Bring on the kerning experts
by digby
This is just funny. From Smoking Gun:
This morning’s White House release of President Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate will, of course, do little to derail the “birther” movement, which will now analyze the document with the kind of verve previously directed toward those Texas Air National Guard memos faxed to CBS from that Kinko’s in Abilene.
So here’s a few nutty points about the birth certificate sure to be seized upon by the nonbelievers:
• If the original document was in a bound volume (as reflected by the curvature of the left hand side of the certificate), how can the green patterned background of the document's safety paper be so seamless?
• Why, if Obama was born on August 4, 1961, was the “Date Accepted by Local Reg.” four days later on August 8, 1961?
• What is the significance of the smudges in the box containing the name of the reported attendant?
• David A. Sinclair, the M.D. who purportedly signed the document, died nearly eight years ago at age 81. So he is conveniently unavailable to answer questions about Obama’s reported birth.
• In the “This Birth” box there are two mysterious Xs above “Twin” and “Triplet.” Is there a sibling or two unaccounted for?
• What is the significance of the mysterious numbers, seen vertically, on the document’s right side?
• Finally, the “Signature of Local Registrar” in box 21 may be a desperate attempt at establishing the document’s Hawaiian authenticity. Note to forgers: It is spelled “Ukulele.”
Here are the first of the comments:
Submitted by WhoHasMoreFunTh... on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:22.
The certificate does look like it was doctored...lots of marks, smudges & that typewriter! Anyone can forge anything. What a scam!
Submitted by Ohiowordguy on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:22.
I noticed the possible "layers" in this document almost immediately. When I had the .pdf file of the BC open in my browser then used Command + Tab (on an Apple computer), to switch to another app, I noticed that the majority of the text disappeared. I recreated the effect numerous times. As others have suggested, when you open the BC in Acrobat (full version) and strip out the "Metadata" and "Deleted or cropped content" this SAME EXACT TEXT disappears leaving only a few bits of type, date stamps and all or part of three signatures: his mother, the attendant and the local registrar. Also, some of the digits used in the Aug. 8, 1961 date stamp disappear. The full background and the April 25, 2011 stamp remain. I am making no "birther" claims, but CLEARLY this document has been altered. If it had been photographed or scanned, the pixels containing all the information (the document background, the type, the signatures, date stamps and the check marks) would be part of ONE pixelated image. As someone who uses Photoshop/Adobe Creative Suite daily, it is my belief that had the BC been scanned or photographed, the layering would not happen. Again, I am making NO "birther" claims or conclusions. But I believe this document has been altered.
Submitted by sammy5858 on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:22.
Are there any Adobe experts out there? Are there any cases where scanning a document like this could EVER break up and create these layer groups? Even if it could, would any software break it up this precisely? I pulled the PDF into Illustrator and was really shocked to see 10 different groups.
Submitted by 34packardphaeton on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:21.
This purported 'full' certificate is clearly a FAKE . . . which most any second-rate forgerer could replicate or create. There's a lot of discrepancies . . . and evidence of a "layering" technique in part to create this FORGERY. The thing about D. Trump that I really appreciate is his courage to actually pursue the truth. It seems like the politicians that SHOULD pursue this lie are utterly intimidated by the "P C Crowd" and the TV media. A plague upon all of those collaborators! (a descriptive word that became "fighting words" in the early 1940s).
Submitted by jerryblay on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:20.
I would nice to compare this Birth Certificate to others issued around the same time, maybe signed by the same doctor (e.g., 61 10640, 61 10642). I assume several are issued each week at the hospital. It would seem that the typist would use tabs to line up names, etc. (e.g., father's and mother's name; race and kind of business).
Submitted by JackPayne on Wed, 2011-04-27 14:19.
Hey people, come on, first of all, HE was not born ( or named at birth Barack Husein Obama, ) was he not Barry Soetoro first? Then Barack later in life, use your head, this is not right.
I don't think they get the joke ...
Reportedly, the Freepers are all over this. This is their beat.
I wonder if Trump will join this circus --- and if the media will follow him into the clown show once again. After all, there's no earthly reason they needed to feature him every five minutes on TV flogging this silly story in the first place. There was no basis for suspicion. And even if there had been, Obama's mother was an American and her son would have also been an American even if he had been born in Kenya. Therefore, the conspiracy is so byzantine that they are supposed to have faked his birthplace because they planned for him to become president someday -- the only job in America that requires someone be born on American soil. That the media have allowed this idiocy to fester for this long means they have no reason not to continue if someone can come up with another patently absurd reason to do it.
BTW: You have to love Obama's comments. He was almost rolling his eyes and groaning at the stupidity of this whole thing. And who can blame him? It must take everything he has not to just blurt out that these people are the biggest idiots on the planet.
.