The ferocity of the Obot response to the eligibility questions is in itself telling. Does any doubt about the Messiah reap the foam-flecked attacks of Chris Mathews, or is this particular line of inquiry getting a little too close for comfort? The rabid reactions are so predictable:
It's racist! No, Article II applies to everybody, including Arnold and Madeleine Albright;
BO deserves privacy! If you want to be POTUS, you give up much of your privacy;
It's inappropriate! It apparently wasn't inappropriate to ask McCain about it, and he happily provided the proof;
It's the will of the people! It's the law of the land. And it's a good law, intended to ensure a president who will put America first.
More casual observers, lacking good info, tend to dismiss this as a crack-pot conspiracy theory. Their skepticism centers on:
Why didn't McCain or Hillary raise this issue? So they could be labeled "racist", "grasping at straws," or worse, with their political careers ruined? No thanks.
It's just too incredible. As are all Big Lies. The bigger and more audacious the lie, the easier it is to pass off.
Answer this: what's the harm in enforcing the eligibility requirements stipulated by our Constitution? We willingly produce ID for such trivial things as cashing a check or buying a drink, why not for POTUS?
Chimera 'Just trust me,' BO says. Why trust a man who has been caught lying about nearly every detail of his life story? Who refuses to release the documents all other candidates routinely do?
BO is clearly hiding something. Yet even the most skilled impostor leaves clues as to their true nature. We glimpse perhaps the quintessential Obama in this admission found in Dreams of My Father:
"As the words tumbled out of my mouth...a part of me really began to believe the story. But another part of me knew that what I was telling them was a lie, something I'd constructed from the scraps of information I had picked up from my mother...I had decided that I preferred ...an image I could alter on a whim-or ignore when convenient."
The nagging questions surrounding Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as POTUS have finally hit the MSM. These questions are legitimate, have been around since early last year, and impact the underpinning of our Constitutional law and democratic institutions. But anyone raising them has been virulently attacked as a "right-wing paranoid." With the Obots fanning the flames of rhetoric with epithets like "Roswell" and "racist," a brief primer on the cogent points is in order.
POTUS Eligibility Article II of the Constitution stipulates three criteria to serve as president. You must: 1) Be a "natural born citizen"; AND, 2) Be at least 35 years old; AND, 2) Have resided in the US for at least 14 years.
Congress, surprisingly, has never enacted legislation to enforce these requirements.
BO's Eligibility Inconsistencies in BO's life story have led people of all political persuasions to question whether BO meets the "natural born citizen" ("NBC") criterion: * Did BO gain NBC status at birth? * Did BO lose US citizenship when adopted at age four?
Today, we'll look into BO's birth.
Birth Requirements A "natural born citizen" has been defined by law as someone whose: 1) Birth is on US territory; OR, 2) Parents are both US citizens; OR, 3) One parent is a US citizen AND who meets certain age & residency requirements.
If BO was born in Hawaii, then he is a NBC per 1). If he was born abroad, he fails 2) and 3) (as Stanley Ann had not been an adult resident for long enough), and is thus ineligible for POTUS.
Birth Questions * BO's grandmother and aunt claim they attended BO's birth in Mombassa;
* Official BO bios variably list one of two Honolulu hospitals as the birthplace. BO himself has named both hospitals on separate occasions;
* Published accounts of family friends place Stanley Ann with the infant Barry in the Seattle area no more than four weeks following 8/4/61. It has been noted that circa 1961, airlines banned pregnant mothers and newborns from flights. This points to a birthplace outside of Hawaii, and possibly before August 1961.
Lack of Proof BO refuses to release his original birth certificate ("BC"), although he acknowledges it is in his possession. Last spring, his campaign did release a "Certificate of Live Birth" ("COLB"). A COLB merely confirms that a live birth was reported to the State by a parent. COLBs are routinely issued post facto in lieu of BC's, but lack much information: * Length and weight of baby; * Ink prints of baby's feet; * Time of birth; * Signature of delivering doctor, midwife and/or admitting nurse.
The veracity of a COLB rests solely on the word of the parent.
BO's COLB itself has a curious history: * Originally posted on Kos, then appeared a week later on MyBarackObama.com; * A JPG image, no hard copy has ever been produced; * After it was noted that the Kos JPG lacked certain standard elements of a COLB, a new version, containing those elements, was posted on MyBarackObama.com; * Shows issue date of 1990, but serial # (which appears to have been altered) indicates a 1980 issue.
Factcheck.org claims it has seen, touched and confirmed the validity of "Obama's birth certificate." The document they refer to is a 2007 printout of a COLB. (Note that Factcheck.org is funded by the Annenberg Foundation.)
A classified announcement of BO's birth appeared in the local Honolulu paper, but this was merely submitted by the Dunham family and printed verbatim.
The issue could be resolved once and for all by BO producing his BC, as John McCain unhesitatingly did when his eligibility was questioned. Yet BO refuses.
Larry Johnson has a post up on the birth certificate controversy that I find satisfying. Read it here. He states that the long form BC proves he was born in Hawaii and most likely contains embarrassing, but explainable, information. Information Obama would have had no control over as a child - but would have damaged him last year regardless. Release of the long form BC now would still do political harm to Obama -as it would contradict certain elements of his life narrative during the campaign. Or at least raise a cornucopia of questions about honesty - but not legality.
What has always bothered me about this issue is the insistence that we stupidly accept the computer generated abstract as the actual birth certificate. The Daily Kos waved that document around like it was an original copy of the Magna Carta they'd found in the attic...refusing to answer the simple question: Where is the original? There is nothing odd about that question.
This was another example of the screaming ignorance so many of us were subjected to by the Obots. I hate being told to accept anything with out questioning. Questions about BHO's long form BC are reasonable -not "nutty". As are questions about his academic records. It is our DUTY to ask them. This is still America, for God's sake.
The other beneficial element the "birthers' have brought to the table is in forcing the legitimacy oversight question into the open. No one vets our Presidential candidates' constitutional qualifications. This is remarkable.
Johnson's explanation makes the most sense of any I've seen. From a campaign tactics point of view I can't honestly say I'd have handled this differently if I had been in Axelrod's shoes - in the heat of the battle.
I do not care to dive too deeply into the Birth Certificate mess. There is too much marginalizing on that front for me. Plus, I suspect that none of it will ever matter. My interest is not in "proving" one way or another if Obama was actually born in Hawaii. I can't. No one I know can.
However, the lack of a real long form BHO birth certificate ever being produced is fascinating. Why hasn't one? One night not long ago I found both an "abstract" (like the one the Obama campaign put out.) produced by the hospital where I was born when I needed a CA drivers license (or something of that sort) and my actual long form birth certificate which my mother had stuffed in my "baby book". This took about 2 hours of hunting through boxes of personal paraphernalia.
The abstract and the long form birth certificate are NOT the same document. Why can't Obama - as annoying as it may seem - put this "fringe" complaint to rest? Did he lose it? That seems possible. But isn't there a copy? Gibbs: At some point the original was misplaced. But here's a notarized copy from the hospital." Case closed.
Think whatever you like - Major Cook won a round. My "normal" theory on this is that the long form contains some embarrassing information. Barack Obama Sr. was not named on it...for example. Embarrassing but that's about it. My "conspiracy" bent thinks that he was born elsewhere and this is the final control mechanism lorded over him by those who astroturfed his election.
Who the hell knows?
Is this even a fair pursuit? I do not remember anyone asking for Reagan's or Clinton's birth certificate. Still, Obama's narrative has a few holes that warrant curiosity. WE did not cause the holes. He did.
If anyone can produce the long form I would welcome it. As I said - most of me thinks this is nothing more than an interesting side show.
(That might have a racial component. I think few attacks on Obama have been based in racism- regardless of what the Obama Pod People yelp - but this one might. Rebelling against the "other" might be a detectable subtext - but I've seen no proof of this yet. Sadly, I think if the economy continues to tank grumbled attacks on his race will become more prevalent - and we ought to watch out for it and reject it out of hand.)
Or the "birthers" might be be on to something. A long form birth certificate from Mr. Obama would make it all go away. Frankly, if one doesn't exist I can't believe it hasn't been forged. How hard can it be?
The advent of Obamafascism has damaged far too many friendships for me, not to mention straining relations with family members, and nipping at least one budding romance. But when I recently saw an old friend after a year apart, I wasn't expecting Obama to cause trouble.
My friend and I concur on most things, like: Buddhism gives meaning to Life without the need for an afterlife; Barbara Kingsolver creates intricate characters; The Who is the greatest rock band ever; canceling Firefly after just one season constituted a Crime Against Humanity. We've always agreed reasonably closely on politics, and could have a stimulating LR-style debate when we didn't. From phone conversations over the past year, I'd gathered she was mildly pro-Obama without being anti-Hillary, but to my shock and disappointment, my friend is suddenly displaying the symptoms of advanced kool-aid poisoning. Our discussion ranged far and wide, but here are excerpts arranged by topic:
SHOUTS AND LIES
Confused Liberal Friend: Why do you hate Obama so much? None of my other smart friends hate him.
Tamerlane: Because BO is a sociopathic narcissist. He's incompetent and dangerous.
CLF: 'Sociopathic narcissist' -- you can't make a statement like that. I can't respond unless you give me a specific complaint.
T: Okay. BO is a compulsive liar.
CLF: What has he lied about?
T: BO lied about FISA.
CLF: Well, HRC lied about landing under fire in Sarajevo.
T: BO lied about public campaign funding.
CLF: HRC lied about landing under fire in Sarajevo.
T: BO lied about his connections with Bill Ayres.
CLF: HRC lied about landing under fire in Sarajevo.
T: BO lied about getting out of Iraq.
CLF: He didn't lie. He's just didn't realize how hard that would be.
T: BO lied about banning lobbyists from his administration.
CLF: How big is his staff anyway? Are a few lobbyists so bad?
T: Are you really comfortable with a President who lies about every single thing?
CLF: He did lie about getting a dog.
T: That's another thing. Wouldn't it send a great message if they adopted a mutt from the pound?
CLF: See, you are a racist after all.
QUALIFICATIONS, PART 1
CLF: BO is uniquely qualified to see America through these hard times.
T: Qualified how?
CLF: He ran a brilliant campaign.
T: So cheating is running a brilliant campaign? (Tamerlane details rampant tampering, intimidation and fraud during caucuses.)
CLF: I never heard about any of that. But you can't blame BO for things others did.
T: And Hitler never ordered Krystalnacht.
CLF: BO still ran a brilliant campaign. He managed a staff of hundreds, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars. That proves he can manage the country.
T: BO broke federal election rules raising that money. The DNC gave him delegates that had been pledged to HRC, to push him over the top.
CLF: He still won. That's all that matters.
T: So GWB's 'brilliant' manipulation of the 2000 Florida recount proved he could run the country?
CLF: That was different. Bush cheated.
T; Ignoring the cheating for a moment, when your decision process is distilled down, it still ran: 'I will vote for BO because he will get the most votes.'
CLF: Well, he did get the most votes.
T: No, Hillary got more.
CLF: (Confused look) No, BO did. Otherwise he couldn't have won.
DYNASTY WAS A TV SHOW
CLF: I also didn't want another dynasty in the White House.
T: Cuz we had two Bushes.
CLF: Yes. One family shouldn't have so much power.
T: Yeah, but the Bushes sucked. Clinton was great.
CLF: What happened to healthcare? Bill Clinton was too politically expedient.
T: Considering that he faced a republican congress for most of his tenure, and his own party crucified him for the healthcare plan and D.A/D.T., Bill Clinton accomplished an amazing amount.
CLF: Clinton should have done more on the environment. He is to blame for GWB ruining the environment for eight years.
T: Are you on crack?
THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE
T: Aren't you the least bit concerned over the constitutional crisis that would ensue if it was proven that BO was not eligible to be POTUS?
CLF: It's a non-issue for me. The will of the people. (sic)
T: So the Constitution doesn't matter. It's just 'guidelines', which we can ignore when we want?
CLF: Yeah.
T: Why do you think BO refuses to release his birth certificate?
CLF: Everyone has a right to some privacy.
T: Not if you want to be president.
CLF: Even discussing BO's birth is kind of racist.
KNOW NO EVIL; SEE NO EVIL
T: Doesn't BO's dirty dealings with Rezko concern you?
CLF: I never heard about that. But the Clintons had Whitewater.
T: Doesn't BO's dirty dealings with Blagojevitch concern you?
CLF: I never heard about that. But the Clintons had Whitewater.
T: Doesn't BO's dirty dealings with ACORN concern you?
CLF: I never heard about that. The homeless have a right to vote.
QUALIFICATIONS, PART 2
T: BO has never held a real job in his life.
CLF: He inspires people. Management skills aren't very important for a president.
T: Management skills aren't important for the head of the Executive Branch?
CLF: A president's primary job is to inspire people.
T: Inspire them to do what?
CLF: To see America through hard times.
T: By doing what specifically?
CLF: Why do you hate Obama so much?
OBAMA'S ARMY IS HERE TODAY
T: BO wants to force people to 'volunteer' in huge, government-run paramilitary organizations.
CLF: All big countries have these types of organizations . . .
T: . . . all totalitarian countries have these types of organizations.
CLF: I don't see a problem with forcing people to volunteer.
TAMERLANE IS A FIFTH COLUMNIST
CLF: You hope BO fails, don't you?
T: Funny you say that, as it's the latest meme to quash any opposition to BO.
CLF: So you are willing to hurt America, just to get revenge on BO!
T: There are many things BO wants to achieve that I think will hurt America, so yes, I hope he fails to achieve them. I also believe BO is destroying liberalism (h/t JSOM). So the sooner he's removed from office, the better.
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON KOOL-AID
T: Aren't you the least bit troubled that the person holding the most important job in the world can't even answer questions at a press conference without a teleprompter?
CLF: BO is a great speaker.
T: I find it highly suspicious that all your arguments exactly mirror those manufactured by BO's propaganda machine.
CLF: Are you implying I'm not capable of forming my own opinions?
Poll: Obama below 60%. Revolt: Soldier says, "He's not my commander." Turd: Jindal clears way for Palin in 2012. No links, just thoughts: 1. Do you think stroking BHO's dainty ego is a job requirement for White House employment? It does seem as fragile as ever. 2. Do you think we will hear about W's drinking over the past few years? If W stayed sober the entire 8 years I would be stunned. Getting better: After President OBummer speaks market only drops 80 points the next day! Things are looking up! Keep Hope alive!
Wonderful Music: Steve Wonder gets The Gershwin Award for popular songwriting Thursday night. I love this man. I am seriously.
Obit: Any book lover who has gotten lost in a big, messy, book store please take note: Glenn Goldman, owner of Book Soup on the Sunset Strip died this past weekend. Though, not a friend of mine - he was but once removed in my circle - and I mourn as well. Thanks Glenn for Book Soup! Losing time in the stacks at Book Soup is a delicious, nutritious pleasure. There are few big independent book stores left - and Goldman made sure Book Soup remained vital. Long may Book Soup Reign!
Newsflash: Obama releases actual Birth Certificate here. Controversy put to rest.
GOOOOOOOOODBYE already: I have very little love for Frank Rich after his open masturbation over Obama all year (via weekly column, thank god)- but this "See Ya!" to W is worth it. - H.T. to Jay.
Yup - I'm wading into the birth certificate business again tonight...ick! I have discovered that Obama was born on a grassy knollbehind the Freemason lodgein Roswell. I jest. (sort of can't help it. It gets me in trouble...) But I do still have questions about all this birth business. Just can't quite bring myself to post it so early on a Sunday.
So another "A.D.D." post instead.
1. I intone about myths pretending to be fact a lot here - white obama pods voted for him because he is qualified and not because of his race -es is one. here is another: UCLA football ever mattered, matters now, or ever will matter. It's a basketball school they should leave the football to the grown ups in Los Angeles. Congrats to the Trojans for their 7th consecutive PAC-10 championship. Fight on! 2. A joke. This came from my solider friend in Iraq: A new priest at his first mass was so nervous he could hardly speak. After mass he asked the monsignor how he had done. The monsignor replied, ' When I am worried about getting nervous On the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.'... read the rest.
3. These pics were also from my friend serving in Iraq.
4. And just because I love this guy. "You ain't the Dukes of Hazard!"
and The October Surprise. Get through the introduction. It is about the Obama birth issue case. I swear I do not know what to think about this - I do know the Obama Campaign lies quite often (see the changing Ayres story) Why can't he produce some simple documents? The refusal to release his Columbia records is also odd. What do you think?
Why won't Barry Soetoro - Obama answer the simple questions? L.R. is very anti-Obama - but pretend for a minute we were neutral- it is STILL creepy that Obama-Soetoro will not release medical record, will not release an original birth certificate, will not address his Indonesian school records that indicate that he has lied about "never being a Muslim" has minimized a relationship with 2 or 3 crazy ministers, dismissed 7 years of work with a Pentagon bomber, and goes apeshit when people mention his middle name - and on and on...
