From Stephen Webster at RawStory:
GOP congressmen run from blogger asking ‘birther’ questions
Mike Stark of Firedoglake and Huffington Post thinks he has stumbled onto the reason George W. Bush was elected to the presidency twice: The GOP’s base, as exemplified by this ubiquitous “birther” nonsense, must be Insane.
In the video below, he puts the birther fictions before a series of Republican congressmen on the hill, and their reactions are priceless.
Notes Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake:
He asks Republicans Tom Price, Thaddeus McCotter, Jeff Fortenberry, Charles Boustany, Aaron Schock, [Gregg] Harper, Mike Coffman and others what they think. Tim Murphy hides, looking at pens for 20 minutes to try and avoid him.
Mike and Brave New Films cameraman Brett Vauhn finally got Arizona congressman Trent Franks to admit without equivocation that Obama was born in the United States, and that his birth certificate is valid.
Much to our surprise and dismay, most of the Republicans Stark spoke with either offer non-answers suggesting a defense of the birthers, or they unequivocally buy the BS, hook, line and sinker.
To his credit, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) says at the very end that his office had done the research and was able to confirm that Obama is a citizen. However, his streak of sanity fades when he also goes on to say that citizen Obama supports “abortion on demand,” has let “jihad gain traction in the world,” is “undermining” the Constitution and is turning America into a “socialist nation.”
“Folks, this is what it has come to. The most powerful people in the world — nationally elected legislators responsible for setting policy for the most powerful country on earth — are lining up with cuckoo-bat-shit-crazy elements of the lunatic fringe.
And they have to. It’s their base.
So… with the Republican Party completely untracked from the rails of sanity…
Have we finally found our answer as to why George Bush got elected twice?
The topic of the president’s citizenship has come up repeatedly on network news and across mainstream media in the last several weeks. The profile of the discussion has even been raised to the level of the White House press briefing, with press secretary Robert Gibbs taking time to respond to a question about the so-called birthers.
“Is there anything you can say to make the birthers go away?” a reporter asked.
“No,” Gibbs replied. “I mean, the God’s honest truth is no. I mean, Bill, let’s understand this. And I almost hate to indulge in such an august setting as the White House – and I mean this in seriousness – the White House briefing room, discussing the made-up, fictional nonsense of whether or not the President was born in this country.
“A year and a half ago, I asked that the birth certificate be put on the Internet, because lord knows, if you’ve got a birth certificate and you put it on the Internet, what else could be the story? Here’s the deal, Bill. If I had some DNA, it wouldn’t assuage those who don’t believe he was born here. But I have news for them and for all of us. The President was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the 50th state of the greatest country on the face of the earth. He’s a citizen.”
He concluded that the birthers will never go away because anyone with $15 can get on the Internet and say whatever they want.
— Stephen C. Webster
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and jumpin’ around various essays and diaries.
The parents of one of my kid’s friends… well, the Mom is nice, we are mom-friends. They have a bumper sticker on their car thats along the lines of “Michael Moore can kiss my ass” or something. And I think a Marines one too. They are… a type. We dont talk politics. heh.
So we just got off the phone. Mom asked me if I happened to have any Rx pain pills.. she (like me) is uninsured and having some trouble. If it gets worse, she tells me, she will go, like she usually does, to the E.R. and pay out gobs of $$$ to get the drugs. But she has to wait til PayDay, Friday.
Needless to say, I spend some time with her on the phone. Still no politics, but… ughghgh. And, No I dont have any pain pills leftover.
Just had to spew that out somewhere, sorry to dump here, edger !
“Batshit insane,” yes…and this is surprising why?
I remember watching the first moon landing on TV. Within months the parents of these batshit insane people were claiming that it was all staged by Hollywood.
I was a little kid who was into dinosaurs (& paleontology in general) and at church, in Sunday school, the batshit insane people were clamoring for a 6,000-year-old Earth. (In all fairness, the minister & his wife, who were educated & sane, were not part of this…it was the batshit insane grassroots.)
I’m not ancient. But during my entire life, I have been watching batshit insane wingnuts spew their ignorance & vile hypocrisy & racism/sexism.
So, I repeat: why is this surprising?