Phil writes:
>"Any shots of Obama wining and dining Janice Okubo on his vacation in Hawaii?"
I respond:
You can't help but wonder. She certainly did NOT write to me that she had given the campaign a certificate and that the one posted was accurate. Instead, she wrote to me that the freedom of information act does not apply to Hawaii. She saved this other information for later. I do not know the reason for the difference.
Mairi writes:
>"SHEESH! Do you believe these guys? They have no respect for us at all. Just label everyone out there a "crackpot" and have done with it. NOT!
I have written to Dan, but don't expect to hear from him any more than I expect to hear from Dan White......Maybe it goes with the name? LOL!
Janice is a REAL disappointment. Typical, "say one thing one day, and something different the next". I must applaud your efforts. Dealing with this as much as you have must be very aggravating.
Sincerely,
Mairi
I respond:
Not so aggravating, just tiring as I should be working on other things. I got the traffic up on my blog so I'm happy about that. I do not expect that I will single handedly reform the system, so I expect little. The one who irritates me is that reporter Dan Nakaso from the Hawaii newspaper. He ran a story without speaking to the other side. That's sleazy.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Does Jack Cafferty Suffer From Old Age Dementia?
I seldom watch CNN, but when I am forced to watch it in my health club I often hear Jack Cafferty remarking about John McCain's age. Ageism is a form of bias, and the low, tasteless quality of the pro-Obama media exhibits itself in Cafferty. Problem solving ability peaks at about age 20, but knowledge of how to solve problems, i.e., experience, compensates for loss of mental acuity. There are few breakthroughs in math or physics made by those above age 30, but there are a large number of literary, artistic, philosophical, legal and business breakthroughs made by old people.
I looked up Jack Cafferty's age on Wikipedia. He was born in December 1942, while John McCain was born in August 1936. The difference between Cafferty and McCain is a tad over six years. Perhaps it is Cafferty, rather than John McCain, who suffers from senility.
Unlike Cafferty, I am not one to make ageist comments, but Mr. Cafferty lives in a glass house and has been throwing stones. So here goes. I wonder if Cafferty gets the news right since he might be suffering from old age dementia. Can we trust Cafferty to be a good newscaster? He seems illogical. He is past the age for ordinary onset Alzheimer's, and his lack of awareness and tastelessness suggests acceleration that condition.
I looked up Jack Cafferty's age on Wikipedia. He was born in December 1942, while John McCain was born in August 1936. The difference between Cafferty and McCain is a tad over six years. Perhaps it is Cafferty, rather than John McCain, who suffers from senility.
Unlike Cafferty, I am not one to make ageist comments, but Mr. Cafferty lives in a glass house and has been throwing stones. So here goes. I wonder if Cafferty gets the news right since he might be suffering from old age dementia. Can we trust Cafferty to be a good newscaster? He seems illogical. He is past the age for ordinary onset Alzheimer's, and his lack of awareness and tastelessness suggests acceleration that condition.
Janice Okubo Denies Impropriety with Posted Birth Certificate
Dan Nakaso of the Honolulu Advertiser writes an article about Janice Okubo and the Obama birth certificate (h/t Ray). First, I copy from the article, then my e-mailed response follows:
Birth certificate in high demand:
Hawai'i birth certificates — just as with death, marriage and certain divorce documents — are released only to people with a "tangible interest," such as the people themselves, their parents, spouses, grandparents or other relatives, Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. (Requests for divorce decrees after 2002 go through the state judiciary.)
"'Our state law is very firm on information on vital records. ... You cannot receive someone else's birth certificate — to protect the person's confidential information,'" Okubo said
"'The Obama campaign said it has posted a copy of his birth certificate at www.fightthesm ears.com in response to Internet chatter that the Illinois senator is not a natural-born citizen. But the posting has done little to curb the nearly weekly requests to the Health Department for copies of the original', Okubo said.
"'Some skeptics point to the lack of an official state seal on the birth certificate posted on the Obama campaign Web site.'
"'But seals often are placed on the back of the birth certificate', Okubo said, 'and whether it shows through depends on how much force was put into it.'"
"'Others wonder why a large black rectangle appears next to the words, "CERTIFICATE NO'."
"'The thing that's redacted is just our file number," she said. "Potentially, if you have that number, you could break into the system.'"
"'Health officials contacted the Obama campaign a few months ago in response to the persistent inquiries "to see if they could try and resolve the issue with the people who were asking questions,' she said.
"'They responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate,'" Okubo said. "They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous."
My response to Dan Nakaso, the Advertiser reporter, via e-mail:
I am submitting a petition to the Federal Election Commission on Monday concerning the lack of an administrative system whereby identification and other information necessary to verify a candidate's eligibiligity are collected, reviewed and made available to the public as exemplified in the current questions about Mr. Barack H. Obama's birth certificate. At present, no state or federal agency, to include the state boards of election, the Federal Election Commission, the state Secretaries of State, the Internal Revenue Service (which oversees federal campaign money) or any other administrative body oversees collection of identification information, to include birth certificates, fingerprinting, drivers' licenses, criminal records and related information. In an age of identity theft, are we certain that no elected officials have made use of falsified identification? As a result, more than 5,100 people have signed the petition. Perhaps Ms. Okubo's story shifting and Mr. Obama's unresponsiveness to repeated inquiries have contributed to the public good by bringing the need for a comprehensive identification process for political candidates.
The petition is located at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Federal-Elections-Commssion/index.html
When I contacted Ms. Okubo in July to request a copy of Mr. Obama's birth certificate, she refused to provide it, but she did NOT indicate that there is a publicly available birth certificate nor did she indicate that she could verify the certificate as reflecting the true one. She could have mentioned that she had given a birth certificate to the Obama campaign but she did not. She could have verified that the one posted is the same one she gave them, but she did not do that either. Nor does she confirm this in your article.
There have been allegations that the certificate posted on the Obama website is a forgery on the Atlas Shrugs and other blogs that I've partially compiled here:
http://www.showusthecertificate.blogspot.com/
In particular, note Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs blog here:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html
Ms. Okubo does not state in the article that the certificate posted on the website is the same as the one she provided to Mr. Obama. And why did she neglect to tell me in her letter in July that a certificate was posted?
In addition, as a reporter have you contacted Mr. Obama to request a copy of the certificate, or have you accepted a single source? In your article, you do not quote Pamela Geller, Larry Johnson, or other bloggers who have taken an interest in this. You only quote Ms. Okubo, whose story now is not the one that she wrote to me about last month.
The fact that the Hawaii Revised Statutes permit anyone with a "direct and tangible interest" in the birth certificate ought to mean that anyone can obtain Mr. Obama's birth certificate since we all have a direct and tangible interest in it.
More than 5,100 individuals from around the country have signed the petition requesting the FEC investigate the birth certificate. The matter is one of inept administration of elections at the state and federal level.
Birth certificate in high demand:
Hawai'i birth certificates — just as with death, marriage and certain divorce documents — are released only to people with a "tangible interest," such as the people themselves, their parents, spouses, grandparents or other relatives, Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. (Requests for divorce decrees after 2002 go through the state judiciary.)
"'Our state law is very firm on information on vital records. ... You cannot receive someone else's birth certificate — to protect the person's confidential information,'" Okubo said
"'The Obama campaign said it has posted a copy of his birth certificate at www.fightthesm ears.com in response to Internet chatter that the Illinois senator is not a natural-born citizen. But the posting has done little to curb the nearly weekly requests to the Health Department for copies of the original', Okubo said.
"'Some skeptics point to the lack of an official state seal on the birth certificate posted on the Obama campaign Web site.'
"'But seals often are placed on the back of the birth certificate', Okubo said, 'and whether it shows through depends on how much force was put into it.'"
"'Others wonder why a large black rectangle appears next to the words, "CERTIFICATE NO'."
"'The thing that's redacted is just our file number," she said. "Potentially, if you have that number, you could break into the system.'"
"'Health officials contacted the Obama campaign a few months ago in response to the persistent inquiries "to see if they could try and resolve the issue with the people who were asking questions,' she said.
"'They responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate,'" Okubo said. "They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous."
My response to Dan Nakaso, the Advertiser reporter, via e-mail:
I am submitting a petition to the Federal Election Commission on Monday concerning the lack of an administrative system whereby identification and other information necessary to verify a candidate's eligibiligity are collected, reviewed and made available to the public as exemplified in the current questions about Mr. Barack H. Obama's birth certificate. At present, no state or federal agency, to include the state boards of election, the Federal Election Commission, the state Secretaries of State, the Internal Revenue Service (which oversees federal campaign money) or any other administrative body oversees collection of identification information, to include birth certificates, fingerprinting, drivers' licenses, criminal records and related information. In an age of identity theft, are we certain that no elected officials have made use of falsified identification? As a result, more than 5,100 people have signed the petition. Perhaps Ms. Okubo's story shifting and Mr. Obama's unresponsiveness to repeated inquiries have contributed to the public good by bringing the need for a comprehensive identification process for political candidates.
The petition is located at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Federal-Elections-Commssion/index.html
When I contacted Ms. Okubo in July to request a copy of Mr. Obama's birth certificate, she refused to provide it, but she did NOT indicate that there is a publicly available birth certificate nor did she indicate that she could verify the certificate as reflecting the true one. She could have mentioned that she had given a birth certificate to the Obama campaign but she did not. She could have verified that the one posted is the same one she gave them, but she did not do that either. Nor does she confirm this in your article.
There have been allegations that the certificate posted on the Obama website is a forgery on the Atlas Shrugs and other blogs that I've partially compiled here:
http://www.showusthecertificate.blogspot.com/
In particular, note Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs blog here:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html
Ms. Okubo does not state in the article that the certificate posted on the website is the same as the one she provided to Mr. Obama. And why did she neglect to tell me in her letter in July that a certificate was posted?
In addition, as a reporter have you contacted Mr. Obama to request a copy of the certificate, or have you accepted a single source? In your article, you do not quote Pamela Geller, Larry Johnson, or other bloggers who have taken an interest in this. You only quote Ms. Okubo, whose story now is not the one that she wrote to me about last month.
The fact that the Hawaii Revised Statutes permit anyone with a "direct and tangible interest" in the birth certificate ought to mean that anyone can obtain Mr. Obama's birth certificate since we all have a direct and tangible interest in it.
More than 5,100 individuals from around the country have signed the petition requesting the FEC investigate the birth certificate. The matter is one of inept administration of elections at the state and federal level.
George Phillips for Congress
I attended a fundraiser at the Steelhouse on the Rondout along the river in Kingston, NY for George Phillips, a Binghamton Republican who is challenging Maurice Hinchey. Raqul Okyay was there. Raquel blogs about the Phillips campaign here .
>"George Phillips worked as a high level aide for Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, and has years of experience assessing and advancing community needs. George Phillips, if successful in November, will undoubtedly be a fresh face and much needed change in Congress. A Congress plagued with low approval ratings and the nickname 'do nothing'."
Okyay points out that incumbent Hinchey has been squandering taxpayer money on alternative energy schemes that apparently do not interest private sector investors or Hinchey himself, who has apparently not put any of his own money into Solar Thin Films, but has put the taxpayer on the hook for $50 million.
Phillips is fine candidate. He visited us at our West Shokan cabin in June, so the fundraiser was the second time we got to meet. He is a smart, dynamic candidate and would do a better job than the incumbent.
>"George Phillips worked as a high level aide for Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, and has years of experience assessing and advancing community needs. George Phillips, if successful in November, will undoubtedly be a fresh face and much needed change in Congress. A Congress plagued with low approval ratings and the nickname 'do nothing'."
Okyay points out that incumbent Hinchey has been squandering taxpayer money on alternative energy schemes that apparently do not interest private sector investors or Hinchey himself, who has apparently not put any of his own money into Solar Thin Films, but has put the taxpayer on the hook for $50 million.
Phillips is fine candidate. He visited us at our West Shokan cabin in June, so the fundraiser was the second time we got to meet. He is a smart, dynamic candidate and would do a better job than the incumbent.
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