Gentle reminder to Keeney and others: we do not publish articles and comments, most especially opinion articles, on the 'birther' controversy.
As far as Rantburg is concerned, Barack Obama is the legally elected 44th President of the United States. Many here have profound concerns and differences as to his character, policies and beliefs. That's fine and each is a fair topic for discussion.
But we do not indulge the birther nonsense. Take that elsewhere.
This is our official editorial policy. Thank you for your attention.
#1
It may be that there could be something to the fact that teh Won sealed his records with a neat round legal fund figure. But until there is a solid evidence, it is a futile exercise and nothing but idle speculation. There is enough stuff teh Won does to warrant profound concerns.
IMHO, his birth is not in question, but how he got the college loans/subsidies may be a diff story, and that may be the real reason for sealing records and what many are missing, being put on the false birther track. Different skeletons in the closet.
#6
There are residency issues with the mom's ability to pass on citizenship to baby zero.
I looked into this before trailing daughter #2 was born in a German hospital, because we didn't have base privileges. As long as one of the parents is an American citizen, the child is an American citizen, no matter where in the world that child is born. Thus, Mr. Obama is an American citizen. Period.
However, the child of an American born on other than American territory must be born on American territory to be an American citizen -- if the child of the child is born on foreign soil the connection is too attenuated to be given American citizenship.
So, if Mr. Obama were born on foreign soil, eg Kenya, and he divorced his current American wife to marry a foreign woman, and the child he had with that woman were born somewhere outside the U.S. but not in an American embassy or an
American army/navy/air force base, then Mr. Obama's child would not inherit his American citizenship. Likewise, if trailing daughter #2 achieves her life's ambition and gets a management job abroad, she will have to fly back to America to deliver her babies... unless she marries an American man who was born in the U.S.
As I said, I did a bit of research before trailing daughter #2 was born. There was no problem getting a certificate of foreign birth from the embassy -- I brought td#2's German birth certificate and my passport to the American embassy in Frankfurt, and half an hour after I got to the head of the line I had the form I needed. This sufficed to get her an American passport so we could bring her with us when we flew home, and also to get her a social security number.
#7
If you are born abroad to one United States citizen and one foreign citizen, you may be considered a U.S. citizen if you meet the following requirements:
* One of your parents was a U.S. citizen when you were born.
* The parent who is a U.S. citizen has lived at least five years in the U.S. before you were born.
* The parent who is a U.S. citizen must have lived in the U.S. for at least two years of these five years after his/her fourteenth birthday.
So he's a citizen. End of story. Quite possibly the worst president in US history, but definitely a citizen.
#8
If you check out this site you will find links to official federal documents demonstrating both our president's US heritage and age (over 50 years old) :-)
Posted by: James ||
04/28/2010 22:11 Comments ||
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#9
It would have been nice if he had grown up here instead of Kenya or Indonesia or wherever.
#10
I think President Obama was about six when his mother and stepfather took him to Malaysia, and about twelve when his mother shipped him off to her parents on Hawaii. Quite long enough for him to develop a typical expat brat attitude toward the world. Not long enough or old enough, in my considered opinion, for him to learn enough about the outside world for that attitude to be justified. I say this as the mother of a pair of expat brats. That's why he thinks he knows, but shows he doesn't by not listening to his chief of protocol -- surely he has one, if not on staff, then on loan from the State Department! -- and by bowing to certain select heads of state which, according to Miss Manners, my personal favourite etiquette expert and expat brat, Americans do only to God, and then only should they so choose.
Ok, fine. I've always stated that the BC controversy was a poison pill...a 'trap', if you will. That's my .02...
But stifling comment & debate on the issue like some government crackdown is antithetical to that which I believed Rantburg represented.
If the matter cannot be debated, then certainly those with the misguided views that the BC is the 'silver bullet' won't get their dose of common sense here.
Shame on Rantburg. Shame on the Mods. Shame on whatever Aos is. Total loss of respect. I thought adults ran this site.
...a really pathetic smackdown of free speech & debate.
Juvenile...'Communista'... NON SEQUITUR!
(personally, Fred, IMHO, if you're gonna let one of your cats walk across the keyboard, let it be the conservative one with the keen mind & common sense...you know, the one that doesn't chase the ducks, but just watches them, wondering, "What the hell are they up to???")
#12
I have to disagree about the expat attitude. I grew up mostly overseas with a foreign born mother. Instead of hating America, it brought home how unique and special America is in this world.
Obama was poisoned by a hard left (yet upper class) mother and grandparents, but especially by his biological father Frank Marshall Davis who inculcated in Obama communist doctrine and race resentment. That Obama was able to superficially hide it, I credit his being raised in his grandparents white world and a more than cooperative politically correct media.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2010 23:40 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2010 23:43 Comments ||
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#14
US Constitution,
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President
The natural born requirement is clearly over and above citizenship, and also clearly intended to prevent foreign born presidents.
And that as I understand it, is the issue. Not whether he is a citizen.
An Arizona sheriff is the latest person to speak out about the state's new immigration legislation, saying he does not plan to enforce the divisive law.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik calls Senate Bill 1070 a "stupid law" that will force officers to start profiling. He is one of the first local law enforcement officials to rebel against the law.
"We don't need to enforce it. It would be irresponsible in my opinion to put people in the Pima County Jail at the taxpayers expense when i can give them to the Border Patrol," Dupnik said.
The Sheriff admits he could get sued for failing to obey the law, but says that's a risk he's willing to take.
The controversial bill was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer last Friday.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona told about 3,500 protesters gathered at the state Capitol that the Obama administration can help defeat the law by refusing to cooperate.
"We're asking that his federal agencies, particularly Homeland Security, not cooperate with the implementation of this law. That's defeating this. That's the strategy," Grijalva said.
National figures are also chiming in on the controversy. Rev. Al Sharpton said that just as freedom riders battled segregation in the 1960s, he would organize "freedom walkers" to challenge the Arizona bill.
"We will go to Arizona when this bill goes into effect and walk the streets with people who refuse to give identification and force arrest," Sharpton said Sunday in New York. Which only matters if the police suspect they are illegal aliens. Imagine how unhappy he would be if he has to break other laws just to get arrested. And then ends up in Joe Arpaio's tent city for a hundred days in Summer, waiting for trial.
#1
The Sheriff admits he could get sued for failing to obey the law, but says that's a risk he's willing to take.
Dupnik is worried about the 'risk' of litigation, but obviously not concerned about the impact of a murder committed by a illegal alien that his department stopped, but failed to check status on. Time for sheriff Dupnik to find other work.
#4
What armyguy said. The man is refusing to do the job he was hired to do, as a matter of conscience, which must be respected. He should be given the opportunity to find a career that is a better fit with his skills and aspirations. Politics, perhaps... in a state other than Arizona.
#6
Don't just fire him -- send the state police to find out what other laws he's been ignoring, and why. Bet they find a little (or a lot) of graft behind his stand.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/28/2010 10:11 Comments ||
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To put this into perspective, here are the AZ counties. Pima, on the bottom, is solid Democrat, and includes Tucson. Just beneath is small Santa Cruz county, that contains North Nogales (S. Nogales is in Mexico).
To the right of Pima is Cochise county, that just yesterday busted a major drug ring, and arrested a cartel mole working in the county prosecutor's office.
#8
Sounds like not much has changed in southern Arizona in the last 129 years. Too bad for all the people who moved there assuming they had. I expect more collateral damage this time.
#10
Nice thing is, this sheriff, if someone cares to exercise their rights under the law, is on the hook for $1000 PER INFRACTION. Couple of van loads of illegals, and he loses his house.
#15
We can only hope the illegals he refuses to stop take trier drugs, crime, and rape to his household and not others who have a reasonable expectation the Sheriff would enforce the law to protect them.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/28/2010 13:58 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught by a microphone calling a voter he'd just met in northern England "a bigoted woman," describing the encounter as "a disaster."
Brown was discussing the concerns the voter, Gillian Duffy, had about immigration in Rochdale, near Manchester, as he campaigned before the May 6 election. Brown made the comments, played on Sky News television, while still wearing his microphone after he got back into his car.
"She is just the sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour," Brown said in the car. "That was a disaster. Who put me with that woman?" Speaking in an interview on Sky News later, he said he'd apologized to Ms. Duffy.
Brown's comment threatens to undermine his campaign, with his Labour Party already in third place in some opinion polls behind the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Gains in seats by the Liberal Democrats have increased the likelihood of a hung Parliament where no party has a majority.
"I am very upset," Duffy told reporters in Rochdale after hearing Brown's comments. "He's an educated person, why has he come up with comments like that?"
Asked if she wanted an apology from Brown she replied, "Yes, I think so."
'That's All'
"I don't want to speak to him again," she said. "I want to know why I was called a bigot, that's all."
"We have found out the prime minister's internal thoughts," Conservative Treasury spokesman George Osborne told Sky News television. "He has got a lot of explaining to do."
It requires no explanation at all. Mr. Brown is a socialist -- what we in America call a 'progressive'. Socialists and progressives think that anyone who disagrees with them is a bigot. Look at each and every public debate in the US, and you'll find progressives calling their opponents racists. It's the same in Europe.
It's humorous in a way: the people who throw the terms 'racist' and 'bigot' around are the very people who categorize each and every person they meet by skin color rather than by the content of their character.
#1
Is it racist to be concerned about the entire character of your community being changed, and not for the better, almost overnight? Just so Brown and his fellow communists can get a few more votes?
#3
He later made an annoying apology, which he described to the media as 'you sometimes make mistakes in understanding what was said' and then 'you apologize'. Not 'I' but 'you'.
During that entire statement he also kept referring to this woman as Gillian rather than as Mrs. Duffy. Condescending arrogant jerk.
In minutes this has turned into the most damaging off-mike remark in modern politics. It might finish off Mr Brown altogether. He's just insulted a 66-year-old widow without cause. And she's a Labour supporter. The contrast between him patting her on her back and praising her for being from a ‘good family' and trashing her in the privacy of his Jaguar will horrify the Labour party, never mind the electorate. To judge by the foaming frenzy of the TV networks, this will help to depress the Labour vote even further.
All Gillian Duffy did was to press Mr Brown on his performance and the failings of politics. She was just passing and thought she would have her say. She deserved better than being dismissed as a ‘bigoted woman' by the Prime Minister once she was out of earshot. Off-mike blunders are a routine hazard of politics (‘bastards', ‘yo Blair') but displaying contempt for the voters on that scale is catastrophic. As she has just said: “I'm very disappointed. It's very upsetting. He's an educated person. He wants to lead the country.' Ouch ouch ouch. He's made it worse by apologising with qualification, with a weasely ‘if'.
What makes it worse is that Mr Brown had just finished a conversation with her which he was anxious to prolong after he discovered that she was not his enemy. She was in fact a fan of what Labour was doing on education, for example, in her area. She had just patted his hand and wished him well. He asked for the names of her grandchildren, praised the red of her jacket, and described her and hers as a ‘good family'. That should have been good retail politics, with what looked like a nicely deflected bit of danger: angry woman telling him ‘what are you going to do to get us out out of all this debt Gordon?' mollified and turned into an ally by sheer persistence.
Three more points to consider. On the substance: is she bigoted? She pressed Mr Brown about immigration, but like millions of people who are anxious about the sea-change to society that results from the Government's open-doors policy, concern is not the same as bigotry. For Mr Brown, in his frustration, to assume she is bigoted, speaks volumes about the contempt of the political classes for the fears of of the voters.
On the detail: Sue Nye, the long-serving gate-keeper who stood by as Mr Brown was harangued by Mrs Duffy, needs to watch her back. In the full remarks, the PM blames her for “putting me with that woman'.
On the pressures of politics: We should acknowledge that we are in uncharted territory. Consider what we are witnessing. Under pressure Mr Brown says the kind of things that politicians say all the time. A microphone picks it up. It is replayed instantly. And now Mr Brown is forced to have the tape replayed to him while he is on the radio with Jeremy Vine but with cameras on him to record his reaction, head in hands. In under an hour, blunder to firestorm. Gladstone never had to put up with this. Blimey.
#1
Problem is that all three major parties are in the big government, big spending, nanny state camp. So it doesn't really matter if Brown loses or not.
#2
Huh, from the other article posted today, I had assumed she was leaning BNP given Brown's explosion. So she was still technically a Labour voter & even a supporter of his?
Wow, he sucks on ice.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/28/2010 17:02 Comments ||
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#1
Barney Frank's seat has to be at risk. No one can be this stupid and still hold office. Frank is an insult to the citizens of Massachusetts. Please, do the rest of us a favor and vote for anyone else. Write in your lamp post. That would have to provide better representation.
#2
I believe that my little sister lives in Frank's district, and is the type to vote for him enthusiastically. She was a big Coakley supporter, and recently responded to a birthday greeting by mocking my recent re-registration as a Republican and denouncing Sarah Palin from out of the blue. Some folks just don't care.
Oh, well. She seems to love her sons.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/28/2010 16:50 Comments ||
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#3
Stupid is as stupid does. Mass is stupid, and regrettably so is your sister.
Posted by: No I am the other Beldar ||
04/28/2010 19:56 Comments ||
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#4
People believe what they believe for their own reasons. I don't always agree with those beliefs. And often I don't think they have arrived at those beliefs in a well-informed logical way.
The legislation contains many questionable provisions. First, the legislation sets up a voting process rigged for success. The legislation sets up a preliminary vote and the voters are given two options. If a majority of Puerto Ricans vote in favor of changing the status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to “a different political status,' then a second vote would be scheduled to poll voters on the following three options:
1. “Independence: Puerto Rico should become fully independent from the United States;'
2. “Sovereignty in Association with the United States: Puerto Rico and the United States should form a political association between sovereign nations that will not be subject to the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution;' and,
3. “Statehood: Puerto Rico should be admitted as a State of the Union.'
Another odd provision allows non-resident Puerto Ricans to vote on statehood for the Commonwealth. The bill states that “all United States citizens born in Puerto Rico who comply, to the satisfaction of the Puerto Rico State Elections Commission, with all Commission requirements (other than the residency requirement) applicable to eligibility to vote in a general election in Puerto Rico.'
Residency requirements may be waived, because Puerto Ricans living in the states would naturally favor statehood for the Commonwealth.
This provision allows non-resident Puerto Ricans to undermine the will of the residents of the Commonwealth. According to the U.S. Census, there are more Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states, than in the proposed 51st state.
The estimates as part of the American Community Survey estimates that out of the 301 million people in the United States, 4.13 million are of Puerto Rican descent. The Census also estimates that the population of Puerto Rico is a mere 3.97 million. This would allow for the will of the residents of the Commonwealth to be overridden by people who have chosen to move one of the 50 states. Importantly, because of a new law in PR to combat identity theft, all birth certificates will become invalid as of July 1st. Some 40% of ID thefts in the US are related to this problem, according to the State Department. PR will then issue *new* birth certificates. So this effort at a statehood vote is designed for massive fraud on top of everything else.
#1
Folks, stuff like this is the reason why Mark Steyn and others are trying to warn us against getting complacent at tactical victories like Scott Brown's Senate win. The Quislingcrats are playing for keeps; they've been patiently following the Gramscian playbook for more than forty years, and now they think their final triumph is so close they can taste it. That's why they're pushing this in parallel with "comprehensive immigration reform" (and DON'T think the b****ards are giving up on ramming that one through this year) - between the PR's and the illegal Mexicans, you have to be talking about at least 15 million new Quislingcrat voters. That's what's at stake here - America either becoming a one-party socialist backwater, or falling toward a Balkanesque dismemberment...either of which would probably be just ducky with most liberals.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
04/28/2010 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
Steyn's right, but he's wrong on the libertarian angle. There simply is no majority for his small-gov't New Hampshire yeoman farmer approach outside of a few anti-government hamlets. The GOP has to stop catering to cronies and the far-right, and start getting TACTICALLY smart.
Don't take the Arizona legislation bait. Whatever the merits of the law, the GOP absolutely has to shed its white-boy image if it wants to take back Washington. Divide (hispanics and liberals) and conquer. Go draconian on punishing employers, secure the border, and in return, compromise by opposing the AZ law. That way electoral victory lies.
Then again, you could let Barry outwit and wrongfoot you. Again.
#4
Rasmussen reports that a majority of Arizona Hispanics support the new law.
I'm guessing that the Donks are - gasp -stereotyping as usual. Without saying it. As usual. I know that a lot of the legitimate "hispanic" immigrants are proud of their status and don't like to see an end-run around what they have worked hard for.
I'm betting the hispanic vote will be divided more than the Donks suspect.
#6
Barry and his leftest cadre kow that true 'Hope and Change' need a symbol. New US flag design to be coming soon. Colour scheme to include....traditional red, black and green.
#7
Time to once again exploit augment the lagging 20%-38% voting block. Well after all, Puerto Ricans are part of the great, still suffering real chosen people African diaspora....right?
#10
Residency requirements may be waived, because Puerto Ricans living in the states would naturally favor statehood for the Commonwealth. Why would that be so? If they already live in the states what advantage would be gained by turning Puerto Rico into one as well? Most immigrants tend to glorify their left behind nation and forget the poverty and draconic laws and try to change their Western Host.
#11
The GOP has to stop catering to cronies and the far-right, and start getting TACTICALLY smart.
I don't agree with everything lex says, but I agree here. I consider myself pretty conservative, but reality dictates a “center right” approach if the Reps want to be successful.
#12
Yah, I mean, it's obvious, we should have had the amnesty-friendly John McCain at the top of the ticket in '08, instead of that fringe figure Sarah Palin...
#14
I work with a guy who was born in Puerto Rico while his American Citizen parents were working there. He has to go through all kinds of crap to get a new birth certificate. No one in the state Department or the government in Puerto Rico seems to know what he's supposed to do.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/28/2010 16:41 Comments ||
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#15
A U.S. flag with 58 51 stars is just not going to work--nothing is symmetrical. Would just not look right.
Thought the Puerto Rico statehood party tended to be heavy towards Republican?
#18
As per UNO, sovereign World nations like the USA are supposed to be DECOLONIZING their overseas Territories, i.e. CHANGING THIER CURR POLITICAL STATUS to either NATIONAL INTEGRATION/UNION, or else towards SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENCE.
* POTUS BAMMER + His "57 US STATES" QUIP > PERSONALLY, I "WANT TO BELIEVE" THAT THE BAM-MAN WILL ONE DAY FORMALLY OFFER DURING HIS POTUS TENURE ANY AND ALL NON-STATE US TERRITORIES [Guam, CNMI, Amer Samoa, Virgin Islands, PR] A VOTE ON SELF-DETERMINATION TOWARDS FORMAL US STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE FROM THE US.
Lest we fergit, 9-11 + WOT = WAR FOR OWG-NWO = THE 20TH CENTURY/COLD WAR "STATUS QUO" = CURRENT ORDER + ESTABLISHMENT, ETC. IS NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE OR TOLERABLE, EITHER TO THE GOOD GUYS NOR TO THE BAD GUYS.
Since the Mayor's getting very little done in Springfield or Washington or in the courts to expand gun control, now he wants mayors in other countries like Mexico to drag American gun makers into the World Court in the Hague.
Daley says, "We are shipping guns there by the truckload to people to kill each other. They're not manufactured there. And we want the drugs that come from other countries that is a conduit, like a highway through Mexico, into the United States! And we sit like we have no responsibility. We should not ship any guns to Mexico." That didn't make a bit of sense ...
I asked the Mayor what legal authority there is to sue the U.S. gun industry in the World Court. He said, "Well, that's why we have about 12 million lawyers. You never know until you try." Perhaps one of those twelve million lawyers is conservative enough to sue the mayor and the city of Chicago for stupidity ...
Backing up Daley is Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, one of more than a dozen mayors -- including the Mayor of Mexico City -- who signed a resolution to pursue this tactic.
#1
Maybe the lawyers can find more money suing politicians who engage in blatant violation of basic Constitutional rights of their citizenry. Never know till its tried, right mayor.
#4
Daley says, "We are shipping guns there by the truckload to people to kill each other. They're not manufactured there. And we want the drugs that come from other countries that is a conduit, like a highway through Mexico, into the United States! And we sit like we have no responsibility. We should not ship any guns to Mexico."
We are shipping them there directly from the factory? Doesn't seem right. If they are ending up there in volume, it is probably a few here and a few there until it adds up.
What percentage of the guns there are manufactured in the US?
And I'm sure if S&W didn't fill the demand, that Russia or China would be more than happy to.
#6
I'm not sure the Duffy's would be happy with their pet pol interfering with a product useful to them..
(ducking...) Of course their preference is construction equipment and supplies....
#10
There have been far more Chinese AK-47's and SKS carbines sold in the states than Russian ones.
A russian model is actually quite a find anymore.
I'd be willing to bet that there are many, many more AK's and SKS's in American (or Mexican) homes than AR-15's or Stoner's or Springfield M1a's.
Most of the guns that go to Mexico are either obtained through burglaries or carried back by Mexicans that live in the states. Every one of them comes home to Mexico with a pickup truck and a gun. Been there, seen it. Big man with fancy pickup and a gun, its like a mexican comic strip or something.
#11
Richie Short Shanks could also hire some police officers. He could ensure that said officers are properly trained. He could lean on his pet district attorney to have felons convicted of gun crimes put away in the state prison forever (c.f. Virginia). He could have his city officials work on community improvement and get residents to trust calling the police about the drug dealers and gang bangers --
-- oh, what am I saying?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2010 14:22 Comments ||
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#13
Mayor Daley, it seems like Chicago has its own crime problems such as increasing murders. Maybe what you are saying is just distraction from a whole bunch of problems in your own neighborhoods. But Chicago has been and is a model for crime. Runs the gamut from crooked politicians, ACORN, dead voters, to murder in your streets. Daley, read the Constitution. If you don't understand it you shouldn't be in office.
#15
As a Chicagoan I have to make some corrections here... because you guys are driving the rest of us Chicagoans nuts! No offence intended, we know these are innocnet mistakes.
3DC - It's the Duff's not the Duffy's
Besoeker - Illinois is already run like Zimbabwe, how would we notice?
Steve White - Illinois has STATES ATTORNEYS not DA's We also have the Secretary of State not DMV's. We already 'invest' millions in the 'community' That's worked out well.
JohnQC - We haven't needed dead voters since we got computerized voting machines. Now they only need one guy to steal an election and it reduces all that paper. IT's GREEN!
#17
One of their hands is bawwing about the manufacturing sector fleeing American while at the same time the other is doing it's very best to send packing what manufacturing remains.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
04/28/2010 18:19 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
I'm with you, TEX! Let him try to take mine, too! ;-) 
