The F.L.A.W.

imageIn 1978, a delightful paperback book was published, SYSTEMANTICS: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail, by John Gall. One of the laws that Mr. Gall developed to help understand why systems go awry is his Fundamental Law of Administrative Working (F.L.A.W.) that says:

Things are what they are reported to be.

The real world is whatever is reported to the system.

Birthers, exemplified by Orly Taitz and Susan Daniels, fall prey to this systems delusion by believing that whatever they find in a database is true, even if it is absurd. We see this in Daniels’ foray into litigation, Daniels v. Husted (Ohio Secretary of State).

Daniels believes that Barack Obama is using a fraudulent social-security number1. She bases this conclusion on two “system” outputs.

The first absurd system output that Daniels believes is a retrieval from some online web page that says of “042” series social-security numbers near that of Barack Obama: “Issued 1977-1979 in CT.” She believes this even though all social-security numbers in 1977-1979 were issued centrally, not “in” any state. Further, it appears that she never  bothered to check to see whether any of those numbers she looked up were really issued to Connecticut residents. Actually the system output she shows as an exhibit, pp. 36-38, doesn’t say this. It has two boxes, one says “State Issued” and the other “Connecticut.” The output doesn’t really say anything except that “042” is a Connecticut area number2. It’s not a record of issuance, but a lookup from the range table. She would like the reader to believe that these lookups are of individual issuance records, rather than a report of the numbers and ranges historically used. The “042” area number is used for people with Connecticut return addresses normally, but the Social Security Administration says that the number is not a reliable location code. Anti-birthers speculate that this anomaly in the area number was caused by a typographical error keying a zip code.

The Social Security Administration replied directly to Susan Daniels:

After reviewing the information you provided, we disagree with your conclusion that a person’s social-security number depends upon the address of residence.

The second system output is a birth date of “1890” associated with public database records. Even though there are correct August 4, 1961 dates of birth among the output, she thinks this one year is the smoking gun indicating the real date of birth of the number’s original owner.

Daniels then concludes:

Based on information and belief, Plaintiff asserts that Barack Obama began using the Connecticut social security number as his own in the mid-‘80s. That number had previously been issued to another person, herein referred to as Mr./Ms./Mrs. X, in March 1977, who lived in Connecticut at the time of application for a social security number.

Given that Mr. X would be 120 years old today, he’s almost certainly dead. He’s not in the Social Security Death Index. That’s not conclusive, but I am very experienced working with large databases of personal information, and that “1890” looks like the junk data that appears all the time. Just the fact that it has no month and date shows that it’s somehow defective. And we should keep in mind that this “1890” is not from any government database, but from aggregate reports of property transactions, credit applications and other unspecified public records.

Think about it. How could “Mr. X” explain the date in the records? Certainly Barack Obama never supplied his birth date as 1890. The only way a legitimate 1890 date could be in the database would be for Mr. X to have had some transaction under his social-security number and 1890 birth date there. However, none of those databases list Mr. X – they all say Barack Obama for that number. Mr. X is Barack Obama and the 1890 date is garbage.

The hole in Ms. Daniels’ case, big enough to drive a truck through is that her complaint is based on a contention that Barack Obama’s documentation to the Ohio Secretary of State is fraudulent because Obama allegedly uses a fraudulent social-security number. However, she never even alleges that Obama used this number on his election paperwork, so where’s the fraud?

The case is absurd – political theater of the absurd. The complaint follows.

2012-07-02 – DANIELS – Complaint and Motion for Temp and Perm Injunction and Mandaus

Update:

I had intended to include this with the original article, but got distracted. Is Susan Daniels ignorant about how the databases work and that is the reason for this nonsense? Probably not. Daniels previously said:

However, in the USA the case is somewhat different. According to Susan Daniels, of Daniels and Associates Investigations, Inc. in Chardon Ohio, when searching through database aggregators such as IRB, it is common to find a subject referenced with two or three Social Security Numbers (SSN). Here are some of the reasons a person may show-up with multiple SSN’s:

  • a wife’s or child’s SSN could end up with father’s name
  • a parent’s SSN could show up with a child
  • the subject bought something with someone else and the SSNs could end up with each other’s name
  • the database producer is relating several SSN’s to one address
  • an error by whoever entered the data

I think this lawsuit is intentional deception.


1Following the usage of the Social Security Administration in its own legal filings, I use the phrase “social-security number” hyphenated and lower case.

2In 2011 SSA stopped using the first three digits of the SSN to designate residence area.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
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52 Responses to The F.L.A.W.

  1. TRUTH says:

    I don’t follow you. You write the SSN office says the first 3 #’s aren’t a reliable area indication code. But you have a Note 2 saying the SSA stopped using the first 3 digits in 2011 to designate residence area. So, it “COULD” have indicated area at the time the 042 was assigned, but just not Positively. We don’t know for sure, we’re going off a “could” be correct, the 10 prior and after followed assigned area, this ONE just happened to be different, and we’re not going to look into it any further. That’s it?

  2. The area number originally indicated the state of issuance back when cards were issued in local offices. Later (up until 2011), when the cards were issued nationally, they were assigned by the zipcode of the application’s return address. However, it’s not always accurate. If I had to choose between a conclusion of “inaccurate” for the area number against Obama getting away for 30 years using a fraudulent social-security number, I think the former is the only rational conclusion. And of course, there is no scenario under which Obama needed a fraudulent social-security number in the first place except the birther explanation: “because we need him to be bad.”

    TRUTH: I don’t follow you. You write the SSN office says the first 3 #’s aren’t a reliable area indication code. But you have a Note 2 saying the SSA stopped using the first 3 digits in 2011 to designate residence area. So, it “COULD” have indicated area at the time the 042 was assigned, but just not Positively.

  3. richCares says:

    “because we need him to be bad.”
    initially it was birher proof, 16 yr old Obama couldn’t get a job at Baskin Robbins without a SSN, he couldn’t get one because he was a foreigner, Now, that was silly as any 16 yr old kid could get a legal SSN including the foreign kids., it was a case of birthers not having a thinker cap.

  4. Foggy says:

    I read her lawsuit today, and she never does explain how having a stolen Social Security number would make the President ineligible.

    Far as I know, even if all Daniels’s hogwash were true, it wouldn’t affect eligibility one tiny iota.

  5. Paul says:

    Foggy:
    I read her lawsuit today, and she never does explain how having a stolen Social Security number would make the President ineligible.

    Far as I know, even if all Daniels’s hogwash were true, it wouldn’t affect eligibility one tiny iota.

    100% correct. I went after someone on Oily’s Facebook page today who claimed that Obama doesn’t have a valid SS#, and since using a stolen SS# is a felony, he can’t be President. Tried to ‘splain to her that NOWHERE in the Constitution does it say a valid SS# is required, NOR does it say you can’t be a felon. Fact is, you could whack your wife and kids, spend 50 years in the Big House, and when you get out run for the highest office in the land. And if the population was dumb enough to vote for you, you could serve.

  6. y_p_w says:

    TRUTH:
    I don’t follow you.You write the SSN office says the first 3 #’s aren’t a reliable area indication code.But you have a Note 2 saying the SSA stopped using the first 3 digits in 2011 to designate residence area.So, it “COULD” have indicated area at the time the 042 was assigned, but just not Positively.We don’t know for sure, we’re going off a “could” be correct, the 10 prior and after followed assigned area, this ONE just happened to be different, and we’re not going to look into it any further.That’s it?

    What we’re saying is that it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing about SSNs that’s relevant to Presidential eligibility – not even remotely.

    As for the code, it was a throwback to the time when regional offices collected applications and assigned the numbers manually. When they moved to using a central processing facility, they still kept the “geographical assignment”, but did so using the zip code of the mailing address. The mailing address could be any mailing address. There’s never been a requirement that it be a permanent address. One could be on an extended vacation, and the SSA only states one should be able to collect at the address for at least two weeks.

    Besides that, the most logical reason for a 042 SSN would be some sort of transcription error – either poor handwriting or a fat finger typing error. It’s typical that one’s SSN corresponds to the state of their mailing address, but there are any number of reasons why it might not correspond. From a practical standpoint, it doesn’t matter. Americans are free to move, and the SSN moves along with the person. We don’t issue residency permits like some Communist countries do. Having the geographical codes was meaningless in an age where a central computerized system could assign unique numbers without worrying about overlap or assigning the same number to two people.

  7. Scientist says:

    TRUTH (I mean LIES): I challenge you to do a very simple experiment-next year at tax time, change one digit in your SSN randomly and then file. Let us know how long it takes the IRS to bounce the return back to you. I know from personal experience that your return will be rejected, because one year I inadvertently transposed 2 digits of my daughter’s SSN, while claiming her as an exemption. I got a bill for about $1,500 in extra taxes and had to get on the phone and provide the correct # ASAP. Fortunately, it was all straightened out.

    Ms Daniels has actually shown that Obama used the 042 # on his tax returns. This thus confirms that it is indeed his, since, otherwise his returns would not have been accepted by the IRS. There is now no need whatsoever to worry about how he got an 042 number, since it is beyond a doubt his real #. Like most birthers, Ms Daniels ends up helping the opposite side.

  8. Thinker says:

    It bothers me that Daniels, a private investigator, can be so obviously incompetent in analyzing data gathered during an investigation. She should be an expert in separating the wheat from the chafe in search results from the big data aggregators. Instead, she falls for the birfer nonsense and embarrasses herself and her profession by promoting nonsensical conspiracy theories.

  9. donna says:

    Thinker : “Instead, she falls for the birfer nonsense and embarrasses herself and her profession by promoting nonsensical conspiracy theories.”

    she associated with WND and taitz early on

  10. Inquisitor says:

    Question. Does anybody here have knowledge of how long a person has operated under a fraudulent social security card or birth certificate until they were caught?

  11. Scientist says:

    Inquisitor: Question. Does anybody here have knowledge of how long a person has operated under a fraudulent social security card or birth certificate until they were caught?

    It depends what you mean by “operate”. As I pointed out, if you file a tax return with a phony SSN, it will be rejected. You would have serious trouble with applying for student loans, a drivers license, credit cards, a mortgage or jobs at places like Universiity of Chicago. I suppose if you work day jobs for cash standing in front of Home Depot and buy everything for cash And never file taxes or` get a license, you could probably “operate” for a long time. Why don’t you try it and report back?

  12. y_p_w says:

    Scientist: It depends what you mean by “operate”.As I pointed out, if you file a tax return with a phony SSN, it will be rejected.You would have serious trouble with applying for student loans, a drivers license, credit cards, a mortgage or jobs at places like Universiity ofChicago. I suppose if you work day jobs for cash standing in front of Home Depot and buy everything for cash And never file taxes or` get a license, you could probably “operate” for a long time.Why don’t you try it and report back?

    Maybe apply for a non-SSN taypayer identification number. Other than that it’s pretty tough existing without an SSN.

  13. Scientist says:

    y_p_w: Maybe apply for a non-SSN taypayer identification number. Other than that it’s pretty tough existing without an SSN.

    To get an ITIN, you would need to document that you are not a US citizen by showing a foreign passport http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96696,00.html/

    You would not be eligible for many deductions/exemptions, so you would pay considerably higher taxes. It wouldn’t get you a drivers license, mortgage, credit, etc.

    This whole thing is absurd. Barack Obama has led a perfectly above board life, working hard and succeeding. He is what decent people raise their kids to be, whether they are liberals or conservatives.

  14. Northland10 says:

    Inquisitor:
    Question. Does anybody here have knowledge of how long a person has operated under a fraudulent social security card or birth certificate until they were caught?

    I suspect some mafia/organized crime types have likely gone quite a long time on fraudulent documents. The thing is, the ones who can go a long time keep a low profile. Have too high a profile and you will get noticed (so saith Al Capone). I have heard that being President might be a bit of a high profile.

  15. Inquisitor says:

    Yep. Here is a guy caught with a fake birth certificate and social security card he purchased in 1979. It says he was caught in Las Vegas working at a casino which is very thorough security checks.

    http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/126044659.html

    According to paperwork from the Attorney General’s office, Jones admitted to detectives that he purchased a fake drivers license, birth certificate and social security card before he left Chicago in 1979.

  16. About 60 days. I filed my father’s return for him and his date of birth on the tax form didn’t match the date of birth in the Social Security database. They kicked it right back. So even if the Social Security number was under Barack Obama with a birth date of 1890, it would have been kicked back.

    Inquisitor: Question. Does anybody here have knowledge of how long a person has operated under a fraudulent social security card or birth certificate until they were caught?

  17. If you read the story carefully, it says the fellow is being charged with identity theft. That means that he took the identity, name and social-security of another person and used it. It’s not a made-up name and a made-up SSN. He took a real person’s identity. As long as the name, date of birth, and SSN match up, the IRS is happy.

    There’s a big difference between a fake card and a fake number. The same is true of vital records fraud. It is hugely more common for someone to use a real birth certificate belonging to someone else, than to have an actual fake certificate.

    For that scenario to apply to President Obama, the guy in the White House would not be the real Barack Obama. Not likely.

    When looking at identity fraud it’s important to distinguish between impersonation (most common) and a completely false or mismatched identity.

    Inquisitor: According to paperwork from the Attorney General’s office, Jones admitted to detectives that he purchased a fake drivers license, birth certificate and social security card before he left Chicago in 197

  18. Scientist says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: For that scenario to apply to President Obama, the guy in the White House would not be the real Barack Obama. Not likely.

    You would think the real Barack Obama in that scenario would have come forward by now and said, “Hey, that’s not me!” Besides, we have photos and stories from classmates at Punahou School who knew him from before 1977. And he sure looks like that kid in the childhood pictures.

  19. Rickey says:

    TRUTH:
    I don’t follow you.You write the SSN office says the first 3 #’s aren’t a reliable area indication code.But you have a Note 2 saying the SSA stopped using the first 3 digits in 2011 to designate residence area.So, it “COULD” have indicated area at the time the 042 was assigned, but just not Positively.We don’t know for sure, we’re going off a “could” be correct, the 10 prior and after followed assigned area, this ONE just happened to be different, and we’re not going to look into it any further.That’s it?

    My ex-wife has a SSN which begins with 210 (Pennsylvania). She has never lived or worked in Pennsylvania. She has no idea why she was issued a number with the 210 prefix, but she got it long before Obama got his SSN.

  20. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    If you read the story carefully, it says the fellow is being charged with identity theft. That means that he took the identity, name and social-security of another person and used it. It’s not a made-up name and a made-up SSN. He took a real person’s identity. As long as the name, date of birth, and SSN match up, the IRS is happy.

    Also, a related story reports “Authorities said Jones’ arrest came after a complaint about his fraudulent use of a Social Security number” and “The Social Security Administration is continuing to investigate the case.”

    http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/126020433.html

    Thus, we know that the Social Security Administration investigates when it receives complaints about a SSN being used fraudulently. The SSA has received complaints about Obama’s SSN. If he has been using if fraudulently, it would take them about five minutes to discover it.

  21. Rickey says:

    Thinker:
    It bothers me that Daniels, a private investigator, can be so obviously incompetent in analyzing data gathered during an investigation. She should be an expert in separating the wheat from the chafe in search results from the big data aggregators. Instead, she falls for the birfer nonsense and embarrasses herself and her profession by promoting nonsensical conspiracy theories.

    One of the keys here is that Daniels is unable to identify her mystery 1890 person. If the number wasn’t issued to Obama, who was it issued to? She can’t provide a name, because her own searches establish that the only name ever connected to that SSN is Barack Obama.

    Also, while Daniels did not tell the court about her improper use of e-Verify, she likely has violated both the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Drivers Privacy Protection Act.

  22. Arthur says:

    Rickey: My ex-wife has a SSN which begins with 210 (Pennsylvania). She has never lived or worked in Pennsylvania. She has no idea why she was issued a number with the 210 prefix, but she got it long before Obama got his SSN.

    All those years, Rickey, and are trying to tell us that you didn’t know your own wife was committing Social Security fraud???!! I trusted you, bro!

  23. gorefan says:

    Ms Daniels is interviewed about the suit and her complaint. Oh and she is trying to write an e-book to sell on Amazon.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgfnY-uNv6g&feature=player_embedded

  24. Matt says:

    Rickey: Also, while Daniels did not tell the court about her improper use of e-Verify, she likely has violated both the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Drivers Privacy Protection Act.

    She didn’t try e-Verify, did she? I thought it was Linda Jordan who did that…

  25. Rickey says:

    Matt: She didn’t try e-Verify, did she?I thought it was Linda Jordan who did that…

    I thought that Daniels did it as well, but I certainly could be mistaken.

  26. gorefan says:

    Rickey: One of the keys here is that Daniels is unable to identify her mystery 1890 person.

    She doesn’t even acknowledge the 1990 DOB in one of her affidavits from Barnett v. Obama

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/31235646/Private-Investigator-Susan-Daniels-Court-Affidavit-Regarding-Obama-s-Social-Security-Number-s

    On page 13, for the same Somerville address, is 1890 and 1990.

  27. John Reilly says:

    As I have stated here before, I have a social security number which indicates origin in an Eastern state, even though I obtained that number while resident in Indiana. I could not tell you why. My first job was for my grandfather’s farm, which is owned by a fanmily-owned Indiana corporation. My first (and only until I graduated from school) bank accouint was here in Indiana. My wife’s number is out of a different state but a state where she had her first job as a camp counselor. Neither of our numbers indicate an Indiana origin. Will Ms. Daniels check us on e-verify? Don’t you think the Air Force should have checked my bona fides before letting me fly multi-million dollar jets with live ammo?

  28. Arthur says:

    John Reilly: Don’t you think the Air Force should have checked my bona fides before letting me fly multi-million dollar jets with live ammo?

    And now the Air Force is implicated in Social Security fraud! It’s amazing how vast the conspiracy is.

  29. Paul Pieniezny says:

    gorefan: She doesn’t even acknowledge the 1990 DOB in one of her affidavits from Barnett v. Obama

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/31235646/Private-Investigator-Susan-Daniels-Court-Affidavit-Regarding-Obama-s-Social-Security-Number-s

    On page 13, for the same Somerville address, is 1890 and 1990.

    And now for the perfectly innocent explanation: Obama was living at that address in 1990. If this is from a credit transaction, it is clear what happened: someone (perhaps Obama himself) filled in 1990, the current year at the time, instead of 1961, as Obama’s year of birth. A frequent mistake by the way.

    So, what does Ockham’s Razor say about 1890? Well, a few years later, people started to be worried about 2K problems on their computers. Programs were rewritten, years in databases were changed from two digits into four. Since people who are younger than 12 do not normally rent cars. any birth date which made the person using credit too young got “18” in front instead of the usual “19”.

    But people like Daniels, L’Oreley and Neil Sankey (the PI guy who left Scotland Yard at a very suspicious time) prefer to think that impossible garbage in unofficial databases proves fraud.

  30. Paul Pieniezny says:

    Rickey: My ex-wife has a SSN which begins with 210 (Pennsylvania). She has never lived or worked in Pennsylvania. She has no idea why she was issued a number with the 210 prefix, but she got it long before Obama got his SSN.

    Eisenhower’s SSN was from California. To be fair, he was once a resident of California, but most definitely did not apply for an SSN when living there.

  31. Scientist says:

    This isn’t rocket science or the Higgs boson (trust me). If that SNN is not Barack Obama’s, then it must belong to someone else. Who? Has any other name ever been associated with that number? The answer is no, even from Daniels’ 140 page mess. So the number was not stolen from someone else. Was it an unassigned number? Daniels herself shows that the numbers all around it were assigned, so why would this one have been kept aside? Of course, it wouldn’t have. So, the only possibility is that it’s Obama’s. Which we already knew from the fact that it appears on his tax returns and would have been flagged by the IRS if it weren’t.

    If one wants to pick the dumbest birther argument, one has no shortage of candidates, but this one deserves strong consideration for the prize.

    There’s a contest for you Doc-pick the dumbest birther argument

  32. I wrote a blog post about Ike’s SS# a while back: Dwight Eisenhower’s Social Security number was geographically associated with California!

    Paul Pieniezny: Eisenhower’s SSN was from California. To be fair, he was once a resident of California, but most definitely did not apply for an SSN when living there.

  33. I cannot think of any public transaction, real estate, credit application or other where “1890” is a legitimate date of birth, or “1961” for that matter. One just doesn’t give a year by itself. For this reason, I don’t think this datum has any validity at all. It’s some sort of system error, a bad transaction format or a bungled conversion from one system to another.

    Also I keep coming back to the fact that in some database systems a value of zero represents December 31, 1899. Other databases use different starting dates.

    Paul Pieniezny: And now for the perfectly innocent explanation: Obama was living at that address in 1990. If this is from a credit transaction, it is clear what happened: someone (perhaps Obama himself) filled in 1990, the current year at the time, instead of 1961, as Obama’s year of birth. A frequent mistake by the way.

  34. http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/08/proof-president-uses-ssn-of-man-born-in-1890/

    Me too, but yours was first. Note that Eisenhower was born in 1890 also.

    Reality Check: I wrote a blog post about Ike’s SS# a while back

  35. gorefan says:

    Paul Pieniezny: most definitely did not apply for an SSN when living there

    He was on vacation in California from January, 1962 to April, 1962. He applied for the SSN in April, 1962. In all probablity he dropped it off at the local Palm Springs SSA office.

  36. y_p_w says:

    gorefan: He was on vacation in California from January, 1962 to April, 1962.He applied for the SSN in April, 1962.In all probablity he dropped it off at the local Palm Springs SSA office.

    That would make sense since at the time the SSN was assigned by the regional office rather than a central facility in Baltimore. Someone could use any address, but the number would typically be associated with the SSA office location.

  37. Scientist says:

    gorefan: He was on vacation in California from January, 1962 to April, 1962. He applied for the SSN in April, 1962. In all probablity he dropped it off at the local Palm Springs SSA office.

    What if Obama happened to be in Connecticut in 1977, realized he would need an SSN to start his Baskin-Robbins job and popped in to the nearest office? High school kids from all over do visit places like Washington, New York and Boston. The bright, ambitious ones like to check out Ivy League campuses and I believe there is one in New Haven, CT.

  38. gorefan says:

    y_p_w:

    Just for reference and because I like historic old photos:

    http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-1962-03-24-A.aspx

  39. Paul Pieniezny says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I cannot think of any public transaction, real estate, credit application or other where “1890″ is a legitimate date of birth, or “1961″ for that matter. One just doesn’t give a year by itself. For this reason, I don’t think this datum has any validity at all. It’s some sort of system error, a bad transaction format or a bungled conversion from one system to another.

    Also I keep coming back to the fact that in some database systems a value of zero represents December 31, 1899. Other databases use different starting dates.

    When you find both 1890 and 1990 in the same search result, you know (with Higgs boson certainty) that you are looking at a 2K construct. If you then know that it is also the year the data was entered, …

    I have no idea how 1990 came to be there. Because the program that retrieves these things saw 08/04/1990 and considered that close enough to 08/04/1961 to only put 1990 in that retrieval document? I know for sure that they also found an 04/08(/1961) date.

    Point is: you and I know that 1990 and 1890 are garbage data, but Mrs Daniels prefers to think that what we know for sure is garbage.

  40. justlw says:

    Scientist: pick the dumbest birther argument

    I’m sticking with “artisan-crafted stamper”, because of the amazingly rich and complex amalgam of Keyser Söze and Lloyd Christmas that it posits, and how passionately the CCP and their fanbois defend it in the face of its obvious absurdity.

    There may be weirder, but I really don’t think there is dumber.

  41. gorefan says:

    Scientist: popped in to the nearest office

    I prefer to think that the Baltimore SSA office had clerk/typists that processed SS-5 cards from a particular region. Some did the northeast, others mid-Atlantic, ect. So a stack of cards comes in for the west coast clerks. Gladys at the West Coast desk yells to Mable at the Northeast desk “Can you handle some of our overflow?” And Mable says, “Sure, we’re alittle slow today anyway.” So President Obama’s SS-5 card was processed by Mable at the Northeast States desk.

  42. MN-Skeptic says:

    A month or so ago I got curious and looked up the four SS numbers I knew – mine, my husband’s, and my folks.

    Dad’s indicates Minnesota which would be correct.

    Mine indicates Wisconsin which would be correct.

    Mom’s, on the other hand, indicates Iowa. In about 1940 she would have either applied in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. There is no way she was in Iowa. Of that I am absolutely sure.

    My husband’s indicated Minnesota. (He would have turned 16 in 1970.) A native born Iowan, he lived and worked in Iowa through college.

    So, we’re averaging 50% in the accuracy of our records.

    Either the SS Administration is prone to making errors with state numbering assignments, or I just realized that I’ve been associating with a pair of forgers!

    (Ironically, it’s my dad who was born in a foreign country to two naturalized U.S citizens.)

  43. Paul Pieniezny says:

    MN-Skeptic:
    A month or so ago I got curious and looked up the four SS numbers I knew – mine, my husband’s, and my folks.

    Dad’s indicates Minnesota which would be correct.

    Mine indicates Wisconsin which would be correct.

    Mom’s, on the other hand, indicates Iowa. In about 1940 she would have either applied in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. There is no way she was in Iowa. Of that I am absolutely sure.

    My husband’s indicated Minnesota. (He would have turned 16 in 1970.) A native born Iowan, he lived and worked in Iowa through college.

    So, we’re averaging 50% in the accuracy of our records.

    Either the SS Administration is prone to making errors with state numbering assignments, or I just realized that I’ve been associating with a pair of forgers!

    (Ironically, it’s my dad who was born in a foreign country to two naturalized U.S citizens.)

    Looking at this with birfer eyes, obviously your mother is using your husband’s SSN and vice versa.

    Since that would have started in 1940, either the Tardis was used or the Illuminati were involved in this devilish plot. We know Bernhard van Lippe-Biesterfeld was in Canada in 1940. Hm, isn’t Canada rather close to Minnesota AND Iowa?

    You had better come clean and tell who among you four was or were invited to the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly, Virginia from May 30th until June 3rd this year.

  44. Joe Acerbic says:

    All this analyzing of that “data” is pretty pointless. Those commercial databases open to the public are designed to return an overflowing garbage bin of “associations” and other crap from any search input to make it look like they have something.

  45. y_p_w says:

    Scientist: What if Obama happened to be in Connecticut in 1977, realized he would need an SSN to start his Baskin-Robbins joband popped in to the nearest office? High school kids from all over do visit places like Washington, New York and Boston.The bright, ambitious ones like to check out Ivy League campuses and I believe there is one in New Haven, CT.

    By 1973 they had already started assigning numbers at the central office, and the procedure was to attach a geographical assignment using the zip code of the mailing address provided. Once could pop into any office, but the central office did it using the zip code. It would of course be possible to provide a temporary address, but that would be unlikely for someone on a quick vacation.

    When Eisenhower got his SSN card, their procedure was still to assign at the regional office. In that case where you applied for the card corresponded to the geographical assignment and the mailing address could be a permanent address.

  46. Keith says:

    Paul Pieniezny: Eisenhower’s SSN was from California.

    Please stop this nonsense. It was from the range of numbers nominally assigned to California based applicants; it was not from California.

    SSN are not and never have been assigned by the states; SSN numbers are and always have been the responsibility of the Feds. As far as I know, it was never even Federal State Offices that issued them; it was REGIONAL offices.

    These imprecise short cuts are exactly what lets the spreaders of this nonsense get away with their claims – “Well it was just a figure of speech – I let the listener think for themselves”. Its Bullpucky and they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.

    The most you can say is an “American SSN” with a sequence number from a pool of numbers assigned to applications from California or Connecticut addresses. Period.

    The “pool technique” existed for the sole purpose of helping to ensure the uniqueness of the number itself when the processing was done by regional offices. Since addresses can be mistyped or misread, sometimes an applicant got a number from a different pool than what would be otherwise expected. The point is to ensure that two different applicants, one from Hawai’i and one from Connecticut don’t get exactly the same number; not to ensure that an applicant from Hawai’i doesn’t get a number from the Connecticut pool.

    It makes no sense to talk about a “California SSN” or a “Connecticut SSN” or a “SSN from the State of X” and it never has. State SSN numbers DO NOT EXIST AND NEVER HAVE.

  47. Keith says:

    Reality Check:
    I wrote a blog post about Ike’s SS# a while back: Dwight Eisenhower’s Social Security number was geographically associated with California!

    As above, Ike’s SSN was NOT “geographically associated with California”. No such thing. It was assigned from the pool of numbers nominally allocated to applications with California addresses. Nothing more.

    Nothing to do with geography.

    Everything to do with administrative convenience to ensure the same number doesn’t get assigned twice. As long as the number exists in one pool and one pool only, it doesn’t matter what pool the number comes from.

    The pools are not “geographically” associated. They are grouped into ranges that can be used by different offices performing the same tasks, using a grouping datum that helps determine how many numbers need to be in each range.

  48. The article was meant to be something of tongue in cheek. Fogbower Poutine decided to do FOIA requests on deceased presidents who might have had been assigned Social Security numbers. He only had to go back to Eisenhower to find that the geographic correlation was flawed. The likelihood that the 70+ old retired President was involved in nefarious activity as a result of this was no more or no less than a teenage Hawaiian kid applying for a job at Baskin-Robbins. That was the point of the article.

    Keith: As above, Ike’s SSN was NOT “geographically associated with California”. No such thing. It was assigned from the pool of numbers nominally allocated to applications with California addresses. Nothing more.

    Nothing to do with geography.

  49. Benji Franklin says:

    Keith: As above, Ike’s SSN was NOT “geographically associated with California”. No such thing. It was assigned from the pool of numbers nominally allocated to applications with California addresses. Nothing more.

    Of course that fact will never emerge from the Birthers’ collective mouth. If Orly’s best friend and only hired researcher, told her the facts you have set forth, and emphasized that the “rule” that Obama’s S.S. number could only have been granted to someone in Connecticut, only could be true in another plane of existence, Orly would announce on her site that she had discovered that her best friend was an Obot, that Obama was also ineligible because he was issued a S.S. number from another dimension, and that Obama should be impeached for billing the taxpayers not only for the costs of supplying him with AirForce One, but also for the expense of maintaining this other plane of existence.

  50. Keith says:

    Benji Franklin: Of course that fact will never emerge from the Birthers’ collective mouth.

    Which is exactly why I got my back up over it. Its a trivial shortcut and easy to understand, but twisting words so they mean the opposite is the birthers stock in trade.

  51. Rickey says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    I cannot think of any public transaction, real estate, credit application or other where “1890″ is a legitimate date of birth, or “1961″ for that matter. One just doesn’t give a year by itself. For this reason, I don’t think this datum has any validity at all. It’s some sort of system error, a bad transaction format or a bungled conversion from one system to another.

    The databases which private investigators have access to generally provide at least the month and year of birth. A typical representation would be “DOB – 5/xx/1971.”

    Moreover, any experienced investigator knows that the database searches are only leads. They are not evidence of anything. They are not primary sources. The information has to be independently verified, something which Daniels, Sankey and Sampson have not done.

    What we can say with absolute certainty is that Obama’s SSN is an actual SSN which was issued by the Social Security Administration. We also know that the only name which has ever been associated with that SSN is Barack Hussein Obama.

  52. Paul Pieniezny says:

    Rickey: The databases which private investigators have access to generally provide at least the month and year of birth. A typical representation would be “DOB – 5/xx/1971.”

    Moreover, any experienced investigator knows that the database searches are only leads. They are not evidence of anything. They are not primary sources. The information has to be independently verified, something which Daniels, Sankey and Sampson have not done.

    What we can say with absolute certainty is that Obama’s SSN is an actual SSN which was issued by the Social Security Administration. We also know that the only name which has ever been associated with that SSN is Barack Hussein Obama.

    I think we all agree on that last one. And I think 95% of us also agree that if the search result Daniels obtained was in fact what she claims in her statements to the court, ie just plain “1890” that figure would obviously be just garbage data. And might as well refer to an error number 1890 retrieving a document, or the former (or even next) house number of the person who at the time lived at that address.

    However, we know that the same retrieval action also gave her “08/04/1961” and “1990”. So instead of being an incompetent fool, she is just a liar. It is not her first lie, by the way – in a former affidavit she swore under oath that she retrieved that info for a client who had hired her (probably our very own L’Oreley), now she is claiming that she did it on her own account. First time she wanted to avoid sanctions for unauthorized access to non-public sources, but now she wants to sue without Orly by her side.

    Poor Birfer Queen, everybody is running away from her!

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