Birther

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 4/26/11

Michele Bachmann

Media: Included in the Time 100 (Star Tribune, 4/21).

2012: Claims she will reach a decision on presidential bid by June (LA Times, 4/20). 

Haley Barbour

2012: Decides against running for president (Politico, 4/25). 

Newt Gingrich

Energy: Received $300,000 from ethanol lobbying group (Des Moines Register, 4/25).

Immigration: Balances outreach to Hispanic voters with GOP's increasing nativism (Politico, 4/22). 

Mike Huckabee

South Carolina: Leads other candidates among South Carolina Republicans in new poll (The Ticket, 4/25).

Media: War of words with Glenn Beck escalates (HuffPo, 4/22). 

2012: Former campaign manager predicts he will run (The Daily Beast, 4/21). 

Jon Huntsman

Foreign Affairs: Wins praise from Chinese leaders as he leaves post as Ambassador (Salt Lake Tribune, 4/21). 

Campaign: Hires prominent GOP pollster (Fox News, 4/20). 

Roy Moore

Iowa: Completes 27-stop tour in Iowa, focusing on religious voters (Iowa Republican, 4/22). 

Religious Right: Addresses militantly anti-gay Cornerstone World Outreach church (Sioux City Journal, 4/22) 

Sarah Palin

Alaska: 61% of home state voters view her unfavorably (Anchorage Daily News, 4/25). 

Family: Estranged ex-future-son-in-law Levi Johnston to write tell-all on Palin family (LA Times, 4/25). 

Religious Right: Set to speak alongside dominionist ex-General William Boykin (HuffPo, 4/25).

Iowa: Campaign in Iowa a one-man operation (WSJ, 4/22). 

Tim Pawlenty

Polls: Fails to increase support among GOP primary voters in polls (Minnesota Public Radio, 4/25). 

Environment: Former adviser and polar explorer disappointed with Pawlenty's move towards climate change denial (Mother Jones, 4/21). 

Mitt Romney

Budget: Wrongly claims that Obama is managing a "peacetime" budget in op-ed (Washington Monthly, 4/25).

Fundraising: Escalates fundraising to build campaign war chest (AP, 4/25). 

Rick Santorum

Equality: Doubles down on opposition to civil rights for gays and lesbians (Crooks and Liars, 4/25). 

Health care: Regrets voting for Medicare prescription drug benefit plan (HuffPo, 4/24). 

Iowa: Hires state campaign manager and field director before embarking on tour (Politico, 4/21). 

Donald Trump

Birther: Claims President Obama's birth certificate is either "missing" or "does not exist" (Daily Caller, 4/25). 

Voting: Has spotty voting record during primary elections (NY1, 4/23).

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 4/19/11

Michele Bachmann

Book: Considering a proposal to write her memoirs (AP, 4/18).

South Carolina: Rally in South Carolina a bust (CBS News, 4/18). 

Birther: Continues to float birther conspiracy on Fox News (The Atlantic, 4/18). 

Budget: Falsely claims that the top 1% pay 40% of taxes (PolitiFact, 4/13). 

Haley Barbour

South Carolina: Wins Charleston County GOP straw poll (The State Column, 4/18). 

New Hampshire: Takes two-day swing in New Hampshire (Boston Globe, 4/15). 

Mike Huckabee

South Carolina: Meets with supporters from the 2008 campaign (RCP, 4/18). 

Iowa: Volunteers from 2008 bid work to build new campaign (The Ticket, 4/15). 

Jon Huntsman

South Carolina: Organizes campaign in the Palmetto State (CNN, 4/18).

Obama: Conservative website features laudatory letters from Huntsman to Obama (Daily Caller, 4/15).

Roy Moore

2012: Forms presidential exploratory committee (AP, 4/18). 

Religious Right: Travels around Iowa with staffer from the far-right The Family Leader (Des Moines Register, 4/18). 

Sarah Palin

PAC: Launches new website for leadership pac (The Caucus, 4/18). 

Tea Party: Addresses small rally for Koch front group in Wisconsin (TPM, 4/16). 

Ron Paul

South Carolina: Tops the field in the Lexington County straw poll (CNN, 4/16). 

2012: Opens fundraising account for potential presidential bid (Politico, 4/14). 

Tim Pawlenty

Tea Party: Keynotes tea party rally in Boston, slams health care reform (Boston Globe, 4/16). 

Budget: Criticizes compromise budget deal (The Fix, 4/13). 

Mitt Romney

Florida: Leads in early poll of Sunshine State Republicans (Taunton Daily Gazette, 4/17). 

Fundraising: Benefits from network of state leadership PACs (Boston Globe, 4/15). 

Donald Trump

GOP: Presidential campaign gains increasing interest among Republican activists (AP, 4/19). 

Tea Party: Addresses Tea Party rally with Florida Congressman Allen West (The State Column, 4/17). 

Poll: Leads other likely candidates in poll of Republicans nationwide (WSJ, 4/15). 

Rick Santorum

Campaign: Rejects pro-union line of Langston Hughes he used as a campaign motto (The Guardian, 4/18). 

Equality: Supports reinstating Don't Ask Don't Tell policy (Think Progress, 4/18). 

Religious Right: Plans to join The Family Leader's Iowa presidential lecture tour (RWW, 4/18).

New Hampshire: Plays in mini golf tournament in Granite State tour (Foster's Daily Democrat, 4/17).

Right Wing Leftovers

Right Wing Round-Up

"Birther Bill" Advances In Arizona, Introduced In Pennsylvania

Perhaps the rise of Donald Trump’s poll numbers among Republicans following his escalating “birther” rhetoric has given a boost to the discredited birthers, as the Arizona State Senate just passed a “birther” bill. The legislation requires candidates to prove that they are born on U.S. soil if they want to receive a spot on the ballot, and its chief sponsor in the House even met with Trump to discuss the bill’s prospects:

The measure, House Bill 2177, is aimed at President Barack Obama and those on the political right who want him to produce a birth certificate proving he was born in Hawaii and not Kenya, where his father is from.

The Arizona Legislature passed the bill 20-8 on a party-line vote in the State Senate with Republicans backing and Democrats opposing.

The measure includes some changes that allow for other documents beside birth certificates to be produced by presidential contenders. It now goes back to the Arizona House of Representatives for another vote. The House previously approved the birther bill without new Senate changes.

In addition, Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe today introduced a similar bill in his state, saying, “It is beyond perplexing and greatly troubling that a political candidate can ascend to the highest levels of government without providing sufficient documentation verifying his or her place of birth or American citizenship.”

Trump, who will be speaking this weekend to the South Florida Tea Party, has won plaudits from leading ‘birthers’ and Republicans like Sarah Palin for promoting the discredited conspiracy theory. At least ten states are considering such “birther bills” this year.

Farah: Trump "Doing God's Work" By Promoting Birther Conspiracy

After speaking alongside Newt Gingrich at Liberty University’s Awakening 2011, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily is now praising Donald Trump for casting doubts on President Obama’s birth certificate. WorldNetDaily is a bastion for conspiracy theories about Obama and other issues, and most recently the website blatantly photoshopped a picture of Obama and his grandparents to try to find a “missing year” in his biography. Farah is one of the most vocal advocates of the discredited conspiracy that Obama is not a naturally-born citizen and consequently ineligible to serve as president, and even left CPAC after the gathering refused to hold his birther panel. In his column today, Farah says he is “eternally grateful” to Trump for propagating the conspiracy:

Donald Trump has billions of dollars and a very large megaphone.

I am eternally grateful to him for standing up boldly and demanding to see Barack Obama's birth certificate, as I have been doing for the last two and a half years.

He probably doesn't need my help, but I offer it here anyway. He's right – and the gals on "The View" and Lisa Myers at NBC are dead wrong.

Obama has not revealed his long-form birth certificate to anyone. And people who work in the press should be the first to recognize that rather than making excuses for the occupant of the White House to continue his stonewalling crusade.

It's a matter of constitutional integrity. It's a matter of national security.

This charade has gone on much too long – aided and abetted by people like Lisa Myers and Bill O'Reilly.



So, don't be discouraged, Mr. Trump. You are doing God's work here. You're right, and most of my colleagues in the news media are wrong. We have not seen the most essential and primary evidence needed to make a determination as to Barack Obama or Barry Soetoro's constitutional eligibility to serve in the White House.

Amazingly enough, we still don't know who this man is.

However, one thing the last two and a half years have established: He certainly has divided loyalties when it comes to the country he supposedly serves.

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 4/12/11

Michele Bachmann

Iowa: Slams marriage equality in speech to The Family Leader (Politico, 4/11).

Religious Right: Wins straw poll at Liberty University's The Awakening 2011 (Freedom Federation, 4/11). 

Budget: Refuses to endorse budget compromise (NPR, 4/11). 

Haley Barbour

Background: Experience as a lobbyist may make problems for campaign (AP, 4/12).

New Hampshire: Traveling to Republican events in New Hampshire this week (Boston Globe, 4/11).

Herman Cain

South Carolina: Talks about the "ultimate destruction of the IRS" at Furman University (CSBT, 4/9). 

Background: Discusses the role faith plays in his presidential ambitions (Christian Post, 4/8). 

Newt Gingrich

Georgia: Slated to address Georgia GOP convention (The State Column, 4/11).

Religious Right: Speaks to conservative leaders at Liberty University (Lynchburg News & Advance, 4/8). 

Minnesota: To deliver keynote address to anti-gay Minnesota group along with Bachmann (RWW, 4/11). 

Mike Huckabee

Reproductive Rights: Endorses Janet Porter's "Hearbeat Bill" (RWW, 4/11). 

Religious Right: Faces increasing scrutiny over ties to pseudo-historian David Barton (RWW, 4/7).

Jon Huntsman

Utah: Receives support of just fourteen percent of Republicans in home state of Utah (AP, 4/10). 

South Carolina: Selected to deliver commencement address to University of South Carolina (The Hill, 4/8). 

Sarah Palin

Birther: Lauds Donald Trump's "investigation" of Obama's birth certificate (Mediaite, 4/9). 

Poll: Popularity continues to plunge, even among Republicans (WaPo, 4/8). 

Tim Pawlenty

Campaign: Picks former head of the Republican Governors Association as campaign manager (Star Tribune, 4/11). 

Iowa: Campaign aide arrested for breaking into home while drunk (Des Moines Register, 4/8). 

Mitt Romney

Health Care: Marks fifth anniversary of Massachusetts health care reform law (RCP, 4/12). 

2012: Makes video announcement of exploratory committee (LA Times, 4/11). 

Rick Santorum

New Hampshire: Commits to June 7 presidential debate in New Hampshire (The Hill, 4/11). 

South Carolina: Wins straw poll in GOP-heavy Greenville County (Greenville Online, 4/10). 

Health Care: Says health care reform makes one "less than what God created you to be" (RWW, 4/8). 

Donald Trump

Religious Right: Speaks about faith to David Brody of CBN News (CBN News, 4/11). 

Media: Lashes out at Vanity Fair and the New York Times (Vanity Fair, 4/11).

Right Wing Round-Up

  • PFAW: PFAW Applauds Ruling on Arizona Immigration Law.
  • Good As You: Of course NOM's misrepping Louis' role. It's the one constant of the Brown/Marinelli marriage.
  • Alan Colmes: Sarah Palin Encourages Donald Trump’s Birther Fantasies.
  • Towleroad: Catholic League Takes Out Full-Page Ad in NYT Blaming Priest Abuse on Homosexuality.
  • Scott Keyes @ Think Progress: As Bachmann Preps For Speech To Family Leader, Her Political Director Calls Group’s Claim About Gays ‘Absurd.’
  • Equality Matters: Linda Harvey: Day Of Silence Creates "Hitler Youth Product."

Right Wing Leftovers

  • Rep. Michele Bachmann won the straw poll at this weekend's Awakening 2011.
  • On a related note, Mitt Romney has officially launched an exploratory committee.
  • CBN's David Brody is actually dedicating an entire episode of his half-hour TV program to Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
  • Did you know that Trump is a lunatic?
  • Finally, I am really getting the feeling that GOProud will not be back at CPAC next year.

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 4/5/11

Michele Bachmann

Iowa: Hires Mike Huckabee’s former state director for campaign (MN Public Radio, 4/4).

Religious Right: Slated to speak at Family Leader events (Des Moines Register, 4/4).

Fundraising: Tops Mitt Romney in fundraising (Time, 4/1).

Obama: Says President Obama is deliberately damaging the economy (RWW, 3/31).

Haley Barbour

2012: Wife concerned about presidential race, says bid “horrifies” her (Reuters, 4/2).

Mississippi: Economic conservatives criticize Barbour’s record as governor (Politico, 4/2).

Poll: Trails Huckabee in poll of home state’s Republican voters (Mississippi Press, 3/31).

Herman Cain

Obama: Says President Obama is “not the president of black people” (Daily Caller, 4/4).

Birther: Joins Donald Trump in questioning President Obama’s birth certificate (Politico, 4/1).

Newt Gingrich

Iowa: Defends financial assistance to Religious Right group in Iowa judicial election (Think Progress, 4/4). 

Obama: Likens Obama's fundraising goal to extortion (CNN, 4/4). 

Religious Right: Poised to kickoff right-wing Awakening conference at Liberty University (RWW, 3/28). 

Rudy Giuliani

2012: Frames himself as an electable Republican candidate (GOP12, 4/4).

Foreign Affairs: Criticizes President Obama’s handling of Libyan crisis (Ozarks Unbound, 4/4).

Mike Huckabee

Campaign: Advisers want Huckabee's 2012 campaign to be less family-run (US News & World Report, 4/4). 

South Carolina: Wins straw poll in heavily GOP county in upstate South Carolina (UPI, 4/3). 

Background: Public records as governor destroyed (Mother Jones, 4/1). 

Sarah Palin

Media: Slated to appear in E! True Hollywood story biopic (Mediaite, 4/4).

New Hampshire: Former GOP Senator from New Hampshire slams Palin as overly ambitious, polarizing (Boston Globe, 4/4). 

Rand Paul

Religious Right: Scheduled to address Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition (RWW, 4/4).

Iowa: Speaks to Iowa GOP’s “Night of the Rising Stars” (Iowa Independent, 4/4).

Tim Pawlenty

Obama: Launches new cinematic video to respond to Obama's reelection announcement (HuffPo, 4/4). 

Background: Left Minnesota with a massive budget deficit (LA Times, 4/2). 

Mitt Romney

Foreign Affairs: Claims his experience in business will help him in foreign policy (RCP, 4/5).

New Hampshire: Set to address Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity forum in New Hampshire (CNN, 4/4). 

Campaign: Runs subdued campaign in order to reintroduce himself to voters (NYT, 4/2).

Rick Santorum

South Carolina: Accepts invitation to appear in South Carolina debate for presidential candidates (CBS News, 4/1).

Religious Right: Blames legal abortion for Social Security problems (RWW, 3/29).

Right Wing Leftovers

  • The Eagle Forum calls Lawrence v. Texas "arguably the worst decision in American constitutional law."
  • Donald Trump is quite proud to be a Birther.
  • Marvin Olasky doesn't seem to be a particularly big fan of Glenn Beck.
  • Peter LaBarbera's gay-hating "Truth Academy" starts tomorrow.
  • Why is Newt Gingrich's Renewing American Leadership trying to sell me term life coverage?
  • FRC's latest prayer update asks God to prevent the gays from shutting them down: "May God defeat those who seek to hinder free speech and undermine legitimate, open discourse by using dirty tricks. May God's people prevail in prayer in the spiritual warfare behind today's unseemly debates. May the Truth be made manifest!"

Religious Right Favorite Trent Franks Poised To Run For Senate

Arizona Congressman Trent Franks is preparing a campaign for US Senate following the retirement of Jon Kyl. According to Politico, Franks intends to “campaign to the right” of already-announced Republican Congressman Jeff Flake in the primary. Running to the right of Flake or almost any other Republican shouldn’t be difficult for Franks, who was tied for first as the most conservative member of the House.

Franks is a frequent critic of President Obama, even going so far as to call him an “enemy of humanity” at a right-wing conference, and later claimed unconvincingly that he simply meant he was an “enemy of unborn humanity.” He even wanted to impeach Obama over his decision not to defend unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act and warned that Obama has an “ideological commitment” to “weaken America.” Most recently, Franks joined Rick Santorum to claim that Obama and his allies were deliberately trying to destroy America. Such rancid statements shouldn’t come as a surprise, since Franks has floated Birther conspiracy theories and said Obama consistently “acts un-American.”

Expect the Religious Right to rally behind Franks against the more libertarian Flake. Franks is a noted proponent of the charge that abortion providers are leading a genocide against African Americans, and said that African Americans were better off under slavery than in America with reproductive freedom. He even introduced legislation barring “race-based” abortion along with leading anti-choice figures, believing his bill will “blow a fatal hole in Roe v. Wade,” and also screened the discredited documentary Maafa 21, which argues that Planned Parenthood wants to exterminate African Americans, in Congress. Moreover, Franks participated in Lou Engle’s militantly anti-choice and anti-gay The Call rallies, and worked with Dominionist groups.

The possibility of a Franks candidacy has already forced Flake to abandon his previously pro-reform position on immigration to compete with Franks, who is an anti-immigrant hardliner. Politico reports that Franks is poised to announce following a fundraiser with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Michele Bachmann:

Currently in his fifth term, Franks has solidified himself as the most conservative member of Arizona's delegation and indicated in early March he felt like he had a "responsibility to give the people a chance to choose between my perspective and Mr. Flake's."

Franks' Senate announcement will come after a $250 morning fundraiser hosted by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arizona insiders warn that Flake's flip on immigration gives Franks's candidacy immediate room to grow in a state still consumed by border violence and crime by undocumented workers. The key question is whether Flake will be able to replicate Sen. John McCain's conversion on the white hot issue.

"If it's a two-person fight, I believe Trent wins. Flake's flip on immigration kills him. He cannot effectively do a McCain and rebrand himself. McCain spent millions against a weaker opponent to rebrand himself. Flake will not have that luxury," according to one GOP operative currently unaffiliated with either campaign.

2012 Candidates Weekly Update 3/29/11

Michele Bachmann

Fundraising: Embellishes fundraising skills (WaPo, 3/28).

Religious Right: Slams proposed “social issues truce” at conservative forum (Des Moines Register, 3/26).

Iowa: Names State Senator and prominent Birther the director of her Iowa campaign (MoJo, 3/25).

Haley Barbour

Mississippi: State lawmakers criticize Barbour’s out of state traveling that caused him to miss budget deadline (The State Column, 3/28).

Obama: Claims President sees Americans as “too stupid to take care of ourselves” (ABC News, 3/26).

Equality: Calls to reinstate Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in order to prevent an “amorous mindset” among soldiers (RWW, 3/25).

Herman Cain

Equality: Says he will not appoint any Muslims if elected President (ThinkProgress, 3/26).

Race: Declares he “won’t stay on the Democrat plantation” (Politico, 3/26).

Newt Gingrich

Background: Believes it wasn’t hypocritical to impeach Clinton for affair while he was having an affair himself (CBS News, 3/28).

Religious Right: Tells John Hagee’s church he fears America as “a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists” (CNN, 3/28).

Equality: Discusses with Bryan Fischer how he will “slow down the homosexual agenda” (RWW, 3/25).

Mike Huckabee

Religious Right: Calls on activists to become “spiritual warriors” in social issues fight (RWW, 3/25).

Poll: Leads all other Republican candidates in national poll (TPM, 3/25).

Jon Huntsman

PAC: Horizon PAC hires more staffers and readies for potential campaign (Politico, 3/28).

Background: Staffers looks to distance Huntsman from Obama (AP, 3/26).

Roy Moore

2012: Alabama justice best known for Ten Commandments controversy plans to announce presidential bid in April (CBS News, 3/28).

Equality: Addressed Iowa opponents of marriage equality law at rally (Des Moines Register, 3/15).

Sarah Palin

Poll: Loses support in survey of Republicans nationwide (Reuters, 3/25).

Media: Refers to Bill Maher as an “annoying little mosquito” (Politico, 3/24).

Tim Pawlenty

Religious Right: Focuses Iowa campaign on attracting support of the Religious Right (RCP, 3/28).

Fundraising: Announces finance team led by former McCain fundraiser (WaPo, 3/28).

Mitt Romney

Campaign: Hires former Bush Administration staffer as policy advisor (Politico, 3/28).

Fundraising: Hopes to raise $50 million for the primary campaign (The Caucus, 3/25).

Rick Santorum

Family: Cancels campaign appearances to attend to ill daughter (CBN News, 3/28).

New Hampshire: Scheduled to appear at “first town hall meeting” of 2012 primary (Union Leader, 3/22).

Gingrich To Kick Off Awakening 2011 Via Invitation-Only Luncheon With Birther King Joseph Farah

The Freedom Federation's "Awakening 2011" conference is being held next week at Liberty University and I think nothing better sums up what we can be expected from the event than the fact that it kicks-off with a speech from Lila Rose followed by an invitation-only luncheon with Newt Gingrich and Birther king Joseph Farah:

In addition to Rep. Tom Price and Texas Senate hopeful Ted Cruz, the event features a panoply of right-wing participants and speakers including Matt Barber, Frank Gaffney, Harry Jackson, Robert Knight, Andrea Lafferty, Mat Staver, Rick Scarborough, Ryan Sorba, Janet Porter, and Penny Nance.

And while Cindy Jacobs is not listed on the schedule even though she participated in last year's conference, her fellow prophet Rick Joyner is:

  • Confronting the Culture: Engaging People of Faith
    • Rev. Rick Scarborough (Moderator)
    • David Brog
    • Rev. Rick Joyner
    • Cynthia Dunbar, Esq.
It is especially timely that Joyner will be discussing how to engage people of faith given that he is convinced that the earthquake in Japan is a sign that demonic Nazism is about to take over America after God destroys California.

Bachmann Courts The Birther Vote

While Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann raised eyebrows after consistently and wrongly asserting that the Battles of Lexington and Concord occurred in New Hampshire, rather than Massachusetts (and later implying that Bay Staters were not proud of the American Revolution), the birther website WorldNetDaily was touting an interview between Bachmann and right-wing radio personality Jeff Katz.

“I am concerned about the future of this country; I am concerned about the existence of the country my dad handed down to me,” said Katz, “And just yesterday my boys brought home the signup sheets for little league and I’m looking through them and I realize I have to provide more documentation for them to go and play tee ball in little league than the president ever had to provide.”

Bachmann replied, “I’ll tell you one thing, if I was ever to run for president of the United States, I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate so we can get that off the table.”

Such statements may play well among Republican voters, over half of whom don’t believe Obama was born in the U.S.

Republican legislators in eleven states have introduced legislation based on the birther conspiracy theory, and Mike Huckabee has even raised doubts about Obama’s heritage. In Maine, the Tea Party candidate running against Olympia Snowe for Senate announced his campaign by flaunting his birth certificate at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Right Wing Round-Up

  • Equality Matters: Maryland's Marriage Equality Bill Sent Back To Committee, Reportedly Delayed Till Next Year.
  • Tim Murphy @ Mother Jones: Birther Bill Author: What's a Long-Form Birth Certificate?
  • Towleroad: Leading Anti-Gay Utah State Senator Chris Buttars is Retiring.
  • Joe.My.God: Corruption Bust: New York Post Outs Anti-Gay Sen. Carl Kruger And Boyfriend.
  • Media Matters: Wash. Times Gives Platform To Anti-Choice Extremist Randall Terry.
  • Igor Volsky @ Wonk Room: Iowa Kingmaker Vander Plaats Still Comparing Gay Marriage To Polygamy, Incest.
  • Brian Beutler @ TPM: New Hampshire Republican Won't Apologize For Saying 'Defective' People Should Die In Siberia.

Right Wing Round-Up

Right Wing Round-Up

Right Wing Leftovers

Raul Labrador Makes CPAC's First Birther Reference

It took a few hours, but thanks to Bryan Fischer's good friend Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho, CPAC got its first Birther reference:

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Birther Posts Archive

Miranda Blue, Thursday 09/20/2012, 4:47pm
Joel Gilbert, the filmmaker whose theory that President Obama is secretly the son of American labor activist Frank Marshall Davis was recently promoted by the chairman of the Alabama GOP, is apparently open to any number of Obama-related conspiracy theories. In an interview with master conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back in July, Gilbert asserted that the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater could very well have been orchestrated by the Obama administration in an effort to promote gun control. "I hate to say it, but you can't put anything past them," he said: MORE
Miranda Blue, Thursday 09/20/2012, 11:27am
Speaking to a Republican women’s group in Alabama yesterday, state GOP chairman Bill Armistead recommended to his audience a fringe birther movie that claims that President Obama’s real father is American labor activist Frank Marshall Davis, according Mobile Press-Register political editor George Talbot, who was reporting the event on Twitter:  The movie Armistead reportedly recommended, “Dreams From My Real Father,” represents a breakout fringe of the birther movement. The film, according to its director Joel Gilbert, “presents the case that Frank Marshall... MORE
Brian Tashman, Wednesday 08/08/2012, 2:25pm
National Review columnist Andy McCarthy held a press conference today alongside Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy to defend the credibility of Michele Bachmann’s anti-Muslim witch hunt. However, McCarthy got tripped up after Nick Sementelli of Faith in Public Life asked him about Gaffney, who introduced McCarthy at the briefing, and his extremist views. Gaffney is a birther, and in fact he dedicated an entire radio program to promote the birther conspiracy, and also thinks that President Obama may be a Muslim: What little we know about Mr. Obama’s youth certainly... MORE
Brian Tashman, Monday 07/16/2012, 3:50pm
Earlier this month we reported on an upcoming conference that seemed exceptionally crazy even by right-wing standards, as it plans to focus on the purported connections between Communism and Sharia law and the claim that Barack Obama’s real father is Frank Marshall Davis, the late civil rights activist and a friend of Obama’s grandfather. Conference organizer Cliff Kincaid, who also heads Accuracy In Media and America’s Survival, appeared on Secure Freedom Radio last week with Fred Grandy, the former Republican congressman and actor (‘Gopher’ from The Love Boat)... MORE
Brian Tashman, Monday 07/09/2012, 10:35am
Buster Wilson, the general manager of the American Family Association’s radio network who already revealed himself to be a quasi-birther, is now pushing and tweeting a photo purportedly of Barack Obama’s student ID card from Columbia University. Notably, the card lists Obama as a “foreign student”: I received this from someone this weekend. It’s interesting. Good questions. Read it and maybe you’ll want to pass it along as well. I am passing this on as received (NOTE: Notice that on “Barry’s” Columbia University Student Card... MORE
Brian Tashman, Tuesday 06/12/2012, 1:55pm
Anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney has served as an adviser to Michele Bachmann and on his talk show hosted Republican notables like Rand Paul, Allen West, Louie Gohmert, Peter King, along with many other Republican officials. Now that the GOP has all but embraced anti-Muslim views, his radical claims have not offended Republican leaders, except for his attacks against conservative leader Grover Norquist for supposedly aiding the Muslim Brotherhood. Last week he hosted conservative columnist Diana West and lavished her “research” with praise, concluding that Obama is indeed... MORE
Brian Tashman, Friday 03/02/2012, 12:45pm
To nobody’s surprise, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “cold case posse,” funded by the birther website WorldNetDaily, said yesterday at a press conference that there is “probable cause to believe forgery and fraud occurred” in the issuing of President Obama’s birth certificate. While birtherism has been dismissed as relegated to a few fringe activists and Donald Trump, polls show that only a minority of Republican voters believe Obama was born in the U.S. Tea Party Nation president Judson Phillips, a fan of Orly Taitz’s birther crusade, appears to be under... MORE