Just Don’t Call Them Conspiracy Theorists
by digby
Today in wingnuttery:
The State Department is maintaining a “counter-misinformation” page on an America.gov blog that attempts to “debunk a conspiracy theory” that President Obama was not born in the United States, as if the topic were equivalent to believing space aliens visit Earth in flying saucers.
However, in the attempt to debunk the Obama birth-certificate controversy, the State Department author confirmed Obama was a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. from 1961 to 1963 and a dual citizen of Kenya and the U.S. from 1963 to 1982, because his father was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born in 1961.
In a number of court cases challenging Obama’s eligibility, dual citizenship has been raised as a factor that could compromise his “natural born” status under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. The cases argue dual citizenship would make Obama ineligible even if documentary evidence were shown the public, such as the hospital-issued long-form birth certificate that indicates the place of his birth and the name of the attending physician
Who knew the teabaggers would be upset to be affiliated with flying saucers? They way they go on about “aliens” all the time, I assumed they were right there with it.
In any case, the duel citizenship thing is a new one on me. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it.
But this is where they really show their true colors:
The entry “The Obama Birth Controversy” was written by Todd Leventhal, identified as the chief of the Counter-Misinformation Team for the U.S. Department of State. The office appears to have been established “to provide information about false and misleading stories in the Middle East,” as described in a biography of Leventhal published on the U.S. Public Diplomacy website…
State Department spokesman Noel Clay confirmed to WND that Leventhal was a State Department employee and that an office of counter-misinformation existed in the State Department.
Clay did not subsequently respond to WND’s additional inquiries. He was asked whether Congress authorized the office and to provide information regarding the process within the State Department that checked Leventhal’s postings for accuracy and approved them as official U.S. government positions.
“Todd Leventhal is the department’s expert on conspiracy theories and information – stories that are untrue, but widely believed,” the State Department explains on America.gov. “He enjoys reading obituaries, which tell the personal stories of people who have shaped the fabric of American life.”
According to America.gov, Leventhal’s qualifications for the job at America.gov include that he “worked for Voice of America for seven years and bikes to work year-round.”
On the website, the State Department explains, “Todd became interested in international affairs after a four-month trip to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in 1972.”
He’s clearly a bike-riding, commie, Muslim terrorist whose job it is to cover up for the commie, Muslim terrorist president. Anyone can see that.
This is the nonsense these people get in their email boxes every day. They watch Fox News, they listen to Rush they belong to the Tea Party and the NRA and they are inundated with information like this designed to make them aggressive and paranoid.
When I think about it, I have to say that it’s a testament to their restraint that something truly violent hasn’t happened. They are being ginned up to a frenzy and they’ve mostly just screamed and hollered. I so wonder what will happen if they don’t get their way at the ballot box this time, though. I’m not sure something won’t crack then.
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