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June 21, 2009
The Birth Certificate Question
Most Americans know of Obama eligibility questions
Despite near media blackout on coverage, 49.3% 'troubled,' think he should release birth certificate
WASHINGTON – It may be the issue few in the media dare address, but a new scientific public opinion survey of a cross-section of Americans shows they are not only aware of questions about Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility for office, but almost half are either "troubled" by the questions or believe he should release all relevant documents including his long-form birth certificate.
Asked if they are aware of the questions raised about Obama's constitutional eligibility for office, 51.3 percent answered affirmatively, while only 18.7 percent said no. Another 30 percent said they were unsure.
"Our polling shows that the questions surrounding Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president clearly strike a nerve across America, probably because it is a problem that everybody understands," said pollster Fritz Wenzel. "Every American citizen has a birth certificate, and once in a while we all have to produce them to get a drivers license or gain entrance to school. Everyone understands the simple rules – if you don't produce it, you don't get in. And while Obama did get in to the White House, nearly half the country's adults – 49 percent – are troubled by this issue and still want him to produce his official long-form birth certificate."
Support rising for eligibility verification demand
Now 4 congressmen cosponsoring Posey's documentation plan
Support in the U.S. House for a proposal that would require presidential candidates to provide documentation of how they meet the U.S. Constitution's requirement that the person who occupies the Oval Office be a "natural born citizen" suddenly has quadrupled.
There now are four cosponsors to H.R. 1503 from freshman Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., an amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.
According to the Library of Congress bill-tracking website, H.R. 1503 would "require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of president to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution."
Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte joined as a co-sponsor, putting a notice on his website that it's one of the efforts he's supporting.
The Virginia congressman very quietly signed onto the plan that has been referred to the House committee on House administration, where it remains.
Now three additional names on are the legislation: Rep. John R. Carter, R-Texas, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas and Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas.
John Stone, a spokesman for Carter's office, said the goal is to prevent questions about the eligibility of future candidates and presidents.
"This would much in the same way you have to qualify to run for Congress, show you're a legal resident of your state and district," he told WND
Why Obama wants to hide birth certificate
Here are the possible motives for hiding it with such tenacity and diligence.
I think there are many plausible motives:
* Perhaps something in that birth certificate, if it indeed exists, would contradict assertions Obama has made about his life's story. These might even involve his true parental heritage. Without a real birth certificate, no one really knows who his parents were. So it is ridiculous even to speculate about whether citizenship could be conferred upon him by his mother, when we don't know for sure who his mother is.
* Perhaps it reveals a foreign birth, as Hawaii allowed for in 1961 while still issuing the "certification of live birth" we have seen posted on his website.
* Or perhaps it will show just what Obama has claimed all along – a birth in Hawaii to two officially non-citizen parents, for the purpose of establishing "natural born citizenship" under the Constitution.
What do I mean by that last possibility?
Well, as you know, in 2008, the Senate of the United States held hearings to determine if one of the presidential candidates fulfilled the requirement of being a "natural born citizen." It wasn't Barack Obama. It was John McCain, who was born on a U.S. military base overseas to two U.S. citizens.
On April 10 of last year, two senators, both Democrats, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, introduced a resolution into upper house expressing a sense of the Senate that McCain was indeed a "natural born citizen."
It's interesting what Leahy had to say on the subject: "Because he was born to American citizens (emphasis added), there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen. I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the U.S. Senate."
And, indeed it was. It was also, interestingly, the only such hearing held by the Congress on the subject of "natural born citizenship" and its application to the 2008 presidential race. Why was that interesting? Because everyone involved in this process knew – or should have known – that the life story told by Barack Obama would raise far more doubts about his eligibility than McCain's.
Notice Leahy did not say one parent citizen would qualify a child for "natural born citizenship." He indicated it would take two to tango.
He did so again at a Judiciary Committee hearing April 3, when he asked then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, a former federal judge, if he had any doubts about McCain's eligibility to serve as president.
"My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen," Chertoff responded – again underlining the fact that both parents would need to be citizens.
And what did Leahy say to that? "That is mine, too."
By the way, Obama voted for this resolution, so he obviously agrees with the definition of what constitutes a "natural born citizen" – the offspring of two U.S. citizens.
Now, I don't know who Barack Obama's parents are, because I have never seen his birth certificate. All I've seen is a facsimile of a "certification of live birth" on the Internet. That document, even if genuine, proves nothing about Obama's birth in Hawaii or who his parents were. Hawaii had a very slipshod practice in 1961 of issuing these documents to babies born outside the country and listing parents who may not have been the parents at all.
But I do know who Barack Obama claims his parents were. According to him, neither one of them was an American citizen able to confer natural born citizenship on a child. One, Barack Obama Sr., was a foreign national from Kenya, and the other, Stanley Ann Dunham, was too young to have qualified under the law for bestowing that privilege on her son, even if the father had been a citizen and even in the unlikely event Obama was actually born in Hawaii!
So, if we are to take Obama at his word, he is not a natural born citizen and not eligible to serve as president.
If he is to be judged by the same standard as his opponent in the race, there is no way he qualifies. That's what Leahy said. That's what Chertoff said. That's what the law says.
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The Birth Certificate Question: An Open Letter to Shephard Smith at FOX News
Col. Bob Pappas (USMC, ret.)
Dear "Shep,"
I am a regular viewer of your program, specifically the evening news, since I work. I appreciate your show and the news you deliver. As one who watches Fox because of its Fair and Balanced coverage, It is most unsettling that you would refer to those who challenge Obama's eligibility as "right wing crazies." Your definitive statement, "there is no truth whatsoever that Obama is not a natural born citizen" is problematic.
As one not given to "conspiracy theories," the larger issue surrounding Obama's eligibility strikes at the heart of the Constitutional underpinning of virtually all oaths of office at the Federal level, including Obama's. Your comments trivialize that exceptionally important issue for all Americans and for me personally and millions of past, present and future military service personnel or for that matter anyone who takes an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.
First, your assertion suggests that you have seen his original birth certificate. Okay, since you are in effect a "star witness" in a case of monumental proportions with millions Fox News viewer's being the jury, have you? If not, you might consider doing some no kidding investigative journalism and apologize to your viewers for the unfounded blather.
Second, there is considerable anecdotal evidence that Obama is not a natural born citizen. His eligibility is complicated further by his sojourn in Indonesia, or did you know that? It is my understanding that his step-father adopted him, is that true, or not? If so, the question then would be, "did that act confer Indonesian citizenship?" If so, where are the documents that "restored" his U.S. citizenship, if indeed he was natural born?
It is complicated even more by the fact that at the time of his birth his father, "The Old Man," was a British citizen, which alone would not be a show stopper, but given his paternal (Obama's father) grandmother's claim that she was present at Obama's birth in Kenya raises a legitimate question about citizenship, not to mention the "natural born issue." Is he a British citizen born of an underage American girl in Kenya? Would he then be a British citizen or an American citizen? Or, is he a dual citizen, and can a person with dual citizenship be President of the United States of America?
I would appreciate a definitive explanation of your rationale and sources, i.e., where did you get your information and an explanation so that would I can put this to rest. Because I would like to do exactly that, but it bugs the hell out of me that he is so clinched fisted about it, and so far you are an accomplice. I would expect that of MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, but it disappoints me greatly that Fox News would stoop, no grovel for Administration approval at the expense of the right of the American public to know.
On the other hand, if you do not have any definitive data and please don't brush anyone off with the "old saw" that "Hawaii issued a certificate," especially since it is well known that Hawaii issues or issued certificates for people born elsewhere, please make it your business to find out.
Given Mr. Obama's commitment to be totally transparent with the American people, please explain in detail why he has gone to such lengths to deny discovery of any of his records. Or, is that an untrue allegation? If he has nothing to hide, what's the problem? Either way, you have a responsibility to the public to find out not summarily sweep the matter aside especially with unbecoming derisive comments.
One must conclude that you have a set of journalist integrity problems:
1. Either you have your mind made up without regard to the issues, or
2. You have been told what to say by someone with power over you.
3. You don't know what you are talking about,
4. Someone is buying you off,
5. You are biased and don't care about truth much less letting the truth to be known,
5. You are too lazy to discover the facts, or
6. All of the above, and more.
Finally, we either have a Constitution or it is an anachronistic piece of paper. In addition to the "natural born" requirement, which is arguably suspect in Obama's case, it appears that there is a legitimate argument that the courts are shirking their responsibility by refusing to adjudicate the matter. So, absent the legal process, how does one clear the air? It would not matter that 100% voted for Obama, if he is not qualified, he cannot be President under the provisions of the Constitution. To repeat what I've already noted, we either have a Constitution or we do not.
Sorry, but your backhanded and insulting treatment of those who have a right, not merely a desire, but a right to know, and that includes every American citizen, diminishes both you and Fox News.
Please reconsider your comments at the least, or better, do some serious growing up with respect to those whose sacrifices have given you the right and opportunity to be who you are and dig into it. You have an historic opportunity and you are blowing it.
Semper Fidelis
FamilySecurityMatters.org
Contributing Editor Col. Bob Pappas (USMC, ret.)
writes for Gulf1.com from his home in Florida’s Panhandle.
E-mail
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Wild Thing's comment.......
Like all of you have said, this is not going to go away. We just don't know what the last straw will be, or when this thing will break wide open.
So far my favorite was when Rush was asked rhetorically what God has in common with Obama, Rush Limbaugh said, "Neither has a birth certificate."
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....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Mark
3rd Mar.Div. 1st Battalion 9th Marine Regiment
1/9 Marines aka The Walking Dead
VN 66-67
Posted by Wild Thing at June 21, 2009 07:45 AM
Comments
You mean to tell me that someone carried a Teleprompter for nine months? Well we all know he bypassed the immaculate conception stage of life and was scraped off of a buzzard's rock. Ask anybody in Harlem about the TOTUS like Sal did before the Election. This is the intellect behind Obama.
My old man always said, "son you have to be smarter than that dog to train him" That applies to all things in life. Are you listening Congress, you didn't do your job!!!
This is an important issue, it defines the nation as a sovereign entity with written constitutional guarantees, not some tin pot dictatorship headed by any UN appointee, mercenary or tyrannical despot.
Posted by: Jack at June 21, 2009 09:43 AM
There is no assurance that this story will break. It will take some kind of a catalyst to get the news media on a feeding frenzy. So far, they seem very disciplined at only reporting good stories on obama.
Posted by: TomR at June 21, 2009 12:06 PM
Re: "Now 4 congressmen cosponsoring Posey's documentation plan."
That bill, HR 1503, simply asks for the candidate to provide his birth certificate. It does not ask for the original birth certificate. Nor does it ask that the candidate prove that both parents were US citizens. It merely asks for the birth certificate and such other documentation as may be necessary. "Such other documentation as may be necessary" does not mean something in addition to the official birth certificate (or it would say). It means that if the official birth certificate is missing (as was the case in Louisiana after the floods), then other documentation may be necessary.
In any case, it does not say "original birth certificate," and it does not ask for proof of the parents being US citizens.
Posted by: smrstrauss at June 21, 2009 12:29 PM
This is one great letter. Says everything and calls a spade a spade. I don't know if 'Shep' answered this on his show but who cares, there is no way he could honestly answer the Colonel.
Smith is the one who said, it's prepostorious for anyone to suggest that the media is/was in the tank for obama.
Ole Shep was arrested in Florida, after running down a Republican worker during the Florida Recount. He's a real piece of work.
Posted by: Mark at June 21, 2009 12:33 PM
Every body has a copy of the Birth Certificate. Originals are on file.
Prez. Zero's problem is he has shown a "Certificate of Live Birth", in other words he was not born dead. Hawaii has issued them for awhile and it is not a Birth Certificate.
All Zero has to do is whip it out and problem solved but the BC and all of his records have been sealed. Aren't you, ' strauss' just a tad interested to see if this Soutpiel Puppet is an American Citizen.
Or maybe Hope and change is working out for you...I know I am thrilled with it....NOT
Posted by: Mark at June 21, 2009 10:06 PM
Thank you all so much for your input
on this.
I agree too the letter from the Marine
was awesome.
Thank you again sooo much.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 22, 2009 12:08 AM
