President Alien; "Ladies and gentlemen, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is back in business."

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: President Alien, and Other Tales From the Fringe
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, December 9, 2008; A03

A unanimous Supreme Court announced yesterday morning that it would not take up a case making the improbable claim that Barack Obama is a secret foreigner. A dissenting opinion came out in the afternoon.

"This is the largest hoax perpetrated against the United States in 200 years," Philip Berg declared in a news conference at the National Press Club. His colleagues delivered the further news that "Barack Obama is the most notorious criminal in the history of this planet" and that the president-elect's claim to be a natural-born American has "the potential to propel our nation into a time of great peril," a time of "widespread chaos, disturbances to public tranquillity."

Berg, a Pennsylvania lawyer and the author of another lawsuit alleging that Obama is not native-born, and therefore is not eligible to be president, sought to establish several facts. One: "He knows he was adopted in Indonesia." Two: "He was born in Kenya." Three: "His real name would be Barry Soetoro." Four: "If he didn't go through immigration, believe it or not Barack Obama would be an illegal alien today." And five: "If and when the right court handles this matter, Barack Obama" and everybody around him "should really be tried criminally and many of them should go to jail."

Uh, and what about that birth certificate showing he was born in Honolulu, a fact confirmed by the Hawaii Health Department and validated by independent groups? "That document is a forgery, it's a fraud, just like Barack Obama is," Berg bellowed. "His birth certificate will indicate he was born in Kenya."

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is back in business. After eight years in the wilderness, its members are regrouping to combat the Obama menace. For their sake, here's hoping they can come up with better material than they presented at yesterday's news conference.

The presentation was hosted by Bob Schulz, who runs the We the People Foundation and has run ads in the Chicago Tribune claiming that Obama -- "the usurper," as Schulz calls him -- is ineligible to be president....

***

Back here on planet Earth, the Obama birth conspiracy is not quite as dramatic as Schulz and Berg view it. FactCheck.org, for example, examined the original birth certificate and found that "it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship" and that "Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said." Another such group, PolitiFact.com, concluded that "It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world's biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything's possible. But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what's reasonable has to take over."

Then there's the birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961. "Of course, it's distantly possible that Obama's grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday," FactCheck.org judged. "We suggest that those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803446_pf.html

[endarkenment]

1. Luckily the echo chamber will have no shortage of eager volunteers

right here on DU, determined to post and repost and post again, just in case somebody might not have heard what they are braying on false noise.

[JDPriestly]

2. Name one white American woman who traveled to Kenya in or before 1961

in order to have a baby in Kenya. That is a ludicrous thought.

A few facts about the state of affairs in Kenya in the late '50s, early and mid-'60s:

The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took place in 1957. Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals, it was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed a government shortly before Kenya became independent on December 12, 1963. During the same year, the Kenyan army fought the Shifta War against ethnic Somalis determined to see the NFD join with the Republic of Somalia. The Shiftas inflicted heavy casualties on the Kenyan armed forces but were defeated in 1967.

Kenya, fearing an invasion from militarily stronger Somalia, in 1969 signed a defence pact with Ethiopia which is still in effect.<14> Suffering from droughts and floods, NFD is the least developed region in Kenya. However, since the 1990s, Somali refugees-turned-wealthy businessmen have managed to transform the one-time slum of Eastleigh into the most prosperous commercial centre of Eastlands and increasingly much of Nairobi.<15>

In 1964, Kenyatta became Kenya's first president. At Kenyatta's death in 1978, Daniel arap Moi became President. Daniel arap Moi retained the Presidency, being unopposed in elections held in 1979, 1983 (snap elections) and 1988, all of which were held under the single party constitution. The 1983 elections were held a year early, and were a direct result of an abortive military coup attempt on August 1, 1982.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya

Obama's mother was born sometime around 1943 or so. She was extremely young when Obama was born. Americans did not travel to countries like Kenya without a reason. There is no way on earth that Obama's mother would have gone to Kenya to have a baby. The medical care would have given her great pause to think before doing any such thing. This rumor is so stupid I just can't believe it.

Members of my family were worried about my going to Europe some years later than 1961 because they feared the Europeans would start another war. Absurd, I know. Laughable, had Obama been born in Kenya, the entire state of Hawaii would have known about it. Everyone would have been so shocked. This rumor needs to end. Anyone who spreads it is totally irrational and should be under a doctor's care and taking strong medication.

I love conspiracy theories. Takes a lot of imagination to think them up, but this one goes beyond imagination. It a schizophrenic fantasy, nothing more.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for your informative post, JD. I agree -- all of this stuff is loony! nt

[Number_Six]

4. It doesn't matter, does it?

To the Freepers, that is. I guess they need something to kvetch about for the next eight years, mainly because they FUCKING LOST.

Sheesh.

[Demeter]

5. Nah. This Isn't The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

These are the anti-floride people. They got bored and adopted a new cause.

[Doctor_J]

6. No, it's the VRWC. The same people who swear that Bill Clinton

was a Soviet spy, killed Vince foster, killed Ron Brown, and smuggles cocaine while AR gov.

[struggle4progress]

7. Has anybody else heard rumors that Berg is the love child of a dodo and a wooly rhinoceros, who

born on Moon Base 3?