 "Aitch" |
Posted on 10/13/2008 8:48:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I really thought we’d put this conspiracy theory to rest over the summer, but it has arisen like a zombie yet again to suck the credibility out of the conservative blogosphere. I have had at least 40 e-mails begging me to watch this video featuring Phillip Berg, a PUMA suing Barack Obama and the Democratic Party to prove Obama’s citizenship — even though Obama has already produced a certification of live birth from Hawaii that would get him a passport any day of the week:
Last week, we got tons of e-mail purporting to claim that Berg had won in court and Obama had three days to produce proof of citizenship. It turned out that someone had posted an exemplar of the order, produced by the plaintiff in case the judge granted their motion. In other words, it meant nothing, and neither does this.
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, making him a natural-born citizen of the United States. Hawaii’s certification of live birth proves this, as Allahpundit and I have both noted this summer. Fact Check also verified it, although the video does its best to undermine that by noting the connection to the Annenberg Foundation. By the way, Berg and the video manage to mangle this, too, by claiming Obama sat on the board of the Annenberg Foundation itself and distributed their funding. He ran the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, one of the foundation’s beneficiaries. (The St. Petersburg Times also verified the certification independently.)
Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a contemporaneous corroboration of Obama’s Hawaii birth? As it happens, we do — provided by another PUMA who wanted to find ways to disqualify Obama. Lori Starfelt found this in the archives of the Honolulu Advertiser in a print copy from August 1961:
Unless people want to start claiming that the conspiracy to have Barack Obama infiltrate the political system started at the moment of his birth, that’s pretty conclusive evidence that Obama was born in the US and is a natural-born citizen.
I already know some of the rebuttals that will fly through the comments, so let me address them here:
* A court is hearing this case, so it must be serious — Any fool with a lawyer and a couple of hundred dollars can file a lawsuit. That’s one of the reasons why tort reform is so badly needed. Frivolous lawsuits cost consumers billions of dollars. Conservatives used to make that argument, at least until Phillip Berg filed this lawsuit.
* Why isn’t Obama answering the lawsuit? — Maybe because it’s ridiculous, and Berg has no standing to file it anyway.
* Why not produce the birth certificate? — Obama has … twice now, once on his website and once to Fact Check.
* Well, then, why didn’t he produce it sooner, smart guy? — Sooner than what? This came up at the end of the primaries, and the Obama campaign produced it within a couple of weeks. So far, that hasn’t done much to quell the conspiracy theories.
* Why not produce the original birth certificate? — Most people, I’d wager, don’t have their own original birth certificate. If you applied to get your records, in most states you’d get what Obama has - a certification of live birth spit out from a computer system. I doubt Hawaii has the original record any longer, either. The certification proves citizenship well enough to get a passport.
Let’s stop chasing absurd conspiracy theories that make it more difficult to win the real arguments in this election. Stick to Obama’s absurd theories on national security, his radical political allies, and his disastrous economic policies that will make these past few weeks seem like a breeze. He’s the wrong man for the job, but still an American.
Update: To answer another question (reasonably asked in the comments), Barack Obama’s Indonesian stepfather could not have revoked Obama’s birthright as an American citizen, no matter what he told the school Obama attended.
Screw Loose Change has dealt with Phillip Berg before. It turns out that Berg thinks Bush and Cheney either created 9/11 or let it happen deliberately. Conspiracy theory nuts don’t usually stop at one paranoid fantasy, and this demonstrates it. It turns out he has quite a history of lawsuits and publicity stunts, and this was written at the beginning of 2007. (via Public Secrets)
Philip Berg has been dealt with before, see here:
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/2007/01/philip-j-berg-nutbar-supreme.html
Phil Berg also has a history of lawsuits. See here :
Any citizen has a right to challenge any thing about an election in court. We all have standing.
Ed Morrisey is an idiot. Fact Check is basically a front for leftists, regardless of how "objective" they may appear at times.
Wow, a n00b who is running interference for Obama.
Welcome to FR!
I understand that this is not a certificate of live birth.
Why, then, does his Kenyan family claim he was born there?
Never mind... You probably have a way to ignore that, too.
Obamacrats don’t want to be told that “Factcheck” is a project of the very Annenberg Foundation that hired Obama. They prefer to believe that there is no bias in the media, too.
Hey,anybody smell smoke? Must be a fire.Piss poor try.
That newspaper printing is meaningless. Here’s what we know from his GRANDMOTHER, his half-brother, and a half-sister: The mother tried to fly to Hawaii to have the baby, was refused by the airlines because she was too pregnant, and had Barack Obama in KENYA (Coast Hospital in Mombassa). Then, a few days later, she flew to Hawaii and registered the birth of her Kenyan baby. So, of course the Hawaiin newspaper reported the registered birth of Barack Hussein Obama/Soetor. He had a COLB filed in August, of course the newspaper reported it. Anyone can register the birth of a baby born anywhere in Hawaii and receive a Certification of Live Birth. Barack Hussein Obama is an illegal immigrant, and should be deported.
"Aitch" |
caca de toro
Fact check may be biased but there’s the problem of the birth announcement. Eitheer it’s real or somebody had the foresight to pay for it in the Advertiser 47 years ago just to back up Obama’s case for citizenship.
Andy Martin says differently. Please check your facts before posting.
This person does and I encourage you to rent The Omen for all the details.
Regardless. I want to see the original or a certified photocopy of Obama’s original Birth Certificate from 1961, not some computer generated “equivalent.”
I guess an ad hominem is easier than addressing the issue.
Put Up Or STFU!!!
Show Me Da’Paper!!!
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