In a move that caught this reporter completely off guard, Barack Obama has released over 1,000 pages of additional documents. This massive release of information has been largely unmarked by the press up until now, perhaps due to the incredibly “low key” way in which the Administration released them. There promises to be more to come. Get your copy here.
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Hmm… I guess the president really does believe in transparency. I’m guessing the birthers will call this another distraction (the low-key release was just reverse psychology… ;-)) if they don’t just completely ignore it.
This is a completely routine publication by the GPO of the President’s public papers. It does not include his personal papers, such as private diary or notes to his family. The distinction is in the law governing Presidential Records and Materials. It comes out every year.
Apologies to The Donald, but you won’t find any college transcripts here.
Nor will you find Bill Ayers’ draft of Dreams From My Father (or anywhere else on planet Earth, for that matter).
This should keep the birthers busy for a while. 🙂
🙄
No doubt, they’ll be looking for that one sentence they will say means that he said he was born in Kenya
Not exactly on topic… but the Birther friendly Greeley Gazette cites comments from the Dr. Conspiracy blog rather extensively in a new article on Obama’s SSN.
http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=9438
Thought you’d be interested.
> No doubt, they’ll be looking for that one sentence they will say means that he said he was born in Kenya
They’ll probably post some stuff quickly – you know, all they need is to make up another “missing XY number on document Z” and their cesspools will take it from there…
Ten to one some Freeper posts about there being evidence of artifacts and layers in the released documents.
And, Vince, why the heck would there be any personal papers or notes to his famy released? Do you honestly think anyone is entitled to see them?
Nixon mixed personal and public records. All the Presidents before Nixon treated all the public records of the presidency as private property, and transferred them to their presidential libraries. Because of Watergate, Congress passed a special law, the Presidential Recordings and Materials Act of 1974, sending all of Nixon’s records, personal and private, including the Watergate tapes, to the National Archives. The archivists sorted out personal stuff and returned it to Nixon. The public material, including the tapes, was kept for public view. They are now available at the Nixon Library, a branch of the Archives.
The Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978 changed all of that. It applied to all Presidents starting with Reagan. It provided for public, not presidential, ownership of public records. The President keeps ownership of personal records. At the end of the term, the public records go to the Presidential Library, along with the personal papers, but that library is now a branch of the National Archives. The records are maintained by government archivists, and the public has access to non-classified material.
So, before that law, the rule, believe it or not, was that everything in the White House was the President’s personal property, not just his private notes and letters.
The public papers of the President are usually printed every day in a GPO publication. It has Obama’s speech last Sunday night and all other public letters, statements and documents. The annual compilation mostly just brings together all of these documents.
Before the internet, we had to go to the library and consult that book to see the text of speeches by Ike, JFK, and others. Now it is all available at the touch of a keyboard.
I am happy that Doc does his own irony.
Just one correction. Franklin Roosevelt started the firs of the Presidential libraries at Hyde Park. Most of the earlier presidential papers are at the Library of Congress.
Here is a fascinating 20 minute interview with Janny Scott author of A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother. Scott interviewed nearly 200 of Dunham’s friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this independent woman’s inspiring and nontraditional life. Scott shows how Dunham shaped the man Obama is today.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/may/04/untold-story-barack-obamas-mother/
(You don’t have to register or anything to listen)
Wow, they really intentionally misrepresent you Dr. C and what you’ve said in that Greeley article.
They are trying to use your name and blog to falsely push the Obama Indoneisia lies and tie them into the stupid SSN nonsense.
They are intentionally misrepresenting you to try to falsely imply that you, as an Obama supporter are buying into such crazy claims in order to try to give them an air of credibility…
I’d consider what they did to be outright libel.
It absolutely amazes me how the comments on this site are allowed to demean and belittle fellow Americans who happen to have a different point of view than yourselves. It’s sad and a bit shameful.
That said, this wonderful new ‘transparency’ will not only cost anyone who wishes to view them, but they are routinely released as someone has already mentioned. This isn’t Obama being transparent….this is Obama conforming and maintaining the status quo…you know the Hope and Change President who was supposed to do things differently than his predecessors, who was supposed to make information between government and The People more open and accessible.
Are you all so short-sighted that you absolutely cannot see the other side of the issue? I think that is the scariest part of all. Not that you so callously and without a thought treat fellow Americans like scum, but that you are so close-minded, so caught up in your own ideologies so as not to even be able to appreciate a thought that might not necessarily align with your own.
I don’t in any way agree with your premise that Obama is a NBC, but I don’t think you are stupid or batsh*t crazy either. I see your point….and I can even appreciate your beliefs. I would much rather debate you on the issue (I’d say facts, only you think your facts trump my facts – which is ridiculous) than to name call and try to belittle you. It serves no purpose but to play into the President’s hand and continue to divide this country even more.
I visit many pro-Obama cites daily, but honestly I think this cite, that I feel ranks among the most credible, yet ranks among the worst in terms of the comments being allowed to speak so badly about those that that believe differently than you. It’s absolutely amazing that we have lost any semblance of civility toward our fellow Americans on the Internet.
Stop whining like a baby and pulling your pathetic little “victim card”.
I love how you make a generalized whine with nothing behind it. If you have a specific complaint, then make it. Otherwise, quit crying like a child.
Face up to simple facts. When certain people come here and make up lies or spout willy-nilly spiteful nonsense, they are called out for their actions.
Take personal responsibility for once. If you want to be treated like an adult, act like one.
If you chose to act like a liar, a fool or just a spiteful *ss, then you darn well deserve to be called one to your face.
You earn it, you own it. Own up to it. Simple as that.
I don’t subscribe to the post-modernist notion that every opinion is entitled to be treated equally.
Flat earthers, racists, birthers, etc. amply deserve all the abuse heaped on them, especially recidivist ones.
When you present facts and actual rationale argument, we will be happy to debate you. However, we mostly see the same lies, distortions and plain misstatments of law over and over no matter how many times corrected.
Any honest Birther questions were respectfully addressed BEFORE the election, most notably by the state of Hawaii. Since then, the Birthers’s “issue” is nothing but an excuse for them to hurl ugly insults.
Hey Wild Bill H:
WHERE’S THE APOLOGY?
You are entitled to your opinion and you are entitled to vote according to it. Here’s where we run into problems though. Some of you birther folks have spent the last several years in court attempting (fortunately without success) to IMPOSE your views on the majority of the voters and OVERTURN their will clearly expressed in November 2008. That, my dear transgender Sally Hill, is totally unacceptable.
Yes, we can clearly see the Slough of Despond and the poor demented souls therein, but that does not mean we wish to venture there.
> allowed to demean and belittle fellow Americans who happen to have a different point of view
Well, what do you say about the anti-American attitude towards fellow Americans who happen to be Muslims that is displayed on top birfer sites such as the Pest and eFail?
> so as not to even be able to appreciate a thought that might not necessarily align with your own
I’m quite happy to debate issues and I hardly ever entertain the notion of “I am right, no matter what arguments someone brings”.
However then I would expect you birfers to be intellectually honest and not spout open lies such as “Abercrombie said he can’t find the BC” or “there was a Pakistan travel ban” or “Hawaii issues COLBs to anyone no matter where born”.
You do not catch us “Obots” in such open lies, yet you continue to spread your own, as if this would somehow be justified by your “search for the truth”.
Well, lying to advocate the truth is like bombing for peace is like f****ng for virginity, y’know?
> It’s absolutely amazing that we have lost any semblance of civility toward our fellow Americans on the Internet.
Go tell that over at the Post and eMail, or at Dr Kate’s, or at Orly’s site, will you? I’m sure they’ll ban you just like you were an avid Obama supporter.
Do you need any help getting off that cross you’ve nailed yourself to?
The fact of Barack Obama’s status as a natural born citizen was established almost 3 years ago with the release of his birth certifiicate. People who dispute the validity of that are not asking honest questions, raising sincere doubts, or simply expressing a different opinion. They are conspiracy theorists, ignoring facts to peddle their bullshit. Just because you have an opinion does not mean it deserves respect.
To summarize, if even half of your lies about President Obama were true, every high-profile birther would have been ‘handled’ with extreme prejudice and wanktards like you would be cooling your heels in FEMA camps. I hope that you live long enough to realize just how despicable the birther movement is in its intent, its tactics, and its actions. You and your fellow birthers truly are unAmerican scum.
You brought this up in another thread and I addressed it there.
The fact of the matter is that you are uninterested in looking at the facts and from them drawing a conclusion. You start with a conclusion and look for facts. Example – Obama is the most divisive president in your lifetime. You believe that. Well, it’s either true or it’s not true and if it is true, there will be facts that say so and if it is not true, there will be facts that say otherwise. Did you cite any facts (by the way, cite and site are two different things) to support your belief? No. Your belief is enough for you. That’s not fact. In fact, the facts suggest that, unless you are two years old, Obama is NOT the most divisive President in your lifetime.
We all do this, we look for the facts that support our viewpoint. But, at some point, you have to step back and ask yourself, honestly and objectively, whether you are deluding yourself. When you fail to do that, and continue on with conspiracy theories in the face of an overwhelming tidal wave of fact you bring yourself in for some mockery.
Do you listen to the flat earthers? Those who think that cold fusion is being hidden by the government? Those who think 9/11 was an inside job? Who think that vaccines are causing autism? I don’t. And I don’t give them any respect because, frankly, they, and you, insult my intelligence by making false equivalence arguments. There is no more proof that the Founders wanted the child of an American woman to be ineligible for the President than there is that 2+2=5.
It is a testament to the success of the attempts to “dumb-down” our citizenry and destroy our previously excellent school system that birthers exist in the first place. In a country where teachers are held in such little regard is it any wonder that there is so much lack of understanding of the basic principles of logic and civics. We’s in biiiig trouble.
I’ve long taken a statement of “this president is extra divisive” to mean “I don’t like this president.” It seems more like a generic insult than any kind of quantifiable fact. I’ve never heard a Republican call G. W. Bush a divisive president, but I’ve heard plenty of Democrats do so. Inversely, I’ve never heard a Democrat call Obama divisive.
I suppose the only president I could say is “the most divisive” in any sort of unbiased way would be Lincoln. After all, his election touched off a civil war.
Some positions of my fellow Americans are worthy of belittlement. While I firmly believe in open and free discussion of questions that are worthy of discussion (deficit reduction, spending, social programs, foreign policy), discussion of subjects that are based on incorrect readings of law, underlying mischaracterizations of facts, or flat out lies and innuendo are not worth of rational discussion. I hate to break it to you, but not every hair brained opinion is valid. There are some things that are just plain wrong.
Tough times. The government is running a huge deficit. I have no problem with making people pay for government services. As for not representing a change…eh. It’s just one isolated example.
Problem is, there is no “other side of the issue.” One side has the facts and law on its side, the other side has innuendo, rumors, forgeries, and junk law. I don’t engage in serious debates with flat earthers, and 9/11 truthers either. I hate to break it to you, but the “other side of the issue” is just smoke and mirrors. This isn’t a question of ideology. As Pat Moynihan (or was it James Schsenger?) said, you’re entited to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.
That’s nice you don’t agree. And you’re free to argue whatever you like. But you don’t have any facts! That’s the whole point. There is no evidence to show the President was born anywhere but Hawaii, and there is no real debate in the legal community that a person born on US soil is a natural born citizen. Go to any immigration lawyer in the US. Go to any Constitutional scholar at any law school. Go ask any judge. There is no debate as to what the law says. It’s very quaint that you “can even appreciate” a belief that is held by virtually everyone who studies the law. But just as I wouldn’t expect a doctor to have a serious debate with someone who believes that disease is caused by demon possession, don’t be surprised when people who have studied the law dismiss your fringe beliefs….oh, and nice way to blame the President for your refusal to accept the legitimacy of his Presidency, despite the huge body of law and evidence in his corner. You see, unlike you, he actually studied, and taught Constitutional law, and knows he is a Natural Born Citizen. Couldn’t be it’s actually YOU who are working to divide the nation, could it?
Perhaps you should see how many birther sites even let dissenting comments to be posted? That’s much more civil, isn’t it? Perhaps if you weren’t busily trying to undermine the legitimacy of a duly elected President, you might be treated more civilly? Is it particularly civil to smear the President, his now deceased family, the Republican and Democratic administrations in Hawaii? Is it civil to make up legal theories that have never been widely accepted in our nation’s history, and then lie about how your were taught as a child that you needed two parent citizens to be a natural born citizen? I don’t expect everyone to like the President. Heck, I don’t even agree with him on quite a few things. I fully respect people with conservative views, that argue passionately their point of view. However, I don’t respect people who make up B.S. legal theories, or wholly unsupported claims of foreign birth as an excuse to attack a President that a majority of “We the People” voted for.
What amazes me about these people is they never give up on any point. When people are shown they are wrong about something, they generally stop saying it. Not this group. You show the same person 10 times that they are saying something that is untrue and the next day they are repeating the same thing over and over. No matter how many times you point out a case doesn’t say what they claim it says, it has no impact. No matter how many times you point out the travel ban story is wrong, makes no difference. This trait seems to be shared by every birther I come in contact with. Quite amazing really.
I believe that this is due to the fact that all of their theories are not just unlikely, but nigh impossible. Basically, if they set any precedent for which they will admit that they are mistaken on an issue then that precedent would logically require them to denounce virtually every birther meme. If you’re living in a house of cards, you can’t just start removing them one by one – the birthers have no facts or evidence on which to build a foundation, so they’re stuck…
Then again, it depends on what is intended by calling him “divisive”. You can only honestly argue that Lincoln was “divisive” in terms of the effect that resulted from his election, but you could not fairly blame him for being the cause.
Lincoln himself did NOT want to see the Union breakup and only went to war reluctantly after the Southern States chose to Secede. He was NOT trying to be divisive in his tone nor actions. He didn’t goad them into seceding.
Similar to what is happening today, the CHOICE of viewing his election as “divisive” was clearly on the side of those who refused to accept it and had a hissy fit over it. I put the blame squarely on their shoulders.
I’m really sick of this meme, where a bunch of extremely intolerant people are allowed to blame the victim and get away with it.
It is neither right nor fair that someone be considered “divisive” for their mere existence or their mere success (whether that success is getting elected, etc.) by those that are nothing but intolerant and/or bigoted people.