Wackadoodles galore...

(from http://www.stevedennie.com/)

This past week in the mail I received Dreams of my Real Father a "documentary" that if it wasn't so twisted and playing to the conspiracy theorists and basest of individuals it would be laughable.  This is an actual quote from the flyer we received:

           The film begins by presenting the case that Barack Obama's real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a    
           Communist Party USA propagandist who likely shaped Obama's world view during his formative
           years. Barack Obama sold himself to America as the multi-cultural ideal, a man who stood above
           politics. Was the goat herding Kenyan father only a fairy tale to obscure a Marxist agenda,
           irreconcilable with American values?

Obama is the son of a Marxist organizer and his Kenyan father is a smoke screen?  Really? How do the Birthers feel about this? It does at least make Obama legitimate.  I am not going to watch this piece of propaganda; I am afraid I would never get my DVD player clean afterwords. The inside cover even goes so far to put  Obama's picture next to Frank Marshall Davis because after all don't all black people look the same and as such we are suppose to immediately imply a physical similarity between the two.

On the website of the film it actually asks if Obama had a nose job to change his resemblance to Davis. This racist and extremest work is the worst kind of propaganda.

 

(from http://mysticpolitics.com/political-committee-formed-to-examine-obama-birther-conspiracies/)

Then there are the Birthers. This group too is  living in their own world of propaganda and racism.  Let's face it.  If Obama were white and his American born mother had married a  white British man, we would not be having the conversation about whether Hawaii, which is apparently the most incompetent state in maintaining records in the nation,  allowed someone to come in and create a long form birth certificate.  And by the way, I would like every candidate  to publish his birth certificate and then prove that his family who lived in another country never gave up their American citizenship.  How, for example, would have George Romney felt if he had to present a birth certificate?  He was born in Mexico, and he had his own presidential run.

Perhaps you get the idea of what these movements do to the people they attack.  And for you conspiracy folk, ask yourself one, simple, logical question.  How exactly did who ever it was decide that in 1961, Obama would be the first black president and he would need all this cover to prove citizenship or hide the origins of his birth?

After all, we all know that at birth, a poor to lower middle class family has the capability to make this all happen, just as Kennedy planned on every one of his sons would be president and Mitt Romney secretly plans to make The Latter Day Saints the official church.
Plain silly, isn't it?

(from http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/birthers-lose-againgeorgia-judge-says-president-obama-is-a-natural-born-citizenwill-the-birthers/question-2436683/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002436683/36112625_anti_obama_birther_xlarge.jpeg)

 I know that Mitt Romney is a citizen and that he has no plans to make us all Mormons, but I also wanted you to see how ludicrous this is based on someone's beliefs.  I also realize how incredibly difficult if not impossible it would be to have sons to establish a dynasty of presidents.  By the way, some people were worried about John Kennedy being a Catholic.

In order for Obama not to be a citizen one of the two items must be true, he was actually born in Kenya and the state of Hawaii is lying or he denounced his citizenship while living in Indonesia and became a citizen there.  His mother, an American, gives him citizenship in the US and he may have dual citizenship since his father is from Kenya. Dual citizenship is not illegal and is not forbidden by the Constitution.  In fact the Constitution does not actually define what a "natural born citizen" is.

This has caused much consternation.  It could mean that it is based on location of birth or it could also mean parentage.  If one bases it on location, then all potential presidents must be born in the US meaning that any child born to parents outside the US whether as diplomats or while on vacation are not natural citizens.  See a problem with this? John McCane was born in Panama on a US base. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Quincy Adams, Jackson and Harrison were born in the colonies before there was a US and some believe that Chester A. Arthur was actually born in Canada.

Anyone start to see how silly the Birther argument actually is?

But it gets worse -- Obama is secretly gay and hid a secret marriage in Indonesia before Michelle to become POTUS.  What is more, this was known and hidden by the media.  He apparently has missing years.  Missing years? Oh yeah, according to certain Birthers, no one remembers Obama attending his undergraduate college, unless of course you ignore his transcript and that his college roommate who recalls seeing him. Again, he was chosen by the media and some apparently powerful people who can cover all this up.  Please allow me to pass you a tinfoil hat.

(from http://www.stevedennie.com/)

If it weren't all so sordid and sick and without any real logical thought, this would really have a padded cell in the Wackadoodle asylum.  Here's something for you to think about.  In 2008, 12 percent of all voters thought Obama was Muslim  In 2012, 17 percent think he is.  Among Conservatives, 16 percent in 2008 but 34 percent believe so in 2012.  It is up 14 points among Republicans in general.  The belief is also up among independents who lean Republican by 7 points and by 2 for those leaning Democrat.  It has gone down among Democrats.  (http://www.mediaite.com/online/new-poll-shows-conservative-republicans-increasingly-believe-obama-is-muslim/) By the way, being a Muslim is not wrong nor illegal and is protected by the first amendment.  There are even two congressmen who are Muslim.  Again, political extremism is at its worst playing on racist fears.  Conspiracy folks, you would think the powerful people would come up with a better name than Barak Hussein Obama for a presidential name.  You may want to readjust the antennae on your tin foil hat if any of the above sounded logical.

In another poll 25% of all Americans think he was born outside the US and another 18 percent said they didn't know.  The number is much higher among Republicans, 33 percent outside and 22 percent didn't know.  (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20056061-503544.html) This is despite the fact that there is everything from the long form birth certificate to public birth announcements.  The evidence is overwhelming that he was born in the US and lived here as a citizen. He is a professed Christian and attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

(As a sidelight, in another survey in September, 6% of Ohio voters thought that Romney killed Bin Laden and 31 percent weren't sure.  So we have either a sampling anomaly which I sincerely hope is true or there really are a lot of folks just not paying attention.)

It is more than a bit frightening that so many base the belief and the discussion of these conspiracy simply because of Obama's skin color whether they want to admit it or not. Sorry for this rant, but this DVD was the last straw and that it was sent to 2.7 million voters and there are just enough Wackadoodles out there that this kind of material could set off.