Birthers: If the (tinfoil) hat fits, wear it

I haven’t been called a socialist or a liberal Democrat in about a week, and I must be missing it, because I cannot let this one go any longer.

What is the deal with the birth certificate controversy? It has actually become a sort of movement, and people seem happy to carry the label ‘birther’.

Examine the facts.

World Net Daily is generating a lot of money in product sales and in donations, so it is easy to understand their continued demand that a ‘long form’ birth certificate be produced.

World Net Daily originally ran stories that the birth certificate posted on the website was a forgery, but later withdrew that claim.

• “A separate WND investigation into Obama's certification of live birth utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic. The investigation also revealed methods used by some of the bloggers to determine the document was fake involved forgeries, in that a few bloggers added text and images to the certificate scan that weren't originally there.”

DOH spokeswoman Janice Okubo said about the birth certificate posted by the Obama campaign last fall “is considered a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii."

The governor of Hawaii has been accused of ‘sealing’ Obama’s birth records. The governor, who by the way is a Republican who campaigned for John McCain, did not interfere in the matter at all. State law in Hawaii requires that the records are confidential. Louisiana has the same requirement.

• “State law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record," DOH Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said.

Fukino said that no state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently from any other.

Fukino said she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

• "Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures,"

Think about it. The Director of Health and the Registrar of Vital Statistics, the people who are in charge of maintaining these records, certified that they have seen the original and are certifying that Obama was born in Honolulu.

I had a conversation with someone last week who ‘had his doubts.’ I outlined the above facts and his reply was “there are still too many unanswered questions . . “. When I asked what questions he was referring to, he simply trailed off into some comments about ‘he may have traveled on a British Passport and he won’t release his college records because they might show that he was registered as a foreign student . . “.

Some people just won’t give up.

Perhaps they would be better served if they turned their attention to the healthcare debate, the stimulus, and a national debt that is out of control.

Even Anne Coulter thinks it's wrong: