The Brand New Birther Thread

Find me another 'Welcome' sign in Kenya that looks like this. Find me a sign in Kenya with Arabic script. Find me a translation of the Arabic text from a disinterested Arabic speaking source. I'll give you some clues:1) There are no signs that colour in Kenya
2) The signs that do exist, don't have Arabic script.
3) The Arabic script is near gibberish, but claims Obama was born in Hawaii and that, for some reason, John is dead.Here is a travel log from someone in Oman, travelling through Mahdi. Notice the welcome sign. Notice the background is exactly the same as the Obama-is-from-Kenya sign. That's because the 'Welcome to Kenya' sign is obviously fake.I thought you claimed to be good at spotting obvious fakes? Wrong language, incoherent translation, wrong colour, clearly photoshopped from a sign from a different country. Look at both images for a long time, that proved Obama's birth certificate for you. Look behind the sign in both pictures, same shrubbery, same mountains same everything. It's a fake, Faith. You've fallen for confirmation bias yet again.

english letter to arabic letter - Google SearchType 'Hawaii'
Compare it to the 'Birthplace of Obama' sign.
Here is the Arabic for Hawaii: هاواي Here is the sign Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

It doesn't matter. You are here to persuade me. I hear someone who is a poor English speaker trying to translate over the phone. I am not going to read evidence of a grand conspiracy into it, especially given the clarification refutes it. No. He never said that. He corrected the misunderstanding when the caller kept insisting Obama was born in Kenya. Isn't it odd that McRae kept trying to hit that point in the face of the contradiction? Almost like he wanted to build a certain narrative or something. Nope. So no evidence of the family intervening at all, then? Just your speculations. There are many versions of the same audio on the internet. You don't need the exact same upload of it.

So again, the Kenya sign claim has no evidence does it? You either didn't notice the Arabic when you first saw it because you were so taken aback by the English...or you were presented with a version with the Arabic scrubbed...or you are just making stuff up. How can I know? Let me know when you have evidence for this.

I applaud your willingness to accept the possibility. You posted it in Message 695.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

Do you have reason to suppose she was worth her salt?

So partners in publishing companies are 'worth their salt', meaning, according to you, incapable of making these kinds of errors? I don't see any reason to believe that. It is true that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, but it was The President of the United States' father. Is it really so hard to believe that competent people can make this mistake.I have been misidentified as Polish and Japanese in a newspaper. One of the people doing that went on to become the head of the Sports reporting section of that newspaper. Is this evidence I am from Japan?

Which, if true, would still be consistent with the mistranslation hypothesis - indeed it is predicted by it. For instance, take this possibility:

quote:

---

1: Where you here when Obama was born?
2: Mombassa?
1: He wants to know if you were here
2: Yes I was here.
*switching to English*
1: Yes she was present.

---

Until you start posting details about the Luo language that proves the ambiguous word 'present' was translated correctly and unambigously you've got nothing. As I said, the word 'present' can mean both 'here' and 'there' in English - and which one depends on subtleties you may not have even noticed, and is very easy to miss for someone whose English is poor. This is consistent with the actual conversation that followed:

quote:

---

MCRAE: OK I’m sorry. I, I thought she said she was present when he was born. I was
TRANSLATOR OGOMBE (sounding exasperated): No, no! The, the
woman was not present. She was uh not, a what--you see, she was here in Kenya, and Obama was born in America. That is, that’s obvious.
MCRAE: OK.
TRANSLATOR OGOMBE: Because, because the grandmother was married here in Kenya, and Obama was born in America, oh yeah, so his son, the little Obama, was marrying, was marrying, in America, in United States.
MCRAE: Oh, OK, fine. I mean, I--I just, I misunderstood what she was
saying. I thought you said she was present when he was born.
TRANSLATOR OGOMBE: No, not present there. The present with me here was tonight. Not present so she can leave. No she was here in Kenya while he, uh, her son, the little Obama, was marrying in America.

---

quote:

---

TRANSLATOR OGOMBE: --was in America there, why are they for, they go, they go, they go to some place,
then the present isn't here sir, he was born there in America

---

Again I ask you, is it so unlikely that a person who is not a good English speaker might get confused as to the meaning of 'present' and translate it with the meaning of 'here', meaning 'in Kenya'? Other languages aren't just word substitutions, as you know, and grammar and subtle points can be missed over poor telephone lines and just general misunderstanding.It's not enough to mean anything, and the full conversation refutes it. The courts heard it, and they felt it was useless too.

Isn't that the guy that made the 'error' of publishing the 'fact' that he had been nominated for a Pullitzer prize even though he hadn't been? I don't think I'll take his word regarding errors. I'd appreciate it. And yes, researching and backing up your claims is hard. But if you don't, you'll be criticized. Publish your claims without double-checking that you aren't spreading misinformation and you will find yourself being called out on it. Your choice.

Then how the hell did the New York Times make the mistake of saying he was born in the USA BEFORE the piece we are discussing was written? Where did he get that from?Surely Fox Butterfield, who would become bureau chief in Saigon, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Boston is 'worth his salt'. How could he have somehow made the mistake that Obama (who was openly from Kenya at the time) was actually from America?

quote:

---

The new president of the Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side before enrolling in law school. His late father, Barack Obama, was a finance minister in Kenya and his mother, Ann Dunham, is an American anthropologist now doing fieldwork in Indonesia. Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii.

---

Hey, maybe people just make mistakes sometimes, huh?Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.