February 5, 2012:

Congratulations, DelMarVa Observer, you’re the latest venue to fall into the role of hoaxer’s chump.

They kept spreading it in 2010.

They continued to spread it in 2011.

Now we’re in 2012, and people continue to spread the hoax news — always “released today” — that Obama’s Occidental College transcripts “prove” him to be a foreigner and therefore unfit to be president.

The latest chumps (definition: thick end of a piece of wood; gullible) to spread this hoax to inflame anti-Obama sentiment are “GA Tea Party Chief” of McDonough, Georgia and Sharla’s Labyrinth, posting the hoax as important “news” on January 16 and January 28, 2012.

The Obama Occidental Transcript Hoax is like a zombie. You think it’s dead, but it just keeps shambling along.

“AP – WASHINGTON D.C. -
In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has Released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College … Released today, the transcript school indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.”

Just as quickly as the e-mail started making the rounds, it was quickly and repeatedly debunked. There is no such article in the AP archives, and there is no released Occidental transcript. They can’t be documented, meaning that there is no support for the claims of the hoax “article.”

But that isn’t stopping the adherents to the Obama birth certificate conspiracy theory. Despite clear and readily available documentation that this message is a hoax (and a three year old one at that) people continue to spread it as if it were real, still-”breaking” news.

Here’s another of the groups to do so recently: Miami County Liberty of Miami County, Ohio…

It’s been nearly two months since the hoax posting at Miami County Liberty, and nobody’s bothered to check facts on the story. It’s just another “fact” being added to the pile of documents which together in their sheer volume are being counted as proof of a problem that does not exist.

Before you Save America, check the facts.

Two years ago, a still-unknown party posted an April Fool’s Day joke that Occidental College had supposedly publicized Barack Obama’s transcript, revealing his supposed Indonesian citizenship and his supposed true name of “Barry Soetoro.” Two years ago, the fake “Associated Press article” was exposed as a fiction. But two years later, a bunch of illiterate right-wing chumps are still baaaaing right along and posting the hoax as breaking news!

The latest list of birther chumps:

American Independent Party candidate Leonard Foster of Nevada still hasn’t gotten the memo about this memo.

Conservative Watch News (logo: a watch!) has not been watching.

The Disclosure Project has a big picture of a pretty kitty cat, but that still doesn’t make the fake Associated Press story real.

Blue Eye View needs a website redesign and a new content provider.

Oh, you silly geese.

But today right-wing conspiracy theorist Tony Caputo sent along the text of the hoax as an e-mail to me, with the preface “APPEARS TO BE THE PROOF, AT LAST. FROM SNOPES.COM. SNOPES SAY’S IT’S TRUE.”

Of course, Snopes documents that it’s false.

Tony Caputo, whether you know it or not, you are the Chump of the Day!

…Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship….

Blau, blau, blau, nuclear weapon, blau, blau, blau, secret cave, blau, blau, blau, Obama’s not a U.S. citizen, blau, blau, blau, the little red ones will give you cancer. WOXII spread the lie yesterday along with proclamations of the imminent return of Jesus and equally fervent declarations that the Muslims are going to kill us all any day now.

It would be silly if it weren’t slander. For whatever reason, WOXII is distributing lies. WOXII, you’re the chump of the day.

-- Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

A full year and a half after it was debunked as a complete and utter hoax, a faked AP story about President Barack Obama’s Occidental College transcript is still being posted all around the web by American conservatives as if it were credible breaking news.

Earlier this month, Lynne Stevens of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots shared the “news” with her fellow members in an extra-big double alert font:

Very quitely Obamme’s case is making it to court

AP – WASHINGTON D.C
-
In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the
group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has Released copies of
President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College . Released today, the
transcript school indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro,
received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate. The
transcript was released by Occidental College…

You know the rest if you’ve been paying attention.

Oh, this has all been “Very quite” indeed. It’s been so hushed up that:

* the Associated Press has no record of ever publishing such a story
* none of the newspapers carrying Associated Press stories have any record, even on microfilm, of the supposed story
* Occidental College not only has no record of releasing Barack Obama’s transcript, but has in fact expressly denied that such a release occurred
* finally, there is no record of a case pending before the Supreme Court on the issue.

It’s either the world’s biggest coverup ever seen, encompassing educational institutions, the entire judiciary, every one of the nation’s newspapers, and every one of the nation’s libraries that archives newspapers

… or it never happened.

Lynne Stevens of the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots apparently either

1) Believes in the World’s Biggest Coverup Ever,
2) Didn’t bother to stop, think, and make the simplest fact check on incendiary hoax of blazing falsehood, or
3) Doesn’t care whether something’s true or not as long as it makes Barack Obama look bad.

In any of those cases, Lynne Stevens, you’ve acted a gullible, credulous puppet, not an independent thinking citizen. You’re a chump, you’re a chump, you’re a chump, chump, chump. And not one of your fellow travelers in the Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots has written a word to set you straight.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are the chumps of the day! I think we can expect many more to come.

But wait, there’s more! Mr. Wilson earns our special Certificate of Unmitigated Gall for adding the following prelude to the top of the canned cut-and-paste hoax job:

This information from Occidental College was released TODAY, May 4, 2010. I checked with Snopes and it IS true. He got financial aid as a foreign student. The request for his transcript was released in compliance with an order from the Superior Court of the State of California.

You know that’s not true, right? A simple actual check of Snopes will show the opposite to be the case. But this message isn’t meant for people like you and me who actually check facts, require evidence and live in the Reality-Based Community. The message is meant for chumps.

Present ARMS! All SALUTE! Paul Wilson, Chump of the Day, with CERTIFICATE!

YAH!

Q: When will the hoax “AP article” — falsely asserting the release of an Occidental College transcript establishing Barack Obama’s Indonesian citizenship — stop making the rounds?

A: When people start to value empirical reality more than their need to hate the President.

Today’s Chump of the Day, joszs, posts the “breaking news” that’s over a year old. His title? “Odumba Goes to Court.”

Careful, joszs. You know what they say about rubber and glue.