tagged w/ Birthers
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Andrea Mitchell Claims Mitt Romney’s Family Entered The Country Illegally
Appearing on The Chris Matthews Show, in a discussion on the upcoming Florida primary, Andrea Mitchell claimed that Mitt Romney‘s relatives entered the United States illegally.
“And looking ahead to the next primary in Florida, 30 percent of the Hispanic community is Cuban-American. That’s a smaller proportion, and so the Hispanic community there is different. And they are less prone to be susceptible to Mitt Romney’s really hard line on immigration, more prone to the Newt Gingrich approach to immigration,” Mitchell observed. “The other interesting little fact is about the Mexican Romneys, those looking back at all of those records say that Mitt Romney should look back at the records because the Romneys that came back from Mexico to the United States, they crossed the border illegally.”
Mitchell’s remarks left conservative columnist Kathleen Parker in stunned silence. “Well, you may have one-upped me on that one, Andrea!” Parker exclaimed incredulously.
RELATED: Mitt Romney Calls For The Deportation Of President Obama’s Uncle
As Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard notes, it was unclear where Mitchell was basing this claim. Romney’s Mexican roots have been widely reported; this morning, NPR wrote a story about Romney’s Mexican family, but didn’t explore whether his ancestors were documented citizens.
According to NPR’s John Burnett:
In 1912, the Mormons fled their colonies in Mexico to escape the violence of the Mexican revolution.
Miles Park Romney begat Gaskell Romney, who begat George Romney. George — who was never a Mexican citizen — was 5 years old when the family left Mexico. He went on to be an auto executive, governor of Michigan, and a presidential candidate. George begat Mitt, who was born in Detroit.
Most of the Mormons never went back to Mexico. But one of Miles Park’s sons, Miles Archibold, did return. And it is his progeny who remain here today, Mitt’s second cousins.
UPDATE: Burnett told Mediaite he did not come across any documents indicating the Gaskell Romney family came to the US illegally, noting they were part of an exodus of 1,200 Mormons from Mexico.
CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette Jr. explains that Romney’s ancestors crossed into Mexico but never became Mexican citizens:
Romney’s great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled the United States and crossed into Mexico in 1885 to escape religious persecution. He helped build the Mormon enclave of Colonia Juarez in Chihuahua.
Miles Park Romney never became a Mexican citizen, and neither did his son, Gaskell, or grandson, George. They were all denied Mexican citizenship because statutes on the books in Mexico denied that right to American settlers and their offspring.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbcs-andrea-mitchell-claims-mitt-romneys-family-entered-the-country-illegally/Andrea Mitchell Claims Mitt Romney’s Family Entered The Country Illegally... more
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Birthers are hailing a decision by a judge in Georgia that could see Barack Obama struck from the presidential state ballot if Obama fails to prove that he fulfils the ‘natural born citizen’ constitutional requirement to be President.
“Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi in the Office of State Administrative Hearings denied a motion by Obama asking to dismiss the complaint that seeks to keep his name off the state ballot during the March presidential primary. The judge’s decision now sets the stage for a Jan. 26 hearing on the issue in Fulton County,” reports the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
The complaint was originally filed by Orly Taitz on behalf of a Georgia resident. Taitz, a prominent ‘birther’ who previously represented two soldiers who refused to deploy to Afghanistan over their doubts that Obama is a natural born U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible to be commander in chief, lauded the judge’s ruling.
“I can now depose Obama and everybody else (i)nvolved without any impediment,” the California attorney posted on her website.
Taitz, along with several other Georgia residents, will now be able to present their evidence that Obama was not born in the United States in a court of law – unless the ruling is overturned on appeal before January 26.
The case, Farrar v Obama, was also brought by J. Mark Hatfield, a Republican state representative who last year failed to pass a bill that would have required presidential candidates to submit proof of qualifications.
“The Georgia Election Code (the “Code”) mandates that “[e]very candidate for federal and state office who is certified by the state executive committee of a political party or who files a notice of candidacy shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought,” stated the ruling in response to President Obama’s attempt to have the case dismissed.
Despite the White House being forced to release a purported copy of Obama’s birth certificate last year, the controversy has yet to completely die down.
One time Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump repeatedly raised questions surrounding Obama’s background during the spring of 2011 before going cold on the issue, a move prominent ‘birther’ and author Jerome Corsi claimed was an organized political stunt to neutralize the issue.
The release of Corsi’s best-selling book, Where’s the Birth Certificate?, coincided with the White House deciding to release Obama’s alleged long form birth certificate. Corsi points to evidence that the document is a forgery created using modern computer techniques and has numerous discrepancies with a genuine 1961 birth certificate created by a typewriter.
http://www.infowars.com/birthers-hail-judges-decision-that-could-depose-obama/Birthers are hailing a decision by a judge in Georgia that could see Barack Obama... more
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In his new campaign ad, the clueless cowboy show’s a desolate and “post-apocalyptic Obama” America, but the real message is a portion of text quickly shown a little more than a minute into the video where Perry suggests that he’s a better choice than President Obama because he’s “an American.”
http://veracitystew.com/2011/09/21/rick-perrys-new-ad-im-an-american-video/In his new campaign ad, the clueless cowboy show’s a desolate and... more
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It seemed that President Obama’s release of his full birth certificate a couple of months ago — and his brutal skewering of Donald Trump at the White House correspondents dinner in May — completely took the air out of the “birther” movement.
Not so. None other than Orly Taitz , the Los Angeles lawyer, dentist and real estate agent, is still on the case, recently filing a Freedom of Information Act suit in federal court against Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue.
looking for information that would prove that Obama’s Social Security number was from Connecticut, not Hawaii, and is therefore fraudulent.
But she’s having some inexplicable problems complying with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(a)(1), which simply says that only the last four digits of a Social Security number should be used in any documents filed; the first five digits must be redacted.
Seems she repeatedly violated that rule by redacting the wrong numbers, sparking a blistering rebuke this week from Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court here, who wrote that she was “wasting the Court’s time with nonsense,” which is “not the way [for her] to have any hope of prevailing in this case.”
“After making the somewhat hysterical claim . . . that there may be ‘an employee in this court who is intentionally sabotaging’ her,” Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, wrote in his order, Taitz then “engaged” a courtroom deputy clerk “in a lengthy, accusatory conversation.”
Taitz “is either toying with the court or displaying her own stupidity,” Lamberth said. “There is no logical explanation she can provide as to why she is now wasting the court’s time. ”
(Memo to file: Send private note to Taitz to advise her that the last, the very last, federal judge she wants to provoke is Lamberth. Trust us on this. Or ask the Interior Department. Hapless Interior lawyers have appeared in his courtroom on countless occasions. )
NSC departures
The Obama administration is experiencing the usual third-year brain drain as top staff start drifting away, some to the 2012 campaign, some back to academia or private sector jobs, some to simply a change of pace from the grind.
Buzz at the National Security Council is that Rexon Ryu, now director of “Non-Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction” and before that top foreign policy adviser to former senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), is moving on to become head of the D.C. office of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice .
NSC legal adviser Mary DeRosa, in a job that’s become extremely high-profile in recent years, what with Guantanamo, torture and other hot-button issues, is said to be moving on after taking some time off. DeRosa, who had worked at the Department of Homeland Security and for the Senate Judiciary Committee, was nominated July 11 to be a public delegate to the U.N. General Assembly, a parting gift that may require some light lifting during the two-week UNGA meeting in Manhattan in September.
http://wapo.st/oOt72RIt seemed that President Obama’s release of his full birth certificate a couple... more
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At a press conference last week, someone asked Chris Christie for his views on evolution vs. creationism. "That's none of your business," the New Jersey governor barked in response.
This minor incident, which barely rated as news for a few political blogs, offers a glimpse of Christie's personality, which seems increasingly grumpy and snappish. But it says even more about the current state of the national Republican Party, where magical thinking trumps rationality, and even to acknowledge basic realities about the world we live in runs the risk of damaging one's political future.
Christie is not part of the natural constituency for Darwin-denial. He's an intelligent man, a lawyer, a fiscal rather than a social conservative. But Christie is also someone who might want to run for president someday, or be selected as someone's running mate. For those purposes, he must constantly ask himself the question: Am I about to say something to which a white, evangelical, socially conservative, gun-owning, Obama-despising, pro-Tea Party, GOP primary voter in rural South Carolina might object? By this standard, simple acceptance of the theory of evolution becomes a risky stance. To lie or to duck? Christie chose the option of ducking while signaling his annoyance at being put in this ridiculous predicament.
Moments like this point to a growing asymmetry in our politics. One party, the Democrats, suffers from the usual range of institutional blind spots, historical foibles, and constituency-driven evasions. The other, the Republicans, has moved to a mental Shangri-La, where unwanted problems (climate change, the need to pay the costs of running the government) can be wished away, prejudice trumps fact (Obama might just be Kenyan-born or a Muslim), expertise is evidence of error, and reality itself comes to be regarded as some kind of elitist plot.
(click on the link for the complete article)At a press conference last week, someone asked Chris Christie for his views on... more
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My goodness gracious, what a week it was for wild and wacky news stories. First, the President of the United States finally succumbed to the mounting controversy on April 27 and asked the State of Hawaii to produce some evidence that he was actually born there.
In fact, President Barack Obama had an aide fly from Washington to Honolulu to pick up the “Certificate of Live Birth.” Surely, the post office could have overnighted the darned thing to him for a lot less money. We were assured by the White House that we taxpayers didn’t pay any of the expenses for the trip. Sure. Like everyone involved made certain they were off the clock for the many hours they spent discussing the “birther” controversy and what to do about it.
Ever since Obama’s “Certificate of Live Birth” was released to the public, my mailbox has been full of articles and other postings allegedly proving the thing is a forgery. Frankly, I’ve never paid a lot of attention to the whole “birther” controversy. I suspect Barack Hussein Obama is exactly who he claims to be — the son of a white mother and black father who was born a citizen of the United States and raised to become a rabble-rousing redistributionist who couldn’t wait to get his hands on the reins of government so he could punish the productive and give to the unproductive. That’s what every Marxist tyrant in history has done. Obama has been treading a well-worn path.
Assuming he was born in Hawaii, as we’re supposed to believe, why did his grandmother say he was born in Kenya? And an even better question is: Why did he allow this controversy to drag on so long? He could have produced that “Certificate of Live Birth” years ago if he had so desired. Why didn’t he? I have never heard a good answer to either question.
I have to admit it was amusing to hear the president refer to Donald Trump as a carnival barker and for The Donald immediately to claim credit for accomplishing something the entire media had been unable to do — get Obama to show and tell.
Now that most of us can finally agree that Barack Hussein Obama is Constitutionally eligible to be president of the United States, how about we turn our attention to a truly important question? That is, how do we get him to follow the Constitution in his policies?
Will all of this finally put the “birther” controversy to rest? No. In fact, I can confidently predict I will receive even more emails on the subject (many of them telling me what an idiot I am to believe Obama is native-born). If you don’t believe me, come back to these pages in a few days and check the comments section below.
If you’re having trouble believing the 44th President was born in the U.S., how do you feel about the story of how Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2 in a daring U.S. military raid half a world away?
I am going to accept the whole incredible story hook, line and sinker. I believe an elite group of Navy Seals, after very specialized and secret training, flew from Afghanistan to northern Pakistan, landed behind the 10-foot walls of a mysterious compound, raced upstairs to the third floor where bin Laden was staying, shot two of his guards (and one poor, defenseless woman who was used as a shield), then shot Obama in the head — twice — when he tried to resist.
How an unarmed man “resisted” what must have looked like the SWAT team from hell, I have no idea. I don’t believe for a minute this was a dead-or-alive mission. I think the orders were clear from the beginning — either bin Laden dead or all of you. This was no bring-him-back-alive effort.
Full Article: http://www.personalliberty.com/conservative-politics/government/obamas-birth-bin-ladens-death/?eiid&rmid=2011_05_13_PLA_P11844458&rrid=238466338My goodness gracious, what a week it was for wild and wacky news stories. First, the... more
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God forbid you were born prior to 1950 and/or your birth certificate was improperly filed or maybe the original copy that is embossed got lost in a house fire or a NUMBER of different reasons, you now are not ALLOWED to leave the country? THIS is America? EXCUSE me? I'm pretty sure my own original birth certificate DOES meet these requirements, but I think the original was lovingly taped to a page of my baby book by mom which is somewhere in my parents' home. I'm sure it's in a special fire safe or something since my parents are so organized. So whenever it is that I decide to get another passport I guess I have to go bug my parents, carry a really big baby book to some government office, and I hope I can pass as "American enough" to go on vacation? Even to Canada? Really?
Yet I guess it's no big deal if people are allowed to buy up all sorts of military assault rifles without any proof of mental sanity or criminal background check. That's cute. I know I was born into a country with a lot of really nice rights and freedoms. I was brainwashed by the powers that be in this country that a flag is holier than a Bible or a Constitution and that soldiers who are forced to go kill innocent brown people on other continents are "protecting my freedoms" and other such propaganda. Now that I'm 30 I've lost more and more of my rights. I don't have anymore rights to privacy, that's for sure. I don't have the right to get on an airplane without some pervert TSA agent either feeling up all my private parts or taking a naked x-ray scan of me, if I ever were to get an abortion I might be forced to do so within a couple of months and wait several days and hear my doctor read some stupid script and have a medically un-necessary ultrasound and prove I wasn't raped, I will never get the right to have Medicare when I am old let alone Social Security which I've been forced to pay into while working, the banks all got bailed out with TARP funds yet I still don't have the right to access my OWN money I earn and pay taxes on from an ATM machine without paying a $3 (and soon $5) fee because I guess the banks are big greedy babies who want it ALL, I don't have the right to clean air and water because our world leaders can't stop drilling for oil and spilling the crap all over the place, I don't have the right to my own cell phone if a cop decides to stop me for some arbitrary reason and demands I turn over the phone so they can remove the SIM card and steal all my PERSONAL phone information (not making that one up), and if certain GOP candidates God forbid win the 2012 presidency, children won't have the right to wear sagging pants (and probably not plumbers either as they'd be guilty of the same crime) but heroin MIGHT become legal. Yes, HEROIN, not pot. (Meaning the drug that kills people, not the one that makes you hungry for Cheetos.)
I am confused. WHAT country do I live in now? One with rights? Or a Capitalistic fascist one? I'm a little confused about what I was taught as a little kid when the school I went to insisted we recite the Pledge of Allegiance in addition to all the propaganda I got from the textbooks (ALL Texas based publishing company since schools never get to decide textbooks) which were completely focused on white men and wars and nothing else. War war war and more war and guns guns guns and bombs. What happened to the days of John Lennon and Peace and Love? Really, what has happened to my country? All because a really smart Harvard graduate black man got elected and a bunch of KKK Teabagging idiots can't stand that thought? The Tea Party wants us broke, stupid, trapped, with guns to our heads. That's the message I'm getting lately.
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_5401.html
New U.S. Birth Certificate Requirement
Beginning April 1, 2011, the U.S. Department of State will require the full names of the applicant’s parent(s) to be listed on all certified birth certificates to be considered as primary evidence of U.S. citizenship for all passport applicants, regardless of age. Certified birth certificates missing this information will not be acceptable as evidence of citizenship. This will not affect applications already in-process that have been submitted or accepted before the effective date.
For more information, see 22 CFR 51.42(a).
To obtain a new birth certificate, see the CDC.
In addition to this requirement, certified copies of birth certificates must also include the following information to be considered acceptable primary evidence of U.S. citizenship:
* Full name of the applicant
* Date of birth
* Place of birth
* Raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal of issuing authority
* Registrar’s signature
* The date the certificate was filed with the registrar’s office (must be within one year)
If you cannot obtain a birth certificate that meets these requirements, please see Secondary Evidence of U.S. Citizenship.God forbid you were born prior to 1950 and/or your birth certificate was improperly... more
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President Barack Obama exacted his revenge Saturday after weeks of attacks from his would-be Republican challenger Donald Trump,President Barack Obama exacted his revenge Saturday after weeks of attacks from his... more
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Given the fact that Donald Trump has turned the issue of Obama’s birth certificate into another reality TV show, I found it pertinent to dig some unreported news about him. Both these news items were culled by investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker, back in 2005 and 2008.
http://www.cabaltimes.com/2011/04/29/what-you-never-knew-about-donald-trump/Given the fact that Donald Trump has turned the issue of Obama’s birth... more
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Baltimore, Maryland (CNN) -- I will not click on the link to view the long form of President Obama's birth certificate. I will not participate in this final humiliation -- in the president's reluctant acquiescence in this ongoing smear.
The release of the president's long-form certificate proving his birth in Hawaii will not stop the attempts to discredit his leadership. The so-called "birther" movement veils a much more basic challenge to Obama's legitimacy. And yes, that challenge has a great deal to do with his race.
This is not new. Black leaders always have had to prove their "legitimacy" and their allegiance to America. The way to smear the NAACP in the '40s, and leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King in the '60s, was to suggest that they were Communists working against America.
Opinion: Conspiracy theories die hard
Thurgood Marshall spent a good portion of his confirmation hearing for a position on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals refuting charges that he was a Communist. Frederick Douglass pushed President Lincoln to allow blacks to serve in the Union Army as a way of proving to whites that blacks were worthy of citizenship.
Sherrilyn Ifill
This ongoing challenge to our legitimacy is the reason that so many blacks from earlier generations were told by our parents that we had to be smarter, more well-mannered, more well-spoken and more circumspect than our white counterparts. We had to prove ourselves worthy of the respect of whites, and to do so required proof that we "belonged." It's among the great ironies of race in this country that when black leaders display these same qualities, they are accused of "elitism," no matter how humble their origins.
Obama certificate: Doubters respond Is Obama stoking 'birthers' controversy? Obama: I brought ID just in case
RELATED TOPICS
Barack Obama
Hawaii
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Racial Issues
Donald Trump
Now, even the first black president has been compelled to present proof that he "belongs" in the White House. No Harvard degree, no Nobel Prize -- not even the support of a majority of voters in this vast country is enough. More will always be required.
That's why so many of us are disturbed by the president's decision to give in and release the long-form document. We understand and respect that painful decision to try to refocus the country's attention away from these absurd distractions and on to the critical problems we face. But we also know that his gesture will do little to quell the ongoing challenges to his authority from people who will never accept his leadership. It's not about whether he was born in Hawaii. It's the imposition of never-ending hurdles, and it's motivated by the idea that racial minorities are "others" who must prove their right to have a real place in the leadership of American institutions.
Opinion: Will birther nonsense stop now?
It's no surprise that Donald Trump, the quintessential example of bloated, egocentric American wealth and excess, has already moved on to questioning the grounds for President Obama's admission to Harvard. No rational person doubts the intellectual gifts of the president. They've been on display for decades. It's hard to imagine a movement demanding proof that President George W. Bush was admitted to Yale or to Harvard Business School on the basis of his academic performance. The point is not to question Obama's intellect. The point is to suggest illegitimacy.
"I want to see the SAT scores," Patrick Buchanan bellowed two years ago on "The Rachel Maddow Show." He was referring to the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then a sitting federal judge to the United States Supreme Court and the first Latina to be nominated to the court. These kinds of challenges should never be given credence. President Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate is a sad reminder of just how imperfect our Union remains.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/28/ifill.birthers/index.htmlBaltimore, Maryland (CNN) -- I will not click on the link to view the long form of... more
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“The president himself has hoped Republicans would continue to talk about it, thereby damaging their own credibility,” said Republican strategist Karl Rove. “It was a useful diversion.
“But take a look at recent polls,” Rove added. “The problem was the view was taking hold among independents. He got worried it was about to spin out of control.”
The Republican suggested it was cynical of Obama to wait until now to disclose the long-form.
“He had the ability to release it last year and end the issue, but he wanted to play rope-a-dope with Republicans,” Rove said.
It's hard to believe these guys keep on saying such stupid stuff. Yesterday it was Jonah Goldberg. Now it's Bush's brain. The thing that neither of them realize is that Barack Obama does not control the Republican mind. Even if he did, don't you think he'd have used his Jedi powers to get some support for health care reform, the stimulus, and maybe even climate change?
More importantly, both of them believe that before yesterday's release of the long-form birth certificate, it was legitimate to wonder if Obama was in fact born in the United States...and that's as nutty as birtherism! Releasing this additional piece of paper doesn't settle anything that wasn't already settled.
The facts is we already knew that President Obama was born in the United States beyond any doubt. We already had his certificate of live birth, not one but two separate birth announcements in local papers who printed birth announcements from hospital records, witnesses who had seen this original birth certificate, and of course also the fact that his mother was an American and his grandfather fought in World War II.
The release of yesterday's document shouldn't make you any more convinced that President Obama was born in Hawaii than you were previously, because even before the release of the long-form birth certificate, there was no rational basis upon which to doubt his place of birth.
To put it differently, no self-respecting birther should be any less convinced today than they were two days ago. Two days ago, birthers were living in a fantasy land. And today they are too. And if you don't realize that before yesterday it was crazy to believe anything but the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii, then you're as disconnected from reality as the birthers. And there's a good chance your name is Karl Rove.
.“The president himself has hoped Republicans would continue to talk about it,... more
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Donald Trump has moved on from the "birther" conspiracy to allege President Barack Obama didn't get good enough grades to warrant entry to Harvard Law School, an assertion that CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer called absurd on the "CBS Evening News" on Wednesday.
"That's just code for saying he got into law school because he's black. This is an ugly strain of racism that's running through this whole thing. We can hope that kind of comes to an end too, but we'll have to see," Schieffer said.
Trump first raised the issue on Monday with the Associated Press, saying: "I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I'm thinking about it, I'm certainly looking into it. Let him show his records."
As Trump gloats, Obama calls out "carnival barkers"
Obama birth certificate release won't kill "birther" movement
Republicans slam timing of Obama's birth certificate release
In a press conference Wednesday after arriving in the important primary state of New Hampshire, the potential candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination continued to pound on the issue, saying: "The word is, according to what I've have read, is that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental. He then gets to Columbia and then gets to Harvard. I heard at Columbia he was not a very good student, and then he then he gets into Harvard. How do you get into Harvard if you are not a good student? Maybe that's right, maybe that's wrong, but I don't know why he doesn't he release his records. Why doesn't he release his Occidental records?"
Trump explained the source of his concerns about Mr. Obama's undergraduate education performance. "I am just reporting what I read. Hey, I read stuff that you people write," Trump said in response to a question from a reporter at his press conference on whether he was using innuendo as opposed to facts to attack Mr. Obama.
Trump had said earlier that he raised the "bad grades" question because he had friends with smart kids who couldn't get into Harvard.
Mr. Obama received an undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1983. (He transferred from Occidental College in 1981.) He then got his Juris doctorate from Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1999
http://t.co/otZNEat
.Donald Trump has moved on from the "birther" conspiracy to allege President... more
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In a development that will surprise no one, it turns out that President Barack Obama's decision to release his long-form birth certificate hasn't quieted members of the "birther" movement who promote the conspiracy theory that he wasn't born in the United States.
"Look, I applaud this release. I think it's a step in the right direction," so-called "birther queen" Orly Taitz told me in one of her many media interviews this morning. "I credit Donald Trump in pushing this issue."
But she still has her suspicions. Specifically, Taitz thinks that the birth certificate should peg Obama's race as "Negro" and not "African."In a development that will surprise no one, it turns out that President Barack... more
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A number of you have been asking me on Facebook, Twitter and iReport what I think about Donald Trump, the ‘birther’ issue and the Republican presidential field. Here are my thoughts:
1. Donald Trump’s appeal is based on a fantasy
Americans have always had an appetite for a populist, non-politician who promises to cut through the mess in Washington and provide simple, commonsense solutions to the problems ailing the United States.
The peculiar American twist is that the populists tend to be billionaires. People think the very rich are immune to the usual pressures in government. In some cases this turns out to be true (Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a good example).
But, fundamentally, this is wishful thinking bordering on fantasy. The mess we’re in is not a product of a handful of idiotic politicians engaged in venal behavior. The problem is that Americans want low-taxes and lots of government services.
If you look at the recent polls, most Americans think there should be no changes to Medicare and no broad increases in taxation. This is magical mathematics. There is no way to make the budget work without doing both of these things - or at least one of them.
The reason people like Donald Trump have appeal is they seem to promise that through their superior business talent they will magically solve problems and save Americans from having to make hard choices. That’s a fantasy. It’s never going to happen.
2. The ‘birther’ issue is coded racism
Then there is the ‘birther’ issue. I regard this as coded racism, frankly. I don’t think there’s any other word for it.
For goodness' sake, George Stephanopoulos displayed Obama's Certificate of Live Birth on network TV and this rumor still doesn't die. Put it this way: If the President was a white man named John Smith with the other background issues being the same - foreign student father, mother in Hawaii, etc. - would there be any of these dark insinuations? Trump should be ashamed of himself. But then, I suppose, he wouldn't be Donald Trump.
I don’t think that the 'birther' issue the real appeal of Trump, anyway. It has just helped Trump get free media and rise up in the polls. His real appeal is the fantasy that he can somehow get us out of the mess we’re in.
The reality, however, is that only we can get us out of the mess we’re in.
3. The Republican presidential field is weak
I think the most serious Republican candidate is Mitt Romney. He has run a big business. He was the governor of a big state. But he’s probably disqualified from the Republican nomination because his healthcare plan is too close to Obama’s.
I think this is unfortunate because he would spur a serious debate if he were the nominee. I don’t agree with everything he says. (He’s said some pretty nutty stuff about Islamic extremism and terrorism). But I do think he’s a credible guy who could plausibly be a good President.
Tim Pawlenty and Mitch Daniels strike me as minor figures who are unlikely to have the kind of firepower that you would need to take on a sitting President.
And Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are ideological statements that fire up the base but would be overwhelmingly rejected by the American people. If either of these two were nominated, it would say that the Republican Party was more interested in being true to its perceived causes than in actually winning elections. This has not historically been true of the Republican Party, which has tended to be a more practical party.
4. President Obama is in good shape
The single most important factor determining a president’s reelection is the economy. And through a combination of good crisis management and luck, I think Obama will end up entering the 2012 campaign stretch with an American economy that’s improving, which is probably more important than everything else.A number of you have been asking me on Facebook, Twitter and iReport what I think... more
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(CNN) -- It's not specifically called a "birther" bill and it doesn't mention President Barack Obama by name, but proposed state legislation in Louisiana appears to be the latest attempt to keep alive arguments over whether Obama can prove he was born in the United States.
The proposed Louisiana legislation would require an affidavit to accompany documents, including a birth certificate and a sworn statement that identifies the candidate's place of residence for the preceding 14 years, for someone to quality for the presidential ballot. Similar requirements are set for other offices including Congress.
Bill co-sponsor state Sen. A.G. Crowe told CNN's "AC360" Thursday night that his constituents wanted the legislation, although he said he had no comment on whether Obama was born in the United States.
"The issue won't go away," said Crowe, a Republican.
Obama has been hounded by allegations since he began running for president in 2008 that he was not born in the United States.
Critics -- often called "birthers" -- contend, among other things, that Obama was born in his father's home country of Kenya. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that only "natural born" citizens are eligible to be president.
Obama, who is seeking re-election, has insisted that he was born in Hawaii, and arguments to the contrary have been repeatedly discredited in investigations by CNN and other organizations.
In an effort to counter the claims, Obama's 2008 campaign produced a "certification of live birth," a document traditionally accepted legally as confirmation of a birth.
Both the current Hawaii governor, Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, and the previous governor, Linda Lingle, a Republican, have insisted that Obama was born in their home state.
Nevertheless, the issue remains politically potent among segments of the electorate and has served as a rallying cry for many of the president's opponents.
In a call to CNN's "American Morning," potential presidential candidate Donald Trump said of Obama's constitutional eligibility to be president: "We're looking into it very, very strongly."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, has said he would sign the proposed legislation if it passes, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
But a growing list of Republican politicians and strategists, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, Republican strategist Karl Rove, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a likely GOP presidential candidate, have distanced themselves from the "birther" issue.
Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed similar legislation.
Nearly 75% of Americans believe Obama was definitely or probably born in the United States, according to a March 11-13 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll.
More than four in 10 Republicans, however, believe the president probably or definitely was not born in America.
Fourteen other states are considering similar legislation this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Measures have failed in three states -- Connecticut, Maine and Montana.
Obama touched on the issue Thursday night during a fundraiser with Hollywood luminaries at the Tavern Restaurant in Brentwood, California.
"You all got involved when the prospect of electing Barack Hussein Obama was slim," he said. "None of you asked for my birth certificate. It was a complete leap of faith."(CNN) -- It's not specifically called a "birther" bill and it... more
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