Change They Can Litigate

POSTED BY: rue
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 21:50
VIEWED: 3075
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RUE

Sunday, January 4, 2009 4:47 AM

http://www.slate.com/id/2206033/

The fringe movement to keep Barack Obama from becoming president.
By David Weigel
Posted Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, at 4:25 PM ET

If you want to stop Barack Obama from becoming president, there's still time. But you have to act right now. Go to RallyCongress.com, and you can be the 126,000th-odd American to demand "proof of citizenship" from the president-elect. Follow the instructions at WeMustBeHeard.com, and you can join a sit-in outside the Supreme Court of the United States, starting at 8 a.m. Friday, as the justices decide whether to consider a suit filed by a professional poker player that challenges the presidential eligibility of Obama, John McCain, and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero.

Can't make it to Washington, D.C.? Too bad—you missed your chance to FedEx a letter to the justices for only $10, sponsored by the venerable right-wing site (and Chuck Norris column outlet) WorldNetDaily. "There is grave, widespread and rapidly growing concern throughout the American public," writes WND Editor Joseph Farah, "that this constitutional requirement is being overlooked and enforcement neglected by state and federal election authorities."

Widespread? Rapidly growing? Who are these people? They're engaging in a new American political tradition: the quadrennial early-winter attempt to overturn presidential results by any means necessary.

Anonymous digital image experts with handles like Techdude and Polarik sprung from the woodwork to prove (shades of Rathergate!) that pixels, spacing, and indentation on the form indicated that the Obama campaign had created the certificate with Adobe Photoshop. The state of Hawaii's official statement that the certificate was legitimate didn't make a dent — after all, who is Registrar of Vital Statistics Alvin Onaka to argue with Techdude?

... This "forgery" became an article of faith in the Obama conspiracy community. When a Hillary Clinton supporter found a birth announcement for Obama from the Aug. 13, 1961, edition of the Honolulu Advertiser, the theorists were unbowed: After all, the Obama family could have phoned that in from Kenya. When Pennsylvania lawyer Philip J. Berg filed the first birth-related injunction against Obama this August, asking that Obama be ruled "ineligible to run for United States Office of the President," he alleged that the certificate had been proved a forgery by the "extensive Forensic testing" of anonymous experts and claimed that Obama's campaign had simply inserted his name over that of his half-sister, Maya. That would have been quite a trick, as Maya Soetoro-Ng was actually born in Indonesia.

... None of that stopped Berg from stoking the conspiracy theorists. On Oct. 16, an Anabaptist minister named Ron McRae called Sarah Hussein Obama, the president-elect's 86-year-old paternal step-grandmother, at her home in Kenya. Two translators were on the line when McRae asked if the elder Obama was "present" when the president-elect was born. One of the translators says "yes." McRae contacted Berg and gave him a partial transcript of the call with a signed affidavit. He (McRae) opted not to include the rest of the call (with Obama's paternal step-grandmother), in which he asks the question more directly—"Was he born in Mombassa?"—and the translators, finally understanding him, tell him repeatedly that the president-elect was born in Hawaii.

The Hawaiian documentation, the 1961 newspaper announcement, the phony evidence from Sarah Obama—all of that aside, the idea that Obama wasn't born in Honolulu goes against everything we know about his rather well-documented life. Barack Obama Sr. came to America as part of a 1959 program for Kenyan students—he did not return home until 1965, years after he left his wife and son. Ann Dunham was three months pregnant when she married Obama Sr. and 18 years old when she gave birth. There is no record of Dunham ever traveling to Kenya, much less the year after the Mau Mau rebellion ended, when she was pregnant and when s

GEEZER

Sunday, January 4, 2009 6:25 PM

If the Democrats can still have the "Bush Didn't Win The Election In 2000 Or 2004(Or Both)" crowd, why can't the Republicans have the "Obama Can't Legally Be President" crowd? Seems only fair.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

WHOZIT

Sunday, January 4, 2009 6:42 PM

All they have to do is show the "REAL" certificate, the argument that it's locked away and can't be gotten too (Must be next to the Ark of the Covenent) is crap.

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

RUE

Monday, January 5, 2009 7:59 PM

All they have to so is show the 'real' certificate --- why again ? Explain why, if you can.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

STORYMARK

Monday, January 5, 2009 8:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
If the Democrats can still have the "Bush Didn't Win The Election In 2000 Or 2004(Or Both)" crowd, why can't the Republicans have the "Obama Can't Legally Be President" crowd? Seems only fair.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

Which, by the same token, means we can ridicule that deluded segment just as much.

I mean, look, you've got zit boy on your side. That should say a whole lot right there.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

RUE

Monday, January 5, 2009 9:16 PM

Zit - I'm still waiting for an answer.

"'All they have to so is show the 'real' certificate '--- why again ? Explain why, if you can."

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

STORYMARK

Monday, January 5, 2009 10:53 PM

Zit has trouble with coherent sentences. Expecting a direct answer is asking a lot.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

WHOZIT

Monday, January 5, 2009 10:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Zit - I'm still waiting for an answer.

"'All they have to so is show the 'real' certificate '--- why again ? Explain why, if you can."

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

Do'nt you want to make them look like fools? Of corse you do!!! You and your whores in the press should be trying to get that certificate now!!

I'm going to microwave a bagel and have sex with it - Peter Griffin

DC4BS

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 3:49 AM

At this point, I want the S-Court to order him to "provide proof of citizenship" just cause I'm ornery...

I mean, it really does make one wonder when the man spends many thousands of dollars on lots of lawyers fighting tooth and nail pulling every delaying tactic they can out of their buts rather than spend $10-$15 to get Hawaii to give him a certified copy of it.

I mean, "I" could easily get a certified copy of my birth certificate (NOTE: I did NOT say "Certificate of Live Birth" which is something quite different).

If he was, in fact, born in Hawaii, this whole matter could have been resolved VERY simply and cheaply in a matter of days without spending a penny on any lawyers at all.

What excuse does he have for NOT providing something that should be no more effort than spending 5 minutes to write a letter and then take the resulting documents and forward it/them to the court?

WHY spend all those thousands and go through all the legal contortions to have each case eventually thrown out for such ridiculous reasons as "the claimant has no legal standing in this matter". If a concerned American Citizen (who CAN, by the way show his birth certificate) has no legal standing, can you tell me just who DOES have legal standing to ask this question?

It just plain and simple does NOT pass the smell test. Just what does he have to hide?

My (probably unwelcome) 2 cents...

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All I can figure is that if we WAS born in Hawaii, there's something on the REAL certificate that would be vastly embarrassing, like maybe the listed birth fathers name was not OBamma or something... But at this point, even if that were the case, who really cares?

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dc4bs

RUE

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 3:59 AM

"What excuse does he have for NOT providing something ..."

The fact that's it's not required of anyone to do so beyond the preliminary stages of proving your qualifications.

Unless, of course, you think it's fair and reasonable to set new and arbitrary requirements that MUST be met, simply to appease the whim of partisan nutcases. If you want to set that precedent, then go join Zit and the rest. And consider your position by the company you're in.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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