A question for birthers: why Mombassa?

Vanity | Me

[curiosity]

The origin of modern myths and legends is a side interest of mine, the birther myths among them.

Now I understand why Obama being born in Kenya made it into your belief system, despite it being physically impluasible (requiring around 5 days and five flights, most on propeller planes) and financially impossible (it would have cost about a year of her parents' combined salaries) for Stanley Ann & Obama Sr. to travel there for her to give birth. After all, Obama's Father was from Kenya, so if you are going to make up a myth about Obama being born abroad, what better place than Kenya?

Implausibilty, and even impossiblilty doesn't deter the making of myths if there is a strong emotional reason to believe them, as in this case.

What I don't understand is, of all possible places in Kenya, why make Mombassa the birthplace in your myth? If you look at the map of Kenya, it's on the other end of the country from Obama Sr.'s village, 762 miles away, which would make it a minimum 2 day train ride. Probably longer, since Kenyan trains were very fast in 1961.

I suppose you could argue that there were no hospitals in Obama's village, so they had to travel to a major city. But Nairobi was closer, and more modern.

So why Mombassa? Not only is it completely implausible; I don't see the emotional appeal. Why Mombasssa rather than his father's village? Or why Mombassa rather than Nairobi?

Help me out here, birthers. Why do you reserve this special place for Mombassa in your belief system?

[curiosity]

BS and nonsense! Obviously you've never been preggo OR given birth!!!!!! Well I HAVE, and unless there is a complication and its a normal healthy pregnancy there is absolutely nothing to preclude travel.

My wife was pregnant less than a year ago, and I can tell you first hand, while it was possible for her to travel, it was definitely difficult.

Furthermore, pregnancy can preclude travel if it prevents you from getting the vaccines you need to go to certain places. For example, pregnant women can't get a yellow fever vaccine, but travel to Kenya requires one.

In fact most physicians will allow a pregnant woman with an uncomplicated pregnancy to travel all the way up to the 8th month.

Stanley Ann would have been in her 7th month, so yes, she would have been cleared to travel, but I can tell you, it would not have been fun for her.

Good God, we're not talking about hiking across the Alps, we're talking about walking onboard a frickin plane and then sitting down for a couple of hours!!!

We're talking about a journey half way around the world in 1961, which would have involved five flights and about five days, more if you include layovers. Some of those flights most likely would have been by propeller plane.

I can tell you, there was no way my wife would have been up for that kind of journey when she was 7 months pregnant, even though she had no complications.

[usmcobra]

Just a couple of notes for you to consider.

1)as I have already proven it is very likely that The Obama's would have flown by jet to and from Nairobi.

I have established that as a historical fact.

Now here is the fun fact the Jet aircraft of today fly no faster than the jet aircraft available in the 1960's.all are sub-sonic.

2)Obama's father was not part of the CHARTERED flights to the US. That too is an established fact.

This is important because he would have flown on the scheduled airline flights (Jets) instead of the East African Airways Corporation (EAAC) chartered (from BOAC) Bristol Britannia.

Apparently he was more than just your average student and the future Kenyan Government could afford his tickets.

[Brown Deer]

You have shown your true colors with that response...

[usmcobra]

I don’t really care.

then you have nothing of any importance to add to the discussion and should sit down and shut up.

[conservativegramma]

All women are not based on your wife. Still BS and nonsense.

Besides which it is only in your vain imagination that Dunham didn’t go over until she was 7 months along. If you buy into the Kenyan birth theory she was probably there a whole lot before that, and was in her 7th or 8th month trying to LEAVE and return TO the USA but was prohibited from doing so by the airline. She had already been in Kenya for several months.

As far as flying half way around the world blah blah blah have you ever done that??? I HAVE. And a lot farther than Kenya too for that matter. I have also sat close to a man who had to be hooked up to his portable oxygen machine sitting in a plane for several hours. No pregnant woman is even in that bad of a condition health wise as this man was. Its not that difficult except for an Obamabot doing incredible gyrations in his zeal to defend the indefensible.

[usmcobra]

All that the sate of Hawaii requires to issue a Birth Certificate is a signed affidavit, and all they require to issue a COLB is a Hawaii birth certificate, see the pattern here?

[curiosity]

1)as I have already proven it is very likely that The Obama's would have flown by jet to and from Nairobi.

No. All you have proven is that they COULD have. It's still unlikely that they WOULD have.

In 1961, most flights in that part of the world were still by prop plane. Most definitely, if you paid economy, you did not fly jet. And the fact is, they couldn't even afford the economy fare, let alone the jet fare.

This is important because he would have flown on the scheduled airline flights (Jets) instead of the East African Airways Corporation (EAAC) chartered (from BOAC) Bristol Britannia. Apparently he was more than just your average student and the future Kenyan Government could afford his tickets.

Sure. He was flying on someone else's dime, so he could afford the scheduled flights. So?

[little jeremiah]

I pinged a few names to this thread just a couple of minutes ago.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2512730/posts?page=1

Obama State Senate Records Exposed!
Wizbang ^ | Wizbangblog

Posted on Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:17:30 AM by reaganwasright1980

The State Senate records have been found. Wizbang has some of the juicier ones up

[conservativegramma]

they couldn't even afford the economy fare....He was flying on someone else's dime, so he could afford the scheduled flights

ROFL. You just contradicted yourself! usmc must be getting to you! LOL.

[conservativegramma]

I was reading that earlier! Very interesting.....

[Brown Deer]

It's still unlikely that they WOULD have.

What is your basis for that statement?

And the fact is, they couldn't even afford the economy fare, let alone the jet fare.

Where did you get this fact from? You still haven't answered my question about how 0bama II could afford his travel to Pakistan during his college years, in addition to all of that expensive college tuition.

[usmcobra]

To fly to London by himself he would have to fly on a jet, since he did not fly as part of the student group, he did fly by jet.

He could have flown on Air India (707), Alitalia (DC-8),East African Airways(Comet 4), BOAC (707 and Comet 4) and South African Airways (707) all had jet service out of Nairobi to Europe.

The Bristol Britannia used by the student group was a charter aircraft used only when it had cargo or passengers to make the trip worthwhile. That is how small African airlines survived, they only flew they had full loads.

The jet airlines were subsidized by their governments and could afford to charge less.

[curiosity]

ROFL. You just contradicted yourself! usmc must be getting to you! LOL.

No I didn't. If the Obamas flew to Kenya when Stanley was pregnant, then they would have been flying on their own dime, and could not have afforded it.

On the other hand, when Obama Sr. was flying to Hawaii to study, he was being sponsored by a foundation and was not paying his own way.

[LorenC]

No. All you have proven is that they COULD have. It's still unlikely that they WOULD have.

You do realize you've been suckered into a wholly different question than you began with?

The title question of this thread was pretty straightforward: why Mombasa? Where did the idea that Obama was born in the city of Mombasa come from? Why would anyone in Obama's family ever make the trip to Mombasa for childbirth, instead of either of the more logical Kenyan locales?

Most everyone avoided addressing either of those questions, and instead tried to shift attention onto other questions. And by playing along, you've now gotten yourself embroiled in the entirely unrelated question of "What kind of planes flew into Nairobi in 1961?" Jet planes also flew to Australia the year I was born. But that's not evidence that my mother flew there on one to give birth to me.

Consequently, by allowing that focus to shift, you've allowed everyone to gloss over the original matter, which was that the Mombasa location was introduced into the eligibility narrative with absolutely no supporting evidence, and that it makes no logical sense whatsoever.

[ChurtleDawg]

whatever.

[ChurtleDawg]

I am pointing out the utter bankruptcy of your arguments.

And the childish insults are not worth responding to. I will not waste my time defending myself to petulant internet cranks when I am not the issue.

[RaceBannon]

NO, YOU DONT GET TO DO THAT, YOU NEVER SPOKE OF HER PREGNANCY AS TO WHAT WAS DIFFICULT UNTIL YOU THOUGHT OF IT LATER!

YOU SAID IT HAD TO DO WITH NO FLIGHTS TO HERE FROM THERE OR WHEVER

YOU GOT CAUGHT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE COOKIE JAR AND NOW YOU WANT THE WAHHHMBULANCE TO BAIL YOU OUT!

[conservativegramma]

Ummm yes you did. How do you know what the Obama’s could or couldn’t afford? Were you their financial consultant? Accountant?? Guru that you can read minds now???

[usmcobra]

Like I said if you have nothing to bring to the discussion sit down and shut up.

The Territory of Hawaii would issue a Birth certificate to anyone that signed an affidavit to the effect that someone was born there, so does the State of Hawaii, if I were so inclined and could afford it I would fly to Hawaii tomorrow and get one to prove my point.

But more importantly the State of Hawaii has done what no other state in our union would even think of doing,they have made it illegal to ask for a certified copy of a historical document and have sealed it away where not even the Governor herself can view it.

The circumstances and documents connected to the birth of a president as well as his life’s history are a matter of national historical significance and cannot be hidden from the public record of his life, and yet Hawaii went so far as to pass a law forbidding just that, and as Obama himself has issued an executive order locking away his life’s documents under a permanent veil of secrecy.

This has never happened before in our nations history.

[LorenC]

A thirty year old recollection of a guy who says he met a black kid in Hawaii who must have been BHO and the kid told him exactly what he wants to be true today? - take it to the bank.

Hey now...Race was personally responsible for naming the Tamil Tigers. Does that sound like the kind of person who would make stuff up?

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/chandler/2010/01/05/chandlers-watch

And his story about meeting teenage Obama premiered online on a fiercely anti-Muslim, anti-Obama, and pro-Birther blog, whose author refers to the President as "Oba-Hussein." What about that doesn't strike you as credible?