Comments on Advance Indiana™: Matt Tully Misinforms His Readers, Again

"Oddly, Tully apparently thinks you should be...

2010-06-03T12:04:34.450-05:00

"Oddly, Tully apparently thinks you should be required to produce more evidence when you go down to the BMV branch to get a driver's license than a person should be required to produce when they run for president of the United States."

A.I. - since you do not dispute the fact that Obama was born in the US exactly what do you pretend would be accomplished by requiring Obama to "produce the document"? Your fantasy / objection seems to center around his father's citizenship - which has never been disputed.

Burton may have some quirks, but I find him on the...

2009-08-02T06:47:22.748-05:00

Burton may have some quirks, but I find him on the radio quite often, being interviewed, talking about issues and even taking phone calls from constituents.

That's something I have yet to get from my 'representative' from the 7th.

Burton makes it apparent his stance on issues has been thought through and based on his understanding of issues and constituent input.

On the other hand, my district appears to have its votes dictated solely via phone calls from The Party.

Correction... you CAN count on him to vote correct...

2009-08-01T22:42:35.512-05:00

Correction... you CAN count on him to vote correctly.

Burton is the quintessential "bird in the han...

2009-08-01T22:04:05.353-05:00

Burton is the quintessential "bird in the hand". He votes correctly 99% of the time, and is immune to the pressure to "grow" that comes from inside the beltway. I like it that a GOP congressman doesnt give a rats arse what the NY Times or WP thinks.

You can't guarantee that a replacement like Messer will be able to withstand that stuff. Heck, even my congressman, Buyer, voted for the Porkulus bill.

Makes no sense to oppose Burton. You cant count on his voting the right way. Every term. What more do you want, and why risk that?

I don't care if he is bat crazy. We put them in there to vote. That's it.

Uuhh, Glenn, as I recall, everyone else had to pay...

2009-08-01T14:46:00.140-05:00

Uuhh, Glenn, as I recall, everyone else had to pay the price for the Clinton crimes. The business partners spent time in jail. The former governor/lt. governor did time on home detention. The land appraiser did time. Whitewater was one big fraud from the get go and the only people who escaped responsibility for that fraud were the Clintons. The FBI file thing was no right wing conspiracy. It's funny that despite one Republican after Republican showing up on a list of FBI files requested by the former bar bouncer Hillary hired to work at the White House and rummage through those files, the Democrats thought that was perfectly okay. When someone looked at Barry's passport file, along with Hillary's and McCain's, again, the Democrats went ape shit. Well, who was the one rummaging through those files? Well, it was employees of a State Department contractor, whose CEO just happens to be the man Barry named as his terrorist adviser. While federal investigators were trying to get to the bottom of that breach of security, the D.C. police officer witness wound up being found shot to death in his car outside a church. Hmmm? Will that crime ever be solved. I wonder why Barry's file needed sanitized? Bill Clinton deserved to be impeached. That matter was never about an affair; it was about using the powers of the federal government to thwart a legitimate civil lawsuit brought against him by a former Arkansas employee who he sexually harassed by obstructing justice and commiting perjury. The Clintons insisted all of these women were just making up these stories. As it turns out, they were all true. He lucked out and never got prosecuted for the nursing home administrator he raped and then threatened to yank her license if she didn't keep her mouth shut. All of those scandals were of the Clintons own making. The fact that there are some Americans who believe their elected officials should be held to the same standard as any ordinary American doesn't make them conspiracists.

I found it surprising when, during the Clinton adm...

2009-08-01T10:47:34.320-05:00

I found it surprising when, during the Clinton administration, Hilary made the remark about a '...vast right wing conspiracy.' against her husband everyone labeled it as paranoia in spite of the fact that millions were spent on raising issues for investigation: Whitewater, Travelgate, Paula Jones, etc., etc. Four years and 40million dollars were spent to prove that a married man would lie about having an affair! Impeachment for perjury was the end result, nothing on the original charges. And here we are again: not a citizen, not a Christian, not a patriot. Non-issues [ps. As an amateur genealogist I can tell you that many Natural Born or otherwise citizens have never had a birth certificate. issued or otherwise.]
While all are not members of the conspiracy, too many buy into the wackiness of the Limbaugh's and 'birthers' and again push us down the path of distraction and disunity, proving that for them it is politics before nation.

Remember how the liberals obsessed over George W. ...

2009-08-01T08:31:17.479-05:00

Remember how the liberals obsessed over George W. Bush's national guard records, determined to find a hole in his service to prove he used cocaine? Nobody seemed interested in learning more about Barry's past drug use. When a guy stepped forward claiming he did drugs and had sex with Obama, the whole crowd went ape shit and tried everything possible to suppress his story. Dan Rather even sacrificed his career in search of the "ultimate truth" about W by peddling forged documents of his national guard service.

Anyone who requires inclusion of '*-er' ch...

2009-08-01T06:28:55.695-05:00

Anyone who requires inclusion of '*-er' characterizations (haters, birthers, etc) is immediately and automatically filed in my mental dumpster along with the other trash.

These coined words have established themselves as the Nouvelle Vague of the Obama era. It's no coincidence that the infamous 'N' word is the king of '*-er' words.

It seems to me to be a great idea that Burton is working on. It would eliminate the questions that have surrounded Obama. It's a proactive solution so we don't go through this again. Perhaps the opposers are afraid this might hinder a run for Obama's 2nd term.

There's been a long (and probably will be a neverending) debate thanks to Obama's insistence on thwarting every attempt to independently fact-check him (and I see 'factcheck.org' as a real oxymoron).

That's not the signature of a public servant with nothing to hide.

Zirk, That is your last post on this blog you will...

2009-07-31T19:15:44.745-05:00

Zirk, That is your last post on this blog you will make unless you want to reveal your actual identity. I never said Scalia cited that treatise for the natural born issue. The post clearly states that the issue has never been directly decided by the Supreme Court. The fact remains he has cited that treatise on constitutional matters. There has not been a single lawsuit decided on the merits and you know that. You are a lying SOB that is only interested in obfuscating this issue to protec Obama, who has zero respect for the Constitution. This is the same guy who expressed his disapproval of the Supreme Court because it had not engaged in income redistribution. He has a very sad biography. His birth father abandoned him and allowed his step-father to adopt him and make him a citizen of Indonesia. He step-father turned him away eventually and his mother sent him back to live with his white grandparents. He hated his white mother so much that he wrote a book glorifying the man who abandoned her and her infant son to pursue his Harvard education and refused to visit her at her bedside as she lay dying of cancer. It's a pathetic life story, but he has created a big fairytale life as Bill Clinton once said. The news media and an uninformed population fell for the fraud. They are now learning that their country is on the verge of being destroyed, U.S. soveriegnty no doubt is at risk of being washed away in favor of a new world order. The mask is off and now the American people will suffer the retribution he intends to foist upon them.

Wow, this is even worse than the original. First,...

2009-07-31T18:30:59.848-05:00

Wow, this is even worse than the original. First, Scalia never cited the Law of Nations on this issue. Second, these theories have been brought in several frivolous lawsuits and most have already been dismissed. Your argument is not supported at all except by the right wing extremists that are doing nothing but hurting Republicans and the conservative movement. Burton is a nationwide embarrassment. He is ineffective for his district because of his reputation. The common law (which you utilize since the framers of the Constitution did not think it was even necessary to include a definition of natural born citizen)clearly held that a person was a natural born citizen of the country of birth. Common sense interpretation also leads you to the same conclusion. This is just not a serious issue. Proponents of this court should be sanctioned for wasting the court's time.

AI: you mention "those raising legitimate que...

2009-07-31T16:04:45.861-05:00

AI: you mention "those raising legitimate questions about Obama's status."

Nope. Neither they nor their 1uestions are "legitimate". Obama's status as a citizen has been verified ad nauseum.

Can you say: red herring?

Your party lost the election, and you can't blame it on Obama's "status". It's due to such idiotic campaigns as this whole birther quest.

There's no constitutional requirement to show a birth certificate to run for political office; methinks there weren't such documents when our nation was founded....

Matt Tully was in the WIBC chair this afternoon,wi...

2009-07-31T16:02:56.455-05:00

Matt Tully was in the WIBC chair this afternoon,with guest Brendan O (his last day with the Star).

Interesting - Brendan was pretty blunt about Ballard 'starting strong with the police/fire pension' matter, then came right out to say Ballard has done nothing right whatsoever about the CIB mess. He when on to detail the 'arm twisting' the mayor is doing to get the tax increase through and how none of the councillors are at all onboard. He went on to detail the utter chaos that has become Ballards signature on CIB dealins, flipflopping and total lack of leadership with the legistlature.

I don't know if that's going to be available for web listening at some point.

Brendan pulled no punches (now that he's leaving). Why is the Star's reporting on all this so soft, I wonder?

I'll rewrite the damn thing from scratch later...

2009-07-31T13:57:07.524-05:00

I'll rewrite the damn thing from scratch later this evening.

Until I read the comments, I assumed that you deli...

2009-07-31T13:30:34.417-05:00

Until I read the comments, I assumed that you deliberately didn't add any text because the title was sufficient...

Wow....I just refreshed your page and all I see is...

2009-07-31T12:17:21.980-05:00

Wow....I just refreshed your page and all I see is the title of the post. Weird.

This issue is not comparable to the 2nd Amendment ...

2009-07-31T12:07:44.369-05:00

This issue is not comparable to the 2nd Amendment issue. That was always and still is an area of disagreement among legitimate scholars. I personally agree with the majority of the Supreme Court that the 2nd Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms that is not restricted to militia. Can you name me one recognized constitutional expert that supports your convoluted view? I used to be a practicing attorney and was on law review and I have never heard such nonsense. You are way out there on this issue.

If someone has the feed from the original post, se...

2009-07-31T10:37:07.910-05:00

If someone has the feed from the original post, send it to me and I'll repost. It has been a long time since one of my posts just disappeared like that.

Well, somehow or another the entire text of my pos...

2009-07-31T10:32:05.341-05:00

Well, somehow or another the entire text of my post has disappeared. If I can recover the original text, I will repost it.

There is this "thing" I can't stand ...

2009-07-31T10:15:25.664-05:00

There is this "thing" I can't stand in politics, but it happens all the time now. I can't say I haven't done it myself (though I try not to). I know AI has, too.

Person A takes position A for reason A. Person B also takes position A, BUT for reason B. The opponents of position A select the most ridiculous of supporting reasons, put everybody in the same muffin as if they ALL subscribe to that view, and - voila - now it's a nut muffin!

In response, something understandable happens. The people in the nut muffin who don't hold the outrageous view get upset when their viewpoint is distorted. AI read Tully's implicit characterization of this issue (wacko), and says, (paraphrasing), "What a bunch of crappy journalists - they're trying to make US look stupid."

Well, Tully never mentioned AI, so more than likely, he's talking about the supermajority of conservative and R pundits who suggest Obama is illegit for reason B (birth certificate forgery).

Respectfully, AI, I have followed this "birth eligibility" issue closely on television and on the internet, and only a handful of conservatives/R's are talking about your narrowly-defined legal issue of whether having only ONE American-born parent while being born in America negates your ability to serve as President. Even LOU DOBBS is asking for an ORIGINAL birth certificate! Hell, I couldn't produce an original birth certificate, which is why people are allowed to get copies and those copies are valid as ID for any government purpose. Obama provided his copy. That document has been repeatedly inspected by the media. (Oh, I noticed you forgot to mention Factcheck.org's picture of the Barack Obama birth announcement in the Honolulu paper. So, some R's must believe somebody paid for a Hawaii birth announcement back in 1961 though Obama was secretly born in Kenya on the off chance that four decades later little Barry was going to be elected President and his residency was going to be challenged? EVERY aspect of the birth certificate's authenticity that has been challenged has been debunked by people WHO ACTUALLY LOOKED AT IT. And yet, R's nationwide still doubt, and that IS paranoid conspiracy mentality.

I might actually feel bad for you for being thrown into the nut muffin, EXCEPT you aren't innocent.

You may NOW act like all you were interested in was that definition, but early on you ground up the counterfeit birth certificate story mightily.

I have a saying: "Those who churn up the wake don't get to bitch when the water gets murky."

That's you. Welcome to living with what you wrought by helping stir up a bunch conservative/R paranoidos. You've only lately put the definition issue at the forefront. You know why? Because you have the good sense to know when you'll get mocked for holding on to a thoroughly debunked view; the paranoidos don't.

But I also don't feel bad for you because the tone of every post on this issue is that Obama was, is, and always will be illegitimate, even though you ADMIT that YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW IF IT'S TRUE AS A MATTER OF LAW.

In other words, tone down your rhetorical excesses and maybe you'll get your debate. Otherwise, all people will see is somebody who will do or say anything he can to bring down a President he doesn't like.

There you go again, Not Hoosier In The Heartland, ...

2009-07-31T10:11:57.989-05:00

There you go again, Not Hoosier In The Heartland, dissembling and obfuscating. The question isn't whether Obama is a U.S. citizen. I don't question whether he is a U.S. citizen or whether he was born in the U.S. in asserting a question of whether he is natural born citizen and Burton does not either. You want to dumb down the American people to the point where they know nothing about the words of their constitution and tell them the debate is something different than what it is really about simply to try do put down those raising legitimate questions about Obama's status.

As Zirk said, "Burton is a nut and his suppor...

2009-07-31T10:04:59.203-05:00

As Zirk said, "Burton is a nut and his support of the birthers is more proof."

Obama is a "natural born citizen of the US". He carries a US passport. He has a US birth certificate. He was born in the US (he doesn't have to have citizen-parents to be a citizen, you know).

Neither you, Advance Indiana, nor Danny Burton do yourselves (or your party) any favors by acting stupid on this topic.

Again, Zirk, I've thought for a long time that...

2009-07-31T09:50:44.435-05:00

Again, Zirk, I've thought for a long time that it was absolutely absurd to suggest that the Second Amendment did not really mean that U.S. citizens had a fundamental right to bear arms, although liberal advocates kept beating that idea into my head over the years. Surprisingly, a bare majority of Supreme Court justices agreed with my view. I don't call the liberals who advocated for a different interpretation of the Second Amendment than me "conspiracists", "wing nuts", "loons", "Marxists", etc. I do, however, respectfully disagree with their view. Anyone who researches the constitution can only conclude that the issue of what constitutes a natural born citizen remains an open question, at least as much if not more as the issue of Second Amendment rights.

Burton is a nut and his support of the birthers is...

2009-07-31T09:03:02.473-05:00

Burton is a nut and his support of the birthers is more proof. Despite your convoluted analysis, the vast majority of legal scholars reject your opinion. There was never any real issue in most people's minds that Obama met the requirements to be President. People advocate this silliness hurt their own credibility and hurt other Republicans. That is why the Republican Party unequivocally rejects the birthers.

Glad to hear Matt is keeping good company with ano...

2009-07-31T08:53:16.326-05:00

Glad to hear Matt is keeping good company with another misinforming person in the media.

Matt Tully called Congressman Burton a conspiracy ...

2009-07-31T08:28:07.566-05:00

Matt Tully called Congressman Burton a conspiracy theorist on Abdul's show this morning. In the same segment, Matt Tully admitted that his own college grades weren't so good, essentially admitting Tully is no scholar.