The COLB experts have not backed down. To the contrary, they continue to tell me that their conclusions grow stronger every day.

Techdude is wrapping up a NEW EXCLUSIVE report for TexasDarlin that will be even more conclusive than his last one.

Well, at least the hole they are digging is get more conclusive.  And they are still relying on technological light weights to ‘prove’ there ignorance (as opposed to any proof the Obama COLB is forged). I loved this part:

To review:  Polarik (documents expert with 20+ years of computer expertise) andTechdude (computer forensics specialist with 30+ years of experience) 

My supposition is Polarik has 20 years selling and fixing printers – barely even considered a technology background.  And if I recall Techdude is not yet a certified forensic expert (he belongs to a group of computer forensic experts, which anyone can do for a price) and I believe he is not even 40 years old – so that 30 year claim of ‘expertise’ is thin, very thin.  Yours truly has been working on the forefront of computer systems for over 20 years.  And I do mean the forefront, not repairing typewriters.

This should be interesting. For more on the Amateur Hour running at the Cult of The COLB check out this investigative work on these so called experts. Anyway, I am expecting more hot air and wild claims that are easily debunked – as they have been ever since Techdude noticed that subtle difference in the COLB borders over the years, something he could have sworn most of us did not see!  LOL!  Can’t wait for their latest collection of fantasies.

And while the left has Dan Rather and his cult, or the Downing Street Memo Cult, the right has The Cult of the COLB (aka, Certificate Of Live Birth). Check out how this CULT leader detects forgery when confronted with solid proof of legitimacy. It all starts with one of those flashing overlays from Snappedshot showing BHO COLB (2007) and another known HI COLB (2002):

(For anyone not up on this matter you can see my previous posts here).  

It is clear from this that the known update in format between the 2002 and 2007 (BHO) COLB is the border pattern, but the text stays put – as one would expect. So, what does this demonstrate to the one Polarik, a blogger at Townhall who help start this idiocy? Proof of conspiracy of course!

OK, like what are the odds of having two COLBs, one that we know was from Sep 9, 2002, and one that was ‘allegedly’ from June 9, 2007, with different border patterns, lining up perfectly on the placements of the borders, images, headers & footers, text fields, and data fields?

Like the odds of winning the lottery.

This dude needs therapy. Because the Obama COLB has the same format as another COLB it is now a fake??? But before there were all these mysterious differences that made the OBAMA COLB fake – which were one by one debunked. I wish this guy would make up his mind.

Thus ends the tale of the Cult of the COLB (at least for this blogger). A strange and bizarre tale of delusional obsession.

Now someone has gone out and attempted to verify the findings and has discovered the baseline image used to conclude a forgery is itself messed up – in alignment of course. You can see the results for yourself, but it seems Pam’s ‘expert’ messed up his control image and created a false result. So what’s up with that?

Based on all the research and analysis to date, here is what I believe today, not to be accepted as fact by anyone who wants to believe something else:

1. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, the hospital still unknown for some reason, on Aug. 4, 1961. A birth announcement in the newspaper has been found by one of our researchers …

…

Hi, I’ve talked to the Department of Vital Records and the Honolulu Advertiser.In 1961, the hospitals would take their new birth certificates to Vital Records. At the end of the week, Vital Records would post a sheet that for the news paper to pick up that contained births, deaths, marriages and divorces. The Advertiser routinely printed this information in their Sunday edition. This is not a paid announcement that his grandmother could arrange. This is information that comes from Vital Records – we know this because this particular section reflects those records.

Wonder how Techdud (yep, that is a deliberate typo) and Pam Geller are doing? Are they preparing some crow or building a wall of denial? Whatever, I did find this comment on the irrefutable evidence report quite telling:

OK, I considered it.

a) No matter how someone presents themselves an “expert in forgeries” – to suggest you can determine something a forgery by comparing (1) different documents (2) printed on different printers and then (3) scanned in on different scanners (4) at different resolutions before being (5) saved at different resolutions

…is RIDICULOUS.

It’s like diagnosing illness from TV with the sound off. I don’t know how to get more clear about it – you, Techdude, nor anyone else aren’t even in direct contact with the evidence.

And further – you don’t even have any evidence that any “crime” has even occurred! You just want to believe there is a crime, because you don’t like him – for reasons we all know you decided long before there was any thought that his birth certificate might not be accurate.

b) The differences that are being suggested as “proof of forgery” are *exactly the kind of differences* you can expect from, you guessed it,

(1) different documents (2) printed on different printers and then (3) scanned in on different scanners (4) at different resolutions before being (5) saved at different resolutions.

See?

But you want to believe you have found something. Well alright then! Have at it.

I believe that was the point I was making – this person just did it quite succinctly.

Folks: I’m in techdude’s industry as well, and you simply cannot do this kind of “forensic” examination on a COPY of a document without having access to the original. In other words, nothing techdude wrote matters at all because he didn’t work with the original document. Period. It is absolutely laughable that we can draw any conclusions from an electronic COPY of a document posted on a third-party website. And I know of no credentialed investigator who would assert otherwise.

Which is why techdude should be vetted, in my opinion. As a matter of professional responsibility, a bold accusation such as this (particularly one based on a COPY of the document in question) should be accompanied by the actual name of the investigator, his license number and the state in which he’s licensed, and the name of his investigative company. Even better would be a list of the cases he’s worked on and/or testifed at trial.

…

My whole point is that I cannot comment on techdude’s “analysis” because he’s not working with an original document. None of what he found matters. It is not, as Pamela claims, “suitable for the courtroom,” again precisely because he did not use an original document. Once again, and I cannot stress this enough, there is no way to determine that Obama’s birth certificate as posted by Kos or the LA Times is a forgery without having access to the original document. And I am personally surprised that any self-professed forensic investigator would say otherwise.

With all due respect, Pamela, you haven’t even begun to investigate this issue. What’s particularly troubling is that there are numerous avenues by which you could attempt to acquire your own copy of the birth certificate. You would require knowledge about Hawaii public records, their storage and delivery, how the Hawaii Department of Health handles requests for certified copies of birth certificates, and the location of archival documents from the town and facility in which Obama was born. There are literally dozens of ways I could determine whether or not Obama was actually born in Oahu, none of which would require document forensics. Again, it’s astounding to me that a self-professed “legal investigator” and “private investigator” would not have exhausted the brick-and-mortar route (a sadly fading enterprise among today’s PIs) before undertaking this highly specious analysis.

Ouch, that pretty much nails the quality level of this supposed report. Just an FYI. BTW – still looking for a COLB circa 2006-2008 with the same green border as seen in the Obama COLB.

When the birth certificate arrived from the Obama campaign it confirmed his name as the other documents already showed it. Still, we took an extra step: We e-mailed it to the Hawaii Department of Health, which maintains such records, to ask if it was real.

“It’s a valid Hawaii state birth certificate,” spokeswoman Janice Okubo told us.

As shown below, how could anyone miss the unique style of the border? There’s more – there may now exist another COLB with the same border:

We circled back to the Department of Health, had a newsroom colleague bring in her own Hawaii birth certificate to see if it looks the same (it’s identical). 

As I said below, just one more COLB formatted like Obama’s and Pam’s expert has egg on his face. Update: I have a question for Techdude and others who have multiple COLBs in their position: Did you ever get one that looks like the BHO COLB with its style of borders?  And if so, why didn’t you publish that information?  You may not, but these witnesses indicate there were two formats in circulation.  Kind of hard to believe you folks never saw one, but it is possible. - end update

Why are there two formats? Either one was a prototype discontinued or HI is just running through the last of their old stock. But the point still stands – to accuse someone of a crime you have to more the claim it is possible. If anyone has a COLB that has the same border pattern as below I would be interested in hearing about it [ajstrata@strata-sphere.com]

Finally, Hat Tip to Allahpundit at Hot Air for the link.  Hope your sin of support doesn’t cause too many headaches from the cultists.

Update: Well, if someone wants to know why this myth-mess is good for Obama, here’s an example – end update

Well, it seems we finally have the final report, representing the final act of the COLB Cult today. Techdude has produced something that impresses the non-technical groupies of the movement. But does it hold up to the argument there is evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt (my standard for when I confront smears)? No, not really.

One thing to recall is the track record of failed claims from various cultists since this began. Each claim debunked, followed by wilder claims, which were debunked. Here is a recap of the trend:

(1) The image on Kos was a forgery because it was not a BC but a COLB (took people a while to realize HI had moved to issuing COLBs instead of BCs).
(2) The image was a fake because there was no stamped seal – later discovered existing in the image.
(3) The image was a fake because there was not signature seen on the back – later discovered in the image.
(4) The image was a fake because there was no date stamp for when it was issued – which was detected and evident to the casual viewer.
(5) The image was fake because it was photoshopped – later shown to be a cropping of the excess paper area and blacking out of the ID number
(6) The image was fake because it was different from the BHO version – later discovered to be the fact BHO saved the image to a lower resolution, smaller web friendly version.
(7) The image is a fake because it was made from a forgery started by Opendna – that lame claim lived for weeks, but in the end was proven impossible.
(8) The image was a fake because the borders did not match a 2002 COLB – one of my favorites because of this line from the aforementioned Techdude:

But upon manually stretching them to match edge to edge I caught a glimpse of what I and apparently everyone else had simply not noticed. The security borders do not match. Literally. They are not even close to identical.

Here’s the image of the two borders – how could anyone not see that? Subtle – eh? Techdude later admitted THIS claim was wrong – there had been updates between the 2002 and 2007 COLB formats. He also debunked the Opendna claims.

(8) The image was claimed to be a fake as more and more people compared the 2002 COLB to the newer 2007 COLB – all of which proved nothing more than we already knew, Hawaii was updating their vital records and COLBS in response to 9-11 and the Real ID Act of 2005, as can be seen in the variety of COLBs found for the period

(9) The image was a fake because the document format version control number never changed while the format did – which we now know is because the format control number covers the data fields and contents, not the look and feel.
(10) The image is a fake because a date field has a format anomaly in it – but then the exact same anomaly was found in other COLBS from the same time frame.
(11) Anti-aliasing haze around the text was a sign of forgery – when it is actually only a sign of text being printed.

Today Techdude has his report out, so let’s see if he has a smoking gun or wrecked professional credibility.

Sadly, Techdude doesn’t provide an analysis, he produces cherry picked data from one side only. A real analysis compares the evidence that supports the opposite conclusion. From the list above we see tons of reverse examples. Assumptions of what real image would contain, which later proved to exist. All those debunked claims are also evidence that the COLB image is real. It from the totality of the evidence that we decide which side is MORE COMPELLING. A real technical analysis would address all the evidence and discuss why some crazy marginal border measurements outweigh things like the impressed seal (hard to fake), a signature area, etc. All things COMMON to valid COLBs and images of them, but hard to fake out using graphics programs.

And much of what Techdude discovered PROVES points I made way back – which supports the claim the image of the BHO COLB is a scan of a legit COLB. For example, I predicted that as part of the upgrades to the COLB that came on line in 2006, there was a change in the paper which was probably a more secure paper-cloth hybrid. This new paper was thicker and made the seal impression harder to detect from a front scan. Techdude confirmed this again today:

The embossed seals and ink stamps in all of the pre-2006 images are clearly visible in the scans however none of the post-2006 seals or ink stamps are visible without extensive manipulation to the digital images. Even when scanning the physical post-2006 certificate in my possession using multiple resolutions and using multiple scanners I was also unable to produce an image which would allow the seal to show though the image. The ink stamps on the rear side were also not visible in the front side scans without digital modifications to the scanned images. My scans of the physical certificate also produced the same results using multiple resolutions and using multiple scanners.

This destroys many forgery claims by Polarik and others who compared the 2002 COLB and BHO 2007 COLBs based on these features. And in fact, the similarity in the results by Techdude on taking modern COLBs and seeing the same telltales in his scans as shown in the Kos image means he proved the Kos image is legit. When you use real world COLBs and perform the same scanning process using a range of variables and you create the same result this is confirmation.

It should have been noted as such in any professional ‘report’. Also, if you want review of your work you need to provide the data. Figure 3 is a low quality image of the ’smoking gun’. When I tried to down load it and blow it up it was impossible to see. Sorry, but peer reviewing requires the actual data. I will forego any detailed comments until Techdude and Pam decide to provide all the data.

But let’s step back again to the blatantly obvious fact the BHO COLB has unique security borders – not even close to the others. Techdude goes into minute measurements to prove the obvious – the borders are not the same. Why? We know they are not. Not the same color, not the same pattern, not the same dimensions. What Techdude has not proven is that the 2007 BHO COLB is the one and only HI COLB with that pattern! Techdude has two other COLBS (from 2006 and 2008) with telltales IDENTICAL to the BHO COLB. These include version numbers, data fields and contents, border lettering, seal imprints etc. Commonalities that cannot be ignored.

Finally Techdude repeats his horrible mistake from day one – he goes back to comparing apples to oranges. Remember, Techdude has some original COLBs, which he or someone else scanned. They were not scanned by the same person who scanned the BHO COLB. They were not scanned on the same machines using the same settings. Why is this important?

Because the tools Techdude wanted to use to do image analysis are used to detect image manipulation WITHIN an image. These tools and methods look at inconsistencies with in an image to show where the image was manipulated. an image should have consistent sharpness, depth, resolution, etc if it has not been tampered with. Areas where there is known tampering would show up easily (for example where the ID number was blocked out). A real expert in this field did the analysis on the BHO image and concluded they were reasonably untouched (minus the known manipulations).

What did Techdud do? To my shock he took three different images and tried to compare across them!

The 2007, 2008, and the two KOS images were then analyzed by creating a heat map showing where each pixel changes as jpeg quality decreases from 100 to 0. A change was considered relevant once the sum of the changes to the red, green, and blue values exceeded 10%. The heat map created from the 2007 and 2008 images showed the fonts, seal image, and security border are all identical consistent values. To eliminate any subjective presumptions and to increase the number of comparative tests the same analysis was then conducted on the 2006 and prior certificate images which all found the fonts, seal images, and security borders to also be saved with identical consistent values. The same analysis on the KOS images showed the security border having a substantially different RGB quality value than the fonts and the seal image.

It is a rookie mistake with these kinds of tools, to try and make assumptions across uniquely created images of different formatted documents. There is no conclusion that can be drawn when doing this except the documents are different and the process of image capture was not the same. It doesn’t prove anything beyond that (and Techdude knows this). Here are the images:

Original here.  Clearly there is are differences, but I want to note the blacking out of date fields to show what a ‘forgery’ we show. You can see in all three where the modifications were done – they are impossible to miss. They have sharper edges, they have different colors.  While all three show different RGB results, all of them are the same thing – efforts to black out personal data. You need to look at changes in the context of the image itself, not across images.  For example, the fact COLB 2 has bright borders on the black outs and COLB 1 doesn’t is not a sign one of them is forged. 

The BHO COLB is unique to the set of COLBs so far seen. But we can end this mess in a heartbeat. If anyone has a HI COLB that is of the format and structure of the BHO COLB please share it with us. If you got a COLB around Jun 2007 my guess is you might have the variant we saw with the OBH COLB, which seemed to be around for a while as an experiment or prototype version. Just a scan of of the border is needed – nothing more.

Techdude has given his groupies more false positives to run around and play their games with.  He also showed, unintentionally, why the BHO COLB image could be real.  He confirmed the paper upgrade and showed empirically that all the new COLBs, post 2006, shared the same traits regarding the impression of the seal.

Now what are the odds someone who screwed up the borders so badly also caught the paper quality detail? Basically they are – zero!  No one who did enough investigating to make sure the seal imprint was light due to new, thicker paper would miss the borders.  What are the odds a person who screwed up the borders so badly was able to know to put the date field anomaly in?  Zero as well. Thanks Techdude, but as usual you proved my point.  When you claim such an obvious and glaring disconnect is the work of a forger who was able to get the other mountain of hidden details right – you have debunked yourself. 

Myth busted – again.

The phenomena has interesting parallels. You see the same mindlessness in the “Bush lied” meme to start the war in Iraq. The line about the ‘lie’ began with Joe Wilson, who claimed Bush used known forged documents to lie to Congress and America. Joe Wilson was the one actually lying (the forgeries came out 6+ months after the trip on which he claimed he debunked the forgeries) – but the lie about the lie had taken root. It then morphed into a lie about Valerie Plame, though the lie was not about not outing Plame (which people admitted to) it was by lying about lying about outing Plame (if you don’t know don’t ask, I don’t want to derail this post). The point is a myth was born from a lie and became conventional wisdom.  Goebbels would have been proud.

Anyway, this post explores how obsession is the evil opposite of rationale thought. It’s quite long, so most folks will probably want to skip the rest.

There are, of course, different levels of obsession (one might even say delusion) that can overtake a group of people who have been brain-washed by false stories that fit into the overall personal desires. Sometimes there are those who just believe the myth so desperately they do the work of the puppet masters, usually referred to as the ‘useful idiots’. Think of Nazi sympathizers who did not fight evil but worked to make it sound reasonable. Of course the Nazi propaganda is on the extreme end of the spectrum when it comes to this kind of mob-think.

So is Islamo-Fascism. Bin Laden (and his useful idiots in the liberal media) continue to buy into the concept that America is corrupt, evil and the source of all human suffering.  People just need to think of all the human suffering we have ended to realize that Americans fight human suffering. The opposite is reality. The only thing people can rationally claim is evil is much more pernicious and busy than even America can take on alone. Which means all those in the peanut gallery acting all miffed America has no solved the world’s problems are the real culprits.  They hide their role in world affairs  by projection on America.

In any event, The Islamo Fascists are as immune to reason as those who see conspiracy theories everywhere – they just back up their obsessions with violence. Their answer to critics is death and suffering.

Right about now those who still believe the BHO COLB forgery tripe are probably near apoplectic with my comparison of their pet-theories to al-Qaeda and Nazism. That is only part of my point.  I also want ot note something else and that is how ridiculous it is for Obama and the Surrendercrats to be so naive as to think they can jaw-bone people like al-Qaeda and the Mad Mullahs of Iran into peace? These fanatics have bought into a belief system to the point it defines their entire existence! If we cannot bring rationality to the conspiracy nuts here in America, what makes Obama and the Surrendercrats think they can lay out a logical case for peace with America and the West? Keep that in mind as we explore this example of cultish mob-think.

Step back and ponder the levels of zealotry and obsession we are discussing here. There is this mild madness, that has infected some, who follow the inept to a silly conclusion that someone has forged a COLB. In the grand scheme of things nothing more than an interesting example of the long road ahead for humanity in terms of dealing with issues seriously and with a cool, objective head. And then there is Islamo Fascism and all its brutality and evil as the representation of total, suicidal madness. The penultimate cult. Yet, in both cases the followers of these obsessions believe whole heartedly they are on the path of good and righteousness and no amount of rational talk will change their beliefs.

For example, look at this longwinded, defensive comment posted here from one of those ‘experts’ the COLB Cult have been rallying behind. It is from someone named Polarik who I have been eviscerating as my poster-child example of how not to do technical analysis. I referenced his shoddy work in my first post on the COLB to illustrate the pattern of: (1) wild claim, (2) claim debunked, (3) derive new wild claim.

When I did the original post I actually steered away from his earliest, silliest claims – all of which were quickly debunked by others. These earlier posts are an interesting historical example of how an obsession takes hold. So indulge me as we use Polarik, again, as an example of how myth can masquerade as analysis.

In one of his original posts (June 20, 2008) Polarik made some ridiculous claims, claims that those who follow this sideshow act know were debunked quickly and early. These initial fallacies should have been a warning sign regarding the quality of analysis going on, when people start moving the gold posts watch out! But they weren’t.  Here are my favorite silly conclusions that, when I jumped into this mess late, were embarrassingly wrong already. Here’s Polarik’s first hint of skullduggery – color printing!

The “Certificate of Birth,” which I will call “COB,” is posted on the Kos website as a color JPG. The reason for making it a color JPG, IMHO, is to induce the viewer to believe that this is a genuine copy of an original document — something that a black & white, or even greyscale, reproduction would not convey as well.

Yeah, baby! Using color is a sign of evil intent.  Think this through in light of the fact we now have a spectrum of valid COLBS from Hawaii being analyzed:

Only COLB #3 can be real, given Polarik’s paranoid analysis that only non-color COLBs can be trusted. Yep, the fact the COLB has some color is a dead give away that a forgery has occurred!  Then there were these early claims:

OK…so where is the certification by the department, which consists of both an embossed seal and signature block on the reverse side?

If there is a department certification, then why not show it? Did it get lost in the scanning process? Doubtful. The background where the seal should be looks the same to the naked eye.

It was not long after this that these telltales were discovered in the image itself. I could detect them after only a few minutes of turning some knobs on a graphics viewer program. This ‘expert’ missed them and cried forgery. But when they were found, did he admit his mistakes? Did he open his mind to the possibility he was wrong? No, he did not.

It is at this point debate for some becomes a life’s obsession. Like I said, there have been numerous claims by this expert which have all been debunked. Yet at each turn he simply makes up wilder claims – and people see this pattern of denial as being heroic? Well, all movements need leaders, whether the movement is sane or not.

To see how bad this obsession has become let me come back to Polarik’s diatribe here at the Strata-Sphere. Polarik is upset at me for nailing his credibility – which I take as a sign he knows deep down there are serious problems with his arguments and he wants me to go away. He wants me to stop bring some reality to the cult. And his response includes anger, historic re-visioning, with a dose of projection onto me:

Your analyses vary among being off-the-mark, to being silly, to being a bunch of bullcrap, to being bald-faced lies. So, allow me to give you a taste of your own medicine.

…

 ”I also noted a stamped date from the back which bled through on the two version (one on the DailyKos and one on the Obama campaign site) which shows this modern version was produced around Jun 6 2007″

Yet another earth-shaking revelation! Your blog post is dated, “July 6″ or about five weeks after everyone else on the planet mentioned it.

…

“I could detect the impression of the state seal stamp and signature area on two of the files.”

You got Superman eyes? Maybe you saw a some disturbed areas on the COLB. But, the truth is, that if you had never seen what a genuine COLB looks like, such as DeCosta’s, you would not even know what goes there. 

The poor guy is out of his league, and mad at me for proving it. But then again the man is claiming a crime has been committed, and this country cannot survive if baseless and foolish lies go unchallenged. I was quite clear on why I delayed my posting, and Polarik is a prime example of the denizens of this fevered swamp which kept me from exploring this cult. But what I provided up front was what any technically savvy non-expert could discover in a few minutes time.  Yet, the self proclaimed Polarik could not find these telltales and claimed his ignorance as evidence of forgery! Polarik, I did not destroy your professional credibility – you did that yourself.  I simply noted how you did it.

Just like the Global Warming cult is being challenged by rational arguments and counter evidence, this COLB cult is also being challenged.  This new site points out the conflicts arising as the ever wilder claims from the cult begin colliding with each other (mainly because the truth of the matter and evidence is something they will not face):

Polarik’s claim has been that someone took someone else’s genuine COLB, scrubbed only the original names (leaving everything else alone) and then “clevery” added the Obama information.

However if that was the case, then there would be absolutely no reason to do anything to the borders.

So here again it seems Polarik is making an argument that defeats his previous argument.

Emphasis mine. This is an illuminating measure of how far this obsession has crept into the cult. The claim was someone messed with the data fields (no proof of course). But when that fell apart then it was the borders that were faked.  Even more intriguing is the out and out demand that clearly contradicting evidence be ignored. One early claim was the BHO COLB was a forgery because of a format anomaly in the DOB data field. Well, that was the claim until another COLB showed the same DOB field anomaly!

Michele’s COLB shares the same font anomaly in the date filed field. Polarik thinks it doesn’t matter to his theory. Techdude says the same.

They are adamant in their conclusions.

What? The one-time clear evidence of forgery is now shown to be a tell tale on valid COLBs and we are supposed to ignore this turn around? We’re supposed to assume all is well in COLB Cult Land in light of this discovery?  Doesn’t this sound just like the UN IPCC and Al Gore saying there really is Global Warming, just ignore the last decade of Global cooling data?  These folks do are now demanding we all ignore this clear indicator that the data fields were not forged since they all show the same anomaly? Talk about crazy.

OK, to come full circle here, as I said I found this example of cultish obsession a lesson in futility. The more clear evidence that was provided there was no forgery, the farther from reality the cultists went. They would do anything to salvage their beliefs, to avoid being wrong. So if Americans in the heat of an elections season can get this entrenched, what does that tell us about any opportunities to rationalize peace with al-Qaeda? Sadly, it tells us a lot – it will be a futile exercise that will fail. Obsession becomes worse when faced with rationale dialogue. 

For more analysis on the COLB watch this site, someone who knows what they are doing.

You can see the full image here.  What we see here is more myth-busting evidence. One of the claims the BHO COLB was a forgery was the fact the border edges do not line up. In fact in all the COLBS I have looked at they don’t, and now we have proof that is not a sign of forgery.  Stick a fork in that theory.

Second, we see that color is not an indication of forgery, since none of the colors match.  Kill that theory.

Finally, we see that the size of the hatch patterns do not always match – clearly HI went from smaller to larger diamonds at some point since 2005. Scratch another theory.

The forensic expert at Atlas Shrugs, Techdude, supposedly is analyzing multiple COLBS and I would guess this is a hint at which ones he is looking at. This is what he said in his last missive on this subject:

Unlike AJ I just happened to have been lucky enough to have had more than just the Decosta image to work with so that I am able to see the progression of the document modifications through time. (I also called Hawaii and talked to them about it) But f rom AJ’s point of view his observation would be correct having not seen a 2006, other 2007’s, or 2008 COLBs.

OK, so we clearly have in the set above 3 COLBs from sometime before the end of 2006 (the smaller hatching) and two from sometime after that period. OK, big deal.  Based on all the silly speculation that border patterns, border alignments, border color, etc. prove tampering it is clear from above that this is just not the case. I am still awaiting Techdudes final ‘report’, but I am seriously skeptical he will do more than confirm, again, what I have been saying.  All the ‘telltales’ people are harping about are easily explained and none prove a forgery was ever made. 

Myth still busted, for now. BTW, I added a category for this silliness for folks who want to see all my posts.

Update: The new COLB from Michelle is here. I cannot detect a date stamp from the back, nor a seal imprint or signature area as I could with the BHO COLB. Based on previous ‘logic’ this must mean this a forgery.

Update: I was finally able to detect the signature area bleeding through from the back, it overlaps the bottom border. And I was able to discern (barely) the COLB is a 2008 version. Can’t make out the month. I see I was correct – June 2008.

You can see this shining example of twisted logic here, but the bottom line is the man is comparing to different version of COLB and claiming the differences in the formats mean one is a forgery (which as I noted here were due to the Real ID Act). He is looking at a 2002 COLB from a Ms Decosta and the 2007 COLB from Obama. He is stunned to find the background colors don’t match – Doh! The borders don’t match, the papers don’t match, either.

As I said before when another expert discovered there have been upgrades to the Hawaii COLB documents and declared “forgery” I have one thing to say – No shit Sherlock!  BTW, that other expert has acknowledged there were upgrades to the COLB formats.

Hey folks, want to see the forgery I found?  I compared two copies of NASA’s logo and discovered subtle differences that could only mean one is a forgery:

Now, if I can only figure out which one is the fake I would be just like these other folks ….