Most people are aware of numerous scams on the Internet that have fleeced people out of money. They range anywhere from fake bank or PayPal messages notifying you that "there may be a problem with your account" to wealthy Nigerians who want to give you free money.
But there is another scam to hit the Internet, one that is also connected to Africa. Although it's not really a Nigerian scam. Instead, it's a scam that preys on the fears of Americans. One that claims Barack Obama is not a natural-born American citizen and in fact was born in Mombassa, Kenya.
Like most scams, it holds an air of authenticity. In this case, the authenticity comes from Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq. Taitz is apparently an attorney, a dentist and a real estate agent and she has filed cases intended to prove that Obama is not a natural-born citizen and thus ineligible to run for, let alone be elected, President.
She apparently also has in her possession evidence. Including a Kenyan birth certificate. But there are numerous problems with her argument. But, many of you know this so instead, you're asking yourself, "how is this anything different from just another right-wing conspiracy nutcase?"
And I'll tell you.
You see, Orly Taitz is asking for money. Her website is plastered with links to PayPal and opens with a giant heading asking people to donate as well as offers for people to advertise on her website. The fact that a lawyer would have such a poorly-designed website and plaster it with requests for donations and advertisers is definitely a red flag in my book.
The second red flag is the site's language. The main site (orlytaitzesq.com) reads "The OFFICIAL Web Site of Dr. Orly Taitz, Equire | Obama Eligibility, NOT A Natural Born Citizen". The first red flag here is the misspelling of "esquire." You'd think such a competent lawyer at the center of such massive media attention would take a moment to at least PROOFREAD her own site. And given the amount of time she spends updating her blog, it seems very strange that she continued to overlook this.
But of course, this isn't evidence that she's a fraud, just that she's very sloppy and doesn't give a shit about presentation. But then there's her media appearances. Successful lawyers are experts at arguing and doing so in a reasoned, measured fashion. Yet in every single one of Taitz's media appearances, she flies off the handle at the merest provocation and tosses out well-reasoned and well-researched arguments in favor of Nazi comparisons.
There are two types of people who resort to these sort of arguments. One of them is the traditional right-wing media personality -- your Bill O'Reillys, your Rush Limbaughs, your Glenn Becks. The other is an Internet troll. We've all seen them, we've all encountered them, and their style of arguing is remarkably similar to Taitz.
There's another very important piece of evidence that for some reason is being overlooked in the media, a piece of evidence that would silence her once and for all (and I suppose that's why the media isn't addressing it, because this crap is good for ratings). And here's what it is -- Taitz is a graduate of William Howard Taft University. This is an online university and in forty-nine states, online universities are not eligible for accreditation by the American Bar Association. There is one state that allows graduates of an online law school to take the bar exam provided they've met certain requirements. That state is California, where Taitz practices law.
So now, we have several highly questionable things going on, which is how most scams work. Another thing is if you access Taitz's blog through Firefox, you are warned that it is a malware site. This is a link to the diagnostic report I receive whenever I access the site.
And then of course, there is the dubious claims regarding the forged Kenyan birth certificate Tait produced, which has numerous errors and has even been discounted as a fraud by many on the right, including Karl Rove, Free Republic founder Jim Robinson and Birther and so-called "document expert" Ron Polarik (more details here).
Plus, the birth certificate has been proven as forged using the birth certificate of Australian David Bomford as the template.
I firmly believe Taitz knows exactly what she's doing. She's counting on this case to be dismissed each and every time she files it. In fact, she's praying for it. Because each time it gets dismissed, she has something to complain about, some new forgery to release, and she gets more donations.
Of course, I can't say I'm going to lose any sleep over this scam. Because in the end, the only ones getting conned are racist idiots and the only ones whose credibility is damaged by this are elected Republicans who refuse to distance themselves from the Birther movement. And hopefully soon, Taitz will find herself forced to prove her innocence for filing forged documents in court.
But none of this will matter to the Birthers. Because in their world, verified documents are not proof but obvious forgeries are. In their world, it makes no sense for a the son of an African man and an American woman to be born in Hawaii but it makes sense for an African man and an American woman to have a son in Africa, take him to America, and conspire with the Hawaiian government and two Hawaiian publications to create false documents and birth announcements for the possibility that in almost five decades, that son will run for President of the United States and usher in an era of socialism.
And that, my friends, is the problem with conspiracy theories. Once you think about them and examine the threads, you see how completely ridiculous they truly are and how the rules of logic must not apply for them to work.