June 21, 2012

Arizona Secretary of State Thinks Obama Told Colleges He Was Born in Kenya

Ken Bennett (R)<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Bennett_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg">Gake Skidmore</a>/Wikimedia Commons

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Arizona secretary of state Ken Bennett stepped in it back in May when he threatened to keep President Barack Obama off the November ballot unless the state of Hawaii produced a copy of his birth certificate. This was an odd demand, because Obama and the state of Hawaii have already produced two copies of Obama’s birth certificate. Bennett eventually backed down and apologized to the citizens of Arizona (but not before Democrats demanded that he investigate rumors that Mitt Romney is secretly a unicorn).

Now, Bennett is at it again. Speaking to local Republicans last week, Bennett alleged that the president may have told college admissions officers that he had been born in Kenya in order to receive special perks. Per the Arizona Republic:

“Now, I know there are a lot of people who are very skeptical about whether the president was born in Hawaii,” he said. “Personally, I believe he was.

“I actually think he was fibbing about being born in Kenya when he was trying to get into college and doing things like writing a book and on and on and on.

“So, if there was weird stuff going on, I actually think it was happening back in his college days because I think he has spent $1.5 (million) or $2 million through attorneys to have all the college records and all that stuff sealed.

“So, if you’re spending money to seal something, that’s probably where the hanky panky was going on.”

Bennett on Wednesday said that his comments are being misconstrued and that he was hinging his statement on the word “if.”

It just depends on what your definition of if is!

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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