Posted on 08/16/2009 4:45:55 PM PDT by Vincent Jappi
You Might Be a Birther if... By Kyle-Anne Shiver August 14, 2009
Please call me skeptical. It's a label I proudly wear. Since my first day of second grade, when I traded my homemade chocolate-chip cookies for a smooth-talking fourth-grader's out-of-ink ballpoint pen, I've been a wary consumer.
So, if a presidential candidate tries to hand me a barebones certificate of live birth in lieu of a valid, long-form birth certificate, my skeptical antennae go on alert. I automatically question his motives and whether or not he may be trying to play a little fast and loose with the U.S. Constitution. When that same president purportedly spends over a million dollars on legal fees, merely to keep a simple document sealed, then I'm starting to become curiouser and curiouser.
All in all, though, I might be able to get past the whole long-form birth certificate issue if this president had released the whole host of other life documentation, generally required for high-level job applications.
To whit, what is in the following documents that might diminish the Obama "narrative," as sold to the public by marketing guru, David Axelrod, and a strangely incurious media?
* Panahou Academy school records, 5th through 12th grades * Occidental College records, including financial aid information. * Columbia University records, including the missing senior thesis and financial aid information. * Harvard University records, including information on how a student who never wrote anything (that can be found) was elected president of the prestigious law review, and including information on how Harvard Law School was afforded by humble community agitator, Barack Obama. * Obama's Illinois state senate records and papers, mysteriously lost.
No man or woman in this Country today could successfully apply for a high-level executive position with any corporation without submitting this meager documentation to prove the statements made in a job application. No president in the past 30 years has been permitted this level of secrecy about his life. Yet, today we have a sitting president who has provided none of it. In lieu of actual documents, the American public has a "narrative" created by PR guru, turned political operative, David Axelrod.
It is this veritable information vacuum that feeds the birth certificate inquiries.
This ain't rocket science. It ain't even first-year-law-school tough.
If there is a simple legal issue at stake, and the defendant has the incontrovertible proof that would settle the issue, then all the defendant need do is produce the proof in court or in public. Case closed. Issue settled.
Go back to sleep now, boys and girls.
Unfortunately, President Obama and his insolent, adolescent press secretary, Bobby Gibbs, have decided to play dodgeball with the birth-certificate issue. Rather than just - quite simply -- provide the detailed birth certificate, signed by the attending physician, issued by the hospital where the birth occurred, Bobby and Barry have chosen to mock those asking for the proof.
When asked in July why this issue continues to simmer and raise its ugly head again and again, Bobby Gibbs offered this, now quite-trite response: "For $15 anyone can buy an internet address and say anything they want," calling the whole birth certificate brouhaha "made-up, fictional nonsense."
Why those silly, silly Birthers. Thinking that a president might try to bamboozle the American public! Has anything ever seemed so foolish, so imbecilic, so deranged!
Let me see, now. Have I ever been bamboozled by an American president?
LBJ: "I will never send American boys to fight in Vietnam."
Richard Nixon: "I am not a crook."
Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
So, with all my little heart and soul, I want to believe both Barry and Bobby, but I'm still wanting the actual proof. And contrary to all protestations to the contrary, the current president's valid, long-form birth certificate, with all the pertinent details of his birth and legal signatures, has not been released by the state of Hawaii because permission to release it has - as of this very minute - not been granted by Barack Hussein Obama.
For all of us common citizens, who well remember having been bamboozled by former presidents, I've compiled a short list of what it takes to make one a Birther. You might want to see if your own skepticism warrants your inclusion in this growing number of "conspiracy nuts."
You might be a Birther if...you believe that the U.S. Constitution is still relevant. Most lawyers I know are quite the sticklers for legalese and detail. There is a simple, plainly-worded clause in the U.S. Constitution regarding the qualifications for the office of the presidency.
Article 2; Section 1:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
A fourth-grader could understand this. Surely anyone, who wants to be president, and who is himself a lawyer, could read it and know what it means.
However, I'm inclined at this point, to question whether this president is a stickler for detail. Any lawyer, who goes on record surmising that police officers "acted stupidly," when he knows only scant details of an arrest incident, and openly admits that the person arrested is a personal friend, and that the details he knows came from his friend, is not like any lawyer I know. In fact, since Barack Obama assumed the presidency, he has shown over and over and over again an alarming disregard for the truth, especially in the details.
If you agree, then you might actually be a Birther.
You might be a Birther if...you ascribe to the rule of law. The law is the law. You can go through proper channels to change it, but if you respect the rule of law, you accept it, abide by it and until it is legally changed, you do not attempt to dodge it. The president is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America. When a president - any president - abridges the Constitution, even in the minutest of ways, it is a most egregious matter.
Our founders were quite intellectual men of reason, and possessed of uncommon foresight. They recognized that they were forming an imperfect union and knew that changes would be necessary with the passage of time. To this end, they established a formal process for amending our Constitution to meet the needs of a changing America. The process is necessarily cumbersome and difficult, requiring a great deal of public support.
Many now believe that the "natural-born citizen" clause is outdated and meaningless. Fine. All these folks need do is begin the process of passing a formal Constitutional Amendment, which would change the rule of law by which we choose our presidents. Until then, the rule of law is as stated in Article 2, Section 1.
You might actually be a Birther if you believe in the rule of law.
You might be a Birther if...you now have a feeling in your gut that the narrative used to elect a president was a bit off the mark in substantive ways. You may have been a moderate, who bought candidate Obama's conciliatory voice of moderation and intelligence, as eloquently displayed again and again on the campaign trail. But now that you've witnessed one leftist power play after another coming from the President, you're thinking you may have been misled. At the very least, you may be a Birther if you simply would like the president, who promised you transparency, to actually deliver a modicum of the stuff.
As for me, I'm no wacko. Nor am I believing much of anything this president says now, because he's been caught in so many exaggerations, so many outright lies, so many contortions of the truth, that anyone still trusting him on even small matters, might lack a decent amount of common sense.
The American system of government was designed upon an open acknowledgement of the unsavory elements of human nature. Our system is designed to be skeptical and demand proof.
To those who now calculate the political ramifications of making this simple request for records, I'm prone to ask myself when good old American civics died. There is nothing whatsoever political involved in this, except what the President, his own press secretary and leftist media hounds have made of it themselves. Have we all become nothing higher on the citizen scale than political operatives, gauging our words in accord with what effect they may have upon an electoral contest in the future? If so, we may be accomplices in the murder of American civics, plain and simple.
At this juncture, every single American of every political stripe might want to claim the title, "Birther." It is, after all, as American as apple pie to simply and politely say, "Show me."
Kyle-Anne Shiver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker and a newly syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. She welcomes your comments at kyleanneshiver.com. 358 Comments
that is what the birther bashing is about.
I am a birther.
The Kenyan Imposter is a fraud.
I’m sorry, but it is normal curiosity to wonder if he is really a citizen. Asking him to prove it is not a big deal except to Obama and his organization.
So... we are left in a quandary... to believe or not to believe...all due to the administrations non response.
So obama and crew will continue to try to ignore, demonize, or ridicule us "birthers." Go ahead obama, but we're not going anywhere. If you think this will go away obama, you're acting stupidly...
You might be a birther if. . . .you have nothing better to do with your time.
C’mon, you got the COLB, birth announcements in the Hawaiian papers, American parentage on at least one side of the family. And, here’s the most important thing of all. He ran against Hillary Clinton. If he was not an American citizen, trust me, the Clinton mafia would have uncovered it during the campaign.
parsy, who loves a good conspiracy theory but, this ain’t it.
You're absolutely right. obama has been caught lying on other issues. We have no reason at all to believe him on the birth certificate issue. In fact, obama has been lying enough that we have no reason to trust him or believe him on anything, period. If his lips are moving, he's probably lying. I want proof of every single statement or claim he makes. I wouldn't even ask him the time of day and expect a truthful answer.
The COLB is evidence of nothing:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2305999/posts
Clearing the Smoke on Obama’s Eligibility: An Intelligence Investigator’s June 10 Report
My question is- Why does his Kenyan grandmother say he was born in Kenya?
Do you really think that the republican congress critters dare to critisize their democrat colleagues from “across the aisle” on the subject of Obama’s BC? They all have only one objective — keep their job in Congress.
MSM definition of "long form birth certificate": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
MSM definition of "Certificate of Live Birth": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
MSM definition of "Certification of Live Birth": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
MSM definition of "Certificate of Foreign Birth": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
MSM definition of "Certificate of Delayed Birth": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
MSM definition of "Certificate of Hawaiian Birth": See "birth certificate." All birth certificates are the same.
This whole post has become ridiculous (for political reasons I’s suspect).
If his birth certificate was really a problem, many sites would be on it, but even if it is questionable, what are you going to do?
So...even if he is an illegal alien, it just does not matter, so, go beyond that and ex0ound on his ultra-liberal views...
I don’t think the Clinton Mafia angle holds up. The cultish hysteria over Obama,particularly among the black and youth voting segments, would have turned on the Clintons with a righteous fury, facts be damned.
The smarter calculation was to let Obama destroy himself.
In the meantime both Bill and Hillary are out there being (ostensibly) loyal supporters of the First Black President. When he self-destructs, nobody will be more (publicly) devastated by his tragic downfall than they. And they will, with sad reluctance, pick up the fallen mantle and carry bravely on-— with the grateful and total support of Obama’s once-fervent followers.
That none of Obama’s curricula vitae is available is a very legitimate concern; it is inconceivable that a responsible and dedicated public servant would spend extensive time and resources to avoid providing such basic information. It is the mark of a tyrant to so put himself above the law.
That Obama does so with apparent impunity implies utter corruption and/or complete intimidation of both Congress and the press.
The People are the Constitution’s last hope.
Birther Ping
That comment of yours triggers two thoughts in my mind. First, that eligibility for the office of president couldn't have hinged, in the minds of the founders, on merely a birth happening on US soil. In other words, I think the founders, in using the phrase "natural born citizen" to limit eligibility for the presidency, were calling for a child's parents to be Americans. Today's popular legal definition of "natural born" opens the door to people literally foreign to the US to be eligible.
My second point is that overlooking this consideration is a defect assignable to Congress. Eldridge Cleaver ran for president, and Congress would have had no trouble calling him unqualified on account of age. But Congress has no qualm, no question, no doubt, that a dual citizen at birth is eligible to be president, even if raised by foreigners in a foreign land (born on US soil = eligible. period.) That Congress did not confront the issue of dual citizenship as a possible barrier to the presidency speaks of Congress, not of the candidate.
As for me, I consider Obama ineligible, and Congress derelict.
She was mistaken. I think that has already been established.
parsy, who looked a lot of this stuff up
Avoid abstract ideas and appeal instead to the emotions
The American People voted for Barack Hussein Obama can't we just move on?
Constant repetition of just a few ideas, using stereotyped phrases and avoiding objectivity.
Barack released his birth certificate. (Short form that does not reveal his parents citizenship nor hospital of birth.)
Put forth only one side of the argument
Barack released his birth certificate.
Constantly criticize enemies of the state
We hear from the Obamanistas about those evil, extremist, right-wing, hate-filled Republican birthers.
Identify one special enemy for special vilification
All together now . . . . . . BIRTHERS!!
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