Lou Dobbs: Public Embarrassment

...when you give someone the authority of an hour-long show on the cable network that stands closer to actually being fair-and-balanced than any other, you have the right to expect some journalistic integrity..."

The other typo is "CNN", the biggest journalistic cable horror show this side of CNBC. I'll take Joe's comment as a not-too-veiled swipe at the dirty hippies at MSNBC. Too bad, they have a ways to go but real journalists like Rachel Maddow, who actually work to make sure that people know the truth about what's important (which was the definition of journalism before train wrecks like CNN), make every single gasbag on CNN from Blitzer to Brown look like clueless, self-important idiots.

spob's solution to a problem: when I can't address the issue raised in the blog, I am bring up something total irrelevant so I can feel better about myself.

Is Michelle Malkin the ring-wing version of being Rick Roll? I'll pass, thnx

did sgwhite appear on CNN? Did he talk about Justin Barker? Who is Justin Barker? What is the price of tea in China?

I've never seen Hillary Clinton's birth certificate. Would it be elitist to ask for one?

I'm sure that if there had ever been any question about where Hillary Clinton was born, she'd produce the necessary documents -- just as John McCain did when there was a question of whether he was born in the USA. (At one point, people questioned whether McCain had been born in Panama, because his father was stationed in the Canal Zone when McCain was born. McCain produced the documents showing that he was born in a hospital in the Canal Zone.)

...or John McCain's. Where was he born?

I bet you're still waiting to hear the dark truth about what really happened to Vince Foster.

Ahh, yess.....I remember now how touchy you Hillbots are about the issue of race. Seems to me all of the Hillbots were absolutely up in arms about the 'typical white person' comment. I think we all know what's up with you.

Thank you plukasiak for demonstrating why Joe's post is needed and why Lou Dobbs is an embarrassment (at least to journalism).

If you had been watching a real news program you would have the answer to your assertion: 'what Obama has produced is not a birth certificate...Like Dobbs, I believe that Obama is a citizen -- and like Dobbs, I also see no reason why Obama should not produce the primary documentation requested.'

Could it be that the reason you can't see why Obama hasn't produced the document you demand is that your news sources have failed to inform you that it doesn't exist. Not just for Obama, but for EVERYONE born at the time he was in Hawaii. Follow this link to find out what your news sources seem to be failing to tell you: link to the information you desire!!

Flogging a topic like this and asserting, as Dobbs does, that Obama's answer to these ludicrous charges has been insufficient, when he's done everything that's physically possible to do, is either incredibly ignorant or willfully deceptive.

"...what Obama has produced is not a birth certificate, but a "certificate of live birth" that can be obtained simply by an assertion that the birth mother was a citizen of Hawaii for a year prior to the birth of the child."

Now please explain why that is insufficient.

Personally, I hope that Obama "produces" not another single piece of documentary evidence of his birth. For birthers, it wouldn't matter one whit (in fact, it would be further proof of conspiracy - they're nucking futs) and I'm really enjoying, in the absence of a functional press with the guts to tell people the truth about them, watching the right-wing of this country become further and further demarcated from the comparatively sane rest of us.

I don't see you asking for Hilary's birth certificate. She's doesn't appear Native American and I have no proof that she is not a Canadian or British immigrant and neither do you. But it doesn't occur to you to even ask. His citizenship has been proven repeatedly and the only people questioning it are crazies and people who think he doesn't deserve to be President like Hillary puma's.

From the link I cited above:

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.

This fully and completely answers the primary charge of the 'Birthers'. However, as with most conspiracy theories pushed by the fringe over the past two Democratic presidencies, they are busy 'improving' on it.

Anyone who saw fringe wingnut 'birther' queen Orly Taitz on Colbert yesterday heard her improve on her charges. She's now discovered a requirement (apparently hidden in the 'secret Muslim' section of the constitution) that not only does the president have to be born in the US but his parents do as well! And guess what? Obama's father was African!! Let the wingnuttyness continue!!

my father can't produce a birth certificate either, though I am pretty certain he was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1935. If he were elected president, would demand proof of his birth?

'my father can't produce a birth certificate either...If he were elected president, would demand proof of his birth?'

It all depends. What party is he a member of?

the original paperwork still exists, and is, in fact, available. Indeed, because of the potential for data entry error, the original paperwork (or microfiche/microfilm copies of it) would have to be maintained.

Moreover, the hospital records still exist -- and all that Obama would have to do is authorize the hospital to release the original admission and billing records and the whole question would be settled.

Wanna see photos of the original document, taken by an unbiased source? Look here: link
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Unfortunately, the photos of the certificate weren't taken on a Tuesday by photographers wearing blue sweaters and facing east into the rising sun while standing on one foot, so obviously they don't count.

given your comments about people's person travails in here, I don't think you really have any standing to call anything an embarassment . .. .

The other crazy thing, cincinnatus, is that they're chasing a dwindling, unpopular faction. Just as Michael Lewis describes in in Moneyball, organizations are in the thrall of self-damning, factually inaccurate ideologies.

And remember, this is the whole modern GOP, too, up to Roy Blunt and his boss Rush Limbaugh.

Really, Joe, you need to do as Dee in Columbia MD suggests, and pointing out the mass irrationality and unseriousness of the GOP and the media, in print.

"There was a time when the first thing one did on entering ones's room in a foreign hotel: turn on to CNN. Now it's turn on BBC."

Amen. Domestic hotels, too.

Not so sure even O'Reilly thinks Dobbs is nuts.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/republicans-stepping-away-from-the-birthers.php?ref=fpblg

You sure got me there! You're citing an article by that paragon of sanity Jerome Corsi on WorldNetDaily and I'm only citing an interview with a spokeswoman at the Hawaiian Department of Health. Clearly you're article is the kind of non-partisan information honest seekers of fact will prefer.

As White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked if there was anything that could be done to satisfy the 'birthers': "No. The God's honest truth is no."

Actually, the article you cite is quite entertaining.

My favorite part is where they breathlessly announce: 'WND also has reported Obama has not released his kindergarten records...'

Not only is bobcn1 a liar, he apparently can't read. The picture at the second link in my comment is from the Honolulu Advertiser. Bobcn1 apparently wants you to think they just made up that picture.

Even better, his article and the first one I linked both quote the same person.

P.S. Before the election, the Obama campaign edited an entire sentence out of a Jerome Corsi quote in an attempt to make him look bad. They didn't provide ellipses or anything; they just removed an entire sentence without disclosing what they'd done.

Jerome Corsi edited all of Barack Obama's life in his half-assed attempt at character assassination, "Obama Nation." One example (paraphrased): I don't know if Obama ever sold drugs or if he continues to use drugs, but it's a concern.

And you're up in arms about a sentence of Corsi's being edited out. Stay classy, GOP.

There's a story here, but it's not about Obama and his birth records. Its about the right-wing fringe and the con-men and crazies that incite them. That's a very dangerous story to tell.
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This stuff has been going on for a very long time. As long as con-artists like Corsi and Orly Taitz are given air time by the 'respectable' news media, without being forced to prove their accusations, it will continue. And it will to be sponsored and encouraged by partisan outlets like FOX.
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Remember what happened during the Swift Boat smears against Kerry. Every time one of John O'Neill's accusations was debunked, he'd just come up with three more. The allegations were unsubstantiated but the news media would report them anyway -- in the name of 'fairness'.
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Sort of like Dobbs.