The campaign by the Beltway establishment to discredit anyone who dares questions the official story of Barack Obama's past rolls on as John Richardson of Esquire offers "What Really Happens When You Demand the President Produce His Birth Certificate?" [1]. It's linked approvingly by HotAir (which continues to lie about this issue) and by Ben Smith of the Politico (who's continually lied about this issue), and it discusses the wacky ways of Orly Taitz, the person some call "Queen of the Birthers". For an important note about her, see [2].

While the Esquire article isn't as bad as it could be in the mocking sense, Richardson might consider that being a real reporter is a higher role than simply being a transcriptionist. In addition to the advice I offered to Kathryn McGarr of the Politico, he could look into some of Taitz' claims (note: numbering added by me):

[1.] Goldman Sachs runs the treasury.

[2.] Obama is a puppet.

[3.] There's a cemetery somewhere in Arizona where they just dug 30,000 fresh graves, which wait now for the revolution.

[4.] Baxter International - a major Obama contributor - developed a vaccine for bird flu that actually kills people.

[5.] Google Congressman Alcee Hastings and House Bill 684 and you'll see that they're planning at least six civilian labor camps.

[6.] Google an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about train cars with shackles.

[7.] The communist dictator Hugo Chavez way back in 2004 purchased the Sequoia software that runs our voting machines and the mainstream media won't report any of it — not even Fox because Saudi Arabia bought a percentage of Fox in 2007.

1. Given the billions that have flowed from the U.S. government into private hands and the central nature of Goldman Sachs in the current and past crises, perhaps that's not such an outrageous claim.

2. Clearly, that's true to a good extent, as it was true that George W Bush was a puppet. If he weren't a puppet, be probably wouldn't have written this or said this. If, just as an example, George Soros wanted one thing, and Obama wanted something completely different, does anyone think he'd go against Soros' wishes?

3. That's a reference to things like this. Taitz and InfoWars might not have the reason for that correct, so I'm sure Richardson could look into that and find out what's really going on. I'm also sure he won't simply credulously repeat what he's told by a spokesperson.

4. Left as an exercise.

5. That's a reference to real legislation from Alcee Hastings, an impeached federal judge who's now a Congressman. While the camps probably aren't for the internment of U.S. citizens, one clause is a bit open-ended. Maybe Richardson should have done a little of that Googling and he would have gotten the bill number right. For extra credit, he could do a better job than Glenn Beck did.

6. I was unable to find anything about that at sfgate.com, but I did find the picture here. That's probably a hoax, but if anyone can find a reputable source leave a comment.

7. Now here's where we get some blue-on-blue action. Venezuelan interests, at least as of a few years ago, did own Sequoia (link to Business Week). They claim there's no Chavez connection. And, Brad Friedman has some not-so-nice words about Sequoia and voting here.

I think Richardson should have spent less time transcribing and more time Googling (or picking up the phone).

[1] esquire.com/the-side/richardson-report/obama-birth-certificate-update-081109

[2] Last I checked, there was some awfully strange obfuscated Javascript in the source code to her blog page (at the end). I suspect she was hacked. Note that Google gives a warning about that page, and - instead of taking my advice that I left in a comment and fixing the matter - she was acting paranoid, claiming the warning was part of the campaign against her and encouraging people to disable Firefox's checking. That's not at all a good sign. If you visit her site, use Firefox and turn off Javascript first. And, clear all your caches and cookies both before and after visiting, and don't have any other Firefox windows or tabs open. Or, use something like lynx.