Alan Keyes Files Challenge to Obama's "Natural Born" Status
It's the birth certificate issue again.
Alan Keyes, 2008 American Independent Party candidate, filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court Friday challenging Barack Obama's right to serve under the Constitution that specifies that candidates for the presidency must be "natural born" citizens of the United States.
The suit demands that Obama produce a certificate of live birth from a hospital in Hawaii to prove his status as natural born. More specifically, the suit petitions the State of California and it's Secretary of State to withhold Californian's electoral votes from Obama at its meeting of electoral delegates in December unless he can provide documentary proof of his "natural born" status.
The suit asserts that the Hawaiian hospital that claims it holds the certificate on file but will not release it has not provided sufficient evidence to show proof of "natural born" citizenship. Under Hawaiian law, a birth certificate can be issued in Hawaii if the parents are citizens of Hawaii but the child does not actually have to be born in Hawaii. The suit asserts that if this was the basis for issuance of Obama's certificate it does not meet the requirement that he be a "natural born" citizen under the United States Constitution. Here is the portion of the petition for writ of mandate that makes that point of contention:
74. A press release was issued on October 31, 2008, by the Hawaii Department of Health by its Director, Dr. Chiyome Fukino. Dr. Fukino said that she had “personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Senator Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.” That statement failed to resolve any of the questions being raised by litigation and press accounts. Being “on record” could mean either that its contents are in the computer database of the department or there is an actual “vault” original.
75. Further, the report does not say whether the birth certificate in the “record” is a Certificate of Live Birth or a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth. In Hawaii, a Certificate of Live Birth resulting from hospital documentation, including a signature of an attending physician, is different from a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth. For births prior to 1972, a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth was the result of the uncorroborated testimony of one witness and was not generated by a hospital. Such a Certificate could be obtained up to one year from the date of the child’s birth. For that reason, its value as prima facie evidence is limited and could be overcome if any of the allegations of substantial evidence of birth outside Hawaii can be obtained. The vault (long Version) birth certificate, per Hawaiian Statute 883.176 allows the birth in another State or another country to be registered in Hawaii. Box 7C of the vault Certificate of Live Birth contains a question, whether the birth was in Hawaii or another State or Country. Therefore, the only way to verify the exact location of birth is to review a certified copy or the original vault Certificate of Live Birth and compare the name of the hospital and the name and the signature of the doctor against the birthing records on file at the hospital noted on the Certificate of the Live Birth.
Adding to the controversy, a Video has been posted to YouTube that claims Obama was born in Kenya. Someone does not want this man to be president.
Here is a PDF copy of the lawsuit filed today in Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento. There are purportedly five other lawsuits pending that make the same challenge.
The rides not over. The Right-Wing didn't get to sing and its not over till their fat lady from the Wagnerian opera "does her thang."
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Don't you just love these right wing Inspector Fidgets? He's going to have the magic spell that his legion of nutjobs have not been able to conjure, and save America from this malignant meanie with his smart pretty wife, and his seemingly adorable kids. That'll show 'em Alan.
What a fuckin' jerk.
If the ticket isn't sworn in, the presidency doesn't go to Biden.
Can anyone say constitutional crises?
Maybe we get to keep Cheeney. Oh joy!
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
Consider the case of a house that's offered for sale with a seller's statement of what might be wrong with it: At some point, you have to do your owninspection and decide for yourself, not merely rely on the seller. Because otherwise, the sale is never complete. The reason you are permitted time to do your own inspection is so that in the end it is your own decision. So, too, it must be with the presidency. If this ever gets to the Supreme Court and the Court finds otherwise, there will never be an end to any Presidential election. Unless the outcome materially changes the likelihood of governing correctly, it has no place.
Also, and importantly, this should be an outrage to any parent. This is like saying that finding out that your wife's kid was not really your own biological kid means they were not really your child for 18 years. If it is, as a matter of record, your child, and if you have raised the child as yours, fed and clothed and taught him as your child, at some point it simply must be that he or she is your child. The outrage involved in kids going and trying to find their so-called “real” parents (when they maybe mean bioparents) later is supreme. And that is active here as well.
I hope these arguments make their way into any amicus brief. If I knew how, and if I had standing, I would file one myself.
(rated)
I think Keyes is still bitter because Obama beat him by something like 60 points when they both ran for the Senate.
Alan, it's over. You're irrelevant. Now go away, take your money, and retire somewhere, never to be heard from again. Do your country a favor.
Isn't this the same Keyes who lost to Obama in the Senate election?
Not only has this entire controversy over Obama's citizenship status been widely reported by EVERY major news outlet with the conspiracy theories appropriately debunked, but there have ALREADY been several similar lawsuits litigated in federal court that challenged Obama's right to run for president
I feel the SAME WAY toward Alan Keyes that I feel toward Sarah Palin--crawl back to that hole you crawled out of and STAY THERE! The vast majority of people would be perfectly happy to NEVER see your foul faces on television, the internet, or in the newspaper EVER AGAIN!
There IS one point of irony with Alan Keyes' idiotic attempt to thwart Obama's election. I think that most of us recall that Keyes did his little carpetbagging routine to run AGAINST Obama for the U.S. Senate from Illinois when Jack Ryan, the GOP frontrunner, found himself embroiled in a sex scandal. Given the trouble that other carpetbaggers have faced when running for election, one can just imagine the hell that others could have put Keyes through, if he had ever posed any sort of challenge to Obama. Mitt Romney certainly went through some of that when he ran for governor of Massachusetts--some of which included forking over a chunk of back taxes for filing returns as a "non-resident" for several years.
Keyes said he planned to stay in Illinois after his humiliating thumping at the polls, but after the election, he couldn’t get out of town fast enough.
Read this!!
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
"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. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.
Update, Nov. 1: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31 that Obama was born in Honolulu."
I'm disgusted with sensationalizing marginal crap like this lawsuit, for the sake of ginning controversy and readership/ratings. The time to report/highlight this kind of drivel is if and when it becomes factually probative, which in this case, will be never. Otherwise, it's the equivalent of an alien marrying Britney Spears.
Keyes is a serially failed candidate, suspected looney-tune (have you heard this guy speak?) and rank opportunist. Relegate him to Fox News, where he belongs, perhaps partnered with the documented anti-semite nutjob Anthony Martin that Hannity billed as an "investigative expert" on a recent special. Do not legitimize him or this allegation by giving his lawsuit wide publicity, since this campaign has already established that if you tell dumbed down Americans Obama is a Muslim terrorist mole planning to destroy America from inside the White House, they believe it...they WANT to believe it.
Racism, even when fronted by a black man, is still racism. Give it up, Keyes, and go away.
Why don't all the right wing nutters out there just leave it alone already? The birth certificate was posted on the internet: it's valid. He's a citizen. As far as I know, there's no evidence his mother was in Kenya near the time of his birth.
Would these people simply rather see the country continue to go to hell rather than admit it's over?
btw, were you issued a birth certificate when you crawled out from under that rock? Just wondering...
Someday his genius will be recognized.
The Foundation lost my respect when it failed, continuously to mention its association with Obama.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a frequent guest on Bill Moyer's Journal, has never mentioned her Foundation's connection to Obama. Shame on both of them.
And, when is the last time a presidential candidate had his citizenship status questioned by so many lawsuits? All these filers all crazy? Or could it be that some of them consider the words in the Constitution more important than the wishes of the uninformed electorate?
Vetting is a process that is supposed to be done before the candidate is promoted by the Party. Obama's (several) embarassing past missteps were ignored and he was not properly vetted any more than Palin's past was properly examined.
We've gone from "I didn't inhale," to "I was an alcoholic and might have done some cocaine," to "I was a crack head, coke sniffing junkie." Progress?
I'll be the first one to admit that Keyes is, as Chigao Guy said, a whack-job. He is also an attention-seeker, an irrelevant and ridiculous caricature, and needs his ass kicked.
Secretly though ... well, not so secretly now ... there's something about Alan Keyes I'm into ... and I spoke with him about it at the National Press Club in DC ... I know, I know ... he's just so damned radical ... but a while back, a handful of teachers from across the country and a very small handful of notorious characters turned out in an attempt to gain special federal funding for civics education. You're surprised, I know. I was too. Keyes was one of the most outspoken (imagine that) pseudo-national figures at the time, willing to even take a stand, much less pull together the organizational end of things and get us an audience. For all his other craziness, I have to respect him for that ... just for that one thing ... on civics education ... not his right wing agenda or his new obsession with PEBO's birth certificate ... just the civics education thing. We didn't get the money, if you're wondering ... and as far as I know, no one has tried again.
It was an extremely important project for me ... disappointing, but important.
So, yes Keyes is W H A C K!!! But, I'd meet him at the NPC to try to sell government education to our government anytime.
Most of the comments that I have read concentrate on Alan Keyes rather than on the issue. Some other readers blame the “right wing” for this law suit, and some others that “somebody” does not want Barack Obama to become next President. Please, don’t create a mystery out of it: 46% of the voters didn’t want to see Mr. Obama as the US President.
Do they all belong to the “right wing?” Instead of giving the labels, why don’t we all focus on one question: is Barack Obama a natural born US citizen? If the answer is YES,
it would be the end of the story. If the answer is NO, this would be a beginning of entirely different story. The only person to resolve this issue is Barack Obama. For whatever reason, he has not produced a reliable evidence of his eligibility to become our next President.
Take off the tin foil, folks... nothing to be seen here.
The man is a freaking Constitutional Law Scholar, for God's sake!
McCain was born in the Panama Zone. Why didn't he squawk about that?
Take a long nap Keyes. You'll feel better.
Why are Republicans so angry? Jealous even?
I see it in their elections, politics, at their events, in pundits and in Alan Keyes...like high school jealousies and name calling toward the winning team...licking their wounds and not smart enough to support agenda's, they get into how they will dismantle and divide us?
Its uncanny and obvious. The GOP needs to temper their emotions, get off character issues and start governing. Start to figure out what is needed and wanted now, not in the past but NOW...The GOP are in desperate need of a leader, leadership and mission...
The American people are in desperate need of good leaders, not old whiners like Alan and the like.
Please Alan, get a life, help your self, the GOP and the American people...stop whining already and drumming up non-issue nothings...be of service, not trouble making and dissing service to your country. Thanks.
1.)Allegedly, Obama was born in Kenya, where his given name was “Barack Hussein Mohammed Obama”
2.)Allegedly, no long form original birth record exists in Hawaii. The “original record”, (i.e., the “long form”) as it was executed in many States back in 1961, was simply a little index card, or a 5” X 7” form, that was generally signed off on by a doctor, or a nurse, or a midwife, or whoever actually witnessed the birth. The so-called long form, if it exists, is the Holy Grail sought after in this particular exercise.
3.)As this theory goes, Obama’s mom falsely “registered” his birth in Hawaii, using the so-called “short form by declaration” method (look it up) which was legal in Hawaii thru 1972, and could be legally executed based on only the testimony of the parent, with no evidence or doctor’s statement or hospital record or witnesses.
4.)A legal birth certificate can be produced at any time from the short-form database record, and is generally not questioned. However, if Obama’s real birth certificate exists in Kenya, and if there is no long form on record in Hawaii, then the Supreme Court faces a Constitutional nightmare.
The above points, 1-4, exist as the latest theory regarding the Obama birth certificate issue. The “short-form by declaration” conspiracy isn’t much of a conspiracy, and if true, I am disappointed. I was really hoping for an elaborate and entertaining conspiracy. If Obama was born in Kenya, and if his mom simply traveled back to Hawaii with him shortly thereafter, and falsely declared his birth, (including the newspaper announcement) then she alone broke the law, without the assistance of any co-conspirators.
Too simple...
. . .
Where this may end up - -
The Electoral College meets (in each of the 50 States) on December 15.
According to the 20th Amendment, the Electors CLEARLY have legal standing to question the qualifications of the “Presumptive-President-Elect” (Obama is not really the President-Elect until after the Electoral College votes on 15-DEC-2008)
The 20th Amendment identifies the Electoral College as the place & time to challenge a candidate’s credentials...(Age and Citizenship)
An awful lot can happen between now and 15-December-2008
And, it really is that simple... If Obama was born in Kenya, then he is not eligible to hold the office of President of the United States of America (See Article II, Clause V of the Constitution )
. . .
Simply stated, this is a neat little conspiracy theory, as it has evolved, that seems to fit all known facts:
1.)Obama’s Kenya Grandmom has testified that Obama was born in Kenya;
2.)The Kenyan government will not admit if there is or is not an Obama birth record on file in Kenya, and they have denied all access to any Kenya government records relating to Obama;
3.)The long form vault record in Hawaii, if it exists, has allegedly not been examined, and Obama has refused to allow it to be examined.
I hope that the 9 Old Men on the Supreme Court can be made to understand that there are three types of documents or birth certificate records:
a.)The so-called birth certificate, which we have all seen on the Internet, and which may be created at any time from the data contained in either the long form physical record or the short form database record;
b.)The short form record could easily be bogus, in the scenario illustrated in the opening of my post, points 1-4;
c.)The long form physical record is harder to fake, and no one has seen that record.
These are the facts, and the facts fit the so-called “conspiracy theory”. The Electors have the right to challenge Obama on three points: (1.)Does a Kenyan birth record exist? (2.)Does a Hawaii long form original vault record exist? (3.)Forensics - - The Justice Department could simply send a forensic team to look at the original vault record, in order to at least verify the signatures and to verify that the ink and paper are the same age and type as the ink and paper on other sequential original records before and after Obama’s 1961 vault record original.
I have a little different perspective on this than most of you. I am a 59 year old American engineer. I have not been back to the USA since 2002. I live and work in Bangkok, Thailand. There is a place on Khao San Road, here in Bangkok, where I can have any raised impression seal made for about $10-USD and any rubber stamp made for about $2-USD. The paper that you see on FactCheck and Obama’s web site (The laser print job) is a recently produced certificate of life birth. (“COLB”) It was printed on a common style 25 pound bond 8.5” X 11” security paper known as “Check Protect, Basket Weave Pattern, Green”. I have an entire ream of it at the office. We use that paper to print machinery inspection certificates. Anyone can buy that paper, and it is the most common paper still in use by State agencies. My graphic artists and the guys on Khao San Road could whip out a beautiful COLB in under 48 hours, and you would never detect the difference.
Sadly, those are the facts.
I truly believe this is a nutty conspiracy theory forwarded by supporters of other candidates, who now hope for some magical reversal of the election results. It holds no more water than any of the other conspiracy theories floating around out there.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, it’s common courtesy for those who just lost an election to congratulate the winner.
On Election Night, 2004, Alan Keyes ranted and raved in a speech to his supporters (both of them) that he would never congratulate Obama because the senator-elect was an immoral slimeball whom God would punish and, thus, congratulating Obama would be repudiating God.
Another highlight: During their debate, which I think occurred just after Keyes threw his 18-year-old daughter out of his house because she was gay, Keyes said gay behavior should be illegal. His evidence was that gays could not be parents. When Obama pointed out that many straight people, including older couples, will never have children, Keyes went into an angry diatribe that said there was a difference.
Keyes concluded his diatribe by saying that he, Alan Keyes, was one of the only people in the world smart enough to understand the point he was making. Obama, he added, wasn’t as smart as him and, thus, couldn’t understand his point.
After this 5-minute diatribe, Obama was asked to respond. He took five seconds. He looked at Keyes and said: “I understand your point. It’s stupid.”
Another highlight: After one of the 2000 GOP prez debates, Keyes went on and on about how the “liberal media” hated him and distorted everything he said. When a reporter said that several of his colleagues concluded that Keyes won the debate, Keyes said “I am so brilliant that even the liberal media can’t deny my greatness.”
The adjectives needed to describe this “person” haven’t been invented yet.
Shalom,
ZWrite
PS -- John McCain was born in Panama. Like Obama, he has at least one American parent so this whole article is irrelevant. Case closed.
http://tinyurl.com/5cdrwz
It appears that the Supremes really don't want to hear the case. But there is a "better mousetrap" that these legalists haven't yet figured out, a president set by George W. Bush himself. Obama simply needs to get "born again." A nice red state like Oklahoma should could provide the certificate. Maybe even the folks at Oral Roberts University. Who would doubt their word?
Each side made this allegation. Obama can't be president because he was born in Kenya, and McCain can't be president because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
And therein lies the dark underbelly of internet communication. Conspiracy theorists get to find one another and sit satisfied in their mother's basement that they hold mainstream views.
Now, if you will excuse me, it's my shift in the bunker looking for black helicopters.