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Ear to the Ground

Birther Conspiracy Theory, Part Deux

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Posted on Apr 29, 2011
White House

President Barack Obama’s certificate of live birth.

After President Obama released his long-form birth certificate earlier this week, you’d think that the birther scandal would be finally put to rest. But no. Obama-hating conspiracy theorists have thought up a brand new angle on the birth certificate dispute, alleging they have proof that the document is a Photoshopped forgery.  —YL

Talking Points Memo:

The fringe theory’s rapid spread within hours of the certificate’s release presents almost a perfect example of one of the White House’s justifications for taking on the birther issue—namely, that thanks to the internet, conspiracy theories can migrate quickly from the fringe and into the mainstream if left unchecked.

In this case, it took only hours. The forgery claim appeared to have first started as an offbeat blog post from an Atlanta-based art director at an ad firm, Bryan Michael Nixon, less than two hours after Obama’s statement. By the end of the day it had become a headline on Drudge Report, one of the single most trafficked news sites on the internet. The debunked forgery revelation drew thousands of comments on messageboards, migrated to birther and truther conspiracy guru Alex Jones’ site, while a video explanation was viewed over 160,000 times on YouTube.

The basis for the forgery claim lay in a basic misunderstanding of how computer image formats work. Nixon observed in his post that the PDF file of Obama’s long form birth certificate could be broken down into “layers,” including a background and separate foreground text. “This in no way proves that anything on it is fake, but only that the document from the WH was composed of multiple elements,” he wrote. “How to interpret it is up to the viewer.”

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driving bear's avatar

By driving bear, May 1, 2011 at 3:15 pm Link to this comment

Reply to Joey Joe, April 30 at 7:35 am

I showed a photocopy of birth certificate just like Obama did , However The DMV would not accept it. The Birth Certificate I am required to show must have a raised state seal physically in the paper and the state of Tennessee also has an multi color stamp.

So I have to go to the Health dept. Monday and pay the state $25 for a copy with the seal and multi color stamp. Plus I have to waste a vacation day Monday to do all this.

So since I have to do all of this B.S. just to renew my lic , Obama should also to be President

Report this

By Inherit The Wind, April 30, 2011 at 5:04 pm Link to this comment

EmbraceAnyConspiracy:

Thanks for the laugh!  You go, guy!

When do you “prove” the moon-landing was faked and the earth really is flat.

Report this
fearnotruth's avatar

By fearnotruth, April 30, 2011 at 11:05 am Link to this comment

RE: As someone said: you can’t reason with “crazy”  (if you could, they
wouldn’t be crazy)

again with assertions of mental illness - and again a reminder, though you, of
all posters here shouldn’t need it, considering your own personal burden
(previously shared in these threads) and one for which genuine sympathy is
forthcoming

you surely understand that lazy toss-offs like this are insulting to those
suffering genuine mental incapacitation - largely reflective of a culture, numbed
by militarism, competitive sports and combative social practices in general

if the goal is to drive out the targets of such gratuitous slurs, victory is yours

I’ve been so many times accused here of ‘not having a life’ - if so, TD is the
principal energy suck - but no more

Report this

By Joey Joe, April 30, 2011 at 7:35 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

So If I have to produce a official state approved copy of my birth certificate to
get a drivers lic. Obama should have to produce an official certified copy to be
president of the USA.

You mean, the certification of live birth he produced three years ago?

Report this

By Inherit The Wind, April 30, 2011 at 5:31 am Link to this comment

It’s not “Part Deux”, it’s “Part DUH!!!!”

As someone said: you can’t reason with “crazy”  (if you could, they wouldn’t be crazy)

Report this
fearnotruth's avatar

By fearnotruth, April 29, 2011 at 4:15 pm Link to this comment

a little more digging finds this:

World Intel Says Obama ‘Birth Certificate’ A Rank Forgery
By Wayne Madsen - 4-28-11

http://www.rense.com/general93/rank.htm

From intelligence agencies around the world, the verdict on President Obama’s
newly-released certificate of live birth from Hawaii is in: the certificate is a rank
forgery on the same level as the Niger “yellow cake” uranium and Iraq Oil
Ministry forged documents. Intelligence and law enforcement services are
experts on fake documents since they have to deal with large numbers of
counterfeit documents, such as birth certificates, passports, identity cards and
driver’s licenses, as well as currency. Intelligence agencies are also experts at
forging their own documents for their clandestine agents.

Within 24-hours of the release of the long form Certificate of Live Birth on April
27, intelligence agencies from Britain and China to Germany and Russia
examined the document and concluded it was a forgery based on the fact that
Barack H. Obama Sr.‘s race, listed as “African,” was a monumental error,
considering that not only the United States, but other English-speaking nations
described Africans and those of African descent as either “Negroes” or “blacks”
in 1961.

[...]

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driving bear's avatar

By driving bear, April 29, 2011 at 3:19 pm Link to this comment

I have a special take on this issue
Today I went to the DMV to renew my drivers Lic.
Here in Tennessee you are required to show a birth certificate, to renew drivers lic. I have a photo copy of my birth certificate , and the DMV would not accept it . So Monday I have to go to health dept to get an official certified copy of my Birth Certificate ( with a multi color raised state seal ) and go back to the DMV to renew my drivers lic.

So If I have to produce a official state approved copy of my birth certificate to get a drivers lic. Obama should have to produce an official certified copy to be president of the USA

Report this

By Gmonst, April 29, 2011 at 3:14 pm Link to this comment

You can’t reason with crazy.  There will always remain a percentage of people that believe what they want to believe despite all evidence to the contrary, and there will always be those cynical types that don’t believe it but exploit it by pretending to believe it.

Report this
fearnotruth's avatar

By fearnotruth, April 29, 2011 at 3:12 pm Link to this comment

personally I don’t give a damn if the current Puppet POTUS ‘Manchurian Candidate’
is from Mars - he is what he is - a wholly owned Wall Street War Monger

it appears, however, that those making all the fuss and those tasked to prepare
the ‘doc.’ are too young to recall that in 1961, ‘African’ as a ‘race’ had yet to
appear in official documents - ‘Negro’ or ‘Negroid’ were the common terms - can
anyone cite any other official US document from that era (ca. 1960) where ‘African’
is used to designate race?

In particular, let’s see the media locate some other Certificates of Live Birth from
Hawaii, which bear a parental racial designation of ‘African’ - convincingly doing
that would go a long way in putting this to rest

Report this

By TDoff, April 29, 2011 at 1:03 pm Link to this comment

Calm down, everyone, calm down. The mistake was Obama’s, by releasing the long form of his birth certificate, It’ll take the GOPers and the TPers about a week to read to the bottom of the long form, so give them a chance!
Although the Vegas morning line is 8 to 3 against them coming to their senses.

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By gstoddard, April 29, 2011 at 11:35 am Link to this comment

The silliness continues and the media will give the crazies the air and print time to keep
it going. Meanwhile we lost 12 soldiers in our wars in the last few days.

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By Inherit The Wind, April 29, 2011 at 11:01 am Link to this comment

That’s why he was a fool to ever release it.  Conspiracy fanatics ALWAYS can explain any and every answer to their fantasy.

It doesn’t matter if an alleged conspiracy makes no fucking sense!  Now who would have thought in 1961 that a baby born to an American White woman and a Kenyan Black man would EVER have a chance to be President of the United States, and therefore set up an elaborate hoax to make him appear eligible…in 1961!

Why, it wasn’t even POSSIBLE for Obama to be considered for the job till he made his great speech at the 2004 Convention.  Then he had to get by Jack Ryan to become Senator in 2006….Yet SOMEHOW, all these fakes and forgeries were in place then, like a Manchurian Candidate.

Put down the crack pipe!

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