Birther Bashing

I understand those who are hesitant to get on the Obama Birth Certificate bandwagon. There are several reasons I can name not to spend any time addressing it:

1) Self-preservation: If conservatives get loud and animated enough to "force" a move from the Obama camp and a long form birth certificate materializes showing a US birth with attending physician, it could be the biggest, most elaborate, most expensive "rope-a-dope" ever to be pulled off by an elected official. With a willing media, it could take years to wipe off all the egg from their faces.

2) Futility: If at this point Obama was proven not to be a natural born citizen, it would not matter he is already in office. This may be true. One explanation states that it is up to each representative to certify eligibility of the President. Simply by saying so, he is whether or not he should be. This would be similar to electoral representative casting a vote for somebody other than the one with highest votes. They can do that and if enough did that to sway the election, it would be legitimate. On a second note of futility, the best that could happen would be to force the issue.

That would result in either a retroactive eligibility from a Democratically controlled Congress OR Joe Biden would become President. At the end of a protracted legal fight, we would be in the same position or worse.

3) Importance: Some may suspect there is an eligibility issue, but that given the large amount of effort it would take to bring about any forced action, it would detract from more important issues. Too much political capital would be expended resulting in important legislation not being passed or being too weak to block malignant legislation.


These are valid reasons not to join the bandwagon. However, I have a few points to conservatives regarding those who do choose the fight:

- Don't short circuit claims by "Birthers" by saying Obama has proved he is a citizen. This is dishonesty at a very high level. The claim is that he is not a NATURAL BORN citizen. This dishonest approach is equivalent to the notorious claims that conservatives are "against immigration" and against "stem cell research". WRONG. We are against ILLEGAL immigration
and EMBRYONIC stem cell research.

- Don't join the dishonest ranks that claim Obama has proven he is a natural born citizen. The short form birth certificate has information gaps that come short of putting this issue to rest with confidence. There is no hospital name and no attending physician name.
- Conservatives should not join those on the Left in disparaging those who choose to make it an issue. So far the three I have heard getting insulting are: Bill O'Reilly, Michael Medved and Neal Boortz. Others simply bow out with silence or brief civil commentary.
- Conservatives should not paint "Birthers" as wackos. The term Birther is here to stay. It is not the most descriptive of terms but not worth fighting the term, so I will use it. The word and the way some spit out the word is an obvious equivalence to 911 Truthers. It is ludicrous to compare the notion that the government staged the 9/11 crisis and blew up the twin towers with explosives to those who simply want real proof that Obama is a natural born citizen. There are
several facts that would cause a rational person to believe something may be amiss here and want to see hard evidence:

1. It is much easier to prove Obama's natural born status by simply providing the long form birth certificate.

2. The Obama camp has spent at least $1 Million for legal representation to fight supplying the long form. Other than "creating or saving jobs" the rational person would wonder why Obama is willing to have that large amount of money wasted.

3. There were two different hospitals named by the White House as the place of Obama's birth. The reason for this conflict has not been explained.

4. A soldier in the army reserve refused orders of deployment on the grounds Obama was not eligible to be Commander in Chief. He was not court marshaled and his deployment orders were revoked. However, pressure was applied to the defense contractor the reserve soldier worked for to fire him from his civilian job.

So where do I stand? Am I a Birther? I admit a strong curiosity to know the truth. I scratch my head over the ease with which this issue can be put to rest vs. the great lengths the Obama camp goes through to avoid putting it to rest. I lean toward the Birther argument, but have little interest in championing it or beating a war drum here on it. I think there is a good balance with key politicians and conservative media being silent or low key on it. However, I am quite angry with those who are making Birthers out to be kooks. That is not a fair assessment. My final thought is that one way or another I hope we get to the bottom of this however it turns out.

Please Go Green So I Don't Have to Turn Blue

Most times that I go out to a dining or entertainment establishment, I am amazed at how COLD they keep the temperature. I brought my son to I-Hop Friday night and by the time I left, I was chilled to the bone. This is very common in other restaurants, in movie theaters, in stores at amusement parks and many other establishments. What is the deal? I estimate they keep the temps anywhere between 55-65F. While I am able to tolerate these temps, it is very uncomfortable. My wife, however, practically needs a hypothermia blanket. Many times we are out, she jumps in a hot bath to warm her core. I prefer 75 but would be ok with 70 or above.

All the establishments across the country that combined could be saving a lot of energy by laying off the excess air conditioning. I am not advocating Obama putting on a sweater and pushing for government to regulate our thermostats. With a little common sense we could self-regulate. I am the kind of person that can be comfortable in a temperature range. I just know when I turn blue, it is time for somebody to go green.

Quick Note: Obama Says Porkulus Doing a Heckuva Job

Sometimes I wish I could act like a liberal and play hardball with no sense of fairness or honesty. That is the way I am wired though. Those who know me often get extremely frustrated at my deep sense of fairness. Last week I was contemplating how long it took for Reagan's tax cuts to finally kick in and begin an economic revolution that lasted over two decades. While waiting for the results, the liberals were at his throat taunting his voodoo economics plan. Even now those same libs will not give his policies credit even though they have seen tax cuts under three presidents result in an economic recovery (JFK, Reagan and W. Bush).

Then just as I am thinking about this Obama comes out and claims that Porkulus is working as intended. My first snarky thought was to post that I guess his plan was to destroy the country after all and that it is working; however, I will avoid that approach. Obama explains his claim the stimulus is working by pointing to the number of jobs "saved" and proposing that state budget deficits would be twice as much as they are now. I know other bloggers have thumped Obama for brazenly using the "created or saved" rhetoric when it comes to jobs. I would point to the shame of the media and pundits because weeks later Obama is still using references to "saved" jobs with a straight face and no fear of ridicule. If they had one ounce of consistency, they would have universally ridiculed him just as they would have if Bush had made such an asinine statement. Shame on the media for deriding Bush for his misguided "heckuva job" praise and turning a blind eye to Obama making an equally foolish statement by praising a plan that has and will continue to make things worse.