Ed Morrissey must think that Hawaiian state law is a "Birther theory"

Posted Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 3:17 pm

Low-level conservative commentator Ed Morrissey of HotAir recently got a special treat: a shout-out from Media Matters for America in their article 'Unlike Dobbs, some conservative media think birthers are "nutburgers"' (by Julie Millican, mediamatters.org/research/200907220051). Rather than criticizing him, they were giving him a cookie for helping "[to] debunk[] the birth certificate rumors" about Barack Obama, linking to Morrissey's "The sadly obligatory SCOTUS birth-certificate post" [1] as proof of just how reasonable he was.

Just one problem: the HotAir post they linked to contained a series of updates as Morrissey realized he'd gotten things wrong. And, a couple more updates are necessary since he's still spreading disinformation.

In an attempt to help (of a fashion), I renewed our treasured acquaintanceship by sending him an email detailing what he got wrong. He wrote back that he had no interest in getting into an email debate about "Birther theories".

What he got wrong that time is what he referred to as "Birther theories" is actually clear-as-a-bell Hawaiian state laws, as detailed below.

1. He says:

The State of Hawaii only keeps birth certificates from births in Hawaii.

On the same day he posted that, I pointed out that he's wrong. Those born outside Hawaii can obtain valid Hawaiian birth certificates. The full text of that part of Hawaii's Revised Statutes is at that link, and here's a direct link to it at hawaii.gov. Apparently Ed Morrisey thinks that's a "Birther theory".

2. He says (this part was quoted by MMFA):

The state of Hawaii has repeatedly insisted that their records show Obama was born in Hawaii, as the Certificate of Live Birth states.

That's not only completely false, but he's in effect accusing Hawaiian officials of breaking the law. Here's the direct link to the law on hawaii.gov that forbids disclosure of private records. For Hawaiian officials to "repeatedly insist[]" that Obama was born there, they'd have to break that law. The fact is that they haven't broken that law, because they haven't "repeatedly insisted" that Obama was born there. Instead, they've simply stated that Obama has a valid certificate on file. That press release references the law at the hawaii.gov link. In fact, the same HotAir page, in "Update IV", quotes the portion of that press release where they say they can't reveal the information because of that law.

Please write Ed Morissey at tips *at* hotair.com and suggest that he tries to do some research before helping MMFA spread disinformation.

[1] hotair.com/archives/2008/12/04/the-sadly-obligatory-scotus-birth-certificate-post/

Tags: 
obama citizenship
ed morrissey
hotair
media matters for america
julie millican

Comments

Mike James (not verified)

Thu, 07/23/2009 - 22:52

The Obama supporters are very effective in glossing over the birth certificate issues, and the “birthers” are not as effective in their responses as they could be. It boils down to this: 1) the officials of the State of Hawaii say they have personally looked at Obama’s actual birth certificate in their file, but 2) they will not verify that the information on actual birth certificate matches the COLB that Obama has put out there. That is the issue. Is the information on the actual birth certificate the same as what is on the COLB. The officials claim they cannot say anything because of privacy laws. But it is their job to maintain the integrity of the Hawaii birth certificate system. Without disclosing any information that should be kept private, it is their responsibility to tell anyone who asks whether or not a COLB is authentic or if it has the potential to be a forgery. If I was hiring an employee and he showed me a birth certificate which did not look right (for any reason), I should be able to go to the office that issued that birth certificate and have them verify it or say that there might be a problem with its authenticity. This has nothing to do with disclosing private information, this has to do with establishing the authenticity of the official documents that they issue. It is very telling that the Hawaii officials, even though they say a lot of things that sound like they are verifying Obama’s COLB, they are very careful not to verify that the COLB contains the same information as the true birth certificate (which they acknowledge that they have looked at). This should be the discussion, not speculation about Obama being born in Kenya. Get the documents out first, then follow to where they lead. Don't rest your arguments on speculations because that is how the Obama supporters are able to paint birthers as wearing tin foil hats. The issue in dispute is whether or not the Hawaii birth certificate officials have verified the information on the COLB. The Obama supporter IMPLY that they have, but by that very implication they acknowledge that if they have not, such a verification should be done. Even Chris Matthews and James Carville would have to agree with that.

petty bourgeois (not verified)

Fri, 07/24/2009 - 12:58

Ed Morrisey is the biggest pussy anyway. He left California with his tail between his legs like a little bitch. Who cares what he says?

Mary (not verified)

Sat, 07/25/2009 - 00:46

Morrissey stood behind Bush as he flooded the country with illegals and jailed Ramos and CompeanI was thrown off the site for expressinh my opinion of Bush's treason The guy is an arrogant ***hole!

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Mon, 07/27/2009 - 04:42

mary is right.