• An earlier version of this post said that Groupon dropped their sponsorship of “Celebrity Apprentice.” That’s half-true. The company will no longer allow their ads to show up on the Apprentice Web site. However, they never actively sponsored them, but instead showed up on the site thanks to Google and other ad networks. So, while ThinkProgress (30,000 followers), did throw the tweet to the company (35,000 followers), and Groupon did agree to it, it’s something of a misnomer. They agreed to “dump Trump” … if Trump happens to be in the same room as Groupon. But he isn’t right now. Still, there are examples of this technique being used against sponsors, including:

• left A 2009 YouTube clip put brand logos on Glenn Beck’s head as he said offensive things. The clip was so effective that Beck lost most of his advertisers.
• right Last week, Wonkette removed a story that mocked Trig Palin’s birthday after an online campaign went after the site’s advertisers; many dropped their ads. source

(via BrooklynMutt; photo originally by Gage Skidmore)

• President Obama’s decision to release his long-form birth certificate is a reminder of the handicaps under which rational people labor when confronting the irrational.
• Wendy Kaminer at The Atlantic • Giving us some perspective on this birth certificate madness. Obama has both reason and empirical evidence on his side, but those are useless against an opponent who rejects reason and empiricism. source

• I won’t mention names, but certain people in the news the last couple weeks, just, what are they doing? It’s crazy. They’re making statements about people that they don’t even back up. Go get the facts before you start saying things about people.
• Robert De Niro • Saying the kind of “no shit, sherlock” thing that somebody somewhere needed to say about the political sphere in recent weeks. Unfortunately … Donald Trump inferred it was about him. On Fox and Friends today, Trump had this to say: “When I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we are not dealing with Albert Einstein. He can say what he wants but the fact is this guy (Obama) has not revealed his birth certificate.” WAIT. STOP A SECOND. Robert De Niro (rightly) wants people to back up what they say in the press, and Donald Trump says he’s an idiot?!? Screw it. We give up. source

• This year, GOP voters’ hunger for radicalism is so great that it can be filled by essentially anybody. Kill off Trump’s candidacy and the demand will remain, leaving an opening for yet another demagogic charlatan to take his place.
• Ed Kilgore at The New Republic • Assessing the forces behind Donald Trump’s improbable candidacy for President. source

• When the fringe becomes the norm: The past couple years, the birther issue has been a touchy one in Republican politics; it’s a dangerous internal wedge issue for them. Say he was born in Kenya (or merely imply your doubts), and you look like a kook of the highest order. Say he was born in Hawaii, and you’ve alienated a non-negligible amount of your traditionally ravenous base. If the GOP Presidential field had managed to stay in the middling, “I take his word for it” zone, averting the problem — no Republican would have disdained their party’s strongest looking candidate because he didn’t think Obama was foreign. But with Donald Trump diving into the deep end of the birther pool, this constituency becomes volatile and impossible to predict. source

• It really sucks to be a GOP voter right now. Despite wide frustration on the right side of the aisle over Barack Obama’s policies, nobody appears to be doing the trick for conservative voters, according to this poll by The Washington Post and ABC News. And it gets worse: In a general election, Obama would best the entire field. Only Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee really get within fighting distance. Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich are 15 points behind. Sarah Palin is 17 points behind, by far the worst showing. source

• Donald Trump had the birther vote. Now he has the Busey vote. Whose opinion are you gonna trust anyway, those stupid pundits or a guy who once did a movie called “The Gingerdead Man“? A guy who couldn’t even win a season of “Celebrity Apprentice”? We know where we’re putting our money. source

• situation Donald Trump, best known of late as host of NBC’s hit show “The Apprentice,” has made waves of late for his birther stances, and is making waves about a possible presidential run.
• problem If Trump runs — which he may, based on his recent bluster — NBC may have a real problem: They’ll have to give up a still-popular show that draws ratings — or give equal time to other politicians. source

• YES a “Birther Bill” has passed the Arizona Senate source

• » Score one for The Donald: Arizona’s State Senate just passed a bill that requires presidential candidates to produce their “long form birth certificate” in order to appear on the state’s presidential ballots. If they can’t (or won’t) do that, other documents will be accepted–but not, much to Orly Taitz’s delight, a Certificate of Live Birth. We, like many Arizona Democrats, are skeptical as to whether or not this is within a state’s power. Regardless, the bill now heads to the state House for a vote.

• I think the Republicans are very concerned that I [may] run as an independent. I could also possibly win as an independent, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I’m not doing it for any other reason. I like winning.
• Donald Trump • Suggesting he would pull a Ross Perot and run for president independently if he doesn’t win the GOP nomination. With a little Charlie Sheen at the end. Oh God. Will ol’ Sideshow Don quit it? source