No spin? You decide!
Pinheads Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly reported this:
They failed to report this (which they knew but purposely followed the Fox talking points and prepared script) :
Obama’s Birth Certificate
In the latter stages of the presidential campaign, a myriad of rumors arise suggesting that Obama was born not in Hawaii but in Kenya. Those stories are fueled partly by reports that his father’s relatives had witnessed his birth in Kenya.
In an effort to squelch the born-in-Kenya rumors, Obama’s campaign posts an image of his Hawaiian birth certificate on the Internet; it is immediately suspected of being a forgery. The story breaks on Pamela Geller’s AtlasShrugs.com Web site (which has consistently had the most thorough coverage). The birth certificate image shows evidence of being computer-generated, and it represents the limited short form birth record document rather than the more detailed long form document (sometimes referred to as the “ribbon copy” because it is produced with ink from the typewriter’s ribbon). Obama’s legitimate long form birth certificate may possibly list a place of birth other than Hawaii, a father other than Obama, Sr., or no father at all. Of course, a newborn infant’s mother can give the hospital the name of just about anyone as the father and it will likely be recorded. (By July 2008, there were allegations that the short form birth certificate forgery had been performed by a Jay McKinnon, who describes himself as a “Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist.”) [12, 325, 494, 548, 564, 2040, 2612]
Researcher Dr. Ron Polarik performed an exhaustive examination of the various Obama birth certificate images available on the Internet and states that the document is a fake. Polarik alleges that no original paper Certification of Live Birth (COLB) corresponding to the image on the Internet exists. He states that the online document was computer-generated and not a scanned image of any authentic Obama COLB. Polarik also points out that the 2007 seal shown on Obama’s alleged 2007 COLB looks nothing like the authentic 2007 Hawaiian seal on actual documents for that year. [548]
The birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign lists the father’s race as “African,” a term that likely would not have been used for a newborn child’s race in 1961. A birth certificate in that period would probably have listed the race as “Negro” or “colored.” Those may not be politically correct terms today, but they were in widespread use in 1961. The use of the word “African” on the Obama form thus further suggests that the document provided by his campaign was a newly created fabrication, prepared by someone unfamiliar with 1961 society. [372]
The Internet site FactCheck.org states that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign is legitimate, but it should be noted that FactCheck.org is politically left leaning and is affiliated with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of Pennsylvania, which, in turn, is run by Obama supporters and funded by the Annenberg Foundation. (The Annenberg Foundation also funded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, from which Obama and William Ayers distributed tens of millions of dollars to predominantly leftist organizations). In defense of FactCheck.org, some point out that the Annenberg Foundation was originally funded by a wealthy Republican, the late Walter Annenberg, and therefore it could not possibly have contributed to leftist causes. That argument fails to consider the fact that wealthy benefactors often do not retain strict control over—or live long enough to control—the foundations they set up. Annenberg donated $50 million to the United Negro College Fund and supported public television, and neither of those would be considered conservative leaning. “If it’s Annenberg it must be conservative” is not a valid argument. The Ford Foundation, for example, has distributed funds in ways that clearly would not have been advocated by Henry Ford. In fact, Henry Ford II quit the Ford Foundation in disgust in 1977. The fact that Annenberg is no longer alive to influence the spending of his foundation is not irrelevant. The truth is that as time passes tax-exempt foundations frequently lurch left in their distribution of funds. (They have also been used as covers for CIA activities, precisely because of the lack of accountability in their funding and expenditures.) [302, 548, 733, 842 p. 90]
On August 13, 1961, nine days after his birth, an Obama birth notice appears in two Honolulu newspapers. The Sunday Advertiser and the Star Bulletin announcements read, “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug 4.” The address listed in the notices is purportedly that of Ann Dunham’s parents. The place of birth is not indicated. Many argue that the newspaper birth notices prove Obama was born in Hawaii, others argue that they prove only that Obama’s mother, father, or grandparents placed the notice in the newspapers. (One individual who is familiar with Linotype machines used by newspapers in the 1960s argues that the spacing of the lines in the Obama birth notice suggests it is a forgery.) Current long-time (since before 1961) residents of nearby 6075 Kalanianaole Highway state that the residents of 6085 in 1961 were neither Obama and Dunham nor Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, but Orland and Thelma Lefforge. Regardless of where Obama was born, in late August of 1961 his mother was living in a Seattle apartment (516 13th Avenue E), ready to begin classes at the University of Washington. (The telephone book entry is “Obama Anna Mrs EA3-3348”) [362, 1902, 1908, 1909, 2655]
Some believe that Dunham and Obama, Sr. visited his homeland of Kenya at the beginning of their long summer break from the University and that Obama was born in Africa. As the summer progressed, the airlines would not have allowed a very pregnant Dunham fly all the way back to Hawaii, and Dunham therefore would have given birth in Kenya. (The airlines were more strict about such issues in 1961 than they are today.) Several of Obama’s relatives in Africa, who likely are unaware of the eligibility requirements of the U.S. presidency, state that he was born in Kenya. [197, 199, 248]
Dunham’s high school classmate Susan Blake recalls that during a 1961 visit to Seattle Dunham was excited about her husband’s plans to return to Kenya. Blake does not indicate whether Dunham was going to Kenya with her husband, but it is not illogical to believe that the newlyweds would travel together to Obama Sr.’s homeland in order for Dunham to “meet the parents,” with the trip taking place over the summer when university classes were not in session. Such a trip would also be consistent with reports that Obama’s family in Kenya was less than thrilled when they met his new wife, a white woman. The summer of 1961 is the only logical time the Kenyan family could have met Dunham, as both she and Obama, Sr. returned to the United States to attend their fall school sessions. Dunham’s trip to Kenya would not have been during the 1962 summer break because by that time Obama, Sr. had already decided to attend Harvard and leave both Dunham and her child. If Dunham traveled with Obama, Sr. to Kenya, it was in the summer of 1961. [743]
Obama’s campaign has given the names of two different Hawaiian hospitals where he was supposed to have been born (Kapiolani Medical Center and Queens Medical Center, both in Honolulu). No one has been able to confirm the birth from either hospital’s records. There is allegedly a register of the birth in the public records office, dated August 8, 1961, one week after the birth, but it purportedly does not list a place of birth. (A register of birth is not the same as a birth certificate.) [248]
Between November 20 and December 2 of 2008, 13 separate Hawaiian hospitals were contacted to determine if Obama had been born there. None of them could or would confirm it was the facility where he was born. The hospitals contacted included Queen’s Medical Center (where Obama says be was born) and Kapiolani Medical Center (where Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng says he was born). [584]
A writer for Online Journal published an article (June 9, 2008) claiming that a research team went to Mombasa, Kenya, and located a certificate of the Kenyan birth of Barack Obama, Jr. There are also rumors that certified copies of a Kenyan birth certificate, with embossed raised seals and with birth witness signatures, are now in the hands of three individuals. Those documents purportedly state that Obama was born at 7:24 p.m., on August 4, 1961, at Coast Provincial General Hospital, in Mombasa, Kenya. Government authorities in Kenya have stated that all documents regarding Obama would be “under seal.” That statement itself raises questions, because if Obama were born in Hawaii, Kenya would have no Obama birth records to seal. [248, 299, 301, 407]
Some believe that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, has done some investigating and believes Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya. The British Secret Service, MI6, according to others, allegedly has documents relating to Obama, Sr. because he was a politically active communist at a time when Kenya had not yet received its independence from Great Britain. [558, 2038]
There have been claims that Obama’s step-grandmother, Sarah Onyango Obama (Obama’s paternal grandfather’s second wife, born in 1922), told reporters that Barack Obama, Jr. was born in Kenya when her stepson came to visit—accompanied by a pregnant Ann Dunham. Sarah Obama further states that she was present in the Mombasa delivery room when Obama was born. One half-brother and one half-sister of Obama also claim he was born in Kenya. That would be consistent with a purported stop by Dunham to the state of Washington on the return trip to Hawaii, and with the possible existence of only a Hawaiian register of birth, rather than an actual Hawaiian birth certificate. The Chicago Tribune was told by Dunham’s friend Susan Blake that Dunham visited her in Seattle with the newborn infant shortly after his birth. That visit to Blake makes more sense as part of a necessary return trip from Kenya to Hawaii through Seattle than as an optional pleasure trip from Hawaii to Seattle and back to Hawaii simply to show off a newborn baby. [248, 289, 299, 324, 367, 2660]
A critical issue with regard to the Obama long form birth certificate is that Hawaiian law (Hawaii Revised Statute 338-17.8) allows the State of Hawaii to issue a certificate of live birth even if the child is born outside the state provided the parents have been legal residents of Hawaii for at least one year immediately preceding the birth. Obama, Sr. had been a resident of Hawaii for at least one year prior to August 1961. Ann Dunham graduated from Mercer Island High School in Washington in 1960. If, as of August 1961, she had been a legal resident of Hawaii for one year, it was just barely one year. Such a Hawaiian certificate of live birth does not require that the child be born in Hawaii, only that the parents be Hawaiian residents for one year. Thus, had Obama been born in Kenya (or anywhere other than Hawaii) and shortly thereafter brought to Hawaii, Dunham could nevertheless have requested a Hawaiian birth certificate for her son; that document would have been in addition to the birth certificate issued in Kenya. Such a Hawaiian certificate does not make the child a natural born citizen of the United States, it is merely a birth-recording convenience offered by the state. If Dunham expected to remain in Hawaii or any other U.S. state it would have been logical for her to want to register Obama’s birth there. (It certainly would not have been necessary for her to “think ahead” to a time when he might decide to run for president, as some have suggested.) Dunham could also have returned to Hawaii from Kenya, claimed to have given birth at home, and simply registered the birth as Hawaiian. Obama would then have both a Kenyan and a Hawaiian birth certificate; he wouldn’t be the first person to have two such documents from two different countries. [301]
The Hawaiian statute reads, in part, “Certificates for children born out of state. (a) Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child.” Those who argue that a Hawaiian birth certificate undeniably proves a birth was in Hawaii have to reconcile their argument with Hawaii Revised Statute 338-17.8. [301, 583]
Some suggest that the Hawaiian statute was intended to increase the number of Hawaiian citizens in order to get additional federal money. Welfare benefits were not then provided to illegal immigrants, and Hawaii was overburdened with immigrants—most in poverty and many involved in crime. The Hawaiian practice of issuing birth certificates to children born somewhere else allowed it to improperly boost the official population numbers of citizens, thus increasing the amount of welfare money it received from Washington, D.C. (In other words, the State of Hawaii may have been engaged in massive welfare fraud to obtain federal tax dollars.)
Some have also argued that Hawaii’s status as the nation’s 50th state is questionable because the proposition voted on by its citizens only asked the question, “Should Hawaii immediately be admitted into the Union as a State?” and did not also offer the option of total independence. The legal choice should therefore have been not solely between statehood and remaining a territory of the United States, but between statehood, remaining a territory, and independence. Further, the statehood vote (on June 27, 1959) was open to any U.S. citizen who had resided in Hawaii for at least one year, including members of the military and their families—non-Hawaiians who should perhaps have had no say in the matter. The argument persists in the minds of many island residents that Hawaii has never legally been a state. [1589]
States typically have a long form (certificate of live birth) and a short form (certification of birth or certificate of birth registration) for their birth documents. The long form, or vault copy, contains the more detailed information, such as the hospital name, names of parents, date, time, infant’s weight and length, footprints, doctor’s name, mother’s signature, and signature of the doctor. (The physician’s signature is sometimes certified.) In the pre-computer era of 1961, the long form document would have been filled in by hand or with a typewriter. The short form (or “abstract”) contains limited information, and is the less desirable of the two forms when absolute proof is desired. When someone requests a copy of a birth certificate from a state (or county), the document provided is often the short form, typed or (nowadays) computer-printed at the time of the request, and based on information on computer databases; the vault copy is generally not retrieved and examined. The short form is then stamped or embossed with an official seal before being given to the person who requested it. Had Obama been born in Kenya, Ann Dunham could have returned with him to Hawaii and had his birth recorded there. The long form would state the place of birth as Kenya, while the short form might make no mention of Kenya—especially if it is a forgery. [694, 2079]
The birth document provided by the Obama campaign—whether valid or a forgery—is the short form. But having a Hawaiian certification of birth proves only that the birth was registered in Hawaii, it does not prove that the named individual was born in Hawaii. The place of birth is recorded on the vault copy document, but that is precisely the document that Obama refuses to produce. Some suggest that Obama has people preparing a forged long form birth certificate in order to quash rumors and end lawsuits. If a long form document is eventually released to the public (whether original or forged) the question of why it took so long for Obama to release it will be raised—especially since he has been paying attorneys to fight the release of documents. (Further, most observers would assume that skeptics will not be allowed to subject the document to exhaustive forensic tests.) [492, 574]
To those who argue, “That’s all nonsense, if you have a Hawaiian birth certificate you must have been born in Hawaii,” they need to account for the fact that Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng also has a Hawaiian short form certification of birth yet readily admits she was born in Indonesia in 1970. They also need to consider Chinese leader Sun Yat-Sen. Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925) was born in China but was granted a Hawaiian registration of birth showing he was born in the Kingdom of Hawaii on November 24, 1870, four years after his actual 1866 birth in the Guangdong province of China. Sun Yat-Sen lived in Hawaii for a time, studying at the Iolani School where he mastered the English language. He eventually became a naturalized citizen of the United States and was issued a U.S. passport. Although Sun Yat-Sen had a Hawaiian birth certificate and was an American citizen, he was born in China and would therefore not have been eligible to serve as president of the United States because he was not a natural born citizen. (Sun Yat-Sen also attended Oahu College, which later became the Punahou School attended by Obama.) [783, 1987]
Only a few sources have been listed here for the many Obama birth speculations; there are far too many, and rumors and stories can readily be found on the Internet. (One can no doubt find stories suggesting that Obama’s father was a visitor from another planet.) The speculation will not end until original birth, citizenship, and school documents are released, and the likelihood of that is minimal. Various lawsuits have been filed to block Obama from running for or serving as president without his first proving he is an eligible, natural born citizen of the United States. Whether those lawsuits lead to anything remains to be seen, but if the truth damages Obama, there will certainly be continued efforts by many to keep that truth successfully hidden. (Even if Obama was born in Hawaii, an important issue may be whether he became and may still be an Indonesian citizen; his school records and passport records may hold the key to why he is keeping his past shrouded in secrecy.) [13, 258, 305, 543]
One of Obama’s Web sites, FightTheSmears.com, affirms, “When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.’s children. Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4, 1982.” This statement by the Obama campaign admits that he was a British citizen at birth and thus had dual citizenship (even if he was born in the United States) With dual citizenship and split loyalties at birth, Obama is arguably not a natural born citizen and is ineligible to serve as president of the United States. [507]
Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution states that “No person except a natural born Citizen or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President.” The grandfather clause portion of the rule refers only to those persons who were living in the United States at the time the Constitution was ratified in 1787, and is therefore irrelevant to living Americans. Thus, for all people alive today, the Constitution requires that “No person except a natural born Citizen shall be eligible to the Office of President.” [923]
Some have argued that Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution allows Obama to serve as president. The relevant part reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This Amendment was meant to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling as unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted citizenship to former slaves. Nothing in the 14th Amendment, however, changes the requirement that a president must be a natural born citizen, rather than simply a citizen or a naturalized citizen. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, is a naturalized citizen, but he cannot legally serve as president because he is not a natural born citizen. The 14th Amendment notwithstanding, an individual can serve as president only if he or she is a natural born citizen of the United States. (Note that the term natural born citizen appears in the U.S. Constitution only in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5.) [509, 923]
One Internet Web site offers to pay Obama $2 million if he will produce his original long form birth certificate. The amount of the reward will be increased until “…it is so huge that the American people will begin to question why he has sealed all his background info to hide something.” Some might argue that the $2 million reward is already large enough to prompt those questions. (The reward is later increased to $25 million.) [1939, 2525]
Thanks to Don Frederick at Obama Timeline.
An election for President and Commander in Chief of the Military must strive to be above reproach. Our public institutions must give the public confidence that a presidential candidate has complied with the election process that is prescribed by our Constitution and laws. It is only after a presidential candidate satisfies the rules of such a process that he/she can expect members of the public, regardless of their party affiliations, to give him/her the respect that the Office of President so much deserves.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.