Can FreeRepublic be salvaged? (Birth Cerificate)

none ^ | today | palmer

[palmer]

It's apparent that a combination of fervent believers and a small number of psychopaths and/or infiltrators have dominated the birth certificate discussion. The early evidence was in their favor and everyone should have been skeptical of the low res images on Kos, smears and politifact. The new evidence is not and is not being addressed objectively.

The Certificate

There are photos at FactCheck like the one linked above ( http://www.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/birth_certificate_5.jpg) To the credit of the believers there are a variety of photos at Factcheck that don't all look like the same artifact. Also we know that Factcheck is not an unbiased organization and, even if they are completely innocent, they would believe any lie or forgery given to them by the Obama camp.

But photo #5 (and some of the others) is a genuine photograph of an artifact. It was not created in photoshop. That doesn't mean photoshop was not involved. A plausible set of steps is
1. Scan a real COLB including the border
2. Import into photoshop and change the text to Obama's text
3. Print the result onto the cross hatched paper (could be forged separately)
4. Obtain a embossing seal and apply it to the printout 5. Fold it as if it came from an envelope and display it to the factcheck photographer.

Another plausible scenario is someone in the Hawaii office did all the forging but on the official equipment and using the official seal. Another possibility is someone stole a seal and sold it to a forger. It is certainly possible for a forger to make a seal using the right equipment (probably a laser etcher).

Trip to Kenya

There's no reasonable explanation for why Obama's parents went to Kenya and a good reason they would not: expense. There's no evidence that they went to Kenya except some allegations of testimony. Lawyers like Berg have not been able to present their testimony in court so it can be evaluated. But a recording of a person who allegedly Obama's grandmother saying she was present at his birth in Kenya is not evidence of anything except that someone made a recording of someone saying something.

The Kenya trip meme seemed to turn into an established fact in early July when proposed by null and void and properly ridiculed. Even into November null and void can only repeat her hypothesis (a honeymoon) apparently unwilling or unable to embellish it further.

The Infiltrators

Polarik is an obvious candidate. His rantings on his blog are full of flowery rhetoric against Obama (some is pretty well written) accompanied by the most pathetic attempts at explanations that I have seen in this case. How anyone can mistake him for an expert is beyond me. Using his "analysis" is being used for any legal case is the kiss of death.

Polarik surrounds himself with a number of true believers and useful idiots. The useful idiots are the ones who validate or praise his analysis while obviously not knowing anything about it. The true believers have convinced themselves that Obama was not born in Honolulu and are unable to evaluate the evidence objectively.

In their favor, the true believers have established that Obama has potential Indonesian citizenship (courtesy of Soetoro) as well as potential Kenyan citizenship (courtesy of Obama Sr). These are true regardless of where Obama was born. For the former the Kenyan citizenship would have to be activated by Obama. For the latter, Soetoro would have had to apply to make Obama an Indonesian citizen, it does not happen automatically via adoption.

The bottom line for Polarik is he has yet to address the certificate linked above. He has promised to do this for weeks now and is instead disseminating and repeating his various diatribes against Obama. My guess based on his past behavior is that he will release a rehash of the evidence against the old scan (Kos, smears, politifact) with a bit of new verbiage against the factcheck photos. He will properly point out some oddities in some of the photos while ignoring the obvious salient features in the decent photos such as number 5.

He and I have already argued about the seal (embossing) in number 5 and he claims it is a perfect circle (therefore forged). I showed that it wasn't http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq51/palmer2/circle.jpg and he replied with a very similar result except he used some edge detection first. He obviously just fools with some tools, but doesn't obtain any useful results. When it comes to image analysis he is a dabbler, not an expert.

With cover from his defenders he establishes a "sensitive" personality claiming that he is being ruthlessly attacked. He says that as a result he will stop posting on the certificate issue when he is done with his final writeup. I don't know if that's a real sensitivity or faked, but even if it is faked there are thousands more that will step into his shoes if he disappears.

The End

In the end however, the postings of Polarik are just spam. There were always brouhahas like this on FR and always will be. We survived them before and can survive again. The fact that Polarik's defenders jump on any reasonable poster asking a few skeptical questions is not going to make a big difference to those posters. The fact that 6000 post threads can be constructed without any reasonable explanation of why Obama's parents went to Kenya and without any reasonable analysis of the factcheck photos means lots of people wasted lots of time, but at least it was concentrated in one thread.

That thread and others contain useful nuggets about other Obama problems. There are alternative threads that speak to real evidence although some of those get beaten down by the Polarik army. Polarik's followers also use Freepmail to spread gossip about posters like myself and allegedly (according to them) posted about me on another forum.

That is all good. The more publicity I get on this particular issue, the better. But I remain concerned that FreeRepublic will have the appearance of a conspiracy site because only a rather intensive conspiracy could produce the evidence photographed by Factcheck.

I am also concerned that Factcheck and others might be deliberately planting poor quality evidence in an attempt to hook in the Polariks of the world and their followers. That would not necessarily require a conspiracy although I admit it has the flavor of one. It is to the liberal opposition's benefit to keep as many people on false trails as possible not just to waste their time but to portray them as unhinged. That result was detrimental in the last election and will be detrimental in 2010 and 2012.

IMO of course.

[FreeAtlanta]

Then all of a sudden Obama is a British subject. Hell I even hear he was a citizen of Kenya, America and Indonesia.

He was keeping his presidential options open.

[pissant]

Your knowledge of this case is painfully lacking. I suggest you learn something before gumflapping.

BTW, come here often?

[theymakemesick]

In this thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2130993/posts you posted a link to this document (sorry for the large image)

http://www.valeehill.net/genealogy/documents/doc_decosta_pat_birth.jpg and made the statement "The seal in your top photo is identical to the DeCosta seal which dates from 2002, not 2007".

You were using Rose's COLB seal as evidence that BHO's COLB was legitimate.

Since Hawaii wasn't a state on May 14, 1930, why does that document have printed on it "DATE ACCEPTED BY STATE REGISTRAR" "May 27, 1930"?

Also, the COLB paper seems to have endured a bit of weathering yet ALL of the lettering on Rose's COLB is as crisp and clean as the day they were printed.

Faked? Like 0bama's?

[Havisham]

Trying to damage Obama is like an exploding cigar; Conservatives really should just watch from a safe distance. I actually believe it’s Obama’s utterly boring personality that will cause the nation to reject him in the end.

[antceecee]

... and because Obamie never really worked a real job....thus never had to divulge birth docs.

[palmer]

what's your opinion of the copy of the birth certificate on the KOS site?

Low res, could have been created completely in photoshop from someone else's.

[justiceseeker93]

This was not a poor family when Obama Senior was alive.

Agreed. Neither were the Dunhams, in all probability.

[reasonisfaith]

Why do you think Obama is holding back on this with such intensity, knowing it will only get worse as time goes on?

[FreeAtlanta]

If there was anything to it...Her Heinouness and the used car salesman she lives with would have done gone an’ run with it a LONG time ago........

She didn't get any more help from the Media than McCain did. They media wanted to create history with the first Black/Brown candidate. Hillary was an old story. Barack had a funny name, and was younger and more Charsimatic. Hillary could have had proof he was a Mars Alien and the media would bury the story just like they are doing this story.

They are all stupid little hack "reporters". Some High School and College journalist do a better job than Chris Mathews, Katie Kouric and the rest of their pathetic cabal.

[mouse1]

“Why does he have to show that copy?? “

He wants to hold the highest office of the United States, yet calls the muslim prayer the sweetest sound on earth (article claims bho recited prayer in full accent), refuses to supply any information that could trace his whereabouts for the last 30 years (b.c., college admissions etc), has a history of radical associations, is a known liar, refuses to place his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance....and on and on and on!

If not for the dead media, foreign donations and fraudulent vote, he wouldnt be where he is today.
The questions isnt why does he have to show a copy? No, no no. Why doesnt he have to show a copy?

[RummyChick]

Let’s consider for a moment the draft situation.

Ford terminated the registration. Carter signed a proclamation in July that was retroactive.

So what form would have been used to register these new people? A nonexistant form that was supposed to be generated in Feb of 1980...or an old form dated with what date?

HJ RES 521 approved by Carter on June 27, 1980 provided the funds for the registration.

I believe the SS registration is a forgery.

[palmer]

You were using Rose's COLB seal as evidence that BHO's COLB was legitimate.

Not at all. I was pointing out that the seals are different and explained they was from different years.

DATE ACCEPTED BY STATE REGISTRAR" "May 27, 1930"?

That's for the birth date, not the date the COLB printout was created (2002 for the one you posted, 2007 for factcheck's).

[pissant]

The KOS version is NOT low res. It is high resolution.

[RummyChick]

argh...YOU CLEARLY ARE NOT UP TO DATE ON THE CITIZENSHIP LAW AND ZERO’S MOTHER.

[reasonisfaith]

Is trying to uphold the Constitution like an exploding cigar?

Not the same thing as “trying to damage Obama.”

[potlatch]

BOOKMARK

[justiceseeker93]

It might be bait. The birth certificate issue might be something Obama can easily discredit.

Doubt it. He could probably only discredit it via another fraud. If he could have discredited it legitimately, he likely would have done so quite some time ago.

[CodeToad]

YOU HAVE NOT SEEN HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

So, please stop with the BS that no one should question Obama’s credentials to take office. He hasn’t shown them to anybody.

[SERKIT]

Some of us have raised our right hands to support and defend the Constitution. It is NOT shrill, and it is NOT frivolous to fight the three (or more) high-powered attorneys that are obfuscating Barry’s inability or unwillingness to comply with the Constitution.