Letter to Senator regarding Obama eligibility.

Senator Tim Johnson | 12/10/2008 | Calenel

[calenel]

I received the following letter as a response to an email I sent to my Congress members regarding Obama’s eligibility for the office of President:

December 1, 2008

[calenel]

[calenel’s real world address]

Dear [calenel]:

Thank you for contacting me regarding internet rumors. I appreciate hearing from you. Please be aware that I am prohibited from using my official Senate office to discuss political campaigns, either with respect to my own campaign or that of other candidates, including candidates for President of the United States. In the future, I would recommend that you address questions concerning a political candidate’s statements or candidacy to his/her campaign office or to the political party offices involved in their candidacy.

While the Internet serves an important role in our society and our economy, it unfortunately also provides an excellent forum for accidently or deliberately dispensing misinformation. While accurate information is also made available to those willing to look for the truth, it is often true that factual information does not spread through cyberspace nearly as quickly as the scurrilous, damaging misinformation that fuels public anger or outrage.

Based upon comments you made to my office, you have apparently come across the Internet rumors suggesting Senator Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The Internet rumors assert that he would consequently be ineligible to serve as President. Such rumors overlook the fact that Senator Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States regardless of the location of his birth. Senator Obama’s mother was a citizen of the United States, and children of American citizens are conferred citizenship at birth, meaning that Barack Obama was born a citizen of this country regardless of the location of his birth. The same is true of Senator John McCain, whose birth in the Panama Canal Zone has led to similar, equally false allegations of ineligibility.

To address you’re your particular allegations of forgery, it should be noted that Senator Obama has released the birth certificate issued by the State of Hawaii, showing he was born in that state. It has been widely available on the Internet for months, and anyone who wants to view it can visit any number of websites, including http://www.nesweek.com/id/154599 or

[calenel]

December 4, 2008

Page 2

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html. Numerous reputable sources have affirmed the document’s authenticity, including researchers at PolitiFact, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and others.

Thanks again for contacting me and please keep in touch!

Sincerely,

Tim Johnson

TPJ/kcr

The discrepancy in the dates of the two pages is part of the letter I received. He doesn’t have the facts straight regarding McCain, but that isn’t really relevant.

My response to the Senator:

December 9, 2008

Senator Tim Johnson

P.O. Box 1859

Sioux Falls, SD 57101

Dear Senator Johnson:

Thank you for responding to my letter about issues relating to the eligibility of Senator Barack Obama for the Office of President. Unfortunately, you did not address my concerns.

You stated in your letter that regardless of where children of United States citizens are born they are natural born citizens. While that is almost universally true, there is one exception of note. According to The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 66 Stat, 163, 235, 8 U.S. Code Section 1401 (b) (Section 301 of the Act), the Law in effect at the time of Mr. Obama’s birth:

Section 301 (a) The following shall be citizens of the United States at birth:

(1) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,

(7) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States, who prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years.

Section 301(a)(7), above, applies to Mr. Obama as his father, Barack Obama, Sr., was an alien from Kenya. Mr. Obama was born on August 4, 1961. Mr. Obama’s mother was born on November 29, 1942. Mr. Obama’s mother was 18 years, eight months and six days old when Mr. Obama was born. Consequently, Mr. Obama’s mother could not have been present in the United States for more than four years, eight months and six days after the age of 14, as required by law in order to pass United States citizenship to Mr. Obama at birth.

If Mr. Obama was, in fact, born in the United States, then he is a natural born citizen and is therefore eligible to be the President. However, if he was born elsewhere, then he clearly is not eligible for the Office.

You stated that Mr. Obama has released the birth certificate issued by the State of Hawaii. That is factually incorrect. What Mr. Obama has provided is an electronic image of a different document, the short form or summary of the birth certificate. The document provided is insufficient to meet the standard required, and is not even sufficient to meet some legal requirements in the State that issued it. That would be like offering your driver’s license in place of your passport when passing through customs. Additionally, there is legitimate doubt as to the authenticity of the image of the Certification of Live Birth that was made available, claims to the contrary not withstanding. It has been demonstrated to have been electronically manipulated. In other words, even if the original document exists, the image has been altered rendering it legally invalid. It says as much on the document itself. In addition it fails to meet the necessary standard as such documents were issued to persons who were not born in the State of Hawaii.

Further, there are conflicting statements from persons who can credibly claim to have first hand information as to the location of Mr. Obama’s birth, some of which place it in Kenya, the home of Mr. Obama’s father’s family.

As we are discussing the single most important job in the world, the President of the United States, we cannot allow for any doubt what so ever as to the eligibility of the person holding that job. Unfortunately, Mr. Obama is refusing to allow access to the original long form document that bears the signature of the attending physician and any other official attributes allowing the document to stand uncontested.

Furthermore, a great deal of effort has been expended to thwart access to that document. It is a simple matter to bring the verifiable and authentic original version of this document forward and lay to rest these rumors. Why not just get this issue resolved to the satisfaction of all? What harm could conceivably come from the contents of that document that will be worse than the damage to the credibility of Mr. Obama that is occurring now?

You also stated that Senator McCain has the same issues attending his eligibility, but that is incorrect. Senator McCain was born to two United States citizens, under a different set of circumstances. Furthermore, Senator McCain provided a document that met the necessary standard immediately upon request.

You also cited FactCheck as a valid source for information regarding Mr. Obama, but are you aware that FactCheck has ties to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge of which Mr. Obama was formerly the Chair? This is a clear conflict of interest. All of the other cited authenticating bodies have relied on information from FactCheck, and their statements are consequently compromised.

We can not have just any person that wants to be the President of the United States eligible to the Office. There are Constitutional requirements to be met that were put in place by the founding fathers. They are there for a reason. If we ignore them, then the Constitution becomes meaningless and that will be the end of us.

I bring this to your attention specifically because you still have a Constitutional role in the election process. The Electoral Votes are to be counted by the President of the Senate, Vice President Cheney, in the Presence of the House and the Senate. It is incumbent on you, as a member of the Senate, to safeguard against any improper procedure. You must be prepared to uphold all the legal and Constitutional responsibilities that your Office requires. It is not Newsweek’s or the Los Angeles Times’ responsibility to confirm the authenticity of any proof of Mr. Obama’s eligibility.

It is yours.

Sincerely,

[calenel]

[calenel]

Send letters to your Congress members. Make them deal with it now or in 2010.

[mnehring]

Your response (not the Senator’s) is one of the better one’s I’ve read.

[autumnraine]

Oh thank you Calenel, for your oh so brilliant response to the very very incorrect Congressman.

I’ll bet $10 that you won’t hear another peep about it from him as it seems to be the instructions are to deny deny deny on any GOP or Dem Rep/Senator.

[cvq3842]

Good response letter to the Senator! Interesting, though, how he cautions against internet sources and then cites Factcheck.

I hope no one loses sight of the Indonesian adoption questions as well.

Obama may very well have been born in Hawaii, but why all the secrecy? What's on that certificate that it's worth putting up with all this time, expense and distraction to keep quiet?

[calenel]

Feel free to use any part of it you want.

[calenel]

"Interesting, though, how he cautions against internet sources and then cites Factcheck."

I guess I'm just to used to hypocrisy from pols. That one slipped right by me. Good point.

[calenel]

"I’ll bet $10 that you won’t hear another peep "

I won't take that bet.

[cvq3842]

No problem! I really liked the letter. But a fresh pair of eyes always adds something, no mattter how good the original text. It would have been “snarky” of you to point that out to him in any event.

[NewEnglander]

calenel

You might consider passing this info along to your Senator Johnson. He is clearly very dismissive of this topic and the Internet's review of this topic. The State of Hawaii officials have not validated that Obama was born there.

This is what a Copy of a Certificate of Live Birth (some data redacted) issued by the State of Hawaii, Department of Health in July 1962 for the Birth of a male child in February 1962 on the Island of Oahu looks like. Note the State of Hawaii, Department of Health official embossed seal and official signatures of the then Director of Health, Leo Bernstein, MD and the then Registrar General, Charles G. Bennett. The State of Hawaii officials’ signatures and the date the document was issued are underlined in red. This document is a photographic copied image. It is a black background document with white letters which clearly were created by a 1962 typewriter. A document similar to this is what most of the lawsuits about the record of birth of Obama are asking to be released for public viewing.

The second image is a copy of the Certification of Live Birth document which has been repeatedly “published” on a number of web sites as the Official version of Obama’s birth record from the State of Hawaii. This is no actual place of birth (hospital, plantation, farm, etc.) shown. See boxes #6a through 6d of the document shown in the first image. There is also no Department of Health official embossed seal on this document.

On November 1, 2008, the following email was send:

To The Honorable Linda Lingle Dear Governor Lingle,

I ask that you release all information that the State of Hawaii Department of Health has on Senator Barack Obama's Certificate of Live Birth documentation.

Certainly over 100 million or so Americans, our countrymen, who will be voting on November 4th, 2008 deserve to have this information be publicly made available to them as part of the information they will weigh concerning a candidate as each of them places their vote for President on or before this date.

I can think of no higher purpose for any government entity or branch, than to ensure full, fair, and accurate information is given about a Presidential candidate.

As you well know, the "COLB" or other documents presented as true copies by the Barack Obama campaign website are false and have been digitally modified. As you must realize, this falsification of a presupposed State of Hawaii "official" record, directly and indirectly damages all State of Hawaii real birth records.

These falsehoods from the Obama campaign are a direct attack on the integrity of your governorship and on the integrity of all records kept by the State of Hawaii.

When you took your oath of Office as Governor of the state of Hawaii, did you not also swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States?

By not addresses this issue how and fully, you are also directly denigrating the official State of Hawaii recognition of the birth record of my son who was born in Hawaii just several months after the date of the record(s) in question.

This issue MUST be answered by the truth. By not addresses this issue, you are not fulfilling your oath of office.

Resident of the State of Hawaii

1960 – 1963

As a response the following statement attributed to the current Director of Health for the State of Hawaii, Chiyome Fukino, MD and the current Registrar General per their joint press release on October 31, 2008 was returned by email: in part: “Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawaii, 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 Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.”. Their complete public statement clearly made no references to the key data to be found in #6 boxes and well as the supporting data as in the #7 boxes in the first image.

In fact this response by the office of the Governor of the State of Hawaii was a very disingenuous and fraudulence response to my original query.

If you had the responsibility to investigate, qualify and vet someone who is to be given a United States Military Top Secret, No Foreign Special Access Security Clearance including the nuclear weapons launch control codes, which document of the two images shown would you find acceptable as a genuine State of Hawaii government issued “Record of a Birth” in the State of Hawaii?

You be the Judge (Roberts, Souter, Ginsburg, Scalia, Stevens, Alito, Kenny, Breyer, Thomas). _______________________________

[FrankR]

Excellent, excellent, excellent letter. That is the most concise explanation I have seen to date of this situation. Your letter would provide a great model to send to everyone’s Congress persons.

[Cyber Liberty]

Tim Johnson? If there isn’t a requirement that a Senator have more physical capacity than choosing which corner of the mouth from which to drool in order to vote, there should be.

[calenel]

Yes, there is that. Don’t blame me, I voted for the other guy.

[Former MSM Viewer]

How was the race of negro/black/africans termed in 1961?

I dont think it was African...

[missnry]

Well... at least you have some recorded response from Washington, DC. I wrote letters as well, several times! The response I got from my Missouri congressman:
Senator Kit Bond (R) ZERO
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) ZERO
Rep. Todd Akin (R), “Thank you for contacting my office.”

They could care less about this issue. The Fool-Aid was served in Washington and the entire Congress drank it!

[Former MSM Viewer]

How was the race of negro/black/africans termed in 1961?

I dont think it was African...maybe if we had another Certificate from that same time period we could see if there are any inconsistencies

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for posting those documents. The old-style original photocopy is exactly what mine from Kansas looks like, given that I was born in 1955. The BHO summary document is interesting in several areas. First, as previously noted, it is a document attesting to the existence of another, supposedly original, source document. This raises the question of why the need for such a document about a document and why was there a need to create an authority for it within the Hawai’i Revised Statutes?

Second, the BHO document does not reflect the date of its production or the certifying authority of the existence of the original (the statement by the Director of Health and the Registrar are not binding). This is basic to any legal document, even as pedestrian as the notarizing of a car title for transfer or sale. The question behind the question is when did BHO have the document produced and for what reason?

Finally, there is no such race as “African”. To me, this is what exposes this document as a fraud as that term would not have been in use in 1961 and would not have appeared on the original document.

BTW, as a previous holder of the type of clearance you reference, I fully endorse the use of that perspective when considering this matter.

[zeestephen]

calenel,

Many thanks.

Your letter is the best summary of the main issues I have read.

[Dick Bachert]

I sent a similar letter to Chambliss here in Georgia.

His reply:
Thank you for contacting me regarding Senator Barack Obama’s eligibility to become President. It is good to hear from you.

Article II of the Constitution states that in order to be President, a person must be a natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and have resided in the U.S. for at least 14 years. Regardless of the citizenship status of the parents, any person born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen.
Senator Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961, which makes him a U.S. citizen and at age 46 he meets the minimum age requirement. He has also resided in the U.S. for at least 14 years. While I do not agree with many of Senator Obama’s policy positions, he does meet the Constitutional requirements to be President of the United States .
If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov . Please let me know whenever I may be of assistance.

Here is my reply to THAT:

Senator Chambliss,
Please provide me the evidence you have proving Obama’s Hawaiian birth.
Thank you.

I’m still waiting for his reply.

I’m NOT holding my breath.

[Wil H]

Excellent letter.

One point I would have made is that the claims in the press that Hawaiian officials have “confirmed he was born in Hawaii” are ALL erroneous and are based on the false assumption made by 0bama’s supporters in the media that having a valid Hawaiian birth certificate equates to being born in Hawaii, which it does not, since foreign born babies could be registered there in 1961.

You might also point out that no official in Hawaii is permitted, under law, to reveal the contents of the original certificate so any comments pertaining to the same would put that official in legal jeopardy, so the likelihood of any such revelations to the media are highly unlikely.

[Wil H]

I ask that you release all information that the State of Hawaii Department of Health has on Senator Barack Obama's Certificate of Live Birth documentation.

She can't. It would be illegal to do so, other than to say it exists, which has already been said.