Did WND Get Punked by Birther Elections Clerk?
The latest scoop from World Net Daily tells us that a Hawai'i elections clerk learned Obama has no long form birth certificate. But does his story add up? Or did WND get punked yet again?
Back in March, we reported that World Net Daily - website of Joseph "Mr. Mustache" Farah, who is NOT a Birther (really) - had been fooled into reporting a false fact.
Not that WND ever lets true facts stand in the way of its odd, rightward agenda, of course, but it was rather amusing to see them lean out so far over the cliff to grasp a story that, with a little digging, could have been handily disproved. As of this date, we have yet to see a retraction, which would seem to go against Mr. Farah's claims of being a journalist.
Well, it seems like lightning has struck twice! World Net Daily has yet another big scoop on its hands, and they aren't being shy about trumpeting it, in spite of its questionable provenance.
Hear now the words of Tim Adams, former "senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu during the 2008 election":*
"There is no birth certificate," he said. "It's like an open secret. There isn't one. Everyone in the government there knows this."
...
"I had direct access to the Social Security database, the national crime computer, state driver's license information, international passport information, basically just about anything you can imagine to get someone's identity," Adams explained. "I could look up what bank your home mortgage was in. I was informed by my boss that we did not have a birth record [for Obama]."
At the time, there were conflicting reports that Obama had been born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, as well as the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children across town. So Adams says his office checked with both facilities
"They told us, 'We don't have a birth certificate for him,'" he said. "They told my supervisor, either by phone or by e-mail, neither one has a document that a doctor signed off on saying they were present at this man's birth."
...
Adams, 45, stressed, "In my professional opinion, he definitely was not born in Hawaii. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he was not born in Hawaii because there is no legal record of him being born there. If someone called and asked about it, I could not tell them that person was born in the state."
Oh dear, that usurper's in big-ass trouble, huh? Maybe Obama should go get on a plane and high-tail it back to Kenya - TONIGHT!
Well, not so fast. First of all, let's consider the source.
Tim Adams came to people's attentions by way of the appropriately-named "Political Cesspool" - a "Pro White"(that is, racist) broadcast that claims to be "the South's foremost populist radio program." And it's carried by, amongst others, Stormfront Radio. Remember our friends at Stormfront? I bet you do...
The Political Cesspool is hosted by James Edwards: a "pro-white" (that is, racist) member of the anti-race mixing Council of Conservative Citizens (that is, racistS).
Tim Adams just happened to be attending a recent Council of Conservative Citizens national conference in Nashville, TN, where "someone" brought him to the attention of James Edwards and his co-host. An interview ensued (started out, quite oddly, by the theme from "The Prisoner." Who is Number One?)
Note that he calls himself the "Chief elections clerk." There is no such thing as a "chief elections clerk." The WND article correctly identifies him a "senior elections clerk." That could just be a slip, but you have to wonder.
Now, admittedly, nailing the message because of the messenger is a little unfair. Truth comes in odd guises, sometimes. But we should remember that it's never a good idea to trumpet a massive "expose" based on the testimony of a walk-on guest at a rather questionable (that is, yes, racist) gathering.
Especially when the subject is the eligibility of America's first black President.
Does that stop World Net Daily? Oh hell no. They get in contact with him, verify his story, and, as of this date, have updated that he's willing to testify to what he knows in court.*
Now for the democratic response: our friends at Oh For Goodness Sake and Obama Conspiracy Theories have done a yeoman's job of investigating further. And what have they found?
First off: Tim Adams may have been working there, but he should not have had any access to the data in question, nor should anyone else at that office. According to Doc Conspiracy:
Our records indicate that Mr. Adams was employed in a clerical position as an Elections Clerk. Our office does not have access to birth records. Birth records are handled by the State of Hawaii, Department of Health.
In fact, even if they did have access to that kind of information, looking up someone else's personal information to satisfy personal questions is a Federal offense. Would his boss have really gone digging in Obama's files to see if they were there if they didn't have to? One year in the Federal pen and $10,000 says otherwise.
Secondly: According to the chronology OFGS determined, based on Mr. Adams' own statements and blog posts, he was only in that position until August of 2008. Surely that is way too early to have been processing anything relevant to this matter.
Thirdly: Even if Adams did have the power to be verifying people's birth records, he wouldn't have had any reason to be verifying Obama's information. In 2008, Barack Obama was living in Illinois, and registered to vote in that state. Not Hawai'i.
And then the kicker: Tim Adams himself seems to be backing away from the story!
Thank you for the Email. Actually I believe God has a sense of humor, because I thought these notions were pretty well common and not very important. I was actually just in Nashville, observing a conservative political conference, I’m not a member of any kind of group, and too liberal for these guys, when James Edwards, the host of the Political Cesspool, heard about me from someone and asked if I would simply state what I had observed and been told while working in Hawaii. I believe Pres. Obama was born a United States citizen, and is eligible to hold office, I find the idea that because he was probably born outside of the U.S., he must be some kind of alien to be basically racist. I do think we should close this issue and pass legislation requiring office seekers to prove identity before running for elected office.
That was posted on the 11th. However, as of the 13th, Tim Adams is telling WND a much different story.*
"The things I've said, I don't mind testifying in court," Tim Adams, the senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in the 2008 campaign, told WND in an exclusive interview.
"I was working there, and this is what it was. I'm not a lawyer, just a civil servant. I know what I know. I know what I was told by the hospitals and by my supervisors."
So what's going on here? A man goes to a highly suspect (that is... yes, you guessed it, racist) political conference, tells a tale to an audience that's ready to eat it up, then seems to backtrack away from it in private, but continues to push his story to the wide-eyed goobers at World Net Daily? Are there two Tim Adams at work, here?
Maybe there are.
While investigating the story, OFGS discovered that Mr. Adams is a self-published author. His book, a fictional work entitled Stories I've Finished Before I'm dead., has recently been redone as a "motivational" work called The River and Other Stories.
According to OFGS's encapsulation: He hated everybody and everybody hated him. His brother put him in a clothes dryer when he was small and turned it on. His schoolmates cut off a German Shepherd’s head and put it in his locker. He tried to kill his own brother who abused him. The Army later diagnosed him as mentally ill and his fellow soldiers wouldn’t be in the same room with him
Not to knock a man when he's been kicked down, and then tried to make money off it when he grows up, Dave Pelzer style. (Some might even call it the American way - Lemons, lemonade, and all that) But this wouldn't be the first time in recent memory that someone pitched us a story that was true, only to turn out not so true, would it?
Remember James Frey and A Million Little Pieces? It turns out that when he was first shopping the book around, it was fiction with pieces of his own life in it, and wasn't going anywhere. But then someone told him to sell it as a straight autobiography, which he did. And it sold, and he got famous, got on Oprah, and then got busted by The Smoking Gun.
What does that have to do with anything? Well, when we first encounter the book, it's fiction, but now it's "self-esteem." So is it real or fake? Was it fiction all along, or not?
Because if it was "fiction" then, and is "true" now, then one of two things is possible. Either it was true all along, and he just needed to get all that out of his system, and can now own up to it having been true, OR it was never true - or not wholly true - and he's passing it off as being true enough to be called "motivational" because he wants more money and/or attention.
And if it's attention he's wanting, then suddenly a lot of things about this story make a whole lot of sense.
I must stress that I do not know this for certain. My ability to read minds over a distance has been severely hampered over the last few regenerations - it's a good day when I can tell you what our cats are thinking. But a cursory exploration of the life and times of Mr. Adams - as painstakingly researched by OFGS - leads me to believe there's something a little off going on here. And I don't think it's the poi.
We'll have to see what shakes out of the tube as this story develops - or doesn't - but I'm pretty certain we're going to hear a lot out of Mr. Adams for a very short period of time, followed by one hell of a backtrack, or a total vanishing from the scene. I'm also pretty certain WND will never admit to having been punked, yet again.
* NOTE: As of 6/13/10, every time I went to World Net Daily, my anti-virus told me a virus was trying to load itself onto my deck by way of their sidebar advertisements. For this reason I am not linking to WND for the immediate future. The story in question was on their front page, and its "facts" will probably be repeated in future Birther story postings by their various and sundry "reporters," so I don't feel bad about not hyperlinking under the circumstances. Feel free to check it out on your own, but I wouldn't recommend going to Farah's little turd of a site unless you've got good anti-virus.
Back in March, we reported that World Net Daily - website of Joseph "Mr. Mustache" Farah, who is NOT a Birther (really) - had been fooled into reporting a false fact.
Not that WND ever lets true facts stand in the way of its odd, rightward agenda, of course, but it was rather amusing to see them lean out so far over the cliff to grasp a story that, with a little digging, could have been handily disproved. As of this date, we have yet to see a retraction, which would seem to go against Mr. Farah's claims of being a journalist.
Well, it seems like lightning has struck twice! World Net Daily has yet another big scoop on its hands, and they aren't being shy about trumpeting it, in spite of its questionable provenance.
Hear now the words of Tim Adams, former "senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu during the 2008 election":*
"There is no birth certificate," he said. "It's like an open secret. There isn't one. Everyone in the government there knows this."
...
"I had direct access to the Social Security database, the national crime computer, state driver's license information, international passport information, basically just about anything you can imagine to get someone's identity," Adams explained. "I could look up what bank your home mortgage was in. I was informed by my boss that we did not have a birth record [for Obama]."
At the time, there were conflicting reports that Obama had been born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, as well as the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children across town. So Adams says his office checked with both facilities
"They told us, 'We don't have a birth certificate for him,'" he said. "They told my supervisor, either by phone or by e-mail, neither one has a document that a doctor signed off on saying they were present at this man's birth."
...
Adams, 45, stressed, "In my professional opinion, he definitely was not born in Hawaii. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that he was not born in Hawaii because there is no legal record of him being born there. If someone called and asked about it, I could not tell them that person was born in the state."
Oh dear, that usurper's in big-ass trouble, huh? Maybe Obama should go get on a plane and high-tail it back to Kenya - TONIGHT!
Well, not so fast. First of all, let's consider the source.
Tim Adams came to people's attentions by way of the appropriately-named "Political Cesspool" - a "Pro White"(that is, racist) broadcast that claims to be "the South's foremost populist radio program." And it's carried by, amongst others, Stormfront Radio. Remember our friends at Stormfront? I bet you do...
The Political Cesspool is hosted by James Edwards: a "pro-white" (that is, racist) member of the anti-race mixing Council of Conservative Citizens (that is, racistS).
Tim Adams just happened to be attending a recent Council of Conservative Citizens national conference in Nashville, TN, where "someone" brought him to the attention of James Edwards and his co-host. An interview ensued (started out, quite oddly, by the theme from "The Prisoner." Who is Number One?)
Note that he calls himself the "Chief elections clerk." There is no such thing as a "chief elections clerk." The WND article correctly identifies him a "senior elections clerk." That could just be a slip, but you have to wonder.
Now, admittedly, nailing the message because of the messenger is a little unfair. Truth comes in odd guises, sometimes. But we should remember that it's never a good idea to trumpet a massive "expose" based on the testimony of a walk-on guest at a rather questionable (that is, yes, racist) gathering.
Especially when the subject is the eligibility of America's first black President.
Does that stop World Net Daily? Oh hell no. They get in contact with him, verify his story, and, as of this date, have updated that he's willing to testify to what he knows in court.*
Now for the democratic response: our friends at Oh For Goodness Sake and Obama Conspiracy Theories have done a yeoman's job of investigating further. And what have they found?
First off: Tim Adams may have been working there, but he should not have had any access to the data in question, nor should anyone else at that office. According to Doc Conspiracy:
Our records indicate that Mr. Adams was employed in a clerical position as an Elections Clerk. Our office does not have access to birth records. Birth records are handled by the State of Hawaii, Department of Health.
In fact, even if they did have access to that kind of information, looking up someone else's personal information to satisfy personal questions is a Federal offense. Would his boss have really gone digging in Obama's files to see if they were there if they didn't have to? One year in the Federal pen and $10,000 says otherwise.
Secondly: According to the chronology OFGS determined, based on Mr. Adams' own statements and blog posts, he was only in that position until August of 2008. Surely that is way too early to have been processing anything relevant to this matter.
Thirdly: Even if Adams did have the power to be verifying people's birth records, he wouldn't have had any reason to be verifying Obama's information. In 2008, Barack Obama was living in Illinois, and registered to vote in that state. Not Hawai'i.
And then the kicker: Tim Adams himself seems to be backing away from the story!
Thank you for the Email. Actually I believe God has a sense of humor, because I thought these notions were pretty well common and not very important. I was actually just in Nashville, observing a conservative political conference, I’m not a member of any kind of group, and too liberal for these guys, when James Edwards, the host of the Political Cesspool, heard about me from someone and asked if I would simply state what I had observed and been told while working in Hawaii. I believe Pres. Obama was born a United States citizen, and is eligible to hold office, I find the idea that because he was probably born outside of the U.S., he must be some kind of alien to be basically racist. I do think we should close this issue and pass legislation requiring office seekers to prove identity before running for elected office.
That was posted on the 11th. However, as of the 13th, Tim Adams is telling WND a much different story.*
"The things I've said, I don't mind testifying in court," Tim Adams, the senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in the 2008 campaign, told WND in an exclusive interview.
"I was working there, and this is what it was. I'm not a lawyer, just a civil servant. I know what I know. I know what I was told by the hospitals and by my supervisors."
So what's going on here? A man goes to a highly suspect (that is... yes, you guessed it, racist) political conference, tells a tale to an audience that's ready to eat it up, then seems to backtrack away from it in private, but continues to push his story to the wide-eyed goobers at World Net Daily? Are there two Tim Adams at work, here?
Maybe there are.
While investigating the story, OFGS discovered that Mr. Adams is a self-published author. His book, a fictional work entitled Stories I've Finished Before I'm dead., has recently been redone as a "motivational" work called The River and Other Stories.
According to OFGS's encapsulation: He hated everybody and everybody hated him. His brother put him in a clothes dryer when he was small and turned it on. His schoolmates cut off a German Shepherd’s head and put it in his locker. He tried to kill his own brother who abused him. The Army later diagnosed him as mentally ill and his fellow soldiers wouldn’t be in the same room with him
Not to knock a man when he's been kicked down, and then tried to make money off it when he grows up, Dave Pelzer style. (Some might even call it the American way - Lemons, lemonade, and all that) But this wouldn't be the first time in recent memory that someone pitched us a story that was true, only to turn out not so true, would it?
Remember James Frey and A Million Little Pieces? It turns out that when he was first shopping the book around, it was fiction with pieces of his own life in it, and wasn't going anywhere. But then someone told him to sell it as a straight autobiography, which he did. And it sold, and he got famous, got on Oprah, and then got busted by The Smoking Gun.
What does that have to do with anything? Well, when we first encounter the book, it's fiction, but now it's "self-esteem." So is it real or fake? Was it fiction all along, or not?
Because if it was "fiction" then, and is "true" now, then one of two things is possible. Either it was true all along, and he just needed to get all that out of his system, and can now own up to it having been true, OR it was never true - or not wholly true - and he's passing it off as being true enough to be called "motivational" because he wants more money and/or attention.
And if it's attention he's wanting, then suddenly a lot of things about this story make a whole lot of sense.
I must stress that I do not know this for certain. My ability to read minds over a distance has been severely hampered over the last few regenerations - it's a good day when I can tell you what our cats are thinking. But a cursory exploration of the life and times of Mr. Adams - as painstakingly researched by OFGS - leads me to believe there's something a little off going on here. And I don't think it's the poi.
We'll have to see what shakes out of the tube as this story develops - or doesn't - but I'm pretty certain we're going to hear a lot out of Mr. Adams for a very short period of time, followed by one hell of a backtrack, or a total vanishing from the scene. I'm also pretty certain WND will never admit to having been punked, yet again.
* NOTE: As of 6/13/10, every time I went to World Net Daily, my anti-virus told me a virus was trying to load itself onto my deck by way of their sidebar advertisements. For this reason I am not linking to WND for the immediate future. The story in question was on their front page, and its "facts" will probably be repeated in future Birther story postings by their various and sundry "reporters," so I don't feel bad about not hyperlinking under the circumstances. Feel free to check it out on your own, but I wouldn't recommend going to Farah's little turd of a site unless you've got good anti-virus.
posted by J. Edward Tremlett at 3:09 PM
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