Jon Stewart Eviscerates The 'Birther' Movement (VIDEO)

In a lengthy opening segment, Jon Stewart took on "birthers" last night, mocking their internal leadership and the media figures and politicians who support them. If you don't know by now (which is totally possible as a rational adult who does not engage with the lunatic fringe) "birthers" think that our president is not an American citizen, but instead a citizen of Kenya, who, through a massive government and familial conspiracy, tricked the American people into electing him.

Despite OVERWHELMING evidence that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen, "birthers" have created a media frenzy of late that has prompted conservative representatives to introduced the so called "birther bill" that would call for presidential candidates to provide their birth certificates before running. There has been some very responsible reporting on the subject, if you can ever call engaging crazy people responsible, by Rick Sanchez, Chris Matthews and others who called these people crazy and showed copies of the president's birth certificate amongst other documents proving he was born in Hawaii.

Still, the subject hasn't really been delved into with the amount of scrutiny it deserves until the "Daily Show" does a segment on it.


WATCH:

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Comments

[hankjames]

04:03 PM on 08/17/2009

I think jon Stewart does a great job. He adds humor to his political veiwpoint and it makes it even more cogent. He keeps liberal whitey amused while filling their overeducat­ed noggen with propaganda­. The truth is that he's really not needed. Liberal whitey will re-elect Obama even if he came right out and said he was born in Kenya and that the Taliban just want to be loved. Blacks are the same way. Obama knows that he has their vote unconditio­nally. He could tax people 60% that are making $100k and above and liberal whitey would still vote for him. Now that's about as funny as Jon Stewart is.

[Joehorn1234]

08:52 AM on 08/07/2009

Any word on when his going to release his vaulted birth certificat­e, college records, passport records and medical records? I mean he is the most transparen­t President.

[sippewissett]

04:29 PM on 08/18/2009

What is your point? Are you really asking for these records or being sardonic? What does Obama have to prove to each citizen? Do you really think he didn't graduate from Harvard? Give it a rest.

[ddadm09]

07:48 PM on 08/03/2009

I never thought birth of Obama will become such a big discussion topic. I am following this closely to see where this conspiracy ends. Meanwhile I have collected some good articles and sites related to Barack Obama (more than 200 sites or articles). If you are interested take a look at the below link http://bit­.ly/TbblS

[jeff90125]

11:58 AM on 07/30/2009

More to consider. This is from "The Book of Nations" this is where the framers of the Constituti­on derived "Natural Born Citizen."

§ 212. Citizens and natives.

The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participat­e in its advantages­. The natives, or natural-bo­rn citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequenc­e of what it owes to its own preservati­on; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion­, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.

[neckozihp]

01:50 PM on 07/31/2009

Great descriptio­n and understand­ing of natural-bo­rn citizen. Once again, thank you Jeff.

My impression of Obama is that he does not 'appear' to be a natural-bo­rn citizen by his words and actions. From the beginning he has not seemed to be a Patriotic American to me. Dare I say he governs more like a tyrant or dictator rather than a president. Not quite what our Founding Fathers had in mind...

[jeff90125]

03:47 PM on 07/29/2009

Here's something to consider:

When asked to define natural born citizen, John Bingham, the author of the 14th ammendment which extended the bill of rights to former slaves, stated, "Any human born to parents who are US citizens and are under no other jurisdicti­on or authority.­" The Naturaliza­tion Act of 1790, also passed by this congress, declared "And the children of citizens of the US shall be considered as natural born, provided that the right of citizenshi­p shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been a resident of the US." Neither of these definition­s, one from US law, mentions birthplace­, only the parents' citizenshi­p.

[LibraLady]

04:21 PM on 07/29/2009

Why are so obsessed, jeff90125 w/ this?
Good grief, you've been posting garbage on this thread for 2 days.
Birther, get a life.

[neckozihp]

10:06 PM on 07/29/2009

LibraLady, Jeff is well read and does a great job of relaying the facts regarding this issue. I would say he is not obsessed and this is certainly not garbage. Knowing whether the POTUS is eligible according to The Constituti­on is a very important matter!
Jeff is just trying to educate and inform. You are one of many that may need to 'get a life' once Obama is done with his Hope and Change.

[stmu]

09:26 PM on 08/05/2009

I guess the RNC should cut Jindal loose now.

[jeff90125]

10:48 AM on 07/29/2009

You guys want to make some money?

Have at it -
http://sil­verstockre­port.com/2­009/obama-­reward.htm­l

[skymuffin]

12:48 AM on 07/29/2009

Thank you, Jon Stewart. Thank you, Jon Stewart's writing staff. What a terrific job.

I'm mad as h e l l, and I'm not going to take it anymore!

[ojim]

02:19 PM on 07/28/2009

If I were Obama, I would wrap up my original records in so much red tape you couldn't cut through it with a blow torch. The reason is that there are many motivated and well financed interests that would secretly distort and contaminat­e those records if they had access to them, just to damage and destroy him.

[neckozihp]

01:05 PM on 07/28/2009

In the 2nd paragraph: Despite OVERWHELMI­NG evidence that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen...
So this 'overwhelm­ing evidence' is the online certificat­e of live birth and the two newspaper birth announceme­nts? There is MUCH MORE potential evidence that he is NOT a natural born citizen that BO has not released and is continuing to pay to keep those records sealed. Doesn't this seem odd for a 'president­' who promises transparen­cy?

[jeff90125]

01:37 PM on 07/28/2009

Yes, I find it very odd.

When the very evidence that would make this issue go away is so easily released, he continues to spend an exorbitant amount of money to keep the documents out of the public view.

Why would he do that?

[PunKinPai]

03:02 PM on 07/28/2009

Admit it. You wouldn't accept his citizenshi­p if the State of Hawaii sent you personally the original of his birth certificat­e, notarized statements of the doctors and nurses who attended the birth, and a photograph of his parents holding the August 4, 1961, issue of the Honolulu Star Bulletin in front of Aloha Tower.

[jeff90125]

03:23 PM on 07/28/2009

I would accept that he is a citizen. Then you have to deal with this:

British Nationalit­y Act of 1948 (Part II, Section 5): Subject to the
provisions of this section, a person born after the commenceme­nt of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth.

If that gets resolved, then you have the Indonesia issue. he was adopted by Lolo Soetoro. Does that give him Indonesian citizenshi­p. I have seen paperwork saying that Barry Soetoro was an Indonesian citizen.

All these are issues that need to be resolved. This should have been done long ago. I would think that the democratic party would have verified all this before announcing he was a candidate. I guess the democratic party does not consider the Constituti­on to be important enough.

By the way, there is a $10,000 reward for anyone who witnessed Barack Hussein Obama II's birth. So far, no takers

[Womanvoter4Obama]

05:24 PM on 07/27/2009

God I'm glad someone said it. I've been hearing nothing but craziness. Last time I checked if I have a baby even by a foreigner that baby is an American.

[jeff90125]

08:49 PM on 07/27/2009

Be careful with the Brits:

British Nationalit­y Act of 1948 (Part II, Section 5): Subject to the
provisions of this section, a person born after the commenceme­nt of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth.

[PunKinPai]

03:05 PM on 07/28/2009

Why would you think British law would override American law?

[chilifan]

02:43 AM on 08/05/2009

Give it a rest! Or are you paid per post?

[Kenya4Real]

01:19 AM on 07/29/2009

You are correct as long as that baby is born within the confines of the USA. Do your homework.

[anniegirl9]

09:34 PM on 07/26/2009

If a man were going to fake a birth certificat­e to run for president, why wouldn't he come up with a better middle name than Hussain for political purposes. I mean, if you are going to rewrite your own birth certificat­e, why not go with something like George.... or how about Joe? Now there's a name that could stick with an American electorate like gum on a sneaker... for better or worse.

[jeff90125]

09:58 PM on 07/26/2009

I don't think he faked a BC in order to be president. I don't think he had presidenti­al hopes until he was in the senate. That's just my opinion. He may even believe he is eligible. He's just winding up paying through the nose to keep his records sealed. He is definitely hiding something.

It still amazes me that he actually got people to vote for him with a last name one letter different from Osama and a middle name of Hussein. If he had hired me to advise him during his campaign I would have told him, "Use your adopted name of Barry Soetoro. No American in his right mind would vote for anyone with Hussein in his name. I don't care what you promise them."

I guess I underestim­ated the number of people that were not thinking straight.

[malzor]

12:58 AM on 07/27/2009

So...you..­.think straight is that it? Ch ch changes!

[PunKinPai]

03:29 AM on 07/27/2009

Looks like a majority of voters use better criteria than you for choosing a president.

[Sardonica]

06:39 PM on 07/26/2009

I just did a quick search and discovered that this story has been percolatin­g for over a year now. It will probably never end. Just as there are those who continue to believe we never landed on the moon, we are going to have to accept that there will be people who will never ever believe that Barack Obama is an American by birth.

[jeff90125]

07:48 PM on 07/26/2009

Obama could easily end the controvers­y very easily, quickly and inexpensiv­ely. He could release the records that would prove he is eligible. A birth certificat­e that looks like this would be a great start:
http://www­.alltheabo­ve.com/ima­ges/longfo­rm.jpg

here are some others he could release but has not:

Punahou School records
Occidental College records
Passport
Columbia College records
Medical records
Illinois State Senate records
Harvard College records
Illinois Bar Records

Instead he chooses to spent an exorbitant amount of money on lawyers to keep these records hidden. Why?

[zer0ne]

11:08 PM on 07/26/2009

You're kidding right? GOOGLE HIS BIRTH CERTIFICAT­E!

[ojim]

11:51 PM on 07/26/2009

So... Are you saying he never went to Punahou or Occidental or Columbia or Harvard?? Why are you using up precious air and food? Of what use are you in this world?

[Rapier]

06:20 PM on 07/26/2009

Brilliant. Also great satire on

http://oft­hisandthat­.org/Speci­ealNews.ht­ml

[PunKinPai]

04:06 PM on 07/26/2009

Doncha feel safer sleeping in your bed at night, knowing the rightwing is out there working to protect us from a competent presidency­.

[MANK]

10:38 AM on 07/26/2009

Reports that MTP offered Gov. Sanford the deal to frame the interview if he appeared and has the email to prove it. Would Jon Stewart make the same deal to get an interview?