AINDA O CERTIFICADO DE OBAMA

HEITOR DE PAOLA

More birth-certificate mumbo jumbo

Has any birth certificate in the history of the world been discussed and debated more than Barack Obama's?

I don't think so.

Yet, nearly every time it is discussed or debated, the public becomes more confused, mystified, curious and certain they are being deliberately deceived.

The latest entry into this circus is Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. You would think the governor of Hawaii would be an expert on the subject of Barack Obama's birth certificate by now. But her public comments suggest she is either abjectly ignorant or an active component of a disinformation campaign.

Lingle told a New York talk show Obama was born at Kapi'olani Hospital in Honolulu. But she offered no evidence to back it up and has also claimed she has never seen the document.

She claims her office issued a press release stating the birth hospital during the 2008 campaign. But no such release was ever published, and this is the first time any government official has claimed Kapi'olani as the birth hospital.

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The birth certificate has been withheld from the public ostensibly by Hawaiian officials who claim releasing information about Obama's birth would be a violation of the state's laws. Yet, Lingle herself just apparently violated that law by releasing information she claims is in that secret document.

But perhaps most remarkable about Lingle's cavalier, dismissive public statement is the fact that even Kapi'olani Hospital has been unwilling to make the unequivocal assertion it is the birthplace of Barack Obama. WND has recounted in detail Kapi'olani's attempts to have its cake and it eat, too: Using Obama's name to raise funds for the facility, but refusing to confirm or deny that he was actually born there.

In other words, it's more mumbo jumbo from another Hawaii official.

The trouble with all this is that we live in a nation supposedly governed by the rule of law and the will of the people.

The law is very precise regarding the eligibility of the president of the United States. It leaves little doubt that every American is entitled to know with 100 percent assurance whether the occupant of the White House is a natural born citizen. It shouldn't be a matter of opinion. It shouldn't be a matter of imprecise testimonial from a faceless bureaucrat in Hawaii. It shouldn't be a matter of a questionable digital document posted on the Internet. It should be a matter of established fact.

That's certainly not the case with Barack Obama's nativity story.

The story itself keeps changing.

The ground rules for keeping the birth certificate secret keep changing.

Now we're supposed to forget about this little constitutional requirement because the governor of Hawaii says there are so many more important issues to deal with.

May I remind everyone that Hawaii's history of negligence and malfeasance in keeping birth records is at the very root of the nation's suspicions?

Who is Gov. Lingle to lecture the rest of us about our priorities?

She is second only to Obama himself in raising alarm among half the nation's populace that something significant, something important, is being purposely concealed from them.

Enough with the double-talk.

Enough with the imprecise statements.

Enough with the secondhand testimony.

Enough with the condescension about how trivial this matter is.

It's time to see some documents.

It's time to establish some facts.

Hawaii recently changed its laws to deny the public answers about this issue. If the goal was to address the public concerns, a more sensible change in the law would have been to require more openness about vital records of public officials.

Openness would assure the public. Secrecy makes us more suspicious.