To: Bill Zedler (TX-96)
Stop the Texas Birther Bill (HB 650)
Representative Zedler,
I am asking you to withdraw House Bill 650, the birther bill you have filed. The people of Texas are embarrassed by your actions. You may be one of the last 15 people on the planet (more or less) who thinks President Obama was not born in America. The manufactured birther controversy was an obvious attempt by extreme Tea Party members to undermine our first African-American president - and by Donald Trump to remain relevant.
It's time to let it go. Texas has far more important problems than this.
Why is this important?
On Wednesday, January 23, Republican State Representative Bill Zedler filed House Bill 650 - a birther bill. The legislation would require any candidate for President or Vice-President to submit his or her birth certificate to the Texas Secretary of State in order to be allowed on the ballot. The application to be on the ballot, including the birth certificate, would be matters of public record. The law would take effect immediately if it received 2/3 the vote of the Texas Legislature.
On April 27, 2011, President Obama released his long form birth certificate to the media and the public, putting the issue to rest for all but the fringe element of the Republican and Tea Party. That any lawmaker would still be obsessing about this issue is embarrassing.
Rep. Zedler - a fringe, Tea Party conservative - is not new to crazy ideas. He once tried to remove official complaints made against a doctor who injected jet fuel into his patients. (The doctor also just happened to have given money to Rep. Zedler's campaign.) Rep. Zedler has also filed legislation to bar discrimination against professors who teach intelligent design, and another to outlaw Sharia law in Texas. It's almost like Glenn Beck got elected to the State House.
Sign our petition today and let Rep. Bill Zedler know Texas has far more important problems than this.