Birther

Birther spokesman Herb Titus went on Voice of Christian Youth America’s Crosstalk on Friday to discuss the progress of the birther movement.  Undeterred by recent setbacks to the movement, Titus claimed that President Obama’s ineligibility for office is written into the Bible and that in any case, the president “is more loyal to his African father than he is to the American nation.”

When President Obama released his long-form birth certificate last year, birthers did not accept the blow to the central premise of their movement. Instead, they switched tacks and started claiming that the birth certificate was inconsequential and that the president was in fact ineligible because one of his parents was not a United States citizen.

Now, Titus seems to have blended this new definition of “natural born citizen” with some David Barton-style biblical analysis to conclude that God himself has declared Obama ineligible for the American presidency:

Titus: What’s important is to realize that being a natural born citizen is based upon the law of nature. Any natural law is based on a law of nature which is revealed by God. And the notion is that no one is accidentally born in any particular nation to any particular parent. You’re not born by accident, you’re born by design. And who’s the designer? Well, God’s the designer. So if you’re born of two parents, that is a mother and father, who are of the same citizenship, then you have been ordained by God to be a citizen of the nation of your parents. That’s why he’s a natural born citizen. So, there’s a design in this that goes all the way back to scriptural principles.

Schneider: Dr. Titus, when this issue has come up time and time again to either the president or his press secretary, they are now referring to the long-form birth certificate that they released in 2011. In your opinion, does the presentation of this long-form certificate, as they have given it and said, ‘See, there’s the evidence,’ in your opinion does this satisfy the matter?

Titus: Well, I think it does if your definition of natural born citizen is that the parents have to be citizens of the United States. Because the form that was produced by the Obama administration indicates that his father was not an American citizen. Where people said, where race usually you put ‘black’ but it has ‘African.’ Well, it shows that he had a national citizenship that was not the United States. So, you don’t need anything more than the evidence that’s already been furnished by the Obama administration themselves. You don’t have to go behind it, you don’t have to determine whether it’s a fraudulent certificate. It says it on its face.

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Titus: The people have a responsibility here to make sure that the Constitution is followed as it is written. I mean, if people don’t like the natural born citizen requirement, then they can amend the Constitution. I think in this particular case, it demonstrates why the natural born citizen requirement is so important, because I think this president does have a divided loyalty. I think he is more loyal to his African father than he is to the American nation, and I think that’s been well-documented.
 

The release of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate in April hasn’t stopped Jerome Corsi, author of Where’s The Birth Certificate?, from pushing his fanciful case that President Obama was born outside of the United States, and yesterday he appeared in Crosstalk with Vic Eliason on Voice of Christian Youth America where the two complained that no one cares what they have to say anymore. Eliason lamented that people “call us just a bunch of crazies, radicals, birthers” and said that people like himself “get a label, an epithet that kind of raises a shadow over” their arguments. Corsi assured him that “Barack Obama’s nativity story and his life story” have all been “fabricated,” and claimed that the alleged “cover-up” is a “serious issue.”

Eliason: One of the things that frustrates me as I hear about these things Dr. Corsi is this, there’s enough evidence here—if this was a bank robbery the law would pounce on the perpetrators—but there’s enough evidence here to raise questions from A to Z and nobody seems to be or have the power or the will or whatever to get, I mean, why are people scurrying around it? For instance, if you mention this and by us putting it on the air, they’d call us just a bunch of crazies, radicals, birthers, that’s the term that they call them, birthers. They get a label, an epithet that kind of raises a shadow over anybody that raises a question.

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Corsi: The entire story we’ve been presented with, Barack Obama’s nativity story and his life story, appear to be all fabricated. So we truly don’t know who this man is.

Eliason: That statement is rather shocking but I’ve seen it even coming from other countries and national leaders that have called Mr. Obama a mystery man that has come from somewhere, emerged quickly, qualifications ignored and basically placed. And there are many people that have asked the questions, could it be, as this morning on Fox News they were saying he was the bystander in the White House, that was the term that Fox was using, a bystander in the White House, standing by while everything else goes crazy, only stepping in at certain times when he should be in there, dealing with the issues instead of being out golfing or running for office or whatever he’s doing at this present time.

Corsi: I think another term that’s been used is usurper, in other words, instead of coming forward and presenting his credentials in an open fashion, saying, ‘do you want to see my passport records here they are, do you want to see the original birth certificate materials, here’s what’s in the vault in Hawaii.’ We still have even today, three years into the presidency, a cover-up going on, so we’re not allowed to see original documents pertaining to Barack Obama, and I think that’s a serious issue.

• PFAW: America as a 'Christian Nation' -- A Conversation with Experts on Religion, History, Law and the Constitution.

 

• Evan McMorris-Santoro @ TPM: Rick Perry Goes Full Birther: ‘Let’s See His Grades.’

 

• Tommy Christopher @ Mediaite: James O’Keefe Explains His Attack On Huffington Post’s Sam Stein.

 

• Ben Armbruster @ Think Progress Security: Gingrich Suggests Obama Is Ushering ‘Defeat’ In Iraq, Two Days After Saying He’s ‘Right’ To Withdraw.

 

• Media Matters: MSNBC's Buchanan Stands By His Bigoted Remarks About Homosexuality.

 

• Andy Birkey @ Minnesota Independent: Rick Santorum talks sodomy laws on Bradlee Dean’s radio show.

• Pat Robertson says he will no longer be making political endorsements because "the truth of the matter is politics is not going to change our world. It's really not going to make that much of a difference."
• Suddenly, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are BFFs.
• Bryan Fischer is very excited that Rush Limbaugh talked about his article on the radio, even though Limbaugh has no idea who Fischer is or where he saw the article.
• Lots of legislators seem to love Wallbuilders "ProFamily Legislators Conference."
• Finally, the Supreme Court has rejected Alan Keyes' birther lawsuit.

As we noted last week, Rick Perry spent some time this weekend at James Leininger's ranch in Texas meeting with a bevy of Religious Right leaders and activists.

According to Time, there was some 300 such leaders in attendance and Rick Scarborough, though he refuses to confirm that he was actually in attendance, appears quite smitten with the Texas Governor:

Last weekend, Rick Perry privately met some 300 conservative evangelical leaders at long-time supporter Jim Leininger’s home near Fredricksburg, Texas. And on Monday afternoon, reported-attendee and evangelical leader Rick Scarborough told TIME he is endorsing Perry: “I was holding judgment,” says Scarborough, who in 1998 founded the group Vision America to mobilize pastors and their congregations to vote on social issues, “but the more I’ve studied and listened, the more I have liked what I have heard.”

Perry first charmed Scarborough, who supported former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for President in 2008, over a decade ago when Perry gave an impromptu personal testimony of his evangelical faith at a 1998 Republican convention. “It was obvious to me as a preacher that it was real, it was undoctored, it was unprepared, it was off the cuff. It really resonated with me.”

The governor had help in winning over the evangelical leader. Scarborough cited Perry’s wife Anita as a major factor in his decision. “I’ve had a chance here recently to hear Anita, much more close and personal,” Scarborough said. “Unlike [previous Presidents’ wives], I find that she holds the same values that he holds.”

...

The pastor’s endorsement has real sway. Vision America’s “Patriot Pastor” coalition has 20,000 members, and American Family Association founder Don Wildmon and Left Behind author Tim LaHaye are on the group’s advisory board. Scarborough says he’s already begun making his case to other influential social conservatives. “That’s not to say Rick Perry is Jesus because he is not,” he says. “But when you look at his full body of work, he’s been the best governor we’ve ever had.”

As we noted before, Scarborough is a self-proclaimed "Christocrat" who believes that it is his duty to "mix church and state God's way" in order to stop the country's "slide further into Communism/Socialism [and] sexual anarchy led by sodomites" and fight President Obama's efforts to "de-Christianize" this country.

Oh yeah, and he is also a Birther who stated, just a few months ago, that AIDS is God's judgment for engaging in an immoral act:

Yesterday Tea Party Nation president Judson Phillips sent to TPN members a post by activist Kevin Lehmann titled “51 Bullet-Pointed Facts That Dispute Barack Obama's Identity & Eligibility to be President!” Phillips has consistently praised the ‘birther’ movement, and Lehman’s “facts” were mostly a long list of discredited claims about President Obama’s eligibility to serve as president that were put to rest with the release of his long form birth certificate. Lehman’s diatribe against Obama includes accusations that the president is the product of a Hawaiian communist conspiracy and may have been involved in murder. He also republishes the claims of Larry Sinclair, who failed a polygraph test over his claims that he had sex and used cocaine with Obama:

The American public was essentially made nationally aware of Barack Obama following his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. Obama’s emergence into national politics was not a gradual inception. It was a sudden, covert ascendance to power seemingly assisted by foreign-like forces as an assault on vintage American conscience.

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Based on investigations in the 1950’s and 1960’s, a disproportionate concentration of pro-communist activity was found to have become a part of Hawaiian culture. This is substantiated by an increase in the population and activity of communist sympathizers identified by the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings conducted after WWII, during the beginning of the cold war between the U.S. and communist Russia. Evidence of pro-communist presence in Hawaii can be found in publications like the Honolulu Record in which one of Obama’s communist mentors, Frank Marshal Davis was a columnist.

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To date, no administrator, or official of the Obama administration has ever confirmed that Obama was born in Kapi’olani Medical Center.

To date, Obama’s operatives have failed to identify the identity of Obama’s actual birthing doctor.

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To date, no living eyewitness of Obama birth exists. It is assumed that his birth was witnessed by at least three people including his doctor and his mother. However, no documentation of the birth has been provided containing the name of the doctor or eyewitnesses.

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Quarles Harris was a key witness in a federal probe into charges that Obama’s passport information was stolen from the State Department, when he was fatally shot in front of a Washington D.C. church. Harris had been working as a contractor at the State Department and was cooperating with federal investigators when he was murdered.

In December, 2007, Donald Young was a choir leader at Obama’s church, First Trinity Baptist, and school teacher, who many believe had carnal knowledge of Obama’s past. Young was found shot to death in his Southside Chicago apartment.

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Of all the sordid stories circulating about Obama’s past, the one told by Larry Sinclair is the darkest. Sinclair posted a YouTube video alleging that he and President Barack Obama engaged in sexual acts and drug use together in 1999, when Obama was an Illinois State Senator. He claims that then-State Senator Obama procured powdered cocaine for Sinclair, and crack cocaine for himself, which Obama allegedly smoked.

Sinclair also alleges that their drug use was followed by sex acts that included Sinclair performing fellatio on Obama. These acts were alleged to take place in a limousine from which Sinclair provided cell phone records to prove his location on the dates in question. Testimony from the limosine driver has never been publicly published. Sinclair was asked to provide “intimate details” about Obama’s physical features which would prove Sinclair’s claims. His testimony has never been published or made public. Sinclair confesses openly that he is a convicted felon having served time for check fraud and drug possession.

Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation is taking a stand for the Birther movement, months after President Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate to quash discredited claims that he was born outside of the U.S. Naturally, conspiracy theorists were not satisfied by evidence, and the president of one of the country’s leading tea party groups still doubts the President Obama’s citizenship. In a column sent to Tea Party Nation members praising Orly Taitz, the fanatical birther activist who has floated armed rebellion against Obama is now embarking on yet another lawsuit based on research from the birther website World Net Daily. Phillips writes that Taitz should receive an award from the American Bar Association for her campaign to prove that Obama isn’t eligible to serve as president, suggesting she may “deserve a place among the great lawyers of this country”:

Orly Taitz has waged an almost one-woman war on the eligibility issue. She is absolutely convinced that Barack Obama is not legally qualified to be President. She had endured insults, threats, some from Judges, fines and every roadblock the Obama regime could throw her way. Had she been as tenacious on a similar issue with George W. Bush, she would be the toast of the legal community.

Orly probably does not want an ABA award, but she may be getting closer to something of great importance to her. It is the “holy grail” of the eligibility movement.

Orly Taitz may be about to get the original, type written birth certificate of Barack Obama.

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If Obama was really born in Hawaii and everything is as advertised, his lawyers can simply let the birth certificate be provided to Orly Taitz and that will end the matter. Given the history of the Obama regime and his defense of his birth certificate, even though he has released a forged birth certificate, that is unlikely.

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Some conservatives derisively dismiss anyone who supports the eligibility issue as a “birther.” There certainly is enough evidence out there to raise questions. The significance of the eligibility issue is what happens if we are right. If Obama was never eligible to serve as President, everything he did is void. Two Supreme Court Justices, gone. A host of Federal Judges, gone. Every bill he signed, gone. Obamacare, gone.

What are the chances of this happening? Who knows? The bigger question is, given the potential reward of undoing everything Obama has done, why any conservative dismisses the eligibility issues, as “birtherism” is simply beyond belief.

If Orly Taitz wins, she will deserve a place among the great lawyers of this country, who fought incredible odds to win justice. The left wing American Bar Association will never give her an award for this. But I’m willing to bet she’s not saving any space on her wall for an ABA award either.

• WorldNetDaily is actually following through on its threat to sue Esquire over its parody article.
• On a semi-related note, the Southern Baptist Convention does not, in fact, support gay marriage.
• Michele Bachmann does not seem too concerned about the fact that Tom Petty doesn't want her using "American Girl."
• The Christian Coalition echoes Bryan Fischer, who echoes anti-miscegenation arguments.
• Finally, Roy Moore fell off his horse.

The Wall Street Journal today features an extensive profile on Newt Gingrich’s vast network of political organizations, including American Solutions, Renewing American Leadership (ReAL), and Gingrich Productions. The paper reports that Gingrich’s “network has amassed more than 1.7 million voter and donor contacts and raised $32 million between 2009 and 2010—more than all his potential 2012 rivals combined.” Gingrich also helped steer $150,000 to American Family Association Action to help defeat three Iowa State Supreme Court justices that ruled in favor of marriage equality. Along with ReAL, which is led by anti-gay activist Jim Garlow, and his support for the AFA, Gingrich has made overtures to other Religious Right groups and leaders including John Hagee, Bryan Fischer, Janet Porter, Liberty University, Liberty Counsel, The Family Leader and the Minnesota Family Council.

But will Gingrich’s financial influence, religious documentaries and appeals to prominent Religious Right figures translate to real support from activists who might be wary of backing a thrice-married adulterer? Fischer remains a skeptic, but Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats, who coordinated the anti-judge campaign, is still grateful for Gingrich’s significant monetary aid:

Mr. Gingrich hasn't run a truly competitive campaign in 21 years. He is given to public gaffes, most recently criticizing President Barack Obama for failing to back the rebels fighting Col. Moammar Gadhafi, only to reverse himself after Mr. Obama ordered U.S. planes into Libya. He resigned from Congress in 1998 under an ethics cloud, after his party suffered a historic midterm loss. It was later revealed that he was having an affair with a congressional aide.

Even groups that have allied with him, such as the conservative American Family Association, aren't poised to back him, citing his two messy divorces and three marriages. "He is brilliant, and has much to offer. But he isn't what we need in the Oval Office," said the AFA's director of issue analysis, Bryan Fischer.

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Wearing an array of organizational hats, he has met repeatedly with pastors, trained local candidates, consulted with doctors on his proposed health-care innovations and met with local refiners to tout ethanol. After raising money through one of his groups, Mr. Gingrich funneled $150,000 in seed money to a successful campaign last fall to oust three Iowa Supreme Court judges who supported gay marriage.

"Newt's role was quiet and very low key, but it was pivotal," said Bob Vander Plaats, a well-known Iowa conservative who led the anti-judges campaign.

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The heavy emphasis on religion is part of his long push to atone for his multiple divorces, according to people who know him. "He was very direct about this," said Rev. Brad Sherman, a prominent Iowa evangelical leader, recounting a session Mr. Gingrich had last year with a small group of Iowa religious leaders. "He said he had deep regrets, and asked our forgiveness."