Barack Obama: Born in the U.S.A.

The Sonoran News has just reported that Lt. Mike Zullo of the Cold Case Posse has announced he has irrefutable evidence that President Barack Obama's birth certificate is forged. Thanks to the exposure Zullo and Sheriff Arpaio have given the Birther issue, a Republican member of Congress is calling on his colleagues to support opening an investigation based on the conspiracy theory surrounding the President's eligibity for office. If this wasn't so ridiculous it would be laughable.

According to author David Aaronvitch in his book Voodoo Histories Joseph Farah's publicist Mary Sliwa (now former wife of Guardian Angel head Curtis Sliwa) was a supporter of Hilary Clinton and gave this information to her campaign for it to be used when Clinton and Obama were campaigning for the 2008 Democrat Presidential nomination. Hilary's campaign decided to bag using it since she was not going to win. Consequently, Farah published this on his shock-and-awe website, World Net Daily, and elements of the Right picked it up and ran with it.

The claims made by Zullo have already been debunked in a detailed study refuting his group's assertions point-by-point. In his overview, researcher Frank Arduini points out the PDF image of Obama's certificate (not the certificate itself) was intentionally altered. It should also be mentioned that since 2008 every attempt to raise the issue of eligibility on the part of President Obama citing his birth certificate have been turned away consistently by the courts either due to lack of evidence, false pretenses, standing or just plain stupidity.

However, Obama is not the first Birther-in-Chief. As it turns out, this kind of conspiracy theory has been around before. Soon after securing the Oval Office in 1881, President Chester A. Arthur, a Republican, was accused by Democrats of having been born in Canada. There was a persistent rumor throughout his Presidency of Chester Arthur being of Canadian origin. The conspiracy theory was fueled by his father migrating to and from Canada to perform his ministoral duties along with alegations that Arthur's mother was in her native home of Quebec at the time of Chester's birth. Arthur refused to answer any questions about the allegations of his nationality and subsequently had all of his papers burned before he died. The only public record of the Arthur's American roots is his father's certification of election to a Vermont school board before Chester's birth in 1829.

Even Mitt Romney's father, George, had his eligibility questioned when he ran for President in the late 1960's. Shortly after announcing his candidacy, newspapers raised questions about Romney's citizenship in which George Romney pointedly stated he had always been a citizen of the United States. Despite his denials and even the Congressional Research Service confirming Romney's citizenship and eligibility, the rumors of foreign birth continued to haunt him.

During March of last year, at the urging of some constituents Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett made a request to Hawaii officials for documentation of President Obama's eligibility. Upon reciept of the documents (including Obama's birth certificate) and verifying his eligibility, Bennett considered the President qualified to run for President and would allow him to be on the state's ballot.

The fact is that President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen and he was born in Hawaii. He was not born in Kenya, nor (despite some claims) is he a Muslim. Joseph Farah, on the other hand, has laughed all the way to the bank after purporting this lie despite it being debunked numerous times and his admitting to being the source of this conspiracy. I do not like Barack Obama but my reasons for disliking him are based on differences in philosophy. If the President is to be stopped it will be with the right ideas and not with stupid conspiracies speculating about whether or not he is a U.S. Citizen (which he is).

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Barack Obama: Born in the U.S.A.