OS poster Jason Snyder covered this a few days ago better than anyone else needs to, so I won't go into too much detail. But a just-posted New York Times article datelined 13 October briefly documents the story of Andy Martin, a far-right, anti-Semitic gadfly who rants against Jews in court filings despite being denied a license to practice law after failing a mental competency test. Martin, it turns out, is the originator of the suggestion that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, a falsehood that has now been drummed into the brains of the more paranoid of his opponents' supporters. 

I'm just posting this to draw attention to Snyder's post of 8 October with its  slightly misleading headline and excellent content. 

On the other hand, why focus on shadowy figures like Andy Martin when there are real demagogues like Sean Hannity with much more power, visibility, and influence? Hannity was the one who gave Martin's crackpot theories credence by putting him on an hour-long attac-profile show on the Fox News Channel last weekend.