Many of us who aren't afflicted tend to feel that the GOP is being overrun by it's most radical and extreme elements. Despite the increasing efforts of serious politicos in the party such as Karl Rove, or the flat denials of Birtherism by Michele Bachmann, Mitt Rohmney or Tim Pawlenty the phenomenon persists catapulting Donald Trump to the top of the would be Presidential pile.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, including the fact the Hawaii State Privacy Laws even prevent Obama himself from disclosing the information.
State law prohibits the DOH for disclosing any information about a Hawaii vital record unless the requestor has a direct and tangible interest in the record. This includes verification of vital records and all the information contained in a record. Vital records disclosure laws protect all birth, death, marriage and divorce records held by the department and all amendments, changes, supporting records, and requests related to vital records.
Records pertaining to the Department of Health database for vital statistics information are not required to be disclosed by the Uniform Information Practices Act because those records, by their very nature, must be confidential in order for the government to avoid the frustration of a legitimate government function (see HRS §92F-13(3)). Disclosing such information compromises the department’s ability to protect the integrity of vital statistics records, to ensure their proper use, and to ensure the efficient and proper administration of the vital statistics system as is required by HRS §338-18.
HRS §338-18 States:
(c) The department may permit the use [of] the data contained in public health statistical records for research purposes only, but no identifying use thereof shall be made
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(g) The department shall not issue a verification in lieu of a certified copy of any such record, or any part thereof, unless it is satisfied that the applicant requesting a verification is:
(1) A person who has a direct and tangible interest in the record but requests a verification in lieu of a certified copy;
(2) A governmental agency or organization who for a legitimate government purpose maintains and needs to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of the agency's or organization's activities;
(3) A governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks confirmation of a certified copy of any such record submitted in support of or information provided about a vital event relating to any such record and contained in an official application made in the ordinary course of the agency's or organization's activities by an individual seeking employment with, entrance to, or the services or products of the agency or organization;
(4) A private or government attorney who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record which was acquired during the course of or for purposes of legal proceedings; or
(5) An individual employed, endorsed, or sponsored by a governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record in preparation of reports or publications by the agency or organization for research or educational purposes.
Obama might be able to view the much ballyhoed - but not legally binding - "Long Form" himself, but he couldn't make copies as the Hawaii Attorney Generals office has stated.
"Why doesn't he show his (Long Form) Birth Certificate?" Because by Law - he can't.
Hawaiian officials say that the certification is, in fact, only one piece of abundant evidence of Obama's birth in Hawaii. Joshua Wisch, a spokesman for the Hawaii attorney general's office, noted that a public index of vital records, available for inspection in a bound volume at the Health Department's Office of Health Status Monitoring, lists a male child named "Obama II, Barack Hussein" as having been born in the state.
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.
But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated "certification of live birth" form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.
There is NO OPTION for Obama to even get a copy of the long form under Hawaiian Law because it's considered a personal private Medical Record, not a state certified document for proof of anything. Period. End of Story. This is IT!
Notice at the bottom of the certificate it says "This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding".
Game. Set. Match.
But that isn't the end of the issue...
Despite all evidence to the contrary Tea Partiers continue to believe in the Mythical Magical Socialist Death Panels within the Health Reform Bill.
Despite all evidence to the contrary many conservatives continue to believe that Cutting Taxes Increase Government Revenue. and that increasing taxes will punish the "Job Creators".
This is what the CBO says extending the Bush tax Cuts in last December's Lame Duck Budget Deal did to the Deficit.
That's not a positive trend is it?
And here's what the Clinton Tax Increases of 1992, the Bush Tax Cuts in 2001 & 2003 as well as the Bush Economic Crash of 2007-2008 did to incoming Federal Tax Revenues. The slow and steady rise followed by two deep dips are clearly visible.
America doesn't have a spending problem, we have a Jobs and Revenue Problem.
Despite all evidence to the contrary many conservatives continue to think that most of Americas problems, from the Housing Crisis to the Budget Deficit are caused by the Poor and Public Sector Unions - not irresponsible and risky market manipulation on Wall Street.
Despite all evidence to the contrary many conservatives continue to believe that Global Warming is just a Hoax and a devious plot by Scientists and Enviromaniancs to "Take Over the World".
Despite all evidence to the contrary many conservatives continue to believe that we can "drill, baby, drill" our way to energy independence when America only has 3% of the world's oil reserves, while consuming 25% of it's production. Those numbers simply don't add up.
Despite all evidence to the contrary most conservatives think that Obama secretly plans to tax them when in fact he's Reduced their Taxes Twice (first as part of the Stimulus and then again with the Lameduck Session Tax Deal) and only supports raising taxes for the highest tax bracket back to 39% - which is where it was when the U.S. Government was running a Surplus.
1. Wage Earners & the Self-Employed
Wage earners and the self-employed are eligible for up to $400 a year for single taxpayers and up to $800 for couples filing jointly in both 2009 and 2010. If you are single, the credit starts to phase out at an adjusted gross income of $75,000. If you are part of a couple filing jointly, your phaseout would begin at $150,000 of adjusted gross income. You’re probably wondering when the check will arrive. It won’t. The IRS will begin reducing withholding taxes automatically at the clip of about $30-$40 a month. If you are self-employed, you can claim your credit when you file your return for 2009.
2. First-Time Homebuyers
Thinking of buying your first house? Although the oft-mentioned $15,000 credit for all home purchases was dropped from the final stimulus package, first-time home buyers can still claim a tax credit of up to $8,000 if the home is purchased between January 1st and December 1st of this year. If you purchase between these dates, you won’t have to repay the credit, as those who purchased in 2008 are required to. This is only for primary residences and the house cannot be sold within 3 years in order to keep the credit. Huge bummer for aspiring house flippers.
And..
When President Obama officially extended tax cuts enacted by his predecessor in a Rose Garden ceremony today, he ensured the average American will pay about $2,000 less in taxes per year for the next two years.
That figure includes a temporary holiday on the payroll tax, which helps fund Social Security.
The tax cut extension means big bucks for the super-rich. LeBron James, who makes $14.5 million each year, will save more than $600,000 in taxes for this year. A family making $100,000 per year will pay about $6,000 less in taxes than if the tax cuts had expired. The average savings for all Americans, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, is about $2,800.
Despite all evidence to the contrary most Tea Partiers and republicans continue to believe that these are "Surveyors Sites" not Gun Sites, hey also refuse to believe that 11 out of 20 of the Represenaitives targeted here received Death Threats or had their offices vandalized, including Gabrielle Giffords.
The so-called "Bullseye/Target" maps by the DNC were pointing at various Democratic Primary States - not at People like this map that actually lists specific names as well as places.
You can't Shoot a State can you? No, you can't - but you can shoot people.
Despite all evidence to the contrary most Republicans blame Obama for the Great Recession, even though he wasn't President Yet and continue to claim the Stiumulus didn't work even though it did this...
Despite all evidence to the contrary Conservatives continue to believe that images such as these aren't horrifically racist and bigoted.
Yes, there were pictures of Bush as a Chimp - but that was because he sounded like one when he talked and he moved like one with his little head jerks. There isn't a history of White Chimps through history, but there is a history of equating Black people with apes and chimps as a way to dehumanize and excuse all sorts of brutal policies against them, starting with Slavery, but extending through Jim Crow, Lynchings, the Tuskegee Experiment, racial Profiling, the police murders of Ron Settles, Jonny Gammage and most recently Oscar Grant all the way to nooses being hung in the trees at Jena Louisiana and the Police Officer who arrested Skip Gates for breaking into his own house falsifying his police report.
Pictures like this would generate the same reaction if they depicted an Irishman as a fall-down drunk with a craving for potatoes or one making a joke about Jews really enjoying "The Ovens". These all have historical context that you have to be a complete and total Moran not to know, or simply an A$$hole to think it's funny.
And frankly, ignorance is an even worse excuse.
In a broad study of adults in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and California conducted between February and March, the University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Sexuality (WISER) asked a number of questions about "racial resentment" — such as whether blacks don’t try hard enough or have gotten more than they deserve. Conservatives are 23 percent more likely to be racially resentful, and Republicans 15 percent more likely than Democrats. However, the institute found that this racial sentiment isn’t simply a byproduct of white conservativism:
[E]ven as we account for conservatism and partisanship, support for the Tea Party remains a valid predictor of racial resentment.
It is untrue, as political commentator Dave Weigel argues, that racism in the Tea Party is merely reflective of its conservatism. The WISER study found that compared to other conservatives, Tea Party supporters are:
– 25 percent more likely to have racial resentment.
– 27 percent more likely to support racial profiling.
– 28 percent more likely to support indefinite detention without charges.
Tea Party supporters are also significantly more likely to hold racial stereotypes, with a majority believing blacks are not hard-working, intelligent, or trustworthy. Their fear of others transcends race, however — the WISER study found that a majority of tea party adherents distrust Latinos, Asians, and other whites as well
This isn't to make the ridiculous suggestion that "all" Tea Partiers are Racist, or even most only that some of them clearly are, and the rest seem completely incapable of admitting it, or dealing with it. If anything they've tended to double-down in denial when confronted over it essentially making the argument that have some "Right" to Hate Speech. Remember it was the NAACP calling out Some Tea Partiers that prompted Andrew Brietbart to wrongly smear Shirley Sherrod as being a Racist and deflect the criticism rather than answer it honestly.
In all these cases the facts are crystal clear and easy to prove, these are not matters of opinion - they are provable. It's not true that these people are simply ignorant or uninformed - they have been strategically DISINFORMED by the Hard Right and monied interests such as the Fox News and the Koch Brothers to not TRUST THE FACTS when they are present with them.
They actually that they have the truth and the rest of us have been duped and deluded. The 30 year campaign to pain the normal media as being Biased for the Left has for a significant portion of the public been completely successful. They refuse to consider the possibility that Heritage Foundation, American's for Prosperity, Fox News, Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove and Crossroads GPS are deliberately spreading false propaganda in order to sway public policy the way the want it to go - which in invariable to funnel more and more public funds into the pockets of their benefactors like the Koch's.
Certainly they understand this concept, they just think this type of information bait and switch is what the dreaded financial pirate George Soros is doing with Media Matters and Thinkprogress.org. The refuse to take anything FactCheck.org says about Obama because it has connections to the University of Chicago - which has a thin link to Michelle Obama, as if somehow Barack can make them do his dark bidding for such flimsy reasons.
We need to not just attack the Birtherism, we need to Tie the ridiculousness of that belief directly into the core of modern conservatism and the Tea Party which is Founded Upon a PILE of false beliefs. From the idea that the Health Reform is "against the Founders" even though President Washington Mandated that every able-bodied (white) male had to purchase a workable firearm and ammunition to serve as members of the Militia in 1792, and President John Adams mandated that every Ship Captain purchase Health Insurance for all his Sailors - and the primary organization that originally supported and pushed the Individual Mandate was the Heritage Foundation.
The Heritage Foundation had its Emily Litella moment today. In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, the conservative think tank acknowledged that<,b>it was once a true believer in requiring Americans to purchase health insurance. But now that a Democratic president has embraced the idea, “Never mind.”
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In other words, conservatives promoted the concept of a mandate for decades because it wasn't socialism and, in fact, it would prevent socialism.
The mandate was seen, by many Republican theorists, as a reasonable alternative to a public option, with the great virtue of keeping the American healthcare system, at its core, a market-based enterprise. Nowadays, of course, such thinking will get you burned as a heretic.
Facts mean nothing to these people, unless they "Duly Approved" Facts from Trusted (Right-Wing) Sources. All they care about is political opportunism. And now this deliberate political ludditism that conservatives have fostered and depended on for decades is running off the rails with Birtherism.
A more poetic end to the relevance of the Tea-servative party couldn't have been scripted by Hollywood.
Vyan