Saturday, August 16, 2008

Comments on Janice Okubo's Story Switch

Phil writes:

>"Any shots of Obama wining and dining Janice Okubo on his vacation in Hawaii?"

I respond:

You can't help but wonder. She certainly did NOT write to me that she had given the campaign a certificate and that the one posted was accurate. Instead, she wrote to me that the freedom of information act does not apply to Hawaii. She saved this other information for later. I do not know the reason for the difference.

Mairi writes:

>"SHEESH! Do you believe these guys? They have no respect for us at all. Just label everyone out there a "crackpot" and have done with it. NOT!

I have written to Dan, but don't expect to hear from him any more than I expect to hear from Dan White......Maybe it goes with the name? LOL!

Janice is a REAL disappointment. Typical, "say one thing one day, and something different the next". I must applaud your efforts. Dealing with this as much as you have must be very aggravating.
Sincerely,

Mairi

I respond:

Not so aggravating, just tiring as I should be working on other things. I got the traffic up on my blog so I'm happy about that. I do not expect that I will single handedly reform the system, so I expect little. The one who irritates me is that reporter Dan Nakaso from the Hawaii newspaper. He ran a story without speaking to the other side. That's sleazy.

5 comments:

Ray said...

Mitchell Langbert wrote:

(Re: Ms.Okubo of Hawaii Health Dept)

She certainly did NOT write to me that she had given the campaign a certificate and that the one posted was accurate.

I have the impression that some of the people following this saga are not aware that Ms. Okubo has been careful from the very beginning when she spoke to the Politifact journalist on 18th June, not to be too specific about Sen. Obama's certificate due to confidentiality issues, while at the same time making it clear on at least 2 occasions that Senator Obama had placed an image of his birth certificate on the internet.

Ray

Mitchell Langbert said...

Hey Ray--where are the statements that you're referring to? I'd be interested in seeing them.

Moreover, she said nothing of the kind when she wrote to me. Also, there is no restriction in the Hawaii Revised Statutes on her saying to me or publicly that the information people are seeking has been posted on a website. So she did not need to be careful. The Hawaii Revised statutes make no mention of referring to a public source. And if she was "careful" before Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii, why is she less careful now, following Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii?

Ray said...

Here's something I posted on another blog some time ago with an addition today. I haven't got time to find the links now.
——————————————————

[Politifact website]:
“It’s a valid Hawaii state birth certificate,” spokesman Janice Okubo told us. (13th June)

[Politifact Journalist]:
“We [....] had a newsroom colleague bring in her own Hawaii birth certificate to see if it looks the same (it’s identical).” [to Obama's COLB]

[Politifact]:
Okubo says she got a copy of her own birth certificate last year and it is identical to the Obama one we received.
(This sentence indicates clearly that SOMEONE (almost certainly the person they were interviewing (Okubo) told them that was “identical”)
——————————————————

[Factcheck.org]: “Tommy Vietor at the Obama campaign sent a message to us and other reporters saying, “I know there have been some rumors spreading about Obama’s citizenship, so I wanted to make sure you all had a copy of his birth certificate.” A digital image was attached.”
——————————————————

[Official Obama 'Smears' website]:
You can see Barack Obama’s birth certificate for yourself and help push back with the truth at:
http://my.barackobama.com/fightthesmears
——————————————————

[IsraelInsider]:

“Jim Geraghty of The National Review Online, following up on this Israel Insider report, said he had contacted Okubo:

“I spoke to Ms. Okubo late Wednesday afternoon, and she said she had seen the version of Obama’s certificate of live birth posted on the sites. While her office cannot verify the information on a form without the permission of the certificate holder (Obama), she said “the form is EXACTLY THE SAME” and it has ‘ALL the components of a birth certificate’ record issued by the state”
——————————————————

[Israel Insider]:
the form is the same” is not contested, here or elsewhere.”
——————————————————
[HONOLULU ADVERTISER]:

Health officials contacted the Obama campaign a few months ago in
response to the persistent inquiries "to see if they could try and resolve the issue with the people who were asking questions," she said.

"They responded and apparently it isn't good enough that he posted his birth certificate," Okubo said. "They say they want it because they claim he is not a citizen of the United States. It's pretty ridiculous."
——————————————————

Mairi said...

Ray, The certificate number is redacted. It needs to match the Hawaii numbering system. There is no need to redact it, and no way to verify it since it is. Her statement that it would allow a breach of their system to display the number is preposterous! If that were the case, their system would already be compromised by the release of the DeCosta certificate.
This will not be swept under the rug by Okubo's feeble attempts to authenticate a redacted COLB that she may never have even seen. Pretty pretentious on her part to think her flimsy explanations and contradicting statements will solve this situation!

Ray said...

Mairi said...

Ray, The certificate number is redacted. It needs to match the Hawaii numbering system.

No, it's best not to have too many of those numbers in circulation.

There is no need to redact it, and no way to verify it since it is.

If it was a certificate - yes, but it's only a digital image which was presented as a piece of evidence which anyone could use against Obama if it was inaccurate.

Her statement that it would allow a breach of their system to display the number is preposterous! If that were the case, their system would already be compromised by the release of the DeCosta certificate.

We don't know how their computer system works, so a COLB number may be all that is needed to access the rest of the information they have on a person or the COLB of anyone who is closely related to them.
This is how relational databases work - from a key number like that.

Besides that, if the COLB number sequencing is public knowledge it would be easier for a forger to produce low grade forgeries that appear to be valid by their content.

This will not be swept under the rug by Okubo's feeble attempts to authenticate a redacted COLB that she may never have even seen.

Whether or not Ms. Okubo normally has computer access to anyone's records or not, she probably would have either:
(a) Viewed Obama's record or
(b) Been given permission to view it, or
(c) Been assured by a higher ranking official who did have access.

Pretty pretentious on her part to think her flimsy explanations and contradicting statements will solve this situation!

Ms. Okubo hasn't made any contradictory statements. I think she has done a darned good job of not revealing a client's information directly, while at the same time, saving her Department from having to handle an excessive number of inquiries about a particular COLB.

I reckon that when the dust settles Bill Clinton ought to do the right thing and give her a ring and say "Good one Janice - I couldn't have handled it better myself!" :-)

Look, Obama was not trying to do the impossible - and present a digital image that could be assessed by anyone as being a 100% genuine facsimile reproduction of his COLB. He was merely broadcasting (via the image) once and for all, that the information contained in the image was what Hawaii Health had on its official record in relation to his birth. He also implied by his omission of any contradictory statement that he agreed that it was an accurate record as far as he knew.

None of that could have reasonably be taken to be Obama's "claim" while it was only on the Kos blog, but once it appeared on his own "Smears" blog (which he controlled) it became his official claim.

By Obama and his representatives distributing the image and posting it on the Smears blog THEY were leaving a rock solid trail of evidence that could send them all to jail for fraud if it was untrue.

The fraud would be a given because people were being encouraged to donate money after it was posted.

Obama wants to go to the White House - not The Big House.

Ray