Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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Dominus Atheos
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Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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Media Matters
Dobbs repeatedly makes Obama birth certificate claims

SUMMARY: Addressing an issue promoted by the far-right "birther" movement, Lou Dobbs repeatedly said on his radio show that President Obama needs to "produce a birth certificate" and that Obama's birth certificate posted online has "some issues" -- claims that have been dismissed and even ridiculed by his CNN colleagues.

269 Comments During the July 15 edition of his radio program, CNN host Lou Dobbs devoted substantial airtime to the issue of President Obama's birth certificate, asserting repeatedly that the president needs to "produce" it. Dobbs said that the birth certificate posted online by FactCheck.org "purporting to validate the president" has "some issues ... I mean, it's peculiar," and stated that he wants to see a "long form" birth certificate, which he called "the real deal." By contrast, Dobbs' CNN colleagues have repeatedly debunked claims that Obama has yet to produce a valid birth certificate, calling them "total bull" and "a whack-job project," and have characterized those who make these claims as "conspiracy theorists" who wear "tin foil hat."

Dobbs also mentioned the issue of Obama's birth certificate on the July 15 edition of his CNN television show. Referring to the document that FactCheck.org posted, Dobbs said, "It is, in fact, the so-called short form, not the original document. It is really a document saying that the state of Hawaii has the real document in its possession."

Media Matters for America has noted that Dobbs has a history of pushing conspiracy theories and numerous falsehoods and distortions.

Dobbs' radio show

During his radio program, Dobbs stated: "hould he produce his birth certificate -- the long form, the real deal? Should he be a little more forthcoming? ... What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right."

Dobbs later stated that when examining the birth certificate issue, at first he "thought, 'Here we go with the lunatic fringe. This is a bunch of quackeroos going after him.' " However, Dobbs said he now believes that there are "some issues here that should be really resolved" with Obama's birth certificate.

During his program, Dobbs repeatedly faulted Obama for what he said was Obama's failure to definitively answer questions raised about his birth certificate:
  • Dobbs stated: "The first thing is to determine whether or not his birth certificate is valid. And what I don't understand is why that has not been released and given over to the public record."
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  • After a caller said "something doesn't smell right" with Obama, Dobbs said that the "way to get rid of those odors is always just open the windows and let the sun shine in. And all we need here is a doggone document, but for some reason the president doesn't want to release that."
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  • Dobbs said that in contrast to efforts undertaken by Sen. John McCain "to determine that he met the standard of natural-born citizen," there is "absolutely, you know, no effort to do so on the part of Barack H. Obama. Nor, as also our callers have pointed out, this president would not release his medical records. And the national media seemed to be fine with that, whereas they probably would have eviscerated John McCain for failing to do so."
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  • After a caller theorized that Obama is rushing through programs because Obama "knows what's coming" with regard to the birth certificate lawsuits, Dobbs said: "Certainly your view can't be discounted at this point, because this president refused to provide the documentation that would settle all of the controversy here."
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  • After a caller said she initially thought the birth certificate controversy was "the dumbest thing ever," Dobbs replied:
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DOBBS: Well, it is a dumb thing. I think we have to all admit this is a dumb thing either way, because, I mean, I can't understand why the president wouldn't just move to get this stuff out of the way. Show the documents, get it done -- I mean, he -- think about it.
Dobbs also claimed that a soldier questioning Obama's citizenship "should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered" and "reasonable people should be interested" in the birth certificate issue:
DOBBS: I mean, because I got to be honest with everybody. When I started looking at this and the lawsuit -- Orly Taitz his attorney, for Major Cook, when he -- you know, I thought this is kind of peculiar. But I thought we should find out what's going on because, you know, it's a lawsuit -- a major who is -- he is, by the way, a combat veteran. Some people in the media have called him a coward; they are fools for doing so. But they're fools, anyway; it isn't this one instance that makes them fools.

This is a man who should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered. And people talk about, quote-unquote, the lunatic fringe are the only ones interested in this, and it turns out that reasonable people should be interested, and reasonable -- excuse me -- reasonable minds have to understand what's going on. And this can be dismissed with one -- the production of one simple little document, and that's a birth certificate. It's extraordinary.
During the show, Dobbs also repeatedly cast doubt on Obama's birth certificate posted online by FactCheck.org, saying that it is a "peculiar little document" that has "some issues." In the first hour, Dobbs hosted Temple Law School professor Peter J. Spiro, who said that there's "absolutely no doubt that [Obama is] eligible to be president of the United States." Dobbs replied to Spiro that he has "got the problem that other people looking at the only document that's available say, 'Wait a minute,' " to which Spiro replied:
SPIRO: I'm not sure what the "wait a minute" is about. I think what's fueling these theories is the counter-factual of if he had been born in Kenya, under the citizenship statute as it was then written, he would not have been a citizen at birth.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: So that gives these theorists something to work with.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: Even though at the threshold there's a basic factual problem with the theory.
Dobbs also said: "We have a certification of live birth that doesn't have a signature or an attestment of any kind attached to it." Spiro replied:
SPIRO: You know, I'm not an expert on Hawaii documents, but my understanding is that this is the real thing.

DOBBS: Right. No, no, I understand the same thing, too --

SPIRO: And that, you know, at this point, the claims are fringy enough that, again, in the absence --

DOBBS: My word exactly.

SPIRO: -- in the absence of any proof to the contrary, he's satisfied any burden of proof here.
Dobbs later said of Spiro to a caller skeptical of Obama's citizenship: "I was sort of taken by the fact he declares President Obama to be a natural-born citizen without having looked at any of the real documentation that would make it so." Another caller also asked Dobbs if he had seen the birth certificate online, and Dobbs replied that it is a "peculiar little document, this certification of life birth that everyone is purporting to validate the president" and "there's some issues with this."

Dobbs also dismissed the "certification of live birth" because it says "that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time":
DOBBS: There's some reason -- there's some reason that they don't want to do this. I mean, I don't know what the heck it is. But this whole -- you and I agree no matter what you believe about this other stuff -- we agree, do we not, [caller], that if we just looked down at a certificate of birth that had the signature of the doctor, the testament of the hospital, the name of the hospital, the seal, whatever, you know, that would be sufficient.

But what we've got here is a certification of live birth that says that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time.
Dobbs also hosted former presidential and Illinois senatorial candidate Alan Keyes and lawyer Orly Taitz. The Orange County Weekly described Taitz as the "queen bee of people obsessed with Barack Obama's birth certificate" and the "the most controversial figure in the effort to prove that President Barack Obama is foreign-born." Keyes has filed a lawsuit against Obama.

On the July 16 edition of his radio show, Dobbs was asked by a caller why Obama is "refusing to show his real birth certificate. What has he got to hide?" Dobbs replied:
DOBBS: Well, you know, that is the real question, isn't it? I mean, why not just get this silly, you know, nonsense out of the way? I mean, let's just say you put your birth certificate out there. You know, you have to present a birth certificate to get a passport. You've got to have a birth certificate drivers licenses in some places. We use birth certificates all the time. Why is there such a special need to keep that birth certificate out of the public eye?

Kathy, I think you're asking a very important question. It gives the appearance he's hiding something. I personally don't think he is, but I also think it's so silly of the Obama administration and this president not to just put it out there, get all the nonsense out of the way. It's the smartest thing he could do.
Dobbs' CNN television show

Dobbs discussed the Obama birth certificate issue on the July 15 edition of his CNN program, noting the remarks about the birth certificate by Cook, FactCheck.org, and the White House:
DOBBS: Well, new questions are raised about the president's eligibility to be president. The latest from U.S. Army Reserve Major Stefan Cook, who refused deployment to Afghanistan. Cook claimed his orders were illegal because President Obama wasn't born in United States, which makes him ineligible to be president and commander in chief. The major's orders for deployment to Afghanistan were rescinded. An Army spokeswoman told us the major volunteered to go to Afghanistan for one year and could rescind his request at any time right up to his deployment. This is what the Army said: "Based on the fact that he no longer wished to serve on active duty and at the request of central command his orders were revoked on July 14."

Now the major's attorney is challenging the legitimacy of the Obama presidency in court. She joins a lawsuit by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who wants documentary proof the president was born in the United States. President Obama was born in Hawaii, according to state officials, and copies of his certification of birth -- FactCheck.org, investigating those circumstances prior to the election, and they have a copy of what they say is the original birth certificate posted on their website. It is, in fact, the so-called short form, not the original document. It is really a document saying that the state of Hawaii has the real document in its possession. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in May said Hawaii provided a copy of the birth certificate with the state seal that's posted on the Internet.

Documentary proof needed to run by office, by the way, varies from state to state. The Federal Election Commission -- you may be surprised to learn -- does not require any kind of certification or proof of citizenship in running for president. They leave that to the states. And in the state of Illinois, for example, where President Obama first ran for office, proof of citizenship is not required for either the state Legislature or to run for Congress or for the United States Senate.
Dobbs' CNN colleagues have debunked claims that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate

On December 9, 2008, CNN host Kiran Chetry said: "A New Jersey man claimed that Obama could not be sworn in because his father was from Kenya, therefore, a British subject. He claimed that because of that Obama is not a natural born citizen. Obama's birth certificate shows he was born in Hawaii."

In a June 11 article, CNN.com reported that "online postings attributed to James von Brunn promoted the claim that Obama has no valid U.S. birth certificate, a debunked theory rejected by U.S. courts and refuted by a certified copy of his birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health."

During the December 8, 2008, edition of CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull, CNN contributor Dana Milbank said: "Now, for all those conspiracy theorists out there, do not lose hope. They're plenty more cases in the pipeline. My favorite says that Obama himself was actually born in Kenya, adopted in Indonesia, and has a forged birth certificate. Now, the independent group factcheck.org, suggested if you're going to pursue these theories, you might want to do so wearing a tin foil hat."

On the December 5, 2008, edition of No Bias, No Bull, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin criticized the merits of a lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship:
BROWN: So, before we get into the I guess how on earth this ended up potentially going before the Supreme Court, just explain the merits of the case, if there are any in your view. Is there any evidence at all to support this?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, I'm a lawyer. So, I have got to be a little cautious in responding to this. So, this much I will say. This is a joke. This is ridiculous.

BROWN: OK.

TOOBIN: This is absurd.

BROWN: Don't hold back.

TOOBIN: This is a whack-job project. And the reason there are lots of lawsuits is, they all keep losing appropriately and they are now winding up before the Supreme Court.

Look, there are two -- let's look at two documents. One is his birth certificate, which shows that he was born in Hawaii, in the United States.

BROWN: OK. Right. Which we have all known, right.

TOOBIN: And end of story. That's it. He is eligible to be president.

And if you are not convinced by that, there is a newspaper announcement of his birth in -- there it is -- in Hawaii on -- in August 1961. There is no merit to this lawsuit at all.

BROWN: So, if it's total bull, which is what you are saying --

TOOBIN: Total bull.
PolitiFact.com and FactCheck.org have also debunked claims that Obama has not released a valid birth certificate or needs to release additional documents.

From the July 15 edition of United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show:
DOBBS: Well, later this hour I'll be talking about the Alan Keyes lawsuit. Folks, this is something -- I have to tell you. When David -- when Major Cook, Stefan Cook -- decided to resist his deployment to Afghanistan -- we learned of it yesterday -- on the basis that Barack Obama is not legitimately president of the United States because he's not a natural-born citizen, I thought, "Here we go with the lunatic fringe. This is a bunch of quackeroos going after him."

It turns out that the Army just rescinded the deployment order to Afghanistan for the major. Alan Keyes -- we talked with his attorney -- Major Cook's, and Alan Keyes' attorney, Orly Taitz -- I mean, I've learned more here in the last day about natural-born citizenship, what documents are available for the president of the United States,and what aren't -- I mean, it's truly crazy. And I decided we'd do something on this, you know, on this show, just to get it out of the way.

But you know what? This isn't one of those things that goes away quite as easily as I -- at least I thought. I thought we were talking about a bunch of folks that were on the left, or on the right, you know, the fringe that gets a little excited about, you know, tinfoil on their heads and that sort of thing. Well, guess what, folks? There are some issues here that should be really resolved. What's really crazy about this is all the president of the United States has to do is produce a birth certificate. That's all that has to be done, and it would be over. So, we're going to be talking about that this hour. We're going to be talking with you.

As a matter of fact, I want to go to the phones right now. I want to talk to Jay in Reno, Nevada. Jay, good to have you with us on The Lou Dobbs Show.

CALLER: Hey, Lou, it's great to hear you. The reason -- there's a whole bunch of points that the media has overlooked. The only thing that the Obama people have is ridicule; they don't have answers, they just make fun of anybody who asks a question. But, you know, his birthday is coming up -- I'll point out a few things nobody mentions. His birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and everybody in the media is going to be telling us he's 48 years old. I would like to know how they know that.

DOBBS: Well, because it says that on the certification of live birth, which I have in my hands right in front of me, Jay. I have the actual document that says that this is a document certifying that there is another document.

CALLER: Shown to be fraudulent, but I'll get to that in a minute. Orly Taitz's going to tell you about that.

DOBBS: All right, but you don't have a whole bunch of time now, partner. I'm not contracted with you for a long run here. Just gotta -- gotta get to the point, if you will, Jay.

CALLER: What could be more personal than somebody's tax return? Barack Obama gladly showed his tax return on April 15, but he won't show his birth certificate. I would like to know the very simple question. Why is he spending millions of dollars in court cases all over America to prevent anyone from seeing it? His lawyers have even threatened people for even asking to see his birth certificate, not to mention all the other records that he refused to show.

DOBBS: Well, if they want to sue The Lou Dobbs Show here, if they want to sue me personally, come on down. But we're going to keep talking about this until we get some straight answers. You know, I can afford a lawyer or two myself, you know. But I really want to know what's going on. I have no idea what the real -- what the reality is here, but I'm one of those morons who, when I look at something that says "certification of live birth" on FactCheck.org, I assume it's certification of live birth, not -- you know, that's it.

FactCheck.org is a terrific website, and they do a wonderful job. But when I'm looking at a certificate of live birth that is certified to be a certification that there is another document that I haven't seen, I get a little annoyed. Especially when John McCain, born in Panama, went to all of the trouble to make certain that the solicitor general rendered an opinion and a determination that he was a natural-born citizen, so why not do the same thing for President Obama? Produce a doggone long -- so-called -- I don't even know what it a long-form birth certificate looks like -- but just produce it and be done with it. I mean, that'd satisfy you, wouldn't it, Jay?

CALLER: It certainly would, but he is going out of his way not to show that there's a reason why he won't show it. American people have a right -- the people --

DOBBS: One of our callers, Jay, by the way, pointed out a lot of people in states all over the country have to produce their birth certificates to get a driver's license, for crying out loud.

CALLER: Every single thing he's done as president, if he is not eligible, will be deemed illegal and have to be undone. What a catastrophe.

DOBBS: Yeah, well that would be a little annoying, wouldn't it?

CALLER: From spending us into oblivion with trillions of dollars that nobody should have ever spent --

DOBBS: Now, wait a minute. You know what I would really like to find out is that George Bush wasn't a natural-born citizen, because that means we could get back about $12 trillion under his authorization that went into the economy. What do you think?

CALLER: I agree, but he would show his -- you -- George Bush, me, you, and everybody else would show a birth certificate.

DOBBS: Yeah.

CALLER: This guy refuses.

DOBBS: You got it. Well, I appreciate the call, Jay, there in Reno, Nevada. We're going to take a quick break; we're going to be taking your calls, we want to hear you. What do you think? Is President Obama -- should he produce his birth certificate -- the long form, the real deal? Should he be a little more forthcoming?

One of our callers, by the way, pointed out that he didn't release -- he didn't release his medical records, either. Now isn't that interesting? And hasn't produced some other documents. What's the deal? What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right. We'll be right back.

[...]

DOBBS: Professor, I have to be honest. When we started this, going -- following the lawsuit by Major Cook, I thought, "My gosh, you know, this is crazy stuff. Let's get this, you know, get into it and get out of it, and we'll get the truth and we'll be done." This is not quite that easy, is it?

SPIRO: Well, I think it is pretty easy, actually.

DOBBS: All right.

SPIRO: I don't think there's much of a case here.

DOBBS: All right.

SPIRO: It's pretty clear that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: And there's absolutely no doubt that he is eligible to be president of the United States on that basis.

DOBBS: All right.

SPIRO: Now what's --

DOBBS: Now you've done that, but you know what? I've got the problem that other people looking at the only document that's available say, "Wait a minute."

SPIRO: I'm not sure what the "wait a minute" is about. I think what's fueling these theories is the counter-factual of if he had been born in Kenya, under the citizenship statute as it was then written, he would not have been a citizen at birth.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: So that gives these theorists something to work with.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: Even though at the threshold there's a basic factual problem with the theory.

DOBBS: All right, here's my problem as I look at it. And I respect very much the fact that, you know, you've declared him to be a, you know, a natural-born citizen. But my question is: Are you making such a judgment based on his birth certificate that we see on the Web?

SPIRO: Well, as far as I know, nobody has offered up any evidence to the contrary.

DOBBS: Correct.

SPIRO: So there's no evidence that he was born in Kenya.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: And so the best evidence we have is the birth certificate, which has been attested to by various state officials and others with knowledge of what birth certificates from Hawaii look like.

DOBBS: Right.

SPIRO: So there's no reason to believe that he wasn't born in Hawaii.

DOBBS: So, you -- what you're saying is then the burden of proof rests not with the individual or the statement that he is or is not a natural-born citizen, but rather on those who would disprove that he or she is?

SPIRO: Well, I think he's supplied adequate evidence for his birth in the United States, that the burden has certainly shifted to others to prove otherwise.

DOBBS: All right. And here is part of -- you know, I'm not sure how one does that. In this case, we're talking about disproving a negative. But rather than going to the merits of this, I want to get back -- well, first of all --

SPIRO: It's not proving the negative; it's proving an allegation that he was born in Kenya.

DOBBS: No, I understand what you're saying, but I'm actually not saying that that would be the problem here. The first thing is to determine whether or not his birth certificate is valid.

SPIRO: Right.

DOBBS: And what I don't understand is why that has not been released and given over to the public record. We have a certification of live birth that doesn't have a signature or an attestment of any kind attached to it.

SPIRO: You know, I'm not an expert on Hawaiian documents, but my understanding is that this is the real thing.

DOBBS: Right. No, no, I understand the same thing, too --

SPIRO: And that, you know, at this point, the claims are fringy enough that, again, in the absence --

DOBBS: My word exactly.

SPIRO: -- in the absence of any proof to the contrary, he's satisfied any burden of proof here.

[...]

CALLER: The professor who was on is like a mouthpiece for the Obama administration.

DOBBS: Yeah, I agree --[caller] -- I gotta say. Peter Spiro, he is the foremost authority on citizenship, but I was sort of taken by the fact he declares President Obama to be a natural-born citizen without having looked at any of the real documentation that would make it so.

CALLER: That's correct. And the other thing is there have been lawsuits that have -- that they have been attempted to force the legislators and the Electoral College to validate his eligibility. And it's like you have said, there have been millions and millions of dollars spent to quash all of these lawsuits in every legitimate inquiry.

DOBBS: Yeah.

CALLER: And, you know, if it smells like a skunk, it probably is a skunk, and something doesn't smell right with all of this.

DOBBS: Well -- and the way to get rid of those odors is always just open the windows and let the sun shine in. And all we need here is a doggone document, but for some reason the president doesn't want to release that.

[...]

DOBBS: First of all, we got to figure out what's going on. You know, we heard Professor Peter Spiro, who's a professor of law at Temple. He's the foremost -- one of the country's foremost experts on citizenship. He says in his judgment that the president is a natural-born citizen. I think most of us would say, as a matter of fact, that he is a natural-born citizen until proved otherwise.

David [caller], we have no proof that he isn't a natural-born citizen, and what's really frustrating here is that he seems to be resistant to the idea of proving that he is -- that is, providing the full-form birth certificate. Why, I don't know. What do you think?

CALLER: Well, all the lawsuits that he's squashing -- it's possible, and probable, I think, that the president knows what's coming.

DOBBS: Well, you know, the way you frame that -- it is possible to say it's probable, you know, as a matter of your opinion or mine, it doesn't matter. You know, I think it's improbable, you think it's probable. The issue is we're talking about it. Wouldn't it be helpful if the president would simply set this aside? Because there's a number of callers have said on this broadcast -- you know, here is John McCain, 72 years old, running for president of the United States. He knows he was born in Panama, because his father was in the Navy and his mother was with his father in Panama, and he was born there. He sought out a ruling by the solicitor general to determine that he met the standard of natural-born citizen.

Absolutely, you know, no effort to do so on the part of Barack H. Obama. Nor, as also our callers have pointed out, this president would not release his medical records. And the national media seemed to be fine with that, whereas they probably would have eviscerated John McCain for failing to do so.

CALLER: Well, I think it's probable. And I think that he's rushing through all these programs through by whatever means because he knows, by virtue of all the lawsuits that are generated, that we the public, we the citizens of the United States, have a mission, and we don't have to wait until the votes -- the voting for 2010.

DOBBS: Well, you obviously are intent upon that. And, David, you know, we'll see if you're right. Certainly your view can't be discounted at this point, because this president refused to provide the documentation that would settle all of the controversy here. David, thank you a lot for the call from Freeport, New York.

[...]

DOBBS: There's some reason -- there's some reason that they don't want to do this. I mean, I don't know what the heck it is. But this whole -- you and I agree no matter what you believe about this other stuff -- we agree, do we not, [caller], that if we just looked down at a certificate of birth that had the signature of the doctor, the testament of the hospital, the name of the hospital, the seal, whatever, you know, that would be sufficient.

But what we've got here is a certification of live birth that says that this is evidence that another document exists somewhere at some place at some time.

[...]

CALLER: Good to hear you, Lou. I DVR your show every day; I watch it on television. I just found out you had this on your air, and I'm -- this has been an issue on the blogs for over a year now.

DOBBS: Right.

CALLER: When I first heard about it, I thought, "Oh, come on, leave this guy alone. This is the dumbest thing ever."

DOBBS: Well, it is a dumb thing. I think we have to all admit this is a dumb thing either way, because, I mean, I can't understand why the president wouldn't just move to get this stuff out of the way. Show the documents, get it done -- I mean, he -- think about it. Well, actually, when I sit here thinking about it, he did not release his medical records, did he?

CALLER: No medical records.

DOBBS: That's right.

CALLER: He spent over a billion -- million dollars to fight this. Why? McCain has shown his birth certificate. Do you realize to get my license renewed in Oregon I have to show my birth certificate?

DOBBS: You know what? This is really very interesting, isn't it? I mean, because I got to be honest with everybody. When I started looking at this and the lawsuit -- Orly Taitz his attorney, for Major Cook, when he -- you know, I thought this is kind of peculiar. But I thought we should find out what's going on because, you know, it's a lawsuit -- a major who is -- he is, by the way, a combat veteran. Some people in the media have called him a coward; they are fools for doing so. But they're fools, anyway; it isn't this one instance that makes them fools.

This is a man who should be taken seriously. There are real questions here that need to be answered. And people talk about, quote-unquote, the lunatic fringe are the only ones interested in this, and it turns out that reasonable people should be interested, and reasonable -- excuse me -- reasonable minds have to understand what's going on. And this can be dismissed with one -- the production of one simple little document, and that's a birth certificate. It's extraordinary.

CALLER: That's all we're asking for. And have you looked at the birth certificate that is online?

DOBBS: Yes, I have. I've got it in front of me, as a matter of fact.

CALLER: Look at the verbiage. Does that look like '60s verbiage for a birth certificate?

DOBBS: Sixties verbiage?

CALLER: The nationality of his father.

DOBBS: OK, under race?

CALLER: Yes.

DOBBS: Yes, African. Mother's race: Caucasian. It's peculiar, I have to say. But, you know, hell, I can tell you this, in a career in journalism and broadcasting, I've seen a lot of peculiar things that turned out to be just as true as they can be. And things that seemed as true as they ought to be were the phoniest son-of-a-guns in the world, so we'll find out. We appreciate the call, [caller]. Thank you very much.

But this is a peculiar little document, this certification of life birth that everyone is purporting to validate the president. I think there's some issues with this. I mean, it's peculiar.
From the July 16 edition of United Stations Radio Networks' The Lou Dobbs Show:
CALLER: I have a question; it has to do with why Obama is refusing to show his real birth certificate. What has he got to hide?

DOBBS: Well, you know, that is the real question, isn't it? I mean, why not just get this silly, you know, nonsense out of the way? I mean, let's just say you put your birth certificate out there. You know, you have to present a birth certificate to get a passport. You've got to have a birth certificate drivers licenses in some places. We use birth certificates all the time. Why is there such a special need to keep that birth certificate out of the public eye?

Kathy, I think you're asking a very important question. It gives the appearance he's hiding something. I personally don't think he is, but I also think it's so silly of the Obama administration and this president not to just put it out there, get all the nonsense out of the way. It's the smartest thing he could do.






[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwNO8Kf ... annel_page[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRnvrBtK ... annel_page[/youtube]

Seriously? Lou Dobbs? I mean, I know Fox News has been repeating this claim every chance they get, I'm a little surprised to see it on CNN. While it's true I have nothing but contempt for the traditional media, even I didn't expect them to be this crazy.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Darth Wong »

CNN hired Glenn Beck before FOX did. I don't know why people buy into this notion that CNN is not a right-wing news network just because they're less unreasonable than FOX. That's like saying Pat Buchanan is not a racist because David Duke is worse.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by General Zod »

So Lou Dobbs is a moron. Big deal. (Was that many embedded flash videos honestly necessary?)
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Darksider »

I'm confused about this whole thing.

Doesn't the fact that his mother was an american citizen make his birthplace redundant?


IIRC the rules for U.S. citizenship are 1. One or more parent is an american citizen or 2. Born on U.S. soil.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Darth Wong »

The US Constitution requires that any president be born in the country, for some archaic reason. It's not enough to just be a citizen.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Ryan Thunder »

Darth Wong wrote:The US Constitution requires that any president be born in the country, for some archaic reason. It's not enough to just be a citizen.
It'd make more sense if it required them to actually live in the country as a citizen for x years or something prior to being elected, I think.

But seriously, we already knew Lou Dobbs was a worthless blowhard, didn't we?
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by fuzzymillipede »

I saw this on CNN today. It would appear that some people there are upset about Lou Dobbs' idiocy. Hell, the author of this commentary compares "birthers" to holocaust deniers like Ahmadinejad.
(CNN) -- The YouTube video of an out-of-control woman yelling and screaming at Republican Congressman Mike Castle's town hall meeting in Delaware, demanding to see the birth certificate of President Barack Obama, is utterly hilarious.

To watch others cheer her insanity, and then boo the congressman who says the president is an American, shows you that we have a serious problem with mental illness in this country.

The nut jobs that continue to promote this story are wacky, right-wing radio and TV talk shows hosts and no-credibility bloggers. They have latched onto this story like bloodsucking leeches, and actually want us to believe this story has legs.

Last week, in a suit filed by perennial presidential loser, Alan Keyes, they even tried to claim a court victory after a federal district judge in California asked to listen to the merits of their case. I'm sure he simply wanted to see for himself how delusional they are.

From the moment President Obama entered the race, he has had to endure the so-called flag-waving American patriots who think they are the arbiters of what's right for the country. What cracks me up is that in order to justify their loony beliefs, they say, "The president could just end this once and for all by producing the birth certificate."

Do you actually believe these wackos will stop there? They will then accuse the president of doctoring the document and ordering up the state of Hawaii and federal officials to create the birth certificate.

The next thing you know, one of those nut job right-wingers in Congress -- and yes, there are left-wing nut jobs as well -- will demand a federal investigation into the production of the birth certificate.

During the presidential campaign last year, the issue of whether Barack Obama was a "natural born citizen" legally qualified to be president was scrutinized by reporters and researchers who concluded that Obama was born in the United States.

For example, in August, 2008, factcheck.org published the following: "FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false."

President Obama is right to ignore these losers. They are right up there with Holocaust deniers like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the people who insist that the landing on the moon was done in a television studio.

Conspiracy theorists are everywhere. It's just that today, we have to deal with the Internet and all the mess that is disseminated in the name of so-called transparency.

So nut jobs, keep it coming. In such difficult times, we all need a good laugh every now and then, and you provide great comic fodder.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Darksider wrote:I'm confused about this whole thing.

Doesn't the fact that his mother was an american citizen make his birthplace redundant?

IIRC the rules for U.S. citizenship are 1. One or more parent is an american citizen or 2. Born on U.S. soil.
Not quite. As the law existed at the time of Obama's birth, if he wasn't born in the United States he would only have been a natural-born citizen if at least one parent had lived in the United States for two years as a legal citizen and adult. Obama's mother was only 18 at the time of his birth, so he has to have been born on US soil for him to be a natural-born citizen.

The doccument Obama has presented isn't a birth certificate, it is a 'Certificate of Live Birth', and is (apparently) different somehow. I know that oftentimes Americans born abroad who can't get a birth certificate will USE a CLB for official doccumentation, and it generally carries the same legal weight.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Ziggy Stardust »

CaptainChewbacca wrote:The doccument Obama has presented isn't a birth certificate, it is a 'Certificate of Live Birth', and is (apparently) different somehow. I know that oftentimes Americans born abroad who can't get a birth certificate will USE a CLB for official doccumentation, and it generally carries the same legal weight.
The 'Certificate of Live Birth' even SAYS on it (and it is cearly visible in the pictures produced on FactCheck): "This copy serves as prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding." And it has the Hawaii Department of Health's official seal and signature on it, as well.

FactCheck says:
The certificate has all the elements the State Department requires for proving citizenship to obtain a U.S. passport: "your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records." The names, date and place of birth, and filing date are all evident on the scanned version, and you can see the seal above.

The document is a "certification of birth," also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents' hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. 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.
So, yeah, it is technically not the actual birth certificate, but there is no reason why it shouldn't be valid.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Gaidin »

CaptainChewbacca wrote: Not quite. As the law existed at the time of Obama's birth, if he wasn't born in the United States he would only have been a natural-born citizen if at least one parent had lived in the United States for two years as a legal citizen and adult. Obama's mother was only 18 at the time of his birth, so he has to have been born on US soil for him to be a natural-born citizen.
Weren't current laws grandfathered back to before Obama was born?
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

So, yeah, it is technically not the actual birth certificate, but there is no reason why it shouldn't be valid.
Conspiracy nuts THRIVE on technicalities. I don't believe it, because we're approaching moon-landing-hoax levels of the number of people who would have to be involved in concealing it. That being said, I would really, REALLY like him to put the real, original doccument out there so that people would just shut up.

I've heard ANOTHER conspiracy theory, namely that the reason Obama doesn't want the certificate released is that there may be a different father. Also idiotic, I know, but is there ANYTHING that could be on a birth certificate which is NOT on a CLB that could be embarassing?
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by erik_t »

Perhaps he was born with a tail :P

Frankly, I don't want Obama to let out the full certificate. Conspiracy nuts will only find a new way to rape reason and common sense if this one goes away, but this topic of discussion puts them in a very public forum, exposing them as the loons they are. If Dobbs were instead convinced that a $300 plastic disc on the side of his gas tank would emit "holographic frequencies into the gas tank and change the molecular structure of the gasoline" and make it burn better, we wouldn't have this piece of evidence that Dobbs is a fucking retard (not that there's a shortage of evidence in his case).
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Omega18 »

CaptainChewbacca wrote: The doccument Obama has presented isn't a birth certificate, it is a 'Certificate of Live Birth', and is (apparently) different somehow. I know that oftentimes Americans born abroad who can't get a birth certificate will USE a CLB for official documentation, and it generally carries the same legal weight.
It should be clarified though that the 'Certificate of Live Birth' explicitly states Obama was born in Honolulu at precisely 7:24 P.M. You could not get one saying this if you were not born in the location in question.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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CaptainChewbacca wrote:Conspiracy nuts THRIVE on technicalities. I don't believe it, because we're approaching moon-landing-hoax levels of the number of people who would have to be involved in concealing it. That being said, I would really, REALLY like him to put the real, original document out there so that people would just shut up.
Why should he waste a moment's effort in a futile attempt to satisfy these people who won't believe him anyway? These "birther" people are sure they are right. You spoke of moon landing hoax believers. NASA shouldn't have put out a report proving that, "yes, we actually did land on the moon." The moment we acknowledge these nutcases, we begin to legitimize them in the eyes of people who say, "well look, they actually listened to them..."

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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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Darth Wong wrote:The US Constitution requires that any president be born in the country, for some archaic reason. It's not enough to just be a citizen.
Then McCain was not a legal candidate - he was born in Panama, not on US soil.

(McCain unquestionably a natural-born citizen since both his parents were US citizens at the time of his birth, but McCain was not born in the US.)
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Does anyone think this would be discussed ad nauseam the way that it has been for Obama if McCain was elected? You wouldn't have Limbaugh, Dobbs and all these other right-wingers whinging over it. I've no doubt a few people on the Democratic/Liberal side would mention it (and some did during the election, as I recall), but I seriously doubt it would get the same kind of attention that this has.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Darksider »

To be honest, the only time i've ever heard anyone on the liberal side of the debate mention McCain's panama birth is to get the birthers to shut the fuck up, so no.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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That's mostly because the liberals don't really care. I think we appreciate that location of birth does not a good president make, and that the requirements in the Constitution are relics of a long-ago era for the United States.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Broomstick wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:The US Constitution requires that any president be born in the country, for some archaic reason. It's not enough to just be a citizen.
Then McCain was not a legal candidate - he was born in Panama, not on US soil.

(McCain unquestionably a natural-born citizen since both his parents were US citizens at the time of his birth, but McCain was not born in the US.)
That's an either/or requirement, not both. Both of McCain's parents were US citizens and had been adult citizens of sufficiently long time to meet the requirement. The same was true of Barry Goldwater when he tried to run, since he had been born in Arizona territory and not a US state. Moreover, McCain was born in the PCZ, not just Panama, which was at the time considered to be a US military area and therefore US soil for the purposes of sovereignty.

So, McCain claims natural-born citizenship by both his parents AND the location of his birth being legally 'U.S. Soil'.

Obama cannot claim natural-born citizenship under law through the citizenship of his mother (since she wasn't old enough), but since he was born in Hawaii (which was a state at the time) that doesn't matter. THAT is why they're flipping out about the location of his birth. They've got 1 of the 2 means for natural citizenship locked out, so they just need the other to 'win' and get the dirty liberal mooslem out of office.
That's mostly because the liberals don't really care. I think we appreciate that location of birth does not a good president make, and that the requirements in the Constitution are relics of a long-ago era for the United States.
They may be archaic, but they still matter under the law. The reason why Dick Cheney had to change his legal residence to Wyoming before the 2000 election is because legally the President and Vice President cannot be from the same state.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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CaptainChewbacca wrote:Obama cannot claim natural-born citizenship under law through the citizenship of his mother (since she wasn't old enough), but since he was born in Hawaii (which was a state at the time) that doesn't matter. THAT is why they're flipping out about the location of his birth. They've got 1 of the 2 means for natural citizenship locked out, so they just need the other to 'win' and get the dirty liberal mooslem out of office.
The only way they can "win" then is to find a means to retroactively nullify the statehood of Hawaii from 1959 onward. Good luck to them on that. 8)
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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CaptainChewbacca wrote:They've got 1 of the 2 means for natural citizenship locked out, so they just need the other to 'win' and get the dirty liberal mooslem out of office.
Other than in the fantasy world of these raving idiots' minds, Obama goes nowhere. All of this is just so much bother and nonsense. It's not as if Obama is actually going to be removed.

The danger here, I think, is that the gradual goading from the sidelines by these loudmouths with audiences and the other piling on could start to really antagonize people who hate him enough, pushing them over the edge and possibly trying something desperate.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by starslayer »

Broomstick wrote:Then McCain was not a legal candidate - he was born in Panama, not on US soil.

(McCain unquestionably a natural-born citizen since both his parents were US citizens at the time of his birth, but McCain was not born in the US.)
IIRC, at the time the Canal Zone was considered sovereign US territory. Anyways, wasn't he born in a military hospital on a military base? Bases are also considered sovereign US territory, and if he was born on one, he was born in the US.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by Alyeska »

Ok, lets go down the hypothetical Birther road. What actually happens if its determined Obama was not eligible for president? Lets say his Grandparents and Mother were involved in a conspiracy to enable him to become president of the United States and faked his birth in Hawaii. What happens? If he was never actually eligible, then that would indicate he was never president, but that also means Joe Bidden would also not be president. But McCain himself didn't win enough Electoral Votes to become president. In my understanding, you have to have the required number of electoral votes to win. So just what happens if Obama is ruled ineligible after the fact?
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

Post by TimothyC »

Alyeska wrote:So just what happens if Obama is ruled ineligible after the fact?
I would imagine that it goes to the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote.
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Re: Lou Dobbs is a birther?! [vid]

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Alyeska wrote:Ok, lets go down the hypothetical Birther road. What actually happens if its determined Obama was not eligible for president? Lets say his Grandparents and Mother were involved in a conspiracy to enable him to become president of the United States and faked his birth in Hawaii. What happens? If he was never actually eligible, then that would indicate he was never president, but that also means Joe Bidden would also not be president. But McCain himself didn't win enough Electoral Votes to become president. In my understanding, you have to have the required number of electoral votes to win. So just what happens if Obama is ruled ineligible after the fact?
They'd probably get 20 or 50 legal schollars into a room to hash that out, and in the meantime Nancy Pelosi would likely be asked to step up as an interim or temporary President. Depending on how long to the next election, either they'd just let her serve 12-16 months or, if this came out after Obama got re-elected, they might have a new 'special election'.

The other alternative would be to take the frontrunners of the 2008 elections and kick them to the House, in which case Joe Biden could step up to Presidential candidate, pick a VP, and be the leader of the dem ticket.
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