What Dave Weigel doesn't want you to see

On January 8, Dave Weigel - formerly of Reason Magazine and now with the Washington Independent and The Economist - wrote a post at his site (link) mocking my efforts to bring to light the Obama citizenship issue. I replied with a comment showing how he's wrong (printed below), but the comment remains in moderation: Weigel is too afraid to approve it because it points out how much of a hack he is.

It's standard journalistic practice to have a "right of reply", allowing those to be or those who have been written about to reply to articles about them. For instance, see this from the BBC. By not approving the comment, David Weigel shows once again that he isn't a real journalist but is simply an establishment hack.

Around here, we don't do things that way. If someone is written about here they can leave a comment and reply at will. If it looks like I might be wrong, I'll do more research. If I'm wrong, I'll print a correction. Dave Weigle doesn't do things that way. And, if Weigel wants to contact Hawaii - as I've repeatedly urged him to do - and get the answers to these questions, I'll happily print any reply he receives.

UPDATE: Weigle leaves a comment, showing his lack of journalistic integrity, how little he knows about this issue, and how much his position is based on faith in Obama. He asks me to explain 'why the COLB lists Obama's "city of birth" as Honolulu.' As described in this mid-October post, that COLB is not proof since it has not been verified. As that post points out, there are several problems with that as evidence, and it also appears on the same page where FactCheck has posted a blatant lie. To accept the COLB as pictured to be valid, one must believe the word of Obama and FactCheck; that's a perfectly valid position, as long as one is careful to note that their determination is based on belief and not on having obtained definitive proof such as the decision of a judge or similar. Further, as the state of Hawaii stated to me and others, they are legally forbidden from verifying the COLB on Obama's site. So, the COLB could be a fake; there's probably very little chance that Obama would be so bold as to do that, but there is that possibility and that possibility will remain out there until such time as he has the COLB verified by a recognized authority. FactCheck is neither a recognized authority, nor are they very credible.

What it boils down to is that Weigel is a hack, not a journalist. He's willing to give Obama a pass, he just isn't willing to admit that he's giving Obama a pass.

The comment I left follows.

Here's the comment, which was left on January 18 and has not appeared as of post time (I left a comment at WI asking him to approve it, so I'm quite sure he knows about it):

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In an attempt to save his credibility, Weigel should go read my summary of this issue. Then, he should read it again, and read it again. He should make sure and read through each link and make sure that he understands it. If he knows a lawyer or someone with legal training who can help him understand this issue, that would be very helpful.

The bottom line is that there's a Hawaii state law - established in 1982 - that allows those born outside Hawaii to obtain Hawaii birth certificates. Because of that law, the valid cert they have on file could in fact indicate a birth outside Hawaii, whether in another state or another country.

As I explain at the page above, that doesn't mean he wasn't born in HI. It just means that that's a possibility. And, it means that the 10/31 statement is ambiguous. And, because it's ambiguous, that means that those who take their 10/31 statement to mean that BHO was born in HI are lying.

Note also the HI law that forbids officials from disclosing cert information, which includes verifying cert info such as the picture on BHO's site.

Note also that when I asked those same Hawaiian officials to verify FactCheck's assumptions, they refused.

To those who are familiar with legal issues, and who are open-minded, and who care about the truth all of this will be very clear. I suggest Weigel finds someone like that to help him understand this issue.

Comments

Chris, I haven't approved it because I don't want your ill-informed spam cluttering up my site. Maybe I would if you explained why the COLB lists Obama's "city of birth" as Honolulu.

This is still a red herring. Obama could have been born on the moon, and he'd still be a natural-born US citzen, because his mother was a citizen when he was born. Get over it.

"I don't want your ill-informed spam cluttering up my site." Why not just debate the facts instead of silencing them? Methinks you have the journalistic integrity of GRANMA or Pravda. Good work, comrade.

Your attempts at discrediting the will of the American people by questioning the birthplace of a BORN American president (who happened to win the election by no less than MANDATE) only further sets you on the fringe and displays your desperation. The Conservative portion of our society was so much better when they actually engaged in intelligent, reasoned discourse. We were better and more balanced as a nation. As it is now, the radical factions have taken over the right. This administration is in place and taking the actions that we, the American people elected him to take. As was so succintly stated before...Get over it.

All that being said, just to be fair, Dave Weigel's refusal to engage you in (I would hope) rational debate, is pretty weak.