Red, White & Brew

H/T: TruthDig

Tweet

Baby Blah Blah

From Pat Oliphant

Tweet

Trump #2 In GOP Poll; Gary Busey As Potential Running Mate?

I'm drinking coffee, listening to Donald Trump on MSNBC. Once again The Combover is calling in to another enabling TV morning show to tell everybody how smart he is, even though he's a birther (not to mention a self-promoting, self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed asshole.) But--hey!--he's Number Two!

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Among Republican primary voters, Mr. Romney captured the support of 21% in a broad, nine-candidate field. Mr. Trump was tied for second with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 17%. House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 11%, just ahead of former Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 10%. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered a strong contender by political handicappers, remains largely unknown, with just 6% support. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 3%, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour with just 1%.

Mr. Trump “may be a punch line but when he talks about the way to solve our problems, he makes a lot of sense to the average guy out there,” said Todd Mauney, a conservative Republican in Weatherford, Texas. “I don’t know if people can get over him being the butt of every joke but for me, he can be serious when it’s time to make real decisions.“

When I think of Donald Trump, I, too, think of number two--if you know what I mean...

Here's video:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: And now there's this from CNN:

Self-proclaimed birther Donald Trump is now so doubtful of President Obama's birthplace that he's sent a team of his own investigators to Hawaii in hopes of getting to the bottom of the issue.

That's according to Trump himself, who, in an interview with NBC, warned his investigators just might uncover "one of the greatest cons in the history of politics and beyond."

"I have people that have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding," Trump said an interview that aired Thursday Morning.

Asked if he has assigned people specifically to search in Hawaii, Trump said, "Absolutely."

Trump/Busey 2012!

UPDATE #2: WaPo's Jonathan Capehart has a solid rebuttal to Trump's horseshit--with audio and archived article links--here. Great piece. H/T to Lawrence O'Donnell's 'The Last Word' for the heads-up.

Tweet

Donald Trump Passed His Audition

Self-important birther asshole Donald Trump has been running his mouth on every media outlet available in recent weeks, and his cognitive dissonance has gotten him a gig on that bastion of cognitive dissonance, Fox News:

Need to add some spice to your Monday morning? Fox & Friends has announced just the thing for the media nerd that simply can’t get enough of the most attention-grabbing potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates yet: “Mondays with Trump,” a brand new segment where “The Donald now makes his voice loud and clear on Fox” on the news of the day.

Change the channel.

Tweet

Shazam! It's Mike Huckabee's Dog Whistle!

Birther alert!

GOP presidential wannabe and Fox News shill Mike Huckabee went on Steve Malzberg's radio show Monday and did what he does best: his folksy, gee-whiz, aw shucks bullshit routine, this time alleging that Barack Obama grew up in a country he didn't even visit until he was in his 20s. That country, of course, is Kenya, the favorite target of xenophobic, race-obsessed right-wingers everywhere, who seem certain the African nation is the cradle of Marxist, Socialist, Communist Fascism, or something they just know is bad, bad, bad.

Straight out of the GOP playbook, Huckabee soon claimed he "misspoke."

From the Los Angeles Times:

Mike Huckabee made a slip of the tongue when saying in an interview that President Obama lived in Kenya, a spokesman for the possible GOP presidential contender said Tuesday. "Gov. Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in Kenya. The governor meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia," said J. Hogan Gidley, who works for Huckabee's political action committee. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, seemed to be adding fuel to the apparently never-ending brushfire over the president's origins in a Monday interview with a conservative radio host when he suggested that "having grown up in Kenya" Obama would view the British as imperialists. Huckabee said that he "would love to know more" about Obama, adding "what I know is troubling enough." In that same interview, Huckabee said Obama had lived in the African country with his "father and grandfather" — and he didn't appear to attempt to put the issue of Obama's birthplace to rest, saying that "the only reason" he was not confident that there were improprieties about the president's birth certificate is because Hillary Clinton had not been able to uncover anything about it during the 2008 presidential campaign.

More here.

And Salon.com has this:

The problem here is that Huckabee didn't just say that Obama was raised in Kenya -- he made specific reference to the Mau Mau Revolution, claiming that Obama, by virtue of his upbringing, would have a very different understanding of it than Westerners. That's much different than accidentally saying "Kenya" when you meant to say "Indonesia."

And the birther issue is a red herring. This story isn't about whether Huckabee specifically subscribes to the view that Obama wasn't born in the United States; maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. The issue here is that Huckabee has just demonstrated that his main critique of President Obama's foreign policy is rooted in a belief that is demonstrably and laughably false. What other objections to Obama's policymaking does Huckabee have that are based on beliefs like this?

Tweet

Orly Taitz Needed A Client, Anyway.

From MSNBC's First Read:

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that the U.S. Army will court martial a lieutenant colonel who refuses to deploy to Afghanistan because he considers orders from President Obama to be "illegal."
Army doctor Lt. Col. Terry Lakin believes Obama does not meet the constitutional requirements to be president and commander-in-chief, because he believes (incorrectly) that Obama wasn't born in the United States.
Lakin refused this week to report to Fort Campbell, KY for deployment to Afghanistan, but instead showed up at the Pentagon, where he was confronted by his brigade Commander Col. Gordon Roberts, a Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient.
Lakin was informed by Roberts that he would face court martial, and his Pentagon building pass and government laptop computer were seized.

Race-Baiting Lou Dobbs Quits CNN: Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Ass (On The Way To Fox News.)

How To Piss Off Birthers & Teabaggers By Lindsey Graham.

Trent Franks: Birther Zombie.

Another day, another U.S. representative with too much time on his hands.

From Politico.com:

Taking the birther thing to a new level, archconservative Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is considering filing a lawsuit to put President Obama on the spot over his birth documents, according to Mohave Daily News readout of a Franks town hall over the weekend.

Oh, yeah, and Franks apparently didn't object when an audience member suggested Obama "denounced" the U.S. as a Christian nation during an overseas trip, which never happened.

MDN's Jim Seckler:

The other main issue dealt with numerous speakers questioning Obama's birth certificate and why there wasn't an investigation into whether he is a naturalized citizen. One woman said a newspaper announcement of his birth in Hawaii was not sufficient. Another asked how he could have a passport without a birth certificate.
Franks said there was not enough evidence that Obama is not an American citizen. He did say there was a lot of conflicting evidence of Obama's citizenship and that he was considering filing a lawsuit, the only congressman to do so. Franks asked why the president did not simply produce a birth certificate.
One speaker, a pre-school teacher, tearfully said Obama denounced the country as a Christian nation and warned he should learn a civics lesson. Franks agreed with her saying he was offended that Obama denigrated the country on an overseas trip and the president should speak in favor of the country when abroad.

Context: Franks, is a global warming skeptic, pal of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and served as a high ranking aide to former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, who was removed from office and canceled the state's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday while Franks was on the payroll.

UPDATE:

Eagle-eyed JackRabbit Café contributor-at-large The Best-Looking Man in Show Business Today--TBLMISBT-- passes along this tidbit from the hyperbolic, Big Business birther tool.

Birther Texas Ranger: Certificate Of Stupidity.

"Salon's" Scott Bateman Animates A Real-Life Cartoon.

"Birther" Lawyer Orly Taitz Melts Down On MSNBC.

Birther sympathizer Orly Taitz is an Orange County, California dentist and correspondence-degreed lawyer who is also quite possibly insane. She's now claiming that she has an authentic Kenyan birth certificate for President Obama.

It was immediately shot full of holes.

Taitz is the same nut who defended Major Stefan F. Cook, the Army reservist who sued to avoid being sent to Afghanistan, although he originally volunteered to serve there. Cook and Taitz argued that Cook's orders were invalid because Obama wasn't a "natural-born citizen," and therefore not commander-in-chief.

The Army routinely revoked Cook's orders, which is standard procedure up until the day of reporting. The wacky lawsuit was dismissed as moot.

I wouldn't let Orly Taitz recommend a toothpaste to me, let alone defend me in a court of law. I wouldn't even sit next to her on a bus.

Meanwhile, Back At Lou Dobbs' House...

They Haven't Seen Obama's Birth Certificate Because Their Heads Are Up Their Asses.

All you have to do to get a taste of the birther movement's bitter fruit is visit a right-wing website like Free Republic or Human Events and scroll around a little. You'll stumble onto one of these jackal's incoherent utterings soon enough.

GOP Birthers: Base Instincts.

GOP House members are scared to death of the crazy wing to the base of the Republican Party. The "birther" nuts are on the fringe, but they are loud and are kindred spirits to that other gang of aggrieved conservatives--the tea partiers. There are elected members of Congress who are playing to this crowd by their failure to refute the lunatic "birther" complaints.

Who the hell elected these people?

H/T to FireDogLake, Campaign Silo and HuffPo and thanks to Mike Stark for chasing the bastards down.

Liz Cheney Refuses To Disavow "Birthers"; Keeps Family Record Of "Crazy" Unblemished.

Disorder In The Court.

As Jason Linkins at HuffPo points out, when it comes to covering the crazies in the "birther" movement, David Weigel of the Washington Independent "has been straight killin' this story."

Here's Weigel, describing a trio of legal idiots who are arguing this lost cause and needless waste of judicial resources:

One of the more amusing quirks of the “birther” movement is the quality of the legal minds in whom Obama birth certificate obsessives are placing their trust — and their occasional donations. Phil Berg, the original “birther” lawyer, has been forced to pay out sanctions for legal malpractice. Orly Taitz, famously, got her law degree from an online correspondence school. And it turns out that Charles Lincoln, who has been assisting Taitz — he provided judges with amended complaints in Keyes et al v. Obama et al last week and he showed up at the last hearing on the case— has been disbarred in California, as well as Florida and Texas.

From the May 2004 issue of the California Bar Journal, which reported on the matter:

In 2000, Lincoln was convicted in Texas on a federal charge of falsely representing his Social Security number, a felony. As a result, he gave up his license to practice in the state.

Originally charged with five felonies, the case resulted from Lincoln applying for a checking account using a false Social Security number.

In a second matter, he was disbarred from U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas after a federal judge requested an investigation of Lincoln because two of his clients had a falsified receipt. The receipt purported to be from the federal court clerk and represented funds the clients had given Lincoln. The clients believed Lincoln was depositing their money in an escrow account related to their case.

Two days before a hearing by the federal court’s admissions committee, Lincoln went to his clients’ home, instructed them not to tell the judge that he gave them the receipt, which he asked them not to produce, and he gave the clients a cashier’s check for $6,000. He did not appear at the hearing.

In a previous lawsuit, the same judge determined that Lincoln was involved in discovery abuse and filed duplicative motions. The judge issued sanctions and dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.

At the July 12 hearing on the Keyes complaint, Lincoln identified himself as a “law clerk.” The eyewitness report of that hearing is worth reading, since it contradicts with Taitz’s original, hilarious report of a judge who took her seriously. Actually, Judge David Carter spent a lot of time trying to get Taitz to stop wasting the court’s time with antics such as reading her complaint into the record.

When Birthers Attack!

Birthers are that itsy-bitsy, disproportionately loud slice along the outer edges of the right-wing who still cling to the discredited notion that Barack Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii, as his birth certificate clearly shows. They are the type of delusional paranoiacs who think Glenn Beck is a newsman.

That's Delaware Representative Mike Castle in the video. He was trying to hold a town hall meeting until the wheels fell off.

That's a helluva constituency he has there.

The Republican Party might not be a big tent, but it's got plenty of room for its stray nuts out along the fringe.

Stefan Frederick Cook Doesn't Want To Go To Afghanistan.

More lunacy from the birther crowd.

From the Ledger-Enquirer:

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, set to deploy to Afghanistan, says he shouldn’t have to go.

His reason?

Barack Obama was never eligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States.

Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state.

Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for his client.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — the California-based Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client’s request based upon Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

Cook, a reservist, received the orders mobilizing him to active duty on June 9.

A reservist, huh? I wonder if he's been cashing those Unit Training Pay checks since Inauguration Day? And I wonder if he'll be charged with going AWOL when the judge throws this nuisance case based on a discredited premise out of court?