Sara Olkon, James Janega/Chicago Tribune lie about Obama birth certificate being authenticated

Sara Olkon and James Janega of the Chicago Tribune offer "Tax activist's ad challenges Obama's eligibility for office" (link), a supposed fact-checking article that contains a few variations on the same lie.

They falsely claim that Hawaii officials have authenticated the supposed Barack Obama birth certificate as shown on his site and at FactCheck. In fact, all those officials have done is verified that there is a certificate on file. It would be illegal for those officials to have released any details on whatever certificate is on file, and verifying information would likewise be illegal. See this summary of the issue, especially this extensive discussion of the "proof" so far provided.

Their "fact check" is in regards to an ad that the We The People Foundation took out in their paper, and they say:

Cases challenging Obama's citizenship have been tossed out of courts in several states, and Hawaiian officials have vouched for the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate, which is locked in a state vault... ...Initially, Hawaiian officials said that privacy laws prevented them from releasing a copy or confirming that Obama's copy was authentic. But in late October as questions persisted, Hawaii's health director and head of vital statistics reviewed Obama's birth certificate in the department's vault and vouched for its authenticity.

As stated above, they are only legally able to say that it exists. They aren't allowed to give any details on what it says or whether it matches the JPEG provided at FactCheck.

And:

Last summer, Obama's campaign presented a digital copy of his certificate of live birth. After critics questioned its authenticity, staff at FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said they had seen, held and examined the actual birth certificate.

That requires one to not only trust that FactCheck - a site that has occasionally gotten things wrong or shown bias - is telling the truth, but also that they're qualified to judge whether a document is valid. No one interested in the truth should make such a leap.

Sara Olkon and James Janega are simply incurious hacks.

UPDATE: James Janega doubles down, offering "Suit contesting Barack Obama's citizenship heads to U.S. Supreme Court Friday" (link), an article containing a Big Lie:

The Obama campaign has maintained that he was born in Hawaii, has an authentic birth certificate, and is a "natural-born" U.S. citizen. Hawaiian officials agree.

The state of Hawaii has said no such thing; they only said he had a cert on file. James Janega is a pathological liar.

Comments

Typically when a document bears the state seal, it is presumed to be authentic--but not always. What I see happening is that this document will eventually be produced and its authenticity will be disputed, if the legal system works the way it is supposed to--a very big "if" given the nature of our country being ruled by men who are above the law. What other reason is there that this document has not been produced? There is obvious collusion between government officials to obfuscate the truth surrounding BHO's citizenship status, or we would see this document and it would be made part of the court record. I believe the constitution is DEAD. Accordingly, per Jefferson, the tree of liberty will need to be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Look people this will come to nothing Obama has the political and race cards, and yes obama is a foreign born rat, but when your country is being ran by rats he is just one more rat in the pack and his gang now rules you and this so called country. Don't get mad you will do nothing but stay in line, so just look away and be happy my little bitchs for obama. for people who don't want to stay in line get out and buy guns and make plan's "for the day is coming", when this so called nation will become a third world police state. "By the way", cry for the fools who died for you in all the shit wars we have had in the last 250 years, it now was pointless for people to die in all the fools wars, buy guns and make the death of our war dead mean something once more. Obama our enemy of freedom here and now and ask who made this pig and did your vote really mean anything? Freedom means duty.

sad to say Petty bourgeois is right, here we come walking into hell and we have it coming.