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(Aug. 6) — Army doctor Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin is scheduled to be arraigned today at Fort Belvoir, Va., where he will face a court martial for refusing to show up for his deployment to Afghanistan on the usual birther argument that Barack Obama is not the real president.

And with that re-emerges, at least for now, a story line that had receded from the news. Not all that long ago, there was a stretch when you couldn’t fling your copy of the pocket Constitution without hitting a news story about someone questioning Obama’s birth certificate and, thus, his legitimacy as president of the United States. Though these accusations have not had their desired effect of removing Obama from office, that does not mean the birthers lost interest. Just you did.

So what are some of the more prominent birthers up to now? Here’s what:

You may remember him as the “Birther Soldier,” the Army reservist who dramatically refused deployment on the same grounds Lakin has claimed. Well, the Army rather swiftly sidestepped his whole issue by just not deploying him. But that was not the end of Cook’s story. He then reportedly lost his job at defense contractor Simtech on the grounds that it would be difficult to perform his function if he was not welcome at Department of Defense facilities anymore. His lawyer, Orly Taitz, filed second suit, this one trying to get his job back, which was dismissed because Taitz filed it incorrectly. Since then, Taitz tried to help her client by posting his resume online in an effort to find him work. It’s since been removed.

The Moldovan-American dentist/lawyer (double threat!) from Laguna Niguel, Calif., has been called the queen of the birthers, having drummed up interest in the issue with lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility for the presidency beginning in November 2008. The inevitable television appearances followed.

The test of Taitz’s fame came to a head when she got herself on the ballot in the California Republican primary for secretary of state. For a time, it seemed she was a legitimate contender to actually win the nomination, a prospect GOP operative James Lacy termed “a disaster.” In the end, Taitz got 497,246 Republican votes (25.6 percent) to Damon Dunn’s 1,443,197 (74.4 percent). Taitz is still keeping herself in the news for the same sorts of things, but her story is not quite as fresh, and some of the coverage of her crusade in the mainstream press now runs under headlines with a weary tone, such as “‘Birther’ attorney Orly Taitz just won’t give up on Obama” and “Orly Taitz not giving up her fight.”

3. The Movement at Large

Most of the actual or would-be elected officials who have questioned Obama’s legitimacy seem to do so with the intention of retracting their statement later, or under the guise of “just asking questions” — a bid, perhaps, to garner birther support while not taking themselves out of the mainstream.

Michigan congressional candidate Rocky Raczkowski made, and then quickly backed off, the claim that “you have a president that seems to be — I don’t even know that he’s even been born in the United States, but until I see a birth certificate.”

Previously, Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, did pretty much the same thing.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., indicated that when it comes to settling the issue of Obama’s birth, lawsuits are “the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it.”

And of course, Sarah Palin has said the topic is fair game.