FriendFeed: Enough with the …

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Enough with the faux outrage. Gates was pretty clearly arrested for what’s commonly called “contempt of cop.” That *is* a stupid — and illegal — reason to arrest someone. Cops deserve no “benefit of the doubt” for such liberty-infringing behavior. Gates did nothing wrong except piss off a cop, which is not, in fact, a crime. Obama is right.

An anthem for the birthers

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Jon Stewart eviscerates the suddenly-prominent birther movement:

Has Colbert done a segment on these clowns yet? It seems right up his alley.

Meanwhile, as I was writing this post’s title, and contemplating whether “birthers” should be capitalized or not, I was reminded of the term “Birchers” — as in, the John Birch Society — which, of course, reminded me of the Chad Mitchell Trio song of the same name:

That got me thinking that an update might be in order:

Oh we’re meeting at the courthouse at eight o’clock tonight
You just come in the door and take the first turn to the right
But if you’d like to join us, you must first quell our doubt
Bring your long-form birth certificate or else we’ll kick you out

‘Cause we’re the Prove Birth Society, the Prove Birth Society
Here to save our country from a Kenyan Muslim plot!
We’re the Prove Birth Society, and we’ll expose The One
If he can’t prove a negative, he’s not a native son

That short-form Live Birth record is really just a crutch
We think that Linda Lingle doth protest a bit too much
Barack Hussein Obama’s not even his real name
They called him Barry Soetoro before he rose to fame

Oh we’re the Prove Birth Society, the Prove Birth Society
Xenophobia is the phobia loveliest of all
Join the Prove Birth Society, help us save the day
Have you heard they’re reading the Koran down at the DOJ?

Well you’ve heard about the lawsuits that we’ve already filed
They’re filled with phony evidence we’ve carefully compiled
The courts refuse to hear them, but that just proves we’re right
Our judiciary’s fallen to the Kenyan Muslim blight!

Yes, we’re the Prove Birth Society, the Prove Birth Society
Barry what’s-his-name may think he’s kidding us along
But the Prove Birth Society knows he spilled the beans
In Cairo he preached brotherhood, but we know what he means

We’ll teach you how to tell a real native from a fraud
‘Cause you just never know which liberal fools were born abroad
We know Jen Granholm’s foreign, we think Chris Dodd might be
And the day we get Pelosi, won’t that be a victory

Oh we’re the Prove Birth Society, the Prove Birth Society
Here to save our country from a Kenyan Muslim plot!
In the Prove Birth Society, just one small hitch remains
If we disqualify Barack, then Biden takes the reigns

(O beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain)
Do you want Osama Bin Laden to be your Secretary of State?
(For purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain)
Do you want Hugo Chavez to be America’s best mate?
(America, America…)
You cannot trust Obama, he’ll stab us in the back
He’s a traitor to our country — and, oh by the way, he’s black

Oh we’re the Prove Birth Society, the Prove Birth Society
Don’t bother us with “facts” — we know we’re right, and that is that
We’re the Prove Birth Society, and we’re on the move
Spouting unsupported nonsense that Obama can’t disprove
He can’t disprove!
We’re the Prove Birth Society!

My former state rep is a birther

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When Becky and I lived in Knoxville, we resided in the heavily Republican 18th legislative district of Tennessee, a.k.a. “the fightin’ 18th,” which is represented by the ultraconservative — and endlessly controversial — Stacey Campfield (who is a man).

Campfield is many things: a blogger (albeit a somewhat notoriously sloppy one, in terms of spelling and grammar); a classic car enthusiast; a tall redhead; and a lightning rod for attention, criticism and controversy.

He has made a name for himself, for better or worse, by proposing a variety of headline-grabbing initiatives, usually related to hot-button social issues, usually with no chance of passing, but always with an excellent chance of getting Campfield some press. For instance, he once proposed a bill requiring death certificates for aborted fetuses, and he’s recently been in the news for introducing the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would essentially ban discussion of homosexuality in public schools.

Campfield was also photographed on Election Day 2008 with Loyette. And yes, I do think that’s the proper way to characterize it: not that my seven-month-old was photographed with a local politician, but rather that Rep. Campfield was graced with the opportunity to be photographed with my adorable daughter. 🙂

Anyway, to all these other adjectives describing Campfield — blogger, provocateur, baby-charmer — we can add another: birther.

This is actually not news; the above-linked article (about Campfield’s role as a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging President Obama’s eligibility to be president) is from February, but I somehow stumbled on it for the first time yesterday. I found it amid all the renewed MSM attention to the “birther” movement, notably this MSNBC segment:

Anyway, yeah, it turns out my former state representative is one of those GOP wingnuts, like the lady in the video and the dozens applauding her, who think it’s productive to spend their time worrying about whether Barack Obama — or “Barry Soetoro,” as the crazies, including Campfield, like to call him — was really born in this country. Which, by the way, his birth certificate makes clear he was.

Ah, I’m so proud to be an ex-constituent of Rep. Campfield. Emphasis on “ex.”

P.S. Interestingly, the two most prominent policitians Loyette has met are perhaps the right-wingiest representative in the Tennessee House (Campfield) and perhaps the right-wingiest senator in the United States Senate (James Inhofe). Heh. Is that girl destined to be a conservative, or what?