Weigel Must Have Teams Of Debunking Muckraking Superheros

David Weigel reports that the inspiration for the fake Kenya birth certificate had been found.
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Weigel Debunks The Nuts

David Weigel has quickly debunked the nut that is Orly Taitz (still love that name). Taitz's new fraud was Barack Obama's Kenyan birth certificate. Weigel writes:

"This has always been a red flag for conspiracy theorists, so it deserves some explanation. Barack Obama Sr. was born and educated in Nyanza Province, in southwestern Kenya, on Lake Victoria. This is the area where Obama’s family lived and continues to live; Sarah Obama, the step-grandmother of the president, lives in Nyang’oma Kogelo, a small town in the province. But Mombasa is a city on the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles to the east. It didn’t even have an international airport until 1979. And the city wasn’t even part of Kenya when the future president was born. Mombasa was a part of Zanzibar until December 12, 1963, when it became part of the newly independent Kenya."

Related post: Barack Obama's Kenyan Birth Certificate? Sphere: Related Content

Barack Obama's Kenyan Birth Certificate?

Orly Taitz, the crazy birther lawyer, claims to have a copy of the President's Kenyan birth certificate.

I expect this to be sufficiently debunked by Monday morning.

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CNN Makes Money From Group Attacking Lou Dobbs

The Plum Line reports that Media Matters bought airtime on CNN to run ads attacking Lou Dobbs on the birther issue. Perhaps Jon Klein's support of Dobbs' "judgment as various stories evolve" is wavering or perhaps CNN just needs the money

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Is There Any Surprise Where The Birthers Are?

Research conducted by Research 2000 for the Daily Kos asked respondents the question, "Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?"

Results by region:

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Andrew Sullivan is entering Lou Dobbs territory.

Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish is one of my favorite places to get a broad spectrum of information. So this pains me. This afternoon he wrote at the Dish:

"On The Birthers"

"So many readers are furious that I have dared to ask the president to show the original copy of his birth certificate. The reason for demanding it is the same reason for demanding basic medical records proving Sarah Palin is the biological mother of Trig.

Because it would make it go away and it's easily done.

I'm tired of these public officials believing they have some right to privacy. They don't. It's the price of public office. If you don't like it, don't be president. And for goodness' sake, don't run for president on a platform of transparency."

I agree with Sullivan's overall premise that people who enter the arena to compete for public office are waving much of their right to privacy. But I depart from his opinion when the call for further information will not provide additional useful information. It has been widely accepted that the documents released and statements made by officials have proven Barack Obama to be a natural citizen of the Unites States. The release of any further documents will just be a repetition of previously released evidence.

I also disagree that this issue will go away. Sullivan will probably be satisfied but the lunatic fringe birthers will likely deny the information or mutate their complaint to fit the new facts.

If people don't accept the released information I can't but think that they believe that additional information would contradict the present evidence.

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Huff Po On Citizenship Case

Huff Post follows our representatives to ask if Barack Obama is a natural born citizen, it is funny stuff.

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Barack Obama's birthday is next week do you think we will do anything special, such as getting over this craziness?

Apparently CNN chief Jon Klein will allow Lou Dobbs to descend deeper into the lunacy he is helping to foment. After telling the Dobbs show that the birth certificate story was dead Klein has said that he will not stop the network or specifically Dobbs from continuing to discuss this "dead story."

According to the LA Times Klein says referring to Dobbs:

"He's got more than 30 years as a television journalist, and I trust him, as I trust all our reporters and anchors, to exercise their judgment as various stories evolve."

Klein's lack of courage in the face of the truth is disgusting. To defend Dobbs as a journalist of great experience, while at the same time you explicitly describe his reporting as ignoring facts. Klein wrote in an email earlier to Dobb's producer:

"It seems to definitively answer the question. Since the show's mission is for Lou to be the explainer and enlightener, he should be sure to cite this during your segment tonight. And then it seems this story is dead -- because anyone who still is not convinced doesn't really have a legitimate beef."

I can understand, I don't agree, but I understand not just accepting the claims of authenticity of the certificate from FactCheck.org but to ignore the confirmation from the State of Hawaii is just wrong. Dobb himself has said that the Certificate of Live Birth is a document that shows that there is another document. It takes a special kind of genius to ignore the logical conclusion at which you just arrived. The State of Hawaii is saying that they have the birth certificate.

I don't think that Dobbs should be fired for perpetuating this non-issue but he should be fired for not doing his job. If Dobbs is truly a journalist and CNN, therefore Klein, truly values good reporting based on facts and the logical conclusions that those facts present they should stop this mess before any further legitimization of the conspiracy nuts continue.

I firmly believe that this non-issue is so important to the conspiracy nuts because the of 44 presidents Mr. Obama is “one of these thing is not like the others, one of these thing does not belong” (Sesame Street for the ill informed). Responses from readers to previous posts about the birthers have used language that sounds troubling. Perhaps I am being too sensitive. Here is an example:

“Mr. Obama was born to a woman separated from her Kenyan husband, a woman who went to see him shortly before Obama was born. Obama spent his early youth abroad, thinks of himself as a citizen of the world, and wrote an autobiography strongly focused on his absent father and his supposed African roots.

That's unusual. We've never had such an exotic candidate with such a peculiar personal story. Most past presidents have had two American parents.

So it's not unreasonable to ask to see some proof of his place of birth. What is unreasonable is that he steadfastly refuses to provide it. In fact, that goes beyond unreasonable: it's bizarre.”

What do you think am I being too sensitive? Are the use of "exotic", "citizen of the world", "unusual" and "peculiar" innocent or are they displaying that President Obama's differentness from the previous 43 presidents is threatening?

Barack Obama's birthday is next week do you think we will do anything special, such as getting over this craziness?

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