Star Foreman / OC Weekly

Our Orly Taitz costume is on discount for Black Friday.

​Yesterday, I gave thanks to birthers, who have provided the Weekly with so much fun material in 2009.

So let's check in on them. What's new in the wonderful world of people who don't believe that Barack Obama is an American?

Buena Park radio pastor Wiley Drake is no longer praying for the president to die. After the Rev. James Manning in New York was paid a visit by the CIA because he called for Obama's death, both Drake and Manning have toned down their rhetoric. According to the Baptist Associated Press (yes!), Drake is now asking followers to "pray for Mr. Obama's protection until he can be properly tried for treason." That's exactly the kind of compromise we thought we'd see more of in Obama's hope n' change America. [hat tip to Obama Conspiracy]

Orly Taitz knows how Sarah Palin feels. At least, that's the headline on a recent post on her blog:

I was subjected to the same wilding, defiling and dehumanization as Sarah Palin. I hope we will start seing some decensy from the judges, Congress and media.

Sorry, Orly. We apologies for whatever "wilding" we may have inflicted. But we've got no "desensy" to give for now. Maybe we'll show you some once you get the decency not to post articles like this one, where you take a hopeful story about a neurologically damaged person and write "WITH OBAMA PLAN THIS MAN WOULD HAVE BEEN PUT TO SLEEP" above it.

WorldNetDaily exhumes Ronald Reagan to sell merchandise. The Weekly's Gustavo Arellano is apparently on the birther-supporting "news" site's e-mail list. He forwarded me a message from them with the subject line "Reagan enlists your help in the battle against socialism-and for America's soul," hawking pins and bumper stickers. Thank goodness the same website that advances theories about Obama being a gay Kenyan serial murderer can claim the voice of the father of the modern conservative movement. Fun fact: There was a period this summer when Taitz and WND appeared to be in a fight, after WND pointed out that she was probably perjuring herself by filing obviously forged Kenyan birth certificates with her lawsuits. Everything seems hunky dory between the two parties now.

The Birthers keep lying. The most noxious lie is one of their most convincing-sounding talking points. As a WorldNetDaily Nov. 18 story put it, While [Obama's] supporters cite an online version of a "Certification of Live Birth" from Hawaii as his birth verification, critics point out such documents actually were issued for children not born in the state. This is absolutely untrue, but for some reason, its refutation seems to get talked about less than the refutations of the "Pakistan travel ban" and "Kenyan grandmother tape." The law allowing foreign-born children to obtain certificates of live birth in Hawaii was enacted two decades after Obama was born in 1961. His Certification of Live Birth, which says he was born in Honolulu, was filed in 1961. There is no plausible way that the Certification of Live Birth could have been given to Obama if he was foreign born.