------ Forwarded Message > From: "dasg...@aol.com" <dasg...@aol.com> > Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 04:59:49 EDT > To: Robert Millegan <ramille...@aol.com> > Cc: <ema...@aol.com>, <j...@aol.com>, <jim6...@cwnet.com> > Subject: Star of "Birther" Movement Is Jewish Immigrant Who Thinks Obama Is > Anti-Israel >
> Burden Of Proof > A dentist and lawyer, Orly Taitz has plenty to keep her busy. But a side > passion is what consumes her these days: challenging Barack Obama's > eligibility to be president. > > By Liza Mundy > Washington Post, Tuesday, October 6, 2009 > > > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/05/AR200910050381 > 9_pf.html > > RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. > > The dental office of Orly Taitz, DDS, Esq., is in a low-slung <mini-mall> > complex in a quiet planned community in Orange County, alongside an assortment > of small businesses and solo practitioners. The practice, Appealing Dentistry, > is busy this morning. In the waiting room are a woman with no dental insurance > and a boy with three cavities, and the phone is ringing off the hook with > dentists eager to fill a job opening. > > "Crowns, bridges, veneers, root canals -- you need to be able to do root > canals and molars," the receptionist is telling one caller. And now here is > Taitz herself, a bit late, entering in a flurry of energy and apologies to > consult with a colleague, then suggesting to a reporter that they go somewhere > to chat. Despite many pressing concerns on the dentistry front, Taitz is eager > to talk about her crusade to prove that the president of the United States is > an impostor. > > Emerging into the dry Southern California sunshine, Taitz -- dentist, lawyer, > wife of a software executive, mother of three and a leading proponent of the > so-called birther campaign against President Obama -- walks briskly past her > law office, which is conveniently beside the dental practice. Inside the law > office is a modest conference room with a table, eight chairs, a couple of > abstract paintings and a houseplant. It is here that Taitz dreams of deposing > the U.S. president, proving that he is a citizen not of this country but of > Kenya, maybe, or possibly Indonesia, perhaps even -- who knows? -- that he is > secretly controlled by Saudi Arabia. > > "My children are so excited that the president of the United States will have > to appear in Mom's office in Rancho Santa Margarita," says Taitz, whose > English is richly Russian-accented; she grew up in the former Soviet republic > of Moldova. > > And if the conference room proves too small to accommodate the presidential > entourage and she has to travel to Washington to question the man she refers > to as a "usurper," that's okay. Taitz will fly pretty much anywhere to make > her argument. The ends of the Earth, one senses, would not be too far away. > > It's a lot to take on, but she has help; assisting with her legal filings is > Charles E. Lincoln III, a disbarred lawyer and self-described "anarchist." > Leaving the office, Lincoln gets in the back seat and Taitz maneuvers her > Lexus through the tidy "Real Housewives"-type landscape to a bakery with > outdoor seating. For five hours she will discuss her legal crusade, eventually > moving to lunch at T.G.I. Friday's. > > Problem is, dentists keep interrupting her narrative. They have found her > cellphone number. And they are desperate. The economy is that bad. "Can you > please call the office?" she begs one of them. To another: "Could you fax me?" > And "I'm in the middle of something," she says, answering another call, not > unkindly. > > * * * > > Surreal as her multi-tasking effort may seem, Taitz is a serious player in the > apparently unsinkable birther movement, or, as its proponents prefer to call > it, the movement to question Obama's "eligibility" to hold office. She > herself objects to the term "birther," arguing in a court document that it is > "pejorative." > > Taitz has drafted voluminous court pleadings, filing at least five > Obama-related cases; a hearing on a California case took place yesterday. In > addition to making appearances on radio and television, she blogs and travels > the country speaking. She has drummed up supporters at a gun show; joined > "tea party" demonstrations against taxation; shouted at, and been shouted at > by, MSNBC hosts. > > All of which is not to say that her effort is going well. In September, U.S. > District Judge Clay D. Land dismissed a Georgia case that Taitz brought on > behalf of a military doctor, Connie Rhodes, which held that Rhodes should be > spared deployment to Iraq because Obama is not constitutionally qualified to > be commander in chief. More than just rejecting it, [the Republican judge] > excoriated it. > > "Unlike in Alice in Wonderland, simply saying something is so does not make it > so," Land wrote scathingly in his order dismissing the action. Singling out > Taitz for criticism, he accused her of using the legal system to further a > political agenda. > > Taitz, breathtakingly, reacted by accusing the judge of treason and comparing > herself to Nelson Mandela. She fired off a response that suggested the judge > was bowing to "political pressure" and "external control." Land promptly > issued another order requiring Taitz to tell him why he should not fine her > $10,000 as a sanction for her misconduct. Today, a copy of that order lies on > the floor of her car. > > Ultimately, she would withdraw as Rhodes's counsel but continue to seethe. > > "That's the most ridiculous argument that I've ever heard," she says of Land's > comment that Obama's political opponents had ample opportunity to challenge > his birth record. "Nobody has seen proper documents. Period." > > Another breathtaking statement, or rather misstatement. After initially trying > to ignore the controversy, Obama's staff has indeed provided an official > record showing that the president was born in Hawaii. The document is a > computer-generated official certification of live birth attesting to the fact > that Barack Hussein Obama II was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. The > director of Hawaii's Department of Health also has stated, rather wearily, > that she has viewed the underlying vital records and that they are valid. > > But never mind! The myth of ineligibility has embedded itself in the > consciousness of determined adversaries, chief among them Taitz, who in her > allegation-filled but congenial interview explains why she wants Obama to > surrender the vital records that underlie the computer-generated document. She > has developed a scenario whereby Obama's American mother gave birth in Kenya, > his father's native country, then persuaded bureaucrats to falsify his records > and ease him back into this country. She also conjectures that he may be a > citizen of Indonesia, where Obama lived for a time after his mother remarried. > > Taitz is pinning her hopes on the California case, this one on behalf of a > slew of plaintiffs, some of them former members of the military -- a central > thread running through her filings is the idea that soldiers owe no allegiance > to an illegitimate commander -- and assorted fulminators and fringe players, > including Wiley Drake, a pastor who has said that he prays for Obama's death. > Drake and another plaintiff have now hired a new lawyer, because alliances > within the movement are a fractious thing. Taitz -- who says that it's "wrong" > to pray for the president's death -- is also in a legal tussle with Philip > Berg, a Pennsylvania lawyer whom, some observers say, she has edged aside to > become the most visible face of the movement. > > If that's true, it's easy to see how it might have happened. If you were the > producer of an opinionated news show and wanted to book a birther, whom would > you choose? A nondescript Pennsylvanian or an excitable Moldovan American > lawyer-dentist described by Lincoln, her assistant, as a "fierce blonde" > reminiscent of the warrior goddess Athena? Easy call! Today Taitz, 49, is > wearing white high-heeled slingbacks; bare legs; a white skirt; black and > white shirt; enormous eyelashes; and her characteristic air of charming but > ferocious tenacity, part Meg Ryan, part Madame Defarge. > > "He is lying about his identity, he is hiding his whole identity, this is > dangerous!" says Taitz, looking eagerly toward a judicial ruling on the U.S. > government's motion to dismiss the California case. She is hopeful that this > judge will let her go ahead. > > * * * > > It is, perhaps, a harmless quest, no different from that of umpteen > fantasy-driven litigants cluttering up the American court system -- for > somebody who distrusts government, Taitz has used a lot of its resources -- > were it not for the question of how the word "usurper" affects the national > psyche when directed at the first African American president. If nothing else, > the doubters have put themselves on the public's radar. Eight in 10 Americans > in a July Pew poll said that they had heard "a lot" or "a little" about the > contention that Obama was not born in the United States and is ineligible for > the presidency. > > Taitz is also on the radar of militia groups, whom she sometimes addresses on > her blog; in one posting, she urged "state militias" to descend upon southern > U.S. borders and help check those arriving for signs of swine flu virus; in > another, she called on "citizen's militia" to protect people from being > rounded up by government forces using swine flu as a pretext. > > The question of her broader influence "is our main concern," says Robert > Haggard, a frequent poster to Politijab, a Web site whose members include > legal experts tracking Taitz with horrified fascination. "We don't believe > that Orly herself is dangerous, the problem is, she is attracting these people > who are, and have a history of being so." > > At a minimum, organizations who monitor extremist groups say that the fantasy > of Obama's ineligibility is now a central tenet. "The birther conspiracy > itself is now totally widespread among military and paramilitary [militia] > groups and new, what we would call quote-unquote 'patriot' groups, which are > groups that are virulently anti-government," says Heidi Beirich, director of > research at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Beirich says that a popular > conspiracy theory among such groups is that the government is going to round > up citizens and put them in camps operated by the Federal Emergency Management > Agency. > > And sure enough, no conversation with Taitz is complete without a reference to > the "600" camps that she believes FEMA has constructed to keep dissident > citizens corralled. FEMA camps are only one of her anxieties. Communist and > totalitarian regimes are another. "It is extremely important to ensure that > the people of this country don't lose their freedoms, because if they do, this > country will turn into a dictatorship, just like the communist Soviet Union, > just like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or Kim Jong > Il's North Korea." > > "You're sounding awfully political right now," warns Lincoln at one point. > This is the sort of talk that judges could criticize her for. "And I think > that's a dangerous way to go." > > But repressive regimes are a conversational well into which she keeps dipping. > In her early 20s, Taitz, who says she is of Jewish heritage, emigrated to > Israel and lived there for several years. The man who would become her > husband, visiting from the United States, asked her to marry him on their > second date, something that didn't surprise her -- she says, blushing -- > because "he wasn't the first one" who had asked. Some observers believe the > animating cause of her crusade is an anti-Muslim bias. She disagrees, saying > "I have nothing against any religion." But some of her remarks help fuel such > criticisms, as when she mentions hearing rumors of a purported video in which > "Obama has made statements that were anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and very > pro-Palestinian, pro-Arabic." She says she also heard an Internet rumor that > the royal family of Saudi Arabia helped support Obama's education. "I'm > questioning: Are there any strings attached? I don't know." > > Ultimately, her rhetoric is laced with a suspicion that Obama may be an agent > for a foreign power, a modern Manchurian candidate. This is why she wants not > only his vital records but his academic ones. "Would you be willing to go with > me to Obama and ask him . . . [to] release all of the proper records, your > school records, your enrollment records from all those college applications, > and financial aid records, which would show whether he was enrolled as a > foreign exchange student from Indonesia or Kenya?" > > There are those who say that even if Obama were to provide every last record > down to dry-cleaning receipts, no proof could satisfy birther proponents. In > Taitz's case, there's what she calls "a two-prong test." Bucking the common > [legal] view that "natural born citizen" -- the constitutional requirement for > a U.S. president -- means, generally speaking, born on American soil, she > argues that to be president a person must not only be born here but must also > be the child of parents who were both U.S. citizens at the time of his birth. > She allows that her decidedly non-mainstream interpretation would knock out > her two older sons, born when she had only a green card, before she became a > U.S. citizen. > > One might argue that her extra super-duper burden of proof has a racial > dimension to it, and Taitz herself says she has been accused of racism. She > says there is no basis to the charge. "Just because he happens to be African > American, he does not get a free pass." > > She also dismisses the concern that this president might be uniquely > vulnerable to violent extremism. "There's no reason to believe that that's > going to happen," she says. "There is a lot of protection -- the Secret > Service. I think there's a much higher chance of violence against me than > against" the president. > > Violence against me. > > That last answer may offer some insight into why Orly Taitz is in this fight. > Up to now, she says, she was "never really politically active" and her > community involvement consisted of volunteering as a teacher's helper, > supporting the arts and serving as an officer of a homeowner association. > > The motivation for her zeal could be, as she suggests, residual trauma from > growing up in a totalitarian regime where, as she often points out, judges > were "puppets" of the state. It could be the PayPal button at the top of her > Web site, which does bring in contributions, Taitz says, though not enough to > cover her expenses. It could be a combination of naivete, true belief and the > willful credulity that leads a person to prefer wild and interesting Internet > rumors over mundane truths. It could be that she is a rabble-rouser by nature. > As a preschooler, she says, she organized a "borscht riot" among classmates > after noticing that the teachers were getting more sour cream than the > children in their beet soup. > > * * * > > Back at the office, things are still busy: Dentists have been faxing résumés > all day, there are patients in the waiting room, and Charles Lincoln is > printing out a court pleading. > > The phone keeps ringing. It's not just dentists, but also journalists and > sympathizers and concerned citizens. That might also be an explanation: the > calls, the adrenaline rush of speeches and media engagements, the fact that at > one court hearing, Taitz marvels, people applauded. She is in the limelight. > And although she criticizes the mainstream media, she calls after the > interview to see when this article will run. So she can flag it on her Web > site. > ------ End of Forwarded Message
