BORN IN THE USA?
White House can't hide from swarm of citizenship posts in 'open government dialogue'

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Posted: June 04, 2009
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

  The White House has moved on to its discussion phase of the "open government dialogue," where several citizens are once again calling on Barack Obama to release his elusive "long-form" birth certificate to establish his constitutional eligibility to serve as president.

The Office of Science & Technology forum features a new format where it encourages people to "start thinking more deeply about the principles that should define transparency and guide our policy priorities."

Users identified by their full names may register and vote to reject or approve various ideas, offer their own insight or flag subjects as "off-topic."

The first topic of discussion focuses on defining and prioritizing "transparency principles."

The following comment from WND on the eligibility issue was flagged for moderation within minutes of posting and later deleted – even though it did not violate terms of participation:

Another user, Jason Roberts, expressed his concerns about the White House hosting a "transparency" forum without properly addressing the eligibility topic.

"The fact that the birth certificate issue hasn't been resolved, precludes any possible discussion of government transparency," Roberts wrote. "It is a farce to sit with hands folded and pretend to have some self-righteous discussion about government transparency when Mr. Obama is refusing to be transparent about his birth certificate, passport records, and school records. If his presidency started with his being sworn in, then the transparency must start with him willingly releasing his long-form birth certificate."

Roberts continued, "This issue will never go away. It will be there, stoked and kept fresh daily, for 8 years if necessary, until it is addressed. And the one to blame is Obama."

User David Farrar reported disappearance of an eligibility post and echoed Roberts' argument.

"The mere fact that a post has been simply wiped off this forum without a trace, without any public notification as to why, or by whom, seems to violate every aspect of the principles of transparency in government," Farrar wrote. "Didn't we just summarize the fact that providing a verifiable record is at the very cornerstone of governmental transparency, and here we have a government agency, or a corporation acting on its behalf, erasing the record of their own actions in an attempt to be anything but transparent. Doesn't anyone see the hypocrisy?"

As WND reported, despite the "open government dialogue" website being overrun with hundreds of threads addressing the eligibility issue, the White House appears to be moving on with its discussion while ignoring concerns from thousands of people about Obama's "long-form" birth certificate.

"We read and considered all the proposals," Beth Noveck, White House deputy chief technology officer for open government, said in a statement on the White House website. "We took the voting into account when assessing your enthusiasm for a submission, but only somewhat in evaluating relevance."

She continued, "The ideas that received the most organized support were not necessarily the most viable suggestions."

The eligibility topic also hit Twitter, with numerous tweeters encouraging readers to keep the issue alive at the open government website.

Meanwhile, Fox News has launched a new forum asking the public, "What would you write Obama?"

It asks readers to share funny messages they would send to the president's blackberry and how Obama might reply. Fox News will feature the top five conversations next week.

One person named Dave posted the following:

In less than 24 hours after the launch of the application, the eligibility issue has been raised at least 60 times.

• "Why are you afraid of providing your authentic birth certificate? We can."

• "Bad news, man. They finally found your real birth certificate. We have a crisis on our hands. Call me

Another user, Jason Roberts, expressed his concerns about the White House hosting a "transparency" forum without properly addressing the eligibility topic.

"The fact that the birth certificate issue hasn't been resolved, precludes any possible discussion of government transparency," Roberts wrote. "It is a farce to sit with hands folded and pretend to have some self-righteous discussion about government transparency when Mr. Obama is refusing to be transparent about his birth certificate, passport records, and school records. If his presidency started with his being sworn in, then the transparency must start with him willingly releasing his long-form birth certificate."

Roberts continued, "This issue will never go away. It will be there, stoked and kept fresh daily, for 8 years if necessary, until it is addressed. And the one to blame is Obama."

User David Farrar reported disappearance of an eligibility post and echoed Roberts' argument.

"The mere fact that a post has been simply wiped off this forum without a trace, without any public notification as to why, or by whom, seems to violate every aspect of the principles of transparency in government," Farrar wrote. "Didn't we just summarize the fact that providing a verifiable record is at the very cornerstone of governmental transparency, and here we have a government agency, or a corporation acting on its behalf, erasing the record of their own actions in an attempt to be anything but transparent. Doesn't anyone see the hypocrisy?"

As WND reported, despite the "open government dialogue" website being overrun with hundreds of threads addressing the eligibility issue, the White House appears to be moving on with its discussion while ignoring concerns from thousands of people about Obama's "long-form" birth certificate.

"We read and considered all the proposals," Beth Noveck, White House deputy chief technology officer for open government, said in a statement on the White House website. "We took the voting into account when assessing your enthusiasm for a submission, but only somewhat in evaluating relevance."

She continued, "The ideas that received the most organized support were not necessarily the most viable suggestions."

The eligibility topic also hit Twitter, with numerous tweeters encouraging readers to keep the issue alive at the open government website.

Meanwhile, Fox News has launched a new forum asking the public, "What would you write Obama?"

It asks readers to share funny messages they would send to the president's blackberry and how Obama might reply. Fox News will feature the top five conversations next week.

One person named Dave posted the following:

In less than 24 hours after the launch of the application, the eligibility issue has been raised at least 60 times.

• "Hi, Barry, this is your teleprompter speaking. Display your birth certificate. No, no, you doofus – the original one, from Kenya!"

• "Why are you afraid of providing your authentic birth certificate? We can."

• "Bad news, man. They finally found your real birth certificate. We have a crisis on our hands. Call me ASAP. - Rahm"

The visibility of the Obama birth certificate issue has also been raised by a new national billboard campaign initiated by Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND. Launched just over a week ago, the campaign has raised about $65,000 and begun erecting billboards that ask the question, "Where's the birth certificate?"

That campaign followed one launched months earlier to collect names on an electronic petition demanding accountability and transparency on the issue. So far, that petition has gathered nearly 400,000 names.

In his questioning of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, WND White House correspondent Les Kinsolving specifically made reference to the WND petition.

"Are you looking for the president's birth certificate?" he asked incredulously. "Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the president's birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people – (laughter) – that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the president's birth there, but it's on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download. I certainly hope by the fourth year of our administration that we'll have dealt with this burgeoning birth controversy."

It was the first time any member of the press corps has publicly asked a member of the administration a question directly related to Obama's constitutional eligibility for office as a "natural born citizen."

Politico has video of the exchange, which can be seen by clicking on their link. 

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