The Radio Equalizer: Brian Maloney

24 October 2008

Questions Over Obama's Birthplace Go Mainstream

IS IT POSSIBLE?

Left Furious Over Suggestion Obama Was Born Overseas




*** MORE ON OBAMA - KENYA BIRTH STORY ***
*** ARRESTED BOSTON HOST: I'M FINISHED ***


A question that has lurked in the fringes for months has finally gone mainstream: was Barack Obama born in the United States? Though he could have resolved lingering questions long ago, Obama himself has kept the issue alive, partly by ducking the issue.

Until now, this matter didn't seem likely to break out beyond distant corners of the Internet, but Obama's refusal to allow the media to inspect an original copy of his birth certificate has allowed it to move to the front burner.

And after dismissing the issue for some time, talk hosts across the country have openly begun to discuss the controversy, enraging Obama's supporters on the far left.

Especially interesting is how talkers ordinarily at odds with one another like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and G Gordon Liddy have all raised the subject this week.


Moving the issue to the forefront is Pennsylvania Democrat Philip J Berg, who has fought an uphill legal battle seeking answers regarding Obama's true place of birth. From WorldNetDaily:



Pennsylvania Democrat Philip J. Berg, who filed a lawsuit demanding Sen. Barack Obama present proof of his American citizenship, now says that by failing to respond Obama has legally "admitted" to the lawsuit's accusations, including the charge that the Democratic candidate was born in Mombosa, Kenya.


As WND reported, Berg filed suit in U.S. District Court in August, alleging Obama is not a natural-born citizen and is thus ineligible to serve as president of the United States. Though Obama has posted an image of a Hawaii birth certificate online, Berg demands that the court verify the original document, which the Obama campaign has not provided.


Now Berg cites Rule 36 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which states that unless the accused party provides written answer or objection to charges within 30 days, the accused legally admits the matter.


Since Obama has only filed motions to dismiss and has not actually answered the charges in the lawsuit, Berg claims, according to Rule 36, Obama has legally admitted he is not a natural-born citizen.


On yesterday's show, Rush Limbaugh outlined one potential theory:



RUSH: "Barack Obama says he doesn't want to make the same mistake with his grandmother that he made with his dying mother," so today he's jetting off to Hawaii to make sure that doesn't happen. He was on The Early Show this morning with Harry Smith, and Smith said, "Lincoln said, 'All I ever hoped to be, I owe to her,' in speaking about his mother. Your grandmother, very much like a mother to you, how important is this trip?"


OBAMA: It's very important to me. My grandmother is the last one left, uh, she has really been the rock of the family and the foundation of the family, uh, whatever strength, discipline, uh, that I have, uh, it comes from her.


SMITH: You said in the past that you regretted your own mother's illness and her death came so quickly, you didn't have time to get back to --


RUSH: Stop the tape here a minute. Stop, recue this. Harry Smith is doing everything here but crying, everything but crying here. This is an embarrassment. You people in the media, you don't even care how embarrassing this is, you do not even care. Here it is again from the top.


OBAMA: It's very important to me. My grandmother's the last one left, uh --


RUSH: Right.


OBAMA: She has really been the rock of the family.


RUSH: I know.


OBAMA: And the foundation of the family, uh--


RUSH: Absolutely right.


OBAMA: Whatever the strength, discipline, uh --


RUSH: Hawaii all these years.


OBAMA: -- that I have, uh, it comes from her.


SMITH: You've said in the past that you regretted your own mother's illness and her death came so quickly, you didn't have time to get back to see her.


OBAMA: Got there too late. We knew she wasn't doing well, um, but the diagnosis was such where we thought we had a little more time and we didn't, so I want to make sure that I don't, uh, I don't make, uh, the same mistake twice.


RUSH: Now, Harry Smith is very, very worried, ladies and gentlemen, that this could hurt Obama's campaign.


SMITH: Some people say there's risk involved in this, with so little time left.


OBAMA: Yeah. Well, the, uh, I think most people understand, uh, that if you're not, um, caring for your family, uh, then you're probably not, uh, the kind of person who's going to be caring for other people.


RUSH: Yeah, right. Okay. Now, I have some questions here, ladies and gentlemen. If Obama has this election in the bag, if he has this election in the bag, which they're all saying, I mean, he's building the stage. They're already putting together this massive little stage out there in Grant Park in Chicago. They're making all these postelection plans. They're working on the transition team. If it's in the bag, Obama, please, stop spending money on TV and radio spots. Stop raising more money. You already have tons of it. Stop campaigning all over the country. You're wasting fuel. You're emitting carbon dioxide along the way. If it's over, then behave like it's over. By the way, I'd like to be a little bit more inquisitive than the average reporter out there and observe that we've been hearing and reading for at least three days now that Obama's grandmother is deathly ill and that he's going to rush to her side in Hawaii.


Now, if he's already won the presidency, why hasn't he already gone to Hawaii? Why is he not already there? What's he waiting for? "If she's deathly ill," I'm pretending to be a reporter here. You know they'd ask McCain these questions. "If Obama's grandmother is deathly ill, why has this been announced days ago and he's only going now," or tomorrow, or whenever it is. Now, I understand, folks, Snerdley's got his head buried in his hands. I understand this, my friends, anything said about Obama is going to be turned into an unfair racist attack on the man. Am I not asking obvious questions? Who announces days in advance they're rushing to the side of a loved one who is deathly ill but keeps campaigning in a race that's said to be over, only to go to the loved one's side days later? See, I think this is about something else. You know what's really percolating out there? I've been laying low on this because it hasn't met the threshold to pass the smell test on this program.


This birth certificate business, this lawsuit that a guy named Philip Berg filed in Philadelphia in August for Obama to produce his genuine birth certificate and he still hasn't replied. You've got a deathly ill grandmother, you are going to rush to her side a few days from now, when you first announced this, you're going to rush, you're going to hurry, you're going to make tracks, you're going to get over there because you don't want your grandmother to die before you got there like your mother did, but somehow you keep campaigning, you take three days to get over there, if he's left yet, and this birth certificate business, I'm just wondering if something's up. I have no clue, and folks, I'm telling you, this has not reached the threshold until now, and it's popping up all over the place. There are a lot of people now that are starting to speculate and be curious about this.


I don't know, let's say for example that somebody does come up with proof that something's screwy with his birth certificate and something's screwy about the fact that he's allegedly a natural citizen, American citizen, but may not be, dual citizenship, born in Kenya, who knows, there's all kinds of stuff out -- so what? What's going to happen this late in the campaign? Do you think if it's proven that they're going to dump him? That's not going to happen.


But still, these are just questions that I have. And, look, both of my parents have died. When I was told the end was near, bam, I got there, fast as I could. I didn't announce to the audience, "I just got word my father is said to be passing away and in four or five days I'm going to go to Missouri. In the meantime, I will not leave you here on this radio program." These are just natural questions. I think any inquisitive reporter -- I know the risk I'm running here by raising all this. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't do that.


But that has the far-left Media Matters crowd in a tizzy. Here, they attack several hosts by name, sidestepping the fact that Obama has still refused to provide an original copy of his birth certificate for examination by the media:



Conservative radio hosts Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh and Obama Nation author Jerome Corsi -- who appeared as a guest on G. Gordon Liddy's radio show -- suggested or asserted that the true purpose of Sen. Barack Obama's current trip to Hawaii is not to visit his ailing grandmother, as Obama claims, but rather to address rumors -- widely debunked -- that Obama has failed to produce a valid U.S. birth certificate.


However, as Media Matters for America has documented, the Obama campaign posted a copy of Obama's birth certificate on its "Fight the Smears" website and reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff concluded in an August 21 post that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." A Hawaiian Health Department official also reportedly confirmed to PolitiFact.com that Obama's birth certificate is valid, and even Corsi's employer, the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, reported in an August 23 article that a "WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic."


The bottom line: Media Matters doesn't want this issue even discussed on the air, period. They want to control the debate, but talk radio isn't playing by their rules.

Here, Comedy Central tries to spoof talk radio's questions, but it comes across like something written by an intern at Air America.

The real issue is how Obama's cult-like followers fully expect their Dear Leader to be coronated a week from Tuesday and aren't going to tolerate unpleasant questions in the meantime. It's up to talk radio and the blogosphere to keep up the fight.


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16 Comments:

  • uh, this has been the cornerstone issue for those of us democrats and independents who have crossed party lines to support mccain, it was so-called "conservatives" who are just jumping onto the train now, with few exceptions, jerome corsi being the most notable

    we spoke and wrote of it months ago, when it wasn't yet the fashionable bandwagon to jump on

    if the republicans will not permit a tape that portrays michelle obama in a decidedly unfavorable light to see the light of day, there's no reason to expect that operatives within the gop, and supporters of the "mccain is a rino" camp, wouldn't do what they could to withhold their interest in getting to the bottom of the birth certificate/COLB inquiries, to preserve their own internecine battles, as conservatism itself implodes

    it's all very transparent and pathetic, and, sadly, the best candidate of all, sarah palin, will ultimately be the one to bear the burden of blame for it all

    the mark steyns of the world could have demanded barky produce the REAL birth certificate back in the spring, had they been disposed to do so

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 25 October, 2008 01:57  

  • Philip J. Berg, a former deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania, told the Michael Savage talk radio program last night that the Obama birth certificate document is forged and that he has a tape recording he will soon release.

    "This has been a real sham he's pulled off for the last 20 months," Berg told Savage. "I'll release it [the tape] in a day or two, affidavits from her talking to a certain person. I heard the tape. She was speaking [to someone] here in the United States."

    posted on www.audacityofhypocrisy.com


    And Andy McCarthy of NRO mentioned the number of Law Suits is up to eight States. Senator, if all IS kosher with your "Certificate of Live Birth" then why don't you tell Hawaii to release your Official Document?

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 25 October, 2008 14:10  

  • It looks like the Pennsylvania court system has tossed out the birth certificat issue filed by Philip Berg.
    http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20081025_Judge_rejects_Montco_lawyer_s_bid_to_have_Obama_removed_from_ballot.html

    What is the next move to keep this important issue alive?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 25 October, 2008 15:40  

  • The court threw out the case, not because the charge was invalid, not because the facts were incorrect, not because of the altered documents, but because the former deputy attorney general for Pennsylvania did not have the right to press the case. (He did not have standing)

    If he doesn't, then who the heck does?

    By Blogger The Benson Report, at 25 October, 2008 17:49  

  • Benson,


    THIS!


    http://www.obamacrimes.com/index.php/component/content/article/2-news/45-press-release-berg-v-obama-dismissed-berg-appealing-to-u-s-supreme-court


    But by then, it may be too late. And should Obama win the presidency and is found to NOT BE A LEGAL CITIZEN, then there would be a major Constitutional crisis on our hands.


    Then again this judge was a CLINTON APPOINTEE.

    By Blogger The Real Bob Anthony, at 25 October, 2008 17:50  

  • Uh, this was actually meant for anonymous. My bad!

    By Blogger The Real Bob Anthony, at 25 October, 2008 17:50  

  • Does anyone on the right want to acknowledge the fact that John McCain wasn't born in the U.S.? He was born in the Panama Canal on a naval base. So I am sure we on the left could make something of that.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 26 October, 2008 14:18  

  • and, sadly, the best candidate of all, sarah palin, will ultimately be the one to bear the burden of blame for it all


    wow! Hash, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but my man YOU HAVE LOST YOUR MIND, no offense...

    If Obama was not born here, he would NEVER have been allowed to run... These things are verified...GROW UP take off the tin-foil hat, you people have lost it.

    Maloney... there is no Cult of Obama, but rather a nation SICK OF SMUG,ARROGANT YET IGNORANT CONSERVATIVES... ANY DEM would have won this thing.....

    Hash, you're too smart a guy to fall into the wing nut trap, i feel bad for ya

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 26 October, 2008 21:31  

  • "If Obama was not born here, he would NEVER have been allowed to run... These things are verified..."

    HOW, Jared? Can you tell me exactly how?

    And by whom?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 27 October, 2008 10:30  

  • Hashfanatic.

    The CIA, FBI and Secret Service very intensively vet every person running for or applying for high government office. As all of these services are under the jurisdiction of the President of the United States and all background checks now pass through a National Intelligence Czar, a position created by Bush after 9/11and first chaired by Latin American Death Squad organizer John Negroponte and now headed by Mike McConnell, I'm sure the source of Obama's national origin has long been settled. If you think Bush & Co. would have allowed Obama to have proceeded this far along without verifying a little thing like his country of origin shows how insane the right wingers have become.

    Hash... you really like having common cause with these guys?

    By Blogger Dave Carroll, at 27 October, 2008 12:21  

  • "...I'm sure the source of Obama's national origin has long been settled."

    Dave...why?

    You're fully aware terrorism and strained resources are being used as the excuse for every intelligence lapse...

    Barky ASCENDED into the Senate during the Bush Crime Family's reign. Are you seriously expecting me to believe that due diligence was done properly in this situation, particularly considering the milieu in Chicago and the scrambled security during that period? I do not...

    You're going to throw out names like NEGROPONTE after Iraq, and then turn around and use that example as a source to assure Americans that the Barkster was properly vetted? PLEASE!

    That's just so typical of how the most ordinarily rational left-of-center observers have been (most likely hypnotised) into total blindness...

    Dave, the PEOPLE have to vet the candidates! There was a time prior to convergence when big business could be counted on to fill the void. This is no longer possible to fall back on!

    It's not a question of "common cause". Many of us would have few disagreements with you over the events of the past eight years.

    It's very nice that you'll do anything to have a bright, sunny morning once again. You have to accept, however, that there are those of us who see the darkest storm clouds yet on the horizon.

    And we're not going away.

    For that reason, I continue to endorse McCain/Palin for 2008.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 27 October, 2008 22:22  

  • "I'm sure the source of Obama's national origin has long been settled..."

    That's not good enough, Dave.

    Americans want proof.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 27 October, 2008 22:23  

  • Hash.

    Look, you have every right to support whomever you want. If you're a Hillaryite or a Palinista that's fine. The baeauty of the democratic system is we all have a right to throw the lever for whoever we choose in the voting booth. But it sounds to me that you are buying into this "Manchurian Candidate" theory constructed by the right wing. I think it is B.S. because I have seen no evidence to support it but, if that's what gets people through their long sleepless nights, so be it. I haven't been reading much of Maloney's blog the last couple of months because of the battiness of the tone but obviously you do and, like Joe Lieberman, you've got this image of McCain, circa-2000, in your head you can't seem to let go. A lot of us did. Hate to say it but, the day McCain genuflected before the likes of Falwell and Robertson, he lost me and millions like me who loved him because he called these intolerent American Taliban Christian Ayatollah's out for the pieces of crap out they for who were.

    Was the security apparatus of our nation pre-9/11 lax? Of course it was. Then again, it was competitive and decentralized versus (in my view, ominously) filtered through one conduit. So, yes, having recently undergone a few rigorous screenings myself, I feel fairly confident that, if there were skeletons in my closet they would be exposed, they would have caught a Constitutional deal killer like being foreign born. And, as embarassing as the defeat of McCain is looking to possibly be, I'm quite confident that issues like Obama's national origin and religious affiliation have been militantly scrutinized and would be used by the National Republican Party overtly if there was any weight to them. Rather, they use the internet and scurious little 527 groups to say stuff with no basis in fact. Swiftboating is a favorite tactic of the right wing. The rich guysand moneyed special interest groups that fund these groups know the working class rubes will fall for their crap and vote against their interests everytime because they frighten and manipulate easily. They are confident that Joe Six Pack isn't much of a "reader" and ashamed of his humble pay and aspires for better... so he'll vote for anyone promising tax cuts and security even though old Joe will never be a beneficiary of either. But hint to Joe that the well educated, uppity black guy with the funny name may not be what he seems and got there not by his merits but through a conspiracy and he'll buy it everytime. You see, Joe can't figure out why he's played by the rules but can't get ahead and this Muslim sounding African is about to become president. He doesn't get the fact that the same people who've been scaring him to death are the same people who've been robbing him blind and blaming "the other" to take the heat off themselves.

    Does that mean the public shouldn't do their own investigation? Of course not. But considering that Obama has been examined on a microscopic level by groups and agencies far more resourceful than agenda driven right wing internet sites and nothing concrete has been found... only "questions"... I feel fairly assured that President Obama won't be whipping out a Koran and sporting a mufti come Inauguration Day.

    But, Hash, if voting for McCain and Palin (most qualified? Really?? Okay!) makes you feel safe, please do. Somebody has to. It's very likely, in four years, I'll be voting for a third party candidate because I never feel comfortable voting in the mainstream. But, even more important than my disdain for the two party dominance of the system is my need, for the sake of my nation's security, to utterly and decisively kill off this version of the Republican Party so one more actually reflective of truly republican principles can emerge from the ashes. Likewise, everything put in place over these last years by Bush & Co., needs to be voted out. I'm willing to give the Democrats two to four years to return us to a constitutionally based government again. But I also know that, too long in power, they'll need to be purged. Hopefully a revitalized, Teddy Rooseveltian Republican Party will emerge and I can respect and trust them again, even when I don't always agree with them.

    This time around? Screw 'em! They deserve utter humiliation and total defeat. Besides, guys like Maloney and his heroes Rush and Billo are only truly interesting and happy when they are in the opposition. I'm just doing my part to make that so.

    By Blogger Dave Carroll, at 28 October, 2008 08:49  

  • IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE HE WAS BORN. HE WAS BORN TO HIS MOTHER A U.S. CITIZEN WHICH MEANS THAT HIS BIRTH RIGHT IS THAT OF A UNITED STATES CITIZEN. COME ON YOU GUYS WE LEARNED THIS IN GRAMMER SCHOOL. DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE HYPE, I GOT YOU. IT JUST GOES TO SHOW HOW MS.INFORMED A LOT OF YOU ARE.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 03 November, 2008 02:06  

  • He was born to his mother? REALLY? LOL.

    Fourteen Amendment...check the language. It states that children who are born on foreign soil to TWO U.S. PARENTS...so if he was born outside of the US and his father was Kenyan...well...there you have it. The issue surrounding his place of birth is indeed of great importance. If we do not stick to the Constitution that is the backbone of this country, what else will we bend the rules on?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 07 November, 2008 18:39  

  • The 14th Amendment states that "that children who are born on foreign soil to TWO U.S. PARENTS" are natural born citizens? Really? I think you need to check the language of the 14th Amendment there again, Skippy. Nowhere in the Constitution does it state the definition of a US Citizen. What the 14th Amendment actually states, in regard to citizenship, is that no state may pass a law that violates the rights afforded to ALL US citizens by the US Constitution.

    "If we do not stick to the Constitution that is the backbone of this country, what else will we bend the rules on?"

    If we follow your example, apparently we'll fabricate references from the Constitution. I really find it humorous that we have all of these people on the Right claiming that Obama voters are so uninformed, and that there's no other way this guy would have been voted in otherwise. Yet, on a daily basis, we get to see his opponents show gross levels of misinformation.

    The other humorous point I find is that we have suddenly found a large population of strict constitutionalists out vehemently defending the Constitution when it seems they don't have the first clue what the Constitution actually says.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 25 December, 2008 22:47  

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