Obama author and film producer Andy Martin explains how an anti-Obama movement grew from one individual into 150 million Americans who question Barack Obama’s “roots”
The Birther Chronicles: Part One, “The Birth of ‘Birther Nation’”
Internet powerhouse and “truth warrior” Andy Martin reporting from Hawai’i
ContrarianCommentary.com
“The Internet Powerhouse”
Andy Martin
Executive Editor
“Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
INTRODUCTION:
This week we begin the publication of two separate series of columns from our “fighting camp” in Hawai’i. The “Birther Chronicles” series of columns will focus on social and political issues involving President Barack Obama. The “Honolulu Manifesto” series of commentaries will concentrate on legal and constitutional issues concerning Obama’s eligibility for the presidency.
(HONOLULU)(April 30, 2010) During the past year, the mainstream media (“MSM’s) have been obsessed with the “Tea Party” movement. The tea parties command attention because they are noisy, hold rallies and dabble in politics. And they have Sarah Palin.
“Birther Nation” has only me. The “King of the Birthers.”
In the long run, however, “Birther Nation” is likely to prove a more enduring and powerful influence on American politics than the teabies. To be successful and influence elections, tea party activists ultimately have to join a party and endorse candidates. Unfortunately for them, "mainstream" Republican leaders in Congress and at the state level have proven unwilling to raise doubts about Obama's origins. In 2009 mainstream Republicans in the Electoral College and in Washington rubber-stamped Obama’s elevation to the presidency, over the objections of Birther Nation.
Birther Nation, on the other hand, is becoming immensely more powerful and enduring precisely because it operates below the radar of the Obama Smear Machine. Ironically, “culture warrior” Frank Rich of the New York Times has become the first mainstreamer to identify the subterranean power of Birther Nation. Birther Nation “is a political virus that can’t be quarantined and whose cure is as yet unknown.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02rich.html
In fact, it is not even clear that Rich understands what he has stumbled on. He lumps birthers and tea party types into one “movement” even though they are distinct phenomena. Tea party activists and birthers may have membership in common, but their operations are separate and independent of each other.
So who is a “birther?” How did the “birther movement” come into being? Why am I now calling it “Birther Nation?” and differentiating this clandestine operation from the tea party uprising? And how did I get to be the “King of the Birthers?”
The term “birther” was coined in the past year by MSM’s to depreciate persons who question Barack Obama’s “origins.” Later, someone came along and dubbed me the “King of the Birthers” to diminish my stature as well. The royal appellation was not intended to be a compliment. But with 43 years of radio and television experience, I have worked to turn the tables on the MSM’s and accept the term “Birther” as a functional name for a national movement that is eventually going to topple Barack Obama. I have also trumped the MSM’s by now applying the birther term to identify this new anti-Obama movement as "Birther Nation.”
As Frank Rich points out, the immigration battle which is raging nationally has intertwined with questions about Barack Obama’s elusive origins in Hawai’i or elsewhere. To be clear, I am not a “birther” who believes Obama was born anywhere but Honolulu (which is an entirely separate and distinct issue from whether he is a “natural born" American, an issue which will be analyzed in the Honolulu Manifesto). I am currently in Honolulu, and "Birther Nation” has been orchestrated in part from here, precisely because I believe Obama was born somewhere in Hawai’i.
As with any nascent political movement, however, there are persons who appropriate the birther movement for their own personal profit and aggrandizement. Philip Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney, consulted me in 2008 before he filed what I told him was an utterly frivolous lawsuit that could only benefit Obama. Berg has apparently made a large profit off his absurd Birther antics.
Likewise, the Moldovan/Israeli/Orange County dentist-cum-litigator Orly Taitz has stirred up a lot of dust but ultimately added little to the birther movement.
In my opinion, Barack Obama and his media mujahidden love people such as Berg and Taitz because these individuals make well-intentioned and good faith birthers look goofy through guilt by association.
So how did Birther Nation start? How has it been maintained? How is it going to ultimately defeat Barack Obama?
In the beginning, there was me.
When I wrote the first critical column on Barack Obama in August, 2004, no one else had directed any criticism at the oleaginous new star of the Democratic Party. I was alone. As Obama kept rising in his party, concerned citizens turned to the internet for meaningful analysis of who Obama really was. And they found only me. I never imagined in 2004 that I would be writing about Obama six years later. I am currently in Honolulu. Writing about Obama.
Once Obama announced his candidacy for president, again there was the mainstream media. And me. The MSM’s adored Obama and ignored his opponents. I was the only critic, searching for the truth, trying to find the facts about the Mysterious Mr. Obama.
Obama realized early on that “ContrarianCommentary.com” was adversely influencing public perception about him, and created a response team: Obama has directed dirty tricks at me over the past several years. He has published bogus “biographies” and used Robert Gibbs to smear me with lies. He has importuned the Washington Post and New York Times to trump up columns with exaggerated and misleading claims.
None of Obama’s smears have taken hold. Today, according to the MSM’s own polls, somewhere around 150 million Americans have questions about Barack Obama’s family ties. In 2009 there was a major outburst of doubt about Obama’s origins. Obama failed to kill Frank Rich’s “virus” then, or now. In 2010, Birther Nation is bouncing back even bigger and more powerful and more pervasive than before.
Media efforts to undermine birthers, by smearing me and concocting the term “birther” and the phrase “King of The Birthers” to undermine my writing, have boomeranged.
Right under the noses of the MSM’s, approximately 150 million Americans have come to harbor doubts about Obama’s “roots.” That’s some political movement.
One left-wing media weenie, Christopher Hayes of the Nation and MSNBC, tried to claim I was the head of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy.” In am not a right-winger and I am not part of any conspiracy. But I confessed, just to make Hayes feel better.
For the past six years I have been trying to find the facts and searching for the truth about Barack Obama. Nothing more, nothing less. The MSM’s keep looking, but they have found nothing suspicious about my activity. Except that whatever I am doing, works.
Unlike the MSM’s, that command massive media organizations, I command only an insignificant platform on the Internet. Birther Nation has grown into a gargantuan movement from that tiny “Internet Powerhouse” pulpit. We are still growing.
Every time a liberal or conservative mentions Obama’s “papers,” Birther Nation notches another small victory. A step forward.
So who is a birther? I recently asked my audience that question and they responded. Some readers provided references to other writers. Ironically, an early inquiry about “birthers” came in Vanity Fair:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/
2009/07/what-is-a-birther.html
The term “Birther Nation” is appearing for the first time in this column. Watch and see how it spreads.
Let me tell you what I believe.
First, 150 million Americans have doubts about Barack Obama because there is good reason to have doubts about the man.
Second, while I categorically reject the actions of hucksters such as Berg and Taitz (who, at one point were suing each other) there is no doubt that Birther Nation encompasses tens of millions of Americans with differing views and priorities. My own credibility rests on my search for the truth and only the truth. I do not vouch for the activity of others.
Third, Obama’s efforts to impose a curtain of silence over Hawai’i officials have only increased beliefs that he was born elsewhere, such as Kenya. Obama has been his own worst enemy, and the absolutely greatest promoter of Birther Nation. Thanks Barry O.
Fourth, much to my amazement, birther protesters have avoided coming to Hawai’i. When ContrarianCommentary.com’s original investigative team landed in 2008, we were the first investigators to search for information about Obama’s origins in Hawai’i. The MSM’s had just rubber-stamped Obama's claims. I am the only experienced investigator to come back to Hawai’i. I am the only person who has ever sued to open Hawaii state archives to public access. And the more Obama and Hawai’i political hacks impede my access, the more they fan the fires of Birther Nation and create an opening for the “Kenyan” Obama theory to metastasize.
Fifth, whether intentionally (as I believe), or through sheer arrogance and contempt for the American people, Michelle Obama has helped undermine Obama’s legitimacy and provided fuel for the fires of Birther Nation. Last month a video circulated in which Michelle stated Kenya was Obama’s “home country.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLDHDfPNBME
Pardon me, but the last time I checked, Hawai’i officials said Obama was born in Hawai’i. Apart from a period when his mother lived in Jakarta, America has always been Obama’s "home country.” So why does Michelle deliberately try to create doubts about Obama's “home?” Beats me. But thanks, Michelle, for replenishing the springs of Birther Nation.
As long as Obama conceals the truth about his family origins and plays his little word games with the American people, Birther Nation will continue to spread. It started with me. But the movement has grown to encompass 150 million Americans who have serious doubts about their leader.
Talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity initially shunned Birther Nation, much to the frustration of their listeners and viewers. They disdained any independent research of their own into Obama’s origins. But, today, having recognized the increasing power of this national movement, these media majordomos have fallen in behind ContrarianCommentary.com. and become loyal citizens of Birther Nation. Welcome Rush, Glenn and Sean. We are delighted to see you adopt our research and commentary as your own.
As for me, I am the uncrowned “King of the Birthers.” But you don’t have to call me “Your Majesty.” You just have to help be keep searching for the truth and trying to find the facts abut Barack Obama. Nothing more, nothing less. Just the facts.
Welcome to Birther Nation.
NEXT: “Why ‘Birther Nation’ Matters”
The following is a link to local TV news video about Andy Martin in Hawai’i:
http://www.kitv.com/news/23328002/detail.html
Martin is available by cell phone while in Hawai’i (917) 664-9329.
------------------------------------
Donations are being accepted at to support ContrarianCommentary.com’s research in Hawai’i. ContrarianCommentary.com is a reader-supported “new media” organization. CCC has produced a film, “Obama: The Hawai’i Years;” Andy Martin is the author of the controversial bestseller “Obama: The Man Behind the Mask.” (http://www.orangestatepress.com/). Martin is currently writing a new book on Barack Obama.
-------------------------------------
ABOUT ANDY: Andy Martin is the Executive Editor and publisher of www.ContrarianCommentary.com. Andy is a legendary New York and Chicago-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. He has over forty years of radio and television background. He is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC) and holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. Martin comments on regional, national and world events with more than four decades of experience.
UPDATES:
www.Twitter.com/AndyMartinUSA
www.Facebook.com/AndyMartin
His columns are also posted at ContrarianCommentary.blogspot.com; ContrarianCommentary.wordpress.com.
ContrarianCommentary.typepad.com
[NOTE: We try to correct typographical errors and additions/subtractions on our blogs, where you can find the latest edition of this column.]
MEDIA CONTACT: CELL: (917) 664-9329; TEL. (866) 706-2639 E-MAIL: AndyMart20@aol.com
© Copyright by Andy Martin 2010
The Birther Chronicles: Part One, “The Birth of ‘Birther Nation’”
Internet powerhouse and “truth warrior” Andy Martin reporting from Hawai’i
ContrarianCommentary.com
“The Internet Powerhouse”
Andy Martin
Executive Editor
“Factually Correct, Not Politically Correct”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
INTRODUCTION:
This week we begin the publication of two separate series of columns from our “fighting camp” in Hawai’i. The “Birther Chronicles” series of columns will focus on social and political issues involving President Barack Obama. The “Honolulu Manifesto” series of commentaries will concentrate on legal and constitutional issues concerning Obama’s eligibility for the presidency.
(HONOLULU)(April 30, 2010) During the past year, the mainstream media (“MSM’s) have been obsessed with the “Tea Party” movement. The tea parties command attention because they are noisy, hold rallies and dabble in politics. And they have Sarah Palin.
“Birther Nation” has only me. The “King of the Birthers.”
In the long run, however, “Birther Nation” is likely to prove a more enduring and powerful influence on American politics than the teabies. To be successful and influence elections, tea party activists ultimately have to join a party and endorse candidates. Unfortunately for them, "mainstream" Republican leaders in Congress and at the state level have proven unwilling to raise doubts about Obama's origins. In 2009 mainstream Republicans in the Electoral College and in Washington rubber-stamped Obama’s elevation to the presidency, over the objections of Birther Nation.
Birther Nation, on the other hand, is becoming immensely more powerful and enduring precisely because it operates below the radar of the Obama Smear Machine. Ironically, “culture warrior” Frank Rich of the New York Times has become the first mainstreamer to identify the subterranean power of Birther Nation. Birther Nation “is a political virus that can’t be quarantined and whose cure is as yet unknown.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02rich.html
In fact, it is not even clear that Rich understands what he has stumbled on. He lumps birthers and tea party types into one “movement” even though they are distinct phenomena. Tea party activists and birthers may have membership in common, but their operations are separate and independent of each other.
So who is a “birther?” How did the “birther movement” come into being? Why am I now calling it “Birther Nation?” and differentiating this clandestine operation from the tea party uprising? And how did I get to be the “King of the Birthers?”
The term “birther” was coined in the past year by MSM’s to depreciate persons who question Barack Obama’s “origins.” Later, someone came along and dubbed me the “King of the Birthers” to diminish my stature as well. The royal appellation was not intended to be a compliment. But with 43 years of radio and television experience, I have worked to turn the tables on the MSM’s and accept the term “Birther” as a functional name for a national movement that is eventually going to topple Barack Obama. I have also trumped the MSM’s by now applying the birther term to identify this new anti-Obama movement as "Birther Nation.”
As Frank Rich points out, the immigration battle which is raging nationally has intertwined with questions about Barack Obama’s elusive origins in Hawai’i or elsewhere. To be clear, I am not a “birther” who believes Obama was born anywhere but Honolulu (which is an entirely separate and distinct issue from whether he is a “natural born" American, an issue which will be analyzed in the Honolulu Manifesto). I am currently in Honolulu, and "Birther Nation” has been orchestrated in part from here, precisely because I believe Obama was born somewhere in Hawai’i.
As with any nascent political movement, however, there are persons who appropriate the birther movement for their own personal profit and aggrandizement. Philip Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney, consulted me in 2008 before he filed what I told him was an utterly frivolous lawsuit that could only benefit Obama. Berg has apparently made a large profit off his absurd Birther antics.
Likewise, the Moldovan/Israeli/Orange County dentist-cum-litigator Orly Taitz has stirred up a lot of dust but ultimately added little to the birther movement.
In my opinion, Barack Obama and his media mujahidden love people such as Berg and Taitz because these individuals make well-intentioned and good faith birthers look goofy through guilt by association.
So how did Birther Nation start? How has it been maintained? How is it going to ultimately defeat Barack Obama?
In the beginning, there was me.
When I wrote the first critical column on Barack Obama in August, 2004, no one else had directed any criticism at the oleaginous new star of the Democratic Party. I was alone. As Obama kept rising in his party, concerned citizens turned to the internet for meaningful analysis of who Obama really was. And they found only me. I never imagined in 2004 that I would be writing about Obama six years later. I am currently in Honolulu. Writing about Obama.
Once Obama announced his candidacy for president, again there was the mainstream media. And me. The MSM’s adored Obama and ignored his opponents. I was the only critic, searching for the truth, trying to find the facts about the Mysterious Mr. Obama.
Obama realized early on that “ContrarianCommentary.com” was adversely influencing public perception about him, and created a response team: Obama has directed dirty tricks at me over the past several years. He has published bogus “biographies” and used Robert Gibbs to smear me with lies. He has importuned the Washington Post and New York Times to trump up columns with exaggerated and misleading claims.
None of Obama’s smears have taken hold. Today, according to the MSM’s own polls, somewhere around 150 million Americans have questions about Barack Obama’s family ties. In 2009 there was a major outburst of doubt about Obama’s origins. Obama failed to kill Frank Rich’s “virus” then, or now. In 2010, Birther Nation is bouncing back even bigger and more powerful and more pervasive than before.
Media efforts to undermine birthers, by smearing me and concocting the term “birther” and the phrase “King of The Birthers” to undermine my writing, have boomeranged.
Right under the noses of the MSM’s, approximately 150 million Americans have come to harbor doubts about Obama’s “roots.” That’s some political movement.
One left-wing media weenie, Christopher Hayes of the Nation and MSNBC, tried to claim I was the head of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy.” In am not a right-winger and I am not part of any conspiracy. But I confessed, just to make Hayes feel better.
For the past six years I have been trying to find the facts and searching for the truth about Barack Obama. Nothing more, nothing less. The MSM’s keep looking, but they have found nothing suspicious about my activity. Except that whatever I am doing, works.
Unlike the MSM’s, that command massive media organizations, I command only an insignificant platform on the Internet. Birther Nation has grown into a gargantuan movement from that tiny “Internet Powerhouse” pulpit. We are still growing.
Every time a liberal or conservative mentions Obama’s “papers,” Birther Nation notches another small victory. A step forward.
So who is a birther? I recently asked my audience that question and they responded. Some readers provided references to other writers. Ironically, an early inquiry about “birthers” came in Vanity Fair:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/
2009/07/what-is-a-birther.html
The term “Birther Nation” is appearing for the first time in this column. Watch and see how it spreads.
Let me tell you what I believe.
First, 150 million Americans have doubts about Barack Obama because there is good reason to have doubts about the man.
Second, while I categorically reject the actions of hucksters such as Berg and Taitz (who, at one point were suing each other) there is no doubt that Birther Nation encompasses tens of millions of Americans with differing views and priorities. My own credibility rests on my search for the truth and only the truth. I do not vouch for the activity of others.
Third, Obama’s efforts to impose a curtain of silence over Hawai’i officials have only increased beliefs that he was born elsewhere, such as Kenya. Obama has been his own worst enemy, and the absolutely greatest promoter of Birther Nation. Thanks Barry O.
Fourth, much to my amazement, birther protesters have avoided coming to Hawai’i. When ContrarianCommentary.com’s original investigative team landed in 2008, we were the first investigators to search for information about Obama’s origins in Hawai’i. The MSM’s had just rubber-stamped Obama's claims. I am the only experienced investigator to come back to Hawai’i. I am the only person who has ever sued to open Hawaii state archives to public access. And the more Obama and Hawai’i political hacks impede my access, the more they fan the fires of Birther Nation and create an opening for the “Kenyan” Obama theory to metastasize.
Fifth, whether intentionally (as I believe), or through sheer arrogance and contempt for the American people, Michelle Obama has helped undermine Obama’s legitimacy and provided fuel for the fires of Birther Nation. Last month a video circulated in which Michelle stated Kenya was Obama’s “home country.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLDHDfPNBME
Pardon me, but the last time I checked, Hawai’i officials said Obama was born in Hawai’i. Apart from a period when his mother lived in Jakarta, America has always been Obama’s "home country.” So why does Michelle deliberately try to create doubts about Obama's “home?” Beats me. But thanks, Michelle, for replenishing the springs of Birther Nation.
As long as Obama conceals the truth about his family origins and plays his little word games with the American people, Birther Nation will continue to spread. It started with me. But the movement has grown to encompass 150 million Americans who have serious doubts about their leader.
Talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity initially shunned Birther Nation, much to the frustration of their listeners and viewers. They disdained any independent research of their own into Obama’s origins. But, today, having recognized the increasing power of this national movement, these media majordomos have fallen in behind ContrarianCommentary.com. and become loyal citizens of Birther Nation. Welcome Rush, Glenn and Sean. We are delighted to see you adopt our research and commentary as your own.
As for me, I am the uncrowned “King of the Birthers.” But you don’t have to call me “Your Majesty.” You just have to help be keep searching for the truth and trying to find the facts abut Barack Obama. Nothing more, nothing less. Just the facts.
Welcome to Birther Nation.
NEXT: “Why ‘Birther Nation’ Matters”
The following is a link to local TV news video about Andy Martin in Hawai’i:
http://www.kitv.com/news/23328002/detail.html
Martin is available by cell phone while in Hawai’i (917) 664-9329.
------------------------------------
Donations are being accepted at to support ContrarianCommentary.com’s research in Hawai’i. ContrarianCommentary.com is a reader-supported “new media” organization. CCC has produced a film, “Obama: The Hawai’i Years;” Andy Martin is the author of the controversial bestseller “Obama: The Man Behind the Mask.” (http://www.orangestatepress.com/). Martin is currently writing a new book on Barack Obama.
-------------------------------------
ABOUT ANDY: Andy Martin is the Executive Editor and publisher of www.ContrarianCommentary.com. Andy is a legendary New York and Chicago-based muckraker, author, Internet columnist, radio talk show host, broadcaster and media critic. He has over forty years of radio and television background. He is a former adjunct professor of law at the City University of New York (LaGuardia CC, Bronx CC) and holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois College of Law. Martin comments on regional, national and world events with more than four decades of experience.
UPDATES:
www.Twitter.com/AndyMartinUSA
www.Facebook.com/AndyMartin
His columns are also posted at ContrarianCommentary.blogspot.com; ContrarianCommentary.wordpress.com.
ContrarianCommentary.typepad.com
[NOTE: We try to correct typographical errors and additions/subtractions on our blogs, where you can find the latest edition of this column.]
MEDIA CONTACT: CELL: (917) 664-9329; TEL. (866) 706-2639 E-MAIL: AndyMart20@aol.com
© Copyright by Andy Martin 2010
Labels: Andy Martin, Barack Obama, birth certificate, birther, Birther Nation, Hawai'i, Honolulu, King of the Birthers, Obama: The Hawai'i Years, Obama: The Man Behind The Mask
posted by Andy Martin | 5:06 AM
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