Topic: WorldNetDaily
Diana West lost her gig as a syndicated columnist a few weeks back. Her farewell column offers clues as to why -- she praises Dutch anti-Muslim activist Geert Wilders as "the greatest political hope for the Western world" and laments "the filter of conservative media," even though that "filter" is almost exclusively dedicated to editing out views that are less conservative.
Plus, she's a birther dead-ender. In that column, she proclaimed "the near-certainty that Barack Obama’s online birth certificate and Selective Service registration card are forgeries."
That's the kind of thinking that WorldNetDaily likes, so it's keeping West on as a columnist. Her Jan. 6 column is a birther screed impressive only in its denial of reality:
For starters, there’s that unsolved mystery of why there is a piece of phony electronic artwork on the White House website purporting to be an image of a 1961 government document attesting to the details of Barack Obama’s birth. That this is evidence of what is likely the biggest case of identity fraud in history isn’t news to American media investigating more pressing matters (e.g., the presidential golf game). Nor, it seems, is other evidence of fraud or forgery from different investigations and numerous court proceedings. But it’s not just media (exception: WND.com) that turn their collective blind eye. Relevant federal, state and local authorities (exception: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio) have consistently ignored, derided or buried all such evidence rather than carry out their legal responsibilities.
Interestingly, the president himself hasn’t ignored it all. He can’t. When he must, Obama has paid untold sums to legal teams to defend himself in court against the multiple challenges to his eligibility to serve as president that crescendoed in 2012.
In a case questioning Obama’s eligibility for the 2012 presidential ballot in Georgia, evidence was introduced in an administrative law court to prove that the president is using a Connecticut Social Security number (he never lived in Connecticut), that Obama’s Social Security number was never really issued to him, and that his Social Security number does not pass the U.S. government’s own E-Verify test.
As we've documented, the "investigations" West cites -- specifically, the Arpaio "Cold Case Posse" probe sleazed into existence by WND and which Arpaio himself has admitted was merely a scheme to raise money for his re-election campaign -- are led by anti-Obama partisans like Jerome Corsi, not actual impartial investigators, meaning they could not possibly be taken seriously.
West's dismissal of the Obama birth certificate as a "phony electronic artwork" ignores the fact that a Xerox office scanner produces the same anomalies that the certificate allegedly has. No birther investigation has discredited this information.
West's evidence that the birth certificate is "phony" is a link to a 2012 "Cold Case Posse" press conference, even though it considered a joke at the time for its conspratorial leanings and lack of actual evidence.
West's insistence that Obama's Social Security number is fraudulent is contradicted by the fact that birther Phil Berg has rejected the idea. And the idea that Obama's Social Security number "does not pass the U.S. government’s own E-Verify test" is irrelevant -- as Dr. Conspiracy notes, it's likely that Obama received a new Social Security after birthers made his old one public, thus exposing him to identity fraud, and the Social Security Administration confirms that the personal records of a president have additional security restrictions on "select national figures."
West's distress that Obama lawyers have deflected some birther lawsuits by pointing out that "having a Social Security number is not a prerequisite to serving as president" betrays her ignorance of the legal process. Obama's lawyers are simply engaging in smart, competent lawyering -- there's no need to waste resources going into the Social Security if it can't be proven that it has anything to do with Obama's "eligibility." West's ire should be better directed at birther lawyers too incompetent to make their case instead of those who repeatedly and successfully counter their arguments.
West complains about the "psychosis of denial" that purportedly keeps the media from looking into birther issues, but in fact it's West herself who suffers from it. She has chosen to ignore the ample evidence that discredits her birther conspiracy theories in favor of spitefully crusading simply because she doesn't like Obama.
No wonder West lost her gig as a syndicated columnist. No wonder WND is the pretty much the only outlet that will still publisher.
