s Germans! 😀

  22. Crustacean says:
    July 1, 2014 at 2:06 pm  (Quote)

    I just received an invitation to connect with Linda Joy Adams via LinkedIn.

    I have never had any contact with this person. Has anyone else received such an e-mail? What the- ?

  23. Dave says:
    July 1, 2014 at 2:42 pm  (Quote)

    It has come to my attention that LinkedIn has a habit of deciding who ought to be linked up, and sending emails making these suggestions. So Adams most likely had nothing to do with this.

    Crustacean:
    I just received an invitation to connect with Linda Joy Adams via LinkedIn.

    I have never had any contact with this person.Has anyone else received such an e-mail?What the- ?

  24. Crustacean says:
    July 1, 2014 at 5:08 pm  (Quote)

    Dave: It has come to my attention that LinkedIn has a habit of deciding who ought to be linked up, and sending emails making these suggestions. So Adams most likely had nothing to do with this.

    Understood. But every other “random” LinkedIn request I’ve ever received has been from someone on my contact list. What I’d love to know is how this birther – or whatever Linda Joy Adams is – got my e-mail address.

  25. RanTalbott says:
    July 1, 2014 at 5:37 pm  (Quote)

    Dave: It has come to my attention that LinkedIn has a habit of deciding who ought to be linked up

    Hmmm, seems to me I’ve heard this story before.

    Actually, I really have heard that story: I signed up for linkedin because someone I needed to reconnect with turned up there in a google search. And it did the same thing to me. Quite persistently, iirc: I think there were several attempts to hook me up with some stranger before it gave up. I don’t think it tried again after that, though. And I never did figure out whether it was the stranger, or some “matchmaker” algorithm, that instigated it. Most likely the latter, because I’ve never uploaded more than the bare minimum I needed to get the contact info I was after.

  26. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 1, 2014 at 7:32 pm  (Quote)

    I think they tried to connect me to Orly Taitz once. I get link requests from people who work at companies I used to work at, or from customers of that company (perhaps because they are linked to people I am linked to) and sometimes from total strangers.

    Crustacean: Understood. But every other “random” LinkedIn request I’ve ever received has been from someone on my contact list. What I’d love to know is how this birther – or whatever Linda Joy Adams is – got my e-mail address.

  27. Crustacean says:
    July 1, 2014 at 7:52 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy: I think they tried to connect me to Orly Taitz once. I get link requests from people who work at companies I used to work at, or from customers of that company (perhaps because they are linked to people I am linked to) and sometimes from total strangers.

    I must’ve done a Google search on LJA or something. I swear, I’d only be mildly surprised if I were to discover that Google or Facebook had purchased the rights to my DNA (a bargain at any price! 😀 ).

  28. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 1, 2014 at 8:00 pm  (Quote)

    Fizzled article: “An epicdemic at Birther Report” about the excessive use of the word “epic” in BR headlines. It turns out they only used the word 4 times in headlines.

    The 4 instances at BR are:

    – Epic Fail: Obots Attempt To Shut Down Cold Case Posse Obama Investigation; State Backs Em Up
    – Epic Fail: Democrats Misspell Birther Airplane Banner At Mitt Romney Event
    – Epic Debate: Senate Candidate; Republicans Finally Standing Up to Tyrant Obama
    – Senator Ted Cruz Cuban Father Epic Speech Comparing Dictator Obama to Fidel Castro

    I used it once in an Open Thread.

    http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/08/the-occasional-open-thread-epic-fail-edition/

  29. Rickey says:
    July 1, 2014 at 8:49 pm  (Quote)

    Crustacean: Understood.But every other “random” LinkedIn request I’ve ever received has been from someone on my contact list.What I’d love to know is how this birther – or whatever Linda Joy Adams is – got my e-mail address.

    I got an invitation from her, too. She is the wacko who claims that she met Osama bin Laden in a Social Security office in New Jersey in the late nineties.

    I may have visited her LinkedIn page once, which would explain how she got my name. She doesn’t know my e-mail address, however. The e-mail came from LinkedIn, not from her.

  30. Reality Check says:
    July 1, 2014 at 10:18 pm  (Quote)

    Speaking of BR, it has now been five weeks since “Joe Mannix” posted a comment at BR. Bird Boy seems to have slowed down of late too.

    Dr. Conspiracy: Fizzled article: “An epicdemic at Birther Report” about the excessive use of the word “epic” in BR headlines. It turns out they only used the word 4 times in headlines.

  31. JPotter says:
    July 2, 2014 at 6:14 am  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy: Fizzled article: “An epicdemic at Birther Report” about the excessive use of the word “epic” in BR headlines. It turns out they only used the word 4 times in headlines.

    Plenty of other words are over-used at BR 😉

  32. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 2, 2014 at 8:55 am  (Quote)

    You’re lucky. Trust me.

    Rickey: She doesn’t know my e-mail address, however.

  33. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:
    July 2, 2014 at 9:42 am  (Quote)

    Just noticed that Orly’s House of Pancakes and Sedition is down again. Same notice that was up the last time her provider pulled the plug.

  34. Arthur says:
    July 2, 2014 at 2:42 pm  (Quote)

    Reality Check: Speaking of BR, it has now been five weeks since “Joe Mannix” posted a comment at BR. Bird Boy seems to have slowed down of late too.

    Perhaps Arpaio senses that he’s gotten as much money for his re-election war chest as he’s going to get out of this issue.

  35. bovril says:
    July 3, 2014 at 9:02 am  (Quote)

    And in news which will cause heads to spin like gyroscopes in denial over in the Right Wing Nut Job-o-Sphere, the figures just released show a growth in employment numbers of 281,000 in June and growth of the overall economy of 3% for the second quarter.

    Still not spectacular and I’m sure our friends on the right will all swear blind it’s all minimum wage jobs taken by eeeeeleeegals

    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-02/jobs-growth-adds-more-sunshine-to-u-dot-s-dot-economic-performance

  36. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 3, 2014 at 10:08 am  (Quote)

    Just imagine what a proper Keynesian stimulus could have done. But no, can’t have that, not while Black Hitler is in charge.

    First they tanked the economy, then they blocked the recovery. And these are the people that want a permanent majority?

  37. Arthur says:
    July 3, 2014 at 11:11 am  (Quote)

    bovril: And in news which will cause heads to spin like gyroscopes in denial over in the Right Wing Nut Job-o-Sphere, the figures just released show a growth in employment numbers of 281,000 in June and growth of the overall economy of 3% for the second quarter.

    With all the positive growth in employment and the markets, it’s surprising that Obama’s poll numbers aren’t higher. I remember when “it’s the economy stupid” still meant something 😉

  38. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 3, 2014 at 11:40 am  (Quote)

    Arthur: With all the positive growth in employment and the markets, it’s surprising that Obama’s poll numbers aren’t higher. I remember when “it’s the economy stupid” still meant something

    1. The average person is pretty dim.
    2. Half are even dimmer than that.
    3. The Right-Wing Noise Machine is cranking out anti-American and anti-Obama propaganda at an unprecedented rate.
    4. Presidents always have low approval ratings in their sixth years. He doesn’t seem troubled by it, so I’m not. History is going to justify the heck out of his service.

  39. bovril says:
    July 3, 2014 at 11:54 am  (Quote)

    Of course, as is traditional in the echo chambers of the right such as Free Republic, they take all the “analysis” of this from the likes of Karl Denninger (one of the founders of the Tea Party) and Zerohedge

    As far as they are concerned it means nothing, it’s all nonsense, it is simply Da Ebil Regime fudging the numbers, all will fall into the abyss etc etc

    Oh and lets not forget Socialism, illegal immigrants and globalisation…. etc

  40. Arthur says:
    July 3, 2014 at 12:06 pm  (Quote)

    bovril: Of course, as is traditional in the echo chambers of the right such as Free Republic, they take all the “analysis” of this from the likes of Karl Denninger (one of the founders of the Tea Party) and Zerohedge

    Another example–this ridiculous claim published in the National Review:

    “According to a major new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), net employment growth in the United States since 2000 has gone entirely to immigrants, legal and illegal.”

    I never knew that my wife, son, and eldest daughter, the new professors we hired at my college, and all the students I’ve taught since 2000 and who graduated and got jobs were immigrants. I guess when my youngest daughter gets her first job, she’ll be become an immigrant, too.

  41. Dave says:
    July 3, 2014 at 12:15 pm  (Quote)

    Employment growth since 2000?! Employment is down since 2000, so how do we discuss where the employment growth has gone? Do they mean that employment decrease since 2000 has all been laying off immigrants?

  42. James M says:
    July 3, 2014 at 12:18 pm  (Quote)

    Bonsall Obot: The average person is pretty dim.
    2. Half are even dimmer than that.

    It’s more accurate but not as catchy to say that 95.4% of the population is within two standard deviations of average intelligence.

  43. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 3, 2014 at 12:40 pm  (Quote)

    I have had a substantive email exchange with Mary Brigid McManamon, the author of an upcoming paper on the originalist view of the term “natural born citizen”, the subject of my article “New “natural born citizen” paper: sorry Ted“.

    She read the discussion about her paper here, and said that she appreciated the debate, and that it helped her to fine-tune parts of the paper before the final version is published. She’s a very gracious person.

  44. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 3, 2014 at 12:41 pm  (Quote)

    Wow! Has that always been true? 👿

    James M: It’s more accurate but not as catchy to say that 95.4% of the population is within two standard deviations of average intelligence.

  45. James M says:
    July 3, 2014 at 2:21 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:
    Employment growth since 2000?! Employment is down since 2000, so how do we discuss where the employment growth has gone? Do they mean that employment decrease since 2000 has all been laying off immigrants?

    Depending on what you measure, how you measure it, and how you interpret the measurement, you might be able to support a claim that employment growth is in decline.

    I’m stymied by some of the claims being made. I have the dubious privilege of being on the hiring side of the equation — I have open req’s for several positions which have been open for an unbelievably long time, and which have been very expensive and frustrating to try to fill. It’s a pretty good gig, too, offering a decent wage (by anyone’s standards including my own spoiled rotten mid-career educated progressive entitled Volvo-driving, college-town dwelling standards), a genuinely decent health benefit, a reasonably non-abusive workplace… and I’m wondering how I got into the universe where I don’t have to deal with “a thousand applicants for every open position.”

    Here I am trying to “be a job creator”, admittedly for jobs that require a certain level of experience, an advanced degree in a narrow range of fields, and the willingness to work for a company that isn’t a famous name, but I celebrate when I get an applicant. The experience has made me quite confident as to my own mobility and I don’t pay much attention to people who put forth the notion that the economy or the employment situation is some sort of disaster.

  46. James M says:
    July 3, 2014 at 2:49 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Wow! Has that always been true?

    I think you’re a bit of a statistician yourself, Dr. C, and as full of snark as anyone, so I’m evading that question.

  47. Sef says:
    July 3, 2014 at 6:37 pm  (Quote)

    I reconnected to Veritasium on YouTube today and found the following video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag&index=12&list=UUHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA
    Those of you who (Yoo-hoo, Orly) who think your “likes” on Facebook mean anything, please take note.

  48. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 3, 2014 at 8:43 pm  (Quote)

    For the first time since I’ve been keeping track, we’ve had comments all in one day from Dave, DaveH and Dave B.

    These are the Daves I know.

  49. Rickey says:
    July 3, 2014 at 10:35 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:
    Employment growth since 2000?! Employment is down since 2000, so how do we discuss where the employment growth has gone? Do they mean that employment decrease since 2000 has all been laying off immigrants?

    I’m not sure where you get your numbers, but they’re wrong.

    Total non-farm payrolls peaked at about 132 million in 2000.

    Total non-farm payrolls today are 138.7 million.

    How does 138.7 million translate in to a decrease from 132 million?

    http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2012/2/3/saupload_non-farm-payrolls-jan-2000-january-2012_thumb1.jpg

  50. Keith (not logged on) says:
    July 3, 2014 at 11:16 pm  (Quote)

    I was going to celebrate the 4th with my first game of golf in ten years, but it’s raining and freezing. Never mind.

  51. Dave says:
    July 3, 2014 at 11:51 pm  (Quote)

    I believe the term “employment” is generally used to mean the fraction of the workforce that is employed, that is, the opposite of unemployment. And unemployment (U-3) was around 4% in 2000, and 6-7% in 2014.

    The numbers you’re quoting, payroll, are probably what the fake thinktank “Center for Immigration Studies” meant when they said “employment.”

    Rickey: I’m not sure where you get your numbers, but they’re wrong.

    Total non-farm payrolls peaked at about 132 million in 2000.

    Total non-farm payrolls today are 138.7 million.

    How does 138.7 million translate in to a decrease from 132 million?

  52. The Magic M says:
    July 4, 2014 at 6:00 am  (Quote)

    Keith (not logged on): I was going to celebrate the 4th with my first game of golf in ten years, but it’s raining and freezing.

    There was a short attempt at BR to claim the big Arpaio show would be on July 4th some weeks ago, but it didn’t catch on. It seems birthers know that they can’t stomach too many disappointments per quarter, so after the Zullo March fail and the OAS May fail, they couldn’t shoot for another 2 months but believe in their next October surprise now.
    And if Republicans take the Senate, they will, in an echo of 2010, claim that they have to be patient and that impeachment hearings will “begin in February” and Arpaio is collecting evidence for that. Mark my words, that’s what they’ll say (*if* the GOP takes the Senate).

  53. RanTalbott says:
    July 4, 2014 at 9:43 am  (Quote)

    The Magic M: There was a short attempt at BR to claim the big Arpaio show would be on July 4th some weeks ago, but it didn’t catch on.

    It would appear that they decided to make up for that disappointment by declaring their independence from reality.

    The lead story at the moment is BR quoting Drudge quoting something called GossipCop quoting Joan Rivers saying Barack is gay and Michelle is a man. And they have Mara Zebest weighing in somehow or other (I dunno whether she was in any of the videos because I refuse to waste the time to figure out which of the 20 or so sites NoScript is blocking there hosts it).

    I think someone needs to test their water supply for hallucinogenic contaminants.

  54. Arthur says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:04 am  (Quote)

    RanTalbott: The lead story at the moment is BR quoting Drudge quoting something called GossipCop quoting Joan Rivers saying Barack is gay and Michelle is a man.

    Here’s an article about what she said; the comments that follow are disturbing, I think there’s even a poster from Birther Report chiming in.The right wingers in this country are growing more vile everyday.

  55. RanTalbott says:
    July 4, 2014 at 10:51 am  (Quote)

    A little checking of the news confirms that Rivers was ridiculing the “conservative” smear campaign by joking that Michelle being a man would make Barack gay.

    And, as usual, the humor-impaired are in a tizzy. Two tizzies, in fact: the dolts at BR are taking it as “proof” of the smear, and at least one dolt at the Advocate is saying that she’s participating in it.

    Some days I think the people who made Idiocracy were way too optimistic in setting it 500 yearsd in the future.

  56. Arthur says:
    July 4, 2014 at 11:06 am  (Quote)

    RanTalbott: A little checking of the news confirms that Rivers was ridiculing the “conservative” smear campaign by joking that Michelle being a man would make Barack gay.

    Birthers are indeed notorious for taking jokes and sarcasm as the gospel truth. As we’ve come to learn, they’ll believe anything that feeds their irrational hatred for Obama.

  57. Reality Check says:
    July 4, 2014 at 11:30 am  (Quote)

    Happy Independence Day to Doc C and all the gang from the USA here at OCT. Everyone else have a wonderful weekend.

  58. Arthur says:
    July 4, 2014 at 12:40 pm  (Quote)

    Reality Check: Happy Independence Day

    “School shootings, hatred, capitalism run amok: This 4th of July, we are in the midst of a tragic public derangement” — Has this columnist been spending time at B.R.?

    http://www.salon.com/2014/07/04/we_the_people_are_violent_and_filled_with_rage_a_nation_spinning_apart_on_its_independence_day/

  59. Majority Will says:
    July 4, 2014 at 1:18 pm  (Quote)

    “The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

    — John Adams (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

  60. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 4, 2014 at 7:34 pm  (Quote)

    I spent my 4th in Columbus, NC at their annual July 4 celebration, with street vendors, food and rides for the kids. One booth with the large words “Conservative” on it were raffling off an AR-15. It’s smaller than I would have thought.

  61. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 4, 2014 at 7:38 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy:

    It’s smaller than I would have thought.

    When a drill instructor makes you hold one at arm’s length, parallel to the ground, until he gets tired, it seems awfully big indeed.

  62. Dave says:
    July 5, 2014 at 4:49 pm  (Quote)

    BR has an article quoting something from the Hawaii Office of Information Practices saying that some of the digits in SSNs generally indicate time and place of application. Of course this is not news — I guess the news is that this well-known piece of information has been stated by a part of the state government of Hawaii. That probably has some significance to birthers, but they haven’t quite articulated what.

    But it is clear that, to BR, this proves Obama is a fraud. And yet, still, nobody who matters is paying any attention to them. I bet that seems unfair.

  63. Dave B. says:
    July 5, 2014 at 6:26 pm  (Quote)

    They’ve got that one going over at Freedom Outpost. Or should I say “Freedom Outpost.” The comments are hi-larious. One of my favorites, which I can’t tell is for real or not– and over there, it just ain’t that easy:
    “The ONLY true medical way to see if a person is male or female is to look for the adams apple. the ring finger test is a myth and no credible or rational person would accept this as evidence.”
    I’m leaning towards not-for-real.

    RanTalbott: It would appear that they decided to make up for that disappointment by declaring their independence from reality.

    The lead story at the moment is BR quoting Drudge quoting something called GossipCop quoting Joan Rivers saying Barack is gay and Michelle is a man. And they have Mara Zebest weighing in somehow or other (I dunno whether she was in any of the videos because I refuse to waste the time to figure out which of the 20 or so sites NoScript is blocking there hosts it).

    I think someone needs to test their water supply for hallucinogenic contaminants.

  64. Rickey says:
    July 5, 2014 at 6:30 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:
    I believe the term “employment” is generally used to mean the fraction of the workforce that is employed, that is, the opposite of unemployment. And unemployment (U-3) was around 4% in 2000, and 6-7% in 2014.

    If you meant to say that the unemployment rate was lower in 2000 than it is today, why not just say that and avoid any confusion? The unemployment rate in 1944 was a record low 1.2%, so by your definition there has been no employment growth since then.

    Regardless, any way you look at it the employment situation has improved dramatically since Obama took office. The unemployment rate was 7.8% on Inauguration Day 2009 and the economy was shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Now the unemployment rate is 6.1% and the economy added nearly 300,000 jobs last month.

  65. Dave says:
    July 5, 2014 at 7:14 pm  (Quote)

    I am a bit confused, because you have a tone of disagreeing with me while saying a bunch of things not entirely related to what I was saying. I don’t know what 1944 or 2009 have to do with comparing 2000 to today, which was the original subject.

    As I said in my previous comment, I suspect that when the wingnut group CIS said employment had increased since 2000 they were referring to the fact you mentioned, that the number of jobs had increased — because between 2000 and today, the number of jobs is higher, but unemployment is also higher. And when they said all those added jobs went to immigrants, well, I think they pulled that out of their bigoted butts.

    Rickey: If you meant to say that the unemployment rate was lower in 2000 than it is today, why not just say that and avoid any confusion? The unemployment rate in 1944 was a record low 1.2%, so by your definition there has been no employment growth since then.

    Regardless, any way you look at it the employment situation has improved dramatically since Obama took office. The unemployment rate was 7.8% on Inauguration Day 2009 and the economy was shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Now the unemployment rate is 6.1% and the economy added nearly 300,000 jobs last month.

  66. Rickey says:
    July 5, 2014 at 7:26 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:
    I am a bit confused, because you have a tone of disagreeing with me while saying a bunch of things not entirely related to what I was saying. I don’t know what 1944 or 2009 have to do with comparing 2000 to today, which was the original subject.

    As I said in my previous comment, I suspect that when the wingnut group CIS said employment had increased since 2000 they were referring to the fact you mentioned, that the number of jobs had increased — because between 2000 and today, the number of jobs is higher, but unemployment is also higher. And when they said all those added jobs went to immigrants, well, I think they pulled that out of their bigoted butts.

    Here is what you originally wrote:

    Employment growth since 2000?! Employment is down since 2000, so how do we discuss where the employment growth has gone? Do they mean that employment decrease since 2000 has all been laying off immigrants?

    As you noted above, it seems clear that the National Review writer was referring to total employment, not the unemployment rate. Your original post did not make it clear that you were referring to the unemployment rate.

    That said, I agree with your comments about their bigoted butts.

  67. Keith says:
    July 6, 2014 at 3:29 am  (Quote)

    Just the ZFacts, ma’am:

    Turning Around the Worst Recession Since 1938
    * Bush left office with the economy losing 10 Million jobs per year. (That was the rate of loss in January (see graph).)
    * Obama’s Job Stimulus stopped the losses in record time.
    * As of 10/7/2012, 5.2 Million private-sector jobs had been added.

    Faster Turnaround, Job losses to Job Gains
    * Bush’s second recession was twice as deep as the first one.
    * Obama stopped job losses quicker, although they were going much faster.

    Job History Since 1949, by Party
    * Since at least 1929, job growth increased every time the Dems took the White House and decreased every time Republicans did. No exceptions.
    * 2.6 times as many jobs per year were created under Democrats over the last 63 years.
    * For 83 years. If you look back to 1929, the up-down rule has held 9 times in a row — no exceptions.
    * Since Obama took office in 2009, Republicans have been trying to stop job creation to make Obama look bad.

  68. donna says:
    July 6, 2014 at 2:23 pm  (Quote)

    Conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary America, which expanded nationwide Wednesday, grossed $4 million for the five days from 1,105 theaters. That’s a modest footprint, compared to the $3,000-plus location count for the other new films.

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-transformers-4-tops-716807

  69. Dave says:
    July 6, 2014 at 9:21 pm  (Quote)

    On rottentomatoes.com, the Tomatometer for “America” stands at 12%. I don’t know of many films that have done worse. “I, Frankenstein” and “Vampire Academy” are the only two I’ve found.

  71. Keith says:
    July 7, 2014 at 2:30 am  (Quote)

    Dave:
    On rottentomatoes.com, the Tomatometer for “America” stands at 12%. I don’t know of many films that have done worse. “I, Frankenstein” and “Vampire Academy” are the only two I’ve found.

    Yeah, but RT has David Lynch’s version of “Dune” at 55%, which is at least 5.5 times too big.

    So by that benchmark, “America” should really be rated somewhere around 2.181818…

  72. Keith says:
    July 7, 2014 at 2:36 am  (Quote)

    justlw:
    0%: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771245638/

    Geebus in a handbasket. Even reading the synopsis requires brain bleach.

    Enter a galvanizing reformer, a small town mayor who took on her own political party and brought on “sudden and relentless reform.”

    “a galvanizing reformer”?… “sudden and relentless reform”? – since when was reform a conservative attribute?

    Conservatives are so-called because of the idea that they want to conserve the status quo.

  73. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 7, 2014 at 3:49 am  (Quote)

    But the Tomatometer says “no consensus yet!”

    Teach the controversy!

  74. hermitian says:
    July 7, 2014 at 6:33 am  (Quote)

    You know you could be discussing something of interest instead of this nonsense.

    Like the fact that the White House posted Dr. Ron Polland’s COLB forgery on Apr 27, 2011 and claimed that it was authentic.

    [That dubious claim was treated in my article “Polarik punks the White House?” in August of 2011. Even if it were true (and I don’t think it is), it doesn’t mean anything. Doc.]

  75. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 7, 2014 at 11:54 am  (Quote)

    Michael Shrimpton video, speaking at the London Swinton Circle (a right-wing British pressure group), Spy Hunter book launch.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J60ihbDFhNk
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2PutVrP1e0
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wr_QlsSLfg

  76. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 7, 2014 at 12:13 pm  (Quote)

    hermitian:

    You know you could be discussing something of interest instead of this nonsense.

    How funny! Greatkim was just saying the exact same thing!

    Your concern is noted.

  77. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 7, 2014 at 1:07 pm  (Quote)

    Bad news for Obama. His plot to destroy America is failing:

  78. Hermitian says:
    July 7, 2014 at 1:13 pm  (Quote)

    Andrew Vrba, PmG:
    Hermie seems more frustrated than usual. I guess the cold, hard reality about Zullo has finally set it. His hopes dashed against the rocks, like a ship full of castaways on a three hour tour.

    …A three hour tour.

    That’s because Mr. C. edited out all the good stuff from my post. He doesn’t like to revisit subjects that he posted back in 2011 and got dead wrong.

    [The recent comment from Hermitian about Polland’s forgery claim was published in its entirety and not redacted in any way. Doc.]

  79. Arthur says:
    July 7, 2014 at 1:18 pm  (Quote)

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Bad news for Obama. His plot to destroy America is failing:

    Let’s not forget those embarrassing declines in federal deficits:

    Obama Deficits
    FY 2015*: $564 billion
    FY 2014*: $649 billion
    FY 2013: $680 billion
    FY 2012: $1,087 billion
    FY 2011: $1,300 billion
    FY 2010: $1,294 billion

    Bush Deficits
    FY 2009†: $1,413 billion
    FY 2008: $458 billion
    FY 2007: $161 billion
    FY 2006: $248 billion
    FY 2005: $318 billion

    http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html

  80. Dave says:
    July 7, 2014 at 1:33 pm  (Quote)

    That chart is an interesting summary, but I find it a bit confusing. Most of those numbers reflect how things have changed since Obama took office, but some don’t. For example, the unemployment rate “6.1%” is where it is now, about 1.7% lower than when Obama took office. I’m pretty sure the long-term unemployed number of 3 million is also where it is now — it’s higher than Jan 2009, but I don’t think it’s 3 million higher. The jobs number, though, is obviously the increase.

    Far as I can tell, they’ve used a sign to indicate when the number is a delta.

  81. Thomas Brown says:
    July 7, 2014 at 2:27 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:
    That chart is an interesting summary, but I find it a bit confusing. Most of those numbers reflect how things have changed since Obama took office, but some don’t. For example, the unemployment rate “6.1%” is where it is now, about 1.7% lower than when Obama took office. I’m pretty sure the long-term unemployed number of 3 million is also where it is now — it’s higher than Jan 2009, but I don’t think it’s 3 million higher. The jobs number, though, is obviously the increase.

    Far as I can tell, they’ve used a sign to indicate when the number is a delta.

    I think the point is that by nearly any conceivable metric, things have gotten either modestly or significantly better during O’s administration… vs the RWNJ bizarro-world where America has been declining toward oblivion, and Obama is the worst president ever.

    That’s what the numbers say, taken together, period.

  82. Sef says:
    July 7, 2014 at 2:53 pm  (Quote)

    Not paying bills or check “in the mail” happens to the best of us. http://distrowatch.com/ is unavailable today. Fortunately, I know where I wanted to go.

  83. Dave says:
    July 7, 2014 at 3:58 pm  (Quote)

    Here’s a comment at BR that made me laugh. RewriteOurWorld rants at length about a tiff he’s having with another BR commenter, and winds it up with:

    Everyone should be free to share their viewpoints (except, of course, the occasional Obot troll). The hypocrisy here is pretty obvious.

    Yes. Yes, it is.

  84. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 7, 2014 at 4:09 pm  (Quote)

    Dave:

    Here’s a comment at BR that made me laugh.

    That’s…

    In a way, that’s beautiful. So elegant. So irrefutable.

    I am in awe.

  85. Rickey says:
    July 7, 2014 at 4:39 pm  (Quote)

    justlw:
    0%: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771245638/

    Richard Corliss of Time wrote the best line:

    “The movie may tempt even the most ardent conservatives to emulate their idol’s tenure as governor and walk out halfway through.”

  86. JPotter says:
    July 7, 2014 at 5:20 pm  (Quote)

    hermitian: Like the fact that the White House posted Dr. Ron Polland’s COLB forgery on Apr 27, 2011 and claimed that it was authentic.

    You’re already flailing that tired meme in at least one other forum. And that’s one forum too many.

    You really need to polish up your derailment skills. That was clumsy and obvious.

  87. Arthur says:
    July 7, 2014 at 5:33 pm  (Quote)

    Dave: Here’s a comment at BR that made me laugh.

    702 comments in that thread, a lot of them homemade cartoons and none of them having anything to do with the article. Birthers do love to bloviate . . . and play around with photoshop

  88. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:
    July 7, 2014 at 9:40 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian: That’s because Mr. C. edited out all the good stuff from my post.He doesn’t like to revisit subjects that he posted back in 2011 and got dead wrong.

    [The recent comment from Hermitian about Polland’s forgery claim was published in its entirety and not redacted in any way. Doc.]

    Hermitian, unless you can present correct, and convincing evidence that backs up your claim,(Spoiler alert: You can’t) I don’t see any reason to take you seriously.

  89. Arthur says:
    July 7, 2014 at 9:57 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian: That’s because Mr. C. edited out all the good stuff from my post.He doesn’t like to revisit subjects that he posted back in 2011 and got dead wrong.

    [The recent comment from Hermitian about Polland’s forgery claim was published in its entirety and not redacted in any way. Doc.]

    Hermie, that’s very wasteful of you! A lying birther is just needless iteration.

  90. Hermitian says:
    July 7, 2014 at 10:20 pm  (Quote)

    Andrew Vrba, PmG: Hermitian, unless you can present correct, and convincing evidence that backs up your claim,(Spoiler alert: You can’t) I don’t see any reason to take you seriously.

    I have conclusive proof that Snopes.com was linked to the Polland PhotoBucket account as late as April 7, 2012.

    The first WayBack Machine snapshot of the Polland cloned COLB image “BO_Birth_Certificate.jpg” was captured on July 9, 2008. I compared Polland’s JPEG file to the current Snopes.com JPEG file “birth.jpg” with “Beyond Compare 3”. The result was that the two files are identical (Binary same). Polland’s clone contains internal identifiers.

    [The White House screen print shows the URL of the JPG file and it is at Snopes, not anybody’s Photobucket account so your statement is proven wrong. The COLB was released by the Obama Campaign in 2008, and subsequently photographed front and back by FactCheck.org. You said [deleted comment] that in my article, “And you provided no proof that the White House took a screenshot of the Snopes.com COLB image.” But in fact my article links to the image itself and clearly states that the screen print shows the image was from Snopes, and to remind everybody, this is what appears at the bottom of the White House image:

    Whether Snopes at some point linked to the Polland image has no relevance to the validity of the COLB released in 2008 or to the birth certificate released in 2011. Where some White House staffer got a reference image for a press hand out also has no relevance to the validity of the two documents. Your objection (even if true) is not substantial. You are not invited to continue this discussion. Your other comment is deleted. Doc.]

  91. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 7, 2014 at 10:44 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian: That’s because Mr. C. edited out all the good stuff from my post.He doesn’t like to revisit subjects that he posted back in 2011 and got dead wrong.

    [The recent comment from Hermitian about Polland’s forgery claim was published in its entirety and not redacted in any way. Doc.]

    That’s gratitude for ya.

  92. Joey says:
    July 7, 2014 at 11:44 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian Henry actually believes that Ron Polland’s COLB image or the Snopes Image or the fightthesmears image or the factcheck.org image matter! None of them do.
    The only birth vital record for Barack Hussein Obama, II that matters is the original version that is in Dr. Onaka’s safe in the records division of the Hawaii Department of Health.
    All internet images are for demonstration purposes ONLY.

  93. Keith says:
    July 7, 2014 at 11:46 pm  (Quote)

    hermitian: Like the fact that the White House posted Dr. Ron Polland’s COLB forgery on Apr 27, 2011 and claimed that it was authentic.

    Holy flashback, Batman!

    I’m pretty sure that was the first POS story I heard when I first got into reading about the ‘conspiracy’.

    Bringing it up again (like a cat with a furball) is so totally transparent it hurts. There was a period there when a sock-puppet would run through a list of silly claims, then shutdown while another sock-puppet would start up and run through the same list using almost the same words. Rinse and repeat ad-infinitum.

    I still don’t know whether those folks were ‘proper’ sock-puppets or different folks playing tag team. I just know the Groundhog Day loop got real tiresome after awhile – and I never did get to learn piano even.

  94. RanTalbott says:
    July 8, 2014 at 9:44 am  (Quote)

    Arthur: and play around with photoshop

    Probably hopes it’ll help him score with Zebest…

  95. Hermitian says:
    July 8, 2014 at 4:39 pm  (Quote)

    Why does it matter ? It matters because it proves that the White House never had even an image of the COLB much less a certified copy.

    [In this case I did delete some claims from Hermitian from the above comment, and am only responding to this small part.

    No one ever claimed that the White House had a certified copy of the COLB. The Obama Campaign released that document in 2008 and that’s where FactCheck.org photographed it. The White House included an image they got from Snopes (and which they could have gotten it from a hundred other places), properly labeled as from Snopes. So your claims about what document Snopes had, even if correct, has no significance. Doc.]

  96. Thomas Brown says:
    July 8, 2014 at 5:53 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian:
    Why does it matter ?

    Hermitian… …has no significance.

    FIFY

  97. Hermitian says:
    July 8, 2014 at 6:06 pm  (Quote)

    Any interested reader can find my proof that Snopes.com was linked to the Polarik PhotoBucket as late as April 7, 2012 here:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/233088563/Snopes-com-is-Barack-Obama-a-Natural-born-Citizen-of-the-U-S

    Just click on the Blue “document” link near the bottom of the Snopes.com “Native Son” page.

    [I let this comment through, but deleted 10 others. Hermition is banned on this blog, and was against my better judgment I let any of this through. Anyone wanting to engage Hermitian might try pursue it on his blog, http://h2ooflife.wordpress.com/. Doc]

  98. Reality Check says:
    July 8, 2014 at 6:54 pm  (Quote)

    Hermie is so dishonest. On my blog he claimed that J. Scott Applewhite’s photo of the LFBC handout was absolutely not a photograph. I then contacted Mr. Applewhite and he not only confirmed it was a photograph but told me the model of the camera he used to take it. So did Hermie admit he was wrong? Of course not. He called Mr. Applewhite a liar.

    Hermitian:
    Why does it matter ?It matters because it proves that the White House never had even an image of the COLB much less a certified copy.

  99. gorefan says:
    July 8, 2014 at 6:59 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian:
    Why does it matter ?It matters because it proves that the White House never had even an image of the COLB much less a certified copy.

    From Loren’s article about Pollard’s debunked claim,

    “After Polarik went public with this claim, several holes were pointed out in his story. The Snopes image has file info that says it was last modified “Saturday, November 15, 2008 3:19:50 PM.” Polarik’s fake COLB has file info that says it was last modified “Saturday, March 12, 2011 7:48:46 AM.” Furthermore, the White House’s image is clearly not Polarik’s fake; there’s a telltale uneven line of text at the bottom that clearly distinguishes the two. All too quickly, Ron’s story was falling apart.”

    http://barackryphal.blogspot.com/2011/08/polariks-breaking-news-is-broken.html

    Loren then post Pollard’s excuse for missing the tilted line:

    “[ **UPDATE** Last year, I made a 2nd forgery with an obvious flaw in it (a tilted line) to see if people would notice it. They didn’t. People are only seeing it now because the White House posted a black & white outline of my prior image (which does not have the flaw).”

    That’s the same excuse he used when he got caught trying to pass off a fake COLB at FreeRepublic.

    And Hermie fell for it,n again. It seems the only people stupid enough to fall for it are idiot Birthers.

  100. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 8, 2014 at 7:23 pm  (Quote)

    This and the rest of the preceding discussion has been moved to the open thread.

    gorefan: From Loren’s article about Pollard’s debunked claim,

  101. Joey says:
    July 8, 2014 at 9:34 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian:
    Why does it matter ?It matters because it proves that the White House never had even an image of the COLB much less a certified copy.

    [In this case I did delete some claims from Hermitian from the above comment, and am only responding to this small part.


    No one ever claimed that the White House had a certified copy of the COLB. The Obama Campaign released that document in 2008 and that’s where FactCheck.org photographed it. The White House included an image they got from Snopes (and which they could have gotten it from a hundred other places), properly labeled as from Snopes. So your claims about what document Snopes had, even if correct, has no significance. Doc.]

    But if the White House should ever need a copy of the short form or the long form, they can order more hard copies directly from the Hawaii Department of Health. Digital images of birth certificates, forged or not, are irrelevant.

  102. gorefan says:
    July 8, 2014 at 10:38 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian:
    Any interested reader can find my proof that Snopes.com was linked to the Polarik PhotoBucket as late as April 7, 2012 here:

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/233088563/Snopes-com-is-Barack-Obama-a-Natural-born-Citizen-of-the-U-S

    Just click on the Blue “document” link near the bottom of theSnopes.com“Native Son” page.

    Why does your scribd doc for the Snopes web pages have a June 13, 2014 date?

    “snopes_com Is Barack Obama a natural-born citizen of the U_S_.htm[6/13/2014 7:08:45 AM]”

    I though these were from April, 2012?

    Here is their current page:

    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp

  103. Andrew Vrba, PmG says:
    July 9, 2014 at 6:55 pm  (Quote)

    My musing of the moment: To call Dinesh D’souza the “Ed Wood” of political documentaries, would be a terrible disrespect to Mr. Wood’s body of work. Ed Wood’s films are much more believable and authentic looking.

  104. roadburner says:
    July 9, 2014 at 8:11 pm  (Quote)

    gorefan: Why does your scribd doc for the Snopes web pages have a June 13, 2014 date?

    “snopes_com Is Barack Obama a natural-born citizen of the U_S_.htm[6/13/2014 7:08:45 AM]”

    I though these were from April, 2012?

    Here is their current page:

    http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp

    LOL!

    hermie gets spanked again!

  107. Dave says:
    July 10, 2014 at 1:12 pm  (Quote)

    BR has posted an open letter from the Society of Professional Journalists to the President criticizing the government practice of barring employees from freely talking to the press, and asking Obama to do something about it.

    There is a lot one could say about this letter, but since the topic here is birthers, let me just say this: BR and his flying monkey have never had anything good to say about journalists; on the contrary, journalists are regularly included in their lynching wishlists. But now BR posts in full a letter from a major journalism association, just because it says something critical about Obama. What effect will this have on future BR comments about the MSM shilling for Obama? I’m expecting none; birthers have never shown the least interest in consistency.

  108. Arthur says:
    July 10, 2014 at 2:15 pm  (Quote)

    Dave: I’m expecting none; birthers have never shown the least interest in consistency.

    I would say they are consistent, insofar as they celebrate anything or anyone that is critical of Obama, condemn anything Obama does, and dismiss anything or anyone that challenges their conclusions that he’s ineligible. For example, while they despise homosexuals, they fully endorse the claims of Larry Sinclair.

  109. Jim says:
    July 10, 2014 at 2:35 pm  (Quote)

    Here’s a fun one for you Doc, Y2K bug snags the Selective Service System

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-agency-sends-14000-draft-notices-to-men-born-in-1800s/

  110. Crustacean says:
    July 10, 2014 at 3:41 pm  (Quote)

    Oh the humanity!!!

    Over at the BR asylum, birfer says that Boehner should be fitted for an orange jumpsuit.

    That’s like a hanging curveball just asking to be hit out of the park, but I’m banned there. Life is unfair.

  111. JPotter says:
    July 10, 2014 at 4:06 pm  (Quote)

    Reality Check: Hermie is so dishonest. On my blog he claimed that J. Scott Applewhite’s photo of the LFBC handout was absolutely not a photograph.

    No kidding! Back in 2012, Herms was adamant that Applewhite’s image was a photograph. He went to great lengths pretending to be an expert on copystands LOL

  112. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 10, 2014 at 5:03 pm  (Quote)

    Tsk, tsk.

    Jim: Here’s a fun one for you Doc, Y2K bug snags the Selective Service System

  113. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater says:
    July 10, 2014 at 7:42 pm  (Quote)

    roadburner: LOL!

    hermie gets spanked again!

    Yup he got called big time on it. He created a scribd page where he changed the href. Vicklund came in destroying him about what Pollarik claimed from day to day. Originally he said that the first size of a certain version of the short form came from the white house page days before snopes got it. Pollarik then in 2011 claimed he created it and changed the story. Herms in trying to prove himself screwed himself over with a current date claiming it was an old screen cap from 2012

  114. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater says:
    July 10, 2014 at 7:45 pm  (Quote)

    Hermitian: [I let this comment through, but deleted 10 others. Hermition is banned on this blog, and was against my better judgment I let any of this through. Anyone wanting to engage Hermitian might try pursue it on his blog, http://h2ooflife.wordpress.com/. Doc]

    That’s not hermy’s blog that’s adrian nash’s. I know it’s hard to tell two crazy people apart sometimes.

  115. roadburner says:
    July 11, 2014 at 4:13 am  (Quote)

    Crustacean: Oh the humanity!!!Over at the BR asylum, birfer says that Boehner should be fitted for an orange jumpsuit.That’s like a hanging curveball just asking to be hit out of the park, but I’m banned there. Life is unfair.

    when boehner was given his position, they were celebrating over at BR about how he was going to have the usurper removed `any day now’

    as boehner has become too soft for them, he’s now a traitor

    sorry, been visiting BR too much lately….i’ll get my coat 😀

  116. The Magic M says:
    July 11, 2014 at 5:50 am  (Quote)

    Dave: just because it says something critical about Obama

    Birthers, like all RWNJ’s, live in a black-and-white world where you can only be 100% for or 100% against someone/something. So anyone criticizing Obama is immediately considered their ally because it means that person is now 100% anti-Obama and considers him a gay Muslim Kenyan usurper. *smh*

  117. JPotter says:
    July 11, 2014 at 7:12 am  (Quote)

    Dr. Kenneth Noisewater: That’s not hermy’s blog that’s adrian nash’s.I know it’s hard to tell two crazy people apart sometimes.

    The thought of Herms maintaining a blog is hilarious. Way too much work.

  118. Reality Check says:
    July 11, 2014 at 8:10 am  (Quote)

    Hermie hangs out mostly on Amazon discussions on Corsi’s failed book. All his comments get voted to be hidden there. He is banned pretty much everywhere else. I didn’t actually ban him. I just said he couldn’t post again until he admitted he was wrong about the AP photo and apologized for calling Applewhite a liar.

  119. Dr. Kenneth Noisewater says:
    July 11, 2014 at 9:25 am  (Quote)

    Reality Check:
    Hermie hangs out mostly on Amazon discussions on Corsi’s failed book. All his comments get voted to be hidden there. He is banned pretty much everywhere else. I didn’t actually ban him. I just said he couldn’t post again until he admitted he was wrong about the AP photo and apologized for calling Applewhite a liar.

    Yep he’s whining about everyone over there. Claiming we’re all posting lies about him. He’s rambling on about some murder where a homeless man tried to rob a couple and then he killed the military husband and shot the wife. He claims that it was racially motivated because the robber was black and claims the cops are covering it up because they say it’s not racially motivated.

  120. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 11, 2014 at 3:22 pm  (Quote)

    Orly Taitz says:

    It appears, while the site was down, someone deleted a number of comments, which I preserved as evidence. If so, it is a criminal offense, spoliation of evidence. I expect those comments back

    Posted on | July 11, 2014 | No Comments

    To which I replied: “A competent website operator keeps backups.” I might have said: “What attorney keeps their only copy of important evidence on a blog?”

    At one time, I had a copy of all the comments on her web site, but that was a while back, and that copy, used for statistical purposes, has been overwritten and is not recent. All I have now is 14.282 comments from May 25, 2013 to Feb. 13, 2014).

  121. Jim says:
    July 11, 2014 at 4:56 pm  (Quote)

    Orly Taitz says: “It appears, while the site was down, someone deleted a number of comments, which I preserved as evidence. If so, it is a criminal offense, spoliation of evidence. I expect those comments back.”

    Hey Orly, since the site was YOUR responsibility to maintain and no one else…and since you did not have a proper disaster plan in place…I guess you’ll have to turn yourself in and accept the same punishment you advocate for Lois Lerner. 😆

  122. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 11, 2014 at 7:25 pm  (Quote)

    I’m not the most responsible when it comes to backups, but if something goes wrong and I don’t have a backup, I don’t whine and blame somebody else.

    Jim: I guess you’ll have to turn yourself in and accept the same punishment you advocate for Lois Lerner

  123. John Reilly says:
    July 11, 2014 at 11:27 pm  (Quote)

    IANAL, but I’ve been cautioned by lawyers about preserving evidence. However, no one ever told me that spoliation of evidence is a crime.

    But Dr. Taitz is a lawyer. She must know this stuff.

  124. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 11, 2014 at 11:50 pm  (Quote)

    “preserved as evidence.”

    OF WHAT?

    Of people being MEAN TO YOU ON THE INTERNET?

    Holy Shlamoley, that is one stupid lawyer.

  125. RanTalbott says:
    July 12, 2014 at 12:10 am  (Quote)

    Bonsall Obot: “preserved as evidence.”

    OF WHAT?

    My theory is that she plans to try for an insanity defense next time she’s threatened with sanctions.

  126. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 12, 2014 at 12:23 am  (Quote)

    I bet every judge in California has paperwork prepared for that eventuality.

  127. Bonsall Obot says:
    July 12, 2014 at 12:30 am  (Quote)

    From Wikipedia:

    The spoliation inference is a negative evidentiary inference that a finder of fact can draw from a party’s destruction of a document or thing that is relevant to an ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding

    Emphasis mine.

    So what “ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding” does she think comments on her unreadable blog are “relevant to?”

    And how come I know more about spoliation of evidence, just from reading Wikipedia, than an actual bar-admitted lawyer does??

    By HER standard, nothing can be thrown away or deleted, ever, since THAT would be “spoliation.”

  128. Paper says:
    July 12, 2014 at 1:26 am  (Quote)

    And here is the ultimate legacy of birtherism in action (yes, birther friends and family, this is all that your years of fret and frustration come to), reduced to an everyday term synonymous with bullsh***t, as recently demonstrated by constitutional scholar Akhil Amar while discussing Boehner’s lawsuit:

    “I see this every day now, being covered as if it’s real, as if it’s somehow not a joke,” said Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar, according to Vox.com. “But can they name a single successful lawsuit in American history that is of close precedent to what they are proposing?” If not, he says, “At a certain point, I get to call Birther-ism. I get to call bulls***t.”

    http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/07/11/boehner-intends-sue-president-obamacare-legal-scholars-skeptical/

    How lovely, how succinct: “I call birther. I call birtherism.” That’s like (but better): “I did a birtherism.” In the manner of something like “I did a George Costanza.” Or…I call Constanza-ism.

    We’ve seen how birtherism has been becoming the “xerox” of conspiracy theories and outright nonsense, but I think we may have reached the linguistic tipping point where birtherism starts on the final phase of its ultimate destiny.

  129. RanTalbott says:
    July 12, 2014 at 2:39 am  (Quote)

    Paper: reduced to an everyday term synonymous with bullsh***t

    I think Amar may be thinking of “Birtherism” as “quixotic attempts to undo election results through the courts”, rather than simply calling it “BS”. As a law professor, he may see birfering as a legal process, rather than a political/social (bowel) movement.

    But, looking at his thesis from a alyman’s perspective, I have some doubts. Are not Hamdan, and sme of the other Gitmo cases, similar attempts to force the Executive to follow the law (as perceived by the plaintiffs)? While it’s clear to _us_ thast it’s a purely partisan political move, I dunno whether you can draw a bright legal line that says these lawsuits are “power disputes between the political branches” and those are not. It seems to me that the mere fact that the parties to the suit are the two political branches is not sufficient, in and of itself. But maybe there are legalisms here that I’m not familiar with.

    But, back to lexicography. If birtherism is going to be associated with any everyday word, it should be “cult”. It’s got all the right characteristics: beliefs unsupported by evidence, shibboleths, absurdity, fanaticism, and sectarian infighting. True, it lacks a crazy charismatic leader, but this is The Internet Age, and leadership can be provided by geographically-dispersed, constatnly-squabbling committees 😉

  130. Thinker says:
    July 12, 2014 at 6:19 am  (Quote)

    The difference between Hamdan and what Boehner is proposing is that Hamdan had standing to sue. He had a concrete and particularized injury resulting from Bush’s Gitmo policy. Being butthurt losers does not give members of Congress, nor Congress as a body, standing to sue.

    RanTalbott: But, looking at his thesis from a alyman’s perspective, I have some doubts. Are not Hamdan, and sme of the other Gitmo cases, similar attempts to force the Executive to follow the law (as perceived by the plaintiffs)? While it’s clear to _us_ thast it’s a purely partisan political move, I dunno whether you can draw a bright legal line that says these lawsuits are “power disputes between the political branches” and those are not. It seems to me that the mere fact that the parties to the suit are the two political branches is not sufficient, in and of itself. But maybe there are legalisms here that I’m not familiar with.

  131. Dr. Conspiracy says:
    July 12, 2014 at 8:56 am  (Quote)

    Well, there was one instance where something at the Taitz web site WAS evidence in a civil proceeding–that was her own comment regarding Larry Klayman that was central to Klayman v. Judicial Watch. I can think of any number of items at the Taitz web site that could potentially appear in court.

    Bonsall Obot: So what “ongoing or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal proceeding” does she think comments on her unreadable blog are “relevant to?”

  132. Paper says:
    July 12, 2014 at 11:43 am  (Quote)

    That sounds very possible. I wasn’t being precise in the lexicography.

    In terms of the lawsuit, Thinker points out the main key, no standing.

    Laurence Tribe just called it a “crazy lawsuit” on Up.

    He goes into detail about there being no standing, hard to demonstrate any harm to the House, particularly as it itself has tried not just to delay the law but wipe the whole thing off the map.

    Secondly, he points out there is no abuse of power, that such a delay is not even unique to the Obama administration (Bush did it). The IRS (which administers these provisions at issue) has legal authority (Internal Revenue Code, section 7805a) to make all needful regulations to implement a law (including any delays).

    Third, the Supreme Court has said fights between the two branches should be resolved politically (per Rehnquist in response to Senator Goldwater trying to take President Carter to court for unilaterally terminating our treaty with Taiwan).

    Fourth, the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act set up a process for challenging regulation enforcement/non-enforcement, but Rehnquist in 1985 for the Court said can’t use that Act to get agencies to enforce the law, and as such Roberts and the Court will not appreciate the attempt by Boehner to make an end run around that ruling.

    RanTalbott: I think Amar may be thinking of “Birtherism” as “quixotic attempts to undo election results through the courts”, rather than simply calling it “BS”.

  133. Dave says:
    July 12, 2014 at 3:39 pm  (Quote)

    Taitz has a post about how mad she is about “several billionaires” pushing for immigration reform. Most of the rant is about Bill Gates; Warren Buffet also gets mentioned. She wants us to find out their addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. She wants protests in front of their houses.

    I presume what set this off was an op-ed in the New York Times in favor of immigration reform signed by Gates, Buffet, and Sheldon Adelson. But, inexplicably, Adelson is not mentioned in Taitz’s post.

  134. Lupin says:
    July 13, 2014 at 3:43 am  (Quote)

    Immigration reform should start with Orly being put on a slow boat to Moldovia.

  135. The European says:
    July 13, 2014 at 8:22 am  (Quote)

    Not so easy, my friend Lupin. Moldavia is landlocked.

    I suggest a seagoing motoryacht like one of these:

    http://www.linssenyachts.com/en/

    The problem is to get from the Pacific into the Atlantic.

    To make the yoyage really unforgettable I suggest to take the arctic route north of Alaska and Canada and then down between Labrador and Greenland.

    After that it gets easy: you head for the Netherlands and enter the Rhine. You go up the Rhine until you reach Mainz / Gustavsburg. There you enter the Main and follow upstreams until Bamberg. You enter the Rhein-Main-Donau Kanal and follow this channel to Kelheim.

    Now you are nearly there:

    You follow the Danube downstreams and pass cities like Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrad, Novi Sad, Russe, Győr, Esztergom, Vukovar, Sremski Karlovci, Zemun, Pančevo.

    Just before the Danube enters the Black Sea the Danube touches Moldavia for 570 mtrs. There you can throw Mrs. Taitz over board, she may reach her home country swimmingly.

    PS: I would like to be your captain on this voyage. Only problem will be Mrs. Taitz’ screaching.

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