Friday, May 14, 2010

On political horribleness

When your friend solnushka practically dares you to top the British National Party in terms of sheer awfulness, then follows that up by asking what the Birthers are, you realize that responding with a follow-up comment won't suffice -- you need another blog post to give the topic full expression.

What could be worse than the BNP? Well, you tell your British friend, imagine that there is no BNP -- because its potential members are instead all members in good standing of the Conservative Party, including several prominent MPs and a couple of newly-minted Conservative cabinet ministers. If that were the case, then your British friend would understand what the Republican Party is like in the USA.

Surely, your British friend might respond, the Republicans can't be that awful.

Oh yes they can, you reply, and don't call me Shirley. And this brings you naturally to the topic of the Birthers.

Simply put, the Birthers are people who believe that President Obama is lying when he says he was born in Honolulu, capital of the State of Hawaii. This is significant because the US Constitution restricts the presidency to natural-born citizens, ie people who were born citizens because they were born on US soil, or because at least one of their parents was a citizen. Even though President Obama is a natural-born citizen on both counts, the Birthers believe that if they can prove that Obama was actually born in Kenya, that will disqualify him for the presidency, and he'll have to step down.

All of the actual evidence shows that Obama was indeed born in Honolulu. His parents were living there at the time of his birth, his birth certificate shows that he was born in Honolulu, and two Honolulu newspapers mentioned Obama in their birth announcements for the week. The Birthers, though, fueled by a toxic mix of racism and wishful thinking, insist that the birth certificate is a forgery, that the birth announcements are hoaxes, that Obama's family has been lying all along about his true birthplace, and that all the government officials in the State of Hawaii who vouch for the authenticity of the birth certificate are In On The Conspiracy. That was the point of the Wagner for President post, a thought experiment to show just how impossible it would be for a foreign-born politician to do what the Birthers say Obama has done. (In real life, Wagner never even considered running for president for that very reason.)

So, the Birthers are complete nutters, right? Right. And they're nothing more than a lunatic fringe, right?

Wrong. Polls consistently show that a majority of Republicans don't believe that Obama was born in the United States. Republican legislators in Arizona, Georgia, and the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced bills requiring that presidential candidates provide proof that they are natural-born citizens. Only a handful of Republicans in the US Congress were willing to go on the record stating that Obama was born in the United States.

The Birthers are completely nuts, and they are legion.

Top that.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh. My. God.

I take it back. You win. That's completely insane. Good grief.

Mind you, the BNP are Holocaust denyers. That strikes me as much the same level of blindness to the evidence. Still, I daresay that this lot are too. Of course, I always thought the Republicans are more like UKIP (UK Independence Party. Independent from whom? Well now... Basically a middle class BNP). I think in one fell swoop you have explained why the two sides in the US are at each others throats. I'm afraid I just can't muster the same sort of horror over Cameron.

Anyway. Can I just congratulate you on the Wagner post then? Splendid bit of satire. Shame I missed the point, but it was splendidly ludicrus and how was I to know...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Well, besides the birthers, we've got some flat-earthers.

I'd post links, but you'd get too freaked out... politicians down south have to reject evolution while they campaign. The Arizona state legislature has (besides passing the "show your papers campesino" law) passed laws against "ethnic studies" (if you're non-white, that is) courses and (I wish I were kidding) the genetic engineering of human-animal hybrids. The Georgia state legislature passed a law making the implantation of microchips in a person's body (against one's will) illegal, and the hearing included testimony from a woman who claimed that the Department of Defense had installed a microchip in her hoo-hah.

Yeah, it's even worse than J.P. makes it seem... a LOT worse.

Anonymous said...

You might want to take a refresher course on English Comprehension.

I don't believe Obama is lying about being born in Hawaii - HOWEVER, that does NOT make him a NBC.

Also, I'm not sure about these newspaper announcements that mention Obama. You might want to re-read them - this time, making sure you notice the information that is NOT there and not reading them for what you WANT them to say, but for what they DO say.

No where in either newspaper announcement do they mention the name Barack H. Obama Jr. It says Sr. and Mrs. had a baby boy. How do you know for a FACT that the announcement is referring to Obama? You don't.

Yes, common sense says it probably does, but you simply cannot state that for a FACT because you simply do not know it for a FACT. His parents might have been living in Hawaii at the time he was born in Hawaii, but one of his parents, namely his father was NOT a US Citizen.

Please explain to me how someone born with dual citizenship can be a Natural Born Citizen of the US owing sole allegiance to the US? It's impossible.

All that said - it's NOT about Obama. Think about this - with an open mind. It's not about Obama, it's about who comes after him.....what precedent is Obama setting by owing allegiance to Britain, America, possibly Kenya and Indonesia?

Are you really saying that ANYONE, so long as they are born on US soil are eligible to be POTUS? Are you sure you really want to say that? Just imagine the door that opens for future Presidents of the US!!

And again, with regards to the Hawaii DOH vouching for his COLB - you need to go back and really read and COMPREHEND what Fukino and Okubo are REALLY saying and not what you WANT them to be saying. They choose their words VERY VERY carefully. Lots of words that don't say much. They say they have seen a RECORD of his COLB on file, but never once do they state they have viewed the actual COLB, nor have the corroborated the info that was posted online. When she vouched for his status, she said he was a natural-born American citizen....why not just say what the Constitution requires? Why not just say he is a natural born citizen?

The FACT is - we do not know whether the law considers Obama to be a NBC or not....it needs to be heard on it's merits before a court of law.

The FACT is, Obama said he was born in Hawaii - and I believe him.

The FACT is, Obama said he was born with dual-citizenship (under legal governance of Britain) - and I believe him.

Common sense tells us he was born in Hawaii and common sense tells us that in order to be a NBC, both parents need to be US Citizens.

You accuse the birthers of racism - I don't understand how you could possibly find racism, unless like most Obama supporters you consider Obama to be black. He is NOT. He is 50% black and 50% white. If a birther is white, are you saying they are only being 50% of a racist? It's so silly - there is no basis for your accusation. The racist is the person who claims Obama is black 100% of the time. 50% of the time, you must call Obama white, or YOU are the racist. It's not an issue of color - it's an issue of the Constitution, the future of this nation and political ideologies.

I'd advise you to do some real research if you are really interested in the TRUTH and FACTS.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Hanx for proving everyone else's point, anonymoose.
~

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

whoah. Anonymoose, forget the olympics, go pro.

Smut Clyde said...

No where in either newspaper announcement do they mention the name Barack H. Obama Jr. It says Sr. and Mrs. had a baby boy.

And of course if the announcement did mention the child's name, there would still be NO PROOF that the current person calling himself Barack Obama is the SAME PERSON.

For the same reason a birth certificate would not prove anything either because he could still be a foreign-born substitute for the child mentioned therein, or a changeling from the Unseelie Court.

It's hard to see how anyone qualifies under this standard of proof.

Johnny Pez said...

Orly?

Is that you, Orly?