Quotes of the day

Official birth certificates are issued (and maintained) by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Office of Vital Records. … "Except the document is not an official New York City birth certificate, but rather a document generated by Jamaica Hospital, where Trump's mother Mary reportedly gave birth in June 1946. … "Donald Trump, who has been making television appearances calling for President Barack Obama to release his official birth documents, released his birth certificate exclusively to Newsmax on Monday…

Arpaio: Obama birth certificate is a fraud

"Waiver of the Department's policy in this instance would allow my client to make a certified copy of his original birth certificate publicly available and would also relieve the burden currently pbeing placed on the Department of Health by the numerous inquiries it receives from the media and others relating to my client's birth record," wrote Judith Corley, an attorney at the firm. … Update: A good reminder from commenter Tom Servo: "[I]f you remember Rathergate, you will remember that all document certification professionals agree that a copy of an original can *never* be certified as an original or a fake, since too many uncertainties are created by the duplication process. … Sadly, this won't stop the flow of e-mails we've been receiving since yesterday afternoon by people convinced that a President who can't figure out supply and demand in gas prices can put together such a vast conspiracy to hoodwink the American people that it involves elected officials in the state of Hawaii and time travel to put a birth notice in the local paper in 1961…

The sadly obligatory SCOTUS birth-certificate post

Hence their inclusion of the grandfather clause in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution: No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President; That's it right there. … Since Barack Obama's father was a Citizen of Kenya and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of Senator Obama's birth, then Senator Obama was a British Citizen "at birth", just like the Framers of the Constitution, and therefore, even if he were to produce an original birth certificate proving he were born on US soil, he still wouldn't be eligible to be President. … None of it -- absolutely none -- has any real, solid evidence showing that Obama was born anywhere else than Hawaii apart from sheer speculation and hearsay, and even less evidence that Obama's stepfather renounced Obama's birthright citizenship, which he didn't have the power to do anyway…

Quotes of the day

If you understand how this started, and who played the biggest roles in elevating it, maybe you can also understand why it's not going to end." … People with too much time on their hands—in other words, the majority of people surfing the Internet for this kind of stuff—were combing the document for proof of forgery. … Hours after the president released his long-form birth certificate—years after releasing the short-form one that proved he was a citizen—the issue had already evolved…

Trump: I totally won on the birth certificate issue

We've had a team in Hawaii, talking to everyone in the state health dept to the school where Obama's mother went, other families who were in the hospital at the same time as when he was born, none of them say they've been contacted by anyone working for you. … Anderson Cooper: You've said repeatedly that you have investigators in Hawaii looking into the president's birth certificate that you're looking into it very very strongly, that's a quote. … "I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully, hopefully, getting rid of this issue," he said, though he said more investigation has to be done…

Good news: Arizona secretary of state satisfied with Hawaii’s verification of Obama’s birth place

Given Arpaio's stature among Arizona conservatives, his endorsement would be a boon to Bennett if there's a primary fight in the 2014 gubernatorial primary; at the very least, Bennett wants to be seen as having done enough to ventilate Birther claims that Arpaio himself doesn't feel compelled to challenge him. … "Late yesterday, our office received the 'verification in-lieu of certified copy' from officials within the Hawaii Department of Health that we requested in March," Bennett said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. … He says he believes/hopes that O was born in Hawaii and hasn't questioned the authenticity of the birth certificate -- he needs to preserve his mainstream appeal, after all -- so instead he pounds the table, righteously unyielding in his demand that ... some Hawaii bureaucrat shoot him an e-mail confirming that, yes, their files support the information in the BC. Finally, someone did…

Obama and Beck agree: Birtherism not such a smart strategy for GOP next year

The real fault line here is between people like Beck, who think this issue is a disaster in the making, and other non-Birther Obama opponents like Rush Limbaugh, who see Trump's confrontationalism as a "blueprint" on how to beat The One. … In any case, he's wasting his breath: The hardcore Birthers won't end the crusade over something as petty as a presidential election and the less hardcore are, I think, enjoying Trump's Sheen-esque defiance of media political correctness too much right now to abandon him for reasons of expedience. … "The truth of the matter is that I think that the vast majority of Americans across the country – Democratic or Republican – really want this election to be about growing the economy, getting control of the deficit, preparing the future for our kids…

Trump: You’re welcome, America

But before I do anything I have to make the decision in June and the first thing I'm going to be releasing will be financials," Trump said. … The second question, then: Didn't he tell Stephanopoulos that he might finally release his tax returns if The One came clean about the birth certificate? … Below you'll find John King asking him one of two questions that arose after this morning's revelation, namely, didn't Trump say just two days ago that "somebody" told him the birth certificate was missing?…

Obama’s Panama?

Presumably, the schools that Obama attended in Hawaii and later in the US would have seen his birth certificate during the enrollment process, and no one has ever implied that Obama was anything less than a natural-born citizen. … Having debated the nature of McCain's citizenship, Obama should produce his birth certificate to make it all even, redacting any information that could be useful for identity theft (although it won't have a Social Security number on it as those were not automatically assigned in 1961). … Having done some Obama-rumor debunking that got praise from Daily Kos (a sign of the apocalypse, no doubt), perhaps the Obama campaign could return the favor and help debunk a bunch of others with a simple step: Could they release a copy of his birth certificate?…

Discerning fact from fiction in the Texas immigrant birth certificate situation

While a review of the secondary identification documents listed in Section 181 might cause the reviewer to question the relative reliability and ease of obtaining the documents as contrasted with the matricula and foreign passport without a visa, Plaintiffs have presented no evidence which would substantiate those questions. … Based on the evidence presented by Plaintiffs, the Court concludes Plaintiffs have established, at a minimum, that deprivation of a birth certificate to the Plaintiff children results in deprivations of the rights and benefits which inure to them as citizens, as well as deprivations of their right to free exercise of religion by way of baptism, and their right to travel...The Court thus finds Plaintiffs have sufficiently shown a substantial threat of irreparable injury to the Plaintiff children and parents to meet the first element necessary to obtain a preliminary injunction...Unfortunately, Plaintiffs have failed to present any evidence which would support such a conclusion. … In summary, although the Plaintiffs have provided evidence which raises grave concerns regarding the treatment of citizen children born to immigrant parents, this case requires additional determinations which can be made only upon development and presentation of an evidentiary record which thoroughly explores the facts and circumstances of the issues raised in this case…

Cruz releases his birth certificate

The presidential requirement of being a "natural born citizen" in Article 2, Section 1 of the US Constitution is unique, in that the concept has pretty much no other application in American life. … On a lunch break from the U.S. Senate, he could head to the nearby embassy — the one flying a bright red maple leaf flag — pull out his Calgary, Alberta, birth certificate and obtain a passport. … In order to settle the issue of his citizenship status, the Senator from Texas has released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News, but it's not likely to have much impact on the debate over his eligibility for the presidency…

Victory? NYC adding “x” gender to birth certificates

When you combine the ability to change the gender on your ID with the fact that transgender Big Apple residents can also change their name without publishing it in the paper (as is required almost everywhere), you can vanish from most searches not done by a professional detective. … Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said the new category of "X'' would be available through the proposal, which is expected to be introduced by Johnson on Thursday with public hearings to be held later this month. … It's always an election year these days.) Having apparently solved all of the other problems plaguing the Big Apple, Mayor Bill de Blasio took to the stump this weekend to announce that there would be a change to birth certificates issued by New York City…

State Department denying passports to people on the Texas border, demanding proof they were really born here

The story quotes someone who says these cases are "skyrocketing" under Trump, but no hard numbers are provided in the story, only the suggestions that it could potentially impact thousands of people connected to certain midwives or to one specific doctor said to have delivered as many as 15,000 children in the area. … The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown on their citizenship. … As he would later learn, Juan is one of a growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States but who are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question…

Is it time to address birth tourism?

But what if the parents had no allegiance or ties to the United States and paid someone to allow the mother to come here and give birth, only to immediately return to their true home with a baby and a US birth certificate in hand? … Even if the parents moved here - and live here, intending to remain - but are not yet citizens, children born on American soil get a birth certificate and are citizens, fully entitled to all normal rights and privileges, up to and including running for president. … In this case, nearly two dozen people were charged for arranging visas and transportation for pregnant women, primarily from China, who came to California for the purpose of giving birth and obtaining a US birth certificate for their babies…

Of course Obama’s a natural-born citizen, says … Jim DeMint?

Given that fact, we are loath even to engage the fanciful notion that President Obama was born elsewhere, contrary to the information on his birth certificate, but we note for the record that his mother was a native of Kansas, whose residents have been citizens of the United States for a very long time, and whose children are citizens of the United States as well. … It has been inspected by reporters, and several state officials have confirmed that the information in permanent state records is identical to that on the president's birth certificate—which is precisely what one expects, of course, since the state records are used to generate those documents when they are requested. … Update: I'm sure National Review's "true conservative" credentials would be revoked for this editorial if not for the fact that they were revoked long ago for being snobby elitist east coast New York/Beltway cocktail-party attenders or whatever…

Hawaii governor figures out that he’s barred by law from revealing Obama’s birth certificate

One: The Birthers are right and it's all a big cover-up, and somehow someone in the White House forgot to mention to the incoming Democratic governor of Hawaii, who, by the way, has known Obama since he was an infant, "Pssst -- don't mention the birth certificate. … Hawaii's health director said in 2008 and 2009 that she had seen and verified Obama's original vital records, and birth notices in two Honolulu newspapers were published within days of Obama's birth at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu. … Everyone but everyone understands this -- except, it seems, for the new governor of Hawaii, who boldly announced his quest last month to prove once and for all that Obama was born in Hawaii ... without realizing that he has no means to do so…

Does this kill the Obama birth certificate myth?

" Unless someone wants to argue that the Advertiser decided to participate in a conspiracy at Obama's birth in 1961 to provide false citizenship on the off-chance that an infant from a union of a Kenyan father and a teenage mother would run for President, then I'd say the "mystery" is over. … Lori Starfelt, a member of the PUMA movement in the Democratic Party opposed to Obama's nomination, nevertheless found a birth announcement in an August 1961 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser -- and guess who the paper congratulates for their new addition? … Dave Weigel at Reason doesn't think that a key piece of information discovered by a pro-Clinton documentarian will kill the cottage industry of Barack Obama birth certificate truthers, but it will convince everyone else that this rumor has wasted far too much time already…

FactCheck.org: We’ve seen Obama’s original birth certificate and it checks out

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. … We can assure readers that the certificate does bear a raised seal, and that it's stamped on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates). … Recently FactCheck representatives got a chance to spend some time with the birth certificate, and we can attest to the fact that it is real and three-dimensional and resides at the Obama headquarters in Chicago…

J.D. Hayworth: Where’s the birth certificate?

Why Obama's official state certification of live birth isn't good enough continues to elude me, but so it goes. … Which means more ink for a fringe issue that's not going anywhere (Obama would be nuts to produce the certificate at this point given the political mileage he gets from it) and plenty of opportunities for the media to convince centrists that the "teabagger" movement is, in its entirety, all about paranoia over Obama being a foreigner. … This isn't going to be a huge issue between him and McCain -- there are plenty of other things Maverick can attack him over -- but now that Hayworth's taken the bait, only the very dumbest left-leaning reporter or debate moderator would fail to press the two of them on this subject…

Obamateurism of the Day

In both cases, that was due in large part to the attention garnered by real estate developer, reality TV star and now possible presidential candidate Trump—who has embraced the birther issue and become the rising star of the GOP presidential field. … It's more likely that Obama actually lessened the coverage of the economy by releasing the birth certificate, as the next week the economy dropped to 14% of the news coverage, while the 2012 election coverage jumped from under the radar to 8%. … "[T]wo weeks ago, when the Republican House had put forward a budget that will have huge consequences potentially to the country, and when I gave a speech about my budget and how I felt that we needed to invest in education and infrastructure and making sure that we had a strong safety net for our seniors even as we were closing the deficit, during that entire week the dominant news story wasn't about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation…

GOP congressman: Hey, maybe I’ll sue over Obama’s birth certificate; Update: Franks won’t sue

It should not be too much to ask for the leader of the free world to allay the concerns of a large number of the people he represents by producing his long-form birth certificate, which is the definitive, inarguable way that he can put people's concerns about his national identity to rest for good. … That being said — he also believes it's ridiculous for the President of the United States, who ran on a platform of transparency and accountability, to dismiss so glibly the concerns of literally millions of Americans, and allow such a ridiculous debate to continue when it could so easily be settled once and for all. … However, after compiling and analyzing a significant amount of research, including looking into all the pertinent public records such as the "short form" birth certificate, the affidavits from public officials certifying the existence of the long-form certificate, and the birth records in the local Hawaii newspaper, it was his conclusion that the evidence indicated that Barack Obama was indeed physically born in the state of Hawaii, and that there was NOT a sufficient basis to file a lawsuit…

Video: Orly Taitz, MSNBC anchors scream at each other over Birtherism; Update: Source of bogus Kenyan birth certificate found?

Update: Belated exit question: Does anyone not think the Kenyan birth certificate was cooked up and leaked by Obama supporters, precisely because they knew Birthers would seize on it and make fools of themselves? … Frankly, I'm surprised they mentioned that Coulter thinks Birthers are cranks since it spoils the message they're going for about most conservatives these days being kooks. … Anyway, there's no mystery to the strategy here: The left wants to tar the entire party as Birthers -- witness Harry Reid inveighing against them on the Senate floor today -- so they're giving Taitz enough media rope to hang herself, along with blaring taglines about her being the leader of the "movement…

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ birth certificate ‘silliness’

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz wrote to donors calling Republicans "masters of dirty politics," adding that "[s]ome even went as far as to join the 'birthers' in their effort to throw doubt upon President Obama's birthplace." … Either way, Debbie Downer decided now is a good time to revive the controversy -- with DNC fundraising measures that make use of the long-form certificate Obama released a month ago in an attempt to stir up financial support … Remember when President Barack Obama said he hoped the nation would be able to move past the "silliness" surrounding his birth certificate to focus on more important issues like the economy and the still-rising unemployment rate?…

Christie vetoes NJ bill that would allow transgenders to change their birth certificates

If you can show up with the results of a DNA test from a state approved medical facility which shows that your chromosomes match the gender you would like reflected on your birth certificate, I say let's throw caution to the wind and give it to you. … While I don't believe that having any sort of surgical alterations done to your naughty bits actually changes your gender, it represents a real dedication to the proposition, so for those who go through with it I'll even switch over to the alternate set of pronouns. … (As you'll see in a moment, I'm not sure if that's even possible, but if it is, the Justice Department will figure out a way.) Legislators in New Jersey passed a bill (for the second time) which, if signed into law, would allow transgender individuals to alter their birth certificates to reflect their "new" gender of choice…

Breaking: WH releasing long-form birth certificate

Note that the long form doesn't have any mention of religion at all, which was one theory as to why Obama was supposedly "hiding" it, nor does it list anyone else as Obama's father, another speculative bit of nonsense peddled by the birthers. … The conspiracy theorists have long speculated that the state of Hawaii's law that allows parents to get a birth certificate after having a child abroad (true) gives them the option to declare Hawaii the birthplace (not true). … CNN and pretty much everyone else is abuzz with the news that Barack Obama and the White House have tired of playing with conspiracy theorists and will release the long-form birth certificate after all…

Michele Bachmann: Obama’s certification of live birth is good enough for me

More interesting, though, is Bachmann's reply: Either she's so eager to be done with this issue that she's willing to play along with Steph's ignorance to lay it to rest, or she herself is so disinterested in Birtherism that she hasn't bothered to learn the distinction between the long-form certificate and the COLB. … Maybe Stephanopoulos knows that and is being coy by offering the COLB to Bachmann to see how she'd react, or maybe he hasn't done his homework and genuinely thinks this is the secret document about which Birthers have been obsessing. … The actual long-form birth certificate is still under lock and key at the Hawaii health department; it does exist, according to a former department chief who says she's seen it, and it does authenticate Obama's birth in Hawaii, but neither Steph nor anyone else will get a copy until The One requests one and hands it out…

Video: CNN investigates Obama’s birth certificate

I'm giving you a second clip here, though, of their interview with Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the former director of the Hawaii Health Department who's told several different reporters in the past that yes, O's original birth records do exist, and yes, she's personally inspected them. … Won't change any minds -- for true believers only the certificate will do, and the truest true believers will dismiss that as a forgery if it's ever produced -- but it might persuade those who hadn't followed the issue until Trump first started talking about it a few weeks ago and haven't made up their minds yet. … A woman who gave birth to her son around the same time as Obama was born, in August 1961, remembers seeing a black infant next to him in the hospital nursery and assumes it was little Barack given how small the state's black population was at the time…

Dopey Hawaii governor figures out new way to tease Birthers

If he follows up and reveals a document -- which he's still not legally empowered to do -- it'll be declared bogus; if he decides to lay off and let this drop, it'll be taken as proof that there's no document in the file and he's engaged in a cover-up for his pal Barack. … Which, entirely predictably to everyone except Abercrombie himself, kick-started a whole new round of excitement and expectations among Birthers, who'll never be satisfied no matter what document is finally presented. … So there is some sort of written record -- which jibes with what the state's director of health has been saying all along -- but because Abercrombie didn't use the words "long-form birth certificate" or claim that he's seen the document himself, somehow this magically transforms into him being unable to find anything in the file…