“Has Mayor Schweighart stopped beating his wife yet?”
Mayor Schweighart has never beat his wife.
“Ahh, I’m so happy he has stopped beating his wife”
These are the types of tactics that Jerry and the birthers have employed: manufacture an issue, and then request that evidence be given to disprove the manufactured issue, thereby giving their made-up story validity.
I wish he’d go back to beating his wife instead of this dead horse.  Makes all of us here in C-U look like rubes.

Schweighart correctly noted Obama’s refusal to release his original, 1961 Certificate of Live Birth, which would indicate the hospital and delivering physician.  All Obama has released so far is a 2008, computer-generated “Certification [NOT “Certificate”] of Live Birth signed by CURRENT Hawaii official who claim to have examined some “vital records” without saying what they are.  So of course it looks like Obama has something to hide. What’s so hard about releasing the original 1961 Certificate?  Obama claims to have seen it Dreams from My Father, and could get a copy from the Hawaii Department of Health upon request.   

The YouTube video is up to 170,000 views, thanks to a mention from Drudge.
Schweighart’s gone viral. 170,000 people around the world learning that Champaign has an idiot for mayor.

And I say, congratulations to Obama for refusing to knuckle under to purveyors of a bubble-headed conspiracy theory. There’s more than enough proof for anyone reasonable; the folks who reject it reject it because, deep down, they really want to reject it, and will move the goalposts however far down the field necessary to do that.
Obama knows that if he published a copy of his birth certificate, then the Schweigharts (and Limbaughs and Becks) of the world would take about one-thirtieth of a second to pivot to, “Well, how do we know this isn’t a doctored copy? This doesn’t prove anything!”

Northeast Elizabeth,
Right, like you and your conspiracy-obsessed friends would accept a copy.  You would immediately demand another, more valid (to you) demonstration, and continue to do so until the President of the United States spent most of his time responding to delusional charges from nitwits such as yourself.
Please stop being insane now.
-Tim

<i>Right, like you and your conspiracy-obsessed friends would accept a copy.</i>
I certainly would.  In fact, I’d donate $1,000 to Obama’s 2012 campaign if he’d release the 1961 original.  But he won’t, because he obviously can’t.
It’s unfortunate that you’re so ignorant that you can’t grasp the difference in the qualify of proof between (1) 2008 statement by current officials claiming they’ve looked at unspecified “vital records” and (2) a 1961 contemporaneous, typewritten, hospital issued document signed by the doctor who witnessed the birth. Why I ever argue with non-lawyers, I don’t know.
 
<i>So Elizabeth, who do you think Obama’s real mother is? If it were the one he claims, then it wouldn’t matter where on Earth he was born.</i>
I don’t dispute the identify of his mother.  But if he were born outside of the United States he would not be a “natural born citizen” because of his father’s non-U.S. citizenship—only those children born abroad whose parents are BOTH U.S. citizens are considered natural born.
Quite frankly, I’m convinced he was born in Hawaii by virtue of the contemporaneous newspaper announcements.  My reason for wishing him to release it (along with his college and law school transcripts) is to expose the vast number of lies he has told about other aspect of his biography.   
Thank you for being schooled by me.  Next time, I may charge a tutor’s fee.

I have decided that unless Neil Armstrong personally hands me a moon rock, along with the original NASA negative of a photograph of Armstrong himself plucking it from the surface and—oh, what the hell—Wernher von Braun’s complete medical records (originals only please, birth certificate included), I will declare that the moon landing “obviously” didn’t happen and will instead mutter inanely about dark conspiracies with all the volume my roaring ego can muster. 
In other words, “Northeast Elizabeth” could use a heap o’ growing up.

elizabeth, does the tinfoil hat get unconfortable out in the sun at the tea party rallies?

Hmmm.  How many people really have a legible original 45+ year old birth certificate? 

By chance I do have my original 31 year old birth certificate, but it is no longer legible (faded ink) and is in four pieces.  If I submitted the certificate as proof of being a natural born citizen that some “conspiracy nut” could still claim it was doctored or illegible and therefore not adequate proof. 

When I go to the DMV - I don’t take my original certificate.  I have to take the computer copy from the state of Ohio.  The original is not legible and hasn’t been for the last 10-15 years. 

To any Birthers - Go spend you time on something more useful.  Read a book.  Study history.  Go for a walk.

Like President Obama, I don’t have a copy of my actual original birth certificate. Does this eliminate me from being President? That seems like a rather absurd criteria. I bet most people who are 35+ years old don’t have their actual original birth certificate.

I think the birthers need to remember that old axiom, don’t believe everything you read. ESPECIALLY if it is on the Internet.

“That seems like a rather absurd criteria.”
Well, criteria for what? For determining who’s eligible for the Presidency? Sure, that’s absurd. But as an opening for a whisper campaign against Obama from people who don’t even pretend they don’t hate him? Any excuse is fine.
Like when Hannity brought out that Captain Whizbang Anthony Martin-Trigona to tell the world that Obama’s a Moooooslem. Anybody with an IQ higher than that of the average can of shaving cream could tell Martin-Trigona was a complete nutbarian within nanoseconds, even if they didn’t know him from his Champaign days. But as an excuse to say that the matter is controversial and undecided—well, yes, sane people and nutbarians do disagree, just as they disagree about whether or not the marshmallows in Lucky Charms are really actually magic.

Northeast Elizabeth:
If he was not born in the United States, how did his birth announcement in Hawaii which is a part of the United States appear in the local Honolulu paper a couple of weeks after his birth? 
Also, how did his parents go from Hawaii to Kenya and back with a child undetected and without documentation? Are you suggesting that his parents had supernatural powers to see the future and move around the world undetected?
Do you know that even today, you have stop-overs from Hawaii to Kenya or various ports of call between Honolulu and port of Mombasa Kenya and it would be impossible to travel undetected especially for a pregnant woman and a family with an infant? In fact, in 1961, there were less flights from Hawaii to mainland US or Europe or Kenya. In 1961, the British ruled Kenya and one had to go through London, England.
If birthers like you and the mayor had any knowledge of the world geography or world travel, you wouldn’t be asking that question. Also, in the United States, the birth certificates differ and change after a few years. There is no uniform birth certificate. For example, some birth certificates have numbers while others do not have.  

Northeast Elizabeth:
You mean he lied about being the President of Harvard Law Review or Columbia and Harvard Universities gave him top grades because they knew that he would be the future president of our country?
 

I believe that our Mayor is as common as many of the citizens in this, and most small towns. He by birth right and design, was brought up to be afraid of everything that he is unaccustom to. Does that make him a racist…...by the very defination, yes. This whole thing has gained cult status. I hope some day we can get past our own predijuce. 

This is perfect.  With the teabaggers getting all riled up about a birth certificate they will fall right asleep at bedtime.  

I like the birthers.  They keep the spotlight on non-starters like “where was the President born?” while Democrats do little things like “govern” and “pass laws.”  Fine by me.
 
Plus, exposing a birther lets you know instantaneously that the person is a) certifiably insane; b) racist; or c) both.  It’s like wearing the special glasses in John Carpenter’s classic film “They Live.” 
 
And if Northeast Elizabeth believes the President was really born in Hawaii, then why does the “original” birth certificate even matter?!?  Assume it exists (it does), and tell us these phenomenal, non-racist, non-schizoid stories you have about the “vast number of lies” the president has told about his backstory.  Really.  I’m fascinated to find these things out, but I don’t have the stomach to read World Net Daily or the National Enquirer.

The Birthers and other Teabaggers live in fear of the unknown. They listen to morons like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity because they reinforce their racist, homophobic fears. When they say they want their country back they really do - they can’t stand the idea of a smart, successful, worldly African American President, a Hispanic Supreme Court Judge, a gay congressman (Barney Frank) and a woman Speaker. They want to revert to an all white, male governing body that threatens instead of building coalitions, dominates instead of cooperates and rewards, not regulates, corporate greed. The world is changing. We are lucky to have a President who can help the US navigate and lead that change.

I am not a birther; I do believe President Obama was born in Hawaii. However, I notice all the name calling (idiot, racist, etc.) Mayor Schweighart has received from the local “left” when I didn’t hear those same names when some thought/think that 9/11 was an inside-job conspiracy by the U.S. government/Bush administration. I believe there is enough information to disprove that conspiracy theory as there is to disprove the Obama-isn’t-a-U.S.-citizen conspiracy theory. I speculate that there might even be an SP contributor or two who are 9/11 conspiracy theorists (want to fess up so we can call you an idiot?).

Silly, silly people.
So Elizabeth—now you’re saying Ann Dunham and Barack Sr. weren’treally married?’
<span style=“font-style: normal;”>Rob, read the statute you linked to </span>carefully. Even where the parents are married (which I concede), it requires the non-alien parent to have resided in the United States for at least five years past his or her fourteenth birthday.  Obama’s mother was only seventeen, and so had resided here only three years past that birthday.
But as I said, I believe Obama was born in Hawaii.  What I believe would be incriminating about the information on the original would be its indication (as later amended) that after his adoption he adopted the named “Soetoro” and thus lied on his application to the Illinois State Bar when he said he was never known by any name other than “Barack Obama.”  
As Sharon Churcher has pointed out, “for all Mr Obama’s reputation for straight talking and the compelling narrative of his recollections, they are largely myth.”  Every little tidbit that is revealed about this largely-unexamined man could bring us closer to the truth. Why do you hate the truth?
And let’s put aside these childish claims that Obama can’t find, or Hawaii can’t release, the original certificate.  If no one has it, what could the state possibly be basing its claims of a Hawaii birth upon?

What a shame that an elected official with such serious responsibilities has demonstrated that he holds such a foolish view.  It certainly calls into question the gentleman’s judgement and character.

Wow, Northeast Elizabeth!  That IS an incredibly compelling, non-racist, non-schizoid conspiracy theory!  So in theory, Barack adopted a name (as a child somehow, mind you), which would cause him YEARS LATER to “lie” on his application to the Illinois State Bar… even though it wouldn’t make a world of difference as to whether he would be admitted to the bar or not.

And because he lied on that bar application, he is somehow disqualified to be President! 

Effin’ Manchurian Candidate… we’re through the looking glass here, people.

But really, Liza, keep looking into the man’s backstory.  That’s the way to knock him down a few pegs.  Maybe you’ll find a delicious nugget about elicit drug use, homosexual tendencies, or *gasp* infidelity!  Then THAT, most certainly, would disqualify him from being President, right?  That’d probably qualify him to be the RNC chair (or at least an RNC staffer), but that’s beside the point…
 

Pete, Obama admitted to doing cocaine (like Joe Biden’s daughter was caught doing on camera last year) in his biography so there’s nothing to uncover.  As to “GASP” infidelity, I doubt there’s anything to top John Edwards or Eliot Spitzer or Bill Clinton, if that’s what you’re getting at.
Not talking about his qualifications, Pete.  All that’s needed for that is a pulse, 35 years of existence and natural born citizenship.  I’m just talking about what’s in the mix for voters to consider.  For example, when it came out in 1988 that Joe Biden committed plagiarism in law school and lied about his college and law school rank, he was forced to withdraw from the race.  

Awesome!  Just something to consider!  Sounds great!  You’re really mining for gold, aren’t you, Liza? 

I, like Tony C. above have an original 31 year old birth certificate.  Mine’s from the state of Washington, and has nice little footprints on it.  Unlike Tony C.‘s document, mine is completely legible, and I can read the delivering physician’s name just fine, although his signature is messy as is typical of his profession. 
But, mine is not a legal document.  That’s right, if I want to use it to apply for a passport or (as was common until several years ago) use it as proof of citizenship for re-entry at the Canadian or Mexican border, I am out of luck.  I was told it is a family document, and thus I had to ask for a certification of live birth for proof of citizenship.  That’s right, the certificate given my family at birth is not actually a document proving my citizenship - the document that I have to use for such proof is a separate document containing the same kind of information as Obama’s document!
Which really means that this argument regarding Obama’s certificate is moot. If the federal government doesn’t accept that as proof of citizenship and instead requires a document of the type that Obama has provided, why would someone get it in their heads that a non-official family document is some sort of legal proof instead?  Surely our government knows a thing or two about such documents and has set an appropriately rigorous standard - if the original certificate were somehow more valid, why would I have to go get another document containing less information?

 Surely our government knows a thing or two about such documents and has set an appropriately rigorous standard - if the original certificate were somehow more valid, why would I have to go get another document containing less information?
Kelley, you haven’t a clue as to what you’re talking about.
The purpose of the certification is to authenticate the original certificate.  If you don’t have the original certificate, or if there’s something wrong with it, you don’t get the certification.  But the certification itself isn’t more rigorous—in fact, it’s virtually worthless.  Its value is entirely dependent on the authenticity of the certificate.
Let’s make it simple—let’s say I sign an affidavit saying “I, the Administrator of the National Archives, have seen a copy of the original Declaration of Independence.”   Nobody would say that my affidavit is “more rigorous proof” of the Declaration than the Declaration itself.  And as an historical document, that affidavit would be absolutely worthless.
The 2008 Certification by the Hawaiian officials is even more worthless.  It doesn’t say what vital records were examined.  It doesn’t say that the 1961 Certificate was examined, or what its contents were.
In any event, what Hawaii state law says about what kind of certificate should be issued, is irrelevant.  The only standard that matters is the one set forth in the Constitution regarding the “natural born citizen” requirement.  If Obama wasn’t born here, it doesn’t matter what some state (or the federal government) accepts for passport or other purposes.  

Northeast Elizabeth:
Now, you cook up something else. Obama was a child when he went to Indonesia. He had no control on what his stepfather did or did not do on his elementary school application. Also, there is no record that his name was changed on his US passport or his citizenship had changed when he was sent back to Hawaii to be with his grandparents. For your information, there is a legal process to do that. Of course, there is no record because his official name and citizenship had not changed. It appears that you have not traveled outside the US where they only accept US passport and not driver’s license.  

No, I did not have to produce my original certificate to get the certification.  I just had to talk to the appropriate records people over the telephone and send a check in the US mail.  So, clearly, you do get certifications without providing certificates.  (Which then presents the question as to whether you have a clue about that which you are talking about, no?)

In fact, what I received as “proof” of my citizenship for passport application without providing the original document is very similar to that at http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn227/Polarik/BO_Birth_Certificate.jpg - save that mine is blue and not green, is from a different state, and has my birth data on it.

You’re saying she was born after 1952?  I know that math doesn’t work, but neither does yours. She was about 18 3/4 years old when Barack Jr. was born.
No, I’m saying he was born between 1952 and 1986.  Under the statute governing those years, she’d have to be at least 19 when he was born, which she clearly wasn’t.
 
How did she get out of the country, pregnant and underage?
I know ACORN trafficks in underaged women, maybe they got her out.
 
Hodz, the place to start is that there’s “no record” of him being born anywhere.  That’s the problem.  Computer-generated documents from 2008 based on nothing don’t cut it, sorry.

And one more thing, ‘lest there be some confusion: when I applied for my passport the original document was not required.  It could have been in my grandmother’s attic while I stood there presenting things to the official at the post office.  If the certification does validate the original certificate in any fashion at all there is absolutely no indicator of such in the proceedure for certification acquisition nor passport application.  All evidence points to its existence only as a nice little reminder to my family as to how small my feet once were.

Northeast Elizabeth:
“Hodz, the place to start is that there’s “no record” of him being born anywhere. “
So, you confirm that he and his parents are supernatural. Since they came straight from God, we must bow down and worship him.
President Obama’s mother was born on November 29, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Of course, you believe that there is no record of that too.
By the way, there was no ACORN in 1961.

My kind of town, Champaign is. My kind of town, Champaign is. The Gazette building, Champaign is. The Jumpin bar scene, Champaign is. A Mayor that won’t let you down. It’s my…...kind…...of ......town !

Jason - Sure, Jerry can say anything he wants (almost) and it’s legal. The point is that Jerry said things in public that embarrass his city, Champaign’s twin city Urbana, the state of Illinois and the entire Midwest. He embarrasses the University of Illinois by proximity. Jerry displayed not only astounding poor judgment but a failure to distinguish between  his feelings about the President and reality. The call for resignation from a County Board member reflects our collective outrage and is entirely appropriate.
And you’re a LAW student? Oh my. To be so out of the loop at such a young age!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypsCZORFljE
More tea party video.

Jason,
In response to an uninvited question, Mayor Schweighart made a factually correct statement and I defended its truth.  The only “controversy” here was caused by Mr. Kurtz’ false statements regarding what documents Obama had produced, and his calls for Schweighart’s resignation based on those lies.  I don’t know why you insist we should accept and pretend to believe such lies merely because various lawsuits have failed based on the issue of standing.  The question isn’t whether other people have standing to object to Obama’s citizenship; the question is whether Schweighart made correct statements regarding the current state of the proof.
Joe Biden committed plagiarism in law school and lied on camera about his grades and class rank.  During the 2008 campaign, he also falsely accused a truck driver of manslaughter and drunk driving  It’s fair game for any politician (or citizen) to point out these facts publicly—particularly when questioned on them.  The fact that Biden can’t be impeached for his deception has nothing to do with the truth of the criticisms.
 

I wonder if there would be such worry about the President’s birth certificate if he had a different kind of wierd name, like Schwieghart or Shwartzenegger.
Or if he looked more like those guys…?
Also, I find it interesting, and not at all surprising, that all of these Birthers have obviously never gone through the process of proving their own citizenship by applying for a passport.
I’m sorry, crazies, but you don’t get to take your real, original, State owned birth certificate in to the Post Office.  You take a certification from the proper County Clerk or State, just like President Obama has shown.
Of course, they wouldn’t dare travel to one of them foriegn, socialist, fascist countries.  They might actually see the world from somewhere outside their narrow POV.
This mayor has embarrassed our community in front of the world, when the success of this community is entirely based on bringing that world here through the University.
Very sad…

Dear Birthers:
By your standards, many people cannot prove their citizenship. People born at home, for example, which includes many past presidents. Consider how homebirthed infants get birth certificates—very easily doctored! And that cute little souvernier the hospital gives to Mommy with your footprints? Easily doctored as well. That is why the state keeps official records, and supplies to people an official copy for their documentation needs, such as getting a driver’s license, marriage certificate, passport, keys to the White House, etc.
OF COURSE, somehow anyone’s state-issued document could conceivably be faked by whoever gives the info to the state. But the line must be drawn somewhere, and at some point we say “this is the official record” unless there is reason to suspect otherwise. IOW, there would have to be some plausible reason to suspect that someone submitted faked documentation of Obama’s birth to the state of Hawaii back in 1961—plausible enough to justify trumping the presumption of validity in the state records.
Of course, there is no plausible reason. No evidence whatsoever that Obama was born anywhere other than Hawaii, and evidence such as newspaper announcements that he was. (And before anyone brings up his Kenyan grandma’s supposed admission,  the entire transcript shows he was born in Hawaii.)
For normal people, the presence of the Hawaii official record AND the lack of contradictory evidence would be game over.
Birthers have talked their way into the idea that the very existance of this official state record is ITSELF suspicious, or something. Their “logic” is the very definition of tautological, classical conspiracy stuff where every bit of evidence against the conspiracy is proof of the conspiracy. They demand that Obama prove a negative and “for some reason” refuse to accept the same documentation that every other citizen would be able to use without question.
So let’s hear the birther’s case as to why Obama cannot use the same embossed printout from his birthplace that the rest of us can use. And also, how did Obama:

1. Allegedly get back into the country as an infant after allegedly being born in Kenya?

2. Obtain a passport for travel to and from Indonesia as a child?

3. Obtain a Hawaii driver’s license as a teenager?

4. Get a marriage certificate?

5. Enter the US Senate (for which US citizenship is required)?

6. Pass the security clearance necessary for the foreign relations committee?

7. Obtain the DIPLOMATIC passport on which he travel outside the US as a Senator?
8. Keep his alleged Manchurian status a secret from the Bush/Chene administration—not to mention the Clintons, who could have used it against him?

Finally, WHY did Ann and Barack, Sr. allegedly fake a US citizenship in the first place? Their son qualified for British citizenship, which is a very good thing to have—and obviously could have been easily naturalized to US citizenship if, indeed, Ann’s age disqualified him from citizenship at birth.
There is only ONE reason it would have made any difference at all and that is the presidency. See why it sounds so ridiculous?

At this point, NE Liz has confirmed that she is both a racist and batshit insane.  So why do people keep replying to her?  It’s baffling.  Birthers don’t deserve a dialog, they deserve to be ostracized. 

Personally, I can’t wait until the President gets those re-education camps up and running. 

But I am a little concerned about the death panel my grandmother has to face later this month.  We got our fingers crossed and hope the ACORN officials will still see that she has enough utility left to be given a 6 month extension on her life.  Keep hope alive!

The whole thing all along has been an exercise in moving the goal posts. But Obama’s refusing to play the Birther’s game, and that drives the Birthers nuts.

 
There is nothing that will dissuade those interested in making this argument.  It has been knocked down by every major fact checker that has even spent a modicum of time or resources on the issue.
Poltifact covered it here and here and had this to say in closing the first time:

And there’s the rub. It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world’s biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything is possible.
But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what’s reasonable has to take over.
There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact’s conclusion that the candidate’s name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isn’t authentic.

And that’s true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.

That should be that.  The sheer preponderance of data supports Mr. Obama.   Only willful ignorance allows someone to continue on this path.

Kudos to NE Liz for remaining so suspicious 24/7. I mean Obama HAS to be up to something, right?  And that Biden!  What a lying creep!  I’m sure she was equally upset about Bush, Jr. going missing for 6 months while in the Alabama National Guard, or lying us into a war.
The real cherry here is the gratuitous ACORN trafficking in underage girls crack.  As the inquiry by the California Attorney General’s Office demonstrated, the entire “ACORN supports prostitution” video tape was a total scam.  The weaselly little twerp who played the pimp (and now faces serious jail time for his similarly disingenuous hijinx in Louisana) completely manipulated the editing to get the result he wanted (i.e. he shot the footage of himself in pimp clothing later, he never wore it into the ACORN office. Dialogue is cut out of order.  One ACORN employee called the police).  But hey, it makes for great Liz-righty evidence, so why not keep repeating it.
Here is the new reality: the conservative right in this country, either through calculated strategy or paranoid insanity, simply will no longer play on the terrain of actual, meaningful facts.  Look into their eyes…nobody is home.

At this point, NE Liz has confirmed that she is both a racist and batshit insane.  So why do people keep replying to her?  It’s baffling.  Birthers don’t deserve a dialog, they deserve to be ostracized.
Not a word of what I’ve said has been disputed, much less refuted.  I’ve conceded that the contemporaneous newspaper announcements likely point to a Hawaii birth, but that the actual official documentation is lacking.  No 1961 contemporaneous hospital or state records have been released, despite their presumed existence and easily availability.  Instead, there have been concerted, deceptive efforts to convince people that a 2008 computer-printout signed by current Hawaii officials is the “original” birth certificate.and that somehow it’s impossible—OH SO VERY IMPOSSIBLE WAAH WAAH WAAH—to produce the very documents the 2008 print-out is supposedly based on. Not to mention gratuitous, baseless and distracting allegation

. . .. allegations of racism.   I thought it was the tea partiers who were incivil and illogical?

I can sympathize, Liz.  I’m old enough to remember when Reagen was President and just how crazy mad I got when he’d claim ketschup should count as a vegetable for school lunch programs…or when he found some guy who invented a new coffee cup and claimed it proved that anyone could lift themselves out of poverty…or when he’d sign a bill screwing the unions and then get photographed hoisting a beer at a working class bar the same evening.  I remember thinking, how can anyone take this lying sack of crap seriously?  I’m sure you feel the same about Obama, amazed that no else seems to care about an issue that so obviously consumes you.  Let’s face it, nothing anyone on the left could ever say or produce would ever satisfy you, much as no one on the right will ever convince me (and most of the other commenters here) of what you purport to believe.  We’ve entered a future where we all have our own news networks and facts, and even fleeting, non-productive exchanges like this one will soon be a thing of the past. 

I told Stewie et al. that I was out of here because of the Olympian Drive bitch fest, but unfortunately the gravitational pull created by the enormous mass of NE Elizabeth’s stupidity and fail has pulled me right back.  She says she “believes Obama was born in Hawaii” but then goes on to argue from a ridiculous untenable position.  Elizabeth, how was Obama able to pull off this mass conspiracy? Hint: There isn’t one.  Previous posters have already provided several valid arguments and evidence, but it will never be good enough for you birthers. 
I know I shouldn’t feed the troll, but she looked hungry.  Now get back under the bridge!
P.S.  Schweighart is an embarassment.  Almost makes me wish I lived in Urbana.

 Let’s face it, nothing anyone on the left could ever say or produce would ever satisfy you,
 
As I’ve said (repeatedly), the contemporaneous newspaper birth announcement satisfy me.  True, though, they were uncovered by someone on the right rather than the left. 
 
As far as being “consumed” by the issue, recall that the only reason we’re discussing this is because some obsessed left-wing videographer decided to inject the citizenship question into the rally and ask Schweighart about it.  And Schweighart gave an honest reply, that Obama had not produced the original certificate and that indicated he had something to hide.  The only hysteria on this thread has been by those who have been hurling charges of insanity and racism without ever address the facts or the precise points in contention.
 

As far as being “consumed” by the issue, recall that the only reason we’re discussing this is because some obsessed left-wing videographer decided to inject the citizenship question into the rally and ask Schweighart about it.
Am I missing something?  When did the videographer say anything about citizenship?  Don’t talk about addressing the “facts or the precise points in contention” and then fabricate a lie about the interviewer asking about citizenship.  He said “What do you think about Obama?” Thats all. 
And why are you “Northeast” Elizabeth? Do cardinal directions really matter in crazyland?  I think not.

Actually, NE Elizabeth, I’m pretty sure I refuted your entire claim with a description of my own experiences regarding my original birth certificate, my acquisition of my certification, and my passport application requirements, as could many other Americans.  I’m tempted to say that if you’d be willing to supply the funds (and shut up forever) we could even do it all again, right up to the whole standing at the post office submitting documents (we can’t re-apply for my passport, however, since you can’t do that if you have a current one). 
 
Is there a passport-less reader here who only has a family birth certificate we could use as a guinea pig?  (Northeast Elizabeth would pay for your certification and passport!)

Oh, and I suppose I should add that the volunteer needs to have been born in the US and it would be even more interesting if they do not even have a family birth certificate. 

My point is simply this: if every possible document demanded by the “birthers” was produced signed, sealed, and delivered by God himself and notarized by Jesus, this crowd would move on to the next ridiculous claim/conspiracy as a strategy for trying to disqualify Obama.  The issue isn’t whether or not there might be some remote technicality that prevents Obama from being President; rather, it’s the fact that a large segment (but certainly not the majority) of the country simply does not want him to be President, and will therefore cling to any shred of hope that something might remove him from office.  Something.  Anything. Come on Liz, you know it’s true.
This is where Left and Right differ.  After an ideologically-split Supreme Court installed Bush as president in 2000 following Gore’s victory in the popular vote, the Left made a few jokes about the “President Select” and moved on.  We figured the country is strong enough to endure most anything, even a disaster like Bush.  But elect a centrist (and yes, bi-racial) democrat, and the conservative MINORITY cannot stop evaculating both their bile and their bowels every day. Socialist! Communist! Facist! Non-citizen! Elitist! Apologist! Gun-taker- awayer!  Person who bows out of politeness to foreign leaders!
This is the same crowd that spent 8 years trying to make Whitewater into something with Clinton, and who tried to hang Vince Foster’s suicide on Hilary.  If  you are a left/progressive, they really, really believe you have no business being an American, and that any democrat who wins an election must have done so under corrupt circumstances.  thus it has been, and thus it will always be…at least until the inevitable structural forces of progress push them—like the earth’s previous lizard-brained creatures—into extinction.

I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years, ST…I think it has more to do with personality structures than politics per se.  The right craves authority, so they follow it blindly when they feel it’s legitimate (i.e. in their interests) and reject it completely as false when it does not (and thus enter the realm of delusional logic).  They are “conservative” in the most basic sense—there is a “correct” order to things and change can only bring disaster (psychology tests have shown self-identified conservatives to have a more fearful view of the world).
People on the left, meanwhile, suspect ALL power (witness how much harder the left is on Obama than the right ever was with Bush).  True to their name, “progressives” think the world can’t change fast enough and generally believe residual forms of unquestioned authority hold society back (racism, homophobia, religion, etc).
So I doubt there will ever be any resolution to it.  Sociologists already have noted that conservatives are tending to move where other conservatives live, and progressives where other progressives live.  More than ever, your zip code says a lot about your politics (with obvious exceptions, of course).  As long as progressives get all the good cities in the future, I’m fine with that.  The right can set up a fantasy society of their own somewhere in the remote countryside where everyone lives in a cave with a shotgun and refuses to pay any taxes :-)  The future will eat them alive.

I blame FOX News for right wing hysteria.

The Mayor spoke his mind , what’s wrong with that?

Because what was on his mind was incredibly stupid.

“Better to be quiet and thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
 
Advice that our dear mayor would be wise to heed…

The State of Ohio was not formally admitted to the Union until 1953 even though it purported to be organized as a State since 1803.  Prior to the passage of the Act of Congress admitting Ohio it was actually merely a territory.  Presidents Hiram Ulysses Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William B. McKinley, and William Howard Taft were not born in the United States but rather in a territory belonging to the United States; and hence not native born citizens and Constitutionally ineligible to be President of the United States.
It follows then that laws enacted over their signatures and treaties negotiated and executed by them are invalid and void.  Appointments made by them to executive and judicial offices were invalid and persons acting under the authority of those appointments had no status other than as usurpers and their acts and opinions have no effect at law.  
 
 

Suppose you were to be asked by a government official where you were born, and upon saying that you were a natural-born American citizen, you presented a birth certificate, as is normally given out to people born in that state. Though your certificate does not differ from other birth certificates the state issues, the official demands that you produce a *different* birth certificate.
What are you going to produce?

Anyone, ANYONE who thinks that there is any kind of evidence that Obama could produce that would convince even a substantial proportion of the Birthers is off his or her nut. They have taken a proposition which there is absolutely no evidence to support (“I believe this man was born outside the United States”) and made up a crazy chain of events which support it because the evidence to the contrary isn’t so overwhelming to them that it prevents any doubt. There is an idea called Occam’s Razor I wish they would consult.
How any of them believe an interracial couple, before the civil rights movement took off, smuggled a child and forged documents involving foreign nationals at the height of the Cold War, and that nobody involved has come forward with any evidence of this plot (even though in doing so they could easily sell a book making millions of dollars), is far, far beyond the bounds of common sense.

It just goes to show how far the information vacuum can go, when one is listening to only one group of people. The same idea motivates crazies like Koresh and McVeigh, and elsewhere people like Bin Laden. When you design a philosophy around not taking the standard story seriously, and refusing to believe any evidence presented by multiple sources (many of whom have large incentive to agree with the reverse argument), you are going off the deep end.

Can we put posters up around town, disputing Schweighart’s election results, his education, and his entire background? It would be really fun.

“You don’t have the mind of a lawyer, which is a blessing for you.”—Westmark, by Lloyd Alexander.
Let’s try to simplify Timbo’s excellent post. Omission of evidence does not equal evidence of omission. I can’t speak thoroughly about what might have been done in Hawaii in 1961. But I will say the hospital where I was born is no longer a hospital. Fortunately I had already gathered the records I need. But if someone told me I had to produce an original document or admit I was not a citizen, I could not guarantee I would get the original in a timely fashion.
That seems to be vaguely similar to what has happened here. Should Obama, as the leader of the free world, be able to pull some strings and produce a document? Probably. But sensibly, I would say enough evidence exists to indicate he was born in Hawaii.

Timbo, I’m not aware of many real lawyers under the age of 90 who still spew out Latin phrases (unless it’s something indispensable like res judicata).  Or many who would misspell “obstreperous.”  Or many who think lawyers engage in fewer insults than laymen. 
Assuming you’re a real lawyer, however, you might make sure you’ve read the entire record before writing your brief.  I’ve made it quite clear I believe Obama was probably born in Hawaii due to the contemporaneous newspaper articles, and that his reason for concealing his 1961 vital records has to do with hiding some embarrassing biographical fact.  I’ve never argued that Obama’s failure to produce probative birth records proves he was born outside the United States.  
At some point he may be called upon to prove something, though, and neither the newspapers clippings or the laser-printed Certification will go very far in that direction.

AFAICT you’ve covered all the bases with this anwesr!