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:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Born Identity
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Comments

[hankjames]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I guess the RNC should cut Jindal loose now.

[Gary Williams]

So neither parent was a citizen at the time of his birth? Because..a­nd since that time proffering this right only to the father would be unconstitutional on discriminatory grounds and thereby void entirely. Or...the spirit would then surely exist in the mothers citizenship and thereby transfer such to Obama..

But lets not kid ourselves. There's one reason and one reason only this has come to the forefront coincidental to the election of the first mixed race president. Racism. And the evidence for that exists in the fact that the Birthers are, each and every one of them, right-wing authoritarians (RWAs) or social dominance oriented wingnuts SDOs). The psychological literature on these groups of conservatives is very clear. Despite your protestations, all the evidence collected in the last 40 years of researching the issue says you are. But because the GOP is trying to recast itself as more inclusive, they are now saying they are against racism. Because you are an obedient and gullible RWA, you consciously say and may even believe that your not, but your insides are screaming to get at him. So your mind has redirected the prejudice hostility into something more socially acceptable­...a belief that he is a legal alien.

[jeff90125]

You guys want to make some money?

Have at it -
http://silverstockreport.com/2009/obama-reward.html

[skymuffin]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Temsi]

Did you even watch the clip?

[Gary Williams]

Why can't you understand that this "online" BC that you have not seen first hand HAS BEEN SEEN by other people who have declared it THE REAL THING!

What you seem to be expecting is for each and every one of you to see the thing personally, which of course will never happen,. This conveniently allows you to keep up with the cognitive dissonance-saving notion that he has never proven it to anybody. Stop it before you become seriously mentally ill..which is just around the corner...b­elieve me.

[Womanvoter4Obama]

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]

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]

Why would you think British law would override American law?

[chilifan]

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

[Kenya4Real]

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

[anniegirl9]

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]

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]

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

[PunKinPai]

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

[quietstorm2k8]

did you even watch the above video before you made these comments. i mean seriously do you know how many people would have to be in on what would be the greatest scam ever pulled. not to mention what it would say about our national intelligence. we can hunt and find terrorist but cant keep a person not born here out of the Senate or the White House.....­....... come on WAKE UP PEOPLE !!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!

[lesherb]

It amazes you, jeff90125? It amazes you that people voted for him despite the right's vociferous denigration of his name? You think the majority of Americans (the majority voted for Barack Obama) are not in their right minds because they elected him? You believe this because his last name should be the biggest detriment to his viability as a candidate?

What you don't realize is the people who do not think straight are the ones who won't vote for someone because of his name. Then they make up a claim that he is not a citizen because they cannot imagine that this man with a strange name has been elected president.

To sum this nonsense up, it is blatantly obvious that the birthers are racists. They cannot accept having a black man as their president. They think this birth certificate issue is a great disguise to hide their racism. It's not.

Now, why don't we get back to discussing the important issues of the day? Health care reform and the economy and the wars we're involved in are worth our time and effort. This birth certificate nonsense is just a waste of time. And yes, jeff90125, your post proves you were not thinking straight. Let's hope you will from now on.

[SaabGripen]

No, actually you underestimated the number of people who were not hate-mongering ignorant xenophobic idelogue tools with too much time on their hands, as represented so "admirably" by yourself, within the electorate. Get a clue. If GWB had been in power, you would have already been labelled a state terrorist and thrown into an isolation cell to be interrogated by "enhanced techniques­." Those et's were not restricted to torturous waterboarding either, they did much worse (and despite your personal at home experiences, they don't use vaseline there!). But that ACTUAL perversion of the constitution was okay, wasn't it? A-hole.

[Sardonica]

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]

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]

You're kidding right? GOOGLE HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

[ojim]

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?

[D Right One]

I would feel a bit miffed if someone asked me to provide my entire academic record, passport, and birth certificate and the requestor has nothing to do with my job. The release of all the info could be an identity theft case just waiting.

[wthomas]

But why should he? Nobody else has had to produce a birth certificate to prove his citizenship status. Smacks of racism to me....

[Rapier]

Brilliant. Also great satire on

http://ofthisandthat.org/SpeciealNews.html

[PunKinPai]

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

[MANK]

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?