It started in the fevered imagination on the way-out fringes of the Right, with Director of Issues Analysis for the Christian conservative group the American Family Association Bryan Fischer. "President Obama, he said, "wants to give the entire land mass of the United States of America back to the Indians. He wants Indian tribes to be our new overlords." That as a result of Obama announcing that the U.S. would support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. In addition, during the campaign, Obama was made an honorary member of the Crow Tribe.
Since nothing is too fringie or too crazy for the Right, so here it comes.
"Perhaps he figures that, as an adopted Crow Indian, he will be the new chief over this revived Indian empire," Fischer wrote. "But for the other 312 million of us, I think we'll settle for our constitutional 'We the people' form of government, thank you very much."
Yesterday, the right-wing blog World Net Daily took it a step further in a post called "Obama to give Manhattan back to Native Americans? President believes nation can spare some sovereignty." The article describes how "President Obama is voicing support for a U.N. resolution that could accomplish something as radical as relinquishing some U.S. sovereignty and opening a path for the return of ancient tribal lands to American Indians, including even parts of Manhattan."
The article continues: "Obama's interest is personal. He noted during the 2008 presidential campaign he was officially adopted by the Crow Nation, an Indian tribe in Montana, and he was given an Indian name."
Joseph Farah, the founder and editor of WND, followed up on the article today with a facetious column called "I'll Take Manhattan." He writes: "Truth be told, I have a fair amount of Indian heritage on my mother's side. So this proposed redistribution of wealth is welcome news for me. Where do I apply? I want to return wampum for Manhattan."
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Former Ambassador John Bolton was more concerned that the resolution would result in new legal claims. "It's a kind of feel-good document that has so many unclear phrases in it that nobody's really sure what it means when you agree to it," he told FoxNews.com. "It's wrong and potentially dangerous to sign onto a document that you don't fully understand the implications of."
"Hopefully most judges will say it's not binding," Bolton added. "But there are enough judges who couldn't care less about strictly applying the law."
But not wrong and potentially dangerous to lie about weapons of mass destruction in order to start a crippling war. Bygones.
This is only slightly less kooky than good ol' Colorado governor candidate Dan Maes' great UN-taking-over-American-cities-with-bicycles conspiracy theory, but mark my words, it's going to get traction. Pretty soon we're going to be seeing it on Beck and then Limbaugh and before you know it, Michele Bachmann will be introducing resolutions on the House floor about it.
