It should be a rule that when conspiracy cranks speak Twilight Zone music play in the background. Even though it's not, that's what I hear whenever they talk. I can only imagine the noises they hear. Rep. Mike Castle must have felt as though he were in an episode of The Twilight Zone when this crank hijacked a town meeting about health care with a tirade about Barack Obama's birth certificate. I know I felt that way on the radio the other night when I opened up the dialogue on Obama's health care plan only to have the first caller divert into a rant about the president's citizenship. Even if we were to grant the dubious premise of the "birthers," who cares if Barack Obama was born in Kenya? His mother was a United States citizen, which confers citizenship upon her child. John McCain's mother didn't give birth to her son in the United States, but nobody doubted the Republican presidential nominee's Constitutional standing to serve as president.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. Reincarnation is another matter enterely. Before becoming a birther, Rep. Castle's confronter was known as a "truther," alleging George W. Bush allowed 9/11 to happen and planted explosives in World Trade Center 7. She exposed the lunar landing as a Hollywood production. She heard the shots fired on the grassy knoll. She spit up the water contaminated with fluoride. She endured a series of experiments at the hands of the Roswell aliens. She wrote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

When she talks, decibels substitute for logic. When she writes, she eschews Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier for ALLCAPS. The five books that she has read, and the eleven books that she has authored, are self publshed. Evidence against her favored conspiracy theory doesn't undermine the theory at all but instead demonstrates the ingenuity of the conspirators' plot. She was an inveterate pusher of pamphlets until the internet came along. She doesn't know the meaning of non sequitur; every subject, no matter how removed from her obsession, proves an invitation to inject the conspiracy theory into the conversation. "Say, Mary, that's some nice weather we've been experiencing." "Yes, Tom, for it was on a day not unlike today that George Bush's minions set the explosives in the World Trade Center and arranged for those airplane crashes to cover their tracks."

However tempting it is to throw one's hands up and conclude the Left has their crackpots and the Right has theirs, it's not that simple. The "I'll trade you my birther for your truther and a kook to be named later" logic doesn't always work because birthers and truthers occasionally overlap. The loyalty is to conspiracy theories, not this party or that party.

The irony for the conspiracy buff whose ideology fuels his theories is that the louder he peddles his accusations, the more the accused benefits. Charging Bill Clinton with the murder of Ron Brown and various Little Rock characters didn't discredit the president; it discredited his critics. Had George W. Bush invented a set of enemies, it's unlikely he could have come up with a more loathesome bunch than the Hollywood whiners, rent-free rent-a-rallies, and crackpots who attacked his administration from day 1 to day 2292. The birthers who point to Obama's failure to produce a birth certificate as proof of his unnaturalized status may be instead highlighting the cleverness of a politician who does nothing to rebut the allegations against him because he knows a patsy opposition when he sees one. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say that conspiracy theorists are really agents provocateur doing the bidding of the ostensible target of attack.

But I am not, so I'll just say that conspiracy theorists are incredibly naive people who have a simpleton's way of unnecessarily complicating the obvious.

Now, getting back to your topic of the birth certificate...

To stop the Birthers as you call them, show the damn thing! But he caint, cuz he aint got one. this is why people dont trust the gov. If i ran for pres. my first order would be to open the JFK files, cuz for me thats where this conspiracy stuff started.

He won’t produce an original hard copy of his birth certificate nor will he allow scrutiny of any of his administrative academic records. Why?

We discount the witnesses (including his Paternal Grandmother) who say he was born in Kenya. Why?

Just produce the darn thing and this all goes away. Why not?

Let me get this right...you believe in reincarnation and don't believe there are conspiracy theories...Hmmm...the internet sure knows how to mix and match'em.
What part of 'nut case' don't you understand?

Let me get this right...you believe in reincarnation and don't believe there are conspiracy theories...Hmmm...the internet sure knows how to mix and match'em.
What part of 'nut case' don't you understand?

The 9/11 loose changer thing is insane. THAT is a conspiracy theory. But a request that a Presidential candidate produce a legitimate hard copy of his U.S. birth certificate is, I think, reasonable. And, if I'm not mistaken, necessary to conform to the rule of law.

The "reincarnation" was a clever application of the word to a truth that conspiracy nuts tends to transfer their nutty appraisals to ever more conspiracies, whatever is now "in" in their perverse corner of the woods. So, try a bit harder at your reading comprehension, would you, Stoner?

And why is it so hard to understand that place of birth is irrelevant, as long as at least one parent is an American citizen?

Great job, Dan.

The Associated Press quoted the hawaian Dept of health's Chiyome Fukino as saying that both she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate. Fukino said she has “personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

The Birth certificate is available online.
It was produced before the election. I'd say the repubs dropped the ball big time if it isn't Authentic.

Now, can we get back to more important things like Hillary's murder of Vince Foster or Bill Clinton's drug running?

Constitutional provisions:

The special term "Natural Born Citizen" is used in particular as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States. Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution contains the clause:

“ No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. ”

Only native-born U.S. citizens (or those born abroad, but only to parents who were BOTH citizens of the U.S.) may be President of the United States.

"...BOTH..."
Not true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law#Through_birth_abroad_to_one_United_States_citizen

The original document was never physically produced Rc. An online 'copy' as posted by FactCheck.org, a wholly owned faction of Annenberg with whom Bill Ayers and Obama have a deep affiliation, was displayed.

Again, all he need to do is produce the original for public scrutiny. Isn't that what a "President" who campaigned on and prides himself on transparency should do?

First off, an editorial comment - our country is disintegrating because the likes of Ted Kenney and his ilk have so diluted what constitutes being an American citizen is. We might as well just say Fk it and make everybody including the family parakeet an American citizen because our government keeps changing the rules to where being a citizen will eventually have no special qualifications whatsoever.

I guess in today’s Amercia, hard fast rules and law are for chumps. Another step closer to being a banana republic.

Anyway, I don't believe that Obama is 23. Correct me if I err here.

“For persons born on or after November 14, 1986, a person is a U.S. citizen if….”

Nice try.

We COULD get back to Bill Clinton's running of guns, explosives, etc., to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Balkans....

Sometimes it really does feel like a consipiracy....

"The World Health Organization ranked the United States No. 1 out of 191 countries for being responsive to patients' needs, including providing timely treatments and a choice of doctors. Among those currently insured, 84% are satisfied with their healthcare."

So let's adopt a bloated costly inefficient government health care system and just throw that number one status out the window and be like every other banana republic in the world. Eh?

Personally, I think being numero uno is worth the cost. Call me crazy.

My numbers are a bit dated but according to the World Health Organization….
In 2004 the US spends $6,102 per person on health care vs. the next highest Canada $3,165. The rest of the world is even less. Life expectancy in Canada is 80.2 years vs. US 77.5 years.
Our % of GNP in 2005 on health care is 16% vs. 13.8 in 2000 and 12.3% on 1990. The cost of health care is rising. Any new health care plan has to lower the cost for everyone. A good start would be to reduce the profits he insurance companies make. They are not valued added to the health care process.

"Birthers" just need reassurance. They would feel much more comfortable knowing a domestic, rather than foreign, enemy of the United States is destroying the country.
And, by the way, Obama's citizenship is not conferred upon him by virtue of his mother's citizenship. The McCain birth is a different situation. McCain's father was a patriotic citizen serving his country at the time of John's birth. McCain's mother was, and still is, a patriotic citizen of the United States. On the other hand, Obama's father was...

Why is this so difficult? Could it be, maybe, that we pay more because we get more? The way that Canada and other countries with socialized medicine have costs per person that are less is because they provide less (read: ration) healthcare.

See, this is a-ok with liberals because they don't respect and often disdain human life anyway. Unless it's them.

My apologies. I did not mean to trash this thread (anymore than I already have with my legitimate comments) but I erroneously posted this healthcare thing earlier.

I will cease and desist.

You are simply able to dismiss, out of hand, any facts that do not support your point of view. But you use figures from the same source to rationalize your owe pre determined point of view. Wanting better, less expense health care should not be liberal or conservative. Unfortunately it is definitey Democrat or Republican.

As we all know people who believe in Obama's birth certificate also believe in the flat earth theory, that the moon landing was faked, and that the government destroyed the twin towers.

Is that what you meant to say?

Expecting the President to prove that he was born in the United States is the stuff of flat earth and fake moon landings? I just don't get how people can seriously make those an@logies.

Everyone does want better less expensive health care (and everything else, while we're on the subject). How you get there is the question. Obama wants to wring the expense out of your neighbor's wallet and will likely end up with a bureaucratic nightmare of government inefficiencies. And worse care than I receive now. Not interested in his plan.

I like the idea of this 'birther' law that the Rep. from California is proposing. Then we'll know and going forward there will be no question.

And this:

"Obama never has released his actual birth certificate. He has released another document, which state authorities often provide in lieu of a birth certificate, called a certification of live birth."

Flat earth? I don't think so.

Wow! It turns out the conspiracy to make a foreign national POTUS goes all the way back to 8/13/1961 -- just nine days after Obama's birth!
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Obama_1961_birth_announcement_from_Honolulu_Advertiser

Darn tricky, those guys!