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Birther claptrap deserves out reproach
Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | 4/29/2010 | Loren Collins

Posted on 04/30/2010 4:27:34 PM PDT by curiosity

Now, eight years later, three Georgia legislators are indulging the fantasies of a new contingent of conspiracy theorists who believe in a different cover-up. These conspiracy theorists, or “birthers,” refuse to accept the constitutional eligibility of President Barack Obama, under the hypothesis that he might not have been born in Honolulu, and that he instead may have engaged in a five-decade-long ruse before his secret foreign birth was exposed via fabricated rumors spread by fringe bloggers with no evidence late in the campaign.

The conspiracists’ favored theory is that Obama’s mother left her Honolulu home and traveled halfway around the planet to give birth in the Third World nation of Kenya in 1961. To some people, it is apparently easier to believe that our first African-American president was actually born in Africa than to believe that he was born at the local Honolulu hospital.

When his birthplace was publicly questioned in June 2008, the Obama campaign promptly published his certification of live birth online, clearly identifying his place of birth as “Honolulu, Hawaii.”

When online conspiracists said that was a digital forgery, FactCheck.org visited campaign headquarters and took multiple photographs of the document.

When conspiracists demanded extrinsic evidence, two contemporary birth announcements were located in Hawaiian newspapers. And when they demanded even more, Hawaii’s vital records registrar issued a public statement saying that the president’s original vital records confirm his birth in Hawaii.

(By contrast, what evidence did you ever see that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark.? Can you even name the state George W. Bush was born in?)

Yet the conspiracists remain unsatisfied. And so do, apparently, at least three Georgia politicians. In late 2009, gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal announced that he was writing a letter to Obama asking where he could find evidence of Obama’s eligibility. It seems Deal is either inexplicably ignorant of all the evidence cited above, or considers it insufficient. Even more inexplicably, Deal refuses to release a copy of his letter for Georgia voters to see what nonsense he wrote.

More recently, when Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) was asked in an interview if he could simply say that the president is an American citizen, Broun responded “I don’t know.” Then, when given the opportunity to clear the air in a follow-up interview, Broun only dug himself deeper into denialist territory. Asked “Do you believe the president’s citizenship is in question?” Broun gave a long, rambling reply, eventually concluding with “I don’t know, nobody knows for sure, we’ve not seen any documentation one way or the other.”

As illustrated above, this is an outright lie. Broun has not only allied himself with denialists, but has chosen to further entrench himself with them even when given the opportunity to back away.

Finally, state Rep. Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) recently introduced House Bill 1516. Had it passed, it would have required presidential candidates to provide evidence of their constitutional eligibility in order to appear on Georgia ballots. In the abstract, such a requirement is perfectly reasonable.

But Hatfield’s real intent shines through in the details. Hatfield does not propose that his fellow General Assembly members should prove their eligibility under the Georgia Constitution, nor that our statewide elected officials, such as the governor, should do so. Nor does he propose the same standard of proof for our federal representatives and senators.

Hatfield’s bill does not even demand documentation from vice presidential candidates, who have the same eligibility standards as the president. Most astonishingly, Hatfield proposes nothing to ensure the constitutional eligibility of any third-party presidential candidates; his bill covers only Republicans and Democrats.

In other words, if Hatfield’s bill passed, the only candidates in the November 2012 election whose eligibility it would scrutinize would be Barack Obama and his Republican challenger. Hatfield has written a bill so narrow that the only way it could be narrower would be for it to identify Obama by name.

Hatfield even admits his bill is targeted at Obama. He says, “I don’t think that the American people have been given any adequate documentation of the president’s citizenship.” This, even though he already has a birth certification, birth announcements and a state official’s confirmation. And to whom did he give his first public interview about his bill? Joseph Farah, the Internet’s leading birther propagandist.

Birtherism is denialist claptrap wrapped in a veil of patriotic constitutionalism. Just as Georgia voters did not ignore McKinney’s conspiracism in 2002, Georgia voters in 2010 should not turn a blind eye to the indulging of birthers by our elected officials of today. Their actions are a boon to conspiracy theorists but an embarrassment to our state.

Loren Collins, an Atlanta attorney, runs an anti-birther blog called Barackryphal.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: barrysoetero; birhers; birthcertificate; birthers; certifigate; citizanoftheworld; eligibility; naturalborncitizen; nbc; raisedinindonesia; renouncedcitizenship; romney4obama; romneybot4obama; romneyvsbirthers
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1 posted on 04/30/2010 4:27:34 PM PDT by curiosity
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To: curiosity

The issue is BHO is NOT a natural citizen.

Of course, a BC could prove otherwise.


2 posted on 04/30/2010 4:30:12 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: Beckwith; bgill; butterdezillion; bvw; conservativegramma; Danae; dennisw; El Gato; exit82; ...

NBC Ping


3 posted on 04/30/2010 4:30:41 PM PDT by ASA Vet (Iran should have ceased to exist Nov 5, 1979, but we had no president then either.)
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To: curiosity
ah well. things would be so much simpler if the thing were so much simpler.

if, for example, he had a true birth certificate or something like that. One that actually dates to his birth.

And if he'd just come down from his throne long enough to reassure the unwashed masses that he is indeed a mere mortal. A mere American mortal.

4 posted on 04/30/2010 4:31:14 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (?)
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To: curiosity

5 posted on 04/30/2010 4:31:50 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: curiosity

She attacks a strawman. My preferred theory is that his father’s British citizenship disqualifies him to be a “natural-born” citizen, and in fact makes him a naturalized citizen.


6 posted on 04/30/2010 4:32:23 PM PDT by ez ("Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is." - Milton)
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To: the invisib1e hand

“I never really had roots in any one place or culture or ethnic group.”
- Obama Olympics speech


7 posted on 04/30/2010 4:32:52 PM PDT by donna (They hand off my culture & citizenship to criminals & then call me racist for objecting?)
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To: curiosity

8 posted on 04/30/2010 4:34:17 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: curiosity
The only thing consistent with our sometime White House
resident is ITS middle name Hussein.

Things missing or faked BC, School Records and College records.

9 posted on 04/30/2010 4:35:01 PM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran ((B.?) Hussein (Obama?Soetoro?Dunham?) Change America Will Die From.)
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To: curiosity

“Claptrap” can be proven simply by a cheap (real) birth certificate.

Perhaps the kiddie writers at the Atlanta Constipation might want to look up the difference between a Hawaii certificate of life birth and an actual birth certificate.

I know such things are hard for journalists, but ‘tain’t that hard (for those of us who can read).


10 posted on 04/30/2010 4:35:57 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: curiosity
Good evening.

Just out of curiosity, why are you hitting all the threads regarding B. Hussein 0bama's eligibility to hold the office of president?

Thanks.

5.56mm

11 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:09 PM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: curiosity

my issues is why does he refuse to show
why did his wife say Baracks homeland Kenya
why did he refuse and did lie to not put out the full live version
why does the media not ask
every president has had the media do a story on how they grew up, where they grew up, interview friends and family etc, why not obama?
my 12 year old was on about past presidents and asked how did obama do at school
you know what I couldn’t answer him as he sealed his records, he is the only president in our history which no one knows how he did at school what grades he got etc

so that is my question, why does he refuse to show it even after all this?

I have no idea and I’ll take his word if the rats want but I still ask them why does he not show it and why fight not to show it and they never answer that question


12 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:15 PM PDT by manc (WILL OBAMA EVER GO TO CHURCH ON A SUNDAY OR WILL HE LET THE MEDIA/THE LEFT BE FOOLED FOR EVER)
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To: Diogenesis

The defining concept, and term of description, is “natural born” citizen, which requires that both parents be U. S. citizens as well as that the birth occur in the U. S. or U. S. territory or possession


13 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:28 PM PDT by Elsiejay (.)
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To: curiosity

Loren Collins deserves out reproach IMHO.
All that The Usurper has to do, is what every US citizen has done at some time in their life, present papers documenting their origin.
The Usurper is no better than the rest of us, so Loren Collins can go blow smoke up her ....


14 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:33 PM PDT by J Edgar
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To: curiosity
"By contrast, what evidence did you ever see that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark.? Can you even name the state George W. Bush was born in?"

The last thing anyone could call me is a birther, but the reference to Clinton and Bush is completely without merit. We have surviving witnesses and bountiful anecdotal evidence about not just Bush's and Clinton's births, but about their entire childhood as well. Both of their lives were open books. We know where they were born, what hospital they were born in, where they went to school and with whom they went to school, and what activities they were involved in while they were in school. And, copious and detailed stories have been written about their births and their childhood from contemporary witnesses who did just that - witnessed it.

Obama is a cipher, a mystery man. We know very little about him, except for his last few years of high school, and sketchy information about his undergrad years. Obama is an enigma, and people don't enigmas as leaders, with good reason.

15 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:33 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: curiosity

There is Currently More Evidence of Space Aliens than there is that Obama was ever at ANY SCHOOL IN THE United States, let alone a CITIZEN. Everyone should use the word “ALLEGED” when speaking about the past of Barry. That is unless of course Someone can actually produce SCHOOL RECORDS from ANYWHERE for ANYTIME in the US for Obama/Sotero??


16 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:54 PM PDT by eyeamok
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To: curiosity

Methinks were it not for Team Romney attacking Gov. Palin,
Obama would still be a Senator.

And Team Romney schemes to make Obama a two term Pres_ _ent.


17 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:57 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: curiosity

Then Kenya's looking pretty foolish, aren't they.

18 posted on 04/30/2010 4:36:59 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Elsiejay

That, too.

But BHO is unnatural, and probably not even a citizen.

Every move he makes is for terrorists and invaders.

Every move he makes is against Americans. Every move.


19 posted on 04/30/2010 4:38:40 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States Â… shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: curiosity
By contrast, what evidence did you ever see that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark.? Can you even name the state George W. Bush was born in?

Bill Clinton's life, although sordid, had been extensively documented as had GWB's. It took a cipher like Obama, with gaping holes in his biography, to highlight the need for verification of eligibility, especially since the major media have been revealed as the leftist propaganda organs they are. The example of Nicaraguan socialist Roger Calero in the 2004 and 2008 elections is also instructive. The more the elitists pooh-pooh the issue, the more you know it's driving them crazy.

20 posted on 04/30/2010 4:39:18 PM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius, (170 BC - 86 BC))
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