I was in a conversation with Eric Dondero, who has an excellent site and is well worth frequenting. However, he is a birther. This is not a political evil in the grand scheme of things. A few of my “cyber friends” are, and I will challenge them as well. Apparently, Blogspot is not allowing the posts to be posted. So any misgivings I felt happened did not and I apologize. However, to make sure the post that isn’t being posted at LR is read by all who wish to read it, here it is:
Me:
Eric, With all due respect, and I mean that, it wasn’t Obama’s grandmother. It is “facts like this” that sully this discussion basically led by Philip J. Berg, a 9/11 truther. A couple of things, this was the wife of one of Obama’s fathers wives (he had a few wives). This is explained in this discussion already linked: Another Birther About Obama-If Obama Impeached… Then What — Biden President
Also, there is a mistranslation involved in this all too often used “fact”.
I’m posting on the appearance, though, because of something Liddy said during it: “You’ve got a deposition, which is a sworn statement, from the step-grandmother, who says, ‘I was present and saw him born in Mombasa, Kenya.'” Liddy got this particular myth a little garbled, but it’s a favorite of the Birthers’. I’ve covered it before, but it’s worth posting on now, I think, because cable news is just getting back to this story (there was some coverage late last year, when the Supreme Court declined to hear one of the Birther lawsuits) and hosts like Matthews don’t know all the crazy twists of the conspiracy theory well enough to knock them down. What Liddy was referring to is actually an affidavit filed by a street preacher named Ron McRae, who conducted an interview with Sarah Obama, the second wife of President Obama’s grandfather, through a translator. (Sarah Obama is not the president’s biological grandmother, but he calls her “Granny Sarah.”) In that interview, Sarah Obama does in fact say at one point that she was there for her grandson’s birth. But that was a mistake, a confusion in translation. As soon as a jubilant McRae began to press her for further details about her grandson being born in Kenya, the family realized the mistake and corrected him. And corrected him. And corrected him. (The audio is available for download here.) No matter, though, because people who believe in a conspiracy theory simply hear what they want to hear. So some Birther sites have posted transcripts and YouTube clips that end abruptly with the mistranslation and don’t include the corrections. McRae, for his part, included the full translation in his affidavit — he thinks it’s all just part of the conspiracy. (Salon)
(The rest of my post which was expunged via Blogspots quirkiness [which is legend as of late] follows)
Many birthers, such as Pennsylvania attorney Phil Berg, allege that Obama was born in Kenya and that his Kenyan grandmother is on tape saying that she was present at his birth there. Yet the tape circulated on the Internet doesn’t actually say that — and the full tape actually contradicts it. On the tape, the woman thought to be Sarah Obama is prodded by a Berg ally who’s a self-described bishop from the U.S. to affirm that Obama was born in Kenya. “Was she present when he was born in Kenya?” Bishop Ron McRae asks in the taped phone call. “She says yes she was. She was present when Obama was born,” says the voice of translator. The tape ends abruptly. Despite Berg’s assertions, the response didn’t actually confirm a birth in Kenya. Moreover, a longer version of the tape shows the elder Obama decidedly denying a Kenyan birth immediately after the first tape was cut off. “I would like to go by the place, the hospital where he was born. Can you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa?” McRae is heard asking. “Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America,” the translator says after talking to the woman. “I thought he was born in Kenya,” McRae asks again. “He was born in America, not in Mombasa,” says the response. Another response later says, “Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii.” (Source)
I realize I am quoting a source not always enjoyed by us conservatives, but truth is not a monopoly of one side.
It is this same sort of shoddy thinking that once kept me involved in the conspiratorial view of history. I use to visit Ezola Fosters book shop/office here in southern California, and voted for her and Buchanan when they ran as Indi’s. I know the current very personally of the major sources of support for such persons (yes, Ron Paul as well) as I was intimately involved in the John Birch society for many years (which I explain partially in the beginning of the longest chapter from my book, beginning of page 4 under “Pros and Cons”).
This same thinking — e.g., “before officials shut her up from talking to the media” — use to permeate my worldview. Thousands of people must have been in on this conspiracy. Hospitals, nurses, doctors, flight attendants, family members, airlines, newspapers where birth announcements were printed, etc., etc. Now government officials are keeping all the above silent.
Eric, here is a question. Considering the translation error, and the fact that this grandmother was one of the polygamous wives of Obama’s father, and this is pushed by Democrat and 9/11 truther Berg the most forcefully, does this weigh on you using this “grandmother card” as forcefully as you just did? In other words, considering this new information (her saying something completely different), would you consider revising your position.
Take note as well that there is no real source for the polygamous brother (from one of Obama’s polygamous father’s wives) and his sister said he was born in Kenya come only from “affidavits” from Berg (remember, he is a 9/11 truther), no other source can be found for their beliefs (source). Are you willing to look into this claim and back it up with evidential arguments that would support you claim in a forceful manner like you would in quoting stats and figures to convince someone that Obama-Care is set to bankrupt our nation?
Curious.