Hard evidence that the birthers were a Republican-manufactured phony distraction

[DFW]

Not that we needed it, but...........

Has anyone heard anything from them in the last week? I've been in the States for 4 weeks now, and for
the last two, not a peep. Now, they are more concerned with getting Obama killed than proving he's from
Timbuktu, or something. Plus proving Teddy Kennedy was a Marxist and a Nazi at the same time, and raiding
mental hospitals for inmates to bus to town hall meetings held by Democrats, etc etc.

But, nope, like Kerry's swiftboaters, the birthers are shriveling up and melting faster than the Wicked Witch
of the West. Or, rather, metamorphosing into town hall goons or talk show opponents of socialism, er, I mean,
health care for Americans.

The birthers served their purpose, the show had a good run, but it's time for a costume change for the next act
of their circus. Step right up, folks, get yer bottles of snake oil before they're all gone. That stupid Republican
Congressman they put up to going on talk shows wanting a bill that required a president to furnish his birth
certificate to take office? You know, good old what's-his name? What show was he on again? Poor guy. He had his
15 minutes and now nobody even remembers what he looks like or what state he was from. The birthers were a one-hit
wonder like the Strawberry Alarm Clock, with an idea that had about as much staying power, making the hula hoop
fad seem like a millennium in length by comparison. The Republican Party calleth into being, the Republican Party
maketh disappear again. NEXT!


(Lou who?)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You nailed it...

And I love it!


K&R

:rofl:

[greyl]

2. Nice theory, but I missed the hard evidence part. ;) nt

[DFW]

5. That's just it!

What you missed is the fact that the birthers have been missed. Suddenly it's like they were never there.
The fact that they came out of nowhere with publicity galore, organized appearances all over rightward-
leaning media, rallies with printed signs, getting Rep. Whatisname, R-Someplace, to sponsor a bill, etc.
Now suddenly total silence? That's not a popular movement fading away. That's a big organized phenomenon
whose funding plug got pulled.

[greyl]

12. No. You didn't just say "evidence", you said "hard evidence".

I have hard evidence that you posted a misleading headline. It may all be in good fun, but that's fact.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. Hard evidence is a term of art -

and it's nothing but a representation of how the speaker perceives the value of the circumstances presented.

It's a very valid headline, given the OP's post and his POV.

Then, there's direct v. circumstantial evidence, but we're not in Evidence class in law school, so we're safe, and don't have to go there...............................

[greyl]

17. Ah, so the Birthers have hard evidence of their claims, using your dictionary.

Not good enough for me, sorry.

[DFW]

21. No, they have doctored evidence

Not the same in any court of law.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. Actually, I wasn't attempting to meet

whatever your standards might be. Just trying to explain the term to you.

Regretfully, it didn't work, but then, pearls before swine rarely do............................

[11 Bravo]

29. You should work in a head lice ward. Then you could pick nits all day long, to your heart's content

[DFW]

20. Good fun was indeed a part of the intent

But the exact use of Jerome Corsi's M.O., not to mention his personal involvement in the
so-called "movement," is more than just speculation. It was Swiftboaters II with use of an
M.O. as precise as that of a serial killer, and at least one of the major members of the
cast of characters from 2004. That was obvious even before they decided to pull the proverbial
money plug. Like the Terminator, they'll be back.

[Kalyke]

27. Why did they pull the funding, I wonder?

Was it because they ran out of money?

Or, more likely, was it because their loony bins made the Republican Party look more like a satellite orbiting outside of the mainstream?

:evilgrin:

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. It was probably the brief Oily Twatz self-promoting corporate media tour that killed the birthers

....especially the bogus "Kenyan Birth Certificate" :rofl:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. End of Act One -

now it's the intermission, filled up with the Congressional recess, Obama's vacation, Senator Kennedy's death and the attendant rituals, and vacations.

Act Two opens in a few weeks, when Congress returns, and this town gets back to work.

Besides McPOW and McConnell demanding that Obama begin this health care debate all over again - I want whatever they're smoking, dammit - I have no idea what the PR guys who are handling the anti-change health care project have in mind.

But, following the Savage and Olbermann conversation about such things earlier this evening, it would be nice to watch the Democrats in Congress suddenly grow a collective pair, maybe a nice straight and strong spine to go with those cojones, and tell the GOPigs to go fuck themselves.

And Obama goes to work a la LBJ and finetunes his arm-twisting skills. I'd like to see him exercise the massive power of the Presidency - so far, he seems to enjoy the ceremonial aspects of it, but he's yet to utilize it in the proper way, i.e., getting the job done.............................................

[DFW]

7. He could use a small injection of LBJ-juice for sure

Of course, LBJ was Senate majority leader, and knew the ropes. Obama has the capacity of being as forceful,
I just hope he has every intention of doing so. If he does it subtly and behind the scenes, it's fine with
me if that's his style, as long as he does it. Every president has their own style (well, except Bush Lite,
who had Cheney's style).

[NanceGreggs]

6. Off to the GP with ya ...

... GREAT POST!!!

[DFW]

10. Why, thanky, ma'am!

It's amazing what trivial thoughts occur to you when a jet-lagged mind can't sleep.

[anigbrowl]

8. That's not hard evidence, it's circumstantial evidence

Hard evidence would be something like a document or email from GOP HQ saying 'let's encourage/manipulate these lunatics, yuk yuk'.

[DFW]

9. I take the sudden deafening silence as rather definitive

It might not be sufficient to convict in a proper court of law, but in a court of Scalia and Alito? Off with their 'eads!

[anigbrowl]

22. That's fine, just pointing out that words have specific meanings.

When you say hard evidence I'm expecting something juicier than inductive reasoning. Not that I thinnk you're wrong or anything, but 'must be' isn't the same as 'evidence of'. So I am suing you for my emotional distress over your lack of truth in advertising :-)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. The hard evidence requires some digging,

but it's there. You check and see who puts up certain websites, who's behind which "Foundation," stuff like that.

Rachel Maddow does this, regularly and masterfully....................

[JohnnyLib2]

11. For sure, for sure.

I'll predict part of the next act: painting Obama's nationwide speech to public school students as "indoctrination."

There are already dire warnings in some circles, and urgings to keep children home from school that day.

:banghead:

[lapfog_1]

13. Just as soon as the Health Care issue is deader than grandma

on the govmint run socialist healthcare... (btw, :sarcasm: )

They will bring forth the "Energy Citizen" to explain that we don't need Cap 'n Trade or to tax or restrict CO2 polluters at all. What we really need is more oil exploration... and tax write offs for oil companies so that they will do the exploration and "secure our energy future". Mountaintop removal will be presented as a good thing, opening up vistas for the homes on the surrounding mountains that had their view of distant valleys blocks by those ugly mountains.

[Monk06]

16. As per CP doubly dog nailed it. Just go to FR and the birther meme has been dropped like a

crazy relative. They got the Communist Conspiracy
of health care for all.

The good ol standard of Godless Communism vs Jesus
wasn't put on earth to give you health care insurance.

[Tesibria]

25. Really?

From Most Popular Articles TODAY, this moment:

4. Born in USA ? : Official Obama story continues to unravel

I go to FR every day, and every day for the past many weeks, continuing to today, there's been at LEAST one birther thread in the top 10. Yesterday, there were two. And on Monday, there were three such threads.

[Monk06]

40. For the past couple of weeks up until I posted, yes. Mind you the birthers like the evos never go

away forever. They always come back like zombies
when the latest obsession runs it's course.

[Contrary1]

18. World Nut Daily is still pushing it. And guess what? They have **new** irrefutable evidence!

Again.

:rofl:

[bridgit]

19. Mm, as if there were any other conclusion

[mwb970]

23. They're not quite as "gone" as you say.

It may be that elected officials are stoking the Birther "controversy" less. But online, many comment threads are dominated by Birthers. Like the comments to this article from military.com about R. Lee Ermey's plans to "square away" the Birthers. The comments run about 4-1 in favor of the Birthers.

A sign of the staleness of the Birthers' non-arguments is that the many comments from them on this and other articles boil down to just two points:

1. Why doesn't Obama just show his BC and end it all?

2. Obama has spent "thousands" of dollars (or $400K, or $800K, or $1.5M, or "millions of dollars", depending on the commenter) to somehow "cover up" his past. (No proof or citations for this are ever given.)

The Birthers have not gone away completely, although they do seem to have gotten dumber.

[Tesibria]

24. Sorry, but totally wrong

The birthers were not a republican-manufactured phony distraction.

The birthers were a PUMA-creation, back in May/June of 2008.
It wasn't until Jeff Schrieber, conservative blogger of AmericasRight.com, started writing about the first lawsuit (filed by a Democrat, btw), that republicans started paying attention back in September of 2008.

The recent "media blitz" on birthers was - in fact - a MEDIA creation. It should be noted that the MOST media attention came from *liberal* TV & blogs, not from conservative blogs. And it was triggered by Stefan Cook's manufactured TRO filed in Georgia.

One can argue that certain Republicans used the birther nonsense recently for their own purposes. But anyone following the birther movement cannot seriously contend that it is a republican creation. It simply is not. Republicans were late to the party on this one.

[redqueen]

31. No way... I don't remember reading about it in the primaries.

Maybe I'm just blocking that part out.

[EFerrari]

34. I do remember that it came up but thought it was wingers

not Clinton supporters. Or wingers posing as Clinton supporters.

[redqueen]

35. It sure is a shame how often the far left is co-opted by the right. (nt)

[Tesibria]

38. Yes, you're blocking it out

The story "broke" at the end of the Primary Season, in late May/early June -- pushed by TexasDarlin,' Hillary44, NoQuarter, and a few other PUMA blogs. I started a blog on it in August, when Phil Berg (a democrat!) filed the first case on it.

It wasn't until mid-late October that Republicans started paying some attention to it -- and not until later that they started filing copycat lawsuits. The lawsuits were "copycats" of the original - filed by a PUMA democrat.

[Lance_Boyle]

33. PUMA was a republican creation. n/t

[EFerrari]

36. It always felt that way to me. And didn't some of those groups morph

into Palin supporters?

[Jade Fox]

26. Read 'The Republican Noise Machine' for the hard evidence.....

The book was written by David Brock.

[redqueen]

30. K&R... nice summation of their little circus of stupidity.

:thumbsup:

[Milspec]

32. off topic but

I haven't thought about Strawberry Alarm Clock in years

[Blue_Tires]

37. very true...

[spanone]

39. shhh, don't tell the media, they think they are an equal argument in the healthcare debate