Andrew Sullivan lies, misleads, smears: Hawaii never "vouched for" the COLB pictured on Obama's site

Posted Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Andrew Sullivan offers "Obama still isn’t president in the south/Denying the leader’s American birth is just another form of racism" (link). There are other smears besides those in the title, but I'll leave looking at those to the reader. Instead, I'll just concentrate on how he's lying and misleading about this issue:

There are notices in two local papers and the certification of birth is filed in the state of Hawaii’s records.

The announcements didn't list where or in what hospital he was born and no one has proved that they could have only come from a birth hospital and would only indicate a birth in Hawaii. No one knows who placed those announcements; it could even have been the grandparents in case of a custody battle or simply to prove U.S. citizenship. That doesn't mean they planted the announcements, it just means that's a possibility.

Once I’d seen the short-form certificate online, verified by independent journalists and vouched for by state authorities, I was, too.

State authorities have never "vouched for" the picture shown on Obama's site or on FactCheck, as a Hawaii state spokeswoman points out at the link.

The only people outside the Obama camp who we know have seen the cert are from FactCheck, and those from their group who saw it were their (per them) "representatives" and "staffers", not "independent journalists" as Sullivan states. Further, FactCheck is not a credible organization; in fact, their main page about this issue outrageously lied to their visitors for over eight months.

Some, like me, didn’t understand the Hawaiian intricacies at first: we thought there was a single long-form certificate that could resolve the question. But, as FactCheck notes: “The Hawaii Department of Health’s birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department.” So Obama did all he could to make this go away.

Obama hasn't done all he could "to make this go away". If you look at the legal requests that were made of him, they included things like his school records and the like (see a list from one case here). He could have released a non-onerous subset of those type of records and, since Hawaii still has his original paperwork on file, he could have them release that if he wanted to. It's ludicrous that those who aren't cult members would take a picture on a web page as proof of citizenship.

I left a variant of the above as a comment on the article, and if the Times UK doesn't print a correction please send them emails asking them to do so.

UPDATE: A full day after I posted a comment on the article, the Times still hasn't approved it. Please send this link to online.editor *at* timesonline.co.uk

Tags: 
obama citizenship
andrew sullivan
times uk

Comments

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Sun, 08/09/2009 - 21:51

the little butt's in power now will use Racism to exterminate Americans who stand against the new world swastika cover boy our beloved bitch Obama the new world order president of stink and hate for freedom loving people, did i forget the word monkey?

llamajockey (not verified)

Sun, 08/09/2009 - 23:19

I subscribed to The New Republic during Silly Sully's reign as Editor in Chief. He then Michael Kelly ran TNR into the ground. Sully is an Obot because during the 90's he and Kelly were the most delusional Clinton haters imaginable. Volumes could be written and endless journalism seminars could be held on the hack practices of Sully and Kelly at TNR. By the way the film Shattered Glass does not begin to cover the idiocy at TNR.

eh (not verified)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 05:57

Testosterone dosage problem maybe. Brain functionality affected.

Mike James (not verified)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 14:03

I read this on Texas Darlin. If it is true, it is a great idea: We all know the State of Hawaii will not release a certified copy of Obama’s Birth Certificate to anyone who does not have a “tangible interest in the record”. But have you tried to get a Letter of Verification instead? Letters of Verification Letters of verification may be issued in lieu of certified copies (HRS §338-14.3). This document verifies the existence of a birth/death/marriage/divorce certificate on file with the Department of Health and any other information that the applicant provides to be verified relating to the vital event. (For example, that a certain named individual was born on a certain date at a certain place.) The verification process will not, however, disclose information about the vital event contained within the certificate that is unknown to and not provided by the applicant in the request. Letters of verification are requested in similar fashion and using the same request forms as for certified copies. The fee for a letter of verification is $5 per letter. Supply the information that Obama made public on the COLB, as well as the supposed birth location of Kapi’olani Medical Center. If the State can’t verify that information, then the fraud is revealed…

1 (not verified)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 19:09

Explain to me again how George Bush's CIA, FBI and Homeland Security failed to notice this stuff during the entire campaign?

petty bourgeois (not verified)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 19:33

It is not the issue whether other agencies "failed to notice this stuff..." The fact remains, the messiah has not produced this, or any other documents, about his past. So much for the promised "transparency" of this administration.

Mary (not verified)

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 01:10

The GLOBE tabloid has a front page story calliing his Birth form a fake........Come to think of it The THUG is also a fake himself!

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 02:50

Mary is right. this issue is a political question and it will go no place obama is our enemy and he will do what his master tell's him what to do.and when to do it and we all know who his master is.

mary (not verified)

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 03:59

The Head Monkey????

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 21:19

Mary the head Soros monkey that loves little greek boys all under 12 years old.

Mary (not verified)

Tue, 08/11/2009 - 23:16

Yeah, he is a PUKE!

Smithers (not verified)

Fri, 08/14/2009 - 16:01

You guys are so retarded......

Mary (not verified)

Sun, 08/16/2009 - 01:00

Not politically correct language 'Smithers'...go back to the servants quarters

sgillesp (not verified)

Sun, 12/06/2009 - 02:40

I truly can't understand you all. There is no reason in the world to believe that Obama was not born where he said he was born. I can't understand why you think he should produce documents that you demand, just because you demand them. I can't understand what in the world would make you spend your time this way. It's seriously delusional. Go out and get some fresh air or something.