A state representative on Tuesday filed a bill that would require any candidate for president or vice president of the United States to show his or her birth certificate to the Texas secretary of state, another indication of just how ambitious the conservative agenda for next year’s session of the Texas Legislature is expected to be.
"This bill is necessary because we have a president whom the American people don’t know whether he was born in Kenya or some other place," Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said in reference to President Barack Obama and of House Bill 295. "If you are running for president or vice president, you’ve got to show here in Texas that you were born in the United States and the birth certificate is your proof." Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal
It's been over two weeks since the midterms. What took them so long?
I have an occasional ongoing discussion with a diehard libertarian (who is at least consistent, if still disconnected from reality), who sent me an email last night saying that the "birther" movement had died down, that it wasn't a factor in the midterms, and that he didn't see that it would come up again.
I replied that I hoped he was right, but that we'd have to wait and see.
Either someone's monitoring our email, or God has a weirder sense of humor than I'd thought, because it didn't take 12 hours from that exchange to prove him wrong.
According to Texas observers, it's not likely this bill will make it into law:
Rep. Jessica Farrar of Houston, leader of the House Democrats, has no doubt that Berman’s and Riddle’s bills will pass in the lower chamber because Republicans are expected to have a historic 99-51 majority.
But like other Democrats, Farrar doubts such bills will make it in the 31-member Senate because Democrats have 12 votes, barely enough to kill any legislation they oppose unless the chamber lifts its two-thirds rule which requires a two-thirds vote to bring any legislation to the Senate floor.
But it shows that the birthers haven't given up, not by a long shot.
There was some possibly related news in Missouri a couple of weeks ago, when the state House of Reps elected Timothy Jones as its new speaker. This is related because Jones had been one of Orly Taitz' plaintiffs in her suit to try to get President Obama's "original birth certificate." I say "possibly related" because, after Taitz congratulated Jones on his election, he declined to accept her praises:
When asked if he would pursue anything having to do with asking for the President’s birth certificate using the weight of his new leadership position, Jones said, "I don’t think that’s anything that the state of Missouri or the people are going to be interested in."
Jones wouldn’t say whether or not he believed the President is actually a citizen. "I think that matter was resolved, and so however it was resolved, I have not taken any further action," he said. PolitcMo 5 Nov
Jones may say the matter is resolved, but Berman wants Texas to keep the pot boiling. Fox News may also be looking stirring things up:
This afternoon, Fox Business Network announced that it hired former CNN host Lou Dobbs to host a show on its network. ...
And, of course, Dobbs capped his tenure at the network by promoting conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth certificate. Media Matters 10 Nov
The Tea Partiers (many of whom are convinced Obama was not born in the US) are making common cause with the birther movement:
The 2012 presidential campaign opens today in Honolulu, where the first convention focused on neutralizing and defeating President Barack Obama for reelection holds its opening session. Obamacon 2012 starts an eight-day run in Honolulu. Obamacon 2012 is a convention of "birthers," "doubters," Tea Party activists and Obama opponents who are coming together to create a "fusion" strategy for the defeat of President Obama in 2012. Contrarian Commentary 9 Nov
As with all the other garbage being thrown up by the far right, "birtherism" is just another tool, another gadget, to try at Obama to see if it will knock him off the track. (The issue of whether he is doing it to himself is a topic for another diary. MANY another diary.)
Part of it is racism, part of it is the increasing hatred of anyone who isn't like them - politically, socially, culturally, intellectually; take your pick - part of it, a large part of it, is pure frustration that Obama hasn't given them any legitimate gripes (no Oval Office hanky-panky, no failed real estate investments); he really is the moral example they claim to want. And they can't stand it that someone on the other side actually lives up the virtues they preach (and rarely practice).
In their quest to find something, ANYthing, to make Obama look bad, the birthers, the Tea Partiers, and the Republicans who encouraged them and who are now trapped with (and by) them, have further cheapened the political discourse. They have gone from shading the truth, past twisting the truth, beyond suggesting weird ideas, through promoting outlandish fantasies, all the way to insisting on the truth of those fantasies in the face of clear and compelling evidence to the contrary, plus logic, plus reason.
In doing so, they make it impossible for them to examine the facts, whether it's Obama's birth, the economy, the wars, the imbalance of rich and poor, the environment. Anything. Fantasy rules all.