A Quick Response to #TCOT
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 5:22 pm
The #TCOT Report homepage is currently given over to a huge picture of me and this charge, which I’ll just reprint below:
Meme Wars: “Transparency Dodger” David Weigel of Washington Independent Falsely Labels #TCOT Co-founder With “Birther” Meme
Weigel is same “journalist” who played a role in launching the false “teabagger” meme
It’s a response to this post, pointing out how Michael Patrick Leahy had used #TCOT — the hub of a grassroots group whose hashtag appears in tweets by Republicans such as Karl Rove — as a way to push the conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace as a “transparency” issue.
I’ll address this quickly. Barack Obama is going to be a historical figure whether or not he’s a successful president. Biographers will want to see every shred of information about him. So I’m all in favor of seeing Obama’s college records, passport records, et al., someday.
What Leahy was doing was somewhat less than that. He, like the people who’ve been dogging this issue for months, refused to accept an unambiguous statement about Obama’s birthplace from Hawaiian officials. He wanted Hawaii to go into records and name “the attending physician at President Obama’s birth.” Sure, that’s asking for transparency, but it’s also echoing the argument of conspiracy theorists and casting aspersions on a state official who, understandably, chooses not to spend every day of her life answering demands from “birthers.”
Follow David Weigel on Twitter
12 Comments
Comment posted July 28, 2009 @ 10:18 pm
“Someday”, huh? It might be nice to have seen them before the election since there's a good chance there's something in there he doesn't want anyone to see. Even the NYT has noted that he's not telling the whole truth about his Columbia years.
P.S. If any TCOTters are visiting, to a find for his name at this page to see examples of Weigel lying and misleading about this issue. That doesn't matter whether you think “birthers” are crazy loons or not: his lies and misleading statements are independent of the merits of the underlying issue.
Comment posted July 28, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
The U.S. Congress has accepted that Obama is a legitmate citizen
The State of Hawaii AGAIN verified his birth there, as verified by independent birth announcements by two local newspapers: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090728/ap_on_re_us…
You won't believe your President, Congress, the State of Hawaii, the Media, but you'll believe every wackjob website trying to sell Birther movies or get eyeballs for advertising revenue. This is just pathetic. At this point, even if you were right, and the whole government, most Americans, and the media are all conspiring to lie about this man, what do you think you have to win? If Birthers don't believe in our country, why don't they just leave and go make unsound and illogical arguments somewhere else. Everybody's sick of reading Birther posts, their unfounded arguments, and their baseless claims about a Constitution most of them have never even read.
You want to win your argument? Vote in your candidate for President next time. For now, you lost, so just accept it, and move on.
Comment posted July 28, 2009 @ 10:49 pm
Weigel's really not interested in you, 24, in spite of your stalkerish affections.
Comment posted July 28, 2009 @ 11:25 pm
Now the guy is too cowardly to admit he's a lunatic birther?
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 12:37 am
Dude
You know, just like the birthers your comments used to be good for some eye-rolling and a glimpse into the world of people-who-still-live-in-mom's-basement. But after a while it starts to lose it's charm. All you do is call everyone who disagrees with you a liar and then provide links to your website, which looks like it was organized by the guy that Dr Orly chose NOT to hire.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 12:47 am
Ditto. Plus he's always citing to WND, even though WND said back on August 23, 2008 that the COLB is authentic and that subsequent bloggers themselves introduced the errors and inconsistencies they complained about. The WND article even said that forensic document experts concluded the COLB was authentic.
Here's the link:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageI…
Here's what you need to read when you get there:
“However, FactChecker.org says it obtained Obama's actual certification of live birth and that the document was indeed real. The site discredited some of the claims of Internet bloggers, such as that the certificate as viewed in a scanned copy released by Obama's campaign lacked a raised seal. FactChecker.org also established that many of the alleged flaws in the document noted by bloggers were caused by the scanning of the document.
A separate WND investigation into Obama's certification of live birth utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic. The investigation also revealed methods used by some of the bloggers to determine the document was fake involved forgeries, in that a few bloggers added text and images to the certificate scan that weren't originally there.”
Wow. Got that? Authentic. Got that? People claiming otherwise added stuff that wasn't there before.
As if that wasn't enough, here's a point about the claim that Obama supposedly lost his citizenship as a boy in Indonesia:
“In short, the suit claims Obama was not born an American citizen; lost any hypothetical American citizenship he had as a child (Editor's note: This point is not supported by U.S. citizenship law); may not now be an American citizen and even if he is, may hold dual citizenships with other countries.”
So 24 ahead is really far, far behind. And I've little patience for people who run around calling serious journalists “liars” when they have zero proof or credibility.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 12:55 am
Where can I find the names of the doctors who delivered Presidents Bush the F-up, Clinton, Bush 1, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Ike, Truma, Roosevelt, Hoover, Coolidge, Harding, Wilson, Taft, Teddy Roosevelt, McKinley, Cleveland, Harrison, Arthur, Garfield, Hayes, Grant, Johnson, Lincoln, Buchanan, Pierce, Filmore, Taylor, Polk, Tyler, Harrison, VanBuren, Jackson, JQ Adams, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Washington? Where are copies of their Certifications of Live Birth? Who's seen them? Where are their college and medical records? Who's seen them?
Here's an easier question for you racists whom the media has chosen to call birthers, just tell me where to find ANY of this information on any of our last four Presidents. Better yet, where can I find Bush's info? That should still be fresh in the public domain, if it were ever released. Oh, I guess the standards that you losers think you can set only apply to President Barack Hussein Obama. I wonder what's different about him than the other 42 men who preceded him as President of the United States of America. Hmmmm. I wonder.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 1:01 am
You're forgetting the U.S. Supreme Court. It denied cert on the Berg lawsuit. Chief Justice John Roberts also swore in the President, twice no less. No birther I've talked to has been able to explain why a Bush-appointed conservative chief justice, who has sworn to uphold the Constitution, would knowingly participate in the unconstitutional act of swearing in an illegal president.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 1:08 am
How can a looney birther actually have the gall to call someone else a liar?
“His lies and misleading statements are independent of the merits of the underlying issue”? You spout nothing but lies and misleading statements, completely ignoring the merits of the underlying issue.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 2:39 am
When Barack Hussein Obama places his hand on the Bible today to take the oath of office as 44th president of the United States, Barbara Nelson of Kenmore will undoubtedly think back to the day he was born. It was Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu.
“I may be the only person left who specifically remembers his birth. His parents are gone, his grandmother is gone, the obstetrician who delivered him is gone,” said Nelson, referring to Dr. Rodney T. West, who died in February at the age of 98. Here’s the story: Nelson was having dinner at the Outrigger Canoe Club on Waikiki Beach with Dr. West, the father of her college friend, Jo-Anne. Making conversation, Nelson turned to Dr. West and said: “‘So, tell me something interesting that happened this week,’” she recalls.
His response: “Well, today, Stanley had a baby. Now that’s something to write home about.”
The new mother was Stanley (later referred to by her middle name of Ann) Dunham, and the baby was Barack Hussein Obama.
“I penned the name on a napkin, and I did write home about it,” said Nelson, knowing that her father, Stanley A. Czurles, director of the Art Education Department at Buffalo State College, would be interested in the “Stanley” connection.
She also remembers Dr. West mentioning that the baby’s father was the first black student at the University of Hawaii and how taken he was by the baby’s name.
Comment posted July 29, 2009 @ 7:50 am
Polarik, the “expert” who helped start the “Obama birth cert is a fake” movement exposed as a fraud & liar…
http://barackryphal.blogspot.com/2009/07/meet-r…
Big surprise! The freepers have already moved the goalposts and are claiming that what Polarik said doesn't matter anyway, Obama's COLB is still a fake!
Comment posted August 6, 2009 @ 11:44 am
From David Hahn, “Publisher, StatePaper.com ” August 5, 2009.
Publisher: Obama Should Produce Original Birth Certificate
At StatePaper.com, we know by making this statement we will be instantly tagged as “racist,” “birther,” or other pejorative terms by those who defend the President of the United States. We often defend the President and the job he is doing and are regularly lambasted for being “too liberal” or an “Obama lover” by some of our most prolific critics.
But, here is the issue:
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of our country. Article II of the Constitution requires the President to be a natural born citizen. Without reciting them here, there appears to be some serious questions raised about whether President Obama was born in the United States or Kenya. We have not checked sources, but there are reports that some witnessed his birth in Kenya.
The President's campaign staff and then his administration have released and placed on the internet a “Certificate of Live Birth.” We do not dispute the validity or correctness of that document as others have tried to do, suggesting the use of computers to alter seals and names. By releasing this document the President agrees that the claims about his status as a natural born citizen is an open, important, public issue.
But, this “Certificate of Live Birth” is simply not the best evidence that the President and his administration could offer to lay to rest any doubt about his status as a natural born citizen.
Barack Obama is a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard Law School. All law students study the body of law we call “Evidence.” One of the core tenets of American law is the “best evidence rule” which requires the production of original, or certified copies, of original document to prove a fact. Abstracts and summaries are not original documents.
The President has offered an abstract (Certificate) of his birth, but not an original birth certificate which would be the best evidence of his birth. We need the best evidence so that it can do what the best evidence is meant to do; dispel the doubts about a fact. We need to see the Birth Certificate. That's the one that is often handwritten and signed by the doctor.
Lawyers and legal thinkers will, obviously, argue the finer points of the “Best Evidence Rule” and its applicability to this matter. But, that misses the point. The notion of “Best Evidence” is solidly-grounded in law. This is an important public matter and it seems now that the President has started down the path of offering some evidence (Certificate of Live Birth), he should offer the “best evidence” (Original Birth Certificate) which is the source document for his birth. The document behind the document which has been released. This is what is needed now in the court of public knowledge.
The fact in question here is the constitutional qualification of the President of the United States to hold office. With a simple nod, the President could offer the American people the best evidence, the source document(s), as he learned about at Harvard, and dispel those who question his birth as a natural born citizen. His failure to provide this best evidence, when it could be so easily done, raises only more questions, which fuels an ugly public debate.
And now we've got a “Liberal” Nebraska newspaper advising Barry to cough up his birth certificate.
If he can. Anybody ready to hear our TelePrompTer-in-Chief taking the Fifth?
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