It turns out Barack Obama is . . . is . . . a citizen. The White House has released President Obama’s long-form birth certificate to put the growing controversy to rest over his birth. Many of us have been critical of the birther conspiracy theories. However, I am not sure why the White House did not do this earlier since it addresses the allegations fully. It will be interesting to see that, now that Obama has produced the certificate, if the movement for state ballot laws declines. While it has been repeatedly stated that the laws are not about Obama, but we will see.
The long-form clearly states the date and other information. It also includes the name of Obama’s father — a focus of recent suggestions that the reason for withholding the document was the name of a different man or the inclusion of Muslim for religion.
Donald Trump immediately took credit for the disclosure stating, “Today, I’m very proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” Trump told reporters. “Why he didn’t do it when everybody else was asking for it, I don’t know. But I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully getting rid of this issue.”
I am not sure why the White House held on to the document. One theory could be that they knew it would blow up in the faces of Obama’s critics. However, it has served to rally critics for years. Those critics are not likely to register with the DNC now. They are likely to move on to other claims against Obama.
Perhaps now that he clearly was born in Hawaii, they will now claim that his is part of the Hawaiian royalty and thus making him ineligible as the holder of a foreign ennoblement.
Here are the two pages: Obama_birth_certificate and birth-certificate-long-form
Jonathan Turley
Update on Anonymous’ CoC document dump. The download file is 1.2 GB, but that is compressed. Better allow about 4 GB of spare disc space available by the time it is uncompressed. Good grief, that is a lot of stuff, considering it is documents and not video files.
Mike Spindell,
Without reservation, my respect for you is illimitable.
___________
For those who might not remember or who were unaware, Mike and I had a very strong disagreement regarding an LE discussion; however, not once did we resort to ad hominem attacks or character assassinations. Rather, we expressed our mutual admiration while remaining steadfast and unyielding with our points of view.
For the record I stand with Slarti and Buddha in this experiment, though my technical knowledge is not anywhere near theirs. I can assure everyone that nothing was done that was in any way foul play. None of the guest editors were a party to this experiment, nor were they aware of its taking place.
Mike I knew you were involved when you made the Vinnie De whatever comment. It was a dead giveaway and is what got the ball rolling.
The Muskegon Critic has updated the information on the huge file of US Chamber of Commerce document dump. The file is 1.2 Gigabytes, which is a lot of paperwork to sift through. They dumped it on a slow Friday night, which means a lot of eyes will be digging through this stuff over the weekend, just in time for the Monday news cycle.
Here is more information on how to download and access the CoC files. My guess is that some folks in Armani suits are frantically trying to circle the wagons for what is sure to come.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/30/971631/-UPDATEDx2:-Anonymous-Hits-Chamber!?detail=hide
For the record I stand with Slarti and Buddha in this experiment, though my technical knowledge is not anywhere near theirs. I can assure everyone that nothing was done that was in any way foul play. None of the guest editors were a party to this experiment, nor were they aware of its taking place. I will say that there was plenty of surmise and in a few instances the mark was missed. However, overall it has revealed the truth about the fact that rather than maintain one identity here, many posters have assumed other names to present the appearance of a wide swath of support, to pat themselves on their own backs and/or for their own amusement. The real question though is why this knowledge is important for us all?
I’ve been commenting at this site for a long time now. What drew me was the level of discussion and the quality of the minds of the contributors. This respect for the commenter’s went far beyond their political predilections, as in the case of FFLEO, who in some ways diametrically differing from me in viewpoint, has exhibited an honor and wit that demands respect and even affection. So for me the issue has never been an acceptance of all my viewpoints, but engaging in a dialogue that sharpens my own self-understanding and also at times changes my take on specific issues.
As time passed I felt I came to know and respect many regulars and felt that in some sense, even given the limitations of net communication, they became colleagues, friends and dare I say part of my electronic family. However, as Jonathan has become more and more of a public figure, we have drawn many people who
come to propagandize, rather than discuss. It has long been my suspicion that many of these were not honest opinion-givers, but in some case paid dis-informants and in others merely trolls with the mistaken belief that this is a liberal site. The latter find amusement in “stirring up the lefties.” Indeed, there is nothing wrong with that except that many use disingenuous tactics, rather than reasoned argument. This thread and the past “birther” threads are examples of both phenomena.
It is clear that on this issue there is no discussion or even resolution, not because of factual equivalency, but because some people simply respond as if they were football fans arguing the merits of their teams. To them this is a game and in some sense they are correct. The correctness comes from the fact that our society has always been run by a plutocratic elite, that puts their selfish comforts above the majority of the people, or “you can’t change City Hall.” Add to this the tendency today of corporate media establishing false equivalencies, thus raising
issues like evolution v. creationism to a matter of opinion, where one side lacks any facts to justify itself. Then too the issue of the President’s citizenship, where the ridiculous birthers are given equal mainstream exposure, despite the lack of standing of their position.
As someone though who has spent his life helping those in need and in my small way battling injustice, this is not a game because I have seen from an all too close perspective the misery inflicted upon innocent people whose chief failing was one of birth, or of innocently accepting our society’s myths as truths, only to be disabused by tragedy enfolding them. This is visceral to me and so there lies within me a controlled rage against those who lack empathy for their fellow humans.
As you can plainly see from my comments on this particular thread they are almost entirely angry invective and attacks against those espousing the birther view. This is partly because others more capable than I have demolished the birther arguments over and over again, only to be greeted with constant restating of discredited “facts” and positions whose prior debunking was blithely ignored. This sustained attack of illogical argumentation and outright lies has become tiresome and again has hijacked yet another thread.
Back to where I began though and that is the uncovering of the fact that many posters here are not the persons they pretend to be. Though very far from naive my life strategy has always been one of openness. I do believe that this has karmic-ally protected me in some unknown way. Though more than most I’m aware of the seamier side of humanity, I naively felt that here at JT’s blog there were people who disclosed a good part of themselves in their writing. I still believe many have and their own need for anonymity is to be respected as having different life needs from mine. I now know that there are those whose purported “internet lives” are mere pretense and that saddens me.
It shatters the simulacrum of family I’ve developed here and that is personally a loss.
While this is and will always remain Jonathan Turley’s site and an extension of his vision, it is also in a large part our site,
not as proprietors, but as participants. Since all of us regulars share an abiding belief in freedom of speech and civil liberties, the idea of censorship of ideas is repugnant. I’ve been taking part in a little experiment at correcting this site hijacking by people of insincere motivation. It has to an extent succeeded, however, I think that if we want this site to remain viable we must find further methods to ensure honest debate, without becoming just like those whose views we abhor.
I am glad that he is finally with a woman.
A fine one at that. One who just last week who had two students athlete’s qualify for the Junior Olympic National Invitational Gymnastics competition located in Long Beach California May 12-15th. This is not the first time this has been accomplished. Previously one of her student athletes made it all the way to the Olympic Training center sustaining an injury that prevented her from an attempt to make the National Team. This in my opinion pales in comparison to the 15 plus students who have received full ride sport scholarships to some of the country’s top colleges including Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Alabama.
Very Proud of my wife. Just wish she would do more splits instead of handstands 🙂
Buddha, AY, Ms. EM, Dr. K., Dr. OS, eniobob, et al. thanks regarding the browser/Mac comments
Awwwww. You call that a taunt? A NASCAR/R. Lee Ermy reference?
That’s just adorable.
Well, I’m going to go mow the lawn now, bdabadphisher.
You keep sippin’ on that big ol’ steaming cup of frustration.
And what was that other “f” word you mentioned?
Yeah.
And dragging your poor old sick mother into this is just . . . simultaneously disgusting and sad.
Cya l8r, suckpuppet.
Please forgive the boy. He is having another tantrum. He really means no harm. I still blame his daddy for the way he acts out. I am glad that he is finally with a woman. God does answer your prayers.
Now who was that who mentioned fear again?
Too bad I don’t work for you, badtroll.
Has anyone ever told you that you suck at counter-intel?
Well . . . they have now.
We’ll act when, where and how of our own accord.
Bdamommie that has to be one of the most, if not completely accurate statements I have ever seen on this blog the two plus years (uninterrupted contrary to other beliefs ) since I’ve been posting here. Good Job!!!!!
Buddha your job is to see if thats really my momma.
That would be nothing to fear. If I was scared I would say I was scared. Fact is you gut nuttin honey.
You boys leave my half breed boy alone. He don’t mean no harm, he has been known to be quite offensive at time and lordy the language he can use. I have found if you just don’t respond to his temper tantrums and bad manners he usually is fine. But he does have that dark side to him.
Fear? Who mentioned fear? Why that’d be you, bdaposer!
Aye, the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Keep it up. It just gets funnier and funnier.
eniobob,
I’m fairly happy with Chrome. I probably use it about 20% of the time. It’s render speed is wicked fast, but FF4 so far is doing as well or better. However, the only reason I even have MSIE on my Windows partition is that some MS websites are hostile to any other browser.
You can’t discern our methods or our strategy, so what make you think you know the shape of our victory?
All concerned with the project are quite happy with the results of this test. What you think is, as usual, irrelevant in light of the facts. You keep putting on a brave face though.
Your nervous laughter is quite amusing.
BIL:
“I’m even considering making Chrome my primary browser”
I have done that and IMHO beats IE & Fire Fox hands down.