FactCheck Checks Obama's Birth Certificate

Fact Check is given access to Obama's birth certificate and endorses it, which neither surprises me nor prompts a reassessment of any official editorial positions.  However, they close with this sloppy logic which I have derided before; they are commenting on a birth announcement which appeared in a Honolulu newspaper a week after Obama was born:

Of course, it's distantly possible that Obama's grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday.

Tres amusant.  But it is much less distantly possible that the grandparents planted the story in order to buttress their grandchild's claim to American citizenship as protection against a day when their daughter would be trying to gain custody of a black child with a Kenyan father in a Kenyan court.  Divorces do happen, even nasty ones.

Comments

[bgates]

Now I have no reason to vote against him except that he's a naive arrogant far-left terrorist- and felon-befriending race-baiting socialist married to the most unpleasant woman in politics who is embarrassed by me, my plane trips to visit my parents, and my electric bill, and would sacrifice millions of people in hard-won budding democracies in the Middle East to the worst criminals on the face of the earth so that the French will pretend to like him.

[Jor]

This birth certificate issue -- whether McCain or Obama is truly, truly inane. If there is anything that more clearly demonstrates true hackery, its obsession with idiotic technicalities. Obviously both sides have been guilty on this end.

[Ann]

Neo had a post on the other thread (Ad to Air On Ayers and Obama) about:

A prominent Philadelphia attorney and Hillary Clinton supporter filed suit this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee. The action seeks an injunction preventing the senator from continuing his candidacy and a court order enjoining the DNC from nominating him next week, all on grounds that Sen. Obama is constitutionally ineligible to run for and hold the office of President of the United States.

http://www.americasright.com/2008/08/obama-sued-in-philadelphia-federal.html

I don't know what to make of that! Any ideas?

[Danube of Thought]

The lawsuit is a non-starter and the issue is a nullity.

[Sue]

I just want to know how they scanned the COLB without any creases showing up. I can't seem to do that at work and it makes me nuts to have a document with a line across it where it had been folded. Someone tell me how it was scanned and the creases disappeared.

[clarice]

No one has done more to disqualify his opponents on "idiotic technicalities" than Barak challenge every nominating petition signature Obama.

[Ann]

Thanks, DoT.

And if you noticed..mum's the word on the games tonight!!! Unless, you want me too? ;)

[Dpo]

Long form birth certificate or he didn't register for Selective Service and shouldn't be in Congress.

[kim]

It still doesn't explain why his campaign waited 10 weeks to settle the issue. I'm gonna ask them at TexasDarlin' what they think of this FactCheck.
============================

[MayBee]

I still want to know why they gave it to Kos first. They had space for it on their new website's template when they showed it off to Karen Tumulty the night before.

I've kind of wondered if someone from Kos was running that stupid fightthesmears website.

[kim]

Well, she's way ahead. She thinks he was born in Hawai'i, but thinks he still has issues with Indonesian citizenship. Commenters are suspicious of the timing of this release, and suspicious of an Annenberg connection to Fact Check and suspicious that no other media outlet has had a gander at it.

All pretty reasonable to me. Some of the skeptics over there point out that many predicted Obama would come back from Hawai'i with documentation in hand.
=============================

[kim]

I don't like the fact that TechDude, the first to find his sister's name on the 'forged' COLB disappeared in a cloud of smoke and vituperation.
==========================

[Bill in AZ]

This won't stop Scary Larry. There will be 70 linear feet of COLB's in the CAC library files once all of the real docs disappear - with yellow sticky's and arrows so Scary's sockpuppet - techdood - will know what to look for.

Ann - just let us know if we should stay up late for something.

[bgates]

Some of the skeptics over there point out that many predicted Obama would come back from Hawai'i with documentation in hand.
I'm not sure if I understand this use of the term "skeptic". It suggests doubt which is immune to disproof. "Look, he has evidence of innocence - just what you'd expect from a guilty man."

[Ann]

Bill in AZ,

YES, and I can safely say that because it is not over yet and I don't know who won, but it is great!! :)

GO USA!!!

[Mike G in Corvallis]

At this point it should be obvious that the document is genuine. But what is "the document"?

The document is a "certification of birth," also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents' hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. The Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department. We tried to ask the Hawaii DOH why they only offer the short form, among other questions, but they have not given a response.

The "Certification of Live Birth" (COLB) does indeed establish that Obama was born when and where he claims.

But there's one problem: States allow the COLB to be amendedafter the fact, to take such things as establishment of paternity and changes of name into account. (For example: my mother was unhappy with her given name; as a teenager she changed it to one she liked. I have her original birth certificate, from the hospital, and a later COLB. Guess what! The names are different.)

My conjecture is that Obama won't release the original birth certificate because his name was recorded at birth as "Barry" rather than "Barack" ... It might even be that his surname was recorded as Dunham, depending on the state of his parents' marriage at the time. We do know that after his mother married Lolo Soetoro, the adopted boy's name was listed in Indonesian records as "Barry Soetoro," and he was known as "Barry" until he finished high school and applied to college. Being "Barack Hussein Obama II" would help establish his claim for a legacy admission, since his father went to Harvard, too ... and besides, it's a way cooler name.

So is there a Grand Conspiracy here? I just think it's plausible that Obama changed his name because he was re-inventing himself and didn't want people to think of him as "Barry" -- doesn't "Barack" sound more authentically Black? (Heh. Consider Gary Hartpence and Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, both of whom changed their names for political purposes.) Nothing wrong with that.

But would the American public accept someone who played so fast and loose with his personal history? And then tried to conceal it?

I'm not saying I think this conjecture is either true or false ... but I do believe it's worth investigating.

[ParseThis]

But would the American public accept someone who played so fast and loose with his personal history? And then tried to conceal it?

The ol' "cross in the dirt" gambit. I wouldn't put anything past ol' Barry.

[Sara]

I guess the fat lady hasn't sung just yet:

A PUMA is suing to stop Obama's nomination:

In the lawsuit, Berg states that Sen. Obama was born in Kenya, and not in Hawaii as the senator maintains. Before giving birth, according to the lawsuit, Obama's mother traveled to Kenya with his father but was prevented from flying back to Hawaii because of the late stage of her pregnancy, "apparently a normal restriction to avoid births during a flight." As Sen. Obama's own paternal grandmother, half-brother and half-sister have also claimed, Berg maintains that Stanley Ann Dunham--Obama's mother--gave birth to little Barack in Kenya and subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth.

Berg cites inconsistent accounts of Sen. Obama's birth, including reports that he was born at two separate hospitals--Kapiolani Hospital and Queens Hospital--in Honolulu, as well a profound lack of birthing records for Stanley Ann Dunham, though simple "registry of birth" records for Barack Obama are available in a Hawaiian public records office.

[Elliott]

It was a suit associated with the Democrats of Pumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.

[JM Hanes]

I, for one, of course, am not surprised. I mean he's had more than two months to find a better forger.... :-)

[JM Hanes]

Ann:

If you're around, are you watching the men's volleyball, or is that over out in California?

[JM Hanes]

Just so you know, I'm watching the US/Russia game on the late night rerun here, and don't know how it turns out myself.

[JM Hanes]

I must say that I'm enjoying the fact that the Russian coach does not look pleased. Hope it lasts.

[Sara]

Well they might have gotten the flying while pregnant part right. I was refused boarding in 1965 when I was 7 1/2 mo. pregnant.

[Sara]

JMH: It hasn't even started yet.

[Orion]

How long did it take them to lay this to rest? Would have been the easiest thing in the world to simply release the original to the press the first time the question was raised, instead of letting it drag on this long.

[Sara]

IOC: No Proof China's Gymnastics Team Cheated

[bgates]

Just so you know, I'm watching the US/Russia game on the late night rerun here, and don't know how it turns out myself.

US wins.

Greatest hockey match ever. (Gotcha! I don't even know what sport you're talking about.)

[MJW]

Believe me when I say I'd love to find evidence that the posted Obama COLB was a forgery; but I've looked at it fairly carefully and haven't found any good objective evidence that it is. Sure there are some weird things, like the border. But if someone were forging a new COLB based on another person's COLB, the border would be about the easiest thing to get right.

TechDude's claims about stray marks revealing the original text seem to me like seeing shapes in clouds. Also, with an image editor like PhotoShop, it'd be a simple matter to remove the original text completely and leave no telltale marks.

Just pointing to oddness in the image isn't enough. A (presumably) real COLB from a woman named Michelle was posted for comparison, and under FATHER'S RACE, the word CAUCASIAN is in the same size font as the heading. In all other cases, the entry that appears below the heading is in a larger font then the heading. Very odd, but I doubt that Michelle's COLB is phony.

BTW, there is a visible crease that passes slightly below the middle of the state seal.

I'm not vouching for the document (I think it's be fairly easy to generate a difficult to detect fake), just saying I'm unconvinced that it isn't real.

[Sara]

From the above lawsuit:

"As Sen. Obama's own paternal grandmother, half-brother and half-sister have also claimed, Berg maintains that Stanley Ann Dunham--Obama's mother--gave birth to little Barack in Kenya and subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth."

Do you read this that his grandmother is also claiming her grandson was born in Kenya?

[Sara]

Also, I don't recall seeing anything about two hospitals before.

The COLB is a distraction I think. Perhaps to ward off inquiry in other areas.

Odd there are not medical records for Stanley Ann Dunham.

Everyone has been saying that if there was anything to the COLB story, Hillary would have used it. Perhaps, they've had this waiting in the wings all along.

[JM Hanes]

Hey MJW! It's been quite awhile -- nice to see you!

Thanks Sara. I figured that the 12:30 show here seemed like a logical start time for the West Coast version. I'll resist the temptation to share, and go into radio silence mode -- right after I send this letter off to bgates and get the white powder residue cleaned off my desk.

[Ann]

JMH,

I was referring to the Men's Beach Volleyball above. The Mens Volleyball Team is still on here and I am still saying: Go USA!!!

Why is the USA Team in RED and the Russia Team in BLUE..It is so confusing. :)

[JM Hanes]

I know what you mean. I remember when our guides in the media decided to make Republican states red and Democrats blue. I'm so used to it now that I can't remember why I ever conceived otherwise, but I remember finding it counterintuitive and confusing for some reason at first. Maybe I just associated red with political lefties.

What I really mixed up here were the coaches. I was so pleased that the Russian coach looked unhappy, and then found out I was looking at the American coach. Ouch. I guess I didn't expect him to be dressed in black, which what looks like a shaved head.

Don't worry, Sara, that mistake doesn't give anything away, just in case you thought it might.

[MJW]

Hi JM Hanes! Though I haven't posted here very often lately, I still lurk in the bushes, enjoying reading your, and other JOM regular's, comments.

[MJW]

I should add, also enjoying reading our host Tom's insightful posts.

[Sara]

Beach volley ball, West Coast:

USA wins first set. Yea!

[Sara]

I know some get upset to know ahead of time, but it doesn't bother me. I still enjoy watching the best of the best play just because they are the best of the best. Well that and I'm a total Olympics junkie. I even liked the badminton and ping pong. Not so much the BMX, but that's because every bump made my back hurt in sympathy pain. And soccer bores me, so I don't watch it.

[Sara]

Tonight I'm so full and now sleepy I feel almost sick. It was my son's birthday and I ate too much BBQ and way too much cake and ice cream.

[bgates]

I wish they would run events live in the middle of the night, and rerun during prime time.
Besides race walking.

It must be really frustrating to be at the back of the pack in racewalking, and think, "I could win if I could break into a light jog."

[Kolohe]

You've made this argument before, but your 'less distant possibility' postulates a level of sophistication that is I think is anachronistic.

Everyone knows the 'not without my daughter' type story now. But in the early 60's? I would think that a middle class couple from Kansas would not be thinking of the possibility, so literally foreign to their worldview and experience. If anything, they would be worried about what actually happened, that their new no-account playboy son-in-law would abandon his wife and child.

And anyways, wasn't Sally Field's character SOL even with objective undisputed proof of American citizenship because those required legal protections - that nobody really worried about before - did not come into effect until quite recently, many in our current decade? A cursory google says that the primary convention for international family law is something called 'the international covenant on political and civil rights' which was ratified in 1976 - and the parental child abduction stuff is 1980.

[Sara]

Okay, I'm celebrating!!!!! Double Gold, never been done before. Our guys and gals rock!

[pagar]

Good Morning to All!
Sara, the born at two different hospitals story has been around since the whole COLB thing started, I think. I remember reading it had something to do with
Wikipedia entries, but I can't find the link right now.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . which neither surprises me nor prompts a reassessment of any official editorial positions.

Concur. "Annenberg Political FactCheck" is an oxymoron, and its conclusions are just as reassuring as the Boston Globe's review of Kerry's records.

However, absent clear evidence indicating BHO wasn't born in Hawaii, this is a loser. And I've seen nothing that even comes close, so far (even if the COLB were proved a forgery, there are simpler explanations). I'd avoid this one.

[M. Simon]

"skeptic"

Proper spelling is sceptic. Ask Peter UK.

I mean first it starts with bad spelling then comes the Revolution.

[M. Simon]

Cecil,

Fortunately we are avoiding it. A Democrat is leading the charge. By the time it is adjudicated the convention will be over and BHO will be on his way. To somewhere.

Everyone has been saying that if there was anything to the COLB story, Hillary would have used it. Perhaps, they've had this waiting in the wings all along.

Hillary is out for revenge on the Party not the nomination - this year. A lot of people (including moi) said they wouldn't go after BHO until it would destroy the party.

She will have some excuse for not accepting the nomination this year. "It is a shame that BHO is not an American (or whatever) but I cannot dishonor all the people who put their hopes in him."

[Cecil Turner]

A Democrat is leading the charge.

Yep, that lawsuit is great, whatever the outcome. "Fight amongst yourselves . . . " [chuckle]

[Jane]

Hey Everyone! I think it is fitting that the one day I oversleep is the day I expected to wake to the VP announcement. I've practically lost interest at this point. Obama is like an 8 year old who thinks he's so popular that he can tease his friends relentlessly and they will come back for more.

The man is a bore! Good Morning, TGIF and Happy Birthday to my favorite guy.

[centralcal]

Good morning.

Happy Birthday . . . (whose day is it, Jane?)

I missed all the excitement last night - Soylent and Clarice had dinner. Cool.

Guess Obama has either picked Hillary for VP or decided he is so messianic that he really doesn't NEED a VP. yawn.

And, the birth certificate brouhaha is over (or, it's not).

Anyway - TGIF!

[pagar]

Cecil, I'm afraid you're right.
"By the time it is adjudicated the convention will be over and BHO will be on his way."

IMO, He will be nominated by a political party under a name that he may or may not be legally entitled to use. His nomination will be bolstered by caucus votes that are not (In any way)verifiable and judging by the reports very possibly could not be true, and it will all be adjudicated far to late to save America. I think we are watching the theft of a nation, and very few seem to care.

"FROM NEBRASKA

Nebraska was totally chaotic and each precinct location had a different way to do the caucus. In Nebraska, 18 precincts where crammed into one high school in Sarpy county. When I got there, it felt like I stepped into a Third World voting situation. They were trying to determine whether people could actually participate in the caucuses or not, and then it seemed like they just gave up on that and just let anyone participate. There was a gym at the high school where about 5 precincts met. A person was supposed to fill out their preference on a slip of paper and then turn it in. They tried to run it like a primary instead of a true caucus, just take out any semblance of order and guards against voter disenfranchisement that a normal primary would have. I found a pile of these preferences slips just sitting on a table where anyone could pick them up and fill them out."

LUN ====Link under Name