Why during the election did this web site owner feel threatened enough to immediately pull the web site down frm the internet?
Posted on 01/31/2010 4:42:58 PM PST by STARWISE
Activists charge that Obama has spent millions to silence them in court. Not exactly, say the government’s lawyers.
###
Is President Barack Obama spending millions of dollars to hide the truth about his citizenship?
During Obama's 2008 run for the White House, his campaign and a host of other credible sources repeatedly debunked the conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and was thus ineligible to serve as president.
But this failed to quell the "birther" movement, whose acolytes have filed more than 60 civil lawsuits challenging the president's citizenship. None of these suits have gone anywhere in court.
But birthers say that's because Obama has unleashed a phalanx of powerful lawyers to silence them—spending $1.7 million in the process, according to WorldNetDaily (WND), an enthusiastic online promoter of the birthers' cause.
Given the sheer number of cases, it seems plausible that the president and the government may have been forced to devote real resources to their defense.
But in fact the opposite may be true: The birthers' own copious legal bungling could wind up costing them more than Obama will have to spend defending himself.
The birthers have peppered dozens of state and federal courts around the country with legal challenges—against the president and other government officials and organizations who had some role in allowing Obama's name to be placed on the ballot, including the Federal Election Commission, various state election officials, and the US Supreme Court. Some of the suits, particularly those filed by the movement's leading lady, California lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz, have been headlined by members of the military claiming they've been wrongfully made to serve in foreign wars by an illegitimate commander in chief.
Most recently, birther attorneys have represented car dealers who charge that Obama is a phony president who lacked the authority to order a restructuring of Chrysler that they say cost them their businesses.
WorldNetDaily has noted that FEC filings show that Obama's presidential campaign has paid out more than $1.7 million since the election to the law firm of Perkins Coie. Until recently, that firm was home to Obama's campaign lawyer, and now White House counsel, Robert Bauer—the very same DC lawyer, says WND, who has defended Obama in many of the birther lawsuits.
Ergo, WND concluded, Obama must be devoting that entire $1.7 million to crushing birthers in court. This is a ridiculous claim: Even after an election is over a presidential campaign has plenty of need for lawyers as it winds down operations and meets campaign finance law requirements.
But WND's editors believe they have a smoking gun in a letter Bauer sent on April 3 to John David Hemenway, a DC lawyer representing retired Air Force Colonel Gregory Hollister in a suit against "Barry Soetoro…de facto President in posse." (Some birthers claim Obama is actually an Indonesian citizen who shares his last name with his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.)
The lawsuit claims that Hollister may be unable to perform his duty to uphold the Constitution if Obama called him out of retirement and ordered him to war, because Obama isn't a natural-born citizen.
A US District Court judge dismissed the "frivolous" case and reprimanded the 83-year-old lawyer for filing it. Nonetheless, Hemenway appealed, prompting Bauer to send him a letter warning that Obama would seek sanctions if he pursued the matter.
WND and many of its readers apparently believe this letter proves that Obama has teams of expensive lawyers working round the clock to stomp out the suits and intimidate the underdog plaintiffs and their attorneys.
The White House never responded to WND's questions about the legal fees, and Bauer didn't respond to Mother Jones. But the birthers' lawsuits don't exactly seem to be requiring Obama's lawyers—government or private—to burn the midnight oil.
Roger West, an assistant US attorney in the central district of California, represented the government in a lawsuit brought by Taitz on behalf of perennial presidential candidate Alan Keyes, asking the court to require that Obama prove he is a natural-born citizen.
The case has dragged on for more than a year, mostly because Taitz, a graduate of an online, unaccredited law school, failed to serve the defendants. Judge David O. Carter dismissed the suit in October for a host of reasons, but Taitz has appealed.
Yet West says that far from bleeding his office, Taitz and her co-counsel Gary Kreep have assembled such a weak case that he hasn't had to spend much time on it.
"I filed one motion that didn't take too long, we've had two hearings and that's it," he says. "It's not like we've devoted some sort of task force to this."
Army Major Rebecca Ausprung handled two of the birther cases against the Department of the Army that disputed Obama's authority as commander in chief to order soldiers to war. Ausprung says she spent a few hours drafting motions and doing research, and she did have to make three short trips to Georgia from Arlington, Virginia.
She prevailed in both cases. "The monetary cost to the government in defending these two cases was extremely minimal," she says.
Or consider a case filed by one of the most prolific birther litigants, Philip J. Berg, that went all the way up to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. In November the court dismissed the appeal and ordered Berg to pay the legal costs for the defendants, which included the Federal Election Commission.
Here was the government's big chance to recoup its millions. But when the FEC submitted its bill, the grand total came to $20.40. This doesn't include the cost of the time government lawyers spent writing briefs and appearing in court.
Yet it's clear that as much of a nuisance as these suits are for the government, that's all they are: a nuisance.
In fact, the plaintiffs may be spending far more time and money on these cases than Obama or the government is, in part because of their failure to abide by basic court procedures.
In one of the Georgia cases Ausprung handled, a federal judge sanctioned Taitz in October for $20,000 for, among other things, pursuing a case long after a judge had dismissed it and her own client had discharged her. Taitz has refused to pay the fine.
So far, judges have been remarkably tolerant of the birthers' shenanigans—despite being handed abundant opportunities to throw their petitions out of court. In one case, Taitz allegedly encouraged supporters to contact the judge by phone and mail to lobby for her cause—a glaring ethics violation that he chose to ignore.
Another of her cases only went forward because the federal judge basically begged the defendants to let Taitz serve them—the first step in any lawsuit, but one that Taitz had neglected to take for about seven months.
The judges' written opinions suggest that by giving the birthers' cases a full airing, they hope to put some of the most outrageous allegations to rest.
But not only have the birthers shown little gratitude to the judges who have indulged them, their court losses have also fueled the conspiracy theories that the judges had hoped to extinguish.
Taitz accused US District Judge Clay Land of having improperly discussed one of her cases with Attorney General Eric Holder, and submitted a sworn eyewitness account describing a clandestine meeting in a Columbus, Georgia, coffee shop between the judge and a man with a "trim upper lip mustache, not large of stature and general olive complexion"—whom the source naturally assumed to be the attorney general.
On the day in question, however, Holder was making a public appearance 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles. Expect the birthers' theories to become even more far-fetched as their legal endeavors continue to fail.
~~PING!
It’s the same reason why Saddam Hussein charged the widows for the bullets with which Saddam executed their husbands.
The bills we should be paying are the costs for the FBI to do their job of catching criminals.
See http://butterdezillion.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/red-flags-in-hawaii-2/
Bump.
If the leftist MotherJones is talking about, it is getting to be a thorn in the lefties foot.
Thank you .. good info.
~~~~~
Interesting comment for this article:
Stephanie Mencimer, I’ll give
Submitted by PJ Foggy (not verified) on Tue Jan. 26, 2010 8:46 AM PST.
###
Stephanie Mencimer, I’ll give you a C+ for that article. There are a host of minor errors, but more important, you obviously didn’t check with the single most important website that debunks the Birthers, Politijab .
If you had, you would have learned of the Birther Case Scorecard, and learned that Obama only hired personal attorneys in 3 of the 64 Birther lawsuits.
Even if the federal government lawyers were spending a lot of time on these cases (which you accurately reported, they aren’t), that would result in no additional expense to the government. Both Roger West and Rebecca Ausprung receive the same salary no matter what cases they work on. Only if President Obama hires personal attorneys does the expense climb, and he hasn’t had to hire personal attorneys to work on these cases since he took office.
You missed one other important point, too.
Birthers have 3 main theories as to why he’s ineligible, of which you mention only one — that he may have been born in Kenya. Why didn’t you mention the theory that he lost his citizenship when he was “adopted” in Indonesia? Why didn’t you mention the theory that both your parents must be U.S. citizens for you to be a “natural born citizen”?
All the other MSM outlets that reported this story — Washington Post, UPI, New York Magazine, Washington Independent, etc. — contacted us at Politijab to get more accurate and complete information before writing their stories. Before you write about the Birthers again, give us a chance to educate you more fully.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/whats-obamas-birther-legal-bill#comments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And they STILL overlook the admitted fact that
he’s the son of a Kenyan/UK citizen.
I stumbled upon this letter on Saturday. Conressman Bobby L. Rush wrote a letter on January 11, 2010 regarding Bararack barry Soetoro finacial transcripts being released from Occidential College, Barry attended OC on through financial assistance as a international student from Indonesia. I accessed the letter at www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4501135561
“FREE THE LONG FORM!”
In a country where an subdivision homeowners’ association can foreclose on someone’s house, homesteaded property, because they haven't mowed the yard, or failed to paint it in an approved color scheme, or insist on flying an AMERICAN flag, it's pitiful that the President of the United States can thumb his nose at proving his eligibility.
So Ms. Mencimer spends 1,277 words on an article entitled “What’s Obama’s Birther Legal Bill?”, and so far as I can tell, she never answered her own question.
Hey, Stephanie, here’s another question you can avoid answering: “What’s the name of the doctor who attended Obama’s birth?”
Just add this to the 10,000 OTHER laws broken by this administration.
I am surprised that Mother Jones is bring up the subject. By doing this they generate curiosity about his eligibility. ( Hm? Why would they do that?)
My sentiments exactly. If it’s not such a big deal, why are they bothering to write long articles about how frivolous these lawsuits are? I think there’s something there and the plaintiffs know it. Obama’s past is secretive and no one know anything about his education, his grades, who paid for it, how he went to Pakistan in 1981 when US citizens couldn’t go to Pakistan then. There’s a lot here and if the “free” press would do their job, perhaps we could find out that we have a man who has hijacked our presidency.
STARWISE. so he’s using government lawyers to defend him on “birther” related court appearances and legal work?
WE THE PEOPLE HAVE STANDING IF THE US GOV IS PAYING HIS DEFENSE.
That was letter TO Rush
“Letters To Leaders”
What's Obama's Birther Legal Bill?
If the leftist MotherJones is talking about, it is getting to be a thorn in the lefties foot.
Yes ..
“Assistant United States Attorney Chief, Civil Division ROGER E. WEST (State Bar No. 58609) Assistant United States Attorney First Assistant Chief, Civil Division
DAVID A. DeJUTE (State Bar No. 153527) Assistant United States Attorney Room 7516, Federal Building 300 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles, California 90012 Telephone: (213) 894-2461/2574 Facsimile: (213) 894-7819 Email: roger.west4@usdoj.gov david.dejute@usdoj.gov Attorneys for Defendants”
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2336970/replies?c=121
Is that right?
Are you a lawyer?
Has Congressman Billybob ever offered his opinion?
I think I’m asking him now.
:)
If the American citizen is paying to defend his case then we have standing. I’m not an attorney but I did stay in the Licoln bedroom.
“If the leftist MotherJones is talking about, it is getting to be a thorn in the lefties foot.”
Maybe even Mother Jones has a limit ;-)
Ok !
Let me get this straight...they make a blanket denial of 1.7 million and then fail to give the “correct” figure? What is the denial based on? Do they concede he’s spent even a penny on the issue? Not as far as I can tell. Get serious.
I’d like to know why is it that after 60+ suits that go no where, people are even being allowed to file these frivolous suits and waste taxpayer money over a lost cause that never was.
Why spend 2 million when all Obama needs to spend in 50 bucks, Eh Stephanie?
WELL STEPHANIE, I AM WAITING FOR AN ANSWER!
Conclusion: Obama spent 2 million because his defacto birth is nnot in the United STates of America as required by Article II of the Constotution. What else could one logically conclude, eh?
Stephanie is 2 cards short a dick,,,,eerrr deck!!!!
Rodguy911 and I seem to think that point might have sticking power.
In other words, we (the government) hire them to do nothing but sit around doing nothing twiddling their thumbs waiting for a case to come along so they're actually being useful in these cases. That's the only scenario where these 60+ cases aren't taking time, effort and expense away from attorneys' other duties and in turn causing us to hire more attorneys to step in to handle the extra workload.
” Hawaii officials swear they have “seen” his birth certificate...”
Dr Fukino made two ambiguous statements on Barry’s birth certificate.
October 2008
“Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records,
have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health
has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures,” Fukino said.”
If she had seen the original birth certificate, why would she have to verify that the DOH has it on record ?
I think “ seen “ refers to viewing the paperwork that verifies that the DOH has Barry’s birth certificate somewhere.
Although she does verify that there is an original birth certificate that has not been made public.
Her later statement no longer refers to birth certificate.
But, vital records-plural.
Which adds more confusion.
She does not state what those records are.
And then she pronounces him a natural-born American citizen-whatever that is.
And of course, she does not offer any evidence to support her conclusion.
Or how she determined NBAC , her new Constitutional term.
July 2009 “I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health,
have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii
and is a natural-born American citizen.
I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement
issued in October 2008 over eight months ago....”
I don’t know if Barry is a natural born citizen or Indonesian or was legally adopted or had his name changed or is actually older than he claims or has a different father.
What I do know is that he is a pathological liar
who refuses to
release his original birth certificate to the American people.
Ok ...
“Rodguy911 and I seem to think that point might have sticking power.”
For SURE! Those of us involved in this
research for about 2 yrs believe that
our dear Founders were deeply concerned
about split allegiance, and so the
language in which they stated their
special citizenship requirements for
POTUS only.
If the leftist MotherJones is talking about, it is getting to be a thorn in the lefties foot.
~~~
I wonder what her screen name is...
Theory?.... Wuz he wuz, or wuz he not, "adopted" by his Indonesian Step Father?
Well wuz he?
Maybe so the public can see that we need to clean up the nation’s law enforcement system. See http://butterdezillion.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/red-flags-in-hawaii-2/
Right! Well, I am late to the “birther” investigation,
but like rodguy911, I have found validity in the British citizenship if his Kenyan father that would seenm to make him ineligible. A little fact overlooked by George Soros.
Yes, why have a Constitution and why should people be allowed to go into court when it’s violated? Why have a rule of law at all? Why not just run everything Ci-cago style? Fascism is gooood, especially affirmative action fascism in which people are allowed to assume dictatorial power because of their skin color. That old Consittution thing—wasn’t it a product of slaveholders? Who needs it?
After his “I’d rather be a good one term president rather than a mediocre two term...” I think he knows he can’t prove he is an NBC to satisfy the states enacting new laws of verification of qualifications. It is also why he will continue for more economy killing measures to saddle us with. Progressives suck!
Because we have a constitution. If we do not fight to preserve one teeny little part of the constitution, then eventually the next clause will be overlooked, then the next, then maybe that annoying first and second amendments can be tweaked, ad infinitum
The purported Indonesian school record describes the family relationship as parent Lolo Soetoro, stepfather and the student Barry Soetoro as stepson. The implication is that Indonesia is likely to have mandated by law that the stepson, Barry Soetoro, become a citizen of Indonesia and a Muslim for the school record to exist at the time in which the record was created. The validity of the school record cannot be legally proven without an order from a court of law having lawful jurisdiction to grant right of discovery, and/or Obama’s granting permission to obtain copies of his personal records. So far, Obama has used legal assistance to obstruct all efforts to obtain the required permissions or court orders required to obtain legal discovery of any evidence which may be pertinent to such a case.
Consequently, the school record and the legal divorce papers are the presently available records which document the stepfather and stepson relationship. The papers documenting a legal adoption are presently unavailable, and they may not exist if the adoption was not formalized in legal paperwork.
Looks to me as a hoax???
Is this a hoax???
Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-IL 1st)
9th-term Democrat from Illinois.
Photo: Representative Rush
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All messages are published with permission of the sender. The general topic of this message is Intelligence:
Subject:
VERY QUIETLY OBAMA’S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT
To:
President Barack Obama
Sen. Richard Durbin
Sen. Roland Burris
Rep. Bobby Rush
January 11, 2010
VERY QUIETLY OBAMA’S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT
AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has Released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College . Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.
This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama’s legitimacy and qualification to serve as President. An article titled, “Obama Eligibility Questioned,” is leading some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic issues on Obama’s first official visit to the U.K. In a related matter, under growing pressure from several groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama’s legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey . This lawsuit claims Obama’s dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio’s case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship or qualification to serve as president.
Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama’s campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent
upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused to comment on the matter.
LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON’T !
Subject: RE: Issue of Passport?
While I’ve little interest in getting in the middle of the Obama birth issue, Paul Hollrah over at FSM did so yesterday and believes the issue can be resolved by Obama answering one simple question: What passport did he use when he was shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi ?
So how did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981, without the price of a hotel room in his pocket, suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later? And once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York, Jakarta , and Karachi , what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and Immigration? The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions, they must have answers. It makes the debate over Obama’s citizenship a rather short and simple one.
Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?
A : Yes, by his own admission..
Q: What passport did he travel under?
A: There are only three possibilities.
1) He traveled with a U.S. . Passport,
2) He traveled with a British passport, or
3) He traveled with an Indonesia passport.
Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S. Passport in 1981?
A: No.. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State
Department’s “no travel” list in 1981.
Conclusion: When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was traveling either with a British passport or an Indonesian passport..
If he were traveling with a British passport that would provide proof that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims. And if he were traveling
with an Indonesian passport that would tend to prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the American people need to know how he managed to become a “natural born” American citizen between 1981 and 2008..
Given the destructive nature of his plans for America, as illustrated by his speech before Congress and the disastrous spending plan he has presented to Congress, the sooner we learn the truth of all this, the better.
If you Don’t care that Your President is not a natural born Citizen and in Violation of the Constitution, then Delete this and go into your cocoon.
If you do care then Forward this!
Orland Park , IL
For about $50 and a nod to his secretary he could easily produce the documents that would prove his natural born citizenship.
An honest man would be **HONORED** to promptly provide all documentation to prove he was a natural born citizen and eligible to occupy the White House.
What does Obama’s behavior say about his honesty? Why should we accept that he is a natural born citizen after this much obfuscation and stonewalling?
What does it say about those who defend him?
Funny thing - about $12 and postage to Hawaii would fix the problem for the great O permanently... but he hasn’t done it...
I could say Obama’s already produced the necessary documentation, but that would be a waste of time.
You can say anything you like. That doesn’t make it correct.
******
I found the above statement interesting.
I wish the author would explain in more detail about the work that high-priced lawyers would need to do for Obama AFTER the campaign was over, and why the high-priced lawyers would present such big bills to Obama or to his campaign after the campaign was over. Just food for thought.
******
I'm not sure if it was this case or another case, but, as I recall, Obama's lawyers threatened to have the anti-Obama lawyers pay the Obama's lawyers fees if the anti-Obama lawyers did not drop the case.
I don't know what happened, but it would have been interesting to see the amount of the bill that the pro-Obama lawyers would have submitted to the court.
I bet the bill would have been a lot more than the $10 dollars that it would have cost Obama to get his long form birth certificate from Hawaii. With the public display of that $10 birth certificate, Obama could finally put this Obama birth certificate issue to rest.
Just heard Phil Burg say on the Billy Cunningham show it is around $ 1.6 million.
*******
I believe that Obama is a liar and a fraud because he won't release his Hawaii long form birth certificate and his college records.
That being said, it is sad that Obama has forced American citizens to spend thousands of dollars in court so that they can examine a long form birth certificate that Obmaa can release publicly or get a copy of for the huge sum of around $10.
What a sad president this President Obama.
Bill has a good show running tonight don’tchaknow. But can you believe the global warming/Polar Bears in peril lie commercial now on?!!!
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