At the Alfred E. Smith Dinner - a political roast featuring our wonderful political establishment - Barack Obama made a joke about his middle name being "Steve" [1]. Not getting the joke, on October 29, 2009, a site asked Janice Okubo of the Hawaii Department of Health to confirm whether someone named "Steve Dunham" was born on Obama's birth date (linked from this FreeRepublic thread). She first asked for more time and then yesterday - after being asked again - said that no one by that name was born on that date. Now, that same site is jumping to the conclusion that she's lying and that Obama's real name is Steve Dunham.

Whether they're playing a prank or whether they're serious isn't known, but this is not only incredibly stupid, it's incredibly galling.

For over a year, this site has catalogued a long line of MSM and sub-MSM sources lying and misleading about the basic, easily-understood facts of this matter. If, instead of chasing down rabbit holes, people had simply concentrated on the facts and how those sources weren't telling the truth about the facts, we could have discredited dozens of reporters and sent a strong message that they need to tell the truth. And, we could have encouraged others to double-check their statements about other matters for accuracy. Unfortunately, I have gotten absolutely no help with that, with people instead just making themselves look bad and helping Obama rather than holding him and his defenders accountable.

See the Obama citizenship page for all of my past coverage.

[1] On the video at peekURL.com/v7yiz1s from mid-October 2008 you can hear Obama joke: "in the spirit of full disclosure, there are a few October surprises you’ll be finding out about in the coming weeks. First of all, my middle name is not what you think. It’s actually Steve. That’s right. Barack Steve Obama."