If we have to blame someone for the foolishness that is the Birther movement, Dr. Ron Polland (pictured right) is a good place to start. Just days after then presidential candidate Barack Obama released his birth certificate in 2008, Polland (writing under the pseudonym “Ron Polarik”) began his seemingly obsessive career of claiming that it’s a fake.
Now WorldNetDaily reports that Polland has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service over the tax-exempt status of non-profit FactCheck.org, one of the organizations who have published photos and scans of Obama’s Certification of Live Birth. Polland alleges that the photos that FactCheck published of Obama’s certificate were actually photos of a document that FactCheck itself created from the scanned image provided by the Obama Campaign. Polland told WND:
When I saw the photos that Factcheck published in August 2008, I knew that they had photographed a printout of the forged COLB scan they published in June 2008.
Polland argues that the Obama Campaign scan has some of the same dust spots that the FactCheck photos have, which leads him to conclude that the photos were of the scans, not the original document.
We’ll look at Polland’s argument in detail in a future article. However, Polland is assuming that every speck on both images come from the scanner plate and not from the original document. That’s a big assumption without which Polland’s analysis is just hot air.
Read more:
All these birther numbskulls fail to comprehend the simple principle: “the map is not the territory”. It matters not one whit where the internet-displayed COLB or LFBC came from. The important thing is the physical document which came from HI DOH. Extending this, the important point is the data on the document attesting to the President’s birth. Sheesh!!
“If we have to blame someone for the foolishness that is the Birther movement, Dr. Ron Polland is a good place to start.”
Somebody told me that his claim was bull.
Duh. Do run, run Ron.
Exactly. Obama could have copied the LFBC with crayons and tracing paper, and taped it to the Oval Office window, and it would not have mattered one whit. The image made of the certified copy is a convenience only, for media and honest people.
Arguing the validity of the electronic image is as ridiculous as it is futile, but ridiculous and futile is all birthers have.
Well said! You & Sef are absolutely correct!
another salient principle might be: “the map is not the mapmaker”. that is, as long as the state and/or federal authorities responsible for the map endorse the data represented by the map, it matters not one whit whether the map is a mercator or orthographic projection, or whether it’s an original or a copy, or whether it has dust or scratches or coffee stains on it.
as long as the state of hawaii says obama was born there, any challenges to that the birfers think they can mount will remain hollow.
Good points & well said!
Sometimes overlooked is the fact that Hawaii has confirmed the validity of both the long form which was released last April AND the COLB which was released in 2008.
“In June 2008, President Obama released his Certification of Live Birth, which is sometimes referred to in the media as a “short form” birth certificate. Both documents are legally sufficient evidence of birth in the State of Hawai„i, and both provide the same fundamental information: President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawai„i at 7:24 p.m. on August 4, 1961, to mother Stanley Ann Dunham and father Barack Hussein Obama.”
http://hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/News_Release_Birth_Certificate_042711.pdf