That fake Kenyan birth certificate was totally discredited in '09

To the editor,

Once again, and true to form, Mr. Stephenson doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good lie. In his most recent letter, he goes to great lengths to reveal Obama's "real" birth certificate that confirms he was born in Kenya. Apparently, Stephenson is unaware or conveniently forgot that within a few days of its release in 2009, this certificate was clearly revealed to be a fake — created by ultra-conservative Dr. Orly Taitz; it was actually forged based on a copy of an Australian Registration of Birth to a David Jeffrey Bomford (who was born in South Australia in 1959), which was taken from the Internet and used as a template for creating the face Kenyan certificate. The image the birthers and ultra-conservatives are trying to portray is part of an extremely ill-informed conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Mombasa — conveniently, one of the more Muslim parts of Kenya. What has added fuel to this ridicules claim is that Donald Trump has repeated and embraced this bogus allegation and regurgitates those spurious claims and groundless conspiracy theories. Oddly, the birthers who are so skeptical of Obama's Hawaii birth certificate are willing to perpetuate a lie and accept the Kenyan birth certificate, despite its many flaws and obvious forgery.

On of the most persistent arguments you hear from birthers is the allegation that President Obama has spent millions of dollars trying to keep his birth certificate hidden — there's not even a remote amount of truth to this allegation. If Mr. Stephenson were to do the research he would find, once, again, another birther myth bites the dust.

With all of this having been said, trying to convince a birther that Obama was born in Hawaii is like trying to convince a truther that Bush wasn't behind the twin towers — a waste of effort.

I response to Ann DeRose's recent letter, I was very disheartened to read her references to "worthless people", and the "liberals are bad news". She has always advocated for Christian ideals but these ideals seem to be lacking in her latest submission. Surely Anna must know that Christ advocated pacifism and loving our enemies.

I am tired of reading letters to the editor that paint Democrats and liberals as anti-American and portray conservative Republicans as the only true patriots. Liberalism has been under assault for years now, to the point that conservatives use it as a profane word. They use it to paint a political opponent as anti-American. They are apparently unaware or simply refuse to acknowledge the long history of liberals who have labored for the betterment of our American society. Liberals love America and hate terrorism in whatever form it takes.

Anna, Jesus Christ was the ultimate liberal progressive revolutionary of all history. He aligned Himself with the poor and the oppressed. He liberated women and minorities from oppression. He loved sinners and associated with other social outcasts. He was a progressive and He was judged, hated and ultimately crucified for it.

In closing, I'd like to thank Mr. Ewing for enlightening me to the fact that our economic problems are the fault of public employees. Liberals would have us believe that our state and national economic crash was caused by the reckless greed of Wall Street bankers and rich speculators. It's these greedy public employees who're undermining the economy and draining state and federal treasuries. Fixing our state budget will be simple — fire thousands of public employees and eliminate state programs, which are needed now more than ever. Oh, and let's not forget to take away their democratic right to bargain collectively for workplace fairness.

Mr. Ewing, are you going to be the one to contract the families of 9/11 respondents who lost their lives and tell them about the "cushy, secure, low stress, high compensated jobs" their loved ones had? Closer to home, are you going to tell the family of Officer Michael Briggs what a "cushy, secure, low stress, high compensated job" their son, husband and father had? Are you going to work a shift at the prison or county facility, suffer the verbal and physical abuse and then tell the corrections officers what "cushy, secure, low stress, highly compensated jobs" they have? I'm sure you'll spend a day teaching in the classroom and afterward tell the teachers what a "cushy, secure, low stress, high compensated job" they have. Accompany the firefighter into a burning building or to a multiple car crash and then tell them how "cushy, secure, low stress, highly compensated " their jobs area. I could continue with many other public employee examples but I don't want to belabor the point.

L. J. Siden

Gilmanton