Monte Kuligowski
Birthermania!
By Monte Kuligowski
Is it reasonable to demand that Obama release his birth certificate for authentication?
Now that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has released his 10-page report on President Obama's purported birth certificate, we are witnessing the predicted response of the establishment national news media: yawns, sighs and laughter — but little reporting.
After the six month investigation by a team of forensic experts, Joe Arpaio said there is "probable cause" to believe forgery has been committed. Those are fairly strong words. Probable cause is the legal standard for arrest and forced production of documents.
Jeff Kuhner of the Washington Times discusses the potential bombshell Obama scandal and the scandal of media silence in his piece, "Forgerygate: Ignoring Arpaio's Report is a Scandal in Itself." Kuhner argues that the reason for the media blackout is fear. Fear of a constitutional crisis. If Obama attained the high office through deception, then everything he did as president would be subject to annulment.
I submit that the blackout by the establishment conservative press is also fear-based. The cowards of the conservative media fear the Saul Alinsky tactic of isolation and humiliation. The narrative has already been established: all questions regarding Obama's eligibility have been debunked and anyone who questions the president has a personal vendetta based in some sort of pathology. Better to play it safe and appear intelligent.
But history, when far removed from the Obama phenomenon, will not view the cowardly as intelligent or even wise.
The reason is twofold. First, there are too many oddities with Obama. And, second, in context of the manifold oddities, the reasonable thing for Obama to do is end all doubt. If he had nothing to hide, wouldn't Obama want to quickly remove doubt and restore confidence?
The only way to end all doubt is complete transparency. Complete transparency means actually releasing personal records, including his birth certificate. Actually releasing his birth certificate means making the original available for forensic authentication. With today's forensic abilities, all doubt could be laid to rest quickly. We have the ability to determine whether the original document is written on paper from 1961 and with corresponding seal, typeset, and ink.
No doubt was erased by "releasing" a belated birth certificate via internet posting — the internet meets no legal standard of document production. Try showing an image of your birth certificate on your laptop to the processing agent when applying for a passport.
It is necessary to highlight some of the unique Obama oddities. For if the oddities did not exist, the protective response — No other candidate or president released his birth certificate for authentication, so why should Obama? — would make perfect sense. But Obama is no ordinary American.
Many Obama supporters claim that racism is the only explanation for doubting the president. But I've noted before that no one doubted the eligibility of Jesse Jackson, Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton, or Herman Cain.
Kenyan media publications never claimed that Al Sharpton was born in Mombasa. But several have referred to Obama as "Kenyan-born." That doesn't mean it's true. But, it is a little strange nonetheless. The words of Obama's paternal grandmother and Kenyan officials also don't make the Kenyan-born allegations true — but they are peculiar in light of the Hawaii claim.
Herman Cain's wife never referred to Kenya as Herman's "home country." Maybe Michelle didn't mean to say home country. But, it's a little odd that she did.
During his candidacy, no one doubted that Jesse Jackson was born in a house in South Carolina. Most candidates have living witnesses of their births. Obama had none (except his paternal grandmother).
The Daily Kos did not somehow get the sealed birth certificate of Alan Keyes and post it online during his campaign. Yet, mysteriously, somehow the liberal website posted Obama's "birth certificate" in early 2008.
At least we were told that it was Obama's birth certificate. We were told for over three years that Hawaii had no other birth certificate. According to the fact checking sites, a "long form" was a conservative myth which simply did not exist in the Hawaii archives. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assured us that the "birth certificate" was "right there online."
So, it was a little strange when a long-form birth certificate appeared out of nowhere on April 27, 2011 — on the eve of Jerome Corsi's "Where's the Birth Certificate" book release and in the midst of Donald Trump's table-pounding campaign over the bizarre secrecy of Barack Hussein Obama II.
Early on, news sources couldn't even agree on which Honolulu hospital Obama was born in — because of conflicting reports. And, to this day, Obama has not released Kapi'olani Medical Center to give a simple yea or nay.
Then there's the curious 2008 passport breach and the missing passport records. Missing from the archives are the 1961 passport records of Obama's mother, Stanley Dunham. Mr. Obama's records, of course, are sealed.
And one of the probing discoveries of Sheriff Joe's team is that also missing are INS records for "airline passengers arriving on international flights originating outside the United States" in 1961. Interestingly, missing in August 1961 are all records for the week "Aug. 1, 1961, through Aug. 7, 1961."
Maybe there is an explanation as to why Obama's Selective Service registration was forged. Maybe there is a valid reason why Obama is using a Social Security number that was issued on application from the state of Connecticut. Maybe it's just a glitch that his Social Security number is flagged by E-Verify.
But, hey, we should be talking about the real issues, right? Like how Obama is unraveling the Constitution. Wait a minute ....
Sheriff Joe's investigation also reiterated what journalists should already have known. Hawaii had some unique birth registration laws in the early 1960s. It's been shown that foreign births have been registered in Hawaii, thereby generating official Hawaii birth records — most notably, the "certification of live birth." And, for Bill O'Reilly: All registered Honolulu births were picked up by the local newspapers and scant notices were automatically printed. No crazy conspiracy theory needed.
And why should we trust the Hawaii government? Health Department officials parsed their words for three years a little too carefully regarding what Obama had in the records. When a concrete statement finally came in May of 2011, it conflicted with what Obama "released" shortly thereafter. Chiyome Fukino, the former director of Hawaii's Department of Health, said that she saw Obama's long-form birth certificate and it was "half typed and half handwritten[.]"
To the contrary, the chief elections clerk for the city/county of Honolulu during the 2008 presidential campaign, Tim Adams, swore an affidavit that Obama did not have a long- form birth certificate in Hawaii's records. So, whom do we believe? I say, no one — instead, let the mysterious birth certificate be authenticated once and for all.
It is not unreasonable to "trust, but verify." In our context, it's not unreasonable to raise an eyebrow and verify. Mr. Obama apparently has something to hide. I tend to think that Stanley Dunham wouldn't have flown to Kenya so late in her pregnancy; but personal opinions are irrelevant. I don't care that Anderson Cooper believes Obama was born in Hawaii. I don't care that a large percentage of Americans believe he was born in Kenya. This constitutional issue should not be about faith, but about irrefutable evidence. And, the burden of proof is not on the people — it is squarely on Obama.
Another basis for the conservative establishment's fear is the idea that maybe Obama is setting the "birthers" up. Maybe Obama wants to draw as many conservatives as possible into the "silly" eligibility issue. And then at the right time, he will really "release" his original 1961 birth certificate for authentication. Boy, those "birthers" are going to have egg on their face. Those on the record as having questioned Obama will be discredited forever. Obama will win in a landslide.
Balderdash. Even if he has an original, balderdash.
We do not have to fear a constitutional crisis. As adults, we can handle it. We do not have to fear name-calling. We do not have to fear that Obama has an authentic birth certificate but is playing political games.
We need to reorient our thinking on this issue — especially on fear number three, that Obama is setting skeptics up for humiliation.
No one should be humiliated but Obama. If he is playing games, what kind of person is he?
If Obama really had an authentic birth certificate all along, why did he allow Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin to suffer the pain of imprisonment in Ft. Leavenworth for six months? What kind of human being would allow Lakin to be unnecessarily imprisoned? Only to suddenly "release" the alleged document that Lakin had requested — at the end of Lakin's prison term.
The profound and cold-hearted treatment of Officer Lakin alone should disqualify Obama from reelection. Fear should not be in the people. The fear of the people should be in Obama.
© Monte Kuligowski
March 24, 2012
Is it reasonable to demand that Obama release his birth certificate for authentication?
Now that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has released his 10-page report on President Obama's purported birth certificate, we are witnessing the predicted response of the establishment national news media: yawns, sighs and laughter — but little reporting.
After the six month investigation by a team of forensic experts, Joe Arpaio said there is "probable cause" to believe forgery has been committed. Those are fairly strong words. Probable cause is the legal standard for arrest and forced production of documents.
Jeff Kuhner of the Washington Times discusses the potential bombshell Obama scandal and the scandal of media silence in his piece, "Forgerygate: Ignoring Arpaio's Report is a Scandal in Itself." Kuhner argues that the reason for the media blackout is fear. Fear of a constitutional crisis. If Obama attained the high office through deception, then everything he did as president would be subject to annulment.
I submit that the blackout by the establishment conservative press is also fear-based. The cowards of the conservative media fear the Saul Alinsky tactic of isolation and humiliation. The narrative has already been established: all questions regarding Obama's eligibility have been debunked and anyone who questions the president has a personal vendetta based in some sort of pathology. Better to play it safe and appear intelligent.
But history, when far removed from the Obama phenomenon, will not view the cowardly as intelligent or even wise.
The reason is twofold. First, there are too many oddities with Obama. And, second, in context of the manifold oddities, the reasonable thing for Obama to do is end all doubt. If he had nothing to hide, wouldn't Obama want to quickly remove doubt and restore confidence?
The only way to end all doubt is complete transparency. Complete transparency means actually releasing personal records, including his birth certificate. Actually releasing his birth certificate means making the original available for forensic authentication. With today's forensic abilities, all doubt could be laid to rest quickly. We have the ability to determine whether the original document is written on paper from 1961 and with corresponding seal, typeset, and ink.
No doubt was erased by "releasing" a belated birth certificate via internet posting — the internet meets no legal standard of document production. Try showing an image of your birth certificate on your laptop to the processing agent when applying for a passport.
It is necessary to highlight some of the unique Obama oddities. For if the oddities did not exist, the protective response — No other candidate or president released his birth certificate for authentication, so why should Obama? — would make perfect sense. But Obama is no ordinary American.
Many Obama supporters claim that racism is the only explanation for doubting the president. But I've noted before that no one doubted the eligibility of Jesse Jackson, Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton, or Herman Cain.
Kenyan media publications never claimed that Al Sharpton was born in Mombasa. But several have referred to Obama as "Kenyan-born." That doesn't mean it's true. But, it is a little strange nonetheless. The words of Obama's paternal grandmother and Kenyan officials also don't make the Kenyan-born allegations true — but they are peculiar in light of the Hawaii claim.
Herman Cain's wife never referred to Kenya as Herman's "home country." Maybe Michelle didn't mean to say home country. But, it's a little odd that she did.
During his candidacy, no one doubted that Jesse Jackson was born in a house in South Carolina. Most candidates have living witnesses of their births. Obama had none (except his paternal grandmother).
The Daily Kos did not somehow get the sealed birth certificate of Alan Keyes and post it online during his campaign. Yet, mysteriously, somehow the liberal website posted Obama's "birth certificate" in early 2008.
At least we were told that it was Obama's birth certificate. We were told for over three years that Hawaii had no other birth certificate. According to the fact checking sites, a "long form" was a conservative myth which simply did not exist in the Hawaii archives. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assured us that the "birth certificate" was "right there online."
So, it was a little strange when a long-form birth certificate appeared out of nowhere on April 27, 2011 — on the eve of Jerome Corsi's "Where's the Birth Certificate" book release and in the midst of Donald Trump's table-pounding campaign over the bizarre secrecy of Barack Hussein Obama II.
Early on, news sources couldn't even agree on which Honolulu hospital Obama was born in — because of conflicting reports. And, to this day, Obama has not released Kapi'olani Medical Center to give a simple yea or nay.
Then there's the curious 2008 passport breach and the missing passport records. Missing from the archives are the 1961 passport records of Obama's mother, Stanley Dunham. Mr. Obama's records, of course, are sealed.
And one of the probing discoveries of Sheriff Joe's team is that also missing are INS records for "airline passengers arriving on international flights originating outside the United States" in 1961. Interestingly, missing in August 1961 are all records for the week "Aug. 1, 1961, through Aug. 7, 1961."
Maybe there is an explanation as to why Obama's Selective Service registration was forged. Maybe there is a valid reason why Obama is using a Social Security number that was issued on application from the state of Connecticut. Maybe it's just a glitch that his Social Security number is flagged by E-Verify.
But, hey, we should be talking about the real issues, right? Like how Obama is unraveling the Constitution. Wait a minute ....
Sheriff Joe's investigation also reiterated what journalists should already have known. Hawaii had some unique birth registration laws in the early 1960s. It's been shown that foreign births have been registered in Hawaii, thereby generating official Hawaii birth records — most notably, the "certification of live birth." And, for Bill O'Reilly: All registered Honolulu births were picked up by the local newspapers and scant notices were automatically printed. No crazy conspiracy theory needed.
And why should we trust the Hawaii government? Health Department officials parsed their words for three years a little too carefully regarding what Obama had in the records. When a concrete statement finally came in May of 2011, it conflicted with what Obama "released" shortly thereafter. Chiyome Fukino, the former director of Hawaii's Department of Health, said that she saw Obama's long-form birth certificate and it was "half typed and half handwritten[.]"
To the contrary, the chief elections clerk for the city/county of Honolulu during the 2008 presidential campaign, Tim Adams, swore an affidavit that Obama did not have a long- form birth certificate in Hawaii's records. So, whom do we believe? I say, no one — instead, let the mysterious birth certificate be authenticated once and for all.
It is not unreasonable to "trust, but verify." In our context, it's not unreasonable to raise an eyebrow and verify. Mr. Obama apparently has something to hide. I tend to think that Stanley Dunham wouldn't have flown to Kenya so late in her pregnancy; but personal opinions are irrelevant. I don't care that Anderson Cooper believes Obama was born in Hawaii. I don't care that a large percentage of Americans believe he was born in Kenya. This constitutional issue should not be about faith, but about irrefutable evidence. And, the burden of proof is not on the people — it is squarely on Obama.
Another basis for the conservative establishment's fear is the idea that maybe Obama is setting the "birthers" up. Maybe Obama wants to draw as many conservatives as possible into the "silly" eligibility issue. And then at the right time, he will really "release" his original 1961 birth certificate for authentication. Boy, those "birthers" are going to have egg on their face. Those on the record as having questioned Obama will be discredited forever. Obama will win in a landslide.
Balderdash. Even if he has an original, balderdash.
We do not have to fear a constitutional crisis. As adults, we can handle it. We do not have to fear name-calling. We do not have to fear that Obama has an authentic birth certificate but is playing political games.
We need to reorient our thinking on this issue — especially on fear number three, that Obama is setting skeptics up for humiliation.
No one should be humiliated but Obama. If he is playing games, what kind of person is he?
If Obama really had an authentic birth certificate all along, why did he allow Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin to suffer the pain of imprisonment in Ft. Leavenworth for six months? What kind of human being would allow Lakin to be unnecessarily imprisoned? Only to suddenly "release" the alleged document that Lakin had requested — at the end of Lakin's prison term.
The profound and cold-hearted treatment of Officer Lakin alone should disqualify Obama from reelection. Fear should not be in the people. The fear of the people should be in Obama.
© Monte Kuligowski
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