They Play Us Like A Cheap Violin

Birtherist response highlights racial undertones of ‘debate’

"During the 2008 campaign, questions about John McCain's birth in the Panama Canal Zone on a U.S. military base prompted some to ask whether McCain was eligible to be president, since the Constitution stipulates that anyone not born in the United States is not eligible to be president.

Amid a flurry of news reports, McCain's own campaign announced in February 2008 that it was conducting an investigation. When a bipartisan pair of lawyers announced the following month that McCain was indeed eligible, the issue virtually died--apart from a Senate resolution that pretty much laid the question to rest by attesting to the facts surrounding McCain's birth and citizenship.

But the winner of the 2008 election, Barack Obama, has faced a relentless campaign questioning his U.S. citizenship--and thereby the legitimacy of his presidency--that has disregarded the facts.

Questions regarding Obama's birth certificate have persisted for more than two years, as the president noted Wednesday at a press conference announcing the release of his long-form birth certificate. A vast array of evidence attests to Obama's citizenship--including a certificate of live birth, signed affidavits from people who viewed Obama's long-form birth certificate, confirmation by Hawaiian officials, and independent investigations by news outlets. Nevertheless, "this thing just keeps going" as Obama said this morning. Even after the White House released the long-form certificate of Obama's birth, birther leader Orly Taitz—who has filed unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to obtain access to Obama's birth certificate—sought to cast doubt on the document's authenticity, suggesting that in 1961, Hawaiian officials would have classified Obama as "Negro" rather than using designation "African," which suggests, in her view, a more contemporary concern for "political correctness."

So what's fueling the dogged questioning of Obama's origins? Many critics of the birther movement say its core tenets--and its stubborn resistance to evidence disproving those beliefs--can be traced to racial hostilities. The fundamental birtherist conviction, these critics say, is that an African-American can't have legitimately won the presidency--and that his elevation to power therefore has to be the result of an elaborate subterfuge.

"There is a real deep-seated and vicious racism at work here in terms of trying to de-legitimate the president," Peniel Joseph, a professor of history at Tufts University, told The Ticket."

Jeebus, how they despise us. They've been doing us in the ass like this since forever.

Don't pay attention to how this administration slaughters people worldwide with their bombing campaigns, don't pay attention to the economic collapse, pay no attention to catastrophic extinction events. Just turn your focus on this dog and pony show that means absolutely nothing while your future is being destroyed.

One other thing about this crap. Concentrating on this gladhander's birth is absolutely stupid because the constitutional argument is meaningless. The fascists in power and the fascist toadies trumpeting this issue back and forth don't recognize or care about the constitution. Gladhanders are installed, not elected, and the rule of law is like the UN - only invoked when it serves the fascist agenda. In this case this phony birthist contention merely serves to divert our attention from far more important issues, like your health, welfare and future. A giveaway tell that this is all a ziofascist stageplay is the race card being played. Just like anyone calling out Israel on their murderous behavior is called an anti semite, people challenging this black president's birth are now labelled white supremacists. And another thing - because this is all over the corrupt MSM, you know it's totally a setup.

They're very good at this.