Barack Obama's birth certificate
If there is any doubt that the Republican party is a tattered and lost group pulling at any straw they can to remain relevant then one need look no further than the nonsense concerning Barack Obama’s birth certificate. One would of thought that the claims Obama was not a U.S. citizen would of died by now. After much noise last year by conservatives, Obama produced his birth certificate last June which was validated by the Hawaii Department of Health. That act still wasn’t enough for the loonies and here we are in the second month of Obama’s presidency and there still exists a large group of fanatics who claim the birth certificate is a forgery and Obama is not a U.S. citizen and therefore an illegitimate president.
If the conspiracy theorists were restricted to a fringe group at the wingnut extremes of the Republican party, there would be less concern for the rest of us. Well, this week, Republican Alabama Senator Richard Shelby made the following statement when asked by a citizen as to whether there was any truth to the Obama forged birth certificate story:
“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president.”
What?!!? “You have to born in America to be president”? What did you mean by that Mr. Shelby? That Barack Obama was perhaps not really the president? That perhaps because you didn’t actually see his birth certificate, that maybe, just maybe, it’s a fake? Nice going there, Shelby. Go and give all those lunatic Obama-haters more garbage to feed there irrational logic.
Salon.com had an interesting piece last December on why the the Obama birth certificate story will never go away. The essence of the story can be summed up in the following few paragraphs.
“There’s no amount of evidence or data that will change somebody’s mind,” says Michael Shermer, who is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and a columnist for Scientific American, and who holds an undergraduate and a master’s degree in psychology. “The more data you present a person, the more they doubt it … Once you’re committed, especially behaviorally committed or financially committed, the more impossible it becomes to change your mind.”
“Any inconvenient facts are irrelevant. People who believe in a conspiracy theory “develop a selective perception, their mind refuses to accept contrary evidence,” Chip Berlet, a senior analyst with Political Research Associates who studies such theories, says. “As soon as you criticize a conspiracy theory, you become part of the conspiracy.”
“Evan Harrington, a social psychologist who is an associate professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, agrees. “One of the tendencies of the conspiracy notion, the whole appeal, is that a lot of the information the believer has is secret or special,” Harrington says. “The real evidence is out there, [and] you can give them all this evidence, but they’ll have convenient ways to discredit [it].”"
I wonder if any of these psychologists would be willing to give a group discount for some heavy duty therapy for members of the Republican party?
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The absurdity concerning Obama’s birth certificate and origin of birth is astounding and yes, this story will be with us for the next 4 (8?) years.
As you wrote, a number of conservatives will never accept Barack Obama as their president and will use any trash which is floating out there to further their case. To have a sitting member of congress adding credence to this story is a sad reflection on the state of the republican party.
As a perfect example of how far some anti-Obama types will go to stretch the boundaries of logic, let me post one of the comments this post received on my Gather site.
The following was written by Sally Hill:
“Of course he is a US Citizen, but the Constitution says one must be a Natural Born Citizen in order to be POTUS. It’s all the misinformation that makes this issue seem so out on the fringe. And the left doesn’t help as they contribute to the misinformation – one has to wonder if on purpose?
My standpoint is this: If there is no issue, why comment? He ran, he won, he is President, so what is your beef? If you truly believe this is a non-issue then leave it alone. Then again, if you feel the need – as an Obama follower – to help quash the issue by furthering the spread of misinformation, then that says to me, you feel there is an issue and you need to do your part to explain it away – by any means you can.
The COLB ONLY states that he was indeed born alive – PERIOD. It is not good enough to get a passport (Trust me. I, too, was born in 1961 and tried using my COLB to get a passport and was told a big NO! – had to send a certified copy of the vaut BC). Now, if you say Obama could get a passport with his COLB but I couldn’t, then perhaps I need to file a discrimination suit – which is ridiculous. IF he has a US Passport, then he obviously used a certified copy of his vault BC.
Also, you are reading between the lines of Official comments regarding the COLB and the Passport Administration. Hawaii has NOT confirmed his COLB. They have ONLY confirmed that Obama does indeed have a vault BC – they have seen it and it is on record in accordance with the rules and laws of Hawaii. NO WHERE DOES THAT STATEMENT confirm that the COLB accurately displays the information on the vault copy. They chose their words carefully for a reason – so as not to confirm or deny.
The Passport Administration NEVER said his US Passport information was breached. They said ‘passport file’. If you come to the US with a foreign passport, you will STILL have a passport file – but that certainly doesn’t mean you have a US Passport (and I’m not suggesting he came here with a foreign passport). We have no clue if Obama has a US Passport because he won’t release his records.
It matters not whether he has a certified copy of the BC or what it says. It matters not if he has a US Passport or an Indonesian Passport. What matters is the fact that his father (by Obama’s own admission) was a Kenyan national at the time of his birth. This fact, and this fact alone precludes him from being a Natural Born Citizen – IN MY OPINION.
The fact that he was born with dual-loyalities is something the framers of the Constitution wanted to guard against. They wanted the POTUS to be a full generation away from any conflicting loyalty to serving the people of the US. The ONLY way to accomplish this was for the individual to be born to TWO (2) US Citizen parents. In this way you wipe away any conflicting loyalities. Obama can only claim to be FROM the US, he cannot claim the US is HIS country, because of his father’s heritage (paternal always trumpts maternal heritage).
So, for the sake of arguement – if you want to disregard his Kenyna/British loyalty, then explain this: Obama travels, on the taxpayers dime, to Kenya – well AFTER his 21st birthday – to campaign for a paternal relative (Odinga) who believes in Sharia Law. The question now is: Did he campaign for Odinga out of loyalty to his father or because he agrees with Odinga politically? Either way, this is NOT a man I want for my president because he either continues to this very day to have dual-loyalties or very SCARY political beliefs.
HOWEVER, the fact remains that he ran, he won, and he is President. If you have no problems with that fact – then why comment? However, if you do comment – please stop spreading misinformation – stop reading between the lines and hearing what you want to hear that was NOT said.
OF COURSE HE IS A US CITIZEN – but he is NOT a Natural Born Citizen.”
Y’all may be right. OTOH, we’re going to find out now that people ‘with standing’ have signed onto the lawsuits:
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Officer Easterling’s consent form as Active military officer deployed with the US military
in Iraq joins legal action by Dr. Orly Taitz, ESQ to unseal vital records of Barack Hussein
Obama, AKA Barry Soetoro.
As an active-duty Officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the
constitutional eligibilty of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the Office of President of The
United States. He has absolutely refused to provide to the American public his original
birth certificate, as well as other documents which may prove or disprove his eligibility.
In fact, he has fought every attempt made by concerned citizens in their effort to force him
to do so.
Until Mr. Obama releases a “vault copy” of his original birth certificate for public review, I
will consider him neither my Commander in Chief nor my President, but rather, a
usurper to the Office – an impostor.
My conviction is such that I am compelled to join Dr. Orly Taitz’s lawsuit, as a plaintiff,
against Mr. Obama. As a citizen, it pains me to do this, but as an Offficer, my sworn oath to
support and defend our Constitution requires this action.
http://defendourfreedoms.us/2009/02/23/dr-taitzs-military-action-welcomes-officer-easterling.aspx
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Wow. I just read the Easterling open letter. He ends it with this gem…
“Our Constitution and our great nation must not be allowed to be disgraced.”
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Also, here’s more crazy talk from the comment section of my Gather site…
“All active Military should follow Scott. Obama is a usurper and is constitutionally not qualified to be POTUS:
1. The COLB posted on line has been proven to be fraud by experts.
2. The State of Hawaii HAS NOT CONFIRMED Obama was born there only that birth certificate exists in their records (It’s probably a Kenyan Birth Certificate).
3. Relatives and the Kenyan Ambassdor have confirmed Obama was born in Kenya.
4. Obama was born with dual nationalities and subjected to FOREIGN Juristication at the instant of his birth.
5. Obama lost his US Citizenship and became an Indonesian Citizen when he was adopted by his Indonesian Step-Father. (Indonesia did not allow for Duel Citizenship.)
6. Obama may be in Fact Barry Soetoro and it unknown on whether he has legally changed his name.
7. There is reason to believe that Obama enrolled as a Foriegn student while attending Occidential College.”
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Do you see how much time/effort you people have spent insulting other people for wanting to see proof that the president is in fact eligible for his position? It really is pathetic.
If it is so absolutely ridiculous to question whether or not he was a naturally born citizen, then just have the BC made public, easy as that. Then NO ONE will ever be able to legitimately question it again and you can laugh all day at how ridiculous those people were in the first place.
Tandy, you are so logical. Why would someone spend an incredible amount of money hiring high priced law firms to fight the release of any material to his identity if he has nothing to hide?
If the certificate that appeared on Daily Kos really Obama’s why would the certificate number have to be blacked out?
I’m failing to understand the logic from all of you who doubt Obama’s legitimacy.
Does anyone seriously doubt that the U.S. State Department would not have completely vetted anyone who wished to become president? C’mon!
The salon.com piece is the most relevant. And, I have news for you. I lived in Alabama for 25 years, and Mr. Shelby IS a wingnut, and a dumbass as well. A dumbass! I think all this stuff is hilarious! Did you see Alan Keyes last week? Hilarious! I hope they keep it up. I think the GOP will need at least one more severe ass-kicking before they “get it”. Go GOP, Go boys!
The way the Reps are going now, they’re going to remain irrelevant for a long now. The latest polls have Republicans in the dumper.
As for ‘getting it’, I’m not sure they’re capable…at least not the current crop.
Are you kidding me? Look at the type face. This was produced on a computer. Birth certificates in 1961 were typed on an old IBM Selectric.
The image of the birth certificate shown above could not have been made in 1961. It’s a computer product printed on a printer that was not invented for at least 18 after that time. Certificates at that time were typed.