Two Years Later, Right Wing Still posting the Occidental College April Fool’s Hoax as “Breaking News”

This just goes to show you that you don’t have to read in order to write.

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.

Barack Obama Hoax Chumps of the Day: Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots

Chump n. a gullible person: See if that chump will loan you some money.

-- 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.

Obama Hoax Chump of the Day: Paul Wilson, With Bonus Baloney

Paul Wilson explains at his Black Hole Next Door blog that he became a conservative after a neighbor borrowed some stuff of his and then had the gall to die. He also is the latest to pass on the untrue “information” on two different websites that President Barack Obama registered as a foreign student at Occidental College. The claim was debunked well over a year ago, as anyone making a simple search will find out. This alone makes Paul Wilson our Chump of the Day.

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!

Obama Hoax Chump of the Day: John Preiss

We didn’t come up with the utterly untrue, false, made-up hoax proclaiming that Barack Obama somehow registered at Occidental College as “Barry Soetoro” with an Indonesian passport. We at Americans for Freedom of Information simply could not have. After all, we don’t exist as an organization. It’s very difficult for fictitious beings to impact the real. But we can watch, and we do watch with amusement from the plane of non-existence as America’s Best Christian, John Preiss, shouts “LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON’T !” before cutting and pasting our favorite message in the whole wide world into his WordPress blog:

QUIETLY OBAMA’S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME 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…

You know the rest. This fake AP story was exposed as a hoax in the Spring of 2009, and here we are in the early days of 2010, watching the right wing cling to the story like the last few tatters of toilet paper on the roll.

John Preiss, you don’t know better, but you should. You’re the Chump of the Day!

Another Tea Party Chump Spreading the Obama Occidental Lie

You know, when we started this website, Americans for Freedom of Information, we thought it would be a short-time effort to point out the absurdity in the fake Associated Press “news story” that some desperate right-winger pulled together in an effort to make you think that Barack Obama wasn’t born in this country. Surely, we thought, if we just make it apparent to people that the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” did not actually exist, then everybody will figure out that they’ve been hoaxed and move on to some new crackpot conspiracy, maybe about Corn Flakes.

But no. Seven months later, the completely fictitious “shocking revelation” that Barack Obama registered at Occidental College under the name “Barry Soetoro” is still being posted as fresh news on right-wing websites.

Take the movement website called Tea Party Patriots. In a “news flash” from December 8, 2009, the Tea Party Patriots “report”:

VERY QUIETLY OBAMA’S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME 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 at the 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. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking….

… and so on and so forth. The article is a fake, easily proved so, and yet the Tea Party Patriots are eager to believe the baloney nonetheless. Why? Why do they need to believe that Barack Obama is not a real American? What itch does that fiction scratch?

Another Chump: Walks With Whispers Believes the Occidental Lie

You know, when a group like ours that does not exist sets out to not-actually release a report containing an utter lack of an Occidental College transcript for Barack Obama, it just amazes me. No, it’s not our utterly fictitious act that is so impressive. Any non-existent entity can not do anything, after all. Or after nothing at all, (not) actually. Sigh. Writing from nonexistence is a bit complicated.

But to get back on track, what really impresses me is that despite the multiple indications of the non-existence of the “Americans for Freedom of Information” group in gold-standard fact-check sites all over the web, for months on end reminding people that any claims by the “Americans for Freedom of Information” are utterly bogus and without a shred of documented evidence whatsoever, there are still some chumps out there taken in by all this!

Take “Walks With Whispers,” a fella who posts over at the fishingbuddy.com website. Why, he just cut and pasted the classic made-up hoax that pretends to be from the Associated Press and makes up the fake group “Americans for Freedom of Information” out of thin air… all to make the false claim that Barack Obama somehow registered at Occidental College as an Indonesian citizen.

Ya big silly, Walksy, ya gotta check these facts on Google if ya don’t want to look like a chump. Unfortunately, if ya looks like a chump and ya cuts and pastes like a chump, chances are you’re a chump.

Chump of the Day: Walks With Whispers! Don’t let the Sasquatch and the Illuminati take you down the garden path next time.

Can You Find…? Chump of the Day: Glock Talk

Can you find any website (other than this fictitious one) for Americans for Freedom of Information?

Can you find any actual Occidental College application for Barack Obama or “Barry Soetoro”?

When you go to Google News or Newsbank or Lexis-Nexis or any other newspaper database, can you find any direct record of an actual Associated Press article regarding Barack Obama applying as “Barry Soetoro” to Occidential College as a foreign student?

Using the same method, can you find any record of any article in Britain’s Daily Mail with the headline “Obama Eligibility Questioned”?

The answer is no: no, you cannot.

Given that you cannot find these things — because they do not exist — what do you conclude?

Option A) That the story regarding Barack Obama registering as Indonesian “Barry Soetoro” at Occidental College is a hoax and a lie.

Option B) That the effort to suppress the truth about Barack Obama’s foreign origins is even more sweeping and nefarious than previously imagined, including the power to erase transcripts, records, organizations and multiple news stories entirely.

If you visit the message boards for “Glock Talk”, the answer appears to be Option B. And that makes Glock Talk our Chump of the Day!

Photo Documentation of Barry Soetoro at Occidental College

Earlier today, the people at Irregular Times attempted to pass off a “photograph” as evidence that Barack Obama was born in “Kenya,” and then to attribute it to we at the non-existent group Americans for Freedom of Information. This is false information! That photograph, attributed to we who do not exist, was NOT forged by Americans for Freedom of Information.

Let us correct the record. THIS is the photograph that was forged by the non-group Americans for Freedom of Information:

As you can clearly see, this fake photograph, the REAL fake photograph, does NOT show Barack Obama in Kenya. It shows him registering for his first day as a student at Occidental College, queing up in the line FOR INDONESIANS ONLY. Yes, Barry “Soetoro” is just a baby in this picture; even though he is the socialist love child of Malcolm X and a crypto-Muslim, you must admit he has always been precocious.

So there are the real non-facts, people. Let’s get them STRAIGHT!

Patriotic Resistance to Reality: Chump of the Day!

David L. O’Connor writes on “The Patriotic Resistance: The network for idea-based resistance to Obama-led socialistic agenda”. He cuts and pastes that ol’ familiar hoaxed text into his blog:

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 indicates that 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. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking.

This is typical and unremarkable as far as it goes. As a matter of non-fact, we who do not exist here at the completely fictitious Americans for Freedom of Information were rather disappointed in Mr. O’Connor’s presentation. Couldn’t he add some new juicy lies to supplement our lies? You know, something like this:

A source who wishes to remain anonymous for national security purposes informs me that Obama’s National Security Adviser has convened a Fox Eagle Priority One team of “fixers” to remove all sources on this story as soon as possible.

That would have been a great new fictional twist to add to this fake story. Then, see, other right-wing bloggers could link to O’Connor, and another layer of bloggers could link to those stories, then someone could post on Free Republic the question “Why Won’t Obama answer Questions About His Fox Eagle Coverup Program?,” and then FOX News could put a story on the air with the header, “Online Bursts With Rumors of High-Level Obama Birth Certificate Coverup. High Crime or Misdemeaner?” That would have been great! But no, O’Connor just cuts and pastes. Unimaginative. Drone-like. Still a useful chump, but kind of boring.

But wait, there’s more! David O’Connor redeems himself in the “comments” section, where he responds to his own article without waiting for anyone else to jump in first:

Most info that I and hundreds and maybe thousands of others have accumulated has come from all over the world…. I posted on my web site and sent it out to ALL radio,print and T.V. news outlets.I will post all the media outlets for anyone that wants them on a blog on my page here on this site.

…

You can google Freedom Of Information or google topic you seek ,Like, Obamas College Records or what is needed.As i just added one connection i will continue to add other links as i find them in ref to this article.Thanks for checking. If you find any additional links please let us know. We must be able to communicate vital info as we get it.

At the last minute, you turn it around, Mr. O’Connor! Yes! A methodology section. See, for all you folks out there who don’t know how to do research, this is how you do it. You just go to Google and search for a term, and anything that turns up, BINGO! Research! Information! Genius!

Keep on churning out the Google material, Donald, or Derbert, or whoever you are. It helps us spread the hoax, and it makes YOU the CHUMP OF THE DAY!

Chump of the Day: WarrantOneGirl

My, we have so many chumps spreading lies to choose from this morning. Who is today’s winner?

WarrantOneGirl writes cuts and pastes this morning:

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 indicates that 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. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking.

Tickle, tickle, tee hee! No, Americans for Freedom of Information does not exist. No, there is not a single actual document from the physical plane of this universe to support this notion. But yes, by getting WarrantOneGirl to repeat the untruth verbatim we give this untruth a thicker patina of reality. And yes, WarrantOneGirl, that means you are our CHUMP!