Saturday, November 29, 2008

Debunking the Debunkers

Finally a Google news alert keyed to "obama birth certificate" arrived in my inbox tonight pointing to a mainstream news outlet's mention of this issue. And as I expected it's another attempt to smear those who are pursuing the issue as conspiracy theorists. Let's take a look:

It's the rumor that won't go away. I continue to get e-mails about why mainstream media are not pursuing the challenge to the authenticity of President-elect Barack Obama's citizenship. The answer is that this allegation has been vetted and debunked.


Not so fast. There are several reasons it won't go away. First, Obama continues to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting lawsuits being brought for the sole purpose of forcing him to reveal the actual birth certificate on file. Which is more cost effective at putting these rumors to rest: spending $10 +/- to obtain a copy of the original birth certificate to end these rumors, or spending close to a million dollars to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day?

Second, three of these lawsuits have made their way onto the Supreme Court docket. For a mere rumor that's already been vetted and debunked, you'd expect SCOTUS to spend their time on more pressing things. While the rumor and all the supporting evidence behind it may not be considered newsworthy to mainstream media, Supreme Court cases should merit some attention at least.

While it is true that Hawaiian officials have not made the document public because of privacy laws, the state's health director said she and the registrar of vital statistics have personally inspected his birth certificate and can vouch for its authenticity.


I'd like very much for the actual quote from these officials be published in the mainstream media, because all I've seen are quotes stating that they have seen the birth certificate with their own eyes, vouching for its existence in Hawaii's records of vital statistics. I have also read that of those officials interviewed, none would vouch for the information contained therein.

Citing the media reports on snopes.com, "Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino says she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate." So, let's see a quote from these named officials that actually vouches for the authenticity of the publicly-displayed birth record on Obama's website.

That pretty much amounts to "case closed" for anyone but the conspiracy theorists who are convinced that Obama was born in Kenya and his mother fraudulently applied for a Hawaii birth certificate. Even if this were true - it seems rather silly to engage this argument, but here goes - I can't imagine anyone being able to put together sufficient evidence to invalidate a birth certificate that has been in the official vault for 47 years.


Evidence has been presented that Obama was born in Kenya, via statements made by both his relatives and Kenyan officials. Now, is it true that Hawaii allowed the parents of children born outside the US to register their births in Hawaii in 1961, under certain conditions? I've read assertions that it is. This is a simple question that the mainstream media should have no trouble asking, and getting a legitimate answer to. While the birth certificate may have been in the vault all these 47 years, nobody in the mainstream media has any idea what information is contained in that original document, other than what Mr. Obama himself has chosen to reveal, and continues to fight strenuously to limit to that information. See my previous post for more very simple questions the mainstream media seem to have problems with.

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