The more I look into the statement apparently released to a small group of selected news agencies yesterday, October 31, 2008, by the State of Hawaii Director of Health Department Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the curiouser and curiouser it becomes.
1. I have been unable to discover the actual statement released by Dr. Fukino anywhere on the web.
It's not listed on the State of Hawaii Department of Health website:
http://healthuser.hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/pressdate.html which shows the most recent press release as being issued October 22, 2008.
Current Year 2008 News Releases
The following is a listing of press releases issued by the Department of Health's Communications Office during the current year. Earlier releases can be found in a separate master listing. For more information DOH press releases or other communication matters, call 586-4442.
October 22, 2008 DOH CITES COMPANIES FOR AIR POLLUTION VIOLATIONS
October 22, 2008 HAWAI'I RECEIVES $1.5 MILLION FOR YOUTH SUICIDE PREVENTION
2. The statement was released to only three sources, apparently: The Associated Press, Pacific Business News Service, and a local Hawaii television station.
3. I cannot determine if an actual press conference was held, or if a statement was merely released.
4. The statement was released on "election eve Friday" on a day when the Department of Health was apparently closed. (They moved to a trial 4 day work week earlier this month). It has the feel to me of the last act in a carefully staged political passion play designed to create the impression that a long form original birth certificate from 1961 signed by an attending physician at a Honolulu hospital exists in the vault of the State of Hawaii Department of Health. Maybe it does. But this statement by Dr. Fukino does not say that.
Take a close look at her actual words, as quoted in the AP, Pacific Business News, and the local Hawaii television station:
"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."
I have attached below the transcript from the on air report at Honolulu television station (KGMB, Channel 9) that reported this story yesterday:
Hawaii's top health official is trying to stop a rumor about Barack Obama that says he was born in Kenya and therefore isn't allowed to run for President.
That claim has been spreading online but Hawaii officials say it's not true.
Obama was born in Honolulu and the proof is at the state Health Department.
To end the controversy, director Dr. Chiyome Fukino says she's seen the birth certificate herself. She just can't release it publicly.
After getting numerous requests for it, she explained again Friday, "state law prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record."
No state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the state.
If the only source for this on-air report is the statement I've seen from Dr. Fukino, it's yet another example of misleading reporting. The report says Dr. Fukino personally saw the birth certificate, but that's not what the statement says.
I would like to see a videotape of Dr. Fukino making that exact statement. I would like her to hold a press conference answering ALL the questions that her carefully parsed October 31 statement raises.
5. I cannot determine if the statement released was approved by the Governor of Hawaii and the Attorney General of Hawaii, or if it was released independently by Dr. Fukino.
6. Dr. Fukino does not state in her October 31, 2008 statement that she personally viewed an actual physical copy of the long form original birth certificate from 1961 signed by the attending physician at a Honolulu hospital.
7. In the AP report of her statement, Dr. Fukino says the State of Hawaii has the original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures. Since she raised the issue of state policies and procedures, I would like her to release the document describing the state's policies and procedures regarding maintaining "original birth certificates on record".
8. Did Senator Obama personally authorize Dr. Fukino and Dr. Onaka to personally view his "original birth certificate on record." ? If so, when and how ?
9. Did Senator Obama personally authorize Dr. Fukino and Dr. Onaka to issue the statement of October 31, 2008 ? If so, when and how ?
10. Have Dr. Fukino and Dr. Onaka had any communication with Senator Obama or did they meet with him in person on any occasion in the last 30 days or in the last year ? If so, were those communications or meetings negotiations related to statements to be made about his birth certificate ?
I will grant the Obama apologists this however.
While the statement released by Dr. Fukino does not prove with absolute certainty that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, and therefore is natural born and eligible for the Presidency (which is the standard that must be met), it does increase the likelihood that he was born in Hawaii.
Or, as those of us who have been skeptical of this entire stonewalling process from the beginning will argue, it increases our suspicion that there is something about this purported original birth certificate that Barack Obama does not want to see the light of day . . . before the election, after the election, or ever.
Now that the officials of the State of Hawaii Department of Health have partially opened the door, I think it's only right and proper that they disclose everything, including the actual original birth certificate.
Most importantly, Senator Barack Obama should finally do the right thing and authorize the State of Hawaii Department of Health, the Kapioloini Medical Center in Honolulu, and Queens Medical Center in Honolulu to release ALL DOCUMENTS related to his birth.
It's time for a change all right.
It's time for Senator Obama to change his stonewalling and obstructionism on this very important issue and disclose everything necessary to prove with absolute certainty that he is, in fact, natural born, and therefore eligible to serve as President.
19 comments:
Notice the Hawaii Director of Health Department says she saw an "original Birth Certificate", but she doesn't say it's a Hawaiian Birth Certificate......
I am not an Obama supporter...I believe the law(s) should be obeyed (for a change)....but this issue of origin of birth seems like desperation on NON-Obama supporters, rather than adherence to the law. This country will be divided (beyond repair?) no matter who wins.
It's time for you to grow up. He was born in Hawaii. That makes him a US citizen. Give it a rest. He doesn't have to release ANYTHING. He doesn't have to prove ANYTHING. You MUST PROVE he is not a legal citizen. You blew it as did Berg and Martin, two more crackpots.
Right, her statement is she has merely seen that it is "recorded" somewhere.
And if the recording is right or wrong would take actually looking at the original, which apparently she has not done otherwise she would have said so.
Re-check your link - I just printed out Dr. Fukino's statement from the Hawai'i DOH website you provided a link for. It's there. I would like to see the press conference you suggested so she can verify personally that she has seen said document and that it is genuine.
If there wasn't a problem then I believe Mr. Obama would produce said document in a heartbeat.....
To the Anonymous commenter who asserts Obama was born in Hawaii, is therefore a US Citizen, and the burden of proof to prove otherwise is mine:
1. Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein disagrees with you on the burden of proof. The Constitution requires absolute certainity of natural born status. In such cases, the burden of proof is on the candidate who claims natural born status.
2. Presentation of the original birth certificate signed by an attending physician at a Honolulu hospital dated August 4, 1961 would be sufficient proof to me that he is natural born.
Curiously, Senator Obama has refused to authorize the release of this document for a year and a half.
If you were running for President and someone questioned your eligibility, would you not release your original birth certificate if it proved you were eligible ?
A lot of unnecessary screwing around about disclosure of this document Obama. If he is then throw down. Time is up. We thing the FORGERY department needs more. If it was me for a bank loan i could not forgo the want to produce it so WHY oh WHY is this man allowed to forgo this check for two qualifiers for the office.
You Yanks need to re think your electoral system before it gets you all in no end of crap.
Hawaii has shown you the birth certificate, showing a birth in Honolulu:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/27/obamas-birth-certificate-part-ii/
http://www.politifact.com/media/img/graphics/birthCertObama.jpg
Here is the verification rom the state of HA:
http://hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2008/08-93.pdf
“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."
justsomeguy,
That finally parsed October 31 statement leaves some giant holes in the issue.
Does "on record" mean:
1. The original birth certificate signed by the attending physician?
2. An alternate document signed by one witness submitted more than one year after the fact, as allowed by Hawaii law at the time.
3. The record in the data base was entered in accordance with Hawaii rules and regulation and no original document exists.
Only #1 above is definitive proof of natural born status.
Voters have the right to know if it is #1, #2, or #3
as a question about the HI state law about releasing the doc only to a person of vital interest...are 300 million US citizens of no interest? are our rights as citizens of no consequence? I have no desire to divide the country, nor do I desire to see the pres-elect lose. But if proven that he is not eligible for the position, the loss falls squarely on his shoulders as does the division it will create throughout the country.
Perhaps accurate teaching of the Constitution would be a good start towards reviving a citizenry that tends toward complacency.
The Director does not say it is a Hawaiian birth certificate, just an original one. I want to see Obama release his original birth certificate that states the place he was born & the name of the doctor, etc. But what can an ordinary citizen do? I have written letters to my officials, who feed back the fact that the Director has said he was born in Hawaii, end of story. Will you be able to pursue this so that the real truth is revealed, whatever it may be?
You guys need to give it up. You also need to take an English course. What part of I have personally seen and verified do you not understand? And to those of you who say well, she didn't say if it was a Hawaiian BC, why would they have the birth certificate from another state there? The state of your birth would be the only state that would keep your birth records. The other controversy, Obama's father makes him ineligible to be president. Any person born in this country is a natural born citizen. If two mexicans have a baby born here, it's a natural born citizen. Period. Go bark up another tree. Maybe he did a loan somewhere that you can get someone to lie about and spend $100 million in taxpayers' money investigating.
To JDL51:
What level of understanding of the English language endows one with an ability to discern Hawai'ian birth from the Dr. Fukino's statement? Dr. Fukino only says that she has "seen and verified" that a certificate exists. She does not say that the certificate records a birth in Hawai'i.
As has been stated authoritatively in many other venues, Hawai'ian law permits a registration of birth for an infant born elsewhere. If the certificate that Dr. Fukino viewed included information that would support Hawai'ian birth, it would be a simple matter so to state - most logically at the end of her second paragraph.
As this is the position taken publicly by Mr. Obama, to do so would not entail release of confidential information. The question that must be asked is, why did Dr. Fukino neglect to make such a statement?
Follow up:
I neglected to address JDL51's second contention - that a child born in the USA, even of Mexican parents, would be a "natural born" citizen
Most constitutional scholars I have read adhere to the interpretation that "natural-born" means one upon whom no other sovereign state has a valid claim. One born in the US to immigrant parents would be a citizen, but would only be a natural-born citizen if his/her parents had become citizens prior to the birth. This is why the drafters of the Constitution included the language whereby they were "grandfathered" into the qualifications -- having been subjects of the British crown prior to the Revolution, they could not otherwise meet the requirement of "natural-born."
Since Mr. Obama freely admits that he was, at one point, a citizen of the UK, he fails to meet the requirement.
The 1790 Congress, many of whose members had been members of the Constitutional Convention, provided in the Naturalization Act of 1790 that "And the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens."
Last time I looked, Obama's mother was a natural born U.S. citizen. So even if he was, contrary to any evidence that I have yet seen, born outside the U.S., he is still a naturalized citizen. If anyone has documentary evidence that his mother was not a U.S. citizen I have yet to see it. So going to the worst case scenario, or best case whatever your political persuasion is, if he was born in Kenya as some have speculated without proof, he would still be a natural born citizen. On the Hawaii BC issue. I would think that if the Director of Health saw his BC and it was of Kenyan origin, I would think she would mention it. Knowing the controversy drummed up by his detractors and the only reason for her to make a statement in the first place, the fact that she didn't say it was a Kenyan BC was because it was a legitimate HI state BC. Apparently some people think that everyone in the HI state government is involved in a massive coverup, even though the end result would be Obama is a naturalized U.S. citizen anyway. As I said before, get over it. He'll be around for at least four years, and now that the repubs have dusted off their principles after eight long years of being hidden in the closet, there'll be plenty of controversies to whip yourself into a frenzy over.
To JDL51:
A naturalized citizen is emphatically not a "natural born Citizen." What constitutes a naturalized citizen can be defined and modified via laws enacted by Congress and signed by the President (such as the Naturalization Act of 1790 which you quote.) Status as a natural born Citizen cannot be granted, altered, or removed by any law or regulation, neither can its definition be so altered. It is bound into the fabric of the Constitution, as the framers understood the term.
This is not to say that its meaning or circumstances can never be altered, but I believe it would take a Constitutional amendment, or a definitive action by the SCOTUS to do so.
It's a shame that the Publius never expounded on this subject.
Also, from wikipedia,"The phrase "natural born Citizen" is not clearly defined anywhere in the Constitution, as is true with most Constitutional terms." If you assume that only people born in the 50 states are natural born, then John McCain and Barry Goldwater were ineligible to run for president, and some even question Al Gore's eligibility because he was born in DC. What is clearly missing in this debate is common sense. Obama's mother was born in the U.S. The only evidence I've seen, and it was verified by the HI Director of Health who looked at the original certificate, is Obama's BC which clearly states that he was born in Honolulu. Until clear documentary evidence from both HI and Kenya says differently, it's all just talk. And today a lawsuit was brought before the SC and that lawsuit even admits that Obama was born in HI, but they doubt his citizenship because his father was a citizen of the UK. So we have a natural born mother giving birth on U.S. soil to a son and some folks don't consider him to be a legitimate presidential candidate. Just another case of sour grapes.
I give up! When you can just invent your own "facts," there's no point in continuing the discussion. One last time, for the record, the Hawai'ian Director of Health never said that he was born in Honolulu, nor did she say that the COLB posted on various pro-Obama websites was authentic. All that she said is that a BC exists, that she has seen it, and that HI law doesn't allow her to say what is on it.
There are two sets of legal challenges wending their way through various courts. Some rely on questioning citizenship (where place of birth is pertinent), while others focus on the meaning of natural born. As far as Natural born citizen is concerned, its definition must be sought in prior SCOTUS decisions, such as U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898).
JDL51 - You forgot to read the rest of the 1790 act:
"And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States"
Obama is not natural born - he may not even been naturalized (clearly different than natural-born) because no one has found his swearing in, but he can be considered a US citizen for a number of reasons - which is why he was never contested as a US senator for being qualified.
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