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With the cornerstone of Donald Trump's potential "presidential campaign" now eliminated by the release of Barack Obama's birth certificate, "the Donald" might actually have to rant about something that matters.

​Donald Trump must have flipped what is obviously his wig this morning when President Barack Obama shockingly unveiled his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate -- thus putting an end to the conspiracy based controversy over his citizenship (for anyone with half a brain, that is).

Why did the president finally release the document? He says it's because "we're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers."

Trump, the most obnoxious noisiest sideshow and loudest barker, is taking all the credit.

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We wrote a cover story back in April 2009 about the crusade of one Harold "Bud" Lee, a onetime Phoenix-area Justice of the Peace and an outspoken advocate of off-Indian reservation poker rooms.

 

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"The foggy idea that adults playing poker for money in a card room is so dangerous to the community that it warrants a state-level prohibition is really quite loopy," Lee told us at the time, shortly before posing for this photo.

"And to squander resources in attempting to sustain such a silly prohibition is truly preposterous. I'm telling you, there's a bigger hand to play in all of this, and if they have to toss this old grandpa into the slammer before we get to make our point, fine with me."

Lee isn't in the slammer at the moment, but incarceration could be in his future.

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Congressman Harry Mitchell may want to think twice before giving the Obama healthcare bill the thumbs up because a new poll suggests that, if he does, voters in his district will give him the heave-ho come November.

Harry shouldn't start packin' his bags just yet -- the poll was funded by the conservative group Americans for Limited Government, so the results may be skewed.

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​President Obama went to the doctor yesterday for his first checkup since taking office. The appointment revealed that the hope-and-change hero takes anti-inflammatory medication to relieve chronic tendinitis in his left knee, and that he should eat better to lower his cholesterol. It also revealed that he's still smoking cigarettes.

The latest smoking diagnosis is now giving pundits a chance to pull out an allegedly doctored photo of the president blowin' down a cig while on the campaign trail in 2008.

The photo in question, which can be seen above, was originally taken by a man named Kwame Ross, while the president was running for the Senate in Illinois in 2004.

The original photo just shows a rather rundown Obama, without a cigarette dangling out of his mouth. Check it out after the jump.
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Drink up

​For those who want to be a responsible citizens and watch the President's State of the Union speech -- but who may get too bored to sit through the whole thing -- there's a solution: turn tonight's remarks intgo a drinking game.

The idea came to two Princeton University students, Marc Melzer and Howard Deutsch, in 2002 as they listened to President George W. Bush's annual update, suffering through countless Bushisms like "nukular," not to mention his incessant God references.

The game works a lot like the Roxanne drinking game, in which, you listen to the Police perform their 1978 hit, Roxanne, and drink every time they say the name, which happens to be about every few seconds.

The rules for the State of the Union game are a little different and vary given the president delivering the speech.  

The game works like this: There is a pre-set list of words or phrases, based on things the given president frequently says. Obviously, with Obama, the words "hope" and "change" are on that list. When the president says the designated words, those playing are required to take a shot.

It gets more advanced, however, for those looking to really get the full message of the speech.


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​Representative Judy Burges is at it again.

The Skull Valley Republican, who's introduced such laughable legislation as the "I didn't pay enough fund," which asks taxpayers to donate money to the state to help Arizona out of it's current financial nightmare, has introduced a new bill that feeds the controversial fire about whether Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen.

Burges has introduced House Bill 2441, which would require a presidential candidate to prove his or her citizenship before being included on the ballot in Arizona.

We're not saying that wanting to prove a candidate is a naturally born American citizen -- as required by law to run for President of the United States -- is a bad thing. The problem, however, is that the move seems to be in direct response to the controversy over Obama's citizenship and the right-wing conspiracy theorist "birther" movement.

"Birthers" claim that Obama was born in Kenya and therefore not eligible to be president, despite several investigations into the legitimacy of his Hawaiian birth certificate.


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Arizona Schools Chief Tom Horne

​Arizona schools chief Tom Horne had some tough words for President Obama, and the White House last week, in regard to Obama's address to students this morning.

After hearing the speech, guess what; Horney loved it!

"I think we can all agree with the message of the President's speech," Horne tells New Times. "My problem, as I said last week, is with the materials we got from the White House beforehand."

Horne says his problem was never the speech, or the fact that the President wanted to address students, but that the schools chief thought the White House materials called for adulation for the commander and chief.

"They were written by someone with a case of hero worship for the President," Horne says. "It's always nice when someone worships their boss; it just wasn't for kids."

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​The Arizona Republic has already noted that Macayo's, which was President Barack Obama's pick for Mexican food on Saturday night, is not the gold standard of Mexican food in the Valley.

A quick check of Maricopa County's restaurant-inspection Web site shows how true that is. The Central Avenue landmark eatery scored only a "silver" rating in May, the last time county inspectors checked it out. The previous inspection in January also came up silver, one notch shy of the county's top "gold" rating.

We're not saying the First Family was dining on roach parts -- not by a long shot. But a review of the most recent inspections shows a few things weren't up to snuff: Workers had been using a weak cleaning solution. Four cutting boards were heavily scarred and "not easily cleanable." A sink drain in the bar was clogged and concrete near the bar (the same one where Obama's shots came from?) was rough and likely difficult to clean.

The situation was even worse in January: Inspectors saw supposedly clean plates and utensils stored with "dry food debris," there was "black organic matter" (probably mold) in the ice machine and a chicken dish was being stored at a balmy (and potentially hazardous) 57 degrees. Gross!

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A TMZ.com article headlined "Obama Graduates to the Hard Stuff" pokes fun at the president for slurping down a magarita with his family this weekend at the local landmark restaurant, Macayo's. But the gossip site doesn't fully report how much hard stuff Obama reportedly had.

According to a Channel 12 (KPNX-TV) news broadcast on Saturday night, Obama and Michelle each drank a fully loaded "tres margarita" during dinner. (Side note from the Grammar Police: We have to bust the chops of anchor Lin Sue Cooney here for a sec. She commented that the margarita "ironically" contains Presidente Brandy -- but that's not ironic, it's appropriate).

A Macayo's waitress gushes that Obama loved the drink, at which point the reporter asks her if it's true the president ordered two more magaritas.

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