I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Obama released the long form birth certificate this morning, which has a lot of people, including me, wondering about the timing. I personally don’t believe this was intended to resolve the issue. I think Obama actually wants the “distraction,” and he’s feeding fuel to the fire. But I’m cynical.
The President directed his counsel to review the legal authority for seeking access to the long-form certificate and to request that the Hawaii State Department of Health make an exception to release a copy of his long form birth certificate, Pfeiffer explained.
“They granted that exception in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting,” he wrote.
During the 2008 campaign, the Obama camp released a copy of his birth certificate — the same document that the state of Hawaii would have released to any person born there. But the conspiracy theories continued.
Donald isn’t satisfied. He wants Obama’s school records.
Newt wants to know why it took so long.
The last pre-release poll showed that one-half of Republicans believed that Obama was not born in the US. Unfortunately this poll doesn’t include the numbers who believe he was born in Hawaii, but don’t believe that Hawaii is part of the US.
Fox News headline: “White House releases what it says is the President’s birth certificate.” (italics added)
Oh, and if you want to see the forgery itself in pdf, here it is.
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April 27, 2011 at 8:26 am
?
feeding fuel to the fire? a black man has to prove that he is indeed an American citizen? and this is what i have been hearing alot of..i dont agree with everything the pres does..i am passed fed up though with this birthermuslimtheother bullcrap..call it what you want..this issue is stupid..period
April 27, 2011 at 8:26 am
Plain Jane
This has always been and will remain a propaganda ploy manufactured by the right wing think tanks and disseminated through their echo chamber to give their racist base a cover for claiming Obama is not the legitimate president. This was necessary because these people ordinarily call anyone a traitor who doesn’t stand behind their president 100%. They won’t let this go because it would mean acknowledging their racism and hypocrisy. That will happen when pigs fly.
April 27, 2011 at 8:31 am
tra
And Birther Queen Orly Taitz says the Long Form released today is suspicious because it lists Obama’s father as “African” rather than “Negro.”
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/orly_taitz_obamas_long-form_birth_certificate_should_say_negro_not_african.php?ref=fpblg
Plus, she’s an adherent to the Deep Birtherism theory, wherein one is not a “natural born citizen” unless both parents were American citizens. (So what if no court in the land, or even any serious legal scholar, agrees with that novel interpretation.)
It will be interesting to see how rank-and-file Birthers react to the release of the Long Form. I assume most will cling desperately to their belief that Obama is not eligible for the Presidency, but how will they continue to justify that belief?
How many will go the route of just declaring the Long Form to be a forgery? How many will move on to demanding his school records, claiming that those records will show that he renounced his citizenship at some point? And how many will go Deep Birther and embrace the idea that both your parents have to be citizens in order for you to be a “natural-born citizen?”
Should be interesting to watch them twist and writhe over the next few days.
April 27, 2011 at 8:39 am
?
THE BIRTHERS CAN GOOGLE THIS:Citizenship by Being Born to U.S. Citizens
In a number of situations, if you were born to parents, at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, you automatically gained U.S. citizenship through the process of acquisition. It does not matter whether you were born on American soil or foreign. As well, if you have children, those children will also acquire U.S. citizenship through you at their birth.
The laws regarding citizenship obtained through acquisition are some of the most complex of all of U.S. citizenship laws and take into account things like the citizenship of parents, as well as if the child was born in or outside of wedlock. This complexity has not lessened at all because Congress has made major changes to these laws throughout history. In order to determine which laws will apply to you or your child, you must first see which date range applies:
* Born prior to May 24, 1934
* Born between May 25, 1934 and January 12, 1941
* Born between January 13, 1941 and December 23, 1952
* Born between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, and
* Born after November 14, 1986.
Here are some links that may be helpful in figuring out which laws will apply to you or your child. First, here is a chart that will apply to children born abroad to parent in wedlock. Second, here is a chart that will apply to children born abroad to parents out of wedlock.
April 27, 2011 at 8:47 am
Plain Jane
No need to wait, Tra. Just go to the Washington Post and read the comments on the article. They are declaring it a forgery, claiming it is invalid because of clerical errors, demanding sworn testimony of nurses and doctors present at his birth, claiming he renounced his citizenship as a child, claiming it isn’t valid because Frank Davis was his real father, and demanding to see his school records. The few who do accept this as real are crowing because Trump “forced him to submit. ” The people who are manipulating these cretins are a malignant scourge intent on creating a completely fascist state. They aren’t going to do anything but continue on this path. This isn’t even a slight detour.
April 27, 2011 at 8:50 am
?
YES,hate knows no bounds…i
April 27, 2011 at 8:57 am
Eric Kirk
While getting my coffee this morning I spoke with someone who thinks that Obama is deliberately increasing Trump’s stock to cause trouble for Republicans in the primary. I think that’s a little elaborate. My guess is that some internal polling showed some doubt with some of the more moronic independent voters and googled up the number of stories on the issue and figured that this move would make him look reasonable to some of the less ideological mush heads while taking the long term coverage out of the mainstream media. It also forces some of the Republicans off the fence. Of course Orly Taitz and Trump are going to keep hammering on the issue, and that probably suits Obama just fine.
Where I get concerned is whether some other story is breaking and Obama is “bunching.” Bunching was a technique described by Spalding Gray back in his film Swimming to Cambodia where you keep the flies away from you by crapping in a far corner of your hotel room. This will obviously occupy the news cycle for the rest of the week.
April 27, 2011 at 9:01 am
?
the pres can crap in a far corner or across the ocean..the hate mongers dont care,,whatever he does good or bad..he cant change his skin color..
April 27, 2011 at 9:21 am
Eric Kirk
No, but he can distract from bad economic earnings reports, though it appears that they’re mixed. But everybody’s waiting for the Microsoft report.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2014888438_what_to_look_for_in_microsofts_thursday_earnings_r.html
April 27, 2011 at 9:23 am
tra
Several more amusingly desperate theories/rumors now being advanced by the Deep Birthers:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/tea-party-nation-hold-your-horses—-weve-got-some-other-questions-about-obamas-eligibility.php?ref=fpi
April 27, 2011 at 9:33 am
Eric Kirk
Man, people are stupid!
April 27, 2011 at 9:35 am
tra
One need not be stupid to be delusional…but it helps.
April 27, 2011 at 9:37 am
Eric Kirk
Here’s another possibility. There’s been a major shake-up in the administration. Gates is out and everyone else is playing musical chairs.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/27/970583/-Panetta-to-replace-Gates-at-Defense,-Petraeus-to-replace-Panetta,-Allen-to-replace-Petraeus-
April 27, 2011 at 9:43 am
Eric Kirk
Maybe it was to kill the Atlas Shrugged movie sequel. It may have worked.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/27/970496/-Atlas-Shrugged-goes-down-in-flames;-producer-blames-mediaof-course!
April 27, 2011 at 9:48 am
tra
Hard to see how the Gates departure would really necessitate “bunching.” Maybe there will be something else that will fit that theory more closely. Or maybe not.
April 27, 2011 at 9:54 am
Eric Kirk
Well, these moves are very carefully calculated, and Obama is about at par with Clinton in calculated moves. The timing has a purpose. But if it was to stir up Republican crazies to cause problems for the leadership (who are very silent this morning), why not further along in the election cycle? Why not close to a Republican debate when each candidate would have to answer the question as to the validity of the birth certificate?
I would still venture to guess that there was something in the internal polling that suggests that some independents were listening to Trump.
April 27, 2011 at 9:56 am
tra
Meanwhile, Trump says the president should “get off his basketball court” so he can do something about gas prices.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/27/trump-obama-basketball-court/
What’s next? Obama should spit out those watermelon seeds and put down the fried chicken so he can do something about unemployment?
April 27, 2011 at 9:58 am
Anonymous
Damn that “seemingly brilliant black man!”
April 27, 2011 at 10:02 am
tra
I would still venture to guess that there was something in the internal polling that suggests that some independents were listening to Trump.
Yes, I think that’s the most likely scenario. The President’s advisors saw a little bit of movement in that direction among low-information “swing voters,” and wanted to nip it in the bud before those folks became committed Birthers.
April 27, 2011 at 10:21 am
Eric Kirk
Dead silence from elected Republicans.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/birther-roundup-reactions-to-president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate.php?ref=fpb
April 27, 2011 at 10:33 am
tra
They’re probably consulting their pollsters and strategists to try to figure out how to continue dogwhistling to the birther base, without losing even more credibility with potential swing voters.
It’s a classic “sow the wind, reap the whirlwind” situation — and all that spinning is making them a bit dizzy.
April 27, 2011 at 10:40 am
brian
Trump/Palin 2012…….. What fun that would be…..maybe President Obama is on to something.
April 27, 2011 at 11:20 am
Mitch
brian,
That’s more-or-less what I thought when I found out the Republican candidate would be a draft dodging layabout who’d never had a success in his life and was incapable of uttering a coherent sentence. Then he ended up in the oval office.
April 27, 2011 at 11:42 am
tra
One commenter at TPM has coined the term “afterbirthers” to refer to those who cling to their birtherism even after today’s release of Obama’s Long Form Birth Certificate.
April 27, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Mitch
Thanks, tra, for my laugh of the day.
April 27, 2011 at 12:28 pm
brian
“afterbirthers”……lol
April 27, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Bolithio
Obama should spit out those watermelon seeds and put down the fried chicken so he can do something about unemployment?
LOL
April 27, 2011 at 3:04 pm
tra
Yeah, “afterbirthers” made me literally LOL, too.
I hope it catches on. It’s definitely funnier and more catchy than the other alternative I’ve seen today: “long-form birtherism.”
April 27, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Eric Kirk
TPM’s “quote of the day”
“It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions as it answers.” — Joseph Farah, founder/editor of World Net Daily and key figure in the birther movement on today’s release of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate.
April 27, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Mitch
I am convinced the radical right is engaged in a continuing experiment to discover the threshold beyond which a well-funded, well-publicized lie will no longer be accepted by the people they manipulate.
I’d thought Swift Boat was over the limit until it was used. That still strikes me as exceptionally bold given W’s history. But now, it appears, there is no limit detectable by modern science.
Shovel the manure and your troops will keep sloppin it on down, as long as you have enough money to buy the advertising and the shameless pols. America as a whole now has a virtual supermajority requirement for electing people to office in many of its states — it’s not enough to get a majority any more, you have to get enough beyond a majority that you can make up for those who will believe anything Rove et. al. slops.
April 27, 2011 at 4:27 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, my first experience with it was Willie Horton, but Nixon did a number on Helen Thomas back in the 1950s. I’m sure it began before then. But the stupidity and banality behind it does seem to be on the rise.
April 27, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Anonymous
Anybody notice the similarities between the birthers and HumCPR?
April 27, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Eric Kirk
I just watched Chris O’Donnell interview Orly Taitz. The woman is insane, I mean you can see it in her eyes as she laughs. I mean seriously.
I don’t blame her really. I blame the media as an enabler. At least O’Donnell apologized afterward. He’d had no idea just how loony she is, and her laugh as he was cutting her off – it was really scary!
I’ll post the video if it becomes available, but if you have cable don’t miss the replay of his show.
April 27, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Eric Kirk
Here it is.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/lawrence-odonnell-lambastes-orly-taitz-ends-interview/
April 27, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Mitch
Sheesh. Larry (not Chris) O’Donnell was once respectable. What happens to these people once they get on cable? He seemed like he’d been taking notes from the Fox wackos, proving that you don’t have to be hard right to act like a shithead on TV.
April 27, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Anonymous
I think he was perfectly justified. He asked a simple question.
April 27, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Plain Jane
I think she’s milking it for the donations people send her. The woman is a dentist and an attorney, but I can’t imagine being so desperate as to to seek either of her professional services. The crazy gal’s just trying to make a living.
April 27, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Plain Jane
From her campaign web site when she ran for CA Sec of State in 2010
“I will use my office as Secretary of State to encourage and promote civics instruction and outreach to the communities. An educated population can be a free population – otherwise they will soon become slaves to whomever looks good and lies the best and promises them a quarter more in their pocketbook as many politicians are wont to do.”
This from the woman who thinks our constitution requires both parents to be citizens for a child to be natural born.
April 27, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Plain Jane
I just watched an O’Reilly / Coulter discussion of the birth certificate. Seems it was all created by liberals, starting with Hilary Clinton, hyped by the liberal media, liberals pretending to be birthers, and the conservative establishment said all along that it was a bogus issue. Who knew?
April 27, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Mitch
6:41,
He was justified in insisting she answer his question or not get air time on his show. It would have been very straightforward. He asks the question, when she doesn’t answer, he cuts her mike and asks it again. Rinse and repeat, three times. At which point he goes to commercial and brings on Barney Frank. He could have worked this out with her before going on air.
My objection is not to his insisting she answer his question. My objection is to the shouting theatrics that are now standard. I wouldn’t be surprised if he worked those out with her.
April 27, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Plain Jane
It’s really hilarious:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/ann-coulter-to-hannity-msnbc-liberals-are-to-blame-for-birther-media-madness/
April 27, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Mitch
It’s really sad. Cable these days makes gladiator shows look civilized. Why is this woman being given air time at all? I can’t imagine anyone finding it hilarious, PJ.
As the President said, if the media devotes its time to carnival barkers and sideshows, there’ll be no time for serious discussion of the very real problems the country is facing.
April 27, 2011 at 7:23 pm
Mitch
Oh, sorry PJ. I didn’t realize it was a different link. NO WAY am I going to waste three minutes looking at Ann Coulter.
April 27, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Plain Jane
Their spin is amazing, Mitch. I’ve watched very little of either of them so wasn’t prepared for their crazy gyrations and blaming it on liberals. It was like a SNL Skit and I was LMAO. If only Bill had said, “Ann, you ignorant slut!” instead of his tongue in cheek agreements. Within a couple of days only the mentally ill will be birthers and all the rest will be claiming they never believed the silliness. The really awful thing is I don’t think most of them ever did believe it. The elite used it as a nasty political tactic and the racists as cover.
April 27, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Eric Kirk
He did lose it a bit. I mean, she really can piss you off, but he should have known what he was dealing with. Even Fox stopped putting her on the air a long time ago.
But she represents a brand of politics which is only too common right now, where people don’t actually say what they think because they don’t want to get caught in contradictions or lose any part of a potential constituency. I’ve seen this with the truther cause and in some local groups. They aren’t asserting anything, but “just asking questions.” When she says that Obama should be in prison, she ought to answer the question – yes or no. But she isn’t prepared to.
Sane people know these are lies, whether couched in overt assertions or “just asking questions.” But the effectiveness of this brand of politics is very apparent and raises doubts even among the sane. For instance, quite a few of you are hitting the link to the pdf of the birth certificate. It’s just a boring old birth certificate. What did you expect to see? You expected that maybe you would find something interesting.
April 27, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Plain Jane
There are apparently still people who claim it isn’t his REAL birth certificate They want to see the REAL (souvenir) birth certificate from the hospital!!! Are there really people who exist today who have never had to obtain a certified birth certificate because the one in their baby book doesn’t qualify?
April 27, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Sinclair Lewis
Eric Kirk said;
Well, my first experience with it was Willie Horton, but Nixon did a number on Helen Thomas back in the 1950s. I’m sure it began before then. But the stupidity and banality behind it does seem to be on the rise.”
It may be generational, but my thoughts today went to Jackie Robinson. Until now, I guess I just hadn’t let this crazy hatred register in that way.
It was the umpires who made the difference for Robinson. I look at our supreme court (who again today kept their record intact at 100% in favor of corporations and the wealthy, as opposed to regular people) and just hope our president doesn’t get into a situation where THOSE umpires get involved.
Mood; kinda sad, actually.
April 28, 2011 at 8:14 am
Plain Jane
Is everyone listening to John Matthews interview with Taitz?
April 28, 2011 at 8:19 am
Plain Jane
Poor John! OMFG!
April 28, 2011 at 8:34 am
Eric Kirk
Here’s a survey of afterbirther responses to the release of the birth certificate.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/after-birthers_how_conspiracy_theorists_reacted_to_obamas_birth_certificate.php?ref=fpa
And this article breaks the afterbirthers into zoological categories.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/04/joshs_new_taxonomy_of_birtherism.php#more?ref=fpblg
April 28, 2011 at 8:51 am
tra
Turns out the term “afterbirthers” had already been used as far back as 2009 — by the Onion, of course:
Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama’s Placenta
WASHINGTON–In the continuing controversy surrounding the president’s U.S. citizenship, a new fringe group informally known as “Afterbirthers” demanded Monday the authentication of Barack Obama’s placenta from his time inside his mother’s womb. “All we are asking is that the president produce a sample of his fetal membranes and vessels—preferably along with a photo of the crowning and delivery—and this will all be over,” said former presidential candidate and Afterbirthers spokesman Alan Keyes, later adding that his organization would be willing to settle for a half-liter of maternal cord plasma. “To this day, the American people have not seen a cervical mucus plug, let alone one that has been signed and notarized by a state-certified Hawaiian health official. If the president was indeed born in the manner in which he claims, then where is his gestation sac?” Keyes said that if Obama did not soon produce at least a bloody bedsheet from his conception, Afterbirthers would push forward with efforts to exhume the president’s deceased mother and inspect the corpse’s pelvic bone and birth canal
http://www.theonion.com/articles/afterbirthers-demand-to-see-obamas-placenta,6866/
April 28, 2011 at 9:00 am
Eric Kirk
Stephen Colbert demands that Obama release his grade school report cards.
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/colbert-why-wont-obama-release-his-grade-school-report-cards.php?ref=fpb
April 28, 2011 at 9:03 am
Plain Jane
That would be funny if the birthers weren’t demanding them, Eric.
I really enjoyed Stewart’s show on this. Let’s hope this is peak bullshit and we can focus on our real problems which conservatives are so desperate to avoid.
April 28, 2011 at 9:14 am
tra
Birthers and Afterbirthers certainly have created a “target-rich environment” for parody and satire. You can find a few more here:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/the-best-birther-parodies.php?ref=fpi
April 28, 2011 at 9:22 am
tra
The Onion, April 27th 2011, News in Photos
Trump Unable To Produce Certificate Proving He’s Not A Festering Pile Of Shit.
April 28, 2011 at 10:01 am
Anonymous
I love the Big Bird one.
April 28, 2011 at 10:37 am
tra
Here’s a fun fact: Jerome Corsi (author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry) has a book coming out in May titled “Where’s The Birth Certificate?” Obama just stuck a well-timed pin in that balloon.
If Corsi’s book is due out in May, it’s probably already been printed. And with this new development, I expect most of the copies will go straight to the $5 bargain bins, and even there most of the copies still won’t sell and will end up getting pulped.
As Nelson from the Simpson’s would say: “HA-ha!”
April 28, 2011 at 10:39 am
Erasmus
Helen Gahagan Douglas was Nixon’s victim in those McCarthyite days. Helen Thomas has recently become infamous herself.
April 28, 2011 at 10:43 am
Plain Jane
They’ll be giving them away for donations all over the rightwing blogosphere, Tra.
April 28, 2011 at 10:48 am
anon
ha! they’re all a bunch of wackos!
birthers and truthers on the right…
glutan-fear and astrology on the left!
yeah!
and people around here apparently believe in ghosts, great–we’re doomed!
April 28, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Anonymous
Do they have certificates of dead birth?
April 29, 2011 at 8:56 am
Eric Kirk
The latest afterbirther theory – photoshop forgery.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/with-drudge-reports-help-birthers-latch-onto-phony-forgery-theory.php?ref=fpa
April 29, 2011 at 9:27 am
Plain Jane
Just adds weight to the theory that no amount of evidence can dissuade people from believing what they “know” to be true. Obama can’t be qualified to be president because he’s black and only election fraud, birth certificate fraud, and media complicity allowed it to happen. Knock down 2 bogus claims and 4 more pop up. Trying to satisfy these cretins is futile but ignoring them is dangerous. The right wing leaders who won’t declare emphatically that it’s a bogus issue are more to blame than the nuts who disseminate it. I long for the days when everyone watched the same nonpartisan news program so we were at least all working from the same set of “facts,” incomplete as they were.
April 29, 2011 at 10:06 am
"a"nonymous
because it lists Obama’s father as “African” rather than “Negro.”
The term”negro” applies to African-Americans, people born in America of African descent. An “African” is somebody that is born in Africa. Obama’s father is from Kenya, and African country. Get the difference?
April 29, 2011 at 10:33 am
Eric Kirk
Exactly. And what they want is for people to engage them by researching and finding domestic black fathers described as “negro” and African born fathers as “African,” and before you even finish your sentence, they’re on to another point, “but what about….?”
This is also true of truthers, as I learned on a radio show a few years back. I had a guest debunking the various myths about 911, and each time he did, they didn’t argue the point, but nor did they say, “okay, I guess that resolves that issue.” Instead they jumped to another point of craziness. And half way through your responsive sentence, they jump to another. Then another.
And then later after they’ve grabbed the talking points off of some “spare change” site or Crossing the Rubicon, they repeat their first statements and don’t even remember how it was debunked. They certainly don’t learn anything about physics.
Likewise, some guy in Ohio looks at Obama’s birth certificate and says, “mine doesn’t look like that.” So because Obama’s Hawaii based certificate doesn’t match his Ohio based, Obama’s must be a forgery.
I’m really wondering if the Internet is going to be the cause of the demise of the species.