BlatherWatch

There he goes again

Politico is reporting today that, "Investigators for an Arizona sheriff’s volunteer posse have declared that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is definitely fraudulent. [...]

Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama’s father and his field of work or study were completed."

Yes! Look at the codes! And the state of Hawaii, all the candidates he's ever run against, the Republican Party, and everyone else not certifiably in-flipping-sane is in on it!

And only a rag-tag band of professional conspiracy theorists given a platform by an embroiled-in-controversy nutcase of a sheriff can show us the truth!

You may remember that Mike Zullo is selling a book on the subject, and so has a particular interest in milking this cow for all it's worth. You might also remember that said book was co-authored by ultraconspiracy megatheorist Jerome Corsi, who wrote a previous, more expansively dumb book on the subject that tanked when Obama released that document Corsi said he wasn't releasing. You may also remember that Sheriff Joe is, well, freaking insane. Nonetheless, they assure us they only have our best interests at heart.

Sheriff Joe is still, technically speaking, a public official, though what the hell he does during his actual day job is certainly a mystery to all. Since his constituents appear to be in no particular hurry to stop the public shaming of their county, all we can hope for is that, at some point, Arpaio retires to spend more time with his pet theories and find even crazier people to share them with. He and Donald Trump can form a road show. (Hat tip to Hunter)

Barack Obama released a PDF version of a certified copy of his original hospital 1961 birth certificate at a White House press conference on April 27, 2011. That document resides on the White House web site and has been the subject of intense criticism from those whose ideas about the President’s birthplace are challenged by it.

One of the interesting characteristics of the form is penciled notations adjacent to some data items, consisting of numbers and letters. While they were a mystery to some, it was clear to those experienced in old data systems that these were codes for data entry operators

In August of 2011, the Department of Health & Human Services released information under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the coding of natality (Birth) data in 1961. The first part of the response response consisted of a hyperlink to the 1961 document titled Vital Statistics Instruction Manual, Part II Coding and Punching, Section C, Geographic Code Final, Births, Deaths and Fetal Deaths Occurring in 1960-1961 (VSIM). The second part of the FOIA response was a 12-page document titled: Division of Data Processing, Vital Statistics Programming Branch, Tape File Information, 1960-1961 Natality Tape Files for the United States (NTFUS).

 The NTFUS is the layout for all of the data stored by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), all 26 reels of magnetic tape comprising 2,134,172 records for 1961. The document can be used to inform us how data was submitted by the states. How did Zullo turn this into a conspiracy theory? He counted on nobody remembering there is a Google.

This is an Open Thread.

In the news...

Donald Trump will receive the 2012 “Statesman of the Year” award from the Sarasota Republican Party in August.

Trump has been tapped to receive the award on the day before the Republican National Convention, just 60 miles south of the festivities in Tampa Bay.

The move, however, is not meant to upstage the convention, according to Trump spokesman Michael Cohen.

“It would seem obvious that Donald Trump will play a role in the Tampa convention, as his massive popularity, reflected in this recent award, shows what an asset he would be in making the convention into an even greater success.”

Haley Barbour received the award in 2011, at an event that also featured remarks from Herman Cain.

No state exemplifies what happens when wingnuts take control as much as Arizona, where right wing Gov. Jan Brewer is now asking the Supreme Court to let her take away the health insurance of state employees’ same-sex partners.

"Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has requested that the Supreme Court overturn a ruling that allows state employees to keep their same-sex partners on their benefits, including health insurance.

Brewer filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on July 2, requesting that the high court overturn the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s September 2011 ruling in Diaz vs. Brewer. The pushback comes three months after the Ninth Circuit denied a request by Arizona state lawyers to re-hear the case with an 11-judge panel.

Last September, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling prevented Arizona from implementing a law that would have barred state employees’ same-sex partners from remaining on their health plans. The ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision to place a preliminary injunction on the law."

Los Angeles Times reporter Maeve Reston was at Mitt Romney’s fund-raiser at the home of far right billionaire David Koch in the super-exclusive Long Island community of East Hampton, and interviewed one of Romney’s wealthy donors — who had some interesting remarks about the “common people.”

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. – As protesters assembled on a beach in advance of Mitt Romney’s evening event at the home of conservative billionaire David Koch, the candidate slipped to East Hampton for his first of three fundraisers on this tony stretch of Long Island.

The line of Range Rovers, BMWs, Porsche roadsters and one gleaming cherry red Ferrari began queuing outside of Revlon Chairman Ronald Perelman’s estate off Montauk Highway long before Romney arrived, as campaign aides and staffers in white polo shirts emblazoned with the logo of Perelman’s property — the Creeks — checked off names under tight security. …

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

This open thread is constitutional!

from Huffington Post:

Not all Republican state lawmakers took such a hardline against the ACA’s implementation. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Utah Gov. Gary Herbert plans to follow federal health care mandates for the time being, while refusing “to do something that is going to bust our budget” in the future.

Former Office of Management and Budget director and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who plans to step down at the end of his term, took what on the surface seems a more moderate approach. Daniels said he would leave the decision on a possible Medicaid expansion to future state legislators.

Some GOP lawmakers have expressed their view that compliance with some key aspects of the health care law is a way to ensure at least some state control over the process. As CBS News reports, Republican Colorado state legislator Bob Gardner argued that by moving forward on the creation of insurance exchanges “Colorado did the right thing by having a mechanism to do its best to impose a Colorado solution.”

In a similar statement, Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder expressed his belief that “working with our legislative leaders to establish the MiHealth Marketplace will allow Michiganders to make decisions regarding what will be covered as opposed to Washington, D.C., making those decisions for us.”

Washington AG and Republican Gubanatorial candidate Rob McKenna announced in a speech this week that it was not a good idea for Republicans to pour a lot of time and money into trying to get the law overturned. "McKenna notified media across the state that he would be speaking about the US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act. McKenna was one of 26 state attorneys general who sued to block the Affordable Care Act. But when Stranger reporter ( and close personal friend to Blatherwatch) David “Goldy” Goldstein arrived for the press conference at McKenna’s downtown Seattle offices, a guard was waiting for him. Cameramen, radio people, and   reporters were granted free entry. Goldy was prevented from entering. "They are physically blocking me from entering," Goldy said by phone to The Stranger, seven minutes before the 11:30 a.m. press conference was scheduled to begin. A spokesman for McKenna, Dan Sytman, had told Goldy a few minutes before that Goldy wasn’t a journalist and then blocked him from entering. A McKenna staffer had also grabbed Goldy by the shoulders and turned him away from the door. "More about that here.

On the March 26th episode of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly told American Constitution Society president Caroline Fredrickson that she was "going to lose" her argument that the individual mandate was a constitutionally-sound tax and "does not require people to buy health insurance."  At the end of the segment, O'Reilly vowed to replay the interview and "apologize for being an idiot" if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of upholding the mandate.

Bill, we are still waiting :)

National Donut Day weekend open thread

 

 Charles Hurt from the Moonie...er...Washington Times has a problem with a bike share program in the nation's capitol: "Unlike Sarah Palin or Tina Fey, or whoever it was, I really can see Russia from my front porch. Or, at least, I can see broken-down socialism.

That is because across the street from my house on Capitol Hill is a loud, clanging "Capital Bikeshare" docking station. It is one of the locking ports for those fat, red communal bicycles you see peddled all over town by commune enthusiasts. (Say that fast, and it sounds like you are saying "commun-ists.")

For a small membership fee, users can pick up a bike at any of 165 such docking stations and proudly pedal themselves to work, school or to pick up Chinese food. The little black wire basket on the front is sturdy enough to carry a briefcase or a carry-out order of tofu. The bikes are shaped like the old-timey "girl bikes" without the crossbar, making them suitable for un-liberated women in skirts as well as these so-called "metrosexual" males everybody keeps talking about in these parts.

For the urban environmental warrior (who, curiously, chooses to live in a densely populated concrete city), the benefits of the communal bike program are endless.

Having people pedal around on these bikes, they say, means fewer people riding pollution-emitting city buses and fewer cars clogging the roads. And healthy riders means less of a burden on socialized medicine. These people get very excited talking about all the upsides.

Oh, and the smugness with which these pedaling heroes pump away! I have seen proud drivers of Priuses look away in shame as they ease by in their bio-electric and sometimes spontaneously combustible vehicles.

This communal bike program is a success from their tingling toes through their throbbing hearts all the way to bright, gleaming faces. It makes them feel so good!

But there are problems.

The most obvious one is that you can check out a bike and pedal yourself anywhere your heart desires — so long as it happens to have a docking station for your bike. (The bikes don't come with locks, and these geniuses haven't yet eliminated bike theft — even of crappy, fat red ones.)

If your destination just so happens to have a handy-dandy bike-docking station, you better get there early or hope that not everybody is going in the same direction at the same time. Such as what we happen to call "rush hour," which only occurs every single weekday, twice a day.

So, what happens is, these noble warriors ride their bikes to work in the morning, only to discover that so has everybody else. And all the docking stations are filled up. So they have to wander around in search of a place to dock their bike so they can get to work.

This leads to another problem where all the bikes end up in a concentration of places. So at the end of the day, a belching environment-killing truck must come around and redistribute the bikes.

After early complaints about this problem, central planners did what central planners do. The program didn't need to be eliminated. It needed to be — made bigger.

So far, after the latest expansion, the whole scheme has cost taxpayers more than $8 million. Much of that comes from federal taxpayers, so you, too, can take pride in this.

My personal pride in the program reached a new level last week after reading about a woman in my neighborhood who was talking on her cellular phone. A thug rode by on a bike, slapped her and swiped her phone.

And proudly pedaled away on the big, fat, red Capital Bikeshare bicycle. "

This is an open thread.

Janine Turner : birther on the radio!

 

Janine Turner is the latest Hollywood star to tout the Tea Party and Birther messages.

Janine Turner is best known for play the role of Maggie, the tough-but-vulnerable Maggie the Pilot in the hit show "Northern Exposure." While filming, she lived in eastern King County where her neighbors said she kept to herself. After the leaving the series, she starred in two movies, a television show on Lifetime Network, then moved back to Texas and had a daughter. Along the way, she discovered religion and has spent the last few years promoting religious videos, Christian Yoga, called "Christoga", and started a radio show.

 

Janine recently debuted her conservative, political talk radio show on Talk Radio KLIF 570  in the Dallas/Fort Worth market: The Janine Turner Show – American Exposure  - Hollywood Flair, Washington Savvy, American True Grit. Janine is a highly acclaimed public speaker, First Lady of Texas Anita Perry says, “After hearing Janine speak, I felt inspired, touched, motivated and – quite frankly – in awe. Her speech was riveting.” Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the RNC says, “Janine is a rare mix of talented actress and principled committed conservative. Her understanding of how entertainment shapes our culture makes her a potent force and sought after speaker.” Governor Sarah Palin says, “Actress Janine Turner was an eloquent supporter, particularly on the subject of women in politics and the strength and value of single moms who are committed to raising solid citizens.” On her radio website she promotes links to books and articles that claim President Obama was born in Kenya.

"Her Op-Ed articles have been published in media outlets such as Fox Opinion, the Daily Caller and she is an “Arena” contributor to Politico. She has appeared on numerous television news shows including: Fox and Friends, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Huckabee, Megyn Kelly, The O’Reilly Factor, Neil Cavuto, CNN’s Larry King Live, The Joy Behar Show and The Parker/Spitzer Show. She is a frequent guest on the Laura Ingraham, William Bennett, Lou Dobbs, Steve Gill Show and Glenn Beck radio shows and is a sought after regular guest on other popular radio shows across the country.

Along with Janine’s published Op-Eds, she has written 90 essays on the Constitution and the Federalist Papers and is a regular Blogger. The video clips of her Speeches, her Fox Opinion Op-Eds, Essays, Politico contributions, Blogs and Radio Show Podcasts may all viewed on her website. "

 We think Maggie O'Connell would say it's all bunk.

Weekend open thread 5/25/12

 This weekend we honor those who have given their lives in service to their country. While we are at it, let's thank a soldier, sailor and Marine for their service as well.

In the news: Tonight at 8PM Central Time, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, will square off in a debate in advance of the June 5 recall election. The debate will be carried by C-SPAN and should also be available for livestreaming. Since it is C-SPAN, it most likely will be repeated again during the weekend.

Today Vice-President Biden gave an emotional speech about loss to the Gold Star parents of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He related how he lost his first wife and daughter in an accident, his son barely surviving, and shared how he knew a little bit about what they were feeling. He commiserated with them over the "black hole" their lives had become since losing a loved one, and there is no way the country can ever repay them for the sacrifice of that family member.

And finally, to further demonstrate that he is "on top" of things, Dori Monson sputtered his outrage that sex ed workshops were held at The Evergreen College this past week.  We are relieved that Dori follows the hard news.

This is an Open Thread.

Gingrich "suspends" his campaign, keeps citizenship!

Today, Newt Gingrich took 26 minutes to tell the world he is suspending his campaign for President of the United States.

He thanked his speech writers, Herman Cain, Todd Palin and his thousands of supporters, including Sheldon Adelman...in that order. Calista received his thanks after he thanked her mother for watching all the debates and campain ads on television.

He went on to assure the American public he was not giving up his citizenship, something he has had since 1958. (No, we are not making this up.)  Then he announced that al Qaeda is in Yemen and hoped that the White House would get the memo about that soon.

As Newt once again launched into his "Moon initiative" talk, Marvin the Martian was heard to heave a sigh of relief that Mars, as of yet, is not in those plans.  After several minutes of sharing his thanks and outlining all those policies he will never get to implement, Newt finally announced he was throwing in the towel.

Rumors are swirling on and off The Hill that Romney will assume Newt's substantial campaign debt, in return for a hearty endorsement for his own campaign. While Gingrish didn't come right out in today's speech and endorse Romney, he hinted around enough that he will do it, that Shepard Smith at Fox News stopped in the middle of his reporting to share a few personal thoughts on this development.

School janitors everywhere are weeping tonight.

R.I.P. Dick Clark 1929-2012

Anyone who owned an AM radio in the 50's and 60's knows the name Dick Clark. His long-running television show, "American Bandstand" was the predecessor of dozens of other shows that featured dancing teenagers and the musical hits of the day. Later, he also was famous for his New Year's Eve gig at Time Square in New York City.

Here is the obituary from the Los Angeles Times:

Weekend roundup

Science to believe in: University of Illinois in Chicago scientists claim beer makes men smarter. (Just not if you drink it with George W. Bush.)

"The study participants who drank beer also solved 40% more of the problems posed to them compared to non-drinkers."

While you drink your beer, you might  contemplate just who is the latest target of the Republican intolerance jihad-- Kids with student education loans, of course. Well, thanks for that, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).

Even though she thinks student loans are unnecessary,her " distaste for large loans does not appear to extend to the mortgage sector. In Foxx’s 2010 financial disclosure statement, she owned two individual mortgage notes worth up to $250,000 each, from which she earned as much as $20,000 in payments."

As many as twelve of the President's Secret Service detail may have let their focus stray from the task! Disciplinary action has been taken. Please note: what happens in Cartagena, Colombia does not stay in Cartagena, Colombia.

Blatherwatch will return soon...

This lovely young lady will be a new contributor to this site.  Her politics are wild, she can drink you under the table, and has a couple of secrets that would result in her being banned from the Ballard Safeway if they were ever revealed.

Stay tuned....