LOU DOBBS' SHODDY FACT CHECKING TO COST SILVER SMUGGLER $100,000!

A presumptuous little nothing named "Jason Hommel" has offered $100,000 for proof that President Obama is a citizen of the United States, and I'm going to make him pay up. Isn't it funny that he begins his grandstanding with a disclaimer? That speaks volumes, and almost says enough by itself, but the essence of his offer should be cited here for readers who don't want to get their computers dirty visiting his silver smuggling website.

Copies or links to the previously released, Hawaiian "Certification of Live Birth", which is NOT a valid Birth Certificate, does not constitute valid proof to claim the reward.

I, Jason Hommel, promise that I will give $100,000 to the first person who can prove to my satisfaction that Barack Obama, acting as president of the United States, is a "natural born" citizen of the USA, which is a qualification to hold the office as indicated in the U.S. Constitution.

$100,000 mistake, Jason! As a matter of fact, that is a valid Birth Certificate, as anybody can see from the text printed along the bottom of it.

"This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding."

The key word there, Jason, is "any."

Jason Hommel,
You have made a public offer, the terms of which I have publicly satisfied, and the birth certificate shown here is "prima facie evidence" in any court proceeding -- including suit for fraud if that becomes necessary -- of the fact which you claimed was in question, and which you offered $100,000 to prove. I have shown that it is already proven, your "satisfaction" be damned! And I hereby serve you notice that your offer of $100,000 is due. Pay up $100,000 now, or pay me $100,000 plus attorney fees a little later.


Finally, Jason, about calling you a silver smuggler, I originally found this prize advertised on the fascist hate site world net daily. And the reason I assumed you must be a "silver smuggler" is that world net daily awkwardly described you as someone "who runs a silver business and offers stock investment advice" and I figured a reporter would only phrase statements of facts so vaguely to protect a source whose activities are illegal. But I admit I have no proof of that. I did not consider, when I reached that conclusion, the very real possibilities that world net daily just has lousy writers, nor that perhaps even they are ashamed to be linked to a person whose business is those cheesy commemorative "coins" which cannot be spent because they are not legal tender, and therefore not really coins at all, but just disk-shaped trash in the shape of coins.

But under the circumstances, I would be remiss if I did not also mention that I have not seen any document positively establishing that you are not a silver smuggler. Do you have a "long form" to that effect?

U.S. Military Discipline of Torturers Inadequate

Mullen is not nearly "infuriated" enough.

"The message must be clear: the mistreatment of detainees in any way will not be tolerated under any circumstances. It is essential to who we are as a fighting force that we get this right," he wrote.

I did not see "court martial" or "dishonorable discharge" or any other specific measures anywhere in the CNN article and I don't imagine they would have left out such newsworthy information, if it existed.

White House Transparency on Health Care Executive Meetings As Promised

Peter Nicholas' peer from the LA Times was given the opportunity to ask President Obama about his promise of an open, transparent administration at his recent press conference on health care reform.

Obama pressed on transparency. Here's the question: "You promised that health care negotiations would take place on C-span and that hasn't happened, and your administration recently turned down a request from a watchdog group seeking a list of health care executives who visited the White House to talk about health care reform. Also, the TARP inspector general recently said your White House is withholding too much information on the bank bailout. My question for you is, are you fulfilling your promise of transparency in the White House?"

Obama's answer:

Well, on the list of health care executives who visited us, most of the time you guys have been in there taking pictures. So it hasn't been a secret. My understanding is we just sent a letter out providing a full list of all the executives, but frankly these have mostly been at least photo sprays where you could see who was participating.

She did not dispute that at the press conference, and so far I have seen no screaming headlines about such a dispute, either. I infer from the LA Times' subsequent silence on the matter that reporters were indeed present, and pressing the issue would reveal that they are incompetent and lost their notes of the executives' names or neglected to take adequate notes.

Swagel, Former Assistant Treasury Secretary, Accused Bush Admin. Of Inciting Financial Panic

I knew it!

The fundamentals of the economy have been trash since the dot-com bubble started inflating, or even before that, since NAFTA or Reagan. Anyway, for more than 10 years at least the fundamental of economics, production, has been shrinking in the United States while "productivity," the return on investment for the over-privileged,* has increased. There was no good reason for Bernanke and Paulson to pitch their fits last March and September, respectively, except that their puppeteers saw a popular demand for change that is so overwhelming that even stealing Florida or Ohio wouldn't work this time. So, they sabotaged something that they assumed the "populists" or "unwashed masses" would never comprehend -- high finance.

Surprise! We have you surrounded, come out slowly with your hands in the air.

* Nothing against the rich per se, but rigging the system to fail upward is not success, thus the term over-privileged. The over-privileged measure "productivity" in economic "production" per labor-hour, but here "production" has to go in sarcastic quote marks. Above, it didn't, because real production of real things in the United States has really decreased.