Birthers glom on to fake Kenyan birth certificate.
Birthers, who refuse to accept Obama's actual Hawaiian birth certificate as proof that he was born in the United States, are holding up a copy of a laughably shoddy, error-filled, forged Kenyan birth certificate as incontrovertible proof that Obama was born in Kenya.
Daily Kos and other sites are having fun debunking this poorly-executed forgery.
First, the hospital is Coast Provincial General Hospital (sometimes said to be Coast Province General Hospital), not Coast General Hospital.Debunking the unbearably stupidSecond, Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months. Third, Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya.
Fourth, Obama's father's village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa.
Fifth, the number 47O44-- 47 is Obama's age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44--he is the 44th president.
Sixth, EF Lavender is a laundry detergent. Seventh, would a nation with a large number of Muslims actually say "Christian name" (as opposed to name) on the birth certificate?
Eighth, his father (born in 1961) would have been 24 or 25 when he was born and not 26.
Ninth, it was called the "Central Nyanza District," not Nyanza Province. The regions were changed to provinces in 1970.
the latest
latest episodes
It's also remarkably pristine for a document that is allegedly almost 50 years old.
They won't believe any evidence you show them because it could have been faked -- but they claim to believe their own evidence because they know _exactly_ where it comes from.
None so blind, and all that.
These idiots really don't deserve the publicity they're getting. They're just a nuisance; the media and punditry support is outright dangerous.
I await the t-shirt version.
Let them believe. Let them shout. Stupid adversaries are desirable.
The big giveaway is the fine print explicitly stating that this child would not be eligible to run for President of the United States in 2008.
What really perturbs me is that we are giving enough credence to these individuals to give them a name: birthers. Why not just call them what they are: disillusioned, sore loser idiots.
I just find it disturbing idiots buy into this wharrgarrbling nonsense to begin with. I wish they'd stfu and go away.
I predict that this hoax will have the same longevity as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
This country has a limitless supply of racist douche bags and angry losers in search of a scapegoat. They've always been around, but the GOP's "Southern Strategy", Talk Radio, and cable news cranks have empowered, legitimized, and motivated them.
I just hope nobody gets shot.
Well, I guess it's too late for that. The Holocaust Museum shooter, and the phuqtard in PA who shot at those cops, are both clearly of the cohort that believes this crap.
My only regret: I wish it could be Nigeria instead of Kenya for all the elegant reasons.
Stay classy birthers. Nobody wants you to stop. It's just too funny.
#7: Hey, there's an idea: Publicize the rumor that there's a Nigerian politician who has the evidence and might be willing to part with it for a suitable incentive, give 'em a 409 scammer's contact information, and let 'em go searching...
You left-wing liberals are all the same- ready to defend your socialist heroes the minute you find out they might not be so great. Why don't you learn from the past? You scoffed at the Y2K bug, too, as if that wasn't the biggest crisis we've had to face in recent history. Next you're going to claim President wasn't elected in 2000, or something...
...excuse me, President BUSH....
@DAS MEMSEN: We have a really high bar for satire around here. If you're going to pretend to be a spittle-blowing wingnut, you need to work in more hot-button issues in your posts. I suggest mentioning the Fed, the global cooling coverup, and how high-MPG cars are a communist plot.
@Stefan Jones The UN , Israel, and taking our guns away would really make it pop.
"Sixth, EF Lavender is a laundry detergent."
Maybe it's because I got like 2 hours of sleep last night, but this was the best thing I've heard all day.
Dont be so uptight here, who would not sell a few birth certificates to the birthers?
I want to see someone come up with proof that his mother was actually a resident of Mars instead of Kansas.
This is turning into a kind of flakey rehash of the First Council of Nicaea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea)
"Much of the debate hinged on the difference between being "born" or "created" and being "begotten""
The wonderfully authentic fold marks are a nice touch, too. But they may have gotten a little carried away -- unless Kenyan officials routinely carry birth certificates around in their shirt pockets.
procreationist know-nothing flat-birthers beget procreationist know-nothing flat-birthers.
#18:
Mars => "Red Planet" => Red => "color of COMMUNISM!" => Obama is a communist!
OMG WE'RE DOOMED!
You know, I wouldn't be nearly so worried about these phuqtards if it weren't for the fact that organized mobs of them aren't packing town hall meetings to spew talking points and play "rattle the congressman."
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away their rights) and that’s who they need to focus on if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
In the same vein, to all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true, if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up. I heard Orly Taitz, is selling a tape (I think it’s called “Money, Lies and Video tape”). She is from Orange County, CA, now I know what the mean when they say “behind the Orange Curtain”, when they talk about Orange County, the captial of Conspiracy Theories. You know Obama has a passport, he travel abroad before he was a Senator, but I guess he fooled them too?
its ironic how a "certificate of live birth" from HI is not sufficient proof, but this "certified copy of registration of birth" IS!
One might also wonder how it was printed using what appears to be Microsoft's commissioned variant of the Times New Roman font.
Still authentic enough for Conservapedia. But really, B. Hussein O. can't possibly be President. Have you seen a picture of the guy?
Wanna bet that the ever-so-crucial EMBOSSED SEAL is a photoshop job?
This is the stupidest thing ever.
I mean come on, even if they SOMEHOW managed to prove that Obama was born in Kenya, his Mother is and was an American Citizen at the time, so he won't be disqualified from the presidency.
And even if they SOMEHOW managed to GET Obama disqualified from office, it's not like McCain would get the office, Biden would become president. Which seems a little worse than making a circus clown commander-in-chief.
At least someone did the legwork debunking this before Dan Rather broke the story.
Or is it okay for "left-winger" to glom on to fake documents about Bush's National Guard service?
Wouldn't the document also be in Kiswahili (or whatever language was primary in the year he was born) instead of English? I would assume there were people born (and delivering babies) in Kenya that don't actually speak English.
The really wonderful thing is that even if he was born in Kenya, his mother is from Kansas. So he's still a "natural born citizen," and thus eligible to be president of the United States.
#23:
I was just going to post and ask if anyone has seen a really large photo of this so the font could be checked authoritatively. The size of the image here is not large enough. It may look like Times New Roman (the bottom type looks like Georgia Bold to me) but at this resolution it's not possible to say for sure.
stefan jones - I'd be more worried if those town meetings you describe were being held in parts of the country known for listening to the populous at town meetings.
Soon enough, a few of them will do something epically stupid and flame out. Just like NASCAR. People are watching and cheering for the inevitable crash - even if they won't admit it to themselves.
Erm... I don't want to give them any air of credibility, but if it's a certified copy then there's nothing to say when the certified copy was created.
There's nothing that says the copy has to be made before the administrative changes, and the registrar won't keep unlimited copies of the old certificates.
Of course, the other errors are pretty fecking stupid...
Someone has already set up a bunch of spamware sites that simulate a virus scan gone terribly awry and positioned it high in a Google search for E.F. Lavender.
--Judas Gutenberg
You're overlooking the most obvious point...
It's clearly not real because it doesn't say "Birth Certificate."
Just asking ... do we know for a fact this is being used as proof by birthers, or did someone just produce this as a joke (hence, the 47044-44, "EF Lavender," etc)? All that's posted here is a picture.
Make it a birth cert. from the moon we never went to and watch their heads explode!
So, apparently the image metadata suggests that it was created by an Obama supporter to make birthers look stupid.
If true, this seems misguided. Conspiracy theorists can't be shamed into submission. The only real power they wield is the ability to cause distraction and waste time. Planting fake evidence doesn't help. At best, it adds fuel to the fire. At worst, it proves that their secret enemies are using false leads to throw them off the course of the real Kenyan birth certificate.
Seriously, guys: don't feed the trolls.
I think the most telling bullet point is what's quoted on a linked page the OP links to:
joeklahoma #28:
At least someone did the legwork debunking this before Dan Rather broke the story.
Or is it okay for "left-winger" to glom on to fake documents about Bush's National Guard service?
As I recall Rather was fired over that incident. Dobbs, not so much.
What if you used carbon dating to show the age of this certificate? Then they might have to admit that the earth is not 8000 years old to grasp at the straws of their illegitimate president theory. I like my hypocrisy peeled back to the core.
Oh BoingBoinger's I am so glad I get to post this (Spoiler Alert). There are more Easter Eggs on the document. I had fun tracking them down this morning at work, so don't read below if you want to decode on your own:
The Font of the B.C.= Schmutz (As in Chump, in Yiddish, and its called Schmutz because it is a FAKE typewriter font invented in 1995)
The #'s 8732 and 5733 (in the Upper Left corner and 5733) are OS Errors. Both are, naturally, Windows REGISTRY errors.
I just noticed its "Page 5733 of Book 44B" (Just caught the 44B bit)
Of course 47O44=47
BO is 47 YO
O=0
44=44th prez
As for Mr Miller and some of the other subtle easter eggs I have not read anything or found anything else.
Anyone got any ideas about Mr Miller? could Joshua Simon Oduya be an anagram?
Is the 495 number a reference to the DC Beltway (Interstate 495) (I am out on a limb now)?
Karl Rove says this is a forgery. I think he is just being clever.
#35-#36: well.. there you go, I guess.
And yeah, taunting the birthers in this manner just doesn't seem like a good idea. Brings to mind the meme "do not taunt dynamite monkey" :p
Ok, we've got Birthers and Flat-earthers. What does that make us? Mirthers? Ok, then I am one Bad Mirther!
so why isn't this Orly woman in an asylum or prison?
A bad forgery is "unbearably stupid"? Hyperbole much?
If Obama wants to really stick it to these so called 'birthers' he can just make a constitutional amendment saying that a citizen of the United States can be president irrespective of where they were born.
The Republicans would love this, cos then Arnie can be the Presidor (like Predator, geddit?) !
I would just like to point out that proof of a forgery is not disprove the allegation, it merely disproves the document.
As the aforementioned falsified Bush National Guard documents did not prove that Bush didn't shirk his duties, but only that the documents in question were forged, so too this alleged birth certificate.
Forgeries and Frauds tend to be inherently proof of mental deficit on their creator's part. Primarily due to the fact that if it's found out as a fraud- the perp was not smart enough to pull it off. Though there are exceptions. Those "Letters from Paradise" used in one sort of scam or a past "Big Lie"... Oops- is that a Godwin Trigger"
#30:
Actually, by the laws of when he was born which are the ones that apply, his mother did not qualify. IIRC, you had to have at least one parent who lived in the US for 5 years after they turned 16, or something, to be automatically a citizen.
Doesn't, matter, since the US Supreme Court would never hear the case. He has citizenship, whether it was appropriately granted or not, and they will not take that away (though they'd probably hear a case for someone who was not granted citizenship). Additionally, he was voted in with a majority, and there's no way they'd invalidate that over a technicality.
Wait a minute. Editors need to be more precise, even when correcting errors so glaring as we see here.
In the Eighth error identified in the next to last paragraph:
Eighth, his father (born in 1961) would have been 24 or 25 when he was born and not 26.
If Obama's father was born in 1961, how could Obama himself have been born in 1961?
@41: And your SO is a Bad Mirther ....er.
"why isn't this Orly woman in an asylum or prison?"
Orly Taitz has submitted this document to the court and if it is shown to be fraudulent she does stand a chance of going to jail. The bar for fraud is significantly higher for lawyers then for the rest of us
"proof of a forgery is not disprove the allegation"[sic]
True, but his freely available birth certificate does.
This is just the beginning. Roy Edroso, who writes for the Village Voice, has a post on his blog from Sunday: - OBAMA PENIS OF SCANDAL! This is where they will go next. During Bill Clinton's term we were subjected to the circus of media personalities discussing the Clenis. I see no reason why we won't be treated to a repeat performance. It's what they do.
@ hbl #44:
If Obama wants to really stick it to these so called 'birthers' he can just make a constitutional amendment saying that a citizen of the United States can be president irrespective of where they were born.
If Presidents could amend the constitution it would now include a provision stating that gays can't marry.
A new amendment might not be necessary anyway, as many legal experts believe that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment has it covered. Of course there's no way of knowing until the Supreme Court makes a ruling on the issue, which probably won't be happening any time soon.
Hey, at least a certain CBS news anchor isn't trying to convince the populous this is the real deal, right?
That looks like Oprah's signature/logo at the bottom.
#56 is right. When Republicans faked that other document, Rather fell for it.
That's why the Republicans didn't fall for this one. As the inventors of the trick they saw it coming a mile away.
@48
If Obama wants to really stick it to these so called 'birthers' he can just make a constitutional amendment saying that the President can ammend the constitution. That would really show 'em.
This whole thing is a hoot!
As for the "Certificate Of Live Birth" nonsense, *my* birth certificate says the exact same thing it says on Obama's birth certificate, that is, "Certificate of Live Birth". Does that mean I'm not a US Citizen either?
It's funny, because the US State Department, Homeland Security, and US Customs had no problem allowing me to use it so I could get a passport and travel in and out of the country.
The truth is that the "birthers" are just a bunch of nutjobs and sore losers.
Mike
Alright this ends now! Why should only the Birthers have all of the fun. Now you can make your own Kenyan birth certificate!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6206640
whoooo-doggie! hog mah grits iff'n thissy heah Orly gal don't sound laik a furriner!
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/08/03/msnbc_taitz/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhFqOqQm_-o
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5aa7aae6c6/obama-debunks-birther-conspiracy
I just bumped into Dan Rather in line at Subway in Lower Manhattan, and we talked about this document - he swears it's real...
Mark said:
Their's are so much better ;^)
STEFAN JONES.
Spot on.
It's the "Protocols of the Elders of Fox News" more like.
abject tosh.
O rly?
The document is based on the old birth certificate issued by the state of South Australia.
http://www.bomford.net/worcestershire/images/DavidJeffreyBomfordBirthCertDoc65.jpg
Forgery conclusively shown:
http://washingtonindependent.com/53658/is-this-the-source-of-the-forged-kenyan-birth-certificate
Am I the only one who thinks this Orly woman is channeling some late 70's/ early 80's pornstar aura?
Looks like Orly Taits isn't as dumb as she looks. Or sounds. Or our best testing indicates.
http://washingtonindependent.com/53654/forged-kenyan-document-splinters-birther-movement
Indeed TQBF, she's got an Eastern European fembot accent to boot.
In soviet russia the birth certificate laughs at you!
I really think Taitz should be the official leader of the republicans. Who will vote with me?!
You have to wonder why Obama has spent what’s estimated to be over a million dollars of his own cash in legal fees to block the release of his long birth certificate.
That fact alone should be sending up red flags among those of you that are still capable of thinking for yourselves.
There are dozens of legal challenges, including one by US Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook. As the Commander in Chief, the guy whose job it is to lead this nations military the simplest and most effective way to resolve this situation is to release the long birth certificate. The fact that he isn’t and instead is going to great and expensive lengths to block it should be cause for concern.
This isn’t just fodder for bourgeoisie New York yuppie bloggers over their morning coffee. When your Army leaders, basically the guys that we hand guns to go kill people and blow up shit for this country, are lawyering up and accusing you of being an illegal president that should be a stone cold serious issue.
Imagine if Bush was pulling this shit. All of you guys would be calling bullshit out on him. But because it’s Obama he gets a pass. What a great facelift for fascism in this country.
Blurp!
Spits bourgeoisie coffe all over keyboard
You've really opened my eyes! If there were some blatantly politically manufactured doubt cast about Bush's place of birth, why that would really upset me.
That and the fact that he pissed all the US treasury against the wall in Iraq, under false pretenses, while the US economy died in a heap.
@ 74 - Please don't anger the memiquette gods. It should be,
In communist Russian, certificate births YOU!
.... birthers?
I can settle this once and for all.
The fee at the top is for 7 s (shillings) and 6 d (pence)
The East African shilling was divided into 100 cents, as was the later Kenyan shilling issued in 1966.
http://wapedia.mobi/en/East_African_Shilling
I might add that Australia at the time did have shillings and pence, in support of the links at post #71 and #72
Ah, was not the last president a better "candidate" for being illegitimately in Office?
I mean, Gore did get the most votes, eh?
@Barry Love:
An estimate, you say?
My estimate is $0.
I feel my estimate is clearly superior to the one you cite, because not only does it come with the same rigorously detailed explanation of the methodology underlying its calculation, but it also contains an exact number.
Birthers, tea baggers and Sarah Palin.
and here you have it folks. The best the Republican party has got to offer these days.
Hopefully in a few more years, they'll go the way of the Whigs.
You know you're in trouble when you're a Conservative and blogs like Little Green Footballs and commentators like Ann Coulter are making fun of you.
Give me 5 minutes and I'll give you one of those. Forget Photoshop, you could probably do that in Word...or Paint.
A lot of people are spending a lot of time "proving" this is a fake. Really, is all that effort neccessary? Seems like a waste of time to me - for every site/commentator that says it's true, there are literally (yes, I mean literally) thousands that jump all over it to prove it's a fake.
The debate is over, bloggers agree - it's a fake, time to Move On?
"You have to wonder why Obama has spent what’s estimated to be over a million dollars of his own cash in legal fees to block the release of his long birth certificate."
Citation, please.
@Barry Love #76:
You have to wonder why Obama has spent what’s estimated to be over a million dollars of his own cash in legal fees to block the release of his long birth certificate.
Yeah, that sounds like a not-at-all-made-up fact.
@76 & 84
Better run down to the cornershop for more Reynolds Wrap. Looks like your hats need another layer or two.
Oh, and 76: If Stefan Cook is an "Army leader", this place is doomed. He's a Freeper reservist that volunteered for deployment to Afghanistan to set up his Birther publicity stunt suit, jumping around like he won something when the Army rescinded his orders--nevermind the fact that volunteers can withdraw their request up to the day of deployment.
Meanwhile, because of his little scam, there's a unit that had to deploy a man short. Real "Army leader" you got there.
Has the Certificate of Live Birth been released?
It has not. But Dr Chiyome Fukino, Director of the Hawaii Department of Health, has released a statement confirming that she has "seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai¡i State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai¡i and is a natural-born American citizen".
Why not simply release a copy of this document?
I don't know. But instead:
House passes resolution that states Obama was born in Hawaii, 378-0.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/27/obama-resolution-hawaii-378-0/
Under what circumstances would this resolution be necessary?
"Has the Certificate of Live Birth been released?
It has not."
http://msgboard.snopes.com/politics/graphics/birth.jpg
CRITICAL BASIC FACTS FAILURE
@88:
The document released by the Obama camp was a Certification of Live Birth, freshly created in 2007 by Hawaiian officials at the request of the Obama campaign, based on Hawaii's computerised records, not the original hand-written long-form "Certificate of Live Birth", created by the hospital at the time of Mr Obama's birth.
A Certificate of Live Birth contains more information, including the hospital name, and the name of the attending physician.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8171314.stm
Wow, even more birthers here. Birthers are stupid, mindless, racist losers. Pretty pointless to argue with them, really (nothing will ever change their minds, because any evidence you present will be dismissed as fake), but have fun.
They're actually even stupider than Young-Earth Creationists, because at least the YECs believe that a being with divine powers faked up all the evidence to deceive His creation because he's a childish prankster and sadistic monster who made us with intellect so that if we use it we could go to Hell and He can torture us eternally, yuk yuk.
The birthers believe the Democrats did things that they couldn't have done without divine powers, yet the birthers ascribe no such powers to the Democrats.
Birthers...even Young-Earth Creationists are laughing at you. Must be the relief of no longer being the most single-minded and willfully stupid people on the planet.
Why not simply release the Long-Form Certificate?
Here's a $10,000 donation if you do:
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-04-2009/0005071557&EDATE=
To date, no hospital in Hawaii has come forward to claim this birth.
No doctor or nurse has come forward to say they were present for that birth. Why not?
Grimc retorted:
Grimc - if everything you say is true, freeper, volunteered, publicity stunt, etc., it doesn't change the fact that the Army recinded his orders. His publicity stunt worked, and that you are talking about it proves it was effective.
Also, please expand on your statement "(the fact that) volunteers can withdraw their request up to the day of deployment." - how does this work, does a soldier have to go to thier commander and request deployment, then they can withdraw and stay in the US? What if all the soldiers did that? Rather than wait to be deployed, they could volunteer then change their mind, ensuring they don't get deployed...
It doesn't sound right to me, I must be missing something...
Timothy, what you're missing is that he volunteered to go to Afghanistan. He wasn't being called up into active service.
We're not talking about volunteering for the Army; that's a commitment to go where they send you when they send you. Cook volunteered for the specific duty when he was not on active duty. Therefore he could UN-volunteer just as easily.
However, it wasn't that he didn't want to go. He launched a frivolous lawsuit with the help of that idiot Orly Taitz, seeking the remedy of not having to go, when at any time he could have just decided not to.
Suppose your neighbor borrows your power drill, which you hardly ever use. He says "just let me know when you want it back, and I'll return it right away." You decide that you want it back, but instead of telling him you get some idiot lawyer and file suit, demanding the return of your drill. As soon as your neighbor hears of this, he returns your drill immediately, wondering why the heck you've gone crazy, but saying nothing publicly. You press ahead with your lawsuit, but as soon as it's established that you've already gotten your drill back the court throws it out.
That's the equivalent of what Taitz and Cook did, except that to really match you'd've had to go to your neighbor's house with your drill and persuade him to borrow it in the first place. And the Army rescinding his orders just means "wow, even if you still wanted to go, we don't want someone as crazy as you in charge of our people over there."
Cook volunteered for Afghanistan for the sole purpose of suing not to have to go based on his completely outrageous, frivolous, and legally* vacuous argument that the President was not legitimate. He's not a real soldier, he's just an asshole freeper.
____
*IANALATINLA
@ Frozen Sky Water:
If there was an international conspiracy to cover up the nature of Obama's birth then one more forged document would be a trivial matter anyway.
The real question is, what evidence is there that Obama was not born in Hawaii?
Dear Timothy:
This milblog post should provide you with the somethings you are missing:
U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, the reserve soldier who says he shouldn't have to go to Afghanistan because he believes Barack Obama was never eligible to be president, has had his deployment orders revoked, Army officials said.
Lt. Col. Maria Quon, U.S. Army Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said Tuesday evening, Cook was no longer expected to report Wednesday to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for mobilization to active duty..."A reserve soldier who volunteers for an active duty tour may ask for a revocation of orders up until the day he is scheduled to report for active duty," Quon said.
The post also provides links to Cook's identification as a Freeper, his connection to Taitz, and why it adds up to a premeditated scam.
Your pal,
grimc
Why are you all arguing with astroturfers?
Update for anybody still around this thread, which is probably just me and a very bored Antinous:
The apparent document the forgery was based on is the birth certificate of an Australian named David Bomford who had his certificate on his family genealogy website.
Transcript of radio interview with Bomford.
You know, I think Forest Gump's mama summed up these birthers best:
"Stupid is as stupid does."
taunting the birthers in this manner just doesn't seem like a good idea.
you're right.
It seems like a great idea!
According to G. Gordon Liddy's own reasoning, that is NOT a birth certificate! It is merely a Registration of Birth... I thought these guys would only be satisfied by a "Birth Certificate"?!
Grimc and others - If the reports are true, the army backed down - the soldier didn't have to exercise his right to revoke his request. If the army held out and made him revoke his request, it would have been better (IMHO), but that doesn't appear to be what happened. The Army gave him an out - they simply "won't exect him to appear."
The Army should have simply reminded him of his right to "un-volunteer," since he volunteered, neutralizing his argument...
Your additional info was helpful, thanks.
Grimc - To be clear, I never thought this was anything but a publicity stunt, that was a given when I first heard it on the news...
Bleurgh.