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Down with the Birthers (Just open the kimono, Obama!)
Front Page Magazine ^ | July 29, 2009 | Jamie Weinstein

Posted on 07/29/2009 5:19:16 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn

Republicans and conservatives opposed to a rapid increase in the size and scope of government should be heartened by the American public’s gradual turn away from Obamaism.

But when we need Republican and conservative leadership the most, when we need our leaders and thinkers to clearly differentiate their vision for the country from Barack Obama’s vision, many of our leaders have failed us. Instead of taking the opportunity presented to proclaim the conservative vision to the American people, some Republican leaders have opted to latch on to wild conspiracy theories promoted by the fringes of the Republican Party. Or, at the very least, some of our leaders have allowed such wild theories to fester by not proactively combating and denouncing them.

Just last month, for instance, Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan Administration Defense Department official and conservative intellectual, wrote in The Washington Times that Barack Obama might very well be a secret Muslim. “[T]here is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself,” Gaffney wrote. Among Gaffney’s “mounting evidence” was the fact that President Obama referred to the Koran as the “holy Koran” during his June speech in Cairo, Egypt.

But of course this was merely pandering on Obama’s part. It no more helps prove that President Obama is a secret Muslim than President Bush speaking in Spanish to a Latino audience proves he is a “secret Hispanic,” or President Obama wearing a yarmulke at a gathering of American Jews (as he has) proves he is “secretly Jewish.”

How much resonance such conspiracy theories have within the Republican Party is unclear, but a YouTube video put up last week of a town hall meeting held by Republican Congressman Mike Castle is worrisome. A lady pressed the Delaware Republican about why Obama has not produced his birth certificate and then loudly declared that Obama was in fact a citizen of Kenya, not the United States. “I want my country back,” she shouted in her rant at the befuddled congressman, who could only respond, responsibly, that President Obama was in fact an American citizen. It’s impossible to tell how many people in the audience agreed with the woman, but there were certainly enough of them to make some noise.

These “birthers,” as they have come to be known, allege that Obama is ineligible to be president because he was not born in the United States. Despite overwhelming proof that Obama is in fact native born – including an official birth certificate from the state of Hawaii – the birthers movement persists in claiming otherwise.

Why stop there? With equal plausibility, one might suggest that 48 years ago, a group of Islamists conspired to take over America by making Barack Obama president. Having the incredible foresight in the 1960s too see that a black man would be the obvious choice for president of the United States in 2008, their strategy would be to hide his foreign and Muslim identity by having his parents name him Barack Hussein Obama. Somehow, they knew this child would be smart and talented enough to get into elite colleges and become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. The men behind this clever movement to take over America wisely encouraged a young Barack to take drugs in his youth and then to later write about his drug-taking days in a memoir because, presciently, they understood that writing about one’s drug-taking past is usually a successful presidential strategy.

That’s not all. Instead of having Obama be born in America, his mother’s native country, as most people trying to conduct a successful take over plot of America would do, they had Obama be born in Kenya. But in order to deceive the American people that Obama was an actual American citizen 47 years later, the men behind this plot made sure local Hawaiian newspapers published notices of Obama’s birth. The secret cabal behind Obama was also able to fool, evidently, the state of Hawaii.

One might go on and ask why someone who supposedly is a secret radical Islamist, determined to create a Sharia state in America, would add troops to Afghanistan to fight radical Islamists there; launch predator drone attacks against Islamist terrorists in Pakistan; and keep the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facilities open despite his campaign pledge to shut down the facility?

Yet another problem with the conspiracy theories is that they distract from more serious criticisms of the administration. I have written articles in opposition to Barack Obama’s policies and I will continue to do so as long as he pushes policies that I think are harmful. However, we have to have responsible leadership in the Republican Party that opposes Obama on the basis of principle and uses reasoned discourse, not idiotic falsities, to make its case.

Conservative commentators, leaders and thinkers have a responsibility to denounce idiocy put forward under the conservative banner. Republicans and conservatives have a real opportunity to take back the country in 2010 and 2012. But they aren’t going to do it by promoting outlandish conspiracies.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; birthers; certifigate; imom; mysteryman; obama; obroma
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To: buwaya
This will before long turn into something like the Kennedy assassination theories.

If it does, Obama will have a BIG problem politically.

In 2003, ABC News commissioned a public opinion poll which revealed that 70% of the American public suspect a conspiracy plot in the JFK assassination.

If 70% of the American public comes to believe that Obama is concealing his records in order to hide something very damaging about his background, he's got a problem.

21 posted on 07/29/2009 5:46:31 PM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: IrishPennant

“I” didn’t hire him. I want him gone.

This isn’t the way to do it.

And you can’t say “answer or be fired”. There are way too few of you to effectively demand that, and there will never be many. The public- the majority - will have to be convinced to vote against him on substantial grounds that they will accept, not these minority obsessions on disputable points.

You think you are right - and perhaps you are, who knows, one day a historian may vindicate you - but that just isn’t relevant.


22 posted on 07/29/2009 5:46:48 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: 353FMG
Those who know (if any, if he is unqualified) are accessories to the fact. Fraud. ...and could all be removed from office.

In the instance that is the case, those who failed to demand that eligibility be proven, (should he be ineligible) are guilty of misfeasance.

The whole bloody lot have something to hide if he is not eligible, from the SCOTUS to the Senate to the House, because we are 1.5 trillion (and growing!) in the hole because they have screwed the pooch.

23 posted on 07/29/2009 5:47:00 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: SirJohnBarleycorn

I believe FrontPageMag drank the Obama koolaid. As much as I like and respect David Horowitz, he is dead wrong on this issue. There is too much coverup of Obama’s history and his official records. Trust me, where there is smoke there’s fire. Where’s the transparency, Obama?


24 posted on 07/29/2009 5:48:57 PM PDT by Perseverando
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To: buwaya

It appears that you only come around when the RINOs want a fire put out.


25 posted on 07/29/2009 5:49:38 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Seniors, the new shovel ready project under socialized medicine.)
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To: buwaya
This will before long turn into something like the Kennedy assassination theories.

You're wrong. There is a big difference. With the Kennedy assassination there was really no way to get the evidence necessary to prove beyond a doubt that there was a conspiracy.

In this case the issue is easily resolved and the question that is now starting to be asked is not whether he was born in Kenya on not but "What does he have to hide?". The American people may not ever believe the Kenya story but they will understand that anyone willing to spend millions of dollars in court to hide his Birth Certificate has something very important that he is trying to hide. And they will want to know what that secret is. I want to know. I bet you want to know. I bet even Ann Coulter, the NRO, O'Reilly and Medved want to know. We know Lou Dobbs does.

26 posted on 07/29/2009 5:50:19 PM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint

>The world will soon wonder why.<

.
I’m certain that countries like Russia and China watch these procedures with an intense curiosity, already. They too, would like to know who they’re dealing with.


27 posted on 07/29/2009 5:51:00 PM PDT by 353FMG (Death is Life without Freedom.)
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To: Man50D

I find it ironic this author is labeling “birthers” but finds it unnecessary to label anyone else.


28 posted on 07/29/2009 5:51:38 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: buwaya
"There is no process established to verify eligibility in this matter, that is a function of Congress or the courts." W R O N G !

I'm going to post this so that EVERYONE who thinks we are powerless to do something about this understands how best to go about it. We need to find the legal remedy enabling us to charge our representatives with disobeying their oaths of office and start removing them one by one. Here is the case.

Exhibit A, The Twentieth Amendment, Section 3 reads as follows:

" ”3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Exhibit B U. S. Code, CITE: 3USC19

TITLE 3--THE PRESIDENT, CHAPTER 1- PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VACANCIES

Sec. 19. Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act

”(a)(1) If, by reason of death, resignation, removal from office, inability, or failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President. “

Exhibit C: U. S. Constitution, Article Six Oath of Office for elected officials:

” The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Exhibit D: The Electoral Vote Counting Act of 1877:

The process currently provides that someone “challenge” the electoral votes during a short, specified time frame while the Electoral College votes are opened and tabulated. This process does not cover challenges to "eligibility" qualifications. In fact, if this act pretends to do so in the manner in which it prescribes, it is unconstitutional. Any act of this sort that does not require that qualifications be presented by the President elect serves to undercut the provisions in the Constitution itself. No act that does not support the Constitution is constitutional. In order to change the requirements of the Twentieth amendment, one would need to pass another amendment. An “Act” doesn’t cut the mustard.

The portion in bold stating “or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify” in section three is particularly interesting in that it plainly seems to infer that a “qualification” of some sort must be made in order to serve as President. Certainly, one cannot argue that it does not require a qualification process for one to “qualify”. To infer that the lack of a “specified” qualification process means that stated eligibility “qualifications” for the office of president can be ignored is fallacious. The wording of this passage in the twentieth amendment clearly infers that a qualification is required, regardless of how this is done.

There is only one set of qualifications listed anywhere in the Constitution that are not health related and they are listed in Article two, section one.

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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

To satisfy meeting the requirement of the twentieth amendment to “qualify”, a president elect must present evidence that he meets it’s requirements for eligibility to serve. This means that a proper birth certificate HAD to be presented by the president elect in order to serve as president. In fact, without establishing whether or not the President elect is "qualified", Congress would not know whether or not to step in and name a temporary replacement as the Amendment requires. Certainly, this means that the proof of "qualifications" must be presented to Congress.

If it was NOT done, then under the provisions of the twentieth amendment, Barrack Obama has “failed to qualify” and should not be serving as president of the United States of America.

Based upon the above, I conclude that:

1. We currently have a vacancy at President because no one has yet “qualified” as required in the Twentieth amendment. The terms "The President elect shall have failed to qualify" clearly places this burden upon the President elect and not on someone raising their hand in objection.

2. Anyone serving in Congress (see “Congress” in bold in Exhibit A), or anyone who is currently serving under the oath of office in Article six has "standing" and can DEMAND that their oaths be met by receiving proper “qualifying” documentation from Mr. Obama. This charade at the time of counting the Electoral College votes does not limit their ability to do so at any time they so choose. The very fact that they are duty-bound by oath to "support" the Constitution REQUIRES them to respond to any and all attacks against it. No judge can deny any of them the standing to do so. It would ask them to break the law in their effort to enforce the law.

3. We need to start pressing legal charges against all of our local representatives and senators covered by the oath of office in Article six for disobeying their oaths to support the Constitution as it pertains to the language of section three of the Twentieth amendment. Put PRESSURE on them to represent the document that gives them their authority in the first place. We are looking into how best to do this down here. We all should be looking into this approach. NOW.

29 posted on 07/29/2009 5:52:43 PM PDT by Uncle Sham
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To: Star Traveler
This bureaucrat has no authority to anoint anyone “natural born”. She is no more qualified than I am or you are.

Geeze! Is she a constitutional scholar and judge?

If Obama’s father was a British citizen and Kenyan, if he was adopted by an Indonesian, then he has dual allegiance. He can not be natural born. Orly Taitz is correct that even if he were born in the Lincoln bedroom he would not be a natural born citizen. Citizen, yes! Natural born, NO!

However...I do agree with you ( from your other posts) that individual states should require that **all** candidates prove they are qualified constitutionally for the office for which they are running.

Unlike you, I do want this matter pursued. If he is ineligible to be president then everything he has done to this point ( ALL the Marxist inroads made) will be null and void.

30 posted on 07/29/2009 5:53:34 PM PDT by wintertime (People are not stupid! Good ideas win!)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Lets take it as granted that he has a great deal to hide, much of which we can guess at.

And lets take it as proper that some law be passed to clarify the matter for future tests of eligibility.

But the Supreme Court and all other venues have in fact rejected multiple cases. The peak of that activity was many months ago. This is going nowhere legally, there is no mounting pressure. There is no shorter list of anything.

He is six months into his term, and its exceedingly unlikely that your guys will get any court to accept a case in the meantime, and if they do he can stall the thing for the rest of his term. Odds are, such legal trench warfare will help him politically.


31 posted on 07/29/2009 5:54:04 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: IrishPennant

See post 29.


32 posted on 07/29/2009 5:54:39 PM PDT by Uncle Sham
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To: buwaya

I thought the Constitution requires it. I thought that was the supreme law of the land. Federal requirements??? Yikes. The constitution is superior to any Federal requirement, we just need the courts to obey their oaths.


33 posted on 07/29/2009 5:54:58 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: 353FMG

Yeah, I understand completely... otherwise, if we don’t know, he hasn’t followed the Constitutional requirements... LOL...


34 posted on 07/29/2009 5:55:08 PM PDT by Star Traveler (The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a Zionist and Jerusalem is the apple of His eye.)
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To: 353FMG
I’m certain that countries like Russia and China watch these procedures with an intense curiosity, already. They too, would like to know who they’re dealing with.

And Russia and China have spies. They probably know more about this than Obama does. And if they do you can bet that Russia-US and China-US relationships will become very lovey-dovey from the Russian and Chinese points of view. This is a very dangerous President. There is no telling what he might do if one or more superpowers tried to blackmail him with a threat to release his Birth Certificate. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. It is crazy. But it's Obama Crazy. And do you believe that the KGB (or whatever they are called now) couldn't get their hands on that amazingly vital document if they just put their minds and their money to the task? It's worrisome.

35 posted on 07/29/2009 5:58:20 PM PDT by InterceptPoint
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To: buwaya
There are way too few of you...

Hahahahahahaha...Way too few of "US". I think not. The sleeping giant is waking. I take it you plan on staying on the porch?

If I had any advice to give: Buy a long rifle, a scatter gun and a semi-auto pistol, along with all the ammo you can find. Practice often, especially in close range conditions and keep your shelves stocked. The reset is neigh.

36 posted on 07/29/2009 5:59:16 PM PDT by IrishPennant (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop)
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To: Uncle Sham

I repeat, there is no process to verify eligibility on this matter. What you have laid out is the law regarding an established lack of eligibility. How do you go about establishing his ineligibility ?

Among other things a court will have to decide what “natural born” means, or whether he has to positively prove it at all.


37 posted on 07/29/2009 6:00:24 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: buwaya
It is not necessary to have a law to require presidential candidates to release their birth certificates. The constitution requires them to be "natural born." The only way to determine that or at least, the "best evidence" is the birth certificate.

By what convoluted reading would the constitution require something and then prohibit the enforcement by omission?

The secretaries of state, members of congress and the judges have all taken oaths to uphold and defend the constitution. Their failure or cowardice in not do so, is not indicative of the need for a new law. Shall we give them more laws to ignore?

38 posted on 07/29/2009 6:00:43 PM PDT by nufsed (Release the birth certificate, passport and school records.)
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To: Uncle Sham
See post 29.

I did, guy...thanks!!!!

39 posted on 07/29/2009 6:01:21 PM PDT by IrishPennant (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop)
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To: Uncle Sham
See post 29.

I did, guy...thanks!!!!

40 posted on 07/29/2009 6:01:27 PM PDT by IrishPennant (We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop)
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