Orly Taitz

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Orly Taitz is an attorney. She's also a real estate agent. And a dentist. But when Taitz isn't in court, showing homes or drilling teeth, she's become the wide-eyed queen of the so-called birther movement — that subset of individuals who still, despite all evidence, don't believe Obama was born a citizen of the United States. She's leading the calls for Hawaii to release Obama's "true" birth certificate (though Hawaii has already released Obama's Certification of Live Birth) and has even produced what she purports to be Obama's true Kenyan birth certificate (though experts have deemed it a forgery).

Taitz has argued her case on her website, The Colbert Report and cable news networks, culminating in a meltdown on MSNBC on Aug. 6. For her part, Taitz claims the mainstream media is suppressing the truth about Obama's birth and has likened them to the brownshirts of Nazi Germany. If her allegations were correct, Obama would be ineligible to serve as President. But her evidence is scant, and Taitz may have to just settle for being the peroxided grand poobah of a small — but vocal — fringe.

Fast Facts:
• Born in Soviet-controlled Moldova in 1962. Married with three sons.

• Immigrated to Israel in 1981.

• Earned her degree in dentistry from Hebrew University.

• Emigrated from Israel to the U.S. in 1987 after marrying her husband, Yosef, a software engineer.

• Earned her law degree via a distance-learning program from William Howard Taft University.

• Practices as a dentist in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

• Claims to hold a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

• Filed a lawsuit on behalf of unsuccessful presidential candidate Alan Keyes on Nov. 13, 2008, suing California's secretary of state for failing to investigate Obama's eligibility for President before placing him on the ballot. The case is still pending.

• Filed an emergency injunction to the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 12, 2008 on behalf of failed Libertarian vice presidential candidate Gail Lightfoot, asking the court to stop California's certification of the 2008 election results. The court declined to hear the case without comment.

• Claims the document Obama has released proving his citizenship — a Hawaiian Certification of Live Birth — is not sufficient evidence and is a forgery, despite independent certification that the document is legitimate.

Quotes By:
On why she became involved with Obama's eligibility as President: "I became really concerned because I came from a communist country. I saw the things that Obama is saying that really did not make sense and that concerned me. One, of course, that had to do with the all-civilian army. And I saw footage of children dressed in uniforms, saluting Obama and doing drills. That reminded me of young communists."
OC Weekly (June 18, 2009)

On her MSNBC appearance: "These people, together with the president of their network and their board members should be serving lengthy prison terms for aiding and abetting this massive fraud and treason. Thease [sic] people better clean up their act or I will not live [sic] a stone unturned untill [sic] they all are in prison for what they are doing to their country."
— Taitz's official blog (Aug. 7, 2009)

Quotes About:
On the birther movement: "It's just a few cranks out there. It's like when networks bring on the three remaining Klanners in America, on TV."
— Ann Coulter (FOX News, July 24, 2009)

On Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele being Facebook friends with Taitz: "The chairman has thousands of Facebook friends — obviously he is not going to agree with the agendas of all of them."
— RNC press secretary Gail Gitcho (Politico, July 27, 2009)

On Taitz' efforts: "I'm here to tell you that I agree. Barack Obama is a terrible President, and we have to get him out of office by any weird loophole we can make up."
— Stephen Colbert (interviewing Taitz on The Colbert Report, July 28, 2009)