I'm beginning to hope that Democrats will be the large and disorganized centrist party that it was from roughly WWII until Clinton shifted it to the right, and a new party will be the socially liberal and fiscally moderate party that the GOP was, off and on, from Teddy Roosevelt through Nixon up until Reagan dragged it to extremism.

The current Republicans Party will remain the Dixiepubs, the remnants of Strom Thurmond's "Segregation Forever!" party that took several states in the 1948 presidential election. Let the extremists, those big government elitists with no personal responsibility, remain a fringe element of the US political process.

Birthers: The latest, but not the craziest, bit of insanity from the sphincter conservatives

The Birthers are those on the right who claim Barack Obama was not born a US citizen and therefore not eligible to be president. They offer no facts proving their assertion. They just make shit up.

As near as I can figure out, their angry denunciations rely on a few hairy things.

During the campaign, Obama released a Certificate of Live Birth, not a Birth Certificate. This doesn't actually prove he wasn't born in the US, please understand, just that it is not an official statement of the place of birth. Lots of peole have seen it. The birthers shot themselves in the foot by claiming this was a forgery. They lied; the Certificate of Live Birth is legit.

Since the question had been settled, Obama has basically ignored any further calls to release the Birth Certificate.

Some claim he has signed an executive order barring release of his birth certificate. That's not precisely true. Executive Order 13489, singed January 21, 2009CE, on Presidential Records, establishes policies related to "executive privilege by incumbent and former Presidents in connection with the release of Presidential records by the National Archives and Records Administration". I'm not a lawyer, but as I read the document a) it applies to former and current presidents' claims to Executive Privilege, b) has all such claims going through the Attorney General, not just a blanket "no" and c) only applies to records in the National Archives. A birth certificate is a state document and has nothing to do with Executive Privilege. Frankly, it looks more like a deal Obama made with Bush about Bush going AWOL from the National Guard more than anything else. Once again, Republicans are not merely making things up, they're pointing fingers at the exact opposite culprit.

And once again, Obama is playing it cool, letting the nutjobs spin in circles, further eroding the credibility of the right. Face it, facts never get in the way of a craven Republican charge or convince a gullible GOP "base". Might as well play them for saps.

Of course, what would a conservative screed be without a complete and total lie? Can the religious right go a week without bearing false witness? No virgins for them... oh sorry, wrong fanatics, but you get the idea.

It seems that one insecure and self-proclaimed evangelist called up Obama's 84-year-old step-grandmother. She started to say that she was present in Kenya when Obama was born... which was interpreted as being present at Obama's birth in Kenya... when she realized what she had been tricked into and reversed herself.

So what was an phone call affirmation that Barack Obama Jr. was born in Hawaii became, to convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy, "a deposition which is a sworn statement", indeed, a "written statement", that he was born in Kenya. So much for integrity. So much for "personal responsibility". Seriously, these "Christians" need to worry about their immortal souls. But I digress.

This should be in the next section, as I'm going to let CatM regale you with the facts, but here is: Liddy Lied: There is no Deposition from Obama's step-grandmother Daily Kos Dairy, 7/23/09

But don't take mere facts get in your way.

Shooting down the birthers

As is often the case, Jon Stewart, the most trusted newsman in America skewers the subjects so well they don't know they've been busted:

Stewart to Dobbs: "Do you even watch CNN?"

Go to Comedy Central to view clip from The Daily Show.

Sorry, I couldn't get the embed to work on DKos, though it works in Preview Diary.

Media Matters covers the same ground, wide ranging but succinct, and almost as funny:

The full segment: Chris Matthews Smacks Down Birther Rep. Campbell; Makes Him Admit Obama is U.S. Citizen

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The GOP implosion starts at home

Oh, but don't take the word of comedians and/or newsmen and/or actual documents. How about taking the word of the nominal party leader, Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate for president in 2008. The rumor was brought to him. His campaign, no stranger to mud slinging, rumor-mongering and pandering to the far right, took a pass on this one. McCain Campaign Investigated, Dismissed Obama Citizenship Rumors.

When your party is crazier than a cynical old coot, your party is in trouble. Rumors and outright lies such as The Born Conspiracy is fed by the conservative news media, from Lou Dobbs to to anyone who doesn't challenge the ranting on factual grounds. One might say that Fox News Is Killing The Republican Party. So lets.

This essay originally appeared, in a different form, in the Bartcop Entertainment page of July 27, 2009CE.

Update: 7/28/09

As you might imagine, the birthers haven't gone away even as their reputation is quickly sinking. Here are a few developments, gleaned various sources:

The right bails on Birthers. A good listing of conservative commentators, such as Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter, who have come down on the birthers (and Lou Dobbs), and Rush silenced. Video links. salon.com War Room 7/28/09

The birthers in Congress. "Seventeen men and women who are either enabling the fringe movement or having trouble admitting Obama is president." salon.com 7/28/09

Meanwhile... Resolution Proclaiming Hawaii Obama's Birthplace Passes House Unanimously. Even though Michele Bachmannn initially blocked the resolution, she eventually voted for it. Huffington Post 7/27/09

One from the UK, with a similar theme to my diary:

Birthers embarrass the Republicans. "Rightwing extremists who don't believe Barack Obama is a US citizen are making life hard for moderate Republicans" Guardian 7/25/09, including video of crazy lady making Mike Castle uncomfortable.

And lastly, just to show how long the truth has been known, the article from factcheck.org (mentioned in the Guardian article), from August 21, 2008:

Born in the U.S.A.. "The truth about Obama's birth certificate."