Alex Koppelman, Salon: "Silence the annoying Birther in your life in just eight easy steps!"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Salon's handy-dandy guide to refuting the Birthers
Now you, too, can silence the annoying Birther in your life -- and in just eight easy steps!

By Alex Koppelman



Barack Obama with his mother, Ann Dunham, in an undated photo from the 1960s. (AP Photo/Obama presidential campaign)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/08/05/birther_faq/

Aug. 5, 2009 | There are, sadly, a lot of Birthers out there. A recent poll showed that 11 percent of Americans -- including 28 percent of Republicans -- don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S. Another 12 percent aren't sure.

So, at some point, you're likely to find out that a friend or relative is a Birther. Your Uncle Floyd will forward you a chain e-mail that says Obama was actually born in Kenya and there's a Kenyan birth certificate that proves it and hundreds of government officials and reporters are in on a conspiracy to hide the truth of his ineligibility for the presidency from the public. And you will wonder: How can I possibly deal with all the falsehoods in this e-mail without disappearing down a rabbit hole?

Well, wonder no more. In the spirit of public service, Salon has compiled this list of the most popular Birther myths, along with all the debunking you could ever ask for. Now you can just e-mail this list to Uncle Floyd and get on with your life.

Unfortunately, there is some small print involved in this offer. We can't promise this article will convince Uncle Floyd that Obama was born in the U.S. and is the legitimate president. In fact, we can just about guarantee that it won't have much effect at all. That's just the way conspiracy theories work: Believers are unlikely to change their minds, no matter how much evidence you present.

Still, it's worth a try.

[AspenRose]

1. If they stop complaining about the birth certificate, they'll just find something else

"Plus, the Birthers have a long list of other demands. Here's one sent out by Gary Kreep, who's representing Alan Keyes in his lawsuit challenging Obama's eligibility. Read it, and abandon all hope:

* Actual long-form birth certificate (NOT an easily-forged electronic copy of a short-form document that is not even officially accepted in Hawaii)
* Passport files
* University of Chicago Law School scholarly articles
* Harvard Law Review articles
* Harvard Law School records
* Columbia University records
* Columbia University senior thesis, "Soviet Nuclear Disarmament"
* Occidental College records, including financial aid that he may have received
* Punahou School records, where Mr. Obama attended from the fifth grade until he finished high school
* Noelani Elementary School records, where Barack Obama attended kindergarten (according to the Hawaii Department of Education, students must submit a birth certificate to register -- but parents may bring a passport or student visa if the child is from a foreign country)
* Complete files and schedules of his years as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004
* Obama's client list from during his time in private practice with the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard
* Illinois State Bar Association records
* Baptism records
* Obama/Dunham marriage license
* Obama/Dunham divorce documents
* Soetoro/Dunham marriage license
* Soetero/Dunham adoption records"



Does anyone ever recall ANY OTHER PRESIDENT having demands made of them in a lawsuit to "prove" this or "prove" that about his academic and personal history?

Nope, me either. (Clinton comes close, but....)

It's "The Hunting of the President: The Sequel."

[ejpoeta]

4. someone should have done that for shrub.

[Bandit]

9. Actually we did ask Bush* to prove he finished his military duty.

He could not do so. It seems he is the only person that served in the National Guard that had their records somehow destroyed by "accident" and could not be made available..

[iamjoy]

2. I Can Do It In One Step

I don't care where he was born.

[ejpoeta]

5. he is a us citizen, no matter where he was born. AMEN! imagine the surprise

of all the people whose parents had them overseas.... are THEY not citizens??

[RC]

3. And then there is McCain born in Panama

Where is his birth certificate? What does it say? He wasn't even born in this country. How do we know he wasn't born via C-section, thus not natural born?

[ejpoeta]

6. but he is white... and he has an american sounding name.... so where he was born

does not matter.

[RC]

8. Being a republican helps also.

[dugaresa]

7. Does anyone remember when the same right wingers were talking

about changing the constitution for ole Arnold in CA so he could be pres?

[Stevenmarc]

10. I have 1 easy step

I just tell them to fuck off