"Original birth certificate"

There are (at least) two very different things being called an “original birth certificate.” It’s important to keep the meaning straight in context.

The seminal article on Barack Obamas’ birth certificate is probably the 2008 piece titled “Born in the USA” at FactCheck.org. They write:

FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate.

They photographed the state-issued paper certificate from Hawaii, with Registrar Alvin Onaka’s signature stamp, the physical impressed seal of the State of Hawaii, and printed on official state security paper; FactCheck didn’t look at a photocopy, or an image on the Internet -- they looked at an “original birth certificate.” However, the document they photocopied didn’t exist before 2007 when the State of Hawaii issued it and in that sense it’s hardly “original.”

In the vital records community, what FactCheck photographed would be called a “certified copy.” The US Department of State uses similar less-ambiguous language in its passport requirements: “certified birth certificate issued by the city, county or state” which they further describe as:

A certified birth certificate has a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar's signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which must be within 1 year of your birth.

A certified copy has to be a certified copy of something, and that something is more accurately described as an “original birth certificate,” something that in times past was a paper document filled out by someone who witnessed the birth, usually a physician, and usually submitted to a jurisdiction by a hospital. The jurisdiction numbered the certificate and if it met certain quality standards,added it to their official file of births within the jurisdiction.  (This is further confused by some hospitals issuing souvenir birth certificates directly to parents, documents with little legal significance except as secondary evidence in the absence of a real certified copy.)

When Birthers demanded (between June of 2008 and April of 2011) to see Barack Obama’s “original birth certificate” they meant a “certified photocopy of Barack Obama’s original hospital-signed birth certificate.”

The difference between a true original and a certified copy becomes important in dealing with birther fly-speck analysis of birth certificate images. Original birth certificates are registered, not certified. They are not generally on security paper, and they do not have seals on them. Stamps and seals are certifying attributes used to certify the copy and security paper is used for such copies to prevent alteration and forgery of the certified copy. There is no concern over unauthorized alteration within a jurisdiction’s files. A moment’s reflection should make it obvious that original certificates in the file are not on security paper, the whole purpose of security paper being to make it hard to copy.

After the April 2011 press conference where Barack Obama presented his certified birth certificate (and put an image of it on the White House web site), birthers use the term “original birth certificate” to mean the paper document residing at the Department of Health in Hawaii. Birthers have moved the goal posts two or three times without changing the words, only the meaning.

My advice to the birthers

I’m not a real doctor, but I am going to offer some advice to the birthers on your health.

This article is prompted by a disturbing report on deaths in the United States. Like most developing countries, Americans are becoming more healthy and their life span is increasing. It’s not the same improvement across all ethnic groups, genders and education levels, but for all groups there is steady improvement, except for one, middle-aged white  non-Hispanics, especially men with less education. For that group the death rate is increasing (even though deaths from smoking are declining). Here’s the shocking graphic:

These guys are killing themselves through alcohol and drug poisoning, liver disease, and literally killing themselves by suicide!

I talked to my pastor about this and he confirmed from his own experience how stressed this group feels, especially the stress of finding a job when lacking a college diploma, and that they feel disadvantaged as non-white workers enter the work force in increasing numbers.

I address this article to birthers because you are part of the demographic that is killing themselves. (The caption on the chart is altered; the original said “non-Hispanic white” rather than “birthers,” but these are largely who the birthers are, plus older persons, whose death rates are higher anyway.)

I don’t have simple answers for your real problems, but I can tell you that self-medication with alcohol and drugs just makes things worse. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Heaven knows that I would like to see fewer birthers in the world, but I want that change to come about through reason and information—I don’t want you dead. So for what they’re worth, here are my suggestions:

1. Avoid alcohol consumption to excess. If your friends are telling you that you have an alcohol problem, talk to a counselor to find out if they’re right.
2. If you have thoughts of suicide, contact a suicide prevention hotline or a mental health professional. In the US call 1 (800) 273-8255.
3. Limit your time on the Internet, particularly on web sites that increase your anxiety level, and make you feel afraid.
4. Block Fox News from your TV channel list.
5. Get out more, plan family outings, visit the park and breathe some fresh air.
6. Join a service organization and enjoy the feeling of helping someone worse off than you are.

I don’t have an answer for your economic problems, except to suggest that you vote Democratic. Republicans are the party trying to dismantle what there is of a social safety net, the ones who don’t want you to be able to afford college, and want you do go bankrupt with medical expenses, and who want you to be unable to earn a living wage if you do get a job.

More BS

Barry Soetoro, Esq., the Gerbilmeister™ at Birther Report™ has a new interview, continuing his total BS theories that these mass shooting and bombing incidents you hear about in the news (Boston Marathon bombing, Sandy Hook and Charleston shootings) are fake—political theater to affect public opinion on the 2nd Amendment. The general approach is to find something they don’t understand in an image, or take a misstatement, and from there jump to the absurd conclusion that the events themselves were contrived and fake. The story is that the victims are actors, and are alive and well. In the real world, people are connected by family, friends, co-workers, and they don’t just pretend to die en masse.
Conspiracy theorists are erroneously labeling these purported fakes as “false flag operations,” but that is a misuse of the term. False flag refers to a real event wrongly attributed.
Now Soetoro tells Mike Shoesmith, that his fake violence stories fit in with more general birther claims that Barack Obama’s identity is equally fake. The CIA is behind it all, and Obama himself will disappear like the shooting victims. Some people seem to actually believe this BS.

---

  Note: BSE appears to have deleted all of his gerbil images.

Dr. Deb attacks this site and its author

One of the more unpleasant commenters at Birther Report™ set a new personal best in bigotry yesterday. Dr. Deb [surname withheld] who goes by the internally-redundant screen name drdebdrdeb, commented:

When I read, "We read Birther Report so you don't have to" it told me ALL I EVER needed to know about you.
You are EVIL to the CORE.
The Sheeple don't need to check the facts because YOU do it for them.
Just like Communism. You SHALL NOT think for yourself.
I hope they are paying you a lot to spy on Americans.
You will need this money soon.

Apparently Dr. Deb needed to know very little about me to conclude that I am “EVIL to the CORE.” In fact, it appears that she needs to know nothing about me to come up with her extreme opinion, since she appears not to even understand the site’s tag line.
Gerbil Report™ is a spoof of Birther Report (I thought it would be obvious). The tag line is inspired by the NewsHounds.us web site, whose tag line is “We watch Fox so you don’t have to.”

Only a brain-dead literalist (or maybe a poorly written computer program) would conclude that this site’s tag line was meant to dissuade people from reading Birther Report. I just have to shake my head over how clueless Dr. Deb is and how she grasps a straw to justify defaming someone. Maybe the College of Education has lower standards.

Birther witness list

Melendres v. Arpaio (2007) is a federal lawsuit filed to stop the practice of racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The Court found that there was racial profiling and issued orders to end the practice. Interested readers can follow the history of that case at “What’s Your Evidence”.

The Court’s orders were not fully carried out, racial profiling continued, and federal judge G. Murray Snow ordered hearings on whether Sheriff Arpaio was in contempt of court. Sheriff Arpaio in an attempt to forestall a hearing admitted being in contempt and offered to pay money to settle the issue, but that didn’t work out.

The hearing was held and Judge Snow asked a few probing questions and then it hit the fan. Sheriff Arpaio admitted paying a Seattle software designer named Dennis Montgomery, widely reported to have sold bogus software to the government for detecting terrorist messages, to help him get dirt on the judge. That’s not how Arpaio couched what happened, but it is surely how it looks in some emails that the Court obtained from the Sheriff’s Office--and therein lies the birther angle. The participants in that email chain included Mike Zullo, head of Arpaio’s birther posse, and noted birther attorney Larry Klayman. Other information in the emails indicate that Montgomery was the source of the universe-shattering investigation that the Cold Case Posse has been talking about for a couple of years.

One cannot escape the question of whether Sheriff Arpaio lied in testimony last April when he said that Judge Snow was not individually targeted in what the Sheriff’s Office came to call “The Seattle Operation.” Charts and tables received by Arpaio from Montgomery appear to be very much about targeting the judge. Since Mike Zullo and Larry Klayman were knowledgeable about who was targeting whom, having participated in email exchanges on the subject, it seems extremely likely that these two will appear in federal court to answer questions. Judge Snow yesterday suggested that Klayman could be a witness.

I doubt much will come out about the birther side of the Seattle Operation because it’s not relevant. Still, strange twists do happen sometimes.

County raises taxes to pay Arpaio's legal bills

You can can spin it any way you want, but Maricopa County is planning to increase property taxes to the tune of $20,000,000 next year, reports station KJZZ in Phoenix. At the same time they have set apart $23,000,000 to pay for expenses in the law suit against Joe Arpaio for racial profiling. Obviously if they didn't have to pay for Sheriff Joe's misconduct, they would have the $20 million, and wouldn't have to raise taxes.

Joe Arpaio: Misprision of felony

"Misprision of felony" is one of those shiny objects the birthers discovered a few years back. The concept is knowing about a felony and not reporting it. Douglas Vogt's court action in Washington State was framed as a report of his belief that a felony was committed in regard to President Obama's birth certificate, and his desire to obtain a certification from the court that he wasn't guilty of hiding it.

Birthers aimed misprision at their opponents and members of Congress, saying that they knew Obama had forged his birth certificate and were covering it up.

Under federal law, "misprision of felony" is codified in 18 U.S. Code § 4, which says:

Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

They want the Obots dragged away and hung for this crime (or perhaps for the more severe "misprision of treason"). The reason this is nonsense is that the opponents of birthers do not believe that there is any felony, nor that they have any information indicating the commission of a crime. The courts have ruled that in order to be guilty of misprision of felony, a person must actively cover up the felony. Anti-birthers widely discuss birther claims, and nothing is covered up by anybody. Arguing that someone is wrong is not "covering up."

However, let's consider another possible charge of misprision of felony, this time on the birther side, and in particular against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The felony is possession of classified documents, codified as 18 U.S. Code § 1924 - Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. According to news reports, Dennis Montgomery came to Sheriff Arpaio and stated that he had made copies of data developed by him under contract with the CIA. The very existence of this material was classified. Montgomery then offered to mine the data for Arpaio for money.

Sheriff Arpaio paid Montgomery for information, and did not inform the US Attorney or the CIA of Montgomery's representations. Further, Sheriff Arpaio assigned Montgomery a confidential informant number, and instituted procedures whereby even people in his own department were unaware of possible felonious activity by Montgomery. Arpaio knew of crimes Montgomery claimed to have committed, and actively participated in keeping it secret. That sounds like misprision of felony to me and I am not the only one thinking this. Phoenix New Times Reporter Stephen Lemons, somewhat of an expert on the misdeeds of Joe Arpaio, raised the issue (after this article was initially published) based on a discussion with former U. S. Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton:

Charlton offers a couple of possible federal statutes that could apply, including 18 USC 371, conspiracy “to commit any offense against” the U.S. government. 

“Even if the information is not classified, it is still conspiracy,” Charlton says.
“Ask any narco who is currently in prison for conspiracy to transport, sell, or buy cocaine when in fact there was no cocaine, only a DEA agent pretending to deal in cocaine.” 

Then there is 18 USC 4, which has the rather exotic title “misprision of a felony.”
Charlton says this would entail Arpaio’s not alerting, say, the FBI upon learning that someone wanted to sell him classified information.

Mike Zullo: Following the money

Reprinted from Obama Conspiracy Theories

The transcript of Day 3 in the Melendres v. Arpaio contempt hearing is now available, courtesy of the Friends of the Fogbow. It contains a somewhat confusing exchange between Judge G. Murray Snow and Sheriff Arpaio relating to the Cold Case Posse’s involvement with confidential informant Dennis Montgomery in Seattle, and in particular with money.

Q. And is zoo -- did you say Zulu? Zullo. Is he a posse member?
A. Yes.
Q. And did you pay funds from Maricopa County for Mr. Zullo to
go to the Washington area?
A. Yes.
Q. And then I assume you paid Anglin and Mackiewicz their travel costs?
A. We don't pay for Zullo, but --
Q. But you paid Mackiewicz and Anglin.
A. Yes.
…
Q. And so Mr. Montgomery proposed to -- who did he propose to at the MCSO that the DOJ was inappropriately -- I assume it was of interest to you if they were wiretapping my phone, among others?
A. Yes. And mine, too.
Q. And yours, too. And so were you conducting this investigation?
A. No.
Q. Who was in your department?
A. This is Zullo and I think Mackiewicz.
Q. What rank does Mackiewicz have?
A. He's a detective.
Q. Who did he report to about this investigation?
A. I think he and Zullo worked together.
Q. And who did they report to?
A. And Jerry Sheridan.
Q. They reported to Deputy Chief Sheridan?
A. At one time, but let me just say that the information we're -- we've been getting is the informer's not very viable.
Q. Well, I understand that, I think the article itself says, that you became aware after a considerable amount of time that the reporter was giving you junk. Is that fair to say?
A. Yes.
Q. Or the informer was giving you junk?
A. Yes
Q. How much money did you spend on the informant?
A. I don't recall.
Q. How much money did you spend on the investigation?
A. I don't have the figures.
…
Q. Did you keep any of the materials that Mr. Montgomery has
provided you?
A. I don't have them.
Q. Who does?
A. I believe Zullo does.
Q. And is he subject to your control --
A. Yes.
Q. -- as a member of your posse?
A. Yes.
…
THE COURT: I just wanted to reiterate some of the
things I said during my questioning of you to make sure
everybody was clear. I was told over lunch that posse funds
like Mr. Zullo -- Mr. Zullo's the head of one of your posses.
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: Is it the Cold Case posse?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE COURT: I was told that you also have various sources of funding within the MCSO, like the Cold Case posse has its own funds. Is that possible?
THE WITNESS: No.
THE COURT: Okay. Do you know what the possible funding sources were for the investigations that were related to the Seattle operation? When I say "operation," I mean the one involving Mr. Montgomery and the investigations with Brian Mackiewicz and Mr. Anglin.
THE WITNESS: I'm not sure if it was our RICO, which is drugs seized -- I mean moneys seized from drug peddlers, or our general funds.
THE COURT: Were there other possible funds that might be involved that fund various like, for example, the Cold Case posse?
THE WITNESS: They're independent 501(c) --
THE COURT: 501(c)(3).
THE WITNESS: -- and they raise their own money.
THE COURT: All right. And you don't have any control over those funds?
THE WITNESS: No.

OK, you got that?

Where the hell is Mike Zullo?

This is a real question, and I hope that someone who knows will tell me in a comment to this article. I don’t want an address or anything, just whether Zullo is still in the Phoenix area or not. I received a report that all of his and his family’s property was sold last year, and I am not aware of any public sightings of him this year. I ask the question because Mike Zullo may be needed. Here’s why.
Mike Zullo was intimately involved in the Dennis Montgomery confidential informant investigation by Sheriff Arpaio’s office. There is a pivotal question hanging in the Melendres contempt proceedings against Joe Arpaio and Chief Deputy Sheridan: Was the purpose of the investigation to get something on Judge Snow or not? Mike Zullo may have the answer, and the question will surely be asked. Stephen Lemons reported:

But at the recent status hearing, Snow said documents confiscated by the monitor suggested that “previous testimony offered in this matter may have been untruthful.”

Mike Zullo can put things in context, but he cannot be subpoenaed if he can’t be found, and he cannot be compelled to testify if he is outside the court’s jurisdiction.

Update:

Zullo has been found in the Phoenix area, he was subpoenaed, and he did testify at the Melendres trial.

Did Joe Arpaio buy stolen CIA secrets?

Dennis Montgomery claims to have worked for the CIA, intercepting Internet communications of American citizens. He says he was bothered by what he was doing. Did he go to the New York Times or the Washington Post? No, he just made copies.

What did he do with this information he claims to have gathered for the CIA? He sold it to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office for what is reported to be between $500,000 and a $1,000,000.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan testified in a contempt hearing before Judge G. Murray Snow in federal court in Phoenix that Montgomery was indeed on their confidential informant payroll. Sheridan’s testimony is now available, in part, in an emergency petition for writ of mandamus filed by Montgomery’s attorney Larry Klayman with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking the removal of Judge Snow. Here is part of what Sheridan testified:

Okay. Here's where the plot thickens a little bit with Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery worked for the CIA. … 2007 to 2010, [note that Montgomery’s security clearance was revoked in January of 2006] sometime -- I may have the dates wrong, because this has been a few years, and I've had other things on my mind since this thing kind of got cold. He would -- when he worked for the CIA, he pulled data from American citizens for the CIA. I mean, we heard a lot about this a few years ago; it was very much in the media. And he said he was one of the individuals that was tasked with doing that, and he knew that was incorrect, it was wrong, and so he made backup copies that he took and he kept. And he was mining that data to find these e-mail breaches, to find the bank information that he originally came to us with.

We learned that 2 terabytes of information was provided to Arpaio by Montgomery, two terabytes of information allegedly private information, bank records, probably passwords, love letters, proprietary business data, all illegally obtained, illegally taken from the CIA, and sold to Joe Arpaio. If this is true, I find it outrageous. Why isn’t this guy in jail?

But is it true?

Here’s what Chief Deputy Sheridan said:

And we continued to work with him [Montgomery], we continued to keep him on our informant payroll, so to speak, as he was producing information. But it became very slow, it became very stale, and we finally realized that he was stringing us along.

Perhaps Sheriff Arpaio is only guilty of being gullible.

Confirmed: Cold Case Posse’s investigation was junk

In a court brief, Dennis Montgomery, named by Playboy Magazine as “The Man who Scammed the Pentagon,” confirmed what many of us already knew. He was the source for the “universe-shattering” investigation of the Cold Case Posse. The brief states:

16) I [Dennis Montgomery] have become concerned that Judge Snow’s personal interests in these matters could cloud the judgment of any normal human being so as to confuse the work of the “Cold Case Posse” and myself as being only about Judge Snow.

Of course, anyone who has been following the bizarre story as it unfolded before Judge Snow, knows that it included a tale of stolen CIA data, hacking bank accounts, and spying on the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and their legal team.
As reported in the press:

Snow asked Arpaio about the result of the Montgomery investigation being "junk."
Arpaio agreed with that assessment but said the investigation was still ongoing.

Chief Deputy Sheridan said that Montgomery was just “stringing us along.” So now we have it. Dennis Montgomery was the confidential source, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Sheriff’s Office. He was baby sat in Seattle by Mike Zullo, and the two deputies that Zullo disclosed made up the team of the new super-secret criminal investigation. It was all a scam, and Arpaio confirmed it under oath.

The Jade Helm thing

I was very much impressed by something that Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2011. She said:

Here is the fact of the age: People believe nothing. They think everything is spin and lies. The minute a government says A is true, half the people on Earth know A is a lie. And when people believe nothing, as we know, they will believe anything. We faked the moon landing, there was a second gunman in Dallas, the World Trade Center was blown up in a U.S.-Zionist conspiracy, Hitler grew old in Argentina.

A military training exercise called “Jade Helm 15” scheduled for later this year provides fertile ground for those who will “believe anything” and generated quite a buzz last April that continues to the present. The multi-state exercise labels parts of the country as friendly or hostile territory. Conspiracy theorists say that the hostile areas will be subjected to martial law, guns confiscated, and patriots shipped off to FEMA camps or killed. (See my article: Stocking up on FEMA coffins.) A number of Wal-Marts in Texas, closed for renovations, are thought to be processing centers for the incarceration of patriots. One report has Turkish pilots staging at a Wal-Mart and another that 5 Wal-Mart stores are connected by a network of underground tunnels, such as the one shown at right. A mass of ISIS terrorists are staged to cross the Mexican Border in an attack that will justify martial law. Even Texas Governor  Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the training exercise.

As is the case with most conspiracy theories, it is believed that the “elite” are in on it, or at least know, the truth, as evidenced by the mass exodus of corporate CEO’s to secret bunkers.
Not all believe that Jade Helm 15 is just a simple power grab by President Obama. Some attributed a more apocalyptic backdrop. Some believe (as on this Facebook page dedicated to the topic) that there is an asteroid headed for the United States. This event will “require the implementation of martial law, massive ammunitions, FEMA camps, enormous amounts of medication, shelters etc.” In addition to martial law, this event is the perfect occasion for the second coming of Jesus.

The Birthers are, of course, ready to believe pretty much anything bad about President Obama, and commenters at Birther Report mention Jade Helm from time to time. Here are some samples, the most recent of which was yesterday:

drdebdrdeb

This is an interesting article. And yes, Barry et al are doing everything in their power to create a police nation. I personally think that is what Jade Helm is all about. Once they get a police nation, they will enact martial law and confiscate those pesky guns.
I am praying that our freedoms shall be restored.

Barry Soetoro, ESQ

Theory: Are JADE HELM troops being positioned as a perimeter/support to the upcoming "ISIS Attacks?"
We've had troops all over the Mideast the past 14 years. Hint: OBL doesn't exist. They're doing SOMETHING over there. But it's not chasing OBL or raiding his "villa."

★FALCON★

Hodges - JadeHelm -
US Army Special Operations Officer to Reveal that ISIS is Controlled By the CIA
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/05/03/us-army-special-operations-officer-to-reveal-that-isis-is-controlled-by-the-cia/
LSM starts mocking, right on cue.
The MSM Is Coming Unglued Defending Jade Helm

and

Linked at RedFlag - Veteran Mark calls in - tells everyone the military is lying. Says that infiltrating the population undetected is out of bounds and I15 road to Vegas - huge build-up. Thousand of MRAPS and Humvees - stage for something in California.
Military Build Up For Jade Helm Is Biggest Ever Seen

and

Interesting article by Hodges here. Two weeks ago Klayman's Judicial Watch discovered that ISIS was in Juarez and the FBI went to Mexico. They didn't go there to uncover any plots - just meeting with authorities and devising methodology to spin it. Further, DHS was cut-out of the meetings -
JADE HELM MIA AS ISIS IS STREAMING ACROSS THE SOUTHERN BORDER
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/05/01/jade-helm-mia-as-isis-is-streaming-across-the-southern-border/

If nothing happens by September 15, 2015, we’re all safe. The Birthers will probably never feel safe.
Read more:

• Texas Ranger Drops Jade Helm Bombshell: “There are Trains with Shackles On Them”
• Mass Exodus Has Begun - CEO's Bugging Out! 500+ Retiring CEO's Another Sign Of Something Ominous To Come?
• Texas Governor Deploys State Guard to Stave Off Obama Takeover (NPR)
• Jade Helm 15 – Wikipedia
• Beyond Denial: Preparations for Martial Law in America – Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
• OPERATION JADE HELM: MASSIVE MILITARY DRILL ACROSS 9 STATES FOR “UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE” – Compilation of videos
• Joe Manchin on Jade Helm 15: ‘Please come to West Virginia’
• What is Jade Helm 14 (and should Chuck Norris be worried)? – Christian Science Monitor
• Jade Helm 15, Crime Stoppers and KSK – Chuck Norris writing at WND
• #JadeHelm15 at Twitter

Expert concludes: Bill Ayers did not write Obama book

Philocomp.net is an academic website developed by Professor Peter Millican of Oxford University made in support of the “New Degree Programme in Computer Science and Philosophy at Oxford University.” I found the web site through some research on authorship identification software and a discipline called Stylometry. I didn’t have in mind Jack Cashill’s book that claims Bill Ayers is the ghost writer of Obama’s “Dreams from My Father,” but that is certainly within the purview of stylometry and Millican’s expertise.

Professor Millican provides a detailed analysis of Cashill’s claims that technically-inclined readers will certainly want to read, but the summary is this:

I have prepared the following analysis, which will I hope make clear how I see things in regard to the Ayers allegation made by Jack Cashill, an American author. In short, I feel very confident that it is false.

Millican notes that the writing styles of Bill Clinton and Bill Ayers are far more similar than Ayers and Obama.

Arpaio: Perjury?

Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times used the “p” word in his article yesterday, “Judge Snow Rips the Lid Off an MCSO Riddled With Corruption, Confirming My Reporting in the Process.”

Lemons reported last June that Arpaio was paying a confidential informant big bucks to investigate an alleged conspiracy involving the Justice Department and federal judge G. Murray Snow. In testimony last week Sheriff Arpaio and Chief Deputy Sheridan confirmed the payments and the investigation. Sheridan further admitted that they got nothing useful from the informant, Dennis Montgomery, and that Montgomery was just stringing them along.

What Arpaio and Sheridan said in court was that he was investigating an allegation that the CIA had accessed 50,000 individual bank records in Maricopa County and that there was some wrongdoing involving the Justice Department and federal judges, but that Judge Snow’s inclusion in the investigation was incidental. So was the investigation of Snow central or tangential—targeted or coincidental? Lemons wrote:

My information always has been that Arpaio was up to his old tricks, attempting to conflict the judge, find dirt on him, and retaliate for adverse rulings.

A second point of conflict between Arpaio’s testimony and Lemon’s information is about who investigated the Judge’s wife. According to testimony, Arpaio attorney Tim Casey hired the investigator. Casey issued a statement that seems to contradict that. Lemons reported that the County Attorney’s Office was somehow involved.

So far Lemons has proven to be the more reliable source for what’s going on. I hope we’ll know a lot more when court hearings resume next June.

See also:

• Allegation: Sheriff Arpaio lied under oath

Former judge says: Joe Arpaio is Domestic enemy

Universe-shattering investigation revealed in court testimony Friday

It was somewhat of an anticlimax when Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan revealed in federal court Friday details of the “universe shattering” investigation Mike Zullo hinted about a year and a half ago. We already knew much of the story. Let’s view the facts chronologically.

Mike Zullo was the one who exposed the universe-shattering investigation in November, 2013. Carl Gallups tweeted:

BREAKING! BREAKING! ANNOUNCED TODAY - Zullo: We have universe-shattering information! PLUS: Arpaio is fully... http://t.co/MSy3DJMHDd

— PPSIMMONS (@PPSIMMONS) November 23, 2013

Zullo spoke to the Surprise Arizona Tea Party Patriots about that time. Sharon Rondeau interviewed an attendee:

Zullo “said that the investigation that they started ‘turned very dark…’

We can place a proximate time on the start of the investigation from a confidential informant inside the Sheriff’s Office. Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times newspaper wrote (in June 2014) that he had discovered:

My sources -- one of whom is a former detective with the MCSO's Special Investigations Division and is well-acquainted with SID and those in it -- say Anglin and Mackiewicz were involved in an odd investigation dating back to October 2013.

Amazing: Mike Zullo now on the Court's RADAR

Mike Zullo

We never expected the Zullo inquisition, but Mike Zullo is now tied up with Joe Arpaio’s contempt proceeding before federal judge G. Murray Snow in Phoenix.

Mike Zullo and two Maricopa County deputies traveled to Seattle to meet with a known con man, Dennis Montgomery. Arpaio admitted in court yesterday that Montgomery was to supply information on federal judges, including Judge Snow. Snow examined Arpaio closely yesterday, with a copy of the Stephen Lemons article from June of last year in hand, exposing the trip. Judge Snow ordered that the Sheriff’s Office and the Cold Case Posse not destroy any records relating to communications with Montgomery.

Zullo, happy to give affidavits in out of state cases, blew off subpoenas from Orly Taitz in birther lawsuits. It is an Obot’s web dream to see Zullo testify under oath. Will he say that public funds went to a con man to investigate the judge in Arpaio’s case, or will he say that the money was funding the Cold Case Posse’s “universe shattering” investigation of Barack Obama’s birth certificate?

Explosive: Arpaio Admits Awful Accusation

Day 3 of Arpaio contempt hearing

Arpaio critics have known for some time that Sheriff Joe Arpaio was involved with a Seattle con man named Dennis Montgomery. He sent two deputies plus Mike Zullo to Washington State to meet Montgomery, reports of payments in excess of $100,000 plus $50,000 in computer equipment have appeared, and there was also a meeting between Arpaio and a Montgomery associate in Phoenix. Phoenix New Times reporter Stephen Lemons spilled the beans from a confidential source early last June.

I also believe that the "universe-shattering" reveal from Mike Zullo and the Cold Case Posse was also based on the Montgomery information, explaining why it was very suddenly hushed up when Montgomery's identity and past history became public.

Despite third-party denials, Sheriff Arpaio admitted in court today that he did indeed pay Montgomery for information on Judge Snow, and that he had paid a private investigator to dig up information on the judge's wife. Phoenix New Times article in hand, Judge Snow grilled Arpaio about all of this. This comes on the heels of a negative barrage of publicity in the local news media.

By way of explanation of why he deliberately ordered staff not to implement the court's orders, Arpaio said that it "slipped through the cracks."

Read more at KPHO:

• Arpaio admits to hiring private agents to investigate judge's wife
• 'Meeker' Arpaio testifies a 2nd day in racial-profiling case
• Arpaio shifts blame over disobeying court order
• Arpaio attorney quits; top deputy turns on boss
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio in court over profiling case
• AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces contempt hearing in profiling case

Read more at the Phoenix New Times:

• Noose Tightens Around Arpaio's Neck as He Channels Ronnie Reagan in Day Two of Contempt Trial

Shocker: Fundamentalist law school publishes birther paper

Regent University, the legacy of TV evangelist and former presidential candidate Pat Robertson, has published a remarkable paper in its Law Review. The paper by John Ira Jones IV is titled: "Natural Born Shenanigans: How the Birther Movement Exacerbated Confusion Over the Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Requirement".

The thesis of the paper is that inept birther lawsuits have poisoned the well for a legitimate consideration of the eligibility of Barack Obama to be president of the United States and that Barack Obama is actually not eligible. The inept birther litigants enumerated in the paper include:

• Philip Berg, attorney (Berg v. Obama and other cases)
• Orly Taitz, attorney (Keyes v. Bowen and other cases)
• Christopher Earl Strunk pro se (Strunk v. NY Board of Elections, and other cases)

He fails to list a some other losing birther litigants, all represented by attorney Mario Apuzzo and rather he uses Apuzzo as one of his sources, and thereby turns what might have been an interesting subject into a farce. Jones embraces the same junk birther theories promoted across the Internet by Apuzzo, and rejected by at least 11 courts (and on appeal) just since 2008.

Jones selects only the sources that help his thesis (that Obama is ineligible) ignoring the flood of material clearly pointing in the other way. And in fact, Jones says nothing that he couldn't have gotten and probably did get from a birther web site. He relegates the elephant in the room regarding Vattel's Law of Nations translation to a footnote, and in the footnote waves the problem away. Either Jones is being dishonest with his sources, or he did no independent research, relying only on birther predigested sources.

Regent University is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Federal district judge Gibney in Virginia said in the case of Tisdale v. Obama:

It is well settled that those born in the United States are considered natural born citizens.

Nevertheless, this one law student didn't get the memo, and his faculty adviser did a shoddy job in allowing this article's publication.

Universe shattering: Arpaio faces contempt charges

Arpaio to face Judge

It's a dangerous day for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who will have to explain under oath why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court for a willful violation of the Court's order to end racial profiling and to take remedial action to prevent it from happening again. His contempt hearing starts today, scheduled to run for 4 days.

In private Maricopa County Sheriffs Office staff ridiculed the court order in the Melendres v. Arpaio lawsuit. Sheriff Joe has already admitted to being in contempt, offering $350,000 in taxpayer money in restitution (and $100,000 from himself and Deputy Sheridan).

Will the slippery Arpaio escape with a slap in the wrist, or will Federal Judge Snow throw the book at him, even possibly referring Arpaio for criminal prosecution and imprisonment? Perhaps Arpaio will resign, bringing down the tissue of legitimacy he gave the Cold Case Posse and its politically-motivated investigation into President Obama's public documents.

Stay tuned for the story that Birther Report is afraid to cover.

Update:

Judge Snow Judge Snow was not happy with the continued delays in defense providing documentation to plaintiffs. Maricopa County has now been added as a party to the lawsuit. Hearing will be continued to June 16-19 with possible supplemental hearings between April 24 and June 16.

Anti-Arpaio protest outside courtroom