Obama: True and False

Don't believe them, they're lying!

April 27, 2011 • 1:33 pm Comments Off

True! State of Hawaii Health Department Confirmed Obama’s Original Birth Certificate On File

On April 27, 2011, President Obama released his long form birth certificate, provided at his request by the Hawaii Department of Health, and showing he was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii–just as he’s always said he was.

President Obama's Long Form Birth Certificate http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/7751154

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False! Executive Order 13489 Sealed Obama’s Birth Records On January 21, 2009

Executive Order 13489 was signed by President Barack Obama on January 21, 2009, his first day in office; that much is true. However, it applies to presidential work product, not personal records of presidents.

President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12667 on January 18, 1989, authorizing the United States Archivist to release presidential records for past presidents and for future presidents who did not object within 30 days of notification of release. Executive Order 12667 was in effect until November 5, 2001, when President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233, revoking it. The Bush order made presidential records unavailable for 12 years following the end of a presidency and extended the notification period from 30 days to 90 days.

President Obama’s Executive Order 13489 revoked Bush’s order and substantively reinstated Reagan’s, thereby expanding access to presidential records, rather than narrowing it, as Birthers choose to think. But most importantly, as far as Birther mythology goes, no president’s birth records were involved in any of the three Executive Orders; therefore, President Obama did not seal his birth records with Executive Order 13489. His birth records are sealed by law in the State of Hawaii, where he was born, like anybody else’s.

Filed under: Biography, Executive Order, False!

January 23, 2011 • 12:33 am Comments Off

True! Hawaii issues only “Certifications of Live Birth” as official Birth Certificates

The state Department of Health no longer issues copies of paper birth certificates as was done in the past, said spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

The department only issues “certifications” of live births, and that is the “official birth certificate” issued by the state of Hawaii, she said.

And, it’s only available in electronic form.

Okubo explained that the Health Department went paperless in 2001.

“At that time, all information for births from 1908 (on) was put into electronic files for consistent reporting,” she said.

Information about births is transferred electronically from hospitals to the department.

–

Asked for more information about the short-form versus long-form birth documents, Okubo said the Health Department “does not have a short-form or long-form certificate.”

“The birth certificate form has been modified over the years and decades to conform to national standards and models,” she said.

Okubo also emphasized the certification form “contains all the information needed by all federal government agencies for transactions requiring a birth certificate.”

She added that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized the state’s current certification of live birth “as an official birth certificate meeting all federal and other requirements.”

The issue of what constitutes an official Hawaii birth certificate received national attention during last year’s presidential campaign. Those who doubted Barack Obama’s American citizenship called the copy of the Hawaii birth document posted on his campaign Web site a fake.

Asked about that document, Okubo said, “This is the same certified copy everyone receives when they request a birth certificate.”

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 6, 2009

Filed under: Birth Certificate, True!

October 8, 2010 • 1:58 pm Comments Off

False! Stanley Ann Dunham’s SS-5 Filed 1959 Revised 1965

Larger image here.

A contemporary SS-5 filed a year earlier in 1958:

Filed under: Biography, False!

May 3, 2010 • 2:44 pm Comments Off

True! Hospitals Cannot Disclose Birth Records

US Department of Health and Human Services: HIPAA Privacy Rule

Protected Health Information. The Privacy Rule protects all “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper, or oral. The Privacy Rule calls this information “protected health information (PHI).”12

“Individually identifiable health information” is information, including demographic data, that relates to:

* the individual’s past, present or future physical or mental health or condition,
* the provision of health care to the individual, or
* the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual,

and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe it can be used to identify the individual.13 Individually identifiable health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number).

Criminal Penalties. A person who knowingly obtains or discloses individually identifiable health information in violation of the Privacy Rule may face a criminal penalty of up to $50,000 and up to one-year imprisonment. The criminal penalties increase to $100,000 and up to five years imprisonment if the wrongful conduct involves false pretenses, and to $250,000 and up to 10 years imprisonment if the wrongful conduct involves the intent to sell, transfer, or use identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain or malicious harm.

Filed under: Birth Certificate, Citizenship, True!

April 16, 2010 • 4:41 pm Comments Off

True! 1961 Birth Announcements Reported As Hawaii Bureau Of Health Statistics

Announcement of Nordyke twins, who were born contemporaneously with Barack Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 5, 1961. Note heading of newspaper column for August 16, 1961 Honolulu Advertiser, ‘Health Bureau Statistics’ announcing their birth:

Announcement of Barack Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961, published August 13, 1961 in the Honolulu Advertiser:

Washington Independent:

Parents and relatives don’t, and didn’t, get to place birth announcements in the Honolulu Advertiser or the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. As a Star-Bulletin employee explained to WorldNetDaily, the editors “print what we receive from the Department of Health Vital Statistics System,” and did so in 1961. And the Advertiser worked the same way.

Filed under: Birth Certificate, Citizenship, Media, True!

July 29, 2009 • 4:25 pm Comments Off

True! Political Opposition Research On Obama’s Eligibility Turned Up Nothing

McCain Campaign Investigated, Dismissed Obama Citizenship Rumors
Frivolous ‘Birther’ Lawsuits Fuel Conspiracy Theories, Media Coverage

By David Weigel 7/24/09 8:38 AM

In the final months of the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign learned of a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that asked the state to strip Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of the Democratic nomination on suspicion that he was not an American citizen. The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed by Phil Berg, a former deputy state attorney general who left government in 1990 for a series of gadfly political campaigns. His last round of notoriety had come when he filed RICO complaints against George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein and multiple members of the Bush administration for “accountability” for the 9/11 attacks. Still, Berg’s complaint had gotten glancing local media attention, and the Democratic National Committee’s counsel had filed a motion to dismiss it. One lawyer who was doing some work for the campaign was tasked with reading Berg’s lawsuit and gauging its chances of success.

“The conversation was along the lines of ‘this is idiotic, but explain to me why,’” said the lawyer, who spoke under condition of anonymity to TWI. “I looked at whether the lawsuit was going to be dismissed. I said yes.”

-snip

“We monitored the progress of these lawsuits against the Obama campaign,” said Trevor Potter, a Washington attorney who served as general counsel to the 2008 and 2000 McCain presidential campaigns. “The McCain campaign faced a series of lawsuits like this, too, alleging that he could not be president because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Both campaigns took the position that these plaintiffs lacked standing.”

-snip

While they ruled out any chance of the ‘birther’ lawsuits holding up in court, lawyers for the McCain campaign did check into the rumors about Obama’s birth and the assertions made by Berg and others. “To the extent that we could, we looked into the substantive side of these allegations,” said Potter. “We never saw any evidence that then-Senator Obama had been born outside of the United States. We saw rumors, but nothing that could be sourced to evidence. There were no statements and no documents that suggested he was born somewhere else. On the other side, there was proof that he was born in Hawaii. There was a certificate issued by the state’s Department of Health, and the responsible official in the state saying that he had personally seen the original certificate. There was a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser, which would be very difficult to invent or plant 47 years in advance.”

Washington Independent

Keyes and Birthers, Buckley and Birchers
By Bill Pascoe | July 28, 2009 12:30 PM |

As one of the GOP operatives whose job it was to defeat Barack Obama in a campaign for federal office (there have only been three GOP campaigns run against him, and I’ve been involved with two of them), I can attest to the fact that [b]nowhere in our opposition research did we find any reason to believe that the man was not a natural born citizen of the United States[/b].

I can also attest to the fact that this man — who, at about 1:22 into this video, shot on February 20 of this year, lays out the Birther case against Obama — never raised any doubts about Obama’s alleged overseas birth while he was running against Obama for the United States Senate in Illinois in 2004.

Oh, Alan Keyes said all sorts of other nutty things while he was the GOP Senate nominee in 2004, the kinds of things that cause campaign operatives to go gray prematurely — “Jesus Christ would not vote for my opponent,” Second Daughter Mary Cheney was a “selfish hedonist,” and other such bon mots — but he never once challenged Obama’s place of birth.

CQ Politics

Filed under: Birth Certificate, Citizenship, Politics, True!

June 24, 2009 • 1:13 pm Comments Off

False! President Obama was a Citizen of Indonesia

US Department of State/US Department of Homeland Security:

- President Obama was born in Hawaii and is a U.S. “natural born” citizen and is eligible to serve as the United States President, pursuant to the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5.

- President Obama is not an illegal alien and has never been a citizen of Indonesia.

- President Obama never was adopted by Lolo Soetoro.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Case No. 1:08-CV-02234 (RJL)
Strunk v. US Department of State, US Department of Homeland Security

Filed under: Biography, Citizenship, False!

June 17, 2009 • 10:17 pm Comments Off

False! Dept. of Hawaiian Home Lands Would Not Accept Obama’s Birth Certificate

Not that he’s ethnic Hawaiian, in any case, but it’s an argument Birthers like to use.

There are two categories of documents used in determining eligibility: primary and secondary.

Primary Documents

Birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth and Certifications of Live Birth) and Certificates of Hawaiian Birth are the primary documents used to determine native Hawaiian qualification.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands accepts both Certificates of Live Birth (original birth certificate) and Certifications of Live Birth because they are official government records documenting an individual’s birth. The Certificate of Live Birth generally has more information which is useful for genealogical purposes as compared to the Certification of Live Birth which is a computer-generated printout that provides specific details of a person’s birth. Although original birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth) are preferred for their greater detail, the State Department of Health (DOH) no longer issues Certificates of Live Birth. When a request is made for a copy of a birth certificate, the DOH issues a Certification of Live Birth.

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands

Filed under: Birth Certificate, False!

June 10, 2009 • 1:45 pm Comments Off

False! Michelle Obama was disbarred

Michelle Obama was licensed to practice law in 1989 by the State of Illinois Supreme Court. In 1993, she became voluntarily inactive.

Illinois Registration Status: Voluntarily inactive and not authorized to practice law – Last Registered Year: 1993

There were no disciplinary proceedings against her license of any kind:

Public Record of Discipline and Pending Proceedings: None

In 1999, there was a procedural change not relevant to someone having already been voluntarily inactive since 1993:

CHANGING FROM RULE 770 INACTIVE STATUS

Prior to November 1, 1999, former Supreme Court Rule 770 provided for a proceeding in the Court for any voluntary transfer to inactive status, whether because of some incapacitating condition or solely as a matter of the lawyer’s preference because the lawyer would not be practicing law.

The current registration rules provide a procedure for lawyers on Court-ordered inactive status under former Supreme Court Rule 770 who might wish to register. Whatever registration status the lawyer wishes to assume (active, inactive, or retired), the lawyer must first file a motion with the Supreme Court for restoration to active status under Rule 759. The motion process is necessary to screen for those who transferred due to circumstances that require some review of present fitness, and the motions will be contested only in such cases. In all other cases, the ARDC will consent to the transfer, and when a consent is submitted, the Supreme Court typically allows the motion within a few weeks of when it is filed.

Filed under: False!, Michelle Obama

June 5, 2009 • 3:54 pm Comments Off

False! There was a US travel ban to Pakistan in 1981

Obama did go to Pakistan that year when he was 20 years old with a college friend, after first seeing his mother and half-sister in Indonesia. That much is true.

–

“Birthers” claimed that the Pakistan trip constituted indirect proof of Obama’s supposed Indonesian citizenship. Philadelphia lawyer Phil Berg even told the U.S. Supreme Court last year, before it refused to hear his case challenging Obama’s qualification to be president, that Pakistan “was on the State Department’s travel ban list for U.S. Citizens.”

But that claim is quite false. There was no such ban. Americans traveled there without incident, as shown by a travel piece that appeared in the New York Times in 1981, dated June 14. Barbara Crossette, an assistant news editor of the Times, told her mostly American readers they could travel to Lahore, Pakistan, by air, rail or road, adding: “Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports.”

Her article prompted a letter to the Times from the U.S. consul general in Lahore saying he would “welcome an influx of Americans” to Lahore. He cautioned only that in addition to getting a visa for Pakistan, American visitors also should be careful to line up an Indian visa for the return trip if they planned to travel overland. The letter is dated Aug. 23, 1981.

Also, a travel advisory from the State Department dated Aug. 17, 1981 notes that Americans traveling to Pakistan require a 30-day visa, and that any staying longer must check in with Pakistan’s Foreigner Registration Office. A digital copy of the advisory is archived at the Electronic Research Collection, a partnership between the State Department and the Federal Depository Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Fact Check Wire

Flight: Karachi – Peshawar

Flight number: PK-326

Description: On March 2, 1981, Pakistan International’s flight PK-326 began as a routine domestic hop from Karachi to Peshawar . In midair three heavily armed men seized the plane, diverted it to Kabul, Afghanistan, and demanded the release of 92 “political prisoners” from the Pakistani jails. On March 7, twenty nine hostages including women, children and sick men were released in Kabul. The Boeing 720B sat in Kabul for a week, and when Pakistan’s President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq refused to give in, the hijackers shot a Pakistani diplomat Tariq Rahim in full view of the other passengers and dumped his body onto the tarmac.

Next, on March 9, the plane flew to Damascus, Syria, and by the time ordeal ended there on March 14, more than 100 hostages had endured 13 days of tension and squalor. At that time it was the longest hijacking episode in the history.

The gunmen repeatedly threatened to blow up the plane, but were talked into long extensions while negotiations continued by radio with Pakistani and Syrian officials in the Damascus control tower. Finally the hijackers said they would settle for just 55 prisoners – but they coupled the concession with a grim warning: they would soon kill the three Americans on board. “Be ready to pick up the bodies,” they told the tower. Just twenty minutes before the deadline President Zia gave in, ordering that the prisoners be flown to sanctuary in Libya. “It’s over,” said Pakistani negotiator Sarfraz Khan.

History of PIA Hijackings

The toast of Ronald Reagan at a state dinner at the White House for President Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan, Dec. 7, 1982:

Our people already work together in significant ways through educational exchanges, tourism, economic cooperation, and through bonds of family and friendship.

Ronald Reagan Archives, University of Texas

Filed under: Citizenship, False!

June 4, 2009 • 1:27 pm Comments Off

False! Barack Obama was born in Kenya

US Department of State/US Department of Homeland Security:

- President Obama was born in Hawaii and is a U.S. “natural born” citizen and is eligible to serve as the United States President, pursuant to the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5.

- President Obama was not born in Mombasa, Kenya.

- President Obama was not born in Kenya or anywhere outside the state of Hawaii.

United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Case No. 1:08-CV-02234 (RJL)
Strunk v. US Department of State, US Department of Homeland Security

Court of Appeals of Indiana, Ankeny v. the Governor of Indiana, Opinion for Publication, November 12, 2009:

Based upon the language of Article II, Section 1, Clause 4 and the guidance provided by Wong Kim Ark, we conclude that persons born within the borders of the United States are ‘natural born citizens’ for Article II, Section 1 purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents.

Coast Provincial Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya:

Officials at the hospital confirm they’ve been besieged with requests for information on Obama’s birth but haven’t been able to find any record of it.

“We do not have computerized records going back to the 1960′s and can only sort through our archives by hand,” Dr. Christopher Mwanga, an administrator at the Mombasa hospital tells GLOBE. “We have searched for all the names of babies born on Aug. 4, 1961, and have not found the name of Barack Hussein Obama. That is all I can tell you.”

“We can neither prove that he was born here nor disprove it.”

View the full page.

Globe Magazine; January 12, 2009 issue, Vol. 56, Number 02; p.30
Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Biography, Birth Certificate, False!

December 24, 2008 • 9:43 pm Comments Off

True! Barack Obama attended Sunday School as a boy in Hawaii

Obama Attends Service for Grandmother

Wednesday, December 24, 2008; Page A03

HONOLULU, Dec. 23 — President-elect Barack Obama and his family joined close friends Tuesday to pay tribute to the woman he called his “rock,” his maternal grandmother, who provided stability in his young life and made possible his rise to the nation’s presidency.

The Obamas attended a private memorial service for Madelyn Dunham, who lived in a modest apartment here and died of cancer at age 86 two days before the presidential election.

The service was held at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, a two-story house converted into a place of worship. The service was closed to the media.

Washington Post

obama-church-honolulu

The First Unitarian Church of Honolulu is where the funeral for President Obama’s grandparents and mother were held. It was here he attended Sunday School as a boy.

Obama’s Neighborhood

When Obama was in elementary school in Honolulu, Young recounted in a telephone phone interview, either his grandmother or grandfather (there’s confusion over which one) brought him to Sunday school there for several years.

The Dunhams had attended a Unitarian church in the Seattle area when Obama’s mother was a teenager. Although there’s no record of their attendance at the Honolulu church, Obama writes about it in his memoir “Dreams From My Father,” and one family who still attends the church remembers him.

When Young reminded Obama at the memorial service, “his eyes lit up, and he turned to Michelle and said, ‘Hey, that’s right. This is where I went to Sunday school.’”

Obama spent some time on the second floor, where Sunday school is held, but didn’t recognize anything. That’s not surprising, Young said, because the church has been renovated over the years.

The 100-year-old building had been an estate of the Cooks, a well-known family in Hawaii.

Tampa Bay Online

Filed under: Biography, True!

August 23, 2008 • 3:08 pm Comments Off

True! World Net Daily Found Obama’s Birth Certificate “Authentic”

However, FactChecker.org says it obtained Obama’s actual birth certificate and that the document was indeed real. The site discredited some of the claims of Internet bloggers, such as that the certificate as viewed in a scanned copy released by Obama’s campaign lacked a raised seal. FactChecker.org also established that many of the alleged flaws in the document noted by bloggers were caused by the scanning of the document.

A separate WND investigation into Obama’s birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic.

World Net Daily

Here is a cached copy, just in case.

Here is the FactCheck referred to in the WND article above.

Filed under: Birth Certificate, Internet News, True!

birfer-baby-case