Hawaii Confirms Obama's Birthplace, Again

(AP)  State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

They hoped to stem a recent surge in the number of inquiries about Obama's birthplace.

"I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."

So-called "birthers" - who claim Obama is ineligible to be president because, they argue, he was actually born outside the United States - have grown more vocal recently on blogs and television news shows.

Fukino issued a similar press release Oct. 31, but was prompted to speak out again because of the renewed attention on Obama's beginnings. Hawaii's Health Department has been flooded in recent weeks with questions from individuals and several national TV news networks asking for proof that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii.

"They just keep asking over and over and over again," Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.

The Constitution states that a person must be a "natural-born citizen" to be eligible for the presidency. Birthers contend that Obama's birth certificate is a fake, and many say he was actually born in Kenya, his father's homeland. They have challenged his citizenship in court.

One widely circulated YouTube clip of a town hall meeting showed a Republican congressman getting booed for saying Obama is a citizen. Talk show host Rush Limbaugh and CNN's Lou Dobbs have also raised the issue, and 10 Republican members of Congress co-sponsored a bill that would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate.

However, it appears Congress has moved on and has accepted Obama's island birthplace. The U.S. House on Monday unanimously approved a resolution recognizing and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state. A clause was included that reads: "Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961."

State law bars the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.

However, Obama's birth certificate, along with birth notices from two Honolulu newspapers, were brought forward even before he took office. But that's done nothing to shake the belief by many Obama critics that the president was born abroad.

More Coverage of the "Birthers" from Political Hotsheet blog:

White House: Birthers Offering "Fictional Nonsense"

Who Are the Birthers?

[TheDudeRulz]

So why doesn't the State of Hawaii release a picture/copy of the BC to the media? Why does Obama continue to block its release? His mother was not a US citzen long enough to give citizenship to Obama. His father was either a British or Indonesian citizen. Neither could confer citizenship even if Obama was born in Hawaii.

[samrt-2009]

The fact that birthers haven't demanded a copy of Joe Biden's birth certificate suggests their racist orientation more clearly than a confession.

[BeatTheChip]

WOW. It is frightening how much people cannot just accept the fact that Barack Obama is the President. It's been at least six months since the man was inaugurated. What REALLY challenges me about this discussion is the fact that people are dragging in dialogue about the Real ID Act as a way to "one up" the POTUS, like its some great sanctimonius legislation sent to save us all. That's just really weird for me. The Real ID Act is a political failure piece left for the next administration's clean up crew, who wrecked the White House hotel room. What a mess, indeed. Get informed!! BeatTheChip.org

[mijomar-2009]

I got a kick out of these posts...us Americans have a great sense of humor...we must, cause Bush and Chaney are still walking around.

On a serious note, WE all need to take this environmental thing more seriously. On an individual basis, since we're all in this together, why dont we all agree...at least for the next ten to fifteen years or so, agree to have no more then two kids per family..a rule we follow REGARDLESS of race.

We've got to many people on the planet going after a set of severly declining resources...clean water-food-air and living space, jobs, and social freedom. Within that time frame I mentioned, pressures on the worlds natural resources could be sufficiently reduced such that we will have bought some time to make things right again.

Fewer people means a smaller, less intrusive energy footprint too... What most folks dont realize, is that when (and its close now) natural systems begin to collapse, the process quickly accelerates..faster then we would be able to fix it...we have this ONE CHANCE to get it right...life is not fair, no second chances. Maybe thats why there aren't more intelligent life forms out there in space....their first major mistake was their last. Think about it.

[cameraphone]

Pick a fight that wins! I believe the moon is made of Green cheese.

[chitown639]

CantTolerateTruthCanYa say:
So, all these people claim they have seen the documents....

We the people, the government of the United States of America have not seen them...

Present them to us if you have them...NO PROBLEMO...

See how simple that is?

SHOW US THE DOCUMENTS......

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NO, it's really NOT very simple at all when it comes to presenting relevent FACTS to CONSPIRACY NUTS, like yourself. The neo-cons conspiracy baffoons will NEVER accept any solid concrete evidence that contridicts their crazy conspiracy theories, they will just do what conspiracy nuts have always done and the is simply to dismiss all contrary evidence as being tainted by the sources, whom they believe is obviously ALSO involved in the conspiracy theory plot. The delusional find comfort in wild conspirary theories.

So, it's really a waste of time attempting to reason these conspiracy nuts into accepting something they can NEVER accept....that SOMETHING being REALITY....

So let them believe in their conspiracy theories, let them imtimidate their GOP congressional members to embrace their lunatic logic at the risk of losing creditablity among their other constituents.....this can only weaken a already crumbling GOP.....

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, NEO-CONS!!!

[velma179]

Yep.

This couldn't have come at a better time -- at August break.

Maybe a lot of the GOP reps will have people in their audiences holding up their "birth certificates issues by the United States of America".

I wonder if any of them will know enough about America to address the FACT that the US does not issue birth certificates -- individual States do that.

Crazy AND ignorant -- a volatile mix and since we do love our country we have to accept that they are entitled to speak.

[actornaught]

Soooo the birthers will spend august ranting that they want their socialist government to issue a national birth certificate?

Don't worry, if they ever start making sense to you, that's when you're in trouble...

[actornaught]

This more from the hate-radio comedians, and the joke is there audience, and how they've conned them into harassing this woman in Hawaii...

[22drover]

Birthers: Please note the Congress of the United States unanimously(that means Republicans, too)passed a resolution stating that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.

America is a land of laws. Those of you demanding a birth certificate are by law not entitled to anything due to our nation's right to privacy laws.

Since you guys are convinced Barack Obama was born in Kenya, can you please prove that his mother, a US citizen was in Kenya at the time of his birth. You know like producing her tickets, visa, and passport showing travel to Kenya. If not, it's going to be pretty tough to convince most people that he was born somewhere his mother had never been.

By the way, some birther reported that President Obama's maternal grandmother says he was born in Kenya. Please provide prove of her identity, document the alleged relationship and provide proof of her sanity. Then, when you can provide certification of her statements.

Finally, refrain from making any more undocumented allegations concerning our President's birth until you have proof. Thank you!

[velma179]

Exactly...

It's your turn "birthers" or better said "people who lost and want to invalidate an election and the voice of the majority expressed.."

Show us YOUR proof. If you don't have any, you don't have an argument.

Period.

**PS -- the Kenyan grandmother who has been referred to is not from his mother (maternal) -- she is a STEP grandmother of his father (paternal).

When you take into consideration that she is not actually in his blood line, you can extrapolate motives that may not be aligned with truth.
However, if anyone wants to produce her and any verifiable document she holds, I ask them to do so or give it up.

[actornaught]

This "issue" reminds of the Monty Python Argument Clinic. No matter how many times you provide everything asked for, you get:

"No it's not".

You're not arguing with me, you're just disagreeing with everything i say.

"No I'm not"...

[Wookiee-1138]

Jon Stewart said it best: "It's your own f-king network!... she debunked that theory filling in on your own show!"