It seems far longer than two years since then candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign put a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate on the Internet, the first presidential candidate in history to make such a document public. I thought it appropriate that this article, the 800th published on this web site, be about that important event in the micro-universe of Obama Conspiracy Theories.
Possibly in response to a June 9th (2008) article by Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online, Obama Could Debunk Some Rumors By Releasing His Birth Certificate, echoed by WorldNetDaily on June 10, the Obama campaign is said to have scurried to meet the challenge and two days later (June 12) they released the scanned COLB to a progressive web site, The Daily KOS. Shortly afterward a copy was forwarded a political fact checking web site, Politico.com, and a copy posted on the Obama Campaign Fight the Smears web site. Within a scant 9 days of the initial release, the online newspaper Israel Insider published an article saying that anonymous analysts had declared it a forgery, one writing under the nom de blog of Dr. Polarik.
The Israel Insider said in their article [remember that this was before the Obama denialists invented the “two citizen parent rule]:
… it is Article Two, Section One of the Constitution which requires that the President be a “natural born citizen” and not simply a naturalized citizen. The issue is whether there is proof that Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, the legal status of his mother at the time, and what exactly is written on the original birth certificate — if it in fact such a certificate exists.
Over the last two years, the COLB has faced a barrage of criticism beyond the original observations of The Israel Insider about characteristics of the COLB that turned out to be common to all Hawaiian computer-generated birth certificates. We now have 9 up-close photos of the document, front and back, from FactCheck.org from their article, Born in the U.S.A. The State of Hawaii has confirmed Obama’s Hawaiian birth at the highest level. Many articles on the birth certificate have been published here. Nevertheless, conspiracy theories about the birth certificate persist to this day.
So Happy Birthday, COLB!
Obama COLB (click for full-size)
For a special musical treat, click the Happy Birthday COLB! link at the bottom of the article. (or not)
Never in human history has one simple legal document been the focus of so much cloak-and-dagger theorizing.
One can understand conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination, or 9/11. These were complex events, and a lot of misinformation about them was reported while they were still going on.
But the simple release of a simple birth certificate has occasion flights of conspiratorial fantasy that nobody could have imagine were possible over something so prosaic.
Oh well, I knew before the election that the right would make up lies about Barack Obama. After all, they did it to Bill Clinton. I just never imagined the lies would be so obviously stupid.
You have a very sexy voice doc. hahaha!
No seal or Certificate # – Invalid COLB. Any attempt to use software to make the seal visable alters the COLB which makes it invalid. I suppose on the Hawaii DOH has the power to alter the COLB to make seal visible backed up with intense documentation of the process. But since we have never seen the actual copy (Only Images including the factcheck copy), any alterations to the COLB will in fact invalidate it.
Hi Dr. C
Politico, FactCheck and Fight the Smears always seem to get good ranting press from the birther side concerning their funding, objectives, and political agenda. But did ya know…
Before The Daily KOS was a blog is was a book entitled TaKing On the System It’s a rewrite of sorts of Rules for Radicals, but in the digital age.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3621/3336117246_4d50be1512.jpg
“Today’s lightning-fast culture demands an upgraded set of rules for the contemporary activist on: how to connect, coordinate, and command attention; how to embrace inevitable attacks and make them work for you; and how to design powerful narratives and drive them into the mainstream.
The walls between the people and the power – the so-called elite—are being torn down by technology and a new army of amateurs is storming the barriers to effect political, cultural, and environmental transformation. Understand the new dynamic and the rules of power in the digital era, and one can change the world. ”
The blog is maintained (originally) by the author and employs its tactics. What a place to enter the digital fray! (BTW I officially recommend(ed) the book to anyone interested in marketing. The insights he codifies are genius.)
Regarding the brave baritone nostalgia you create with your monroe-esque birthday song recalling a gloried president past who likewise seemingly got a pass from the press— it fits within the larger trope of mythmaking of the past two weeks. You yourself “know how to design powerful narratives and drive them into the mainstream.” D’ya read the book yet?
Good Night!
Here is interesting challenge to Obots. Has anyone been able to find a 1960’s era COLB of an individual whose parent or parent’s race was identified as AFRICAN.
Yes, Barack Obama’s.
Oh you mean ANOTHER one? Well I would think they would be pretty rare–not that many Africans having children in Hawaii, and we can’t just paw through the records. There are contemporary references to Africans referring to themselves as members of the African race, however.
See: http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/04/the-african-race/
As soon as we do, you will claim they were forged.
Of course the COLB misses the most critical elements of all; name of hospital (or location) and name of attending doc. Obama has never ever been able to prove these 2 facts to date. Without these 2 facts, the COLB is really meaningless given all the various ways a birth could have been declared in 1961. A COLB has NOT a Birth Certificate but merely a government document that points the actual Birth Certificate. Obama has never released his birth certificate. The fact the COLB is an acceptable document to prove a birth only is to the extent that is a trusted government document which provide the presumption of the birth. The underlying BC which Obama will not release actually provides the coorborating evidence that his birth did in fact occur in Hawaii on a particular date. 99% percent of the time this process works which why no really questions a COLB’s validity. But in Obama’s case, the mountain of contravening evidence puts the COLB in great question. Dr. Fukino’s statement is misleading and only raises more questions and has now been directly contradicted by Tim Adams and othe election officials, who while didn’t necessarly have access the the DOH birth records, could have certainly authenticated Obama’s birth in other ways as part of their jobs since Obama was a candidate.
It is only an image of the original document. Nothing has happened to the original document. It is hard to imagine that a person actually believes that a modification to an image of an object or person changes the actual object or person. Image how happy people would be if all they had to do is modify the image of themselves on a computer and instantly have the body they would like. Or, even better, if all they had to do was press “okay” and they could instantly redecorated their homes or offices.
So, would have Kenyan have been better. It is the parent’s choice what race or ethnic group is written. As with Barack Obama has his father identified as African. Yes, Kenya is in Africa and they do refer to themselves as Africans.
Here is an interesting challenge to Birthers: Find some real evidence that President Obama was not born in Hawaii…
Anybody?
Thought so
I have seen one Hawaiian birth certificate with the race Japanese.
You could have fooled me. I thought for presidential eligibility, it was place and date.
I have it on independent authority that Barack Obama was indeed born.
James “Any attempt to use software to make the seal visable alters the COLB which makes it invalid”
.
I destroyed that picture of James so he is gone, this is another James not the same one, let’s try to get his picture and destroy it so he will be gone as well. If we delete the picture we also delete James. Good Huh!
For the benefit of any of you who didn’t “get” the joke. I was imitating the style of Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President John Kennedy.
Gee, I didn’t know that. Maybe I didn’t know it because Daily Kos was founded in 2002 and the book “Taking on the System” was published in 2008.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Taking-on-the-System/Markos-Moulitsas-Zuniga/e/9780451225191
Do you ever bother to verify your facts?
Ah you see Jimbo is not actually a real American, he was born in New Guinea and brought up to believe that a photograph captured the individuals soul.
Alas, a Birfer missionary snapped him with a Polaroid Land Camera and so he has been souless and ignorant ever since…
Of course it is. The name of the hospital and attending physician is of no relevance.
Poor james
I knew many exchange students from various African countries, as a student. They uniformly detested ‘negro,’ and identified themselves as African. What Obama Sr used was a commonly accepted term.
It was similar to me. My parents always stated their race as Jewish – not Russian, or German, or Lithuanian, or white. Even recently, I was talking with my cousins, and said we are of Russian descent. My cousin quickly said, “no we’re not – we’re Jewish.”
As long as we are on this tangent, I would like to remind readers of my thorough debunking of the Kenya scenario:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-born-in-kenya-no.html
James: check out this Kenya BC. It may be what you are looking for.
James, As a young college student in the 60’s I took a course that included material about the Pan-African movement. You might want to look up the name Kwami Nkrumah. He was President of Ghana from sometime in the 50’s until 1966. He was a founder of the Organization for African Unity. It would not have been unusual for President Obama’s Father to call himself African, given his background. As a matter of fact, I thought it made perfect sense. I would encourage you to do some research.
misha
I was a student at University of Hawaii 1961/1965
I knew most of the foreign exchange students including those from Africa, the African exchange students never used “negro” or “black”, or any American word for race, they all stated their race as African.
.
One of those African exchange students had a white wife/girlfriend and came to my dorm often. I don’t remember his name but my wife told me it had to be Obama’s father.
The COLB of Dorian Gray! Whatever you do to the image is done to the original. I want one.
James,
What are the relevance of the name of the hospital and the attending physician? Unless some parts of Honolulu were not a part of the United States in 1961, the name of the hospital doesn’t matter.
And I don’t see the point of why the doctor’s name needs to be on there.
The name of the hospital and the doctor/midwife delivering the baby are not on state-issued birth certificates. They are only on the little souvenir that the hospital sends home with the parents until an actual birth record is produced.
James is 100% wrong, and more than that, he knows it because he’s been told, repeatedly, that he’s wrong. That he refuses to believe it is proof of his own insanity.
I see you all treat this as an ongoing joke, but what is wrong with this guy? Is he really so hopelessly stupid as to believe that (1) scanning a document alters the original paper copy, or (2) that subjecting the scanned image to resolution techniques alters the original paper copy?
I mean seriously, is anyone that stupid?
Yes.
There are certainly people that stupid. I met some when I toured a state institution for the mentally retarded. As for James, I have no idea why he says some of the outlandish things he says.
American racial classifications are a bit weird to, well, anyone else.
It would be pleasing to me if I indeed could design powerful narratives, and it is troubling to me that there are so many powerful narratives out there which are lies.
No I haven’t read that book, nor any book like it. I believe that the attempt to deceive by whatever means is fundamentally immoral.
It is actually worse that thinking that modify an image on a computer makes the document void. Some have gone as far as to do a detailed analysis digital photographs of the birth certificate in order to prove that it is false. Such as drawing a parallel and horizontal lines across the digital photographs.
HI Dr. C.
Thanks for the response. I believe and respect your stand–even though we find the lies in different places from different sources. Though I wince at the glee in your rhetoric at
times, I believe you are an honorable man. (Some of your regulars, though….)
Thinking about the COLB–Is it reasonable within FOIA guidelines and HI Sunshine Regulations to ask: Who made the request within the Obama Campaign for the HI COLB? And if not, that there’s gotta be a cancelled check out there somewhere, right?
My little “poke” at your post’s potential prevarication comes only in response to the whimsy of your Saturday night singling! I get it. Even Obama wants to identify with the JFK lineage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jan/10/usa.uselections2008
The other Obama-Kennedy connection
How a Kenyan airlift that brought a young scholar named Obama to America in 1960 – where he met a wife and fathered a son – was saved by a young senator from Massachusetts
Well no, there’s no canceled check out there because the Hawaii Department of Health doesn’t take checks. 😉
The point of sunshine laws is to shed light on government actions, not to expose your private transactions to the public. This is why, for example, you can request under FOIA a copy of your passport application from the US Department of State, but not a copy of one for your next-door neighbor. And that’s how it should be. [The federal FOIA only applies to the federal government. The applicable law in Hawaii is the Uniform Information Practices Act (Modified), chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, “UIPA”).]
Birther blogger Butterdezillion went round and round with the State of Hawaii on these questions, and the decision was that she shouldn’t have these records.
See also: http://hawaii.gov/oip/opinionletters/opinion%2090-23.pdf
It’s a trade off between privacy and public need to know. I know that when it’s my transactions, I say the public doesn’t need to know.
No, it isn’t reasonable. It is classic goalpost shifting.
For Obama to demonstrate that the COLB is valid in any American court, all he would have to do is provide a paper copy that has the seal and signature of the registrar. That’s it. The court would not then demand to see the receipt. (And the receipt for the receipt.) The proof that someone requested the COLB is the fact that exists, and has the seal and signature.
That you demand more evidence than a court would require is your problem, not Obama’s.
Well, based on this opinion letter:
it appears that Obama’s birth records will be open to inspection by anyone as of August 5, 2036. So future historians should have no problem at all.
I get first dibs!
That’ll be a great 10,000th article for the blog.
Yeah, ha ha ha…you lefties make me puke. Here is one ABSOLUTE TRUTH: Barack Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and is NOT and NEVER WAS ELIGIBLE TO EVEN RUN FOR THE OFFICE HE PRESENTLY HOLDS. (“It’s a Constitutional thing, you wouldn’t understand”). Listen, you and I ALL KNOW (tell the truth, now,) that when you got a peep at that colb, you KNEW it was fishy. Listen, doesn’t matter, the TRUTH ALWAYS COMES TO LIGHT, this Illuminati puppet’s LIES OF OMMISSION/COMMISSION will find him out.
Ah RJ….
so tempting to comment, but really- his statement speaks for itself
Very concise comment. I found a Kenya BC (Obama’s?) that’s right here.
Thanks for posting!
Yoor CAPS and !!!! make it so compelling, it MUST BE TROO!!!
PleaSe were can I GET my ILLoomINATi Outer T-shirt from so I can tell THESE COMMY FASHIST SOCALIST to go TO HELLL !!!!!!!!!!
[/snark] (for the parody challenged Birfers amonsgt us)
Why do I suspect RJ is really the infamous birther tool “Ramjet 767”? This guys spends his day posting his nonsense over at every moderated pro birther blog along with his cronies hoping that if they repeat the same debunked false information enough that someone other than a birther will actually believe it.
ILLUMINATI!!!!!! AAAAIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!! HELP US, OBI-WAN KENOBI! YOU’RE OUR ONLY HOPE!
AAAIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!zubzubzuberp
Wow. Two years already. Happy birthday COLB!