(Still) Challenging Obama's Birth Certificate

[snopes]

You may at first glance wonder why the issue is filed under absurd. After all, there's no inherent absurdity in someone being born in Kenya, particularly if that someone is born to a Kenyan father. Certainly major papers like the New York Times didn't consider it absud to question whether Senator McCain was born in the United States. In fact, the closing quote of their article about McCain's eligibility was lawyer Jill Pryor stating that "it is certainly not a frivolous issue." So why does the Obama question end up thus filed?

Well, for starters, as Snopes points out, there is something silly about the idea that a major party, with so much to lose, would stake their entire reputation on a forgery so lame that internet snoops could pick it apart in a day visiting a public website.

http://news.aol.com/political-machin...h-certificate/

[UEL]

When I was in Afghanistan (I'm thankful I'm now referring to that place in the past tense) I was led to a website that had a thread discussing this (it might have been the McCain/Palin support site on Facebook).

The main crux of the arguments that were being thrown about are:

- the electronic document that was displayed was a registration of live birth, not the actual birth certificate.
- Senator Obama has blocked all viewing of his birth certificate in Hawaii (and I found out later that it is Hawaiian regulations for all people born there that do that)
- Philip Berg has an affidavit (which no one but Berg has seen) that states that Senator Obama's grandmother in Kenya witnessed the birth in Kenya.

And that is it. The document provided is not good enough, but the mysterious sworn affidavit which no one has seen is.

I say, let the games stop, and may the president elect get on with governing.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by UEL

I say, let the games stop, and may the president elect get on with governing.

Agreed. It'd be funny if it wasn't so stupid.

[snopes]

I had to laugh at this reponse I found posted on a blog discussing this issue:

The shocking truth behind Obama’s refusal to release certificate of live birth: He was not born alive!

Beware Zombie Obama! The undead POTUS will eat your brains! Brains! Tasty wingnut brains!

[snopes]

Q: What will the Supreme Court do with these suits?

A: These suits have very little chance of gaining a hearing now. The Supreme Court decides legal issues. It does not resolve factual disputes. In the suits over Obama's birth, the plaintiffs have not persuaded any judge that the president-elect was, in fact, not born in Hawaii. The Supreme Court would have no basis for reconsidering that basic fact.

The justices also review rulings made by lower courts, usually when there is a disagreement about the law. In these cases, lower courts dismissed the suits without handing down major rulings.

The court receives about 150 appeals per week, and all but a small fraction are rejected without discussion among the justices. Donofrio's is likely to be denied without comment on Monday morning. Berg's is likely to meet the same fate.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nat...0,506248.story

[I'mNotDedalus]

Even with the election decided, the widely debunked whisper campaign claiming that Barack Obama is secretly not an American, and thus not qualified to be president, is going strong.

The Supreme Court is expected to announce on Monday whether or not it will consider two cases contending that Barack Obama is not a "natural born citizen," as the president is required to be under Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution. One case, referred to the court by Justice Clarence Thomas after Justice David Souter had rejected it, argues that because Obama's father was a citizen of Kenya, at the time a British colony, the president-elect was born with dual citizenship. The other, filed by Attorney Phillip J. Berg, effectively contends that Obama has outright lied about having been born on American soil.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16257.html

[AnglRdr]

These people are not whispering.

[I'mNotDedalus]

Originally Posted by AnglRdr

These people are not whispering.

Righto, that's even more ineffectual than a whisper.

[AnglRdr]

Originally Posted by I'mNotDedalus

Righto, that's even more ineffectual than a whisper.

There was a rally!

[I'mNotDedalus]

Originally Posted by AnglRdr

There was a rally!

Ha, all "fifteen gazillion" of 'em.

[AnglRdr]

Originally Posted by I'mNotDedalus

Ha, all "fifteen gazillion" of 'em.

Wherein "gazillion" translates to "to the first power, given a very liberal estimation."

[snopes]

One case, referred to the court by Justice Clarence Thomas after Justice David Souter had rejected it, argues that because Obama's father was a citizen of Kenya, at the time a British colony, the president-elect was born with dual citizenship.

"Qualified for citizenship under the laws of more than one country" is not the same thing as "held dual citizenship." Barack Obama never claimed Kenyan citizenship, never lived in Kenya, never held a Kenyan government position or a Kenyan passport, and never took any action that subjected him to Kenyan authority. Therefore, the fact that he might also have qualified for Kenyan citizenship under the laws in effect at the time of his birth has no bearing on his U.S. citizenship status.

[snopes]

One of the frequent participants in the conference calls is Bob Schultz, who heads the "We the People Foundation" which has raised tens of thousands of dollars raising questions about Obama's background and promoting Berg's legal action with full-page ads in the Washington Times, Chicago Tribune and the conservative newspaper Human Events. The group is now eyeing buys in the New York Post and USA Today.

Apparently they don't understand that Supreme Court decisions are not rendered by popular vote.

[lord_feldon]

I'd like the Supreme Court to hear them. I want to see the woefully and comically inadequate evidence they have. And then their disappointment when they realize the burden of proof is on them and that Obama won't be stopped from being president just because Alan Keyes lives his life in a state of perpetual upset.

Those are probably bad reasons for courts to hear cases, though.

[AnglRdr]

Originally Posted by lord_feldon

I'd like the Supreme Court to hear them. I want to see the woefully and comically inadequate evidence they have. And then their disappointment when they realize the burden of proof is on them and that Obama won't be stopped from being president just because Alan Keyes lives his life in a state of perpetual upset.

Those are probably bad reasons for courts to hear cases, though.

But the evidence has already been adjudicated by a court, which was, I think, enough of a waste of time.

[snopes]

One of the more interesting conspiracy theories about President-elect Obama is that he was secretly born in Africa, then apparently sneaked into the United States (in a banana crate?), and now is pretending to be a natural born American, born in Hawaii, when he's really a secret Muslim African who can't be president because the Constitution requires the president to have been born in the United States. Only problem? Obama's American birth certificate was made public long ago. Snopes has it. And Snopes also has the birth announcement from the local Hawaii paper back when Obama was born. Very sneaky of the Obamas to have a child in Africa, yet simultaneously place a birth announcement in the Hawaiian paper on the same day, nearly five decades ago -- in the pre-Internet era, no less -- on the off chance that their child might grow up to be president and require an American-born citizenship.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/c.../35507029.html

[snopes]

The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/p...,6257268.story

[Nonny Mouse]

Originally Posted by UEL

When I was in Afghanistan (I'm thankful I'm now referring to that place in the past tense)

Shouldn't you update your location then?

[zman977]

Originally Posted by snopes

"Qualified for citizenship under the laws of more than one country" is not the same thing as "held dual citizenship." Barack Obama never claimed Kenyan citizenship, never lived in Kenya, never held a Kenyan government position or a Kenyan passport, and never took any action that subjected him to Kenyan authority. Therefore, the fact that he might also have qualified for Kenyan citizenship under the laws in effect at the time of his birth has no bearing on his U.S. citizenship status.

You're expecting these people to use common sense and logic. You're asking a lot aren't you

[Psihala]

The Supreme Court has turned down another challenge to Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president because of his citizenship.

The appeal by Cort Wrotnowski of Greenwich, Conn., was denied Monday without comment.

http://www.9news.com/news/world/arti...storyid=105948