Now, there’s an Obama administration to call “soft on terror,” and he’s on Fox practically hourly reestablishing his fear-mongering credentials. He’s turned against his former gay friends. He’s the official Republican authority on national security, because some terrorists once blew up his office. He keeps flirting with Senate and gubernatorial runs (though he couldn’t win a statewide election in New York to save his life), and though his friends tell Haberman that he probably won’t run for president again (he’s supposedly just in it for a Cabinet post) the man has the heart of a tyrant. He’ll be up there with Mitt and Huck and Ron Paul in 2012. Only to fail, disastrously and hilariously, yet again.

Rudy’s star was once so bright in the Republican establishment that his good friend and police commissioner Bernie Kerik was appointed to a high-level position in the post-invasion Iraqi occupying government, and then nominated for secretary of Homeland Security — all despite the fact that he is and always was a lying, mobbed-up, amoral scumbag.

Kerik is headed to federal prison today, for tax fraud and “lying to White House officials.” Assuming good behavior, he might get out in time for President Giuliani’s inauguration.

Matt had asked me what my initial impression of Manning was. He seemed charismatic, I said, and everyone connected to his church had been as nice as can be. “He’s got another side,” Matt said, echoing what a neighbor had told me earlier. I didn’t have time to get into it — I had to get back through the metal detector and into the church for jury selection.

A few years ago, Manning made headlines locally by announcing a boycott of Harlem businesses, ostensibly to fight gentrification. Meanwhile, he was opening a grocery store of his own. At the trial, lunch was offered for a nominal fee, and I picked up a card for ATLAH’s catering service as I waited for my turkey and spinach lasagna. (Lunch, by the way, was held in the church basement, which is obviously used as a school.) I think Manning’s a typical huckster preacher who discovered there’s a lot more fame and glory in attaching yourself to a national political cause than simply leading a flock of local believers in wars against wealthy interlopers.

As we all settled back in and waited for the trial to begin, attendees who saw me taking notes stopped to chat. They shared an instinctual distrust of the media coupled with an urgent need to get their stories out to the people. They asked me to report the “unbiased” truth as they saw it — that 30,000 veterans protected the Vietnam memorial from anarchists at an Iraq war counter-protest (a Washington Post reporter came around but he didn’t report the size of their party accurately), that it’s the liberals who are confrontational and violent.

The Rev. Michael Hahn (the older, well-dressed white gentleman in the confrontation video who says he attends an all-black church) told me the president’s so-called birth certificate is void because the numbers are blacked out. He suspects (though he admitted that it’s “hearsay”) that the president became a citizen only once he married Michelle Obama. He wanted me to look into it. “I believe God puts people in my presence for good things,” he said.

We rose for the judge. Bob Unger, an unctuous lawyer in a bad rug who’s running for Congress in Queens as a Republican, entered in a black robe, sat behind a desk, urged us to remain orderly, and began reading the indictment. There were 20 charges, ranging from treason and espionage to mail fraud and violation of New York education statutes. Half were against Obama, the other half against Columbia University.

Manning, now acting as prosecuting attorney, told us that the biggies — espionage and treason — would be “delineated” (dropped) from the indictment. Considering that this was supposed to be Barack Obama’s treason trial, that was a bit of a disappointment. But Manning got in a spot of trouble for seeming to threaten the president’s life some time ago, and he’s treading as carefully as a crazy person can. The jury would not be deliberating on whether to execute the president.

Sixty-five people registered to be jurors. Thankfully, only 13 showed. The jury selection process was long, repetitive and only occasionally amusing. Manning made a show of asking each juror, in as many different ways as possible, whether he or she could possibly manage to be fair and impartial. Obviously all of these people had showed up because they believed that Barack Obama is a usurper. The very first juror questioned, Kurt, did not seem to understand that for the purposes of this farce, he had to play along.

Kurt announced that he was already certain of Obama’s guilty.

“Do you think you could be convinced otherwise based on the evidence?” Manning asked.

“No, I do not.”

“Even though you may have a strong sense of his guilt, we need to know if you could possibly find him not guilty.”

Kurt still didn’t know how to answer. “Everything’s coming at me so fast.”

After an assist from Unger, they managed to convince Kurt to say he’d be “fair.” The ritual was repeated with each juror, but they eventually got it.

More important than establishing fairness was instilling the proper sense of paranoia. “Your pictures will be placed in some unsavory places,” Manning warned the jurors. “And some historic and patriotic places.”

He asked Billy: “Have you been contacted by any member of the Democratic Party, the CIA, or the Department of Homeland Security,” to act as an agent and “report on this trial and thereby derail it?”

Are you worried that you may lose your job? Are you worried that your family may be in danger? “Do you have any concerns for your well-being, or your life?” After all, “we could very well have agents of the Secret Service listening in now.”

Everyone bravely said they were unafraid. One man, a deacon, announced that he’d been to “The Waco Memorial 16 years in a row. So the government knows me.” This led Manning into an odd aside about David Koresh.

“The American press presented that as a runaway preacher with a crazy group of people that deserved to die,” Manning said. “Do you think that some in the media might say that I’m a runaway preacher?” (Well, sure.)

The deacon desperately wanted to be a juror, but back home in Texas, his wife was about to have surgery. This struck me as more than a little bit sad — that he’d rather be participating in a mock trial than caring for his wife. But it inspired a bit of levity from “Judge” Unger. “He asked you if you were afraid of the government. He didn’t ask you if you were afraid of your wife!” (This joke got such a good response that Unger tried several more times to bring up the deacon’s wife.)

Manning knows how to flatter white reactionaries into thinking their unease with Obama is justified. When a charismatic black preacher gives you a pass on your racial issues, you feel a lot more confident telling the world that you’ve had it bad, too, and you don’t expect any “special treatment.”

Manning’s parochial concerns (against gentrification, against Columbia University) slightly confused the visiting Birthers, but they were game for just about anything. “Were you aware,” he asked one potential juror, “of any statements about Obama not attending Columbia before this trial?” He wasn’t, but he was willing to buy one more conspiracy theory, as long as he was here.

(According to Manning’s theory, Obama was a CIA operative while he was supposedly attending Columbia.)

Juror Bill inadvertently summed up the entire Birther movement. Manning asking him, “Do you believe that one way or another that I have a personal vendetta against President Obama? And that I am seeking some sort of glory?”

And Bill said: “Most of us are here because we sensed a deception of some sort.” Watching this foreign-seeming black man make his way into the White House with the support of millions of supposed Americans back in 2008, Bill was not sure what this deception actually was, but he just knew, in his gut, that something was wrong.

Finally, Manning made his opening statement. (The jury — all 13 members — would be sworn in tomorrow, because a friend of Manning’s who really wanted to be on the jury was unable to make it that day. Also Judge Unger would not be around on Saturday, but a Constitution Party candidate for governor would be sitting in as judge.)

No evidence of wrongdoing was ever introduced. We did learn that George Washington and John Jay inserted the natural-born clause into the Constitution in order to prevent something like this from ever happening. We learned that “this is not about racism. It just happens that Mr. Obama is alleged to be black.” We were told that some would call us “barbaric names,” but that the best way to deal with Mr. Obama was not to challenge him on his policies, but to go after his very right to hold office. The Illuminati were brought up, as part of the cabal of puppet-masters who made Obama president in the first place.

We learned that even John McCain was implicated in the conspiracy.

And finally we learned that we could not try Obama for treason because some time ago Manning told “some Tea Party people” that instead of fighting the healthcare bill, they should go after Obama for capital crimes, because “if he’s found guilty of treason and sedition then he should be executed.” This, supposedly, led to a visit from the CIA. So Manning wanted to make it very clear that he does not plan on personally executing the president after the trial is over. (He also wanted to make it clear that, personally, he still believes the president should be “hanged from his toes” until dead.)

Dr. King was referenced and paraphrased. The glory of the cause was invoked. “I believe that when we marched on Columbia yesterday and today, that this presidency ended, effectively.”

And martyrdom was hinted at. Manning is not afraid to die for this cause.

“We should not be afraid of loss of our job, or loss of our friendship, or any other kind of losses when we’re serving a cause as great as America.”

Manning said God had just recently spoken to him. The Lord said to the reverend that “our shoes are our weapons.” And they’d be back at Columbia tomorrow morning, to keep fighting the war.

It looks like the rest of the trial is proceeding in much the same fashion.

So the first order of business at the Trial of Barack Obama was to “delineate” (I think he just meant “delete”) the most explosive charges — treason and sedition — from the indictment. Don’t worry — Obama still faces prison time for wire fraud.

Actually, the first order of business was technically a rally at Columbia University and a march up to Manning’s 123rd Street ATLAH church. Around 50 people made the trek (which coincided precisely with the morning’s brief, heavy rain shower — sign from God, maybe?), and then waited outside as the courtroom was prepared.

The rally was at Columbia (where no one much seemed to notice it, as they were preparing for law school graduation festivities) because Rev. Manning is putting the school on trial, too. Specifically, Manning contends that the university “sold” a diploma to Barack Obama, and that Obama never even set foot on their grounds (he was in the CIA at the time, see). It’s an interesting wrinkle in the sometimes contentious relationship between Columbia and the churches and residents of Harlem. Manning seems to be trying his hardest to add Columbia-related conspiracies to the unofficial mythos of the Birther movement.

The crowd was decidedly more diverse than your average Tea Party event. White folk up from the South mingled cheerfully with black women dressed for church. A couple of young Ron Paul supporters chatted with a 50-something potential juror from Long Island. Anthony Tolda, a Constitution Party candidate for Congress, gave me a copy of the Constitution and his campaign spiel. (His claim to fame: heckling New York Rep. Steve Israel at a town hall, which lead to a Cavuto appearance.)

Jean and her husband, Don, were up from Hawaii. After some small talk about the work Manning and his wife had done restoring the 100-year-old former men’s club that he uses as his church, I asked her if she’d done any research of her own into finding the president’s birth certificate.

“Well, you know, what I find interesting is that I have three children. My last son, I gave birth to him at home. It was very easy to get a birth certificate for him. So I can only imagine that it was even easier back in 1961.”

The sign outside the ATLAH World Missionary Church is a word soup of charges against Obama (“A TALIBAN MUSLIM ILLEGALLY ELECTED PRESIDENT USA HUSSEIN”). It’s been up for two years, with occasional changes, neighbors told me.

The neighbors aren’t thrilled with it, or with Manning. Pascal Lewis lives two doors down from the church. I saw him holding an official Obama campaign sign, along with a “Harlem Welcoming Committee” placard. “I’ve sort of been trying to ignore most of what’s been going on,” he told me, “but this can’t be ignored.”

“So what we thought we would do is a counter-rally, to support our president, and to show that there are more [Obama] supporters [in Harlem] than not.” Lewis also told me Manning has a school at his church, which seemed to offend him much more than a simple nutty trial. The time had come, Lewis has decided, to run Manning out of the neighborhood. “He’s probably got somebody political that’s helping him still get his funding.”

His counter-rally had only a few official participants, but just about every resident who walked by almost immediately joined, at least long enough to stand in solidarity or shout at a “Tea Party person.”

That’s how the fight broke out. Helen’s lived in Harlem for years, but she only just noticed the offending sign outside ATLAH this week. When she saw a crowd of people outside, she came over and began yelling at the trial-goers. She accused the assembled crowd of racism. The counter-protesters began chanting. The cops got out of their car to separate Helen from an elderly white man who kept telling her that he “attends an all-black church.” I caught most of the confrontation on video.

The Birthers (I’m not sure what else to call them — they don’t associate with the Tea Party and it was a diverse bunch of people, as I mentioned) made a point of saying that it was the liberals who were confrontational, obscene, rude and almost violent, while they remained calm and polite. That’s mostly true. The counter-protesters shouted to defend Helen’s right to “free speech,” but no one was threatening it; they were just responding to her palpable rage.

But throwing a mock treason trial of the president at a church whose sign calls him a Taliban Muslim, and doing this all in the heart of Harlem, is, quite obviously, confrontational. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for their anger.

Security was intense — multiple guards with earpieces and a metal detector. And no cameras allowed inside. But everyone at the church was unfailingly kind and polite. Even when I said I was a reporter. Getting the crowd (which by this point had swelled to maybe 75 people) in took hours.

But once we were finally in, the Rev. Manning addressed us:

“We are going to have this trial. Praise the lord.” But first: lunch!

Part 2 of this report, along with updates from the ongoing trial of Barack Obama, will run on Monday.

5:00 pm:  I’m done with the day’s events. For now, here are my notes from 3 pm on, featuring the rest of jury selection and the Reverend Manning’s opening statement. Check back later for a full report. (And scroll down for video of the pre-trial skirmish outside the church between neighborhood residents and trial attendees.)

4:00 pm Finally, Manning reveals why we’re not trying Obama for treason. He told “some Tea Party people” a while back that they should go after Obama’s citizenship instead of his policies. Becaue if they convicted him of treason, they would get to execute him! This didn’t go over well. Manning claims the CIA visited his church. So he wants to make it clear: he will not attempt to execute Obama at the conclusion of the trial. (He does still think Obama should be hanged, though.)

3:45 pm Manning asks permission to make his opening statement before the jury is sworn in. He tells us about how George Washington and John Jay invented the natural-born citizen clause, just in case of a situation like this one. “This is not about racism. It just happens that Mr. Obama happens to be alleged to be black. This is about the constitution.” If we let one guy violate the constitution, everyone will want to! Also, an allegorical explanation for attacking Obama’s citizenship instead of his policies: If you know a man is guilty of rape, but you challenge him on “what kind of coffee he drinks,” that is “psychologically imbalanced.” Then Manning brought up the Illuminati. Also: Howard Dean, the Clintons.

Also: McCain lost the election on purpose, to allow Obama to “waltz into the White House.” (Man next to me, softly: “Oh my god.”) Manning: “We’re not talking about whether or not Obama stole a car!”

3:30 pm One juror wants to know why we’re not going to prosecute Obama for treason and sedition. Manning: “To prove treason would not be the most difficult thing in this trial” but he is convinced that the American people will uphold the results of this trial, and they will demand Obama’s imprisonment. If he’s convicted of treason, the American people will demand his death. “And a number of people, not that I’m one of them, are opposed to capital punishment.” This is an odd and rambling answer, but basically the standard of proof would be higher if they were arguing a capital case, and also the American people might be uncomfortable executing an American president.

65 people registered to be jurors. At the end of the day, there were 13 people sitting on the jury. They will be sworn in first thing tomorrow, but not by Unger — he will miss tomorrow’s proceedings in order to observe the Sabbath. Manning’s church observes the Sabbath on Saturday as well, but their worship will be held at 116th and Broadway, outside Columbia.

3:35 pm There are at least five LaRouche followers sitting near me. The next juror is a Deacon. “I have been to the Waco Memorial 16 years in a row. So the government knows me, they have a file on me.” This leads Manning into an odd question about whether or not the media might characterize Manning as a David Koresh-style “runaway preacher” whose followers “deserve to be killed.”

One important fact I learned: when Barack Obama was supposedly attending Columbia, he was actually in the CIA!

3:20 pm The next juror works “in a prestigious golf club in Toronto.” (That’s one German, one Canadian, and two Hungarians on the jury.) She is the bartender. Then there is Dave, a former mayor of a small town in New Mexico. He no longer seeks higher office, though, because the consultants he once hired in preparation for a run told him “I had to be something other than what I was.” Next: Benji. Manning: “Do you believe there is a witchhunt for Obama because he is black?” Benhi: “I believe there is a witchhunt for the truth.” Benji was once registered as a “Dumbocrat” but he voted for Ron Paul.

Manning: “Do you believe that Mr. Obama is simply a puppet?”

3:15 pm Some of the jurors seemed to be unemployed. “I’m in transition from one job to another,” one said, though he recently worked in the solar power industry. “Is that green energy,” Manning asked him. “Yes, it is,” the juror answered.

3:10 pm Manning, to a nervous-seeming woman in thick-framed glasses: “I think we need to inform everyone at the outset that you are a member of this church. I am your pastor.” Ok! Then, more disclosures: “You are able to trace your lineage all the way back to the Mayflower.” Always important in a potential juror. And: “I have been informed that your lineage also connects you to Barack Obama.”

Great moments in impartial jury selection: “Kelly, I’m your pastor,” the prosecuting attorney says. “Do you believe that you can be open and fair?” Of course she does! (She is a registered Democrat.)

Kelly has two theories about why Barack Obama’s records have all been sealed: they’re hiding something, or “they’re creating chaos.”

3:00 pm A Dr. Kelso was unable to attend today, but she really wants to be on the jury, Manning tells Judge Unger. That seems to be fine with Unger. No one will actually be sworn in until tomorrow anyway.

2:49 pm: Phone dying so I’m going to keep updates light until I find a place to plug in. Still selecting jury. Last guy is not registered to vote but likes Ron Paul.

2:40 pm: I think the current prospective juror said she wrote a thesis that used quantum physics to prove that Jesus Christ could have been incarnate.

2:33 pm: Lotta questioning of whether jurors are afraid for their well-being if they find him guilty.

2:21 pm: Jury selection is taking a while! Manning asks one juror if anyone from the Democratic Party, the CIA, or Homeland Security asked him to act as a disruptive agent or to report on the trial.

Now the world’s oldest man is telling us the story of his life. He designed nuclear plants? When he first came to the U.S. from Hungary.

Manning is asking everyone variations on “if the evidence warranted it, could you vote not guilty?” The first guys weren’t able to say it, but now everyone’s playing along.

2:05 pm: The judge is Bob Unger. (Apparetly, he’s running for the Republican congressional nomination in New York’s 5th District, which is currently represented by Democrat Gary Ackerman.) Jury selection! First juror isn’t playing along with Manning’s attempt to make him say he hasn’t already made up his mind on the charges. He is sure Obama is guilty.

“So you think he is guilty?” Manning asks

Juror finally says he could be “fair” but he is unwilling to say he could ever find Obama not guilty. Juror is a registered Republican. This will take forever.

1:57 pm: Charges of treason and espionage (the death penalty ones) are all “delineated,” to make it easier for the jury to reach a verdict, they say. Manning is now asking the people registered as jurors to come forward for jury selection.

1:49 pm: More charges! Count 8 is conspiracy to obstruct justice. Count 9 is exciting: espionage!

Count 10 is also espionage, this time against Columbia. Count 11 is  espionage, too! Obama will be sentenced to death if it is shown that he aided a foreign state in identifying a US spy or nucelar secrets.

Count 12 is against Columbia: conspiracy to commit espionage; Count 13: disclosure of classified material; Count 14: conspiracy to disclose classified info.

Count 15 is great: government seals unlawfully used.

Count 16: conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C.

Count 17: violation of New York education law (buying a diploma). Obama was NEVER present on Columbia grounds, according to the indictment! Count 18 is same against Columbia.

1:37 pm: Trial underway! Count 1: treason; Count 2, against Columbia: treason; Count 3, againt Obama: mail fraud and swindles; Count 4, against Columbia: conspiracy to commit mail fraud; Count 5: fraud by wire, radio, or television; Count 6: conspiracy to commit wire fraud; Count 7, against Columbia: obstruction of justice.

Judge Bob something. Will try to get his name again. White guy, with a robe and everything.

1:15 pm: I’m not supposed to take pictures but this is from the stairway to the church basement, where there’s a school (creepy) and the kitchen. I dunno what this is about. The lasagna was delicious. Only other press here is a German newspaper reporter. A British man who lives in the neighborhood named Nick is waiting outside bugging people. He says Manning has multiple wives.

12:45 pm: This is Pamela Light, from Long Island. She is an Alex Jones fan.

12:27 pm: Oh my god, as soon as we all sit down, he says we’re breaking for lunch. Trial will begin at 1:15.

11:55 am: Tensions are flaring as pro-Obama neighbors decide to confront trial attendees, who are still waiting outside.

UPDATE: Video of most of the exchange, between neighborhood resident Helen, the assembled birthers, and the neighborhood counterprotest.

The clash breaks out when a neighborhood woman named Helen grows tired of the antics of Anthony Tolda, a trial attendee who is also running against Democratic Rep. Steve Israel as Constitution Party’s candidate in a district on Long Island. As his fellow trial attendees are being photographed, Tolda instructs them to “say ‘treason.’”

Helen shouts at Tolda for a while, calling him and his fellow ralliers racists. Other neighborhood people began chanting “slave-owners.” Helen says to her friend, mockingly, “look at that Tea Party person.” More people from the neighborhood begin shouting. Trial attendees charge that they were “sent by ACORN.”

A female cop says to a trial-goer, “You in Harlem? They love Obama here.”  She seems amused by the whole thing.

The church sign seems to be what’s setting people off. It’s actually been up for two years.

I’m getting in shortly. Security is nuts. Metal detector, no cameras allowed. Now there’s a woman trying to jump in line. She’s “registered for this trial” and “works in the courts.” A man asks, “What do you do in the courts?” 

“I defend people.”

“So you’re a lawyer?”

“Call it what you like.”

I talk to a 90-year-old woman who attends services here because Pastor Manning’s voice told her to turn the TV to his program one day. She began attending when he said he’d observe the proper sabbath.

Now the larouche people are here talking about Glass-Steagall. No cameras allowed in the church! I’ll take notes. I’m finally in.

(Ed. — Yes, Alex has been shooting video. We won’t be able to get it up until after he leaves the church, though.)