This is purely anecdotal, but I’m seeing a retreat among the birthers. In the old days, birthers said Obama was born in Kenya and then gave a bunch of “reasons.” Now whenever someone wants to say something bad about Obama, they feel the need to begin by the disclaimer: “I’m not a birther.” Whether right or wrong, I think the idea that “birthers are racists” stuck, and most folks don’t want to be call racists. The essential absurdity of the proposition, and the association with racism, makes it hard for anyone today to say Obama was born in Kenya, so they drop the conclusion and retreat to the reason.
I saw this “I am not a birther but…” just today on Twitter from someone who was bringing up the old saw about nobody remembering Obama from his college days. Does Mike Zullo say Obama was born in Kenya? No, he only talks about what he claims is identity theft/document fraud, a generic crime without the racial overtones. Orly Taitz is reported to have said that she doesn’t know where Obama was born, but also focuses on identity theft.
It makes no difference to me. They’re all birthers because the essence of birtherism is believing of conspiracy theory nonsense and false rumors about Obama, not the particular detail of what they say about where he was born.
I think the “retreat”, if any, is limited mostly to the birthers we’ve come to know.
OTOH, Twitter abounds with people (still) calling Obama “Kenyan” although they don’t expound much on eligibility. For many, it has become the code word for the n-word but isn’t related to birtherism much.
Another explanation may be that birthers have decided the “foreign born” angle isn’t going anywhere since obviously the courts don’t care unless they can actually prove foreign birth (and not just allude that would be the reason for an allegedly forged BC).
After all, even a provably court-attested forged BC wouldn’t result in Obama being removed quickly.
Maybe they think the “identity theft” issue has more legs to stand on and would be a better standalone step in their desired removal.
I can’t wait until Hillary starts running. Sales of xanax should go through the roof.
WND would be happy. Any other candidate would be a lot harder to swiftboat, but with Hillary, they can throw in all the stuff Bill allegedly did on top of the Benghazi “scandal”.
I can’t decide whether I’m more interested in what Farah and Corsi fabricate about her or more about what they will come up with for an “unknown” candidate.
Maybe there needs to be some T-shirts that read:
I’m Not A Birther Butt
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I am so very happy to see you back, with your usual sharp wit.
“Barack Obama Never Attended Columbia University Says “His” Graduating Class
“By Matt Liponoga | June 4, 2013 – 4:55 pm | News ”
http://freepatriot.org/2013/06/04/barack-obama-never-attended-columbia-university-says-his-graduating-class/
Obama’s total disregard for his 30th Columbia Poly Sci class reunion provides another solid data point which reinforces the 2008 Fox News survey of 400 of Obama’s Columbia classmates.
Awesome.
Hah! And welcome backi!
Thirded (or Fourthed or whatever it is).
Just yesterday I was wondering what might have happened to you and was going to post a query on the open thread, but my wife was trying to drag me (kicking and screaming… not) into the car to drive up to the Yarra Valley for some wine tasting.
Life does have its priorities, you know.
Squeeky, I appreciated your talent when appreciating your talent wasn’t cool. I found an old thread where the comments and abuse are simply shameful…and that was just one thread. You hung in there with that creative way you have. You were so consistent in your approach: I want to see the long form;. the two parent citizenship argument is crap. I’ll just point out part of one comment that shows that you were right and the commenter was wrong:
“There is no additional information that would prove that. Obama can’t cough up a long form that the state of Hawaii no longer uses. As president he can’t overrule their laws. I can’t recall you saying that birthers are stupid and should be laughed at because this is what Abercrombie and Matthews have been saying all along.”
I’ve never attended a college reunion either. What’s your point? The Obama unknown at Columbia myth has been debunked for ages. There is no justification for beating a dead horse.
There are at least seven former Columbia students who remember the President.
http://www.thefogbow.com/special-reports/people-remember-president-obama/friends-2/#Columbia
Now I know you have a survery of 400 who didn’t but what does that mean? According to birther logic do I need to find 400 who remember him or 401 to break the tie?
Yep, no one remembers Barack Obama, except for everyone who remembers him. Got a better story? Yeah, probably not.
That perfectly sums up that part of birtherism which consists of spouting obvious falsehoods (the other parts are “crazy legal theories”, “what-if conspiracy theories” and “mudslinging/racism”).
Just like “there was a travel ban to Pakistan, except for those who wanted to go there” or “Hawaii gives Hawaiian BC’s stating Hawaiian birth to everyone, except people not born in Hawaii”. 😉
I have never attended a single one of college re-unions- does indicate I never went to the college I have my degree from?
And my schedule is really somewhat less full than the President’s.
I went back- morbid curiousity- to the article cited by Hermie with this title:
“Barack Obama Never Attended Columbia University Says “His” Graduating Class”
by Allan Root- remember him- but what is more interesting is what Root says in the article:
So here’s my take on this great mystery. I’ve never said Obama was not registered at Columbia. I’m sure he was. I’ve never said he didn’t graduate. If Columbia says he did, then I’m sure he did. But I’ve always said there is something wrong with the story. It’s rancid. It’s unbelievable. It’s impossible. It’s the story of a Manchurian candidate.
Root of course never says- nor do any of his classmates say- that Obama never attended Columbia- he claims that no one remembers him- except of course those he acknowledges that do- and those he doesn’t acknowledge.
And who is “Wayne Allyn Root”
Well he is the losing VP candidate for the Libertarian Party- that ran- and lost against Barack Obama. Hardly an unbiased observer.
Now- what evidence do we have that Root ever attended Columbia at the same time Obama did?
I haven’t seen any. I haven’t seen any classmate say they remember him there.
I will also point out that Barack Obama has never confirmed that he ever saw Root at Columbia…..which of course means that Root ‘never attended’ Columbia….lol.
Birthers….
Except it is easier than beating a live horse.
Oh it gets even better- here is an interview with Root in September 2008…and his tune was slightly different then….
http://reason.com/archives/2008/09/05/wayne-allyn-roots-million-doll/1
Root: Don’t have any theories. I don’t know. Don’t know why. Kept to himself…. The only thing I could even imagine is that he talks in his biographies about being, you know, his identity crisis, his “am I black or am I white?”
He chose black. And he hung out with a couple of black kids and never went near anybody and his wife? That’s the only thing I can think of.
All my buddies are white, what can I tell you! They don’t know him, nobody’s ever seen him, I don’t know what to tell you.
Other guy: That’s the era.
Root: That’s the era. I mean, when I went to Columbia, the black kids were all at like tables going “Black Power!” We used to walk by and go, “What the hell are they talking about.” And they didn’t associate with us and we didn’t associate with them.
So if you track down a couple of black students, they’ll probably know him.
But nobody white’s ever heard of this guy.
More from the same article
And so my answer is, has America really been unfair to minorities? No it hasn’t.
It was unfair to me. A white butcher’s kid, whose father had no money, but nobody gave me a break. And do I have a chip on my shoulder? You’re damn right I do.
And I represent millions and millions of poor people in this country who weren’t lucky enough to be poor and black, they were unlucky enough to be poor and white, and they can’t get into Harvard.
We have seen this before- angry white man- blaming Obama for why he didn’t get into Harvard.
Why didn’t I think of that? It wasn’t me- it was those lucky poor blacks who are to blame for me not getting into Harvard!
The crazy in Okieland continues to metastasize … and is hopefully imploding in quiet isolation.
There was a bill recently passed by the Okie House to oppose Agenda 21. Yes, that Agenda 21, the one that isn’t even an Agenda, much less anything to oppose.
U.N. Agenda 21 measure passes Oklahoma House of Representatives
Oklahoma House approves bill targeting Agenda 21
Senator Cliff Branan killed it, by refusing to give it a hearing in his committee. The TPers did not like that…
Email to Oklahoma senator turned over to OSBI for investigation
The money quote from Sooner TP founder Al Gerhart: ““Get that bill heard or I will make sure you regret not doing it. I will make you the laughing stock of the Senate if I don’t hear that this bill will be heard and passed. We will dig into your past, yoru family, your associates and once we start on you there will be no end to it. This is a promise.”
And for once in Okieland, crazy doesn’t pay ….
Sooner Tea Party co-founder charged with blackmailing Oklahoma state senator
Here’s hoping for more of the same!
Obama was in Okieland recently. Any kerfuffles were kept quiet. Keyboard warriors like Gerhart stayed home, no doubt grinding their molars.
Oh and then there is the problem that a classmate of Obama’s and Root’s says he specifically told Root that he met Obama at Columbia
#73 | Jim Davidson | May 17th, 2010 at 12:45 pm: “Well, now we have another problem. You see, I met Wayne Root in Topeka, Kansas (at the zoo) for the Kansas state Libertarian Party convention. And I informed him that I met Barack Obama at Columbia University when we were both students there in Spring 1983. So Wayne is lying when he asserts, “No one I know from Columbia University has ever met or heard of a classmate named Barack Obama or Barry Sotero.”
“He’s lying because he knows that I met Barack Obama and he’s lying because I told Wayne about it. Since May 2008 Wayne has also known that I was a student at Columbia University 1981-1985
It may be shocking to contemplate- but Root may be a big fat liar.
Here is the Columbia College 1983 Class Day program:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/102860164/columbia-program-1983
It lists Root and President Obama but Root’s name is misspelled.
Did Root change the spelling of his name to hide something from his past?
Libertarian calls 911:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2013/06/libertarian-calls-911.html
And here I used to think that Libertarians weren’t very pragmatic.
Also, Root graduated in January, 1983 and Obama graduated in May, so obviously they were on different tracks.
Columbia University has roughly 27,000 students, which means that Fox News surveyed about 1.48% of the students who attended Columbia at the same time as Obama. I wonder what the results would be if Fox asked the same 400 people if they remember Wayne Allyn Root?
I’ve been to a few high school reunions, but I’ve never been to a college reunion.
Big deal! I never went to any of my school reunions! I didn’t like those assholes 15 years ago. I ain’t about to start liking them now.
There’s anoher conspiracy or two for a individual of your singular genius to decipher.
Seems an esteemed professor at columbia doubts the official story. See the birther report.
And it seems another forensic document examiner finds fault with the lfbc.
Looks like it’s time for you to start calling real experts demeaning names again.
History will record that you’ve done your part to advance totalitarianism.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-dr-orly-taitz-esq-vexatious-litigant-she-has-wasted-courts-time-local-state-federal-and-sc/TWkr5cPc
So President Obama (I know how much you hate hearing that) didn’t go to his high school reunion.
So what?
I didn’t go to my ten-year reunion and at the time I only lived and hour and a half away.
Let me go ahead and say it for you: “Any day now, any day now…”
So… when a car accident occurs and the police are collecting evidence, who are the credible eye witnesses: those who don’t remember the accident (in spite of the physical evidence documenting its occurrence), or those who saw it and can describe it?
MN-Skeptic:
law school students learn on day one that eyewitnesses are rarely reliable
have the birthers noticed that the zimmerman pre-trial proceedings include a Frye Hearing to qualify the witnesses?
Judge Nelson: This hearing should only focus on whether the experts’ methodology is generally accepted in the field.
The judge agreed with an objection from the state that this hearing should not be about the results of the analysis but whether the way the analysis was performed was acceptable and done correctly.
The judge is expected to rule on audio testimony after the final expert testifies this week.
what a “novel” concept ….. court qualifying witnesses
26,050 students attend columbia
how many remember wayne allyn root?
The source of the Professor Graff story is none other than Wayne Allyn Root, who writes, “Meet Professor Henry Graff, perhaps the most legendary and honored professor ever at Columbia University.”
Really? More legendary and honored than Eric Foner? Richard Hofstadter? Alan Brinkley? Hofstadter won two Pulitzer Prizes, Foner one, and Brinkley has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award winner. Henry Graff, not so much.
Professor Graff is 91 years old and long retired. Wayne Allyn Root is a proven liar, so I don’t believe his story about his conversation with Professor Graff any more than I believe Zullo’s story about his conversation with Verna Lee.
Who even has hard of the guy?… Imagine that a ‘classmate’ of President Obama and compare the paths the two have taken.
No hard feelings, right?…
The professor taught political history, Diplomatic history, and Presidential history in the Department of History at Columbia. Obama was a transfer student. He took his introductory political history courses at Occidental. It’s entirely possible that he never took any history courses at Columbia. We do know that he took an honors seminar in American Foreign Policy, and his professor remembers him quite well.
I think one key to Obama’s lack of visibility at Columbia was his transfer status. He was only there for 2 years. He took core courses with freshman and sophomores (thus not taking those courses with Root and other upperclassmen), and advanced courses with small groups in his major. Root had a different concentration so his advanced courses would have been different. Obama also took at least one writing elective.
Also, how can Professor Henry Graff be “perhaps the most legendary and honored professor ever at Columbia University” and not have a Wikipedia page? He doesn’t even have a full page on the Columbia Wiki. I’m not doubting Professor Graff’s bona vides, just Root’s characterization of him.
Wayne really needs to get his story in sync with that other paragon at Columbia, good old John Drew another Obama hater who met (allegedly) the President at Columbia.
From what was a singular fleeting social meeting at a party, Drew extrapolates and pontificates on all sorts of deep psychological flaws in Obama.
But then again….he did say he met Obama….at Columbia….where Obama was studying….
Don’t the RWNJ’s talk to each other….ever…. /snark 😎
Drew met Obama at Occidental, not Columbia.
Here is Professor Graff’s page at Columbia:
http://history.columbia.edu/faculty/Graff.html
And I assumed that Root meant to claim that Graff was the “most legendary and honored” history professor. Columbia’s roster of distinguished professors in all disciplines includes at least 19 Nobel laureates.
Oops, mea culpa…..Look Birfoons when an Obot gets info wrong we iz corrected and graciously accept our silliness….. 😎
Speaking of Root, has anyone ever admitted to knowing him at Columbia…… 😎
My 2 cents (and likely incomplete.)
Whether they’re called birthers or conspiracy theorists, they have always been around.
All it takes is paranoia, a perceived enemy and something they don’t understand.
But not all birthers are fully stupid.
Some are doctors, lawyers, judges and engineers.
A certain level of gullibility or a tendency to think they know more than the general public helps too.
Here’s a recent non-birther example:
http://publicshaming.tumblr.com/post/52264171023/obama-sent-tornadoes-to-oklahoma-is-literally-x-mens
How big were those classes anyway?
When I studied maths, there were about 600 people in my class in the first semester. I’d be hard-pressed to remember any of them. I couldn’t even remember most of the about 50 who took the same diploma course (differential geometry), only most of the 15 who took the same diploma seminar (plus about a dozen who were my friends).
If you asked me if I remembered anyone from the same class who got his diploma in another field (e.g. algebra or number theory) the same year, I’d have to say “no-one”.
And that doubly goes for professors since they had more than one class to teach.
So unless you asked just about all those 600 people, your chance of finding someone who remembers me would be quite slim, and you’d have to pick one from my diploma seminar, and even those probably don’t all remember me.
My theory is that Obama was highly visible at Occidental College and largely invisible at Columbia because of the changes in his relationship with his wealthy friend, Hasan Chandoo. At Occidental, Chandoo and Obama has a reputation for throwing really great parties. These parties were only possible thanks to Chandoo’s wealth. At Columbia, however, the young Obama was on his own financially. Without the ability to throw around his friend’s money, I think the young Obama was unable to have the same dramatic impact at Columbia that he had on the Occidental College campus. For what it is worth, I think it is absurd to suggest that Obama never really attended Columbia.
Did you see the Frontline documentary, Decision 2012? It addresses this question. But the idea Obama never attended Columbia has always been silly. You can’t graduate without attending.
My theory is that Obama was more visible at Occidental because the student body at Occidental is roughly 8% the size of the student body at Columbia.
Your snide comment about throwing around his friend’s money is duly noted.
So has Barack Obama reached super best friend of John Drew yet? When we left you last you were claiming you met him for a few minutes which eventually turned into you knowing him for a week or so.
Except that everyone… and I mean everyone, universally… who remembers BHO at any school reports that he was not a “partier” but rather a “studier.” What you say is just Baseless Obama Smear #36,538.
Ahh, Ole Droop has joined the party…
To quote from the Fogbow
Drew, once upon a time, went to one of the centers of learning that the President (God that must stick in your craw Drew) went to
Drew was not ACTUALLY there at the same time as the President
Drew ACTUALLY only met the President for (at best) a handful of hours a couple of decades ago in a few social venues where he (Drew) was simply one of MANY other people
Drew never ACTUALLY talked to the President beyond a few vacuous social mutterings
Drew never ACTUALLY attended classes, participated in educational, social, political or personal endeavors with either the President or colleagues or friends of the President
Based upon the fleeting, random, nay Brownian motion social equivalent of a couple of hand shakes, Drew has somehow managed to build a massive wealth of knowledge about the President, his background, intellect, education, political thought processes, educational, social and political evolution.
Magically, the facts and statement above somehow equate to his grandiose opinion of his knowledge around the President.
I saw President Obama’s helicopter once.
From the way it flew, it is clear that he is a communist…..
My theory is that you do not have a doctorate, but bought it from Pat Robertson’s diploma mill.
Of course, there a plenty of PhDs who traffic in gossip and innuendo, so I may be wrong. Corsi, Lakin, Taitz all have doctorates and all have the emotional level of a reptile.
misha marinsky, M.O.U.S.E.,FNAO
When I lived in Maryland, his ‘copter flew over my home on the way to Camp David.
From the way it flew, I could tell he was a communist, socialist and fascist.
Whenever someone says “H!tler was a vegetarian,” I reply “H!tler loved dogs.”
Drew, like Corsi, is reduced to writing for third-rate rags. Drew is probably the movie reviewer for “Shopping Center News.”
He writes under the pen name of Arthur Peacock.
You mean the doors were on the left? Oh my gawd!
Whaddya mean ‘reduced’? Sounds like that’s a big step up to me.
Worse, he’s a grant writer http://www.linkedin.com/in/johndrew25
“Dr. Drew will keep writing until your charity wins a grant.”
Stop writing!! I’ll give it to you – just stop writing.
Yeah, that’s him. I remember he gave “Jack and Jill” three stars.