Crazy Racism in the US

This was on NBC Nightly News. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw it...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

From Wikipedia:

Questions and conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship, and other challenges to his eligibility to become President of the United States, have circulated before and after his victory in the US presidential election of 2008. A number of fringe activists, pundits and political opponents allege that he is not a natural born citizen and so is not eligible to be President of the United States under Article Two of the U.S. Constitution.

The Obama campaign released a 2007 certified abstract copy of his Certification of Live Birth that states Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. A common complaint of those questioning Obama's eligibility is that he has not released a photocopy of his original, official certificate of live birth - only the shorter official summary certification. Asked about this, Department of Health Spokeswoman Janice Okubo stated that Hawaii "does not have a short-form or long-form certificate." The director of her Department asserted that the state holds Obama's "original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

Some of the people challenging Obama's eligibility have alleged that his short-form certificate was forged, or that he was born in Kenya. Others allege that Obama became a citizen of Indonesia, or that because he had dual citizenship at birth (British and US), he is not a natural-born citizen of the US.

A number of lawsuits have been filed seeking to disqualify Obama from standing or being confirmed as President, or to obtain better proof that he is qualified. Three have been filed with the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Court has refused to hear them. None of the cases prevailed in lower courts. Although Obama was duly confirmed as president-elect by Congress on January 8, 2009, and sworn in as President on January 20, litigation has continued into his presidency.

Individuals promoting eligibility claims have been dubbed "Birthers", drawing a parallel with 9/11 conspiracy theorists, who have been nicknamed "Truthers".

Here's a bit from Hardball with Chris Matthews:



If you accept John Campbell's claims that a new law is needed to require that a presidential candidate produce "proof" of his citizenship, opens lots of wonderful new possibilities:

• After George W. Bush was elected, Congress should have passed a law that all presidential candidates must be tested by a linguist to make sure that their accents are "authentic" since there are lots of questions about how a guy from a New England family could have such an obviously phony Texas accent.


• After George W. Bush was elected, Congress should have passed a law that requires that everybody who runs in a Presidential election will agree up front that he will allow all votes to be counted and agree to not rush to the Supreme Court requesting an injunction to stop the counting of votes before the process is completed.


• After Bill Clinton was elected, Congress should have passed a law to require that every candidate who runs for president should submit to whatever new tests are invented to check whether their claim to "not have inhaled" is true by allowing the best science available the freedom to try and find any drug residues in their body.


• After Ronald Reagan was elected, Congress should have passed a law to require that everybody running for president must pass two tests: one for senility and another for "adequate intelligence" to ensure that during office the new president won't fall sleep through critical meetings and that the president can follow a sophisticated argument without having to ask aides to "tell me what to do" when making a presidential decision.

The possibilities are endless!