Obama Hawaiian-born, Hawaii insists

"I have news for them,'' WH spokesman says of 'birthers:' "He's a citizen.''

Barack Obama's birth certificate. Stop the presses: He's an American. (So is John McCain, born in the Panama Canal Zone of American parents.)

by Mark Silva and updated.

This just in from Honolulu:

President Barack Obama is still a citizen.

The White House says so, too.

State officials in Hawaii -- once again -- say they have checked and confirmed that the president of the United States was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen.

The official statement of the obvious is intended to quell a persistent and mischievious wave of chatter on talk shows and the Internet that Obama was born in Kenya and is, in the words of Watergate's G. Gordon Liddy, "an illegal alien.''

"I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago."

The so-called "birthers" who contend that Obama is ineligible to serve as president because he was allegedly born outside the United States have gotten more vocal lately, with the help of commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs on the radio.

Fukino issued a similar press release on Oct. 31, before the presidential election, but was prompted to speak out again because of the renewed attention on Obama's birth -- the state flooded in recent weeks with questions from individuals and several national TV news networks asking for proof that Obama was indeed born in Hawaii, though state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone without a tangible interest.

Hawaii isn't the only party laying the issue to rest.

The U.S. House on Monday unanimously approved a resolution recognizing and celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming the 50th state. A clause was included that reads: "Whereas the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961."

And the Obama White House confronted the question this week, with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs acknowledging that there is probably nothing that will "make the birthers go away,'' as a questioner put it. "The God's honest truth is no,'' he said.

"I almost hate to indulge in such an august setting as the White House -- and I mean this in seriousness -- the White House briefing room discussing the made-up, fictional nonsense of whether or not the president was born in this country,'' Gibbs said. "A year-and-a-half ago, I asked that the birth certificate be put on the Internet because Lord knows, you got a birth certificate and you put it on the Internet, what else could be the story?

"Here's the deal,'' Gibbs said. "If I had some DNA, it wouldn't assuage those that don't believe he was born here. But I have news for them and for all of us: The president was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the 50th state of the greatest country on the face of the earth. He's a citizen.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.