WSJ: 'Natural Born' Baloney. Debunking the urban legend about the Supreme Court and Obama's citize

[cali]

By JAMES TARANTO

No, the Supreme Court is not going to intervene and stop Barack Obama from becoming president.

Normally this would be "Bottom Story of the Day" material, but lots of crazy rumors have been going around, albeit mostly on blogs and other Web sites of the far-right fringe. Last week, however, David Serchuk of Forbes.com rehearsed one of them, giving us an opportunity to set the record straight. Here's Serchuk:

<snip>

Even in the vanishingly unlikely event that the court does grant certiorari, it almost certainly would consider only the legal issue raised by the lower court's ruling--namely, whether Berg has standing to sue. In the even more vanishingly unlikely event that the justices rule in his favor, the case would be returned to a trial judge for consideration of the factual allegations.

One Leo Denofrio has a pending petition for certiorari in a similar case that was dismissed by the New Jersey Supreme Court. His prospects for success are approximately equal to Berg's, for the same reasons. We devoutly hope this is the last item we will ever have to write on this silly topic.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122763857669957141.html

Read the whole piece please. It explains precisely why this is the fringiest of the fringe.

[tekisui]

1. Even WSJ realizes the idiocy of this.

Yet, we still have regular posts about it here, complete with 'concern'.

[cali]

2. hey, not even the National Enquirer

will touch this, let alone the WSJ which (still) prides itself on its sober sided grey flannels image.

And this is actually an excellent piece.

[elleng]

11. Yeah;

they write good over there!

[lamp_shade]

3. yeh... and I wonder "who are these people?"

[H2O Man]

4. Valid question.

[cali]

6. I can answer that: they're fringe kooks

don't mean to be redundant, but that's the bottom line:
Keyes, Berg, Martin and Donofrio are all nuts. The first three are well known nuts. And no one ever said that nuts don't have money- or can't raise it.

[CreekDog]

8. the thing about 'those people' is:

regardless of whether they are being inexcusably naive or maliciously, none of their posts are working.

DU'ers are mainly with almost no exception, calling those posts bullshit.

Our folks have been smart and savvy about protecting our guy.

[jberryhill]

27. I for one, find it a favorite topic - but with "amusement" instead of "concern"

It's entertaining to see what odd wrinkle they'll come up with next.

It was especially funny when Obama himself played off of it at that charity dinner where he said his middle name is really "Steve" and that he's from the planet Krypton.

[sufrommich]

5. The right wing of this country will spend the next 8 years

throwing shit and hoping it sticks. They did it during the Clinton administation and they'll do it during the Obama administration. It's what they do instead of actually forming a coherent political agenda for their side. Hopefully,this country has had enough of the bullshit.

[cali]

7. sure, but at least this absurdist shit won't fly

it's evoked nothing but contempt from every quarter.

[sufrommich]

9. Every quarter but their freeper base,who all believe the old

Nazi adage "If you repeat a lie often enough....."

[cali]

10. They're actually true believers

To say that there's a paucity of logic and critical thinking skills over there is a wild eyed undestatement.
Freeperville is a sterling example of "your brain on hate".

[Bolo Boffin]

12. Ground Zero for this particular idiocy is Pam Geller

who truly believes Obama is Malcolm X's illegitimate son. Think Ann Coulter as a brunette, but crazy.

[PatGund]

33. She helped alright....

Pam Geller launched both "Polarik" and "TechDude" into the cult of the COLB, but the citizenship claims started with the writings of a Neo-Confederate over at the blog of PUMA "TexasDarlin". Since then, the far-right sites and the PUMA sites have been reinfecting each other, like an untreated STD, with more and more outlandish and grotesque theories and claims.

And Geller isn't the only one making simular claims. Anti-semite Andy Martin claims Obama's real father is Frank Marshall Davis.

[rvablue]

29. I have no doubt that they will try to do to Obama what they did to Clinton but there are two

reasons why it ain't going to work:

1) Obama is not stupid or compulsive enough to engage in the sordid things Clinton did.

2) We didn't have DU, DKos, KO, Rachel, Air America, etc. etc. then to fight back against the right wing smear machine that had been in the works and cultivated since Nixon had to leave office in disgrace.

Not this time. Not this administration. Not this President. And not with all of us on the look out and organized on this series of tubes.

Look at how quickly, for instance, that whole "B" girl incident was debunked...in minutes....back in the Clinton days there would have been a special prosecutor appointed, a grand jury convened and millions of dollars spent before anyone figured out she was a liar and fabricator.

[CreekDog]

13. Yet the two other threads on this got 6 and 3 recommends

:wtf:

[cali]

14. yeah, well

this is just boring old facts.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. They've been indulged by the Republican party for so long

that they think they're running the asylum. They're in for a rude shock.

[cali]

16. hammer meet nail

Yesterday I read a post in freeperville about a letter some batshit freeper sent to his congress critter about the birth certificate bullshit. The congress critter, Peter Hoekstra sent back a letter saying it was all garbarge. the freeper was in a state of shock.

[crispini]

19. Ahahahaha! I'd love to read that-- link?

I have to admit, this "birth certificate" saga is amusing me no end.

[cali]

20. here you go; enjoy.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138450/posts

[crispini]

21. OMG. He gets a letter back and he just goes off and composes

another, longer one full of even more BS. :rofl:

I can tell you right now that that sort of thing just goes directly into the trash bin.

[cali]

22. I know. Isn't their frustration and anger the most delicious elixer?

freep frustration. what could be more refreshing?

[LynnTheDem]

26. They're total brick walls. No common sense, no facts, no reality is able to

penetrate.

Fucking amazing.

[sufrommich]

24. This Freeper is about to get culled from the herd:

But it is a nutty theory.

This has become the truther movement of the right.

It’s crap and will go nowhere

How about looking at the issues not this garbage.

And before you tell me you are right.....wait until inaguration and then what....

Do I have to read this until 2012 or 2016

sigh.



10 posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 9:53:53 PM by JNL (uot)
< Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies>

[wryter2000]

30. Oh, noes!!!!!!!!

"Funny - JNL uses the word “garbage” - the exact same word used by 0bama to decribe this..."

This wise freeper had detected the code. If you say "garbage," you must be Obama in disguise. No one uses the word "garbage" except Barack Hussein Obama. SERIES!!!1

[sufrommich]

31. lol,those freepers are too smart for Obama.

He slipped badly.

[GoneOffShore]

34. Stong Teh Stoopid there is!

:rofl:


:freak:

[zbdent]

17. but McCain was perfectly legal despite being born in the Panama Canal Zone

a few years before the date that the law set as acceptable ... to them ...

:eyes:

[crispini]

18. Yay! This should most certainly shut the RW up.

But it won't. :crazy:

[BeFree]

23. Bummer

They write "We devoutly hope this is the last item we will ever have to write on this silly topic.
'

DU should like to see them cover their front page for the next 10 weeks
with the ramblings of those idiots. Maybe we could get them to reconsider?

[NJmaverick]

25. The funny thing is seeing Freeperville drink their own koolaide over this one

the Free Republic is filled with lunatics that honestly believe this hoax. It used to be FR was fully of rabid far right wing nuts. Now it's pretty much filled with just nuts.

[Phx_Dem]

28. Oh no! All the brainless heads in Freeperville just exploded!

The probability that the court will actually grant certiorari is, in theory, greater than zero, but it is such a small number as to be incomprehensible to anyone within the ordinary range of intelligence.

Poor stupid Freepers.

:rofl:

[donco6]

32. There's always prayer.

There was a thread over there asking people to pray that the Electoral College wouldn't vote for Obama.

[cali]

35. particularly as this was written by a conservative

gotta give it to the guy; he did a great job. best article I've seen on this.