For the most part, our listening posts outside of birtherstani were picking up more of the same old swill. We had Franklin Graham's non-stated but obvious support for the tribble mobility scooter named Donald Trump. More of Anderson Cooper's interview with Trump, including Trump's statement on Obama's college records, and his belief Obama's long form birth certificate was missing or non-existent.
The Pest and eFail whines at Anderson Cooper, while also whining that Obama never released any of his records, like a birth certificate. The Independent of Arizona finds USCIS records for Obama, Sr. that mention his having a child born in Hawaii. And World Nut Daily whines that the State of Hawaii has "slammed the door" on people wanting their long form birth certificate. CNN talks with Gov. Jan Brewer, and Jesse Jackson points out that the birtherstani may be a bit racist.
Which was pretty much a normal day for birtherstan. Until the morning of 27 April, when a inbound Predator drone launched from Reality made a tactical strike on birtherstan, dropping a 10 megaton State of Hawaii Long-Form Birth Certificate, (complete with request and custody chain), upon the birtherstani.
The effect was immediate, with signs the birtherstani are separating into separate factions to deal with this strike. The de Vattelist brigade seems to be attracting the most followers, under the leadership of Joseph Farah's pornstar mustache as he tries to fall back and regroup. Meanwhile, a crackpot team of denial experts, accompanied by Dr. Orly, attempt to explain away the long form. Trump and others attempt to troll for Obama's college records next, while Trump tries to claim victory. The Teahaddists go "SCARY" "NOT A CITIZEN" "SCARY" "WAHHH! HILLARY!!"
Philip Berg climbs out from the Indonesian Citizenship bunker to try and rally the free-range PayPal donations to his side. The sane part of the GOP is desperately trying to catch the last train out of birtherstan. The Pest and eFail adds their spin, while Miki Booth has fainting spells over the idea that the doctor who delivered Obama may have touched her lady parts during delivery as well. Dr. Kate listens to the wisdom of the sewage ponds and tries to rally the de Vattelists. Swiftboat liar Jerome Corsi tries to pimp his now obsolete book. Lakin's groupies seem to recognize Obama as President enough to offer Lakin a pardon.
And finally, the Daily Kos points out the documentation that many of the birthers really want.
25 April - Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC weighs in on Franklin Graham, not to mention Trump using his NBC show to spew his so-called "run" for president.
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Franklin Graham tries to do some damage control on the show, but IMHO he spins the same crap as before. Though he's doing the same stunts Trump does of talking over the host and tap-dancing around the questions.
25 April - CNN Talks with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.
Gov. Brewer is blunt that she sees birtherism as destructive, though she tap-dances around the racism issue. She rightfully points out that after two years, the birthers have failed to prove their claims. And she does believe the birther bills are directly aimed towards Obama.
26 April -Jesse Jackson points out that many of the birthers are - no surprise - racist.
"Rev. Jesse Jackson told POLITICO today that the birther movement is part of a larger pattern of rollbacks against civil rights and and an attack on the legitimacy of the nation's first African-American president -- reserving special ire for developer Donald Trump and his renewed interest in the conspiracy theory.
"Any discussion of his birthplace is a code word," said Jackson. "It calls upon ancient racial fears."
"Trump has trumpeted this cause. For him to go down this low is a bit surprising," Jackson said, making explicit what many black leaders have suggested. "He is now tapping into code-word fears that go far beyond a rational discourse."
26 April -Continuing the Pest and eFail's tradition of whiny letters, Rob Lamb whines at Anderson Cooper for daring to prove why the birtherstani are full of bovine excrement.
"Don’t you people understand? That isn’t the issue. It has never been the issue. That is YOUR issue, and why you call unbelievers ‘birthers’. Just to denigrate them, as you don’t seem to be able to understand the real issues."
Funny, it was very much YOUR issue until Leo Donofrio misread de Vattel and moved the goal posts back.
"Issue two, he (Obama, or Soetoro, or whoever) never had his own American passport before he received a diplomatic passport as a US Senator. He had travelled on his mother’s US passport, which is quite common for kids. That being the case, how did he get into Indonesia, and Pakistan in the early 80′s? Well, it turns out he went there on his INDONESIAN passport, which he received (as a juvenile who had become an Indonesian citizen) before Mom shipped him off to Hawaii to be with granny and gramps. He couldn’t get an American passport, as he could not PROVE American citizenship. His Indonesian passport was about to run out, and had to be renewed before he could embark on his travels with his Pakistani boyfirend, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo. He was an adult at the time, and the process of getting or renewing a passport from another country (Indonesdia) would have required that he admit he was a citizen of that country. Whoops. Can’t be president of the USA if you are a citizen of Indonesia. And have you people, in all of your very extensive and thorough investigation (yeah, right) of this issue discovered when and in what ceremony he NATURALIZED as an American Citizen after going to Pakistan on an Indonesian passport? Have you discovered in what court he legally changed his name while going to Occidental from Barry Soetoro Soebarkah to Barack Hussein Obama?"
More importantly, in all that word salad, did you once prove Obama was adopted by Lolo Soetoro or had Indonesian citizenship?? Of course you didn't......
"Oh, by the way, his half sister, Maya Soetoro Ng was definitely born in Indonesia. To an Indonesian father. She was an Indonesian citizen at birth. Can you explain how it is possible for her to also have a Hawaiian COLB, just like her big bro, ‘Barack’?"
TechDude is gone but his lies live on.....
26 April - World Nut Daily claims that Hawaii has "Slammed the Door" on long-form certificates.
"With billionaire and possible GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ratcheting interest in Barack Obama's Hawaiian birth documentation to its highest level ever, the State of Hawaii is suddenly enforcing a policy that no one – not even the president of the United States – can obtain a copy of his own birth certificate from the state's Department of Health.
Although the policy of denying the public access to copies of long-form original hospital birth certificates was announced in 2001, it wasn't enforced for years. But with Trump's recent pointed questioning of the circumstances of Obama's birth – and whether he was even born in America – Hawaii officials have apparently determined that the long-overlooked state procedure now requires enforcement."
And who do they cite for this??
"State officials also have cited the policy change as the reason they cannot release Obama's original long-form birth documentation, even though their own law specifies that the "department of health shall, upon request, furnish to any applicant a certified copy of any certificate, or the contents of any certificate, or any part thereof."
The Post & Email blog suggests the policy, on its face, violates the state law. In any case, it was not followed for years, as confirmed by the testimony of many individuals who obtained their own original birth certificate records from the department."
That's right. World Nut Daily is citing the Pest and eFail for their story!
26 April - The Charlotte Observer comments on Franklin Graham's comments.
"Evangelist Franklin Graham surely must have forgotten the sage advice from a verse in Proverbs, about a fool holding his tongue and "being counted wise."
Otherwise he wouldn't have spouted the nonsense he did Sunday to ABC's Christiane Amanpour, giving huckster real-estate mogul and television personality Donald Trump a thumbs-up as a presidential candidate and repeating the already many times disproven silliness that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States."
Oh, and Graham's guycrush on Trump?
"Graham's preference for Trump as a presidential candidate is also mind-boggling. He expressed seeming skepticism of Obama's Christianity, noting to Amanpour that "he has told me that he is a Christian. But the debate comes: What is a Christian? For him, going to church mean's he's a Christian. For me, the definition of a Christian is whether we have given our live to Christ and are following him in faith ..."
Yet, Graham believes in Trump who professes to be a Christian but told the Christian Broadcasting Network recently that he'll go to church when he can but "Always on Christmas. Always on Easter. Always when there's a major occasion ..." And Franklin expressed no qualms about Trump's three marriages, his ownership of gambling casinos and his numerous financial failings that have led his companies to file for bankruptcy to dodge creditors. We really want this guy for president?"
27 April - Anderson Cooper continues his interview with Trump, with Trump standing by his birtherism.
It's interesting to note that Cooper points out that conspiracy theorists, when confronted with facts and the evidence, try to go on to the next claim rather than debate or prove the original claim - which is exactly what Trump is trying to do here. And he also points out that few if any modern President or presidential candidate has released their college records either.
27 April - And more from Anderson Cooper, as the final part of his Trump interview is shown.
What's interesting is how Trump completely fails to answer why he won't accept the COLB when they come from the exact same place - namely the State of Hawaii Department of Health. And it's funny how Trump calls any reporter who challenges him a "crazed lunatic". Trump still tries to repeat the various birtherstani lies though, even when challenged.
27 April -At the Pest and eFail, JB Williams continues to whine that Obama hasn't released a long form or anything else like that.
"Twenty-seven months after claiming the most powerful office in America and one of the most powerful offices in the world, Barack Obama has not offered a single authentic document supporting his claim to be a natural born citizen of the United States, eligible for the office he currently holds. No birth certificate, no school records, no medical records, no passport records, no adoption records, nothing…"
Except for all the direct and confirmed evidence that the birthers continue to ignore or explain away.
27 April - The Independent (Arizona) publishes a story about the results of a FOIA request on the records of Barack Obama, Sr.
"Documents obtained from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service through a Freedom of Information Act request offer evidence that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.
A memo dated Aug. 31, 1961 from William Wood of Immigration and Naturalization Services indicates that Barack Obama, Sr., was attending the University of Hawaii on a student visa and that a son, Barack Obama, II, was born in Honolulu on Aug, 4, 1961.
The memo refers to Obama Sr.’s plans to attend the University of Hawaii for one more year to obtain his bachelor’s degree in economics, and that his spouse, a United States citizen, plans to work at the university.
“They have one child born Honolulu on 8/4/1961 – Barack Obama II, child living with mother (she lives with her parents & subject resides at 1482 Alisteastre St.),” the memo states."
27 April - The White House releases President Barack Obama's "Long Form" birth certificate.
(PDF of certificate here)
And it looks like they did a good attempt to show a custody chain of this documentation.
(PDF of White House Correspondence with State of Hawaii Department of Health here)
"When any citizen born in Hawaii requests their birth certificate, they receive exactly what the President received. In fact, the document posted on the campaign website is what Hawaiians use to get a driver’s license from the state and the document recognized by the Federal Government and the courts for all legal purposes. That’s because it is the birth certificate. This is not and should not be an open question.
The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country. Therefore, the President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long form certificate and to request on that basis that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate. They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting.
At a time of great consequence for this country – when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue. The President’s hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country."
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The certificate dovetails with the Nordyke certificates, and matches the information about hospital and doctor we already knew.
That being said, the only thing this will change is that the goal posts will be moved out of the parking lot and down the street.
The narrative from many birtherstani for over a year now is that it's a de-facto forgery or fake, since the State of Hawaii is supposed to be in on the conspiracy and that a long-form has been "aging" for a while. Expect "proof" from Polland/Polarik within 48 hours showing "forgery".
I will also note it says "Certificate of Live Birth" rather than "birth certificate", and they've been saying for months that a COLB is "worthless".
Others will just go de Vattelist and adopt the "two citizen parent" claim, or play with the Indonesian citizenship myth.
We'll also see people starting to adopt the college records demand, particularly in light of Trump's affirmative action comments/
Still others will see it as the President giving in to conspiracy nuts and ramp the crazy up a notch.
And some of Lakin's supporters will scream bloody murder and whine that Lakin was court-martialed for no reason.
The birtherstani have shown an amazing ability to ignore facts and evidence before. This changes nothing save the dialog and types of claims made.
27 April -At Salon, Alex Pareene reports that the spin and denial is already taking place in birtherstan.
"Professional Birthers have expanded their investigations beyond the question of "where was the president born," because even before today it was quite obvious that he was born in Hawaii. True birtherism -- not the lazy, low-information "I heard he was born in Kenya or something" birtherism of amateurs -- has already gone baroque, asserting that Barack Obama never had or possibly lost his American citizenship for reasons that go far beyond the simple fact of his "birthplace."
27 April - Free Republic is already in spin mode.
"To: DBCJR
This is not the long form birth certificate. This is a COLB yet again. Who was the attending physician?
3 posted on Wed Apr 27 07:53:20 2011 by frogjerk (I believe in unicorns, fairies and pro-life Democrats.) "
I'll assume "frogjerk" didn't actually see the PDF released, since it shows the signature of said physician.
"To: DBCJR
Why did Hawaiian governor Abercrombie say there “was no birth certificate” just six weeks ago? Had they not finished photoshopping one then? There have been several versions of the COLB, but no original birth certificate with the signature of the attending physician.
16 posted on Wed Apr 27 08:03:13 2011 by kittymyrib "
Because Gov. Abercrombie never said that?
"To: DBCJR
On Youtube there is an episode of a 70’s TV game show where the answer to a question that today would be “gay” or “homosexual”. But in this show, the “normal and acceptable answer” was “queer”.
But this document reeks of modern modification because of a similar concept: In 1961, blacks were called negro, colored, darkie, and several other less accepted names, but they were NEVER called “African” as Urkel’s father was in this document. An American adult in 1961 would no more have called a negro “African” than they would have called a homosexual “gay”. That alone is enough to raise huge questions about this document.
An within a context of paying millions to hide it only to eventually produce a “completely harmless” document is what is causing so much speculation on the document’s authenticity. And the effort to hide it was made at a time when Urkel said he was going to be more open than any president.
The whole thing reeks. I realized six months ago that the well had been poisoned: That any document he released confirming what he has been claiming could not be trusted and would not be. The window of opportunity to come clean (even if this document is authentic) expired over a year ago. This will never be resolved.
We are reaching that point with the college transcripts. Life is not a John Grisham novel.
18 posted on Wed Apr 27 08:05:09 2011 by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
Wow, both spin and racism in one post!
"To: DBCJR
Again, this is a Certificate of Live Birth. It is NOT a long form Birth Certificate. And I think it needs to be gone over with a fine-tooth comb by a qualified document examiner. I would be willing to bet my next paycheck that the document is not genuine, but a forgery.
21 posted on Wed Apr 27 08:07:32 2011 by NWFLConservative (Game On.......Fight Like a Girl!!...............Saracuda in 2012) "
I get the feeling we're going to be hearing a lot of this claim....
27 April -Joan Walsh points out that by releasing the long form, the bullies have won.
"I understand why the president made the decision he did, and I fervently hope it works the way he wanted. But I worry that bowing to bullying rewards bullies, and this paranoid, vicious faction in American politics, the one that says a black president has to show extra papers, extra credentials to be accepted, will never be satisfied. It is time for the media to ignore Trump and Taitz and Corsi and their lies."
27 April - World Nut Daily gives their spin.
"The White House today released a copy of President Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth," a document that for the first time claims Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital as the president's birth place."
Note the quotes around the "Certificate of Live Birth".....
And in case you think it's gonna stop anything:
"If the document proves valid, it could answer the questions raised by those who have alleged he was not actually born in Hawaii. But it also could prove his ineligibility because of its references to his father. Some of the cases challenging Obama have explained that he was a dual citizen through his father at his birth, and they contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born citizens."
World Nut Daily was already edging towards de Vattelism, expect them to go further.
"Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, the only news agency that has waged a relentless investigative campaign on questions swirling around the Obama’s eligibility for nearly three years"
By which he means "spewing lies and propaganda"
"We're gratified that our work has begun to pay off," he said. "The certificate of live birth is an absolutely vital foundation for determining constitutional eligibility of any president. We look forward to reviewing it like so many other Americans do at this late date. But it is important to remember there are still dozens of other questions concerning this question of eligibility that need to be resolved to assure what has become a very skeptical public concerning Barack Obama’s parentage, his adoption, his citizenship status throughout his life and why he continues to cultivate a culture of secrecy around his life."
So in other words, anyone who thinks the birthers will be satisfied with this are sadly mistaken.
27 April - More from Salon, this time from Justin Elliott.
"If the White House thought releasing the president's long-form birth certificate would silence Obama's conspiracist critics, it has already been proven wrong.
This morning I had an email exchange with Jack Cashill, who, as a columnist for leading Birther website WorldNetDaily, has built his career in recent years on proposing wild conspiracy theories about Obama's origins. I asked Cashill: Are you now satisifed Obama was born in the U.S.?
Responded Cashill (emphasis added):
I never said he was born elsewhere. My argument was with who wrote his books and is the story they tell true. The story of his first two years remains false.My question to you is why did the media not demand to see this in 2008 and why did Obama let Terry Lakin go to prison when he could have put his mind at ease a long time ago. And yes, Virginia, there is a difference between a certification of live birth and a long form certificate of live birth.
27 April - Mother Jones has anti-Semite Andy Martin's take on it.
"Martin, however, says that the birth certificate doesn't put to rest other questions about Obama's past and rise to power. Echoing Donald Trump's recent demands to see Obama's college grades, Martin said he wants to see the "admission files and the transcripts" of Obama’s college years. "The pressure for his college records is going to become relentless," he vows."
Yep, those are going to be the next demand from the nutcase fringe.
"For his part, Martin doesn't plan to drop his own campaign to challenge Obama for president. "I’m running as the guy who now forced Obama" to release his birth certificate, Martin says triumphantly. Then he adds without elaboration: "Our god is stronger than Obama's god, whatever his god is."
Cute way of working in the "stealth Muslim" angle there, eh?
27 April - And Talking Points Muckrakeer talks with Dr. Orly.
"In a development that will surprise no one, it turns out that President Barack Obama's decision to release his long-form birth certificate hasn't quieted members of the "birther" movement who promote the conspiracy theory that he wasn't born in the United States.
"Look, I applaud this release. I think it's a step in the right direction," so-called "birther queen" Orly Taitz told me in one of her many media interviews this morning. "I credit Donald Trump in pushing this issue."
But she still has her suspicions. Specifically, Taitz thinks that the birth certificate should peg Obama's race as "Negro" and not "African."
"In those years ... when they wrote race, they were writing 'Negro' not 'African'," Taitz says. "In those days nobody wrote African as a race, it just wasn't one of the options. It sounds like it would be written today, in the age of political correctness, and not in 1961 when they wrote white or Asian or 'Negro'."
Except that his father was from Africa and would have used "African" to identify race, not "negro".
*Sigh* Expect this to be part of the next forgery claim.
27 April - And the head of Tea Party Nation chimes in.
"In an interview with TPM, Phillips said that he's "glad" the President released the birth certificate, but he thinks that's just one part of the greater issue of his "eligibility." The new question? Whether President Obama is a natural-born citizen since his father was a British subject in Kenya. Another? Whether the President lost his citizenship when he was supposedly adopted by his Indonesian stepfather.
The first claim seems to have mutated from the theory that Obama is ineligible because his father is Kenyan and therefore the President has dual citizenship. Factcheck.org debunked this long ago, pointing out that Obama automatically lost any claim to Kenyan citizenship when he turned 23. As for the second claim, FactCheck points out that U.S. statute specifies that someone would have to be over 18 to lose their citizenship for that of another country, and Obama was six at the time the supposed adoption took place."
Something that has been pointed out repeatedly.
"For another, Phillips wondered, why won't the President release his records from college? "I have found it very disturbing that president Obama has not released all his records," he told TPM, noting that there's a "rumor that Obama attended Occidental [College] on a scholarship reserved for foreign students."
That rumor seems to have originated from a chain e-mail based on a fake AP story.
Though Phillips said these are all important questions, he stipulated: "I'm a little bit more concerned about his attorney disciplinary record. That's certainly a whole lot more recent than the grades."
Never changes, does it?
"On the Tea Party Nation site, Phillips wrote on Wednesday that the Obama candidacy "could be mortally wounded if some of the other records reveal embarrassing things."
"The Democrats may actually want this to happen," he continued. "As gas prices rise and so does inflation, the chances of an Obama second term diminish. If something happened and the Democrats could replace Obama with someone else (Hillary Clinton?), that candidate could run against the Obama record as well as the Republicans, giving them a shot at keeping at least the White House in Democratic hands."
And won't that make the PUMA's nipples spring up?
27 April - The Smoking Gun points out what we're likely to see as "proof" the long form is a forgery.
"This morning’s White House release of President Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate will, of course, do little to derail the “birther” movement, which will now analyze the document with the kind of verve previously directed toward those Texas Air National Guard memos faxed to CBS from that Kinko’s in Abilene.
So here’s a few nutty points about the birth certificate sure to be seized upon by the nonbelievers:"
Never fear, they're already doing all of those and more.
27 April -What a surprise. Philip Berg spins the long form as well, pimping his favourite pony, the Indonesian Citizenship Myth.
"Obama may have been born in Hawaii, Berg says, but he renounced his American citizenship when he was adopted by his stepfather Lolo Soetoro while living in Indonesia."
Except, as it has been repeatedly pointed out to Berg, under US law, nobody under the age of 18 can renounce their US citizenship.
"I'm not that concerned with the birth certificate," Berg told TBI this morning. "Unless there is evidence that he renounced his Indonesian citizenship, we believe he is an illegal president."
The release of the birth certificate is a "good first step," Berg said. "But I don't think it solves all of our problems. At best, he is naturalized citizen, and a naturalized citizen cannot be president."
How can he renounce something he never had, and how can be be naturalized when he never lost his US citizenship?
"Berg has changed his tune on the birth certificate issue after courts dismissed his 2008 and 2009 law suits that claimed Obama was actually born in Kenya. He says he is now getting ready to file a new suit that asserts Obama is an illegal alien."
Oh he's going to try that trick again???
27 April - And tribble life-support system Donald Trump is practically piddling himself with glee.
"A giddy Donald Trump could barely wait to meet and greet the people of New Hampshire today, impressing upon a group of Portsmouth manufacturing workers the role he and his supporters believe he played in President Obama's decision to release this morning his original, long-form birth certificate.
"Oh, by the way, I don't know if you heard? Did you hear?" Trump asked Wilcox Industries Corp. employees in reference to the birth records.
"I am so proud of myself. I got this guy to release his birth certificate. I'm really, really happy," Trump told the employees before a lunch-time New Hampshire Republican Party fundraiser in downtown Portsmouth. "
Ego much?
27 April - The New York Daily news also points out that the birthers will never be happy until Obama is out of office.
"Since an entire industry of hyperventilating, oxygen-deprived Americans have - often behind thinly veiled xenophobia or racism - demanded the President release his long-form birth certificate, they'll shut up now and start focusing on the debt, the unemployment crisis, Medicare, energy policy and defense spending, right?"
It would be nice, but no, they won't stop.
"But don't think the insanity is going to go away. Because the Baracknophobia deep in some parts of the American psyche isn't subject to reason. The people who were seriously questioning whether he was a legitimate native-born citizen - who were ready, even eager to believe a million-man conspiracy to retroactively stage a baby's birth in 1961, in the hope that he might some day be able to run for President as some kind of Manchurian Candidate - wouldn't be satisfied even with a time-stamped, DNA-coded film of his birth.
They wouldn't be satisfied if God himself came down from the heavens and verified every detail, even though they're willing to take God's word about hundreds of other matters.
So now, expect many more rounds of conspiracy theorizing. Expect the coded language about Obama being profoundly different to continue. And while the percentage of GOP primary voters who think Obama was born abroad will surely fall below its current level of about 50%, don't expect it to go south of 35%.
The suspicions are just too deeply ingrained, as they were with the (smaller) deluded slice of the population that rushed to embrace the whole-cloth invention that 9/11 was an inside job."
Pretty much so, yes.
27 April - And the sane wing of the GOP continues to try and get the stink of birtherism off of them.
"Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee: “As I’ve repeatedly stated, this issue is a distraction. ... The President ought to spend his time getting serious about repairing our economy, working with Republicans and focusing on the long term sustainability of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Unfortunately his campaign politics and talk about birth certificates is distracting him from our number one priority – our economy.”
Brian Patrick, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: “Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called this issue a sideshow. We fully agree. The White House shouldn’t engage political sideshows, particularly at a time when the challenges facing our country are so immense. Despite the excitement caused by the media circus this morning, House Republicans remain squarely focused on the things that truly matter to families and business owners throughout our country.”
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said Obama’s birth has “long been a settled issue”: “The Speaker’s focus is on cutting spending, lowering gas prices, and creating American jobs.”
27 April - Politico writes about the White House releasing Obama's "long form".
"The White House took the unusual step after years of pressure from critics who were never convinced that a standard short form released by the campaign in 2008 proved that he was an American citizen. Businessman Donald Trump escalated the issue in recent weeks, thrusting the story back into the headlines – and, as Obama scolded the media Wednesday, diverting attention from more important issues.
Obama said the nation’s work would not get done if people are “making stuff up,” and getting distracted by “sideshows and carnival barkers.”
Given Obama’s long-time refusal to fuel the “birther” story, the White House’s move took Washington by surprise, prompting the major TV networks to break into their regular daytime programming and the cable stations to set up split screens with Trump in New Hampshire and the White House briefing room before Obama spoke. It completely overshadowed a major news story — the president’s decision to nominate Leon Panetta as defense secretary and Gen. David Petraeus as the CIA director."
However.....
"The president’s critics weren’t immediately mollified. Instead, their theories about his background have merely evolved."
That's one word for it.
"Phil Berg, who filed one of the original birther lawsuits, now believes Obama was adopted by his Indonesian father and lost his U.S. citizenship:
“The issue is that he’s not anymore natural born. I don’t care if he releases his birth certificate or whatever,” said Berg. “Let’s see his records coming back through immigration.”
Orly Taitz, once called ”Queen of the birthers” and who was responsible for a number of lawsuits, says she is verifying the document’s authenticity and now believes the president is using a false Social Security number.
Conservative author Jerome Corsi has a book coming out next month that is the result of years of investigation into the issue."
So the nutcases are now spinning their next bulldada. Which the birtherstani will slurp up with a straw.
27 April -Oh look. The Pest and eFail's spin.
"The Drudge Report has posted what it states is an official White House release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate, even though an official from the Hawaii attorney general’s office, Joshua Wisch, stated on April 11, 2011, that it could not be released to him."
Maybe if you went to the White House's website, you could have seen the documentation from the State of Hawaii confirming they made an exception to their normal policy. Oh, right, that would be too much like "work" and "journalism". Can't have either of those.
And look who's screaming "forgery!!"
"Commentary from Miki Booth, who has released long-form birth certificates from Hawaii in recent days, states:
This is a forgery.
Is David A. Sinclair alive? NO
Sinclair delivered Alan on Nov. 24, 1981. He was my OB/GYN.
Also why isn’t it like Nordyke’s black with white? Microfische. They are implying it is in a bound book."
I think Miki Booth is upset to find out that her OB/GYN also handled Obama's birth, and is cringing to think the same hands that delivered Obama also touched her and delivered her son.
*snicker*
"If the original document has been available for the “three years” which Obama cited it has been an issue, why was a decorated U.S. Army medical doctor sentenced to six months at Ft. Leavenworth, forfeiture of pay, and expected discharge from the Army for asking the same question as everyone else?"
Because he was sentenced to six months at Ft. Leavenworth, forfeiture of pay, and expected discharge from the Army for willfully disobeying a direct order in his legal and immediate chain of command.
And in comments:
"Truth Now says:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 12:40 PM
someone on last article on http://www.citizenwells.wordpress.com said the hospital name that Obama has listed did not come into existance until 1978.2 hospitals joined together and use the current name that is on the so called certificate of live birth.This needs to be investigated and spread around asap This is not a long form B.C. either.Where is the footprint and DR.S NAME ????? What a HOAX!!!!!!!!"
"Wahhh! Where's the footprints! Forgery! Forgery! WAHHHHH!"
"jtx says:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 1:08 PM
Certainly eligibility and not the BC is the real issue – and Barky ain’t got what it takes as this latest forgery shows (call it the WHBC). The Flying Monkeys were put in the position of having toe make this latest forgery contain what the original forgery (the COLB) contained else it was an open admission of felonious criminal document fraud.
This one doesn’t pass the smell test either as can be seen by several things (and Dr. Ron J. Polland hasn’t even weighed it) for example, using the PC term “African” as race on both is wrong"
I'm sure Polland/Polarik is in the bathroom right now grunting and straining to pass his next "analysis" of this document.
"kittycat77 says:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 11:56 AM
This is being picked apart pretty good at the smoking gun dot-com. It appears to be a forgery. You also bring up an excellent point about the microfisch. It should look like the Nordyke twins’ birth certificate.
If you download the image from Drudge, then magnify it and look at the letters, the type. It’s white underneath the letters and should look like the rest of the paper, but it doesn’t."
"Kittycat77" didn't notice that smokinggun was making fun of the conspiracy nuts, did they?
"thinkwell says:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 11:27 AM
The document posted here is a pathetically obvious forgery:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf
This appears to be an official government website so that by approving the release of this clearly digitally forged PDF Obama has inescapably painted himself into a prison cell corner.
One can see that most of the print was layered on top of the scanned document by panning or zooming the view in or out slightly while viewing the document at a high zoom level. The bottom layer (background, most of the witness signatures and some of the form text that is still original) clearly pops up and is displayed as a complete layer in its entirety before any of the forged upper layer(s?) begin to display. Check this out for yourself by viewing the document linked above (and be sure to save a copy before it gets fixed). Also, note that all the original document text, original signatures and other document features exhibit multiple levels of intensity and hue when viewed under high zoom. All of the forged upper layer text appears as an even, single dark intensity level. This clean digital characteristic of the upper layer is completely unnatural, even to my untrained eye.
Why would Obama release such an obvious forgery? The evidence is so undeniably incriminating. Why is he not worried about going to prison. Is he laughing our faces? Is he that arrogant?"
No, you're that stupid - and insane.
Troy says:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Of course it’s another fake and it looks like it was done by a third grader….Dr. Ron Polland is going to have a field day with this piece of garbage BC…..Just look at all of the “white blocks” around the personal info that was added in….This thing is a pitiful joke!
BTW, you will not hear Donald Trump mention one single word about natural born citizenship…..He played his part, he played it well and now Barry has displayed his fake credentials…..Good job, Donald! – traitor!
"Please Brer Polarik, save us from this there long form!"
27 April - The Washington Independent comments on the long-form release.
"President Obama also acknowledged that the issue would remain alive for the most hardcore conspiracy theorists in spite of the freely available long-form birth certificate (his short-form birth certificate (PDF) was made available nearly three years ago).
Indeed, birthers on rightwing forums, maintaining the significance of a meaningless distinction between a “certificate of live birth” (the term used by the state of Hawaii) and a birth certificate, have already dismissed the new copy as either a forgery or as evidence that Obama doesn’t satisfy the “natural born citizen” clause of the Constitution as part of the eligibility requirements for American presidents. A sample comment, from the user “sten” on FreeRepublic.com:
so now we know his father was not an American citizen when 0bama was bornon to the next issue.
how could he be a natural born citizen… if both parents are not American citizens
This muddled take on natural born citizenship is characteristic of the birther movement. As most Americans well know (and have recently expressed opposition to), citizenship is granted to anyone born in the U.S. While the term “natural born citizen” is not specifically defined in the original Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen.
27 April - At "Turning the Scale", Bill Bowman comments on the long form release.
"What will be interesting to see is what tack carnival barker Trump will take. He once promised to “maybe” release his financial records if the president released his birth certificate. Let’s see if he’s as good as his word. (Yeah, I know.)
Trump’s latest tactic has been a disgusting attack on the president’s academic record, wondering how Obama could gain acceptance into two Ivy League colleges. This has been followed by the expected calls for him to release his academic records.
I hope he doesn’t, and here’s why: This is blatant racism. What Trump is really saying, although he doesn’t have the balls to say it, is that he believes Obama must have won acceptance into Columbia and Harvard through affirmative action. (Bash him all you want, but at least blatant racist — and ardent Trump for President booster — Michael Savage has come out and called Obama an “affirmative action president.”)
But the bigger issue is, so what? Who cares what his college grades were? And if it does matter: He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, for Pete’s sake! He was editor of the frigging Harvard Law Review! I’d say he was pretty accomplished.
Or is Trump trying to get at something else, such as the claim that the president was given considerations reserved for — foreign students? That’s a question because another prong of the Birther argument is that the president was adopted by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro, and became an Indonesian citizen when he was a child.
It’s crap, of course. Obama was never adopted, and he was never an Indonesian citizen. But we’re talking about reality here, and that has no currency in Birthistan."
27 April - And we have the first so-called "document experts" doing their analysis to support their expected forgery claims.
"Well, well, well, the official birth certificate of our liar-in-chief has already been proven a complete FAKE within hours of it’s release. You didn’t think the most deceitful administration in history would have it any other way. They think so little of the American People they actually tried to pass off this obvious grade school level fake on the American People. Wake up America!"
While at the conspiracy site "Above Top Secret"
"After much of the excitement for everyone regarding Barry's birth certificate that he spent over 5 million dollars in lawyer fees to hide from the prying eye of the public. I stumbled upon someones investigation into how the newly released birth cert is in fact fake, and you can even do this yourself if you have the software to see for yourself. You see they left things in PDF format which can be imported into Adobe Illustrator. This is where things got interesting, see for yourself. This in itself shows that the birth Certificate given to the public wasn't scanned, it was pieced together digitally. Sorry, but you've been had! If you don't understand how Clipping Masks work I suggest you Google it to find out. "
and the conspiracy site "GodLike Productions"
"I've used Photoshop for years and can tell you that the supposed long-form birth certificate is not only fake, but it's a highly-amateurish fake.
I could write a five page essay pointing out the digital artifacts proving forgery on this form. Even more could be said about the multiple respects in which this forgery deviates from the actual 1961 long-form b.c.
This fake is so bad that about the only conclusion you can draw is that the elites want the public to know it's a fake to perpetuate the controversy.
And just to rub our noses in it--the "Signature of Local Registrar" reads "U K L Lee"...ukelele."
And then there's this one. whch also failed to note the Smokinggun was making fun of them.
"Things we’ve noticed:
“Hussein” is typed one pixel higher across the page than the word “Obama”
Obvious forgery. Look at the 41 at the top right of document.
Look under Race Of Mother….Caucasian….The top half of every letter is perfectly cut off at the exact point on every letter. A type writer would not be this perfect in 1961 or 2011! A type writer did not make these perfect mistakes, only a computer with photo-shop does
Any other birth certificate that didnt have the footprint and statistics of length and birth weight at time of delivery? No…
The pdf shows a photoshop layer effect on the text: zoom in to see the “white glow” around the text and lines. I can only assume this reproduction was produced for “clarity”."
Polland/Polarik better hurry up, or someone else might take the mantle as birtherstan's chief "document liar".
27 April - Leave it to The Onion.
"Trump Unable To Produce Certificate Proving He's Not A Festering Pile Of Shit"
27 April - Hey look, the first "long form forgery" video!! Polland/Polarik really better hurry it up!
27 April - And of course Dr. Kate has to give her spin. Needless to say, she's pissed off. (As opposed to her usual just pissed)
"So you ‘had it all along’ and let Lt. Col. Terry Lakin go to jail?"
The only person who "let" Lakin go to jail was Lakin himself.
"And is this latest piece of crap the best you can do, barky"
Like there was any level of factual evidence you would accept? Your mind was made up a long time ago, and you could care less about the facts.
"No questions regarding Obama’s eligibility for the Presidency have been answered by this latest release of another forged document. The arrogant prickly pear thinks he’s fooled America again.
It was only a matter of time before Obama paid for another forged birth certificate."
I suspect we can place Dr. Kate in the category of people who assumed long before this document was ever released that it would be a forgery.
"Obviously the obots, the media, and the intellectually dishonest are having a happy time with this"
Well, the first two are watching all of you try to explain it away and laughing at your attempts. As for the third, the "intellectually dishonest", I've already seen what Berg, Taitz, Trump Free Republic, the Pest and eFail, and World Nut Daily are saying.
"No need to prove this document is a forgery because all the other evidence, including its late release, undermine its credibility."
Again, she's going "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts."
"The flushing of Obama begins now. Fasten your seatbelts, obots. It will be an unpleasant journey for you down into the sewer where you and your messiah came from."
Again with the scatological references. Did Dr. Kate have a traumatic time getting potty trained or something?
27 April - The Washington Post covers why Obama decided to release the long form.
"Obama had grown incredulous at the overall debate. He had watched as even Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan had been sucked into the discussion of his birthplace, aides said. In his own interview prep sessions, Obama was warned that the “birther” subject might arise – even though it had subsided from the headlines for more than two years since the presidential campaign. Finally, on April 19, in a meeting with White House counsel Bob Bauer, the president asked about the feasibility of getting his long-form birth certificate at last.
“It wasn’t one specific thing” that tipped the scales, a senior administration official said. But Trump was a major factor, by the White House’s own admission, as the real estate mogul’s near-constant interviews perpetrated a discussion that the president found “frivolous.” Last week, it was Obama who made the call to proceed. “He was the driving force,” the official said.
The swift action that followed – in less than 10 days, Obama’s lawyers were able to obtain the legal waivers necessary to bring copies of the certificate back to the White House – raised questions about the timing. Why, for example, did Obama officials wait so long to tamp down rumors that have dogged the president since the 2008 presidential campaign? Why did they release the forms on the very day that Trump is making his first visit to New Hampshire, and during a week when Obama is slated to make other major announcements about his national security team?
According to senior administration officials, the timeframe was the result of Obama’s personal request for a resolution – and reflected his impatience with political frivolity of any kind. At the same time, officials said they wanted to release the paperwork as quickly as possible after receiving it, to pre-empt any further conspiracy theories about whether it had been doctored."
Alas, the last paragraph is already being shown to be optimistic.
27 April - Oh look. Bottle redhead Devvy Kidd is jumping on the "long form forgery" bandwagon.
"I`m going to question the legitimacy of this on a technicality - that being `the actual NAME of the hospital in 1961
In 1961 - and according to the said Birth Certificate the hospital where BO was (allegedly)!! born was named :- KAPIOLANI MATERNITY & GYNECOLOGICAL HOSPITAL.
Now let`s go to Wikipedia for the history of the hospital.
Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children is part of Hawaii Pacific Health's network of hospitals. It is located in Honolulu, Hawaii, within the residential inner city district of Makiki. Kapi'olani Medical Center is Hawaii's only children's hospital with a team of physicians and nurses and specialized technology trained specifically to care for children, from infants to young adults. It is the state's only 24-hour pediatric emergency room, pediatric intensive care unit and adolescent unit."
(snip)
This clearly shows (but is subject to `citation` on Wiki) that as of 1978 (up to the date of the actual merger) the maternity part of the hospital was still known as the Kapi`olani Maternity Home.
Therefore this would have been the case in 1961 when BO was born !!!!
So, where did they get the name : KAPIOLANI MATERNITY & GYNECOLOGICAL HOSPITAL ???????????
We no longer need to be concerned about any lack of citation on Wiki, because we can go to the HOSPITAL`s own website and read EXACTLY THE SAME HISTORICAL ACCOUNT REGARDS ITS NAMES !!!"
Devvy Kidd might want to look at the Nordyke birth certificates, which have been held up by birthers as examples of "real" Hawaiian long form birth certificates from 1961
(Scribd link here)
Funny thing, but they give the birth place as (drum roll please) "Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital"!!
Consistency? Thy name is not birther.
27 April - Joseph Farah better get out the checkbook.
"Farah made a promise in August 2009 on Obama's birthday -- or as Farah put it, "what he claims to be his birthday" -- that he would make a big donation to the medical center if Obama released his birth certificate:
"We've tried the stick," said Farah. "Now let's try the carrot. Obama has said he was born in Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu. He participated in a fund-raiser for the medical center in January. WND will send a check in the amount of $15,000 to whatever birth hospital is listed on his long-form birth certificate. All Obama has to do to see that donation made is to release it publicly."
Wonder what Farah's excuse for not paying will be?
27 April - Speaking of which, looks like World Nut Daily is going de Vattel.
"Although President Obama released a purported long-form birth certificate today indicating he was born in Hawaii, he still might not fit the constitutional eligibility requirement that stipulates only "natural born" citizens can serve as U.S. president, according to a recent bestselling book.
An investigation by the authors found that according to correspondence from the original framers of the Constitution as well as multiple Supreme Court rulings and the legal writings that helped establish the principles of the Constitution, Obama is not eligible to serve as president since his father was not a U.S. citizen.
With nearly 900 endnotes, the book, "The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists," was written by WABC Radio host and WND senior reporter Aaron Klein with researcher Brenda J. Elliott.
While the book was released last May, the work takes on renewed relevance today with Obama's release of his purported long-form birth certificate. In a chapter investigating eligibility issues, the book concluded Obama may not be eligible regardless of his place of birth. The authors recommend further legislative and judicial debate."
So World Nut Daily reports that World Nut Daily authors claim Obama may not be eligible. I'm shocked, shocked I say. I'll be over on the fainting couch.....
27 April - Buzzfeed has more examples of people trying to explain away the long form
27 April - And in the "now there's a surprise" sarcasm department.
"Texas state legislator Leo Berman, a Republican, has introduced a bill that would require proof of citizenship from presidential candidates. It's one of many such bills in the states. And according to Sharon Guthrie, Berman's legislative director, the legislation is still needed and the long-form birth certificate released by the White House today does not satisfy its requirements.
"What I've seen online, what they produced today, still says certificate of live birth across the top," she told me. And she's right.
But why isn't that just a nomenclature issue? Why does it matter?
"We want to see a 'birth certificate,'" Guthrie explained. "The one that we have that says 'birth certificate' is from Mombassa, Kenya, with his footprint on it. He has still not produced an American birth certificate."
Guthrie is referring to an internet rumor that Lucas Smith, an Iowa activist, found a birth certificate from Kenya that contains all the information skeptics want to see from Obama. It was introduced as evidence in one of Orly Taitz's filings. The problem: That certificate is forged. But it's one of several online rumors that convinces Obama birth skeptics that a real birth document is out there.
"I'm a Republican precinct chairman in Texas, in Smith County," said Guthrie. "We have to show an official birth certificate. Why shouldn't a presidential candidate or president show his or hers? I'm at the bottom of the ticket. He's at the top.""
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
27 April - It's Leo Donofrio's spin!
"I predicted over and again that when it served Obama best, he would feed you an original birth certificate on national TV. Bon appetit to those who allowed this conspiracy theory to take precedence over the genuine legal issue: how a person born owing certain allegiance to a foreign nation can be a natural born citizen of the United States?. Since the BC was played so perfectly by the Obama team, the genuine legal issue will now be more marginalized than ever.
They simply played a better game of chess. And due to this sick game, Obama now sets a precedent that anyone who hates this country, from Osama Bin Laden to Kim Jong Il, can have a child with an American woman and that child can be President. Obama’s defeat of the dual nationality issue, in both the courts and the media, means that the President’s parents do not have to be US citizens. If that is true, then the natural born citizen requirement in Article 2 Section 1 of the Constitution is basically rendered meaningless."
27 April - BoingBoing has fun with the birthers
"THIS LOOKS SHOPPED. I CAN TELL FROM SOME OF THE PIXELS AND FROM SEEING QUITE A FEW SHOPS IN MY TIME. So say the indefatigable birthers, as evidenced by breathless headlines on countless blogs I won't stoop to link to here. But they have a point: if it truly came from Hawaii, it would be in a Hawaiian font. Also, WHERE IS THE PLACENTA?"
And in comments:
"#2 • 9:29 AM, Apr 27 •
MrJM
@benschwartzy said it best: "Birthers aren't going to be happy til Obama releases a certificate of whiteness."
*Laugh*
27 April - Looks like swiftboat liar Jerome Corsi is a) trying to give his own spin, and b) trying to get people to buy his soon-to-be released-and-already-redundant book "Where's the Birth Certificate: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President." (which has fallen in 24 hours from #1 on Amazon to #37)
""Suggesting that Obama's presidency will not survive the revelations contained in his book – which goes beyond the birth certificate controversy to definitively document the multiple legal problems with Obama being a U.S. president – Corsi said, simply, "When people read the book, they will see that Obama is not eligible to be president."
Gee, we haven't heard THAT claim before, have we?
"Also, he asked, why did Obama withhold the birth document that had been legally requested by an Army doctor, Terrence Lakin, but instead watch him be court-martialed and imprisoned over the issue?
"I am calling for the immediate release of Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin, the Army flight surgeon who is now sitting in prison because Obama wouldn't produce his birth certificate," Corsi said."
Because Lakin isn't in prison for asking about a birth certificate. He's in prison for willfully disobeying a direct lawful order given by his immediate chain of command.
"Corsi considers the release of the document that was presented to the media today by the White House, a Hawaii "Certificate of Live Birth," a preemptive strike against the book's imminent release"
Translation - "No, really, my book isn't outdated already, honest!! Pleasepleaseplease buy it still!!!"
27 April - The Washington Post comments on the long form release and how it effects Corsi's latest pack of lies.
"And now that Obama has acted, is the question of his birth certificate moot?
Farah is not giving up that easily. He said that producing the birth certificate won’t end the debate.
Debate?
“Now we can have an intelligent discussion about what it means to be a natural born citizen,” Farah said, suggesting in what direction conservatives will now push the issue. “If your father is Kenyan, how are you an American citizen? If your adopted step-father was Indonesian, how are you an American citizen? At best you are a dual-citizen.”
Farah takes issue with the legal fact that a child born in the United States is a citizen no matter the nationality of the parents.
“We don’t have clear definition about what it means to be a natural born citizen from the founders,” Farah said."
Looks like they're going to go full de Vattel alright.
27 April - National Review Online debunks the long form "document experts"
"We have received several e-mails today calling into question the validity of the PDF that the White House released, namely that there are embedded layers in the document. There are now several other people on the case. We looked into it and dismissed it.
The PDF is composed of multiple images. That’s correct. Using a photo editor or PDF viewer of your choice, you can extract this image data, view it, hide it, etc. But these layers, as they’re being called, aren’t layers in the traditional photo-editing sense of the word. They are, quite literally, pieces of image data that have been positioned in a PDF container. They appear as text but also contain glyphs, dots, lines, boxes, squiggles, and random garbage. They’re not combined or merged in any way. Quite simply, they look like they were created programmatically, not by a human.
What’s plausible is that somewhere along the way — from the scanning device to the PDF-creation software, both of which can perform OCR (optical character recognition) — these partial/pseudo-text images were created and saved. What’s not plausible is that the government spent all this time manufacturing Obama’s birth certificate only to commit the laughably rookie mistake of exporting the layers from Photoshop, or whatever photo editing software they are meant to have used. It’s likely that whoever scanned the birth certificate in Hawaii forgot to turn off the OCR setting on the scanner. Let’s leave it at that."
Not that facts or logic will stop them.
27 April - Terry Lakin's defense fund gives their spin.
"Mr. Obama produces yet another online document, a long form birth certificate. After more than two years of concealment and obfuscation, this document must be submitted for forensics testing to determine its authenticity. Similarly, the Kenyan birth certificate that has been widely circulating on the internet and on Capitol Hill-- should be tested."
*rolls eyes* So they're claiming a document from the State of Hawaii has the same legal validity as a document from a known and convicted forger and con artist??
"A good soldier, having played his part in this issue, would have returned enthusiastically to the service for which he is so ably trained."
No, a good soldier wouldn't have tried this in the first place. A good solider wouldn't have publically disobeyed lawful orders given him by his immediate chain of command. A good solider wouldn't have taken pre-deployment leave and then willfully and intentionally missed deployment, forcing someone else to fill his spot on short notice.
Lakin is a blue falcon, not a good solider.
"The Terry Lakin Action Fund is calling for a full and complete presidential pardon for LTC Terry Lakin including restoration of pay, benefits, and service."
Yeah, good luck with that skippy. Though does that mean that Lakin FINALLY accepts Obama as being the commander in chief?? Hmmmmm.......
"Terry holds no malice towards Barack Obama nor did he when he chose to bring the issue to a court martial."
I have problems believing this.
"Terry simply wanted confirmation of Obama's eligibility, a process that has finally begun in earnest."
Lakin also ignored - repeatedly - the Army TELLING him directly that Obama was eligible.
Bed. Made. Lie.
27 April - MSNBC comments on Joseph Farah's birtherism and his increasing de Vattelism.
"The publisher of an upcoming book questioning the circumstances of President Barack Obama’s birth took credit Wednesday for fueling conspiracy theories about the president’s origins, saying he paid for an army of private detectives in Hawaii and provided information about the issue to Donald Trump."
Gee, what a surprise.....not.
“I’m not apologizing for nothing,” a defiant Farah said in a telephone interview with NBC News, insisting there are still questions about Obama’s citizenship aside from where he was born.
The comments by Farah underscore Obama’s observation Wednesday that hard-core birthers are unlikely to be persuaded by any evidence, no matter how compelling. “
The proper term for these people is "crazy."
"Farah, who still believes there was foul play associated with the death of Clinton White House lawyer Vince Foster, would seem to be a perfect example. His comments during a lengthy telephone interview with NBC also provide new insights into how the “birther” issue got traction in the first place – and how some of the president’s most strident critics plan to continue to hammer away at the issue, in part by switching the discussion to questioning Obama’s “citizenship” rather than his birth in the United States"
And what's that sound? Oh, yes, it's the sound of moving goal posts!
"Farah acknowledged that the book’s title may be “unfortunate” in light of Wednesday’s release of Obama’s birth certificate, even while he insisted the document must still be more fully analyzed before he accepts it as authentic. “I think it will take us a little while to examine this and determine if it’s legitimate,” he said about the birth certificate, which was released by the White House along with a letter from the director of Hawaii’s Health Department certifying its legitimacy."
And that's a first - World Nut Daily playing games with "forgery" claims.
"Even if it is authentic, Farah said the real issue is that Obama is still not eligible to be president because his father was Kenyan and his adopted father was Indonesian, making him a potential “dual citizen” of two separate foreign countries. (Farah supplied no evidence to support his contention that Obama ever held “dual citizenship.” Nor did he explain why it would make any difference, given Obama’s birth to an American mother on U.S. soil, which would meet the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that he be a “natural-born citizen.”)"
That's because Farah knows damn well the de Vattelist argument is a steaming load of rotting dingo kidneys.
"Asked about Farah's contention, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe said by email that this is "a totally wacky argument, without any conceivable merit. ... The 14th amendment unambiguously and expressly confers U.S. citizenship on everyone ‘born . . . in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ This means that Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen at birth. independent of the citizenship or age of either or both of his biological or adoptive parents. ... This birther thing is a moving target, rather like the creatures in the “Night of the Living Dead.” Driving a stake through its heart seems incapable of killing it.")"
Isn't THAT the truth!
27 April -The Daily Kos sums it up quite well.
"That the birthers aren't satisfied with the release of the long form birth certificate isn't surprising. Birthers aren't satisfied because no matter how many documents Barack Obama releases it will never be enough, because there isn't a document in the world that will turn him white."
certificate that he spent over 5 million dollars in lawyer fees
The $1.97 has now become 5 MILLION with an M...
Posted by: SueDB | April 27, 2011 at 04:35 PM
"which has fallen in 24 hours from #1 on Amazon to #37"
Slight correction: that fall didn't take place in 24 hours. The book was #2 the very next day, and has been steadily falling since. It did, however, go from #28 to #37 in one day.
WND simply hasn't drawn attention to this slide.
Posted by: Loren | April 27, 2011 at 04:35 PM
Birthers aren't satisfied because no matter how many documents Barack Obama releases it will never be enough, because there isn't a document in the world that will turn him white.
Damn shame isn't it.
Posted by: SueDB | April 27, 2011 at 04:46 PM
The window of opportunity to come clean (even if this document is authentic) expired over a year ago.
Too late! Its authenticity has expired! It was authentic a year ago but the window has closed!
Honestly, these people ...
Posted by: MaryRC | April 27, 2011 at 04:47 PM
One interesting note. (Might as well mention it here before the birthers do...) The doctors name on the certificate is not the same doctor named in the somewhat questionable story on Snopes.
Posted by: Mr Sharky | April 27, 2011 at 04:48 PM
A key part of the sea-change due to today's release is how the media is now addressing the issue. *Finally* they are addressing openly what Birtherism is really all about - irrational racism & other forms of bigotry. No longer is their this naive assumption that there are "legitimate questions" out there or that "this could all go away...if only", which for too long, the media was guilty of pandering to.
Now even they are openly acknowledging and pointing out that it never was about the BC...
About time. If anything, the media can take a lot of blame for this fake non-issue swirling around in the cesspool for so long. They could have and should have been much bolder early on in doing their jobs and explicitly debunking this nonsense and cutting off fools that barked such BS any time they brought it up.
Posted by: G | April 27, 2011 at 11:38 PM
> that anyone who hates this country, from Osama Bin Laden to Kim Jong Il, can have a child with an American woman and that child can be President
Actually, there are many "100% red-blooded Americans" who hate America and who have no problem to become president even under the birfers' additional requirements as to NBC...
> Though does that mean that Lakin FINALLY accepts Obama as being the commander in chief??
That's a question I'm asking myself as well. Will Lakin now publically state Obama is the legitimate CiC?
Posted by: The Magic M | April 28, 2011 at 03:49 AM
As much as I'm enjoying watching this political episode of birthism come to an end...I would like to throw my 2 cents in.
As many of the non birthers line up and kick the falling, I hope some of you take a moment. Quite a number of non birthers contributed to this. Many of the birther myths weren't myths. They were legitimate questions. The propaganda succeeded because too many don't know the law. The law is just not read in a wiki and understood. It is a learned interpretation.
Perfect example was the Badfiction v. ObamaCrimes Indonesian Citizen debate:
http://badfiction.typepad.com/badfiction/the-indonesian-citizenship-myth.html
http://obamacrimes.com/?p=376
I can still read both of their views and not know who is correct. Why? They both make sense to me and I'm not educated in a legal background. But this is the correct way to have a debate/discussion/conversation. Not trying to out bully each other.
Making questions into labeling and stereotyping only fueled the situation.
Thank you Badfiction.
(ok, leaving my soapbox)
Posted by: CalperniaUSA | April 28, 2011 at 05:23 AM
Many of the birther myths weren't myths. They were legitimate questions.
the only legitimate questions were a) "where was obama born?" and b) "is he a natural born citizen?"
both questions were answered in july 2008 when obama released his bc and all the rest are just 10% entertaining trivia and 90% birfer-fueled bullshit.
Posted by: aarrgghh | April 28, 2011 at 06:59 AM
Well, it's always been simple really.
Under US law, a minor cannot renounce US citizenship OR have that citizenship renounced by the parents. And even as an adult, renouncing US citizenship requires witnesses and paperwork filled out to confirm the renouncing.
In addition, under Indonesian law, an adopted child cannot be granted citizenship unless 1) the previous citizenship is renounced and 2) the child is under the age of five.
Obama was five when his mother married his stepfather and they moved. Berg's argument was that Stanley Ann Dunham lost her US citizenship upon marriage to Lolo Soetoro and that Obama lost his at the same time.
However, Berg has never been able to explain how Obama could have lost his US citizenship as a minor when it was impossible to do so under US law. And since it's US law that determines who a US citizen is for the purposes of that country, it's the law we're dealing with here. Even the Hague convention (which Berg cites) acknowledges the right of a country to determine by their laws who their citizens are.
Berg's entire argument rests upon a single school record, not a government record. There has been no records from the Government of Indonesia to confirm either an adoption or Indonesian citizenship. And no records from the US showing that Stanley Ann Dunham renounced her US citizenship either. In fact, we have records stating the exact opposite.
Posted by: Patrick McKinnion | April 28, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Yes, Patrick, you did say that in the post I cited. But that wasn't the point of my comment. My point was many of the birthers and non birthers acted the same. Anyone that had any questions got labeled and vilified. That behavior contributed to and fueled the propaganda.
If more people handled questions like the debatge you hosted, it would have helped resolved these issues well before now.
Posted by: CalperniaUSA | April 28, 2011 at 11:27 AM