Why is the media silent on the Obama birth certificate question?

[NC Susan]

December 1, 2008

Why is the media silent on the Obama birth certificate question?

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/bresciani/081201


By Michael Bresciani

Why has every major news source in the United States almost totally blacked out all reference to the Hawaiian Obama birth certificate controversy?

In layman's terms the mainstream media may be afraid of showing up with egg on its face. Yet, the question about the allegedly fraudulent COLB (certificate of live birth) doesn't want to go away. It is more than simple curiosity that is driving the quest; it is a strong desire for the truth and the hope of avoiding a constitutional crisis that would be unparalleled in our entire history as a nation.

The media recently reported Barack Obama's choice of a corned beef sandwich for his lunch. The question about his Blackberry phone has gotten more media attention than the birth certificate question. The politicos and media that follow the President Elect are looking more like the paparazzi than a group of professional journalists. What's wrong with this picture; here are a few possibilities.

Besides the obvious, like the fear of embarrassment some have suggested that it is an attitude of "possession is nine tenths of the law." He won a landslide; America has spoken so why bother with insignificant howbeit bothersome minor details. He has got the ball so let him run with it!

The idea is that winning is more important than keeping the rules is anything but American. The next time a whistle blows on the field in a NFL game won't the whole game stop in its tracks and wait for the announcement of the referee. Isn't this a far more grave matter than a flag going down in a football game?

Another possibility is that ignoring the matter will to some degree contain it. Leaving it alone will make it look like it's only a few discontented fringe groups or sore losers who are making waves and they can be ignored.

The timing might seem wrong as in who would dare proclaim out loud that they hate rock music in the middle of a Kiss concert. Conservatives it seems are loathe to become overtly vociferous while the liberals and Dem's are at the peak of the honeymoon stage and still celebrating their spectacular win.

But the timing is actually perfect because if the question is not answered until after the inauguration every executive order or law Barack Obama has enacted will be nullified. Ambassador Alan Keyes was the first one to point out this salient fact but neither the media nor the courts seem to be taking this fact too seriously at the moment.

Conservative media seems to be largely ignoring the question. Hannity has taken to airing the Roswell UFO conspiracy; Beck and O'Reilly are relatively silent while Limbaugh may be the only talk show personality who has spent any time at all on the subject.

The idea that there are only a few internet bloggers who care about it makes it seem like a trivial matter. The offering of the COLB which now appears to be fraudulent was not made in the mainstream broadcast media but on the internet (Kos) so painting it to be the rantings of a few discontented internet bloggers doesn't fly well at all. The insult if there is any, is not to internet bloggers but to the constitution and the laws of the United States. Isn't that newsworthy?

World Net Daily the largest independent conservative news source on the internet has begun to take signatures from people across the country to petition the congress to demand the vaulted copy of the Obama birth certificate. At the writing of this article signatures were coming in at the rate of 1000 per hour. Someone is paying attention and it would be absurd to think they are all just a band of sore losers and malcontents.

Alan Keyes who has filed suit in California to block the 55 electoral votes from being counted until Barack Obama verifies his citizenship is keeping the readers of his site, Renew America abreast of every effort made to uncover the truth. Renew America is not only one of the internets most popular sites but it is among the most tasteful conservative spots on the web.

This question deserves more attention for the noblest of reasons. It is about the law of our land. If we are to be a nation of laws then we all need to know our chief law maker is abiding by the laws already in place. The dignity of the Office of the President requires it and the American people deserve it.

The mainstream media may choose to keep a low profile on the matter for now but it takes no great skill in prognostication to know this. The minute the honeymoon is over and Barack Obama has made a few unpopular decisions the American public may demand to know what they think is not now very important.

Newsweek Magazine recently featured an article and a full front page cover telling how Barack Obama wants to style his presidency after Abraham Lincoln. To those who have followed the stories of Obama's past associations through the press it would seem that it is a little too late to make such a comparison. But if that is so what might Lincoln say to this subject?

Lincoln buffs and historians know all to well that it may be this famous saying from Abraham Lincoln that best speaks to the entire birth certificate controversy. "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

Sooner or later all Presidents regardless of their style as a Commander in Chief have had to come to terms with the fact that this country isn't founded on any man's style. Rather it was and hopefully always will be based on the Constitution. It is the Constitution that asks the question to President Elect Barack Obama; are you a natural born citizen of these United States?

It is "we the people" who are living our lives and abiding under the laws of the constitution that are asking the President Elect if he would be willing to satisfy the question the constitution puts forth. The media may ignore this question, the courts may decide it is not relevant but the constitution will yet be answered as "we the people" say in the common vernacular "sooner or later."

© Michael Bresciani

 

[NC Susan]

Seven reasons why Barack Obama should make the birth certificate controversy go away



By Michael Bresciani

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/bresciani/081125

The question of whether Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya thus disqualifying him to run as a presidential candidate will not go away. It is like the little mushrooms that appear every morning under the tree, they keep coming back. What should the President Elect do?

It is not fair to label those who want answers as racists, disillusioned right wingers, conspiracy nuts or any other convenient appellation thereby asking them to simply shut up. Lawsuits filed to require that an official vault document be produced have come from African Americans, democrats and a host of constitutionally concerned citizens.

In fact one You Tube offering about the matter garnered 750,000 views alone and the total viewing of videos and articles on the subject is somewhere near three million to date.

The problems with the birth certificate offered on the extreme left website the Daily Kos and a few other internet sites are too many to ignore. The short list is first that the document is not signed. Secondly it has no seal. Third is that the security border doesn't match similar documents from the same time period. Other objections are that the race of Obama's father is listed as African. In the early sixties the State of Hawaii listed African Americans as Negroes.

What is missing from the document is the doctor's signature and physical characteristics at birth that every original birth certificate reveals.

Some interested party's have submitted the internet document to the scrutiny of Adobe and graphic experts who all agree the document is highly questionable or a complete fraud. Is it? Who knows at this point? What is far more intriguing is the resistance being thrown at uncovering the true vault document. This is what is spawning suspicion and doubt.

Attorney Philip Berg has filed a writ of certiorari that should force the President Elect, the DNC and Co-Defendants to produce the document in accordance with law. Ambassador Alan Keyes has pending suits and a total of seventeen others are submitting their quests to various levels of state courts.

Here are the important reasons President Elect Obama should cooperate and put the whole matter to bed as quickly as possible.

1. Because he can. With a simple request to the Hawaii Bureau of Vital Statistics he can quash all doubt and get on with his administration.
2. He will remove the suspicions of millions of Americans, republicans, democrats and independents alike.
3. If ignored it could cause a constitutional crises unlike anything ever seen in this country. It would make questions of chads and incomplete voting cards look like a kindergarten problem by contrast.
4. It will indicate that Obama means business when he takes the oath of office and declares that he will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
5. It will give confidence to many of his opponents who may not agree with all his policies, but want to know that he is a completely honest man with the country's best interest in mind.
6. It would put to rest the assertion that he is an elitist. All Americans must submit proper documentation of birth to get Social Security cards, driver's license, security clearance and passports. He should be willing to carry out the first and the least of all his campaign promises contained in the slogan 'Yes, we can.' In America we can and according to law 'we must.'
7. We will all sleep better at night!

It is a surprisingly simple matter to make it all go away but it is presently entrenched in court battles and suspicion. In a full page ad in The Washington Times Nov. 17, 2008 three questions are asked. Was Barack Obama born in Kenya? Is he really a citizen of Indonesia? Does the constitution still matter?

Good questions, we're listening.

As a footnote even Jesus Christ was questioned about who he was and where he came from. "We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." (Jn 9:29) His own sisters and brothers warned him about doing things openly. "For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. (Jn 7:4)

© Michael Bresciani

 

[2redroses]

I heard the court case (SCOTUS) mentioned briefly today on FOXnews by Brett Bair (sp). Only about 2 sentences, that a case is being reviewed by SCOTUS this Friday, and that there was a similiar case (before?) that was disproved.

Not exact quotes, but he brought up the SCOTUS case then basically said that something similiar had been brought up before and failed. ??? So he gave the impression that this would fail too. I was surprised to hear him mention it at all!

 

[NC Susan]

Obama Citizenship Accusations Come to a Head

Obama Citizenship Accusations Come to a Head Written by Kurt Williamsen Tuesday, 02 December 2008 20:54

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/562

As we have reported earlier in our article "Barack Obama and the Citizenship Scandal," it has been alleged that Barack Obama is ineligible to become president for two reasons: evidence has come forward that Obama was born in Kenya, not the United States as required by the Constitution (because only one of Obama's parents is an American); and even if he was born here, his mother relinquished his citizenship by marrying an Indonesian and becoming a naturalized Indonesian citizen.


This story has gained credence, separating it from Internet rumors, because Obama has reputedly hired three law firms (firms, not lawyers) to make sure that no one gets access to his birth records in Hawaii or his college transcripts from Occidental College and Harvard. (It is speculated that the transcripts will show he applied for aid to foreign students.)

Philip J. Berg, a lifelong Democrat, sued to see Obama's original birth certificate, but a court ruled that because Berg was not in some way harmed by Obama — monetarily, physically, or reputation-wise — he was not a plaintiff in good standing. This action by the court put a temporary end to the belief that we would ever know the answer to the accusations. But now the claim is flaring up again for several reasons:
• Alan Keyes, a presidential candidate of the American Independent Party, and Markham Robinson, a California elector, have now sued to see Obama's birth certificate (these men would definitely have legal "standing" to sue as plaintiffs in this case).
• The We the People Foundation took out a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune about the scandal.
• On Friday, December 5, the Supreme Court will have a "conference" on the question of Obama's citizenship. (If four out of the nine justices vote to hear the case, oral arguments may be scheduled.)

Obama supporters have derided attempts to challenge Obama's citizenship as merely sour grapes by sore losers, and they point to the website FactChect.org, as well as a statement by Hawaii's Department of Health Director who said Obama has a legitimate birth certificate, as proof of their rightness. (Various quotes by Obama's supporters also make it clear that they don't care whether or not he was born in the United States, or whether or not the Constitution is upheld.)

Those pressing the issue note that FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and that Obama was on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. They note also that Hawaiian Health Department officials did not state that Obama has an original birth certificate from Hawaii. In fact, what Obama has given to FactCheck.org to prove his citizenship is not a birth certificate, but a certificate of live birth, something that would not ordinarily be accepted as legal proof of citizenship. Also, it is suspicious that no doctors or nurses have come forward and said that they were at Obama's birth in Hawaii, but Obama's grandmother in Kenya has been taped saying that she was at his birth in Kenya.

Is Obama hiding something? Most likely yes. A person just doesn't spend something on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep one's birth records a secret unless one has something to hide. I personally have had to provide my birth certificate to several employers before they would agree to hire me. For a normal person, showing one's birth certificate is not a big deal. I've also had to give out my college records — again, not a big deal.
But that leads to important questions: should this be pursued, and will it succeed?
Yes, it should be pursued because to ignore it is to say that the Constitution is no longer the law of the land and is instead just an old piece of paper. Will it succeed? In my opinion, no. Neither the Supreme Court, nor the electors who will soon cast their votes for president, are impartial bodies. But that is not an argument for not pursuing it.

 

[Jean B]

A person just doesn't spend something on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep one's birth records a secret unless one has something to hide

Yep.

 

[fruit loop]

Oh, Dear God.....NOT again....

::sticks fork in eye::

 

[TerriHaute]

Oh, Dear God.....NOT again....

::sticks fork in eye::

I know you think this is all a bunch of hooey, but I am curious. For the sake of argument, what if one of these allegations turns out to be true? Suppose Obama really was born in Kenya and his mother was not old enough to confer citizenship to him as his birthright. Or what if he did forfeit his citizenship as a child through adoption, meaning he could not return to "natural-born" status? What do you think the proper course of action should be at that point?

 

[fruit loop]

First of all, he was born in Hawaii, so it's a moot point.

I doubt that any court would uphold the idea that someone is a citizen simply because his mother was too young to have resided within the USA for x number of years after age 18 just because she WAS only 18 when he was born (when you're under 18, where you live is usually up to your parents, and not you. Hello?). No judge would penalize someone for that. She was still born in the USA and was a legal citizen herself.

Adoption would not take away his citizenship. He would then have dual citizenship (through his mother and father) and could choose when he was 18. He chose to be American. Adoption does not automatically take away the citizenship and confer that of the adoptive parent.

 

[TerriHaute]

I understand what you are saying, FL, but you did not answer my question. Hypothetically speaking, suppose the judicial system finds that Obama is not eligible to be president for whatever reason, how do you think the situation should be handled?

FWIW here is my take on it. I initially dismissed the whole thing as wishful thinking. But I am an analyst by profession and by nature and I found it interesting, so I read all the details I could find, both for and against and drew my own conclusions. I really thought the whole argument against Obama's citizenship was pretty far out and didn't expect it to go anywhere. But here's what gives me pause: actions speak louder than words. Obama's reaction makes no sense if he has nothing to hide. Why would he spend thousands of Democratic party and taxpayer dollars stonewalling through the judicial system if he could make it all come to an abrupt stop by producing all the necessary documents? It makes no sense. The longer he lets it go on, the worse it gets. So, I think the case has some merit after all and we should all consider what would and should happen if Obama is declared ineligible.

I doubt that any court would uphold the idea that someone is not a citizen simply because his mother was too young to have resided within the USA for x number of years after age 18 just because she WAS only 18 when he was born (when you're under 18, where you live is usually up to your parents, and not you. Hello?). No judge would penalize someone for that. She was still born in the USA and was a legal citizen herself.

Maybe. She was only 3 months too young, and that is pretty close. I suspect the court might waive that unless it decided to follow the exact letter of the law.

My guess is, after considering everything, that the big problem is not with the birth certificate. I suspect it is the Indonesian citizenship questions that will turn out to be the issue.

 

[fruit loop]

My understanding of dual citizenship is that you can claim enjoy the privileges of either until you are 18, and then you must make a permanent choice. I'm basing that on knowledge of two people I've known who had dual American/something else citizenship. One was a Russian/American figure skater. She went to school in Russia but came back and claimed her permanent status here.

 

[NC Susan]

..........Adoption would not take away his citizenship. He would then have dual citizenship (through his mother and father) and could choose when he was 18. He chose to be American. Adoption does not automatically take away the citizenship and confer that of the adoptive parent.

If that is correct, then how did he run the globe after 18 on and Indonesia passport.........and how did he file entrance, tuition assistance and college loans in several colleges..........as a foreign exchange or as an American?

That also needs to be explained.

 

[Dare7]

The law was very clear in '61 -- if Obama was not born within the borders of the USA, then he isn't & can't be a natural born citizen (assuming Obama senior is his real father). It didn't matter that his mother was one - she could not convey citizenship to him, specifically due to her age.

The newspaper announcement means nothing - my firstborn was "announced" in my hometown's paper - a different state - my foreign born cousin's announcement appeared in my grandparent's local paper, here in the good ol' USA. No mention in either case as to the location of the birth. Further muddying the water, you don't have to be born in Hawaii to have a BC on file there so the existence of "a record" of Obama's birth means about as much as the newspaper announcement -- absolutely nothing, except that he was born.

For the sake of argument, suppose Obama was born in Hawaii and, somehow, mysteriously managed to hold dual citizenship despite an adoption. You are correct, those with dual citizenship have to legally declare themselves at age 18. My cousin had to and there was no question as to her status/rights since her parents were both in their late 20's, US born & raised in families that verifiably dated back to the Mayflower -- but being born on foreign soil, THAT country also granted her citizenship at birth and her declaration to the USA revoked it.

Had the worshipped one done what he was required to do (remember we're alleging he magically held a secret US citizenship, post adoption), it would have automatically eliminated his Indonesian one as their laws didn't & don't allow for dual citizenship.

That's where you hit another wall with your position, Fruit Loop. Your beloved candidate claims to have traveled to Pakistan when it was illegal for US citizens to do so which (if he didn't lie about the trip) means he needed to have a foreign passport - presumably an Indonesian one. He was already over 18 -- oops --

In addition to the birth records to prove/disprove he is natural born, he

Has failed/refused to produce any documentation supporting the premise that he ever swore his allegiance to the USA.
(if he held dual citizenship)

AND

Has failed/refused to account for how he traveled into a forbidden country as an adult who was supposedly a US citizen.
(if he didn't have a foreign citizenship)

AND

Has failed/refused to document any legal name changes through adoption or otherwise
(perhaps Barry Soetero STILL held/holds citizenship in Indonesia as an adult & B. Hussein Obama, therefore, has divided loyalties)

AND

Basically, nothing about this man's alleged history adds up, Hawaiian born or not...

 

[fruit loop]

From what I know, dual citizenship isn't illegal, either. You pick one for residency, but can have more than one passport. The State Dept warns you that you may be subject to that other country's laws, including having to pay tax or possibly be conscripted.

Obama would not have been a foreign exchange student if he was in college. I don't think he could get financial aid at all if he wasn't an American. Somebody else jump in here, since I didn't go to college. I think foreigners have to pay, or they can't get American aid for tuition.

Student records are not public records, either. I think it's a federal offense to release them without the student's permission.

 

[Josie]

Sorry, FL but INDONESIA does NOT allow dual citizenship. Barry or his mama had to renounce U.S. citizenship for him to become an Indonesian citizen and attend a school in Indonesia AND carry and Indonesian passport whilst he was globetrotting.