Thread: Barack Obama's citizenship questioned

Question: What is the state's policy for issuing a "Certification of Live Birth" versus a "Certificate of Live Birth"? My first, second and fourth children received certificates, but my third and fifth children received certifications. Why the difference? The certificate contains more information, such as the name of hospital, certifier's name and title; attendant's name and title, etc. The certification has only the child's name, date and time of birth, sex, city/island/county of birth, mother's maiden name, mother's race, father's name and father's race. Why doesn't the state just issue certificates? When did it stop issuing certificates? Is it possible to obtain certificates for my third and fifth children?

Answer: No, you can't obtain a "certificate of live birth" anymore.

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

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

And, it's only available in electronic form.

Okubo explained that the Health Department went paperless in 2001.

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

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

"The electronic record of the birth is what (the Health Department) now keeps on file in order to provide same-day certified copies at our help window for most requests," Okubo said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We found a discussion of "the truth about Obama's birth certificate" on the Web site FactCheck.org -- www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html.

The organization describes itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics."

It says a "certification of live birth" is, in fact, a short-form official birth certificate. Information included in the document might differ from state to state.

http://www.starbulletin.com/columnists/ ... _line.html

Question: What is the state's policy for issuing a "Certification of Live Birth" versus a "Certificate of Live Birth"? My first, second and fourth children received certificates, but my third and fifth children received certifications. Why the difference? The certificate contains more information, such as the name of hospital, certifier's name and title; attendant's name and title, etc. The certification has only the child's name, date and time of birth, sex, city/island/county of birth, mother's maiden name, mother's race, father's name and father's race. Why doesn't the state just issue certificates? When did it stop issuing certificates? Is it possible to obtain certificates for my third and fifth children?

Answer: No, you can't obtain a "certificate of live birth" anymore.

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

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

And, it's only available in electronic form.

Okubo explained that the Health Department went paperless in 2001.

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

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

"The electronic record of the birth is what (the Health Department) now keeps on file in order to provide same-day certified copies at our help window for most requests," Okubo said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We found a discussion of "the truth about Obama's birth certificate" on the Web site FactCheck.org -- www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html.

The organization describes itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics."

It says a "certification of live birth" is, in fact, a short-form official birth certificate. Information included in the document might differ from state to state.

http://www.starbulletin.com/columnists/ ... _line.html

Hawaii might be a state (unless you're a native islander who thinks they got hoodwinked or coerced into becoming a state) but they sure have some odd wrinkles to their systems and laws that one doesn't find anywhere else on the Mainland and the Lower 48.

Hawaii might be a state (unless you're a native islander who thinks they got hoodwinked or coerced into becoming a state) but they sure have some odd wrinkles to their systems and laws that one doesn't find anywhere else on the Mainland and the Lower 48.

[quote="jshhmr"]
Answer: No, you can't obtain a "certificate of live birth" anymore.

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

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

And, it's only available in electronic form.

Okubo explained that the Health Department went paperless in 2001.

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

/quote]

Here's the distinction: They might not routinely issue a certificate but rather a "certification". However, upon lawful demand by someone meeting one of their qualified categories of people (like for example the person whose birth is recorded on the certificate, or the parent of the person, or someone of shared lineage), they can and must produce the original certificATE, and that point of explanation comes straight out of Okubo's mouth as a quote in another interview some months ago.

I heard they might have changed the law that demanded only a certificate (and not a certificaTION) as being "good enough" to qualify for some of the Native land homesteading rights.

[quote="jshhmr"]
Answer: No, you can't obtain a "certificate of live birth" anymore.

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

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

And, it's only available in electronic form.

Okubo explained that the Health Department went paperless in 2001.

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

/quote]

Here's the distinction: They might not routinely issue a certificate but rather a "certification". However, upon lawful demand by someone meeting one of their qualified categories of people (like for example the person whose birth is recorded on the certificate, or the parent of the person, or someone of shared lineage), they can and must produce the original certificATE, and that point of explanation comes straight out of Okubo's mouth as a quote in another interview some months ago.

I heard they might have changed the law that demanded only a certificate (and not a certificaTION) as being "good enough" to qualify for some of the Native land homesteading rights.

Pardon me for repeating myself for present company.

Why the Daily Kos / FightTheSmears document is a forgery

http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/ ... ficate.jpg

What makes the Daily Kos image so important? It is the original from which FactCheck, FightTheSmears, Politfact, etc., derived the images they published later. The Daily Kos image has random dust specks at specific locations, for example, below the "E" in the "CERTIFICATION OF LIVE BIRTH" heading, at (x,y) = (893,185). Those random dust specks appear at the same locations on the other images, showing that they are copies of the first Daily Kos image.
________________________

FATHER'S RACE
AFRICAN

This is an anachronism. It is out of place on a 1961 document. The term used then was "Negro", or perhaps "Colored". "African-American" was an unknown term forty or fifty years ago.

Besides, "African" is not a race; it is a native or resident of the continent of Africa. "African" includes significant populations which are Negro or colored, Caucasian or white, Mongoloid or Mongolian, Semitic (Arab or Hebrew), Aryan or Hindu, Polynesian, Hispanic, penguins, and probably anything else except Eskimo and Native American.
________________________

DATE FILED BY REGISTRAR
AUGUST 8,1961

AUGUST 8, 1961 (note the additional space) is how this date should appear, and that is how the date does appear on other Hawaiian Certifications of Live Birth. But the forger made a mistake and left out the space between the comma and "1961".
________________________

At the upper right of the form, the Certificate No. is redacted or blacked out. The warning at the bottom reads, "ANY ALTERATIONS INVALIDATE THIS CERTIFICATE". This Certification is invalid or VOID; it cannot be used for any legal purposes. (Although it does seem to have been used for illegal purposes.)
________________________

The printed security border is not like real security borders printed between 2006 and 2008. The forged copy is not one continuous border, but a patchwork of pieces, each 240 pixels long, cut-and-pasted together to simulate an authentic 2007 security border, so as to match the "JUN 6 - 2007" date stamp.

"Dr. Ron Polarik" (a pseudonym) wrote, "However, both the embossed Seal and the State Registrar’s Signature stamp do not match the same elements found on a real 2007 COLB, but perfectly match those found on a real 2008 COLB; or, in other words, something that would never happen in real life."
________________________

Genuine Certifications are horizontally centered on the paper, within 15 pixels, plus or minus. This forgery of a Certification was "printed" 75 pixels off center toward the left, more than 5 times the usual maximum variation on the genuine article.
________________________

It is Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy to release Certifications only as laser printer hard copy. But "printed" above is in quotes because this image did not originate as a paper copy printed on a laser printer. Rather, the forger generated it, or at least manipulated it, as an image in Photoshop. Opening the image file in a text editor reveals that the image file header has the following characters of EXIF identification data:

[Software ] = Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh

[DateTime ] = 2008: 06:12 08:42:36

In other words, the image was filed on a Macintosh computer using Adobe Photoshop CS3 software at 8:42 AM on 6/12/08, the date that Daily Kos published the computer image on their website. It is no longer the original scanner file scanned from an Hawaii Div. of Vital Records paper copy.
________________________

The Daily Kos image has dimensions, 2427 x 2369. The printed security border has dimensions, 2372 x 2312. So the image is nearly square, 97½% square, to be more exact. But the printed security border is skewed on the paper, 15 pixels higher on the right side than on the left, and 3 pixels further left at the top than at the bottom. A vertical difference of 15 pixels in the right and left sides would normally indicate a paper misfeed by the printer, normally resulting in a paper jam, or at least wrinkling of the paper.

If the border were 97½% square like the image, it would be skewed 3.077 pixels higher and 3 pixels further left, 15 pixels higher and 14 5/8 pixels further left, or anywhere between, proportionately. But it isn't. The skew is 15 and 3. This printed image does not have right angled corners, not even in the computer program that supposedly generated it for Hawaii Vital Records. In the real world, programmers do not create trapezoidal official documents. This document is not the real world, folks. It is fantasy world.
________________________

It is also Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy to only release Certifications that are folded twice horizonally for mailing in a standard letter envelope. The Daily Kos image has a horizontal crease through the State Seal as evidence of the upper fold. There should be a horizontal crease near "MOTHER'S RACE CAUCASIAN" as evidence of a lower fold. Maybe you can find it; I couldn't. That's because it's not there, and it's not anywhere else, either. Couldn't this copy - just this one - have left Vital Records without a second fold? Not possible, says Vital Records. Every Certification is double-folded and placed in a letter envelope. Every one. Without exception.

Unless it didn't come from Vital Records.
________________________

Another Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy is to only release Certifications with a date stamp, the Registrar's signature stamp, and the embossed seal of the State of Hawaii Department of Health, all on the reverse side. For whatever reason, Daily Kos did not provide an image of the reverse side. I shall not presume to know why they didn't; you can draw your own conclusions.

Normally, there is bleedthrough of the date stamp; the Daily Kos image has JUN - 6 2007 from the reverse side plainly visible on the front. Sometimes, but not always, there is some slight bleedthrough of the Registrar's signature stamp; there is none on the Daily Kos image, and that is OK. Often, but not always to cursory examination, the seal embossed on the reverse side is noticable on the front; not so on the Daily Kos image.

However, under sufficient magnification and with edging enhancement to bring out the embossing, an imaging professional can show up the deformations of the anti-counterfeiting green bars in the front side background, caused by the embossing on the back. This green paper is very thin by design, and any embossing on the back inevitably causes some deformation on the front. I do not see any crimping whatsoever at 3X magnification, and that is suspicious. Even with edging enhancement, those bits of a seal that can be brought out are fuzzy and look like a blurred 3rd or 4th generation copy, not crisp like an original.

FactCheck pasted an image of an embossed seal onto their images later. Those images are the latest generation of revisions of the original Daily Kos image. Since June 10, 2009, Mr. Obama's accessories have been scrubbing all earlier versions from the internet.
________________________

The seal of the State of Hawaii at the top is not a sharp, original laser printout, either. It is a blurry, pixelated copy from another COLB.
________________________

Text is overlaid by cut-and-paste rather than printed on the anti-counterfeiting, green patterned background. The result (under magnification) is pattern mismatches, stray pixels, "haloes" of pixelization around the cut-and-pasted letters, and between letters, white space where there should be green pattern - very different from the neat printed text on genuine COLBs.
________________________

AtlasShrugs quoted TechDude saying,
"Upon very close inspection portions of the security border also repeat every 240 pixels. By mapping this repeating pattern it becomes apparent that the pattern is laid out as a 240 x 240 pixel square that can be accurately extrapolated to the next position by simply counting 240 pixels. This type of tiling effect is commonly seen when an image has been modified by filling an area using an image editing application’s tile or pattern fill function.
. . .
"The (Daily) KOS image security border pattern does not match any known specimen from any known year. [Given the impossibility of proving non-existence, there may be border pattern specimens which TechDude has not seen.] It does not match the pre-2006 nor does it match the post-2006 certificate patterns. The placement of the text in all of the pre-2006 and post-2006 certificates are almost identical pixel location matches while the image's text placement does not match any known specimen from any known year. The shape and kerning of the fonts used in the 2006 through 2008 certificates are identical while the shape and kerning of the fonts used in the image does not match any known specimen. The KOS image shows clear signs of tampering such as the mismatch in RGB and error levels, visible indications of the previous location of the erased security border, easily detectable patterns of repeating flaws around the new security border, EXIF data that says the image was last saved with Photoshop CS3 for Macintosh, and finally a technician from Hawaii who confirms it just looks wrong." http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atla ... usive.html

Pardon me for repeating myself for present company.

Why the Daily Kos / FightTheSmears document is a forgery

http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/ ... ficate.jpg

What makes the Daily Kos image so important? It is the original from which FactCheck, FightTheSmears, Politfact, etc., derived the images they published later. The Daily Kos image has random dust specks at specific locations, for example, below the "E" in the "CERTIFICATION OF LIVE BIRTH" heading, at (x,y) = (893,185). Those random dust specks appear at the same locations on the other images, showing that they are copies of the first Daily Kos image.
________________________

FATHER'S RACE
AFRICAN

This is an anachronism. It is out of place on a 1961 document. The term used then was "Negro", or perhaps "Colored". "African-American" was an unknown term forty or fifty years ago.

Besides, "African" is not a race; it is a native or resident of the continent of Africa. "African" includes significant populations which are Negro or colored, Caucasian or white, Mongoloid or Mongolian, Semitic (Arab or Hebrew), Aryan or Hindu, Polynesian, Hispanic, penguins, and probably anything else except Eskimo and Native American.
________________________

DATE FILED BY REGISTRAR
AUGUST 8,1961

AUGUST 8, 1961 (note the additional space) is how this date should appear, and that is how the date does appear on other Hawaiian Certifications of Live Birth. But the forger made a mistake and left out the space between the comma and "1961".
________________________

At the upper right of the form, the Certificate No. is redacted or blacked out. The warning at the bottom reads, "ANY ALTERATIONS INVALIDATE THIS CERTIFICATE". This Certification is invalid or VOID; it cannot be used for any legal purposes. (Although it does seem to have been used for illegal purposes.)
________________________

The printed security border is not like real security borders printed between 2006 and 2008. The forged copy is not one continuous border, but a patchwork of pieces, each 240 pixels long, cut-and-pasted together to simulate an authentic 2007 security border, so as to match the "JUN 6 - 2007" date stamp.

"Dr. Ron Polarik" (a pseudonym) wrote, "However, both the embossed Seal and the State Registrar’s Signature stamp do not match the same elements found on a real 2007 COLB, but perfectly match those found on a real 2008 COLB; or, in other words, something that would never happen in real life."
________________________

Genuine Certifications are horizontally centered on the paper, within 15 pixels, plus or minus. This forgery of a Certification was "printed" 75 pixels off center toward the left, more than 5 times the usual maximum variation on the genuine article.
________________________

It is Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy to release Certifications only as laser printer hard copy. But "printed" above is in quotes because this image did not originate as a paper copy printed on a laser printer. Rather, the forger generated it, or at least manipulated it, as an image in Photoshop. Opening the image file in a text editor reveals that the image file header has the following characters of EXIF identification data:

[Software ] = Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh

[DateTime ] = 2008: 06:12 08:42:36

In other words, the image was filed on a Macintosh computer using Adobe Photoshop CS3 software at 8:42 AM on 6/12/08, the date that Daily Kos published the computer image on their website. It is no longer the original scanner file scanned from an Hawaii Div. of Vital Records paper copy.
________________________

The Daily Kos image has dimensions, 2427 x 2369. The printed security border has dimensions, 2372 x 2312. So the image is nearly square, 97½% square, to be more exact. But the printed security border is skewed on the paper, 15 pixels higher on the right side than on the left, and 3 pixels further left at the top than at the bottom. A vertical difference of 15 pixels in the right and left sides would normally indicate a paper misfeed by the printer, normally resulting in a paper jam, or at least wrinkling of the paper.

If the border were 97½% square like the image, it would be skewed 3.077 pixels higher and 3 pixels further left, 15 pixels higher and 14 5/8 pixels further left, or anywhere between, proportionately. But it isn't. The skew is 15 and 3. This printed image does not have right angled corners, not even in the computer program that supposedly generated it for Hawaii Vital Records. In the real world, programmers do not create trapezoidal official documents. This document is not the real world, folks. It is fantasy world.
________________________

It is also Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy to only release Certifications that are folded twice horizonally for mailing in a standard letter envelope. The Daily Kos image has a horizontal crease through the State Seal as evidence of the upper fold. There should be a horizontal crease near "MOTHER'S RACE CAUCASIAN" as evidence of a lower fold. Maybe you can find it; I couldn't. That's because it's not there, and it's not anywhere else, either. Couldn't this copy - just this one - have left Vital Records without a second fold? Not possible, says Vital Records. Every Certification is double-folded and placed in a letter envelope. Every one. Without exception.

Unless it didn't come from Vital Records.
________________________

Another Hawaii Div. of Vital Records policy is to only release Certifications with a date stamp, the Registrar's signature stamp, and the embossed seal of the State of Hawaii Department of Health, all on the reverse side. For whatever reason, Daily Kos did not provide an image of the reverse side. I shall not presume to know why they didn't; you can draw your own conclusions.

Normally, there is bleedthrough of the date stamp; the Daily Kos image has JUN - 6 2007 from the reverse side plainly visible on the front. Sometimes, but not always, there is some slight bleedthrough of the Registrar's signature stamp; there is none on the Daily Kos image, and that is OK. Often, but not always to cursory examination, the seal embossed on the reverse side is noticable on the front; not so on the Daily Kos image.

However, under sufficient magnification and with edging enhancement to bring out the embossing, an imaging professional can show up the deformations of the anti-counterfeiting green bars in the front side background, caused by the embossing on the back. This green paper is very thin by design, and any embossing on the back inevitably causes some deformation on the front. I do not see any crimping whatsoever at 3X magnification, and that is suspicious. Even with edging enhancement, those bits of a seal that can be brought out are fuzzy and look like a blurred 3rd or 4th generation copy, not crisp like an original.

FactCheck pasted an image of an embossed seal onto their images later. Those images are the latest generation of revisions of the original Daily Kos image. Since June 10, 2009, Mr. Obama's accessories have been scrubbing all earlier versions from the internet.
________________________

The seal of the State of Hawaii at the top is not a sharp, original laser printout, either. It is a blurry, pixelated copy from another COLB.
________________________

Text is overlaid by cut-and-paste rather than printed on the anti-counterfeiting, green patterned background. The result (under magnification) is pattern mismatches, stray pixels, "haloes" of pixelization around the cut-and-pasted letters, and between letters, white space where there should be green pattern - very different from the neat printed text on genuine COLBs.
________________________

AtlasShrugs quoted TechDude saying,
"Upon very close inspection portions of the security border also repeat every 240 pixels. By mapping this repeating pattern it becomes apparent that the pattern is laid out as a 240 x 240 pixel square that can be accurately extrapolated to the next position by simply counting 240 pixels. This type of tiling effect is commonly seen when an image has been modified by filling an area using an image editing application’s tile or pattern fill function.
. . .
"The (Daily) KOS image security border pattern does not match any known specimen from any known year. [Given the impossibility of proving non-existence, there may be border pattern specimens which TechDude has not seen.] It does not match the pre-2006 nor does it match the post-2006 certificate patterns. The placement of the text in all of the pre-2006 and post-2006 certificates are almost identical pixel location matches while the image's text placement does not match any known specimen from any known year. The shape and kerning of the fonts used in the 2006 through 2008 certificates are identical while the shape and kerning of the fonts used in the image does not match any known specimen. The KOS image shows clear signs of tampering such as the mismatch in RGB and error levels, visible indications of the previous location of the erased security border, easily detectable patterns of repeating flaws around the new security border, EXIF data that says the image was last saved with Photoshop CS3 for Macintosh, and finally a technician from Hawaii who confirms it just looks wrong." http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atla ... usive.html

Originally Posted by FreedomFirst

I heard they might have changed the law that demanded only a certificate (and not a certificaTION) as being "good enough" to qualify for some of the Native land homesteading rights.

What qualifies a birth document is the embossed seal of the State of Hawaii Department of Health and the signature stamp of the State Registrar of Vital Records. Hawaii no longer distinguishes between a Certificate and a Certification for the purpose of Hawaiian Lands verification. The U.S. Passport Office made the distinction, accepting a Certificate but not a Certification, but it may have changed that policy when the state of Hawaii did.

The argument is moot in any case, because the Certification image presented by DailyKos and the Certification photographs presented by FactCheck represent a forgery. To debate the difference between types of documents which are forged is pointless in the extreme.

Originally Posted by FreedomFirst

I heard they might have changed the law that demanded only a certificate (and not a certificaTION) as being "good enough" to qualify for some of the Native land homesteading rights.

What qualifies a birth document is the embossed seal of the State of Hawaii Department of Health and the signature stamp of the State Registrar of Vital Records. Hawaii no longer distinguishes between a Certificate and a Certification for the purpose of Hawaiian Lands verification. The U.S. Passport Office made the distinction, accepting a Certificate but not a Certification, but it may have changed that policy when the state of Hawaii did.

The argument is moot in any case, because the Certification image presented by DailyKos and the Certification photographs presented by FactCheck represent a forgery. To debate the difference between types of documents which are forged is pointless in the extreme.