Obama American Born

It’s only a matter of time before the “Barack Obama isn’t a U.S. citizen” conspiracy theories create their own version of the Loose Change 9/11 Truther video. But instead of so many mind-numbingly superfluous shots of buildings on fire, this one will feature about four hundred too many Ken Burns-esque slow zooms on scans of birth certificates. Far less compelling. Still, the idiocy goes on, even as the Supreme Court has declined to hear the emergency appeal of nutjob Leo Donofrio, who alleges that the president-elect can’t become the leader of this free nation because he was actually born in Great Britain. His reasoning? That Obama’s mother was American and his Kenyan father was a British subject, so Barack can’t be a natural born U.S. citizen. Donofrio doesn’t seem to realize that no matter where your parents’ citizenship lies, you’re automatically a U.S. citizen if you’re born on U.S. soil—in this case, the Sandwich Islands. (I’m boycotting the name “Hawaii” if for no other reason than the fact that “Sandwich Islands” sounds more colonial and, therefore, kitschy.) Donofrio is an equal opportunity ignoramus, though, since he also contends that both John McCain and Socialist Workers presidential candidate Roger Calero lied about their citizenship. But even though Donofrio’s been rebuffed, that hasn’t stopped the other handful of legal challenges to Barack Obama’s presidential rights. Pennsylvanian Philip J. Berg, for instance, is claiming in his lawsuit that Obama was born in Kenya. Or Indonesia. He’s not too sure. More details here. And you can read my PinkRaygun.com column on the question of Obama’s birth here.