RC Radio Special Comment

This is the editorial I read on the show tonight:

RC RADIO SPECIAL COMMENT

April 27, 2011

I checked The Fogbow about 9:15 this morning and there it was - news that Hawaii and  the President had released a copy of the Birther Holy Grail, the long form birth certificate. I quickly opened the link and found exactly what I expected to see. Barack H. Obama II was born at Kapi’olani Hospital and 7:24 PM on August 4^th, 1961. His mother had signed; the doctor had signed but I couldn’t read his handwriting. No surprise there. They all go to school to learn to write illegibly. The certificate number checked as did everything else. We even knew what the form would look like because we had seen them before. We had seen the ones supplied by Mrs. Nordyke. Dr. Conspiracy had even constructed a version of what he thought it would look like and it was damn close.

At first I felt vindicated. But at the same time I felt sad for our country. Sad that those complete racist lying scum bags known as birthers could find a lying racist scum bag leader like Donald Trump who could elevate this fringe movement to the media circus it had become that moved the President to do this. As always, President Obama put his country first. He knew that with this carnival sideshow controlling the news it would take the spotlight off the Republicans attempts to completely decimate the middle class in America at the expense of transferring even more wealth to their true constituency, the top 1% of the wealthy in this country. I watched Trump’s news conference with disgust. He may have well had said “well the nigger showed that nice shiny birth certificate. I made him do it. I can’t say whether it is real or not. Now let’s see the boy’s college records because no black boy could be that smart and get into Harvard. Oh yeah, did I tell you some of my best friends are Negroes?“  I can imagine what most blacks are thinking today. This is just another time when a black is held to a higher standard just to get to the same position.  How sad for our country that we have really progressed so little since my childhood when blacks had to pass rigged literacy tests just to vote.

And the birthers reacted predictably. They said it is a forgery, why did it take so long for him to release it? It doesn’t matter since his father was Kenyan. Not one of the familiar characters that we have followed on this show issued an apology. Are we surprised? No because they are lying scum bag racists. We already knew that.

I am prouder than ever of my President today. As a person of black heritage he must be seething inside that he would have to take such an unprecedented and somewhat humiliating step to get this lie out of the media so he can work on the real issues facing America. He loves America however, and that is why he did it. That is something these hate filled, racist, lying scum known as birthers who hate this country will never understand. I am ashamed for the Republicans who molly coddled this bunch of vermin for two years. Congratulations to a very few like Mitt Romney who called them out. To those people like Mark Hatfield, Carl Seel and May Beavers who crafted these racist birther bills you also have my disgust. To the liars like Joe Farah, Jerome Corsi, Phil Berg, Tim Adams, Orly Taitz, Terry Lakin, and Lucas Smith words just fail to express my contempt for you.

I hope that when history is written it will be noted that April 27, 2011 is the date that marked the end of the sad chapter in American history known as the Birther movement. We shall see won’t we? We shall see. I am planning a show next week just in case.

Where's the Birth Certificate?

Why it it's right here assholes:

Tune in for a special Wednesday night edition of RC Radio tonight along with a a RC Radio Special Comment.

Why Everyone is Missing the Point on Trump and the Birther Polls

The 3 and 4 letter networks and even the anti-birther community seems to be somewhat amazed that Donald Trump has vaulted to the apparent lead among early Republican contenders for the 2012 presidential nomination. They are also shocked that the "Obama was not born in the USA" option is polling significant numbers among  conservatives. However, if you give some thought this phenomenon was completely predictable and expected. Why? Take a look at the previous issues where a large plurality or even a majority of conservatives have bought into unsupported beliefs contradicted by the  evidence and continue to believe them.

Let's look at a few:

• Death Panels - This lie was concocted by opponents of the Health Care Affordability Act or 2010 and pushed by the right on Fox News and other favorite conservative outlets and especially enthusiastically touted by Sarah Palin . The real truth was that the act was written to create a "Comparative Effectiveness Research Center shall "conduct, support, and synthesize research" that looks at "outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of health care services and procedures in order to identify the manner in which diseases, disorders, and other health conditions can most effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed clinically."Anyone with a computer and Google type the words "death panels truth" and pop up this article on Politifact in a few seconds. I am sure if you polled conservatives a majority would swear the health care bill includes death panels that will be coming to their town real soon now to euthanize granny.
• Reducing taxes for the wealthy will create jobs and reduce the federal debt - Yes, Reaganomincs, Trickle Down Economics, Supply Side Economics has been the guiding principle for economic policy for at least 20 of the last 30 years. It failed under Reagan and Bush I and it failed spectacularly again under Bush II. 
• Creationism - Four in ten Americans believe human beings were created by god in their present form within the last 10,000 years. That is what Gallop found last year.  Want to bet how many of the Birthers fall into that 40%? The same poll should that almost 90% of those who called themselves Republicans believe in either strict creationism or the new fad "theory" of Guided Evolution. I could write much more on how "Creationism" isn't even a "theory" by any scientific standard and how creationists continue to misunderstand the meaning of the term but that would require a much longer post. 

I could cite many other examples of conservative beliefs that are not based on fact. So we should not be asking "Why are so many people sucked into birtherism?" we should be asking "Why are so many Americans incapable or unwilling to engage in critical thinking?". I invite your comments. I have my opinions and will delve into this topic more on future programs and posts here. 

Pupura v Sebelius Dismissed

Nicholas E. Purpura

The anti-health care bill case with a Birther component has been dismissed by federal Judge Freda Wolfson in the District of New Jersey. One of the counts challenged the Affordable Care Act because the plaintiffs claimed that Obama was ineligible. Judge Wolfson dismissed the case because she said the plaintiffs lacked standing and did not show any particularized injuries from the act.The decision could have been copied from almost any of the Birther cases.

The Judge also noted that the plaintiffs consistently pretended to represent "We the People" in a footnote:

1 The Court is compelled to note that although Plaintiffs claim to represent “We the People” and the “citizens of the State of New Jersey,” Compl. ¶¶ 2, 11, Plaintiffs are not attorneys and this lawsuit has not been brought as a class action. Moreover, no individual signed the Complaint other than the named Plaintiffs. Thus, the Court considers this as a challenge to the Act brought solely on behalf of the two individual Plaintiffs – Messrs. Purpura and Laster.

Pupura and Laster  thus continue the Birther's amazing streak of losses in courts at all levels. Based on his previous vitriolic ranting that Judge Wolfson could not in good conscience dismiss this case and his impatience at obtaining a ruling on the motion to dismiss we expect their response will provide great entertainment. Pupura was recently quoted at the Essex County Conservative Examiner:

Purpura said that if he does not hear from the court soon, then he will ask the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus to compel Wolfson to act, and is also considering filing a complaint for judicial misconduct.

It appears that Judge Wolfson acted.

Shocking News: McCain Spent 2.6 Million to Fight Release of His Birth Certificate*

Last week we learned the shocking news that John McCain's campaign has spent 2.6 million dollars in legal fees to fight the release of his birth certificate and other private records. While the reported amount is 1.3 million dollars it is well known in legal circles that the reported amounts are normally much lower than the actual amount. What is John McCain hiding and why won't he release a copy of his birth certificate like Barack Obama did? An apparently forged copy of McCain's birth certificate from Panama was filed by a plaintiff Fred Hollander in a Birther lawsuit against McCain. McCain was strangely silent on the authenticity of the birth certificate however.

It has also been reported some of this "2.6 million dollars" was spent vetting Sarah Palin (can you say hiding the dirt). How much of that money was spent to keep the story out of the press that Trigg Palin (or is it Tripp or Twigg or Taproot?) was not Palin's child? We would all like to know, John McCain. Why won't you release your birth certificate and prove you were not a fraudulent candidate? Why can't wee see the Palin kid's BC while you are at it, John? The only questions during the 2008 about any candidate's natural born status were about John McCain, not Barack Obama. The Senate covered for McCain by passing a nonbinding resolution. What did the Senate get in return for covering for the Panamanian candidate? Was the country only 200 or so electoral votes away from having a Panamanian in the White House? Is John McCain secretly funding the Obama Birther movement to hide his own ineligibility? Will the truth ever come out? Why isn't Donald Trump asking for McCain's birth certificate? Who paid Trump for silence? Holy merciful flying spaghetti monster will we every get answers?

* This article is presented in the finest journalistic tradition of World Net Daily and may be completely devoid of fact and contain raw speculation or complete fabrication.

Many Thanks to Patrick McKinnion and Bill Bowman for Appearing on "Blogger Night on RC Radio" Thursday Night

Thanks to both of these fine gentlemen for appearing on RC Radio Thursday night. We had great fun with the The Donald and his insane spreading of lies fed to him by his new BFF Joe Farah and WND. It is an asset to have both Bill and Pat, and their informative blogs, Bad Fiction and Turning the Scale. We also learned the good news that blogger NBC is active again and adding content to Native and Natural Born Citizenship Explored. 


Last but not least we thank TomTech who called and who is rebroadcasting RC Radio several times per week on his new site D*Blog Radio.

Is Tim Adams Credible? A Reality Check

OK, I know some of you are laughing already; however, it is fair question to ask. After all, Adams is the only present or former Hawaiian government employee to my knowledge who has ever challenged the authenticity of the Obama COLB that almost every American (except for Tim Adams it seems) has seen on either FactCheck and/or Politifact.

Let's examine Adams' claims in order of importance. There have been some inconsistencies among his various interviews including the most recent one on RC Radio on March 31. However, I think I have distilled the meat of the claims that can be garnered from listening to his various interviews and reading his World Net Daily supplied "affidavit". Mr. Adams claims:

1. Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii. No "long form" Hawaiian birth certificate exists for Barack Obama. Adams claims he was told this by officials he will not name in the Department of Elections and that a search had been done and the records are not there. 
2. Unnamed Hawaiian officials asked him or his department to "vet" Obama because it was their job to vet candidates and questions were asked about Obama. 
3. Obama was born somewhere else in the US probably Washington or Kansas. He is therefore eligible to be president. 
4. Obama's COLB was not issued by the state of Hawaii and has no seal.
5. The short form certification of live birth was only issued for non hospital births or births outside of Hawaii.
6. Adams left the elections department in late August 2008 or September 2008 (various dates have been given in interviews) because of mismanagement, inappropriate access of data bases, and theft of election documents including 50 identity documents and absentee ballots from personnel stationed around the Pacific Rim. 

 Mr. Adams created a big stir in Birthistan in June of last year when he stopped by the the Council of Conservatives meeting in Nashville and appeared on James Edwards Political Cesspool radio show. Adams was introduced as the former Chief Elections Clerk in the Honolulu office. Adams repeated that title and despite what he claimed on RC Radio he never corrected the mistake until it was questioned on the Internet after the original interview. Strike one on Mr. Adams' credibility. This is no small error because that statement lent more credibility to his claims and made it seem he were the highest ranking election official in the office. This error still persists and is repeated on birther sites to this day.

Claim #1:  There is a mountain of evidence that this claim is false. The evidence includes the COLB itself, which would be accepted as proof of birth for any purpose by any state or the US government, the statements of Republican officials at the Department of Health and Governor Laura Lingle as to the existence of the documents and the validity of the COLB,  the contemporary newspaper announcements, the account from Kapi'olani hospital, the same day account of Barbara Nelson who knew Dr. Rodney West the head of maternity unit at Kapi'olani, and Obama's own account of his place of birth that was known long before he decided to run for president.  Yes, birthers have tried to pick at each of these with fake birth certificates from Kenya, fake document experts, manufactured stories of confusion on the hospital, and other bizarre explanations but the totality of the evidence that Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii remains intact. Finally, we have the new statement that Dr. Fukino gave to NBC reporter Michael Isakoff this past weekend that I found while writing this very paragraph!

Claim #2: Frankly I am unclear on exactly who asked whom to vet anyone. Adams claims that "they" asked either him or his department to vet Obama because "people were asking questions".  If you think that is vague and doesn't make sense welcome to the world of trying to figure out Tim Adams. Foggy asked Adams if they were doing the same vetting process for Joe Biden. Great question! There was a very long pause and Adams said no one had asked about Biden. I wished I had asked about McCain and Palin too. Adams claimed that "they" called local hospitals and they had no records for Obama's birth. Let's think about that. Do hospitals keep records for 50 years? Were they available to someone without access under HIPAA even if they still existed? Why wouldn't a simple copy of the COLB have sufficed for proof of birth? What Hawaiian statute required this vetting and why would it have only been done for Obama? We also have the statement by Glen Takahashi who said "Our office does not have access to birth records,” Takahashi said. “That’s handled by the state of Hawaii Department of Health. Where he’s getting that, I don’t know. Put it this way: Barack Obama was not trying to register to vote in Hawaii. He is, as far as I know, not a registered voter here. So no one was looking that up.” and “To be honest, I fielded no questions about that,” Takahashi said. “Why would anyone ask us? We don’t have those records.” Adams claimed he has discredited Takahashi but offered no details. Adams made unsubstantiated charges that Takahashi was either aware of or participated in the use of criminal background check data that the department was not supposed to have.

Claim #3 The claim that Obama was born in Washington or Kansas is frankly preposterous. Adams pulled this one out of a deep dark place and offers no proof at all other than Stanley Dunham enrolled in the University of Washington in the fall 1961 (and we now know took correspondence courses). Even the craziest of birthers has ever suggested Obama was born in another US state.

Claim #4 If I sounded incredulous when Adams pulled out this one it is because I was. The Factcheck high resolution photos clearly show an embossed seal and signature. Even the initial low resolution Daily Kos/Fight the Smears scanned copy shows the seal when the contrast is enhanced. Adams said he would go look at the FactCheck photos and could disprove them in five minutes. We are still waiting. Just in case he missed the link it is http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html The good news is that Adams made one completely correct claim! Obama is eligible.

Claim #5 Now this was a completely new one. I could tell Doc C was guffawing silently when Adams made this claim. Adams again provided no proof at all. We know from the Nordyke 1965 copies of the original Hawaiian 1960's vintage birth certificates that the same form was designed for both hospital and non hospital births. Box 6c on the form says "name of hospital or institution (if not hospital or institution give street address)". This sounds like it would cover home births outside of a hospital or institution doesn't it? We have also seen copies of post 2001 birth certificates and they look exactly like Obama's COLB. No one other than Adams has ever claimed the COLB documents only certain a certain category of birth. 

Claim #6 This claim has nothing to do with Obama but it seems to be Adams' attempt to explain why he left his job and to cast doubt on the integrity of the elections department and the Hawaii government in general. I find it puzzling that Adams would attempt to discredit the same folks who are apparently the source for his information on the birth records but that is exactly what Adams is doing here. The imprecision of Adams wording makes it tough to evaluate the veracity of his claim. He appears to be claiming that 50 "identity documents" and absentee ballots were stolen in order for someone to figure out whether political appointees were voting for Obama. Since Hawaii had no presidential preference primary in 2008 (Hawaii was a caucus state) and the ballots for the general election had not been mailed by the time Adams left his position we can rule this claim as false.

Hawaii held a primary election on September 20, 2008 for races other than the presidential contest. Applications for absentee ballots were accepted beginning July 22, 2008 for both the primary and general elections. Some of the ballots for the primary election would have been received into the office before Adams left. The only information that might be obtained by pilfering through these ballots is whether a person voted the Republican, Democratic, or Independent section of the ballot. I believe most states use a two envelope system to maintain voter anonymity for mail in ballots. This brochure for the Hawaii 2008 elections has many of the key details and dates. Obviously the results of the September primary would need to be certified before the ballots for the November  general election could be printed.

I searched for articles that might have confirmed any of Adams' claims about corruption in the election department in Hawaii. I could not find any confirmation of missing ballots or identity documents. It seems that there was some controversy about a couple of actions by Kevin Cronin who was the Chief Election Officer for Hawaii in 2008. First he failed to register himself  to vote in a timely fashion as was required to hold the office. There was also a controversy over the acceptance of a late filing by a candidate for a state house position. These accusations even if true hardly seem to match the corruption allegations that Adams claims led to his departure in 2008. Cronin's actions would have had nothing to do with anything Adams might have been involved.

Mr. Adams  certainly seems to believe his claims. It is troubling that Adams will not name a single person with whom he worked who will verify a single claim he was made. Adams calls those those who have made contrary statements' including high ranking official Glen Takahashi, liars. If Adams' claims about Obama were "an open secret" as he said it seems incredible that some verification for those could not be obtained even 2 - 1/2 years later. So, after weighing the facts, the facts rule, and I must rule that Mr. Adams is not credible.

RC radio is now being rebroadcast three times per week on D Blog Radio. The times are Thursday at 1 PM ET and Saturday at 5 AM and 1 PM ET. They have some good progressive content including Norman Goldman, Democracy Now!, The Majority Report, and several shows from BTR.  Please give it a try and thank them for rebroadcasting RC  Radio.

RC Radio Asks WND to Comment on Troubling Revelation from Tim Adams

Joe Farah

RC Radio has asked Joe Farah, the editor of World Net Daily, to comment on the troubling revelation by Tim Adams on RC radio  that the affidavit that was published earlier this year was actually prepared at the behest of World Net Daily by their own attorney.

I sent the following email to Joe Farah and asked that either he or Jerome Corsi come on the show to answer questions about their questionable journalistic practices that were displayed in this incident.

Mr. Farah:

I do a weekly radio show on the Obama eligibility controversy. My guest last week was Timothy Adams of Bowling Green, Kentucky. As you are aware he was a former temporary election worker in the Honolulu office in 2008. He made the rather remarkable revelation on my show that the affidavit that was featured in an article in World Net Daily was actually prepared by an attorney paid by World Net Daily. Can you confirm that? Doesn't that go way beyond the bounds of ethical journalism? ... (copy of show transcript included)

I would like to have either you or Mr. Corsi as a guest on my show to explain your organization's involvement in the story and the production of the affidavit.

Regards,
RC

World Net Daily is also the source for many outright lies and deceptive articles on the "Birther" issue. Most notably, World Net Daily is the source of the common misconception that "Obama has spent millions to keep his records hidden". WND ran this article that tried to push the idea that the entire amount spent by the Obama campaign for legal work on the 2008 campaign was spent on "Birther" lawsuits. It appears the Adams affidavit written by WND continues their long traditions of ignoring ethics in journalism 101.