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As MSNBC's First Read reported, Trump claimed that those in the media are the biggest threat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. After watching his latest birther rant at the North Carolina Republican Party Convention banquet from this Friday evening, I'm wondering if continued appearances from Trump are a likely bigger threat if he keeps this nonsense up. It's going to turn off everyone but the hard core racists who have lost their minds ever since our first black president got elected.

Trump: Media are biggest threat to Romney's presidential campaign:

Donald Trump on Friday warned that the media are the biggest threat to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, but added that the press he has garnered for the Republican nominee has caused his poll numbers to rise "very substantially."

Speaking at the North Carolina GOP Convention, Trump praised Romney for his business experience and promise to stand up against China and fight for American economic interests. But the business mogul also focused a portion of his speech on his questions about where President Obama was born. It is the reason why on Tuesday, when Romney earned the 1,144 delegates necessary to secure his party's nomination, much of the news cycle was devoted to his decision to appear with Trump at a fundraiser that day. [...]

And during his address, Trump again used his appearance as a platform to question the president's birth certificate, the reason he has branded himself as a controversial figure on the national political scene. Calling for the president to release his college records, Trump said, "There is one line called place of birth, I’d like to see what he said..Perhaps it’s going to say Hawaii, perhaps it’s going to say Kenya."

He dismissed that his motives were based in race by citing his recent decision to award African American actor Arsenio Hall the winner of his reality TV show "Celebrity Apprentice."

"Somebody said, 'Oh, because I brought up the birth certificate, I'm a racist. I said, 'How can I be a racist, I just picked Arsenio Hall," said Trump.

Asked after the event why he continues to bring up the issue of the president's birth certificate, Trump said it was the demand from people who want to hear him talk about it, pointing out that the loudest applause line of his nearly hour-long speech came when he was questioning the president's birthplace.

I believe Stephen Colbert would call that the "I have one black friend so I can't be a racist" defense.

You can watch the whole horrid mess at C-SPAN's site here if you're in the mood to torture yourself:

North Carolina Republican Party Convention Banquet.

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Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday denied he was a "birther," but found it "odd" that President Barack Obama took so long to release his birth certificate.

"You know, I've never been a birther," the Fox News host declared. "You know, it was odd that they didn't release the birth certificate to me. I'm like, you ask me for my birth certificate, it's pretty easy to get."

"Absolutely," Fox News "Medical A Team" member Dr. Marc Siegel agreed. "And it's very suspicious, at least, that he's not coming forward -- the president is not coming forward with his college records."

During his 2008 bid for the White House then-Sen. Obama did release his short-form birth certificate. FactCheck.org concluded at the time that "it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. ... Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said."

After billionaire Donald Trump and other prominent birthers refused to drop the issue, the White House released the president's long-form birth certificate in April 2011.

Even with the overwhelming evidence of the president's citizenship, Trump recently told The Daily Beast that Obama’s former literary agent had erroneously said the president was born in Kenya because it was the “truth.”

“He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth,” the billionaire mogul insisted. “He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”

Only hours before attending a fundraiser with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday night, Trump continued to insist to CNN that "a lot of people don’t think it’s authentic."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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The leader of a Christian think tank is blasting the media for not investigating President Barack Obama's citizenship.

During a Tuesday segment on American Family Association's AFA Today radio program, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council — a hate group, according the the Southern Poverty Law Center -- encouraged listeners to read an article by conservative columnist Sandy Rios which suggests the president is weakening the U.S. so that communists in Russia can "reclaim power."

"I would encourage you to read the article," Perkins said. "In society today, we throw around labels a lot and I think we've become desensitized and what we're looking here and what's Sandy's bringing up here is not labels. We're not calling somebody a Marxist, a socialist. ... We're looking at facts."

"What the media has done -- going back to our earlier discussion about the media -- is they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on those principles and that driving ideology."

He added: "You know, it goes back to what they did to those that, you know, questioned the issue of his birth certificate. Look, I don't know about all that, but I will tell you this: It's a legitimate issue from the standpoint of what the Constitution says."

"When you put it all together it connects the dots. It makes you wonder why did he risk Congress -- the control of the House -- to push through health care? It's a part of that ideology."

Rios, who also appeared on the program, applauded tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) for accusing up to 81 House Democrats of secretly being members of the Communist Party.

"The point is when Allen refuses to back down, I'm with him all the way," she explained. "The first year that Barack Obama was in office, in the White House, there was an ornament on Christmas Tree of Mao Zedong, which doesn't -- that may sound silly. But that's not silly to me."

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) indirectly questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship Monday night.

"As far as I’m concerned, I think, if I decide to throw the hat in the ring, anybody could look at my birth certificate, I could care less," she told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "This is the easiest problem to solve. The president just has to give proof and verification, and there it goes. Either it’s real or it’s not."

"Everybody should put their birth certificates on the table and not worry about it. It doesn’t have to be a toxic issue. Put your birth certificate in, end of story."

FactCheck.org reported in 2008 that they had "seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate."

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It's so good to see Michele Bachmann wants to keep her wingnut credentials in tact. As if she wasn't crazy enough on her own, she decided to appear with Orly Taitz for a teabagger luncheon. Isn't that special?

Orly Taitz And Michele Bachmann Appear At Lunch Together:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) posed for a picture with Birther leader and California secretary of state candidate Orly Taitz at a tea party lunch event in California Friday, Taitz tells TPM.

Taitz and Bachmann both spoke at a lunch sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, Taitz said in an email. But Birtherism did not come up at the event, according to Taitz.

"Michelle Bachmann spoke at the lunch, however she did not talk about eligibility, but rather general status of economy, politics and elections," Taitz says. "I spoke at the lunch, however I did not speak about ongoing legal actions involving Obama's use of ss number 042-68-4425, which was assigned to another individual, I also did not talk about Obama's refusal to unseal his original birth certificate, currently sealed in HI or any other issues of Obama' illegitimacy to presidency which are raised in the pleadings. I talked only about my candidacy for the position of the Secretary of State of CA."

Apparently being batsh**t crazy has an appeal in Bachmann's district. This on the heels as Keith noted of Hawaii finally having enough of Taitz and her ilk.

'Birther' measure signed into law:

Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday signed into law the so-called "birther" bill that is intended to limit the number of requests for President Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate.

Hawai'i state officials receive dozens of requests for Obama's birth certificate each month from people who believe he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and thus not eligible to be president.

The new law, Act 100, allows state agencies a limited exemption from Freedom of Information requirements when duplicative requests for information are made by the same person. Although the law covers all agencies, the measure targets people who repeatedly request a copy of Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate.

The requests are being made to the state Department of Health, which keeps the birth certificates.

In testimony before the Legislature in February, DOH Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said her department receives about 50 e-mail inquiries a month for Obama's birth certificate, primarily from the same four to six people.

"The time and state resources it takes to respond to these often convoluted inquiries are considerable," she testified.

Fukino has repeatedly vouched for the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate.

State law limits access to birth certificates to those who have "direct and tangible interest." This would include the person named in the record, the spouse, parent, descendant or personal representative; someone involved in marital, parental or death litigation; and official agency or organization representatives, including the health director.

Sadly given the make up of Bachmann's extremely red Congressional district, this will probably do nothing but endear her to the voters there. It always amazes me that a state with enough sense to elect Al Franken even if it was narrowly has a district that is so screwed up that they keep reelecting a woman who is nothing more than a shallow flame thrower and not much better than Glenn Beck with her rhetoric.

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After playing an ad from John McCain which features remarks by J.D. Hayworth during his radio program questioning whether President Obama’s birth certificate is legitimate or not, Bill O’Reilly asks Hayworth if he’s a “birther guy”. Here’s his response.

Hayworth: Bill, no, I’m a broadcaster and those comments were taken from a radio program where I was a catalyst for conversation. Just imagine Bill if every topic you brought up on The Factor, bloggers said you were an instant advocate for whom ever was on.

O’Reilly: Well they do already. That’s what Media Matters does.

Hayworth: Well okay. Then we’ve got something in common.

O’Reilly: If I mention the word black, I’m anti-black. If I mention the word gay, I’m a homophobe. You know what it is. Okay, so I want you to tell the American public how you view the birther movement. Is it legitimate? Do you believe that it—he might not be the President (crosstalk).

Hayworth: I view… hey Bill I view this entire debate as esoteric. It’s as esoteric as arguing about the eligibility of Chester Alan Arthur well over a century after he served as president. Look, Barack Obama’s the forty fourth president of the United States. His election was certified. I believe he was born in Hawaii. I made certain statements on the air to provoke conversation. That’s what happens in broadcasting.

Sadly Sen. McCain is involved in the politics of distortion and distraction. I can understand why he doesn’t want people talking about his bailout vote that included $150 billion in earmarks. He doesn’t want us talking about the fact he voted against the Bush tax cuts that I helped write. And he doesn’t want us talking about his amnesty that would have cost American tax payers $2.6 trillion in retirement benefits alone according to The Heritage Foundation. This is politics based on distortion and distraction and I’m happy to set the record straight.

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Looks like Grandpa McCain has got himself a birther challenger to run against in the Arizona Republican Senate primary race. Given Hayworth's ties to Jack Abramoff and the PAC payments made to his wife, it looks like he's counting on the voters of Arizona to have short memories if he hopes to get elected.

MATTHEWS: Most people will look at this race as John McCain being a -- somewhat of a middle-of-the-road conservative, I guess a mainstream conservative, and you as a bit further right than him. I most people will look at that.

Are you as far right as the Birthers? Are you one of those that believes the president should have to prove he`s a citizen of the United States and not an illegal immigrant? Are you that far right?

HAYWORTH: Well, gosh, we all had to bring our birth certificates to show we were who we said we were and we were the age we said we were to play football in youth sports. Shouldn`t we know exactly that anyone who wants to run for public office is a natural-born citizen of the United States, and is who they say they are?

Let me pause and make another point, because I`ve read --

MATTHEWS: No, I`m reading your letter that says the president should go back and get his birth certificate from the governor of Hawaii. You dated this November 6th, 2000. I`m just asking, do you stand by this letter? Should the governor of Hawaii produce evidence that the president is one of us, an American? Do you think that`s a worthy pastime for the governor of Hawaii right now?

HAYWORTH: No, look --

MATTHEWS: Should she do it?

HAYWORTH: I`m just saying, the president should come forward with the information. That`s all. Why must we depend on the governor of Hawaii?

MATTHEWS: OK.

More right wing crazy if you can stand to watch the whole thing.

h/t Bob Cesca and Rumproast who has the lyrics posted:

A funny thing went down in the presidential race ‘08

The democratic nominee was thought to be so great

But our founders made a rule and what they wrote was really clear

Only natural-born citizens are eligible...my dear

Obama ,tell us where were you born?

‘Cause the media won’t do their job anymore

You’re grandmother in Kenya said you were born on foreign shores

So Barry tell us where oh where were you born?

You’d think that Ol’ Barrack would wanna try and nip this in the bud

To settle all these lawsuits and wipe away the rumor mud

But the one thing that could prove it he won’t let anybody see

A bona fide presidential birth certificate mystery

Obama ,tell us where were you born?

‘Cause the media won’t do their job anymore

You’re grandmother in Kenya said you were born on foreign shores

So Barry tell us where oh where were you born?

Can you confirm Barrack...where were you born?

‘Cause the jpeg on your website was proven forged

I gotta say pal to me this whole thing just smells rotten to the core

So Barry tell us where oh where were you born?

Barrack Hussein Obama tell us...where were you born?

You don’t like your middle name spoken aloud in your side a thorn

Obama tell us where oh where were you born

I said Barack Obama tell us where oh where were you born?

Real Time's New Rules for July 31, 2009. Among other topics, Bill reiterates what he said in his LA Times op-ed.

Never underestimate the ability of a tiny fringe group of losers to ruin everything.

For the last couple of weeks, we've all been laughing heartily at the wacky antics of the "birthers" -- the far-right goofballs who claim Barack Obama wasn't really born in Hawaii and therefore the job of president goes to the runner-up, former Miss California Carrie Prejean.

Also, when Obama was sworn in as president, he forgot to give his answer in the form of a question.

And yet, every week, the chorus of conservatives demanding to see his birth certificate grows. It's like they're the Cambridge police, Obama's in his house -- the White House -- and they need to see some ID.

And there's nothing anyone can do to convince these folks. You could hand them, in person, the original birth certificate and have a video of Obama emerging from the womb with Don Ho singing in the background ... and they still wouldn't believe it.

Which raises the question: Why, in this country, is it always the religious right that won't take anything on faith?

So far, the reaction from Democrats is to laugh this off, and I understand why. If you seriously believe that President Obama is an African sleeper spy, get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead.

But we live in America, and in America, if you don't immediately kill arrant nonsense, no matter how ridiculous, it can grow and thrive and eventually take over, like crab grass or reality shows about fat people.

This flap might be a deluded right-wing obsession that is a total waste of time, but so was Whitewater, and look where that ended up. A handful of Republican operatives, enraged at Bill Clinton's unprecedented economic growth and budget surpluses, found a woman named Paula Jones, which led to a woman named Monica Lewinsky, which gave me enough material to eventually be able to buy a big house in Bel-Air. Which I'm still conflicted about.

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Lou Dobbs claims there are "new developments" in the Obama birth certificate "controversy" and goes on to defend the remarks he's made on his radio show and on CNN. And just what is this "new development" Dobbs felt he just had to "report" on? The state of Hawaii now says they did retain a hard copy of the original birth certificate. Wow Lou. Breaking news there, huh? Apparently Dobbs is determined to keep this up no matter how ridiculous it's making him look.