It’s official: the state of Hawaii can ignore  requests from wing-nut birthers to see President Obama’s birth certificate.

Republican Gov. Linda Lingle signed the bill into law. which allows the state health department and other agencies to ignore repeated requests from the same groups or individuals who refuse to accept Obama’s birth certificate  -which has been posted online since 2008 – as legitimate.

The state health department has endured months of harassing repetitive requests from  the anti-Obama industry, and the new law allows officials to ignore these requests.  Health Department director Dr. Chiyonne Fukino verified in 2008 that the state of Hawaii holds Obama’s original birth certificate.

As we all know, this will not stop the birthers, because nothing will.  No amount of “proof,” will ever be enough for them.  Almost 18 months after the election, these people refuse to accept Obama as the legitimate president of the United States.  They want “their” country back, and they fervently wish for a return of the days when a black president of the United States was unthinkable and impossible.

On some level, birther’s must know everyone thinks they are crazy, but they can’t stop. Their irrational and racist fears took over long ago,  and have been driving them ever since.

“I know – it seems nutty to Bill O’Reilly and Anderson Cooper and  Glen Bcck and Rachel Maddow. I don’t care what they think – or if they think,” Joseph Farrah, a chief wing-nut at WorldNet Daily wrote.

Farrah claims the state of Hawaii has a ” cultural tradition” of issuing “bogus’ birth certificates  for decades.  In other words, he  apparently doesn’t accept the legitmacy of any person born on Hawaii because of Obama.  Aside from his birth certificate, Farah and others claim Obama never attended Harvard, is using a false social security number, is a British subject etc. The fact that the losing presidential candidate, John McCain, was born in Panama has never been an issue for these folks.

In a nation of 300 million people, we’re entitled to 300 million opinions. But it becomes a serious problem when even a relatively small percentage of people stop living in reality.

Epic oil spill should end Obama's offshore drilling compromise

Just a few short weeks ago,President  Obama lifted the ban on offshore drilling.  Though environmental activists in his base were disheartened, the move was seen as typical of the president’s centrist, pragmatic approach.

Now, as a massive oil spill slowly creeps toward the Gulf Coast bringing environmental and economic disaster, the idea of lifting the ban on offshore drilling  looks plainly like the short-sighted political compromise that it was.  To deprive Republicans of their  idiotic “Drill Baby Drill,” slogan, the administration figured they’d let a couple oil rigs go up, and in the meanwhile move forward on green energy and climate change legislation.

Of course, the “Drill Baby Drill” folks are silent now, and Gulf coast politicians like Sen. Mary Landrieu, Gov. Bob Riley and Gov. Bobby Jindal are looking for big government help as the massive oil slick approaches their shorelines.

As recently as last November, Landrieu was poo-pooing the notion that the U.S. could experience an oil rig spill similar to one in Australia that dumped more 800,000 gallons into the sea, comparing it to the amount of water in the Reflecting Pool in DC.

“The gallons are so minuscule compared to the benefits of U.S. strength and security, the benefits of job creation and energy security,” Landrieu said. ” So while there are risks associated with everything, I think you understand that they are quite, quite minimal.”

Obama has halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster. It should be halted forever, because the environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico will last decades longer than the than oil we receive.

Congress is planning to hold hearing on  BP’s actions in the disaster. Let’s hope the Congress  examines its own role in allowing the company operate without the safeguards that are required in other parts of world.

And as Bill Maher would say;”Every asshole who ever chanted ‘Drill Baby Drill’ should have to report to the Gulf Coast today for cleanup duty.”