Reuters photo
As I said, October is jokes month here at Obama Conspiracy Theories. Streaker Juan J. Rodriguez of Staten Island, N.Y., ran naked near President Obama. The Rodriguez says that he was trying to capture a million dollar prize for streaking by the President while promoting a video sharing web site. Speaking of Obama, “I think he’s a great guy,” quipped Rodriguez.
An unidentified person tossed a paperback book at the President. Obama, known for his lightning fast reflexes in catching flies, apparently did not see the book. The title of the book has not been made public. The Secret Service determined that the flung book was not intended as a threat.
Learn more (or not) at the Washington Post.
This article has been nothing but a pain to get right.
Different people man… once again you get it WRONG! http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/11/rally-shenanigans-book-thrown-at-obama-naked-man-arrested/
Thank you for pointing out the error in the article, which has been corrected. Unlike the birthers, when I make a mistake, I admit it and correct it.
You need to read more carefully. The naked guy and the book-tosser appear to have been two different people:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/10/book-thrown-at-obama-at-philad.html
I’d point out (also from the same article), that the naked guy was arrested, apparently for the crime of being naked, whereas the book tosser was interviewed by the Secret Service and released, after it was determined that he posed no threat.
No doubt the book was the only copy of “Jihad at the Ballot Box” by the elusive Sarah Berkley.
The article wasn’t serious, and I was sloppy.
It seems the Washington Post had as much trouble with the article as you:
No wonder Pennsylvania sucks – they forbid anyone from profiting off of legal acts!
Gotta love some of the comments there…
Apparently, someone is trying to illegitimize Obama by claiming that only about (according to him) 5% of the voting eligible population voted for Obama. He started out by saying that only 1/3rd of Registered voters voted in the election (the actual statistic is closer to 80%, but who’s counting). That would put the number of registered voters in the country, according to him, at 393,771,984. (Yes, there are only currently about 310 million people in the country, and not all of them are eligible to vote).
Then he claims that only 40% of people eligible to register to vote actually do (the actual number is somewhere around 70%, but who’s counting). That would mean according to him, there are 984,429,960 Voting Eligible people living in the United States. Now, only about 2/3rds of the Population is eligible to vote. Whether because of not being a citizen, or through other ineligibility rules (such as prison and felony populations), that would mean he believes that there are somewhere around 1,476,644,940 people living in the United States.
You’re fact-checking birthers. Explaining logic, facts and reason to a birther is like explaining to a dog why licking itself is unsanitary.
Its the same thing they did with Clinton saying oh because he never got over 50% of the vote then he wasn’t valid. Apparently only republicans are valid presidents
This is a classic case of the wingnuts turning on each other….
Keyes Slams Gingrich, Claims Only Birthers Are Eligible To Be President
Recently, Newt Gingrich dipped his toes into Birther waters by suggesting that it is really President Obama’s fault if people think he was born in Kenya or is secretly a Muslim. Gingrich claimed that while he does not believe such things many other people do, and the reason they do is because Obama has failed to quell their fears.
This is typical Gingrich: playing to the right-wing base by validating extremist claims while simultaneously positioning himself as a reasonable commentator who doesn’t necessarily believe such things.
But Alan Keyes is sick of it and absolutely lays into Gingrich and, in doing so, provides a good explanation of the game that Gingrich plays (albeit from a very, very right-wing perspective):
Gingrich’s remarks are an apt illustration of the main reason why it’s so difficult to have confidence in Republican leaders like him. It’s too obvious that everything they do and say is motivated by partisan calculation rather than by any sincere concern for the integrity of the Constitution and the liberty it is supposed to establish. In this instance, for example, by saying that he believes that Obama was absolutely born in the United States Gingrich dutifully aligns himself with the elite party line. He then seeks to pander to the persistent and still growing number of Americans who have reasonable doubts about Obama’s background. But Gingrich does not treat those doubts as reasonable. Instead he ascribes them to fear and anxiety. In this way, as a mouse skillfully maneuvers to pinch the cheese without springing the trap, Gingrich poses as someone who understands and sympathizes with those who have these doubts. Meanwhile, by contemptuously ascribing those doubts to irrational passions he makes shift to avoid the brickbats of his elitist buddies. Unfortunately for him this cleverly calculated pose of sympathy is not only transparently insincere, it invites us to task Gingrich with the same deficiency he pretends to see in Obama. Gingrich needs to figure out why it is that so many people remain unconvinced of facts he absolutely believes, absent any absolutely believable evidence as to their truth. He needs to figure out why it is that despite the best efforts of cleverly superior elites such as himself many people insist on applying their own common sense.
Of course, this being Keyes, he concludes by proclaiming that since Gingrich doesn’t take the Birther claims seriously, he too is unfit to be President of the United States because he clearly has no respect for the Constitution:
Gingrich and those like him have no interest in preserving and respecting the authority of the Constitution of the United States. If they did they would stop playing cynical political games with an issue that so directly undermines that authority. They would cease their contemptibly clever efforts to use the issue for political advantage and instead support or undertake straightforward efforts to ascertain the facts and conscientiously reached the judgments the Constitution requires.
Like every official who has served in some capacity in the government of the United States Newt Gingrich swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. But on the simple and straightforward issue of the Constitution’s eligibility requirements for the office of President of the United States he has dutifully run with the jackals of contempt for anyone who demands that those requirements be respected. If elected president of the United States he will again swear the same oath as he takes office. Since he has forsworn it on so clear a constitutional issue as this, why should anyone believe that he or anyone like him will deal courageously with the more complex issues of constitutional integrity that now threaten to destroy our liberty.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/keyes-slams-gingrich-claims-only-birthers-are-eligible-be-president
Across the nation, in the offices of newspapersn radio stations and television stations, the people in charge are wishing that someone had thrown a naked man at the President.
Because, by God, THEN you’d have a story!
Well Larry Sinclair was probably naked when he threw himself at then-Senator Obama in the back of that limo….
(ba dump BUMP *ching*)
“(ba dump BUMP *ching*)”
here:
(bada-bing) You’re welcome.