Days of Thumpings Past

Actually "thumping" was a Bush term to describe his mid-term loss in 2006; Obama prefers "shellacked", but thumping just worked better in the title.

So what am I rambling about?

Every so often it's interesting to check the stat counter to see why people have actually stumbled onto this blog.  Doing the analysis doesn't take very long, there's not much data to peruse, but sometimes it can bring enlightenment.  Not the George Harrison type, the political type.

For instance, someone recently hit a 2010 post entitled "A Birther Thread".  The post wasn't an endorsement of birtherism, just observations of why the left was suddenly churning up birther stories at a particular time in 2010.   I offer this:

Perhaps they want to move the dialog back towards crazy as the new GOP House enters on duty next week. We know there are some congressmen who are birthers. Time will tell how far this goes or whether they attempt to smear the entire caucus by association, which could tell us something about Obama's feelings on working with Boehner and company in general. Marginalizing them on the front end doesn't really signal bi-partisanship.

Indeed, here's Abercrombie--someone present when Obama, Sr. was bamboozling Stanley Ann into producing Obama, Jr.--talking about the strategy he wants Obama to pursue in 2011:

Seeking consensus doesn't mean rolling over, Abercrombie said. The governor is among those calling for a more combative style from Obama, saying the president needs to resurrect Harry Truman's "give them hell" approach.

So you have that.

In other words, no more than a month after Obama got his first mid-term shellacking of 2010 his minions were doing the same thing they did after 2014's shellacking-- starting a fight. They threw a bunch of feces on the wall trying to marginalize the victory and tear apart the new GOP caucus with a wedge issue. Sound familiar?  Hopefully somebody was taking notes.

Aviation Update

Out to Hawaii, where a few weeks ago the medical examiner finally released a cause of death of State Health Director Loretta Fuddy in the crash of a Cessna 208 off the coast of Oahu. The initial autopsy was performed sometime between December 11-15th after the accident, which occurred  on December 11.  The NTSB preliminary report is here.

Oddly, a similar event happened in October of 2013 off Maui with another Cessna 208; read about that one here.  It also had 10 people onboard and landed safely--on a highway just onshore.  The NTSB has recovered the Fuddy aircraft and the engine was said to be in 'remarkably' good condition, so one assumes they should be able to determine why it failed.  

Of course the medical examiner finding--a cardiac arrhythmia (leading to heart failure)--will not be accepted by the conspiracy-minded among us.   And why should it, considering the weird coincidences?!

One might think a mystery or intrigue writer would also be enthralled by the sheer coincidence of the late Ms. Fuddy--the Hawaiian Health Department Director appointed by Governor Abercrombie shortly before the heralded release of Obama's long form birth cert--later meeting her fate as the only fatality in a highly-survivable crash just weeks before the Obamas were to arrive in Hawaii for vacation.   

For those who haven't seen it, here's onboard video of the crash..



Notice the commentators go through the entire report and never mention the "State Health Director" and her death until the very end, nor do they tell viewers about her famous tie to Obama.  They did comment on how calm everyone was, which is rather stark when watching the video, especially in the seconds before the plane hits the water.  Even after everyone gets into the water there seemed to be very little screaming or exasperation as the pilot can be heard saying "is everyone OK?" without any retorts to the contrary.

The commentators also didn't report on the strange cultish tie Ms. Fuddy had with the President's mother Stanley Ann or the fact this particular cult is associated with four places--Hawaii, Indonesia, Chicago and Seattle, all part of the fabric of Obama's narrative.  Not that they would have, just sayin that it's another strange thing in a universe of strange things.


But if there's a conspiracy in play, how was it supposed to play out?

Let's say some operative wanted to get rid of Ms. Fuddy due to her clandestine knowledge of a birth fraud and the possibility of her spilling some beans.  Would they do it by taking out a small airplane?  Maybe.  Maybe they would tamper with the engine at a remote airfield knowing it would be taking off over the ocean and hoping it would crash with no survivors.  So far there's no evidence of that, but the engine analysis is not yet done.

But if such a thing did occur, how did Ms. Fuddy end up getting murdered when the plane crash plot failed? Were the operatives just incredibly lucky or did they send trained dolphins to poke her with a poison needle or kill her with some kind of death ray?   The only option that makes any sense is pure luck.  Her murder in the water could only have been accomplished by one of the passengers or the pilot, of which there is no evidence.  One assumes the survivors have all been interviewed. 

Besides, it's quite believable a 65 year old woman paddling around in the ocean for over an hour might become panicked and exhausted to the point of straining her heart in such a scenario.  This seems more like a bizarre coincidence.

Actually, the more interesting piece of information is the cult shared between Obama's mama and Ms Fuddy.  By all accounts members practiced a form of yoga-like relaxation and prayer to get closer to their god.  We'll never know if Ms. Fuddy employed it during her last moments or whether it failed for her.  We'll also likely never know if Ms. Fuddy knew Ms Dunham back in the day and if so, whether that would mean anything.  The Subud cult supposedly came to the Islands in the early 60s.  But we do know it's yet another strange factoid in the still untold story.

Aviation Update

A couple of sensational stories are making news and are worth exploring a bit.

One, the would-be white jihadist in Wichita.  According to CNN:

Loewen, who became the subject of a federal investigation early this summer, hoped to commit an "act of violent jihad against the United States" and spent months studying the airport's layout, photographing airport access points, researching flight schedules and assisting in the acquisition of car bomb components, Grissom said.

Not much elaboration there other than 'an act of violent jihad', which should explain itself. CNN goes on to list the charges:

Loewen is charged with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, one count of attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Officials did not answer questions or elaborate on the third charge during a Friday news conference.

The third charge, "provide(ing) material support" to a terror group, doesn't really seem to comport with the authorities calling him a "lone wolf". So, we must venture over to "Faux News" for more:

The complaint says an undercover FBI employee told Loewen about a recent trip overseas and a meeting with members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This agent told Loewen that "brothers" were interested in his airport access, and asked if he'd be willing to plant "some type of device," the complaint said. Loewen allegedly responded, "Am I interested? Yes. I still need time to think about it, but I can't imagine anything short of arrest stopping me."

The U.S. citizen allegedly wrote to the FBI agent that he was inspired by Usama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki.

Interesting that none of this was available on the CNN story but oh well, maybe they believed that business about AQ being on the run.  But let's cut to the chase here.  From all initial stories this guy indeed sounds like a lone nutcake someone brought to the attention of the Feds, who then set him up for a sting op, which occurred today.  He wasn't communicating with terrorists nor did he visit Arabia, he's just a lone dope duped by the Feds.

Some may use this to generate more conspiracies about the Feds trumping up events to justify the NSA's eavesdropping program (especially if it turns out to be part of the investigation) but such is to diminish the idiots out there who have a legitimate crush on the bin Laden wing of Islam and whose conversion involves visions of spectacular death of American innocents.  This same violent aspect will undoubtedly be downplayed by people who will be using the Colorado school shooting to suggest more gun bans.  Such is America 2013.  

UPDATE  12/14/13 

This story in the Wichita Eagle is very informative as to the days and months leading up to Friday's arrest.  The FBI affidavit suggests they became aware of Loewen's jihadi desires via his postings on a jihad website, using an undercover FBI agent to start communicating with him, which eventually led to the operation.

The story illustrates two things--1) the bush-league nature of Loewen's efforts to wage war.  Anyone in this day and age should realize they are being monitored while online.  Most probably the real dangerous jihadies have found other ways to communicate by now.  And 2) the derangement and commitment available to a real jihadist should they have found Loewen before the FBI did.  He fits the profile of the typical suicide bomber and although a lone kook, this event shouldn't be trivialized.     


----

Meanwhile CNN and several other networks made a point to mention the 'birther' aspect of the tragic death of the Hawaiian Director of Health Loretta Fuddy, who certified the legitimacy of Obama's released long form birth certificate back during the Trump birther trump in 2011.

They were basically reporting about the birther aspect and conspiracies before the tinfoil hatters even realized what was happening.   No doubt some in our mainstream media welcome the conspiracy theories as a way to deflect away from the health care fiasco while also piling extra dung on the Tea Party.    

So, what about the incident itself?  It was a short over-water flight from one coastal Hawaiian airport to Honolulu via a single engine Cessna Caravan 208, which holds about 10 passengers and a pilot.  Nine were on board--they all survived impact but only one died while awaiting rescue, Ms. Fuddy.  One survivor, a man over 70 years old, swam to shore while the others were picked up by police/Coast Guard helicopter rescue.

There seems to be some confusion about what happened after the aircraft ditched in the ocean. Here's the LA Times, playing up the conspiracy aspect headline:

The eight other people on the plane, including the pilot, were rescued, but one "person remained in the fuselage of the plane," Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig told KHON-TV. "It's always a different situation when you're not able to get everybody out."

Hey LA Times, if you don't want conspiracies about Obama maybe you shouldn't hold onto videos of him hobnobbing with Bill Ayers and Palestinian radicals before national elections.  Sorry, digression.  Notice the Times is saying there was one person still inside the aircraft, hinting that this person was the one who didn't survive.  But that's completely bizarre, because here's the AP from late yesterday:

"He recounted how he said he helped Loretta into her life jacket and he held her hand for some time," the priest said. "They were all floating together and she let go and there was no response from her."

Later today they updated it to provide more about the swimmer:

"Everyone was real quiet. We hit (the water) and it was all about getting the belts off," he said, describing how everyone started putting on life jackets and remained on the plane until it seemed to start sinking. "There wasn't panic or anything. It was very orderly. It wasn't like any of the movies or the TV shows."

Bobbing in the water, Hollstein noticed the pilot and seven other passengers seemed fine. "I didn't want to sit out there bobbing, so I figured I'd take a shot at going to the shoreline."

So he's basically saying everybody got out as the plane began sinking, saying he saw the 'seven' other passengers. This same guy later expressed surprise that Fuddy had died, saying:

"She was doing fine out of the airplane," Hollstein said. "Her assistant was really watching her. He was taking care of her."

Absolute proof everybody got out, at least according to this witness.   But wait--the Honolulu paper had a different version:

The Rev. Pat Killilea, pastor of St. Francis Church at Kalaupapa, said he didn't see the plane hit the water, but watched rescue operations from Kalaupapa's airport where the survivors were taken. Killilea said the pilot swam to shore to get help for the passengers floating offshore.

"He (pilot) had been able to get the passengers out of the plane wearing their life vests. However, once in the water they were beginning to drift apart and so he decide to swim to shore to get help," Killilea said this morning in a phone interview. He added, "There was blood on his (pilot's) chest when he arrived at the airport."

Hmm, so a reverend is telling a different story than one of the survivors, a story full of graphic detail including evidence of injury despite swimming ashore.  Note to the LA Times again--when you quote a Honolulu fire department official as emphatically saying someone was still in the aircraft when the aircraft was submerged by the time the rescuers arrived, and when a reverend contradicts later reports from the AP about the identity of the pilot, that tends to fuel conspiracies.

Yes, confusion and misinformation often reign after air disasters but usually officials don't get that specific.  Not to say this isn't all shoddy reporting, so with that in mind it's a little hasty to talk about any conspiracies.  Bizarre things happen in life every day, and certainly Ms. Fuddy seems an unlikely target for a black ops hit squad (no offense intended) as she seemed a team player, recently working to enact Obamacare on the Islands.

The autopsy should reveal the exact cause of death and will help nail this down.  It would also help if the NTSB could retrieve the wreckage from the ocean floor to study the engine, which should be largely intact, but they have said they probably won't be attempting it. Stay tuned, as they say.

UPDATE   12/17/13

The NTSB has decided that maybe they will try to salvage the aircraft after all.  They claim to have spotted it via helicopter submerged about 500 yards offshore.   Meanwhile the autopsy was completed Friday the 13th but has not been publicly released.   Maybe it has been privately released and maybe it's now safe to bring up the wreckage and find out what actually happened.   

Uh...Uh...

This is an interesting clip from our nation's third greatest political orator.  The birthers are all atwitter...



Obviously a slip of some sort, either Freudian or otherwise.  It's funny that Obama himself seems to be the chief birther: first his literary bio states that he was born in Kenya and now he's out saying he was born to a "single mom".  Libs might concoct a conspiracy theory to explain (after calling people racist for even making fun of it)--Obama is so clever he's making these gaffes on purpose to fool stupid hick conservatives into foaming at the mouth and mentioning it so Dems can ridicule them.  Yeah, probably not.

More likely it's better described by Tom Maguire:

So yes, the Magic Mouth theory is always in play with this guy. Obama has grown up thinking he can BS his way past anything.

And he generally has.  One more show to go.   

Speaking of conspiracies, the only one that seems to have any real meat is the Social Security number thing. Yet it's something that no media flack would ever ask a sitting president, or one who's standing, bowing, or reclining for that matter.  So good luck with it.

One more thing.  As to the video above, it contains something else no media flack would ever ask: why did it take an Ivy League education for Michelle Obama to become qualified to be First Lady?   There are no prerequisites--other than marrying the big guy.  Just sayin.  

Kill Lists and Birthers

Some weird stuff in the news right now.  Zombies in Florida, people throwing their entrails at the cops, porn movies being filmed at the LA Coliseum, Mitt Romney is a unicorn.   Wait, wtf?

Yes, CNN, apparently celebrating their lowest ratings in 20 years, has a story about Mitt Romney being a unicorn:

Call them "unicorners." A liberal group says it has collected more than 19,000 e-mails requesting Arizona officials to confirm Mitt Romney is not a unicorn. Without such proof, the group Left Action argues with tongue in cheek, Romney may indeed be a unicorn -- his dark mane hiding a horn -- and therefore ineligible to be on the presidential ballot in November. The farcical campaign mimics efforts by "birthers," and some top supporters of certain Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to continually raise the already-settled issue of whether President Barack Obama meets the Constitution's requirements for citizenship.

Fit to print.  Cutting edge stuff.  But wait, it's not just CNN, WaPo also had a story on it and probably others. Clearly they are trying to leverage Donald Trump's recent birther rants against Mittens, rants which are becoming increasingly more interesting in a sort of 'hey, is he working for Obama' kind of way.

But OK, let's have some fun with the Mitt birthers a moment. Some are claiming that since George Romney was born in Mexico, even though he was a US citizen, that makes Romney ineligible for the POTUS because birthers have claimed that Obama's father was a citizen of Kenya and the UK or something.   If they are going to use the parents' heritage argument they are making the birthers' point--Romney's father doesn't have to be born in the US to make Mitt eligible--he only has to be a citizen.  Even if Mitt wasn't born in Detroit he might still be eligible similar to McCain.  That's not the same as having one American citizen parent and another parent who is not.  Stupid indeed.  But the insane frivolity is just beginning.  When you don't have anything else you throw poop.  And sometimes the candidates do, too. 

Speaking of insane frivolity, Farrakhan is making news again. The Blaze has him warning that an attack on the Mullahs, even by Israel, will result in toppling US skyscrapers, evidently by moderate Muslims. Question, shouldn't this qualify him for Obama's kill list?

It's the Follow-Up, Stupid

CBS sets up their hit piece of Breitbart by couching them as birthers before getting to the money paragraphs:

The birthers made their presence felt once again on Thursday. A conservative reporter tracked down a 1991 promotional booklet from a literary agency in which Mr. Obama was listed as having been "born in Kenya." Conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge gave the report huge play, leading his site with it Thursday evening. He followed up Friday with a series of links tied to the story, including one asking, "How did the mainstream media miss this?"

The literary agent responsible for the listing released a statement in the wake of the story reading in part, "This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii."

But that, of course, was not going to placate those eager to seize on the 1991 listing as a smoking gun proving their theory. Interestingly, the website that posted it, Breitbart.com, seemed uncomfortable with putting it into the world - it said in a note above the article that it "has never advocated the narrative of 'Birtherism,'" arguing that the listing is evidence "not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times."

Indeed, Breitbart's reporters were recently blasted by some of the hard-core birthers for not getting on the train.   But in the world of elite media reporters such as Mr. Montopoli everyone on the right is a closet racist/birther, meaning the mere mention of a flyer showing Barack Obama as being born in Kenya qualifies the producer of said story as a crackpot.  And of course once a story can be labeled 'birtherism' there's no need to pursue it any further.

Edward R Murrow must be spinning in his grave.  A true reporter would have seen the Breitbart story, said "that's interesting"; seen the follow-up comment/statement from the literary agent and said "that's interesting, too', then picked up the phone.   They were not afraid of the truth because they kept their own dogs out of the fight. 

In other words, instead of mocking Breitbart's journalism and trying to turn them into birthers the CBS reporter could have called the literary agent--and certainly the White House--and asked some questions.  Here are just a few suggestions from a hack blogger to get things started; surely an elite reporter could think of a few more.  For instance,  to the agent:

"how often did you put out a bio on a writer and not let the writer see it first? Was it common to do your own 'fact checking' rather than just asking the writer?

Where did you do the fact checking and why/how do think you got it wrong?"

Why wasn't the flyer corrected until 2007?

Such a reporter might call the White House press office and say,

"Could you tell us if Obama himself remembers the bio and if so, did he get to approve it before it went to press?" 

It's almost as if some are afraid to ask.  Think of how much more powerful Mr. Montopoli's piece on Breitbart would have been had he been able to pop out a few of those secondary, drill-down questions/answers, ie, "we talked to Ms so-so and she said it was common for new authors to not be involved in their bios, etc".  As it was he appeared to be filing his report from Chicago HQs. 

In other words, it's about the follow-up!   Our modern advocates have lost track of that concept, a simple premise that says you don't immediately believe a press release or take a canned statement as gospel.  You don't blindly believe a politician without checking their story--and checking doesn't mean asking their press officer or Media Matters and declaring, "case closed, you crazy wingers".  They used to know this. 

The reporter even mocked the 'vetting' charge Brietbart made.   So yeah sorry Jack, not to bust your bubble but this kind of crap is exactly what you can expect from the Breitbart story, nothing more.  The only wildcard is whether Breitbart has something else in the can waiting to trickle out.  Their namesake was pretty good at that--he had learned their game.

Falling for the Birth Certificate Again?

It's understandable why Jerome Corsi and WND would try to keep the birther story alive--book sales and page hits. Most everyone else has moved on except a few who've taken a closer look at the document on the White House web site and determined that hey, there may be some splainin' to do. The electronic version has layers...



When the BC document was released the official explanation from Hawaii was that the Obama administration had requested special permission to obtain a copy of the original BC (which was impossible only days before) and dispatched a staffer to Hawaii to pick up the copies and pay the fee. This form was subsequently copied and distributed to the press with an electronic copy placed on the White House web site. We were led to believe this document was purportedly a scan of the actual paper copy purchased in Hawaii.

So who made the copy with layers?

Corsi et al believe it's part of the secret Kenyan birth cover-up of course. Noted 9/11 truther Alex Jones has joined the fray by discussing this on his radio show with Corsi, who now claims The Donald recently called and pumped him for information. In other words, maybe Trump was really a Democrat operating under deep cover as a cat's paw for Obama by bringing up the issue. Or maybe he was just shilling for his boss at NBC, owned by GE. That would be a whole new level of sleaze for him, if so.

It's hard to blame the Hawaiians since their official site says they made copies and handed them to the Obama staffer. There was no mention of an electronic file being passed. Which would be suspicious anyway.

Was it the press? Not according to this guy. The AP was handed a copy and scanned it, and ergo, it doesn't have layers. So it was most likely a person in the administration. But why?

Maybe the copied document was hard to read. Maybe a White House IT person tried to avoid more conspiracies by 'cleaning up' the form in Adobe so the data was unambiguous. Of course they should have explained such a thing with the release, although it's understandable why they wouldn't. Besides, they knew anyone who further challenged the document would immediately be called a Fruit Loop racist, so maybe it didn't matter.

After all, if a document expert could determine the layers issue almost immediately the White House surely knew their 'clean up' would be discovered, causing more controversy. Which brings us the most likely explanation--the President of the United States authorized his staff to release a tampered document he knew would keep the birther flame going for the purposes of keeping the birther flame going. One never knows when one might need a convenient political tool or distraction.

Remember, Obama (or was it Ayers?) told us in "Dreams" that he had seen his own birth certificate, so he may still have it at home. Former Health Director Chiyome Fukina told Michael Isikoff she had also seen the form and it was 'half typed, half handwritten'. Were they removing or cleaning up the 'handwritten' part without changing anything? Or is the whole thing just a misunderstanding?

Whatever the case, Corsi and anyone on his bandwagon are possibly setting themselves up for yet another huge embarrassment if Obama indeed has another Trump card up his sleeve. No, that would not be very presidential but hey- he's a tough skinny kid from Chicago and dreams are on the line.

Trump Gets Results!

Boy, Jerome Corsi must be ticked off today...the Donald got the results he couldn't after years, and his yet to be released book will probably tank. Here's a prediction: Trump will now slowly disappear back into TV Land while Corsi continues the fight.

Meanwhile the presidential race of 2012 can proceed forward without the specter of Obama baiting a birther hook to reel in some GOP candidates, allowing MSM TV debate moderators to give prospective candidates a birther litmus test, only to have the administration spring the document for maximum embarrassment at a time of their choosing.

Now that it's out how about a few questions for the players? Like why were they presumably spending money to stop Phillip Berg from uncovering this in 2008, then others along the way, if there was nothing on it? Will someone ask Carney if this 'distraction' was a political stunt all along?

And will anyone question why Hawaiian state officials lied or bent the truth... first by changing their rules on a Home Lands application to include the short form (after their web site said a short form was not good enough), then just recently this statement:

But Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general's office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of "vital records," including an original "record of live birth" — even to the individual whose birth it records.

"It's a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody," he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.

And in the same story, the former records chief Fukino said:

She found the original birth record, properly numbered, half typed and half handwritten, and signed by the doctor who delivered Obama, located in the files. She then put out a public statement asserting to the document's validity.

Presumably her definition of "half handwritten" means a few signatures, since that's the only handwriting on it. Were these officials idiots, fans, or were they being ordered into their deceptions?

Oh well, now that the distraction is behind us we can move on to the important issues (as if presidential constitutional eligibility is a mere distraction) like Libya, debt ceilings, trillion dollar debt, no job growth, and terrorists still gathering around the gates.

MORE 4/27/11

In looking over the birth cert here are some thoughts.

One, it's not a fraud. Look over the Nordyke Twins' certs and you will see they use the same format. They were born one day later than Obama.

For those who think it's a conspiracy that Stanley Ann didn't sign the document until August 7th, as opposed to when baby Barack popped out, then look at the Nordyke version--the mother signed the form on the 7th. The higher document number for Obama's cert is probably due to a clerical issue.

It's settled, folks. Finally.

What's not settled are the other mysteries, but now that he's made the birthers look bad (and the press will run with it) it will also make anyone who questions anything else look equally nutty. So his lies about the Ayers relationship appear to be safe.

MORE 4/28/11

This from the coming Oprah interview...

Mr. Obama had to get Hawaii to waive a law that prevents the long form birth certificate from being photocopied or released to anyone, including himself.

Today he told Oprah, "And so at that point I said to my team, look, even though this is not usually what the State of Hawaii does, even though the Republican Governor of Hawaii, the Democratic Governors of Hawaii, all the various officials had confirmed that I was born here, let's ask them for a special dispensation where they will go ahead and provide us with the original to see if we can put this to rest."

...is complete and utter BS. Anyone with a tangible interest could compel those state bureaucrats to provide a copy of a vital record. It's clear they were spinning to keep the issue at bay until the One finally released it. BTW, in the clip released on RCP yesterday it's likely Obama was mildly shocked when the first question Oprah asked was, "why did it take so long"? He spun, cracked a joke and didn't answer, at least in the length of that clip.

Can anyone imagine Brian Williams asking such a question, or her next question? They're all cowered with fear of being called or thought a racist, which Obama has used to his political benefit from day one, just like he's using this issue regardless of how his reaction comes off to those who questioned his eligibility. Then again unlike the Hispanics, he has no problem 'punishing his enemies'.

Nonsense

That's all anyone can reasonably say about Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie's recent birther stunt:

Abercrombie, who was a friend of Obama's parents and knew him as a child, launched an investigation last month into whether he can release more information about the president's Aug. 4, 1961 birth. The governor said at the time he was bothered by people who questioned Obama's birthplace for political reasons.

But Abercrombie's attempt reached a dead end when Louie told him the law restricted his options.

As if. He knows the score--Obama has spent millions to stop birther lawsuits to presumably keep discovery away from the so-called vault copy. Unless he's an abject burnout or crazy like a fox he had no business wasting time by launching an 'investigation' he knew was going nowhere. It's completely unbecoming of a state governor, and certainly has the stench of stunt all over it, probably to divert from the incoming GOP House. Fail so far, if so.

But someone should ask Abercrombie why he thinks anyone running for president should be against producing any reasonable document requested by the citizenry he wishes to govern, since to do so is in effect to honor the constitution itself. That's what McCain did when his birth thing came up. And that's what Abercrombie was supposedly doing on Barack's behalf, to stop the speculation. Seems an easy fix to all of this nonsense, that is, unless it's being done for politics--which if so would be rather unbecoming of a president.

Oh well, here's this week's musical selection. The title seems apropos:



BTW, here's Sugarloaf's big hit, performed live in 2008.

Side Tracks

This poll is creating some buzz, not only about the number of 'birthers' in America but how those polled viewed the importance of the president's birthplace.

Now, I'm not gonna delve too deep into these numbers but odds are if a poll returns evidence that 32 percent of people believe O was born outside the country, with 1 in 7 of those being democrats/liberal....and those who never attended college are 2 times more likely to believe the non-citizen line, I think we can conclude that some Democrats are stupid birthers who hate the constitution. And since Obama presumably went to college (although records are scarce) that means he's less likely to believe he was born outside the country. Or thereabouts.

As for me, I definitely believe Obama was birthed, most likely in Honolulu, probably at a hospital (as was slipped out by the state's governor recently, and presumably without the permission of Obama, who wants none of his vault records released). And yes, yours truly went to college and has the mediocre grades to prove it!

Anyway, calling someone a birther is easy to do nowadays--it's usually based on the slightest hint of disbelief in the official Kos-approved narrative (or what Hillary might screamingly call patriotic dissent). My question then: if someone were to wonder why Barack "pops" Obama, Sr. would ever consider marrying Stanley Ann Dunham when he was already married to a woman in Kenya does that make them a birther? Or wonder when exactly Stanley Ann realized that the man of her 'dreams' was actually a two-timing bigamist? If so, then I'm a birther.

Oh well, since this is the music post--why not...



Aloha and Mihalo and book 'em Danno.