Of course it could. The moon landings could have been faked. The 9/11 attack could have been staged. Elvis could be alive.

Faking a single document (via bribery) would be simple for Obama, and not too far fetched. But this "controversy" goes far beyond one "fake" PDF.

What's the motive behind faking a long certificate? It only makes sense if the short certificate is faked, and the official state announcements in the newspaper were faked in 1961, and that the people who have claimed to witness Obama in the hospital and in Hawaii shortly after his birth are lying.

And could that all be a lie? Yes. But only through an incredibly irrational thought process.

I know somebody who thinks the government kills people in jails and burns them in ethanol plants simply because "every ethanol plant I see is near a jail." Can I disprove that notion? No. Could it happen? Yes. But it's ridiculous.

I don't really have a dog in this fight because I'm Canadian and don't care, but this is getting kinda retarded here.
Even if you don't believe his evidence, you don't have any either (if you tried it yourself, you might. But you won't).
Also, that Onion link is amusing.

Yes, but I'm not claiming any of this. I'm simply questioning the PDF.

I have illustrator and have seen the pdf. It's in fact divided into layers. But I think the reason was just to sharpen the text. The (few) text that is on the background layer is blury (and very illegible BTW), all text that's on any other layer is sharp. Here are two screenshots. The first one is the full view, in the second one I've removed the background layer:

{"name":"604025","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/9\/c9350416ff6ab6b0d674a5b75556cd15.png","w":961,"h":646,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/9\/c9350416ff6ab6b0d674a5b75556cd15"}

{"name":"604026","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/d\/8\/d84fbfd85ac45761840429a9bdc09002.png","w":960,"h":643,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/d\/8\/d84fbfd85ac45761840429a9bdc09002"}

[edit]
So to me it looks like they just attempted to sharpen the text to make it more legible (probably with an automatic method, due to the ramdoness of the layers).

The optimized "web save" even rotates the image in an attempt to straighten it out... It took my 10MB TIFF and created a 136KB document. I wouldn't expect it to look like a 1:1 scan after that.

Think of the cost to tax payers!

I've always thought Obama was out to lunch, but this birther nonsense always seemed nuts to me. Like 23 and Neil, I have no 'dog' in this fight being Canadian but I always find your politics more fascinating (and understandable) than ours up here...

I would have accepted the conspiracy-theory if it had been released as a PNG with layers.

Since when has that stopped democrats?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIsQJNTvlUE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eOfYwYyS_c

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/herald-review.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/d/c0/d14/dc0d14fc-70df-11e0-8720-001cc4c002e0-revisions/4db830df6bba2.pdf.pdf

edit: Fuck, beaten while I was looking up how to embed them!

edit 2: This horse is not dead yet! Come on guys, we can do better than this!

NO WAY, I HAVE TWO TOKEN BLACK FRIENDS JUST SO YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! PLUS THE BLACKS LOVE ME! ;-)

Fine, my mistake. But like I said earlier, from my day 1, I just looked it up and found out it was all bullshit and that it started out as a chain letter -- from people who had actually held his legal birth certificate (and took pics of themselves doing it), from the supreme court (republican dominated -- and who thinks this is not worth having a case about), and even from right wingers (even crazy ones like Bill O'Reily has come out on this one guys, wake up!)

Agreed. The most mundane legitimate thing I can think of is "why is oil $4 a gallon... and why are we still using oil anyway?" yet instead, a birth certificate when he's already been legally accepted... Really?

The right might have you think that, but only because of how far right they are; it's insane. I can't speak for M.L. but what they do with their farce news networks is amazing. The Nazis would be proud.

Because of the miscolored letter? That will happen when a mechanical type writer doesn't strike with enough force. State of Hawaii says it's good, so it's good, got a problem? Take it up with Hawaii.

I think the people have a right to know they've been lied to by their TVs... Just heard in Canada they're trying to roll back some law that makes it so their news can't lie to them. If it goes through, maybe in a few years we can join up and become one super misinformation nation! Or at least we can tell people we are, and use lots of emotional arguments to make them think it's patriotic and good for them; the 3% who fact check will be branded as left-wing nut jobs, so it's all good.

Maybe you haven't heard, but this is now the Incorporated States of America -- as long as it makes a profit, who gives a fuck about human rights, or exploiting the weak? Also, if you see that bastard Assange, shoot him for us like a good mindless "patriot"...

THIS! * high five *

So you're wasting our time then?

I see a pattern here. Why question something that has no bearing on anything? What point are you trying to make?

So let me get this straight, in a country full of corruption, "they" couldn't find a puppet politician willing to be our president, so "they" found one in Kenya? Makes sense to me, that's what I'd do.

He speaks for me with that statement, took the words right out of my mouth, and then phrased them more coherently.

No I'm pretty sure that's you again...

I also haven't seen the tax records he promised...

Truth!

There's some logic for ya. Guess it is that time of the morning though. Might as well.

The BC is a good way to make people forget the real issues America is facing. It's a hell of a distraction.

Here in France we're around the same prices as Vanneto.