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Obama 'Birtherism' & Associated Conspiracy Theories

Pietro_Mercurios said:
Mythopoeika said:
...

Instead of producing just one image (as one would expect from a single scan), it produces 3 separate images.

This is more than a little odd, I think. In my mind, it casts reasonable doubt on the authenticity of the document.
If it is a fake, it has been badly done.
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You'd think someone would be a bit better at using ye olde Photoshoppe, wouldn't you?
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Indeed. Very surprised they didn't use a real expert to do it.

I think this one will go on for a long while yet...
 
Mythopoeika said:
Whilst I'm not one to subscribe to the rabid views of Alex Jones or his ilk, I think it's possible that there may indeed be a problem with this scan of the birth certificate.

If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional, you can check this yourself:

Open the PDF.
Use the Advanced > Export All Images... menu option.
Select PNG in the Save As Type drop-down.
Click on the Settings... button and in the Resolution drop-down, select one of the higher numbers (e.g. 1200 pixels/inch).
Click OK, then Save.

Instead of producing just one image (as one would expect from a single scan), it produces 3 separate images.

This is more than a little odd, I think. In my mind, it casts reasonable doubt on the authenticity of the document.
If it is a fake, it has been badly done.
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Question - whilst "one would expect" a single scan to produce one image, what happens in reality? Does replicating the above steps on any PDF image of a single page document produce 3 separate images, or only one?

In other words, is this something unusual and unique to the released image, or just an issue with PDF images?

Are the different images exported different from each other? If so, how different are they?
 
lawofnations said:
Question - whilst "one would expect" a single scan to produce one image, what happens in reality? Does replicating the above steps on any PDF image of a single page document produce 3 separate images, or only one?
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If it was a single, one-shot scan of a document, it would create a single bitmap all on one layer. This bitmap would then be encoded as one single picture in the PDF.
You would not be able to separate it into layers.

lawofnations said:
In other words, is this something unusual and unique to the released image, or just an issue with PDF images?
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I think this is something unusual and unique to the released image.

lawofnations said:
Are the different images exported different from each other? If so, how different are they?
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Yes, very different.
One is the coloured background, which has some greyed, anti-aliased text and writing on it.
Another is most of the writing/text and boxes. This is black and white with no grey, and no anti-aliasing around the writing/text.
The third one is the signature and stamp at the bottom of the document. This is black and white with no grey, and no anti-aliasing around the writing/text.

See here:

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n91/Mythopoeika/Obamas_certificate_in_3_parts/

Unfortunately, I had to crop and downsample the 'Part 1' image because, at 5 megs, it wouldn't fit onto Photobucket.
I think it's good enough to show you what I mean.

Edit: Another thing - I think those certificates had a watermark (or was it an embossed seal?) that showed clearly. This document does not seem to have such a mark.
 
And all this is why he should have just ignored the issue. All it does is feed the fire. It doesn't convince the people who think he was born in Kenya of anything.

He can't win. If he addresses the issue, he's lying, and if he ignores it, he's got something to hide.
 
Another certificate anomaly to consider:
The birth certificate which is from 1961, says his father was Kenyan.
The problem is Kenya didn't become Kenya until 1963!
 
It didn't become a republic until then, but AFAIK was called Kenya before that...
 
SameOldVardoger said:
Another certificate anomaly to consider:
The birth certificate which is from 1961, says his father was Kenyan.
The problem is Kenya didn't become Kenya until 1963!
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Not so, it seems. Kenya became an independent nation in 1963, but had been known as Kenya for many years previously.
The Swynnerton Plan was a colonial agricultural policy that appeared as a government report in 1954 in Kenya, aiming to intensify the development of agricultural practice in the Kenya Colony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swynnerton_Plan
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Oh, I thought it was named British East Africa until 1963. :sceptic:
 
There are quite a few clips of British newreels on YouTube that deal with the Mau Mau uprisings (1952 to 1960), and they use Kenya as the name for the country.
 
Ok. No need to convince me further. Just trying to be the devils advocate.
 
As an American who voted for Obama, I wish he had not given into the demands that he release his birth certificate. But then, it is not unusual for Obama to give in to the right wing bat shit crazies, unfortunately.
 
solsticebelle said:
As an American who voted for Obama, I wish he had not given into the demands that he release his birth certificate. But then, it is not unusual for Obama to give in to the right wing bat shit crazies, unfortunately.
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I think that was a deliberate attempt to wrong-foot his opponents.
Plus, he knew the Bin Laden attack was imminent.

And it's all worked in his favour. Only the most extreme 'right wing bat shit crazies' will attack him now, but that will only emphasise how weird they are.
 
Sometimes you just have to swat the wasps (pun intended) away, lest one of them sting you.

"I yam what I yam! I've had all I can stand, I can't stands no more!"
 
Thanks for that.
My scanner doesn't work that way, it produces a single-layered scan.
I think perhaps the 'optimisation' stage (whatever that might be) may conceivably separate out different layers based on the colour range and density of various elements in the scan.

However - there is no anti-aliasing around the text in 2 of the extracted layers, which rather suggests that they were done as a black and white scan.

Some people out there have been extracting the layers from the PDF using Adobe Illustrator. I personally would not use this. I think Adobe Acrobat Professional is probably the best tool to use.

I suspect this 'conspiracy' will rage on for quite a while without a definitive resolution...
 
Most of the Birthers I've spoken with in recent weeks accept the legitimacy of the Long-Form Birth Certificate.

"My only problem all along," one of the said to me two or three weeks back, "was with the overwhelming hubris of any President who seems to believe that he has the right to seal such basic documens as birth certificate and educational records away from not only the electorate, but even from biographers and historians."

In any case, I see from today's headline that Donald Trump has now aligned himself with those Americans charging "forgery."
 
And still it rumbles on: :roll:

CERTIFIGATE
Sheriff Arpaio's posse to review Obama BC
Famous Arizona lawman responds to citizen request to probe president
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: September 16, 2011
5:06 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2011 WND

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona has constituted a special law enforcement posse to investigate allegations brought by members of the Surprise, Ariz., Tea Party that the birth certificate Barack Obama released to the public April 27 might be a forgery, WND has learned.

The posse, under the authority of Arpaio's office, will consist of two former law enforcement officers and two retired attorneys, headed by Michael Zullo, a retired police detective originally from Bergen County, N.J.

WND confirmed with Zullo and with Arpaio's office that the investigation into the Obama birth certificate has been sanctioned fully by Arpaio's office. The investigation, they said, will be conducted with "utmost diligence," and the investigators will be authorized to utilize subpoena power.

Arpaio spokesman Lt. Justin Griffin told WND that Arpaio's posse will consist entirely of volunteers and will avoid incurring any cost to the taxpayers of Maricopa County.

"I am very grateful that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a sincere man of his word and a fearless, patriotic American," Brian Reilly, a spokesman for the Surprise Tea Party, told WND.

Reilly had less kind words for his representatives in Washington, D.C.
"Congress should be ashamed," he said. "They didn't even have the backbone to uphold their constitutional oaths of office to initiate this investigation."

Arpaio's move is unprecedented in that WND research can find no other instance in United States history in which a county sheriff's office has undertaken an investigation of a document pertaining to a sitting United States president.

Arpaio's decision follows a meeting held in his office Aug. 17 with a group of Surprise Tea Party representatives, including Reilly. Four days later, the group presented a formal letter to Arpaio expressing concern that should Obama use a forged birth certificate to prove his eligibility for the 2012 presidential ballot in Arizona, the voting rights of the residents of Maricopa County could be irreparably compromised.

WND reported Aug. 21 that the letter formally stated the following charge: "The Surprise Tea Party is concerned that no law enforcement agency or other duly constituted government agency has conducted an investigation into the Obama birth certificate to determine if it is in fact an authentic copy of 1961 birth records on file for Barack Obama at the Hawaii Department of Health in Honolulu, or whether it, or they are forgeries."

The letter noted that to date, despite continuing legal challenges, the Hawaii Department of Health has refused to make public or to release to independent forensic examination by qualified examiners the original Obama birth records held in secret in the Hawaii Department of Health files.

"Having exhausted all available governmental and law enforcement resources at our disposal, we are turning to you as the highest law enforcement officer in Maricopa County where we reside," the Surprise Tea Party explained in the letter.

"We are asking for your assistance because you have a demonstrated history of enforcing Arizona laws in Maricopa County, even when enforcing those laws is unpopular in Arizona or out-of-favor with the wishes of a federal government that may choose to ignore the law to the detriment of the residents of Maricopa County."

The letter expressed confidence that Arpaio will take his law enforcement responsibilities seriously and "will not ignore the request or delegate the request to some other government or law enforcement agency in the state or the federal government that will choose to not respond to our requests for political reasons."

"But, quite frankly, Sheriff Arpaio, you are our last resort to see Arizona statutes enforced to preserve the integrity of Arizona election law," the letter continued.

Reilly told WND that he and the Surprise Tea Party believed the posse constituted by Arpaio was an appropriate response to their written request.
"We picked the right man, in the right county, in the right state, at the right time to determine the truth about who Barack Obama is and whether he has presented a fraudulent or authentic birth certificate to the American public," Reilly said. "With God's help, Sheriff Arpaio will find the truth."

In addition to the letter, the Surprise Tea Party delivered to Arpaio a petition with 242 signatures that were obtained at the Aug. 17 meeting.

The group also gave to Arpaio a binder containing the published reports of 20 experts with established credentials who conducted a forensic examination of the computer PDF file published on the White House website and the photocopies of the Obama birth certificate handed out by the White House to the press during the April 27 press conference.

The Arizona State Legislature on April 15 passed a bill that would have required candidates for the presidency to prove to the Arizona secretary of state their eligibility to be president under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. Arizona Republican Gov. Janet Brewer, however, vetoed the bill.

Read more: Sheriff Arpaio's posse assigned to review Obama birth certificate http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=345685#ixzz1YBr8VSed

We don't 'ave no sheriffs aroun' here, but I think I might write to the mayor and ask him to check out the birth certificates of Cameron and Clegg... ;)
 
I know that technically it's not the point, but does anyone else find it mildly amusing that people with the surnames Arpaio, Zullo and Reilly, are charged with finding out whether another individual has the right to be classed a native born American - and in an article written by someone called Corsi?
 
Spookdaddy said:
I know that technically it's not the point, but does anyone else find it mildly amusing that people with the surnames Arpaio, Zullo and Reilly, are charged with finding out whether another individual has the right to be classed a native born American - and in an article written by someone called Corsi?
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mgscratchchin.gif
 
A local county sherriff has no jurisdiction in this.

On the plus side, time spent inventing reasons to distrust the birth certificate is time they can't spend harassing people for looking illegal; Arizona being the state that requires their cops to do racial profiling.
 
PeniG said:
A local county sherriff has no jurisdiction in this.

On the plus side, time spent inventing reasons to distrust the birth certificate is time they can't spend harassing people for looking illegal; Arizona being the state that requires their cops to do racial profiling.
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Lets encourage the Sherrif to go all out on this then!"
 
...I am very grateful that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a sincere man of his word and a fearless, patriotic American,"...
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...and a monumental publicity hound.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has about a gazillion google images to his name.

I bet he spotted his boxers when they approached him with this particular quest for justice, truth and photo opportunities.
 
Wow. Yeah.

Adjustment disorder indeed - don't think I've ever seen anyone get so actually het-up about someone else theoretically refusing to engage in an equally theoretical arm-wrestling situation.

Not really that funny, I suppose - I suspect that this is the type of obviously fragile individual that, under other circumstances, might be seen as potential bomb-vest material. And I also suspect that there are elements within the Christian Identity umbrella (he appears at one point to sympathise with that grouping) who are not at all beyond sidestepping the issue of mortal sin, at least when it comes to someone else's suicide.
 
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