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Alleged unicorn Mitt Romney.

Is GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney a businessman? Or is he really a unicorn?

At the time of this post, more than 17,000 people would like Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to find out.

In response to the 1,200 "birthers" who asked Bennett to verify with the state of Hawaii -- yet again -- that President Obama has a birth certificate there, the left-wingers would also like Bennett to check out their conspiracy theory.

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Photo by Matthew Hendley

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett

Believe it or not (the "birthers" still won't), President Obama was born in Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett's appears to have convinced the State of Hawaii to "verify" the president's birth certificate, and as has been the case since 1961 -- and subsequently verified in 2008 and 2011 -- Obama's from Hawaii. Ya know, America.

"Regarding the inquiry from the Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, requesting a verification of birth for President Obama from the State of Hawaii, Department of Health, the matter has been resolved," writes Joshua Wisch, an assistant to Hawaii's Attorney General. "We have received information from Secretary Bennett that satisfied our requirements, and have therefore provided his office with a verification of birth for President Obama."

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Dear Maricopa County taxpayers, you're currently funding a trip to Hawaii for one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies so he can help hunt for President Obama's birth certificate or something.

Yes, the investigation that was billed as being at "no cost to taxpayers" happens to have some cost to taxpayers.

According to what Arpaio told conspiracy theorist/alleged "special deputy" Jerome Corsi, the "birther" brigade is "with an MCSO deputy detective for safety reasons and to act as a liaison between MCSO and local law enforcement."

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Photo by Matthew Hendley

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett

Last week, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett raised some eyebrows after saying he's not a "birther," but due to constituent concerns, he's just checking with Hawaii to make sure President Obama wasn't born in Kenya.

"They have yet to respond," Bennett's spokesman Matthew Roberts told New Times.

Turns out, officials in Hawaii did respond, telling Bennett in March that they'd get right to it -- as soon as Bennett proves he's doing this for "a legitimate government purpose."

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Photo by Matthew Hendley

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennet

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett just found out the reason why you're putting yourself in a difficult position when you appeal to "birthers" -- people are going to think you're a "birther."

After people caught on to the fact that Bennett told the "birthers" that he was taking the "extra step" to verify President Barack Obama's birth certificate in order for him to appear on Arizona ballots this year, he seems to have received enough questions about it that he's released a public statement declaring his lack of "birther"-ism.

"...I have been on the record since 2009 that I believe the President was born in Hawaii," Bennett says. "I am not a 'birther.'"

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Photo by Matthew Hendley

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett

UPDATE: "Mr. Bennett wrote that email," Bennett's spokesman Matt Roberts says. "With respect to the story, a constituent requested him to request a verification in lieu of certified copy. They have yet to respond."

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who just recently filed the paperwork for an exploratory committee in the 2014 Arizona gubernatorial race, appears to be the latest Arizona politician to play to the "birther" crowd.

In the mess that is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's "investigation" into President Obama's birth certificate, conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi has already courted the likes of state Representatives David Burnell Smith, Jack Harper, and Carl Seel as well as state Senator Lori Klein and others into making appearances at "birther"-related press conferences.

Now, Corsi claims to have some support from Bennett to deal with the Obama birth-certificate issue.

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According to this poll, that's your average Arizona voter.

Of some of the more controversial ideas tossed around the Arizona Legislature, the "birther" bill is the most popular to voters, according to a recent poll.

The Morrison Institute for Public Policy quizzed Arizona voters on five of the more controversial bills brought up by the right-hand side of the Legislature, including the citizen militia, religious objections to contraception, bringing guns to public places, stronger abortion regulations, and of course, the "birther" bill.

Just one of those ideas had more support than opposition -- the "birther" bill.

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The book co-authored by one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's purported "special deputies"/ex-Sheriff's Posse member is "all wrong," according to the sheriff.

Between "no comment" and "it's all wrong," Arpaio tells New Times that he didn't actually read the book apparently slamming his investigation into President Obama's birth certificate and other documents, but he's heard about it, and he's not agreeing with it.

The book, co-authored by Michelle Dallacroce and Michael Bruning -- founders of the Phoenix-based Mothers Against Illegal Aliens group -- is said to look into "the players and hints at the dangers poised by the Cold Case Posse and its public relation frenzy it has been perpetrating upon the public."

One of the things in the book we tried to verify with the Sheriff's Office late last week was the claim that conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi was given "special deputy" status, while profiting off an investigation ordered in Arpaio's name.

Arpaio's PR folks didn't respond to whether Corsi's been given "special deputy" status, and that question today is what drew the "no comment" line from Arpaio.

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YouTube

Matt Salmon, attempting to explain how few shits he gives about the president's birth certificate.

It looks like sympathizers to Sheriff Joe Arpaio's "birther" movement are still looking for politicians to support the Obama's-from-Africa conspiracy theory, and it's still not working.

That's really not all that surprising, but the way Arizona politicians are issuing their awkward responses to "birther" inquiries makes you wonder why anyone would want to let people know that these exchanges ever happened.

You're really not supposed to call constituents crackpots in response to their questions, so people like Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl are being tactful in their responses to whether unicorns are real the president was born in Africa and brought over to the United States in anticipation of his presidency a few decades down the road.

This series of awkward interviews and letters is brought to you by the "Western Journalism Center," the parent of World Net Daily -- the same World Net Daily that was soliciting donations to Arpaio's "birther" fund, and the same World Net Daily that Arpaio comrade Jerome Corsi calls home.*

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hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com

​A couple weeks ago, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a letter to the director of the Selective Service System, asking to let his "birther" posse play detective with President Obama's registration card.

Arpaio laid out his whole stamp conspiracy-theory in the two-page letter, and demanded a response within 30 days.

As you can imagine, the Selective Service official who responded to Arpaio said no.

If Arpaio can come up with "any credible evidence" -- which, from what we've seen so far, is extremely unlikely -- then he'd have to go to the FBI for that.

"This Agency has no evidence that President Obama's 1980 registration is not authentic," writes Richard Flahavan, the associate director of public affairs at the Selective Service. "However, if you have any credible evidence to the contrary and believe that a Federal crime has been committed, we suggest that it be turned over immediately to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to pursue."

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