W.Va. Tea Party Movement Attracts Attention

West Virginia's Tea Party Movement has developed a political profile as the state's most visible critic of Obama administration proposals involving cap-and-trade and health care, The Associated Press reports.

The group's members have been courted by the nascent West Virginia Conservative Foundation, while U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-2nd, spoke at its July rally targeting cap and trade.

But while the movement has raised questions about the cost and jobs impact of such proposals, allegations raised by some of its top organizers "appear to go beyond policy disagreements," the article said.

E-mails from the group "promote demonstrated untruths" about some of this legislation, and also "recycle other rumors and allegations about Obama, his family and other Democrats previously debunked by the likes of FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com."

Several of the e-mails "have raised questions about President Barack Obama's place of birth and eligibility to serve," AP reported, adding that "late last month, state officials in Hawaii said they once again checked and confirmed that Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president."

The author of a number of these e-mails was asked about their content.

"I have just about come to the conclusion, because of the newspaper articles at the time of his birth, that Obama may well have been born in the US," the author told AP. "However, rumor is that he went to college as an exchange student, which would be a felony offense and thus would disqualify him for serving. All of those records are sealed."

Wrong again, according to FactCheck. It concluded in May that a "transparent April Fools' Day hoax" complete with a faked AP story to allege that Obama received a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students. "The claim is false and the story is a hoax," FactCheck found.