On Thursday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow took on the “birther” movement, warning viewers not to Google “Obama born” lest they find themselves plummeting down an online rabbit hole of “crazy.” She pointed out several attempts in Alabama to take Barack Obama off the ballot in that state on the grounds that he’s not really a U.S. citizen.

After resurrecting the long-dormant “Birther” conspiracy about President Obama’s birth certificate in an interview with Parade Magazine, Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled and tripled-down on the issue this week. Now, though, The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Perry now says he has “no doubt” that President Obama was born in the United States, and that he was “kidding around” when he raised the issue several times this week. Has his flirtation with the Birthers, and Donald Trump, rendered his candidacy a joke?

The biggest problem with yesterday’s revelation that Texas Gov. Rick Perry has reopened the President’s birth certificate as a campaign issue was the fact that there was no audio or video of Perry’s interview with Parade Magazine. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough remedied that situation, somewhat, this morning, when he drafted Willie Geist and Mark Halperin into a dramatic reenactment of the beleaguered former frontrunner’s absurd interview, in which he expresses doubt about the President’s birthplace.

Just when you thought it was safe to take Orly Taitz off of your producer’s speed-dial, Texas Gov. and struggling Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry throws a “Birther” Hail Orly in a Parade Magazine interview. Months after President Obama crushed then-GOP frontrunner Donald Trump by producing his long-form birth certificate and Osama bin Laden‘s long-form corpse, Perry told Parade that he had no idea if the document was real, and that he hopes to secure The Donald’s endorsement.

President Barack Obama turns 50 today– half a century since he was born in Kenya, his parents forged a fake newspaper announcement in Hawaii, and the Democratic state committed fraud to reproduce and archive a fake birth certificate. This was the well-wishing the President got from Rachel Maddow tonight, who took the opportunity to put together a look back at birther madness and the headline makers who kept it in the news.

The rise and fall of the “birthers,” America’s foremost conspiracy theory punchline, has been a veritable goldmine for the nation’s comedy industry. And as with all goldmines, people get possessive about who is encroaching on whose land. Earlier today, Bill Maher objected to The Onion stealing a joke about “afterbirthers” demanding to see the President’s placenta– a joke The Onion printed six months before Maher’s performance.

In the aftermath of the Birther movement (the afterbirth, as everyone is cleverly calling it), out of the wreckage of Orly Taitz‘s long fifteen minutes, one undeniable truth has emerged: if you really need to see something that is completely meaningless, the revelation of which would be an assault on the values upon which this country is built, Donald Trump is your man. In a few short weeks, The Donald accomplished what thousands of conspiracy theorists, and dozens of court cases, could not, and what the accumulated decency of the American people had so far managed to prevent.

In what could only be described as a bizzarro victory lap, Birther Queen Orly Taitz (who gave this site the proud, somewhat badass moniker “Insane Obama Thugs”) spent her 14th minute on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. O’Donnell was in no mood to let Taitz filibuster, however, and after a few minutes of attempting to force her to stay on topic, he ended the interview.

In a Friday appearance on CNN’s John King USA, Birther queen Orly Taitz rolled over the eponymous host, and beleaguered guest Cornell Belcher, like that boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Taitz emptied clip after clip of false and unsubstantiated claims at a helpless John King, but just when all seemed lost, King  fought back with his own daisy-cutter of crazy, suggesting that President Obama has been rebutting Birthers in code.

The recent emergence of Donald Trump as a possible presidential candidate and ringmaster of the Magical Birth Certificate Mystery Tour® has thrust the Birther movement into the national spotlight once again. Beyond Trump, though, there’s a teeming Birther subculture with its own cast of characters, including Lucas Daniel Smith, whose nude painting of Orly Taitz just sold for $350 on eBay.

Although everyone seems to be having a ball with Donald Trump’s Magical Birth Certificate Mystery Tour®, the sheer volume of Birther mythology makes it tough for interviewers to hit every clay Birther pigeon Trump tosses into the air. To be fair, reporting on the both certificate issue always seems to be missing one or two pieces, like a yard sale Monopoly set. Hopefully, this handy guide will remedy that situation, and help The Donald’s next Birther interview go straight to truth-jail. Do not pass “Go,” do not collect the nomination.

Donald Trump better hope Dr. Orly Taitz, D.D.S., Esq., stays away from the 2012 Republican presidential field, because barring a second fifteen minutes for the infamous frivolous lawsuit filer, Trump has solidified his position as 2012′s official birther candidate. Visiting Geraldo Rivera tonight, Trump insisted that, hope as he may that President Obama was American, “we shouldn’t have to be talking about the word hope.”

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised the Rahm-Emanuel-is-going-to-be-mayor-of-Chicago saga took an unforeseen turn yesterday.

If you haven’t heard, an appellate court ruled 2-1 he didn’t meet the qualifications for city residency. Because he’d lived in Washington D.C. to take the job as President Obama’s chief of staff and rented out his house, the court ruled, he was out as mayoral candiate.
But here’s why this brouhaha shouldn’t come as a surprise: This isn’t the first time Emanuel has seemed to take things for granted. It’s very similar to what happened when he was Obama’s chief of staff.

On Sunday, I reported that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor refused to reject Birther “crazy talk” on Meet the Press. At Monday’s White house briefing, I asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if he thought that Republican leaders had a duty to put the kibosh on Birther talk, and whether the President would do the same were the positions reversed. Gibbs responded that “rational people” don’t question the President’s citizenship, and pointed to Obama’s own record regarding his opponent’s status.

With Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s (D-HI) now-open-ended resurrection of the Birther issue, expect to see more of the embarrassing scene that played out on Sunday morning’s Meet the Press: Republican leaders trying to distance themselves from the conspiracy theorists, without alienating them. Rep. Eric Cantor danced around host David Gregory‘s challenge to reject Birthers like an amateur snake-charmer with a bladder full of Mountain Dew. Deliberately or not, Abercrombie just might be some kind of political genius.

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie’s one-man crusade to end the “controversy” over President Obama’s birth certificate has hit a dead-end that is sure to delight WorldNetDaily, Orly Taitz, and legions of Birthers everywhere. The Governor’s office told the Associated Press that Hawaii’s privacy laws prevent Abercrombie from pursuing the matter any further.

Aside from his implication that the Obama administration is capable of murdering Abercrombie, Rush Limbaugh might have a kernel of a point about who this helps.

Not content with cliché year-end wrap pieces, the voracious political media machine has resorted to reanimating the rotting corpses of memes past. Now, not only do we now have to avoid the stumbling, vacant groans of “Brains!” from Birther queen Orly Taitz, MSNBC’s The Dylan Ratigan Show has also thrust open the cemetery gates for “Death Panels.”

Using a report from Newsmax (Newsmax!) as its impetus, a panel that includes Jonathan Alter, Jane Hamsher, and Matt Lewis kicks the Death Panels around for awhile, but fails to deliver the requisite double-tap.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year–a time for sledding, hot cocoa, and very little hot news tidbits. So when Hawaiian governor Neil Abercrombie rekindled the dying embers of the birther fire today, the media leapt up like starved piranhas to nip at the scrap. Would a final investigation bury the birther debate once and for all? Would it discover that the birth certificate that was never actually existed? And, just as importantly, what would Orly Taitz, D.D.S., Esq. have to say?

Ory Taitz appeared on RT (Russian Television) regarding a recent portrait of her created by artist Dan Lacey that portrays her giving birth to a pancake. Yes you read that right, a pancake. Lacey is a non-traditional artist who portrays public officials with pancakes. In the interview, Taitz claims that the painting was created to intimidate her from running to office in her adopted state of California. “It’s extremely insulting and inappropriate,” Taitz said, before explaining how this is part of a larger conspiracy against her.

Orly Taitz became a household name by using whatever spare time she had from her careers as a dentist, lawyer, and real estate agent to file frivolous lawsuits against Barack Obama, on account of his being from the Kenyan province of Indonesia. She decided to make a run for California Secretary of State as a GOP primary candidate, and lost yesterday by nearly 50%. If you were watching MSNBC last night, those numbers might shock you, because for a minute there, it seemed like everyone on MSNBC prime time saw Taitz as a viable threat.

Orly Taitz. If you know the name, you’re already laughing. But the California Republican Party isn’t laughing because, after tonight, it’s quite possible they may have nominated her to run for California Secretary of State. As Keith Olbermann explained tonight, it’s not exactly the type of position that involves heavy campaigning, which means that Taitz’ minimal campaign work may have just won her the nomination of a major party.<

Some people will sit down and just watch “injustices” happen. Others will hop onto iMovie and try to profit out of arty-crafty slideshows of Barack Obama and Constitutional ClipArt. Others still will, for some reason, pay to watch these slideshows. If you belong to the latter group, then boy does WorldNetDaily have a deal for you!

Unfortunately for illegal immigration supporters and tea party activists gunning for the title of most outrageous protesters, the heavyweights of political nuttery are getting in on the game. Yes, get out the legal papers and Obama Witch Doctor posters: the “Obama Birth Certificate/Eligibility/Obamacare/March on Washington” is on!

Apparently, Daily Kos blogger Dante Atkins did not appreciate being reminded that his website was one of the few to predict a Martha Coakley victory in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, or being called insane, or dangerous, or, worst of all, insignificant. Which pretty much sums up how Fox News responded to the Daily Kos blog’s latest, inflammatory, research findings.

Birther diehard Orly Taitz, perhaps taking a page from the Sarah Palin internet memo handbook, had this to say in the aftermath of last week’s averted terrorist attack on Northwest Flight 253, which may or may not qualify as sedition.