. . . . Article and #8.
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Posted on 10/16/2009 5:59:24 PM PDT by RobinMasters
A congressional committee deliberated only five years ago a plan that would have opened the door to allowing immigrants and others who do not qualify as "natural born" citizens in the United States entry into the Oval office – but ended up killing the plan.
One of the advocates for the plan was Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., whose comments still are available in an audio file posted at Talk Radio News.
"I believe in the right of the people to choose as they wish. People say, 'Well you're amending the Constitution.' The fact is in 1789 the notion of direct democracy was not the one that governed," the congressman said.
"Clearly in terms of world history the people who came to the American continent… They went for the first time to self governance, but they didn't go all the way. We have evolved substantially since that time, I think in a good direction," he said.
"We do have now this major obstacle in the way of the voters, and we say to them, 'We don't trust you, you could get fooled, I mean, they might, some foreign country might sucker you by getting some slick person and mole him into the United States or her and get that person citizenship and then years later have that person get elected president and you'll be too dumb to notice.'
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
Ping.
The 2004 hearings quoted by WND show Orrin Hatch to be almost as unreliable as Barney Frank in terms of trying to change the Constitution by legislation rather than amendment. This is the same Hatch, it should be remembered, who tried to do an end run around the Constitution by endorsing a notion that DC should get an additional seat in the House while Utah would get an additional seat as well. Both of these episodes are black marks on Hatch's credentials as a "conservative."
Oh, no it wasn't. Try 2008. Sponsored by Claire McCaskill, co-sponsored by Barack Obama (D-IL), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK).
S.2678, the Children Of Military Natural Born Citizen Act.
This was followed, bizarrely enough, by Senate Resolution SR 511, purporting to affirm that John McCain was a child of military parents born abroad, and yet still a natural-born citizen, despite their Bill proposing a Constitutional Amendment to make children born abroad natural-born citizens.
Both cannot be true.
In 2004? The man is either a prophet or he knew what was going on.
Barney Franks? It was a deliberate in-your-face remark. And, those too dumb to notice were primarily voters for his own Democrat party.
This Constitutional eligibility issue has clearly been discussed at length, from at least 2004 right up until Barack Obama was nominated, which reveals the media embargo, stonewalling and mockery of the past year and a half for exactly what it is, propaganda.
The new and valuable contribution of this article is the fact that congress was discussing and informed of the correct definition of natural born citizen - the accepted common law definition. Unruh still glosses over the fact that the various legislative efforts to make it appear that McCain's eligibility had been resolved were legally impotent. The issues remain, and can only be resolved by constitutional amendment. That means the idiotic responses by all legislators who misstate the meaning of natural born citizenship, in spite of dozens of supreme court cases with precedent (reinforcing the common law accepted by the founders) are to cover their behinds should he be removed. They knew, and every legislator should be replaced. I don't know whether legislative immunity covers their lies, but regardless, they have not protected our Constitution.
The existence of the bill raises the valid question of whether this was in anticipation of Obama running for president. We may never know, but a fact is that these efforts to amend Article II Section 1 Clause 5 are not unique. An Obama sponsoring law firm, Kirkham and Ellis, funded a Kent Law Review article in 2005 in which the author, Sarah Herlihy cited 24 previous attempts to amend Article II Sect 1 cl 5. (Her review article was about the same issue, and might be presumed to be preparing the path for Obama; though Kirkham also represented McCain, whose NBC status was always in doubt).
. . . . Article and #8.
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Amending the Natural Born Citizen Requirement Sarah p. Herlihy Feb 22 2006
I’d say the latter -— “he knew what was going on.”
after the Obama Convention Speech
Congressman Barney Frank [D-MA] speaks as a witness to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his belief that the people of the United States should be able to elect a president of their choosing, even if that candidate is not a natural-born citizen. (1:00)
Tuesday, October 5th, 2004
http://talkradionews.com/page/7/?s=barney+frank
“We do have now this major obstacle in the way of the voters, and we say to them, ‘We don’t trust you, you could get fooled, I mean, they might, some foreign country might sucker you by getting some slick person and mole him into the United States or her and get that person citizenship and then years later have that person get elected president and you’ll be too dumb to notice.”
~~~
And Look What Happened!!!...
The man is either a prophet or he knew what was going on.
take my word for it, I wasn't suggesting I believed he was a prophet, I was being somewhat sarcastic. I think a list of those 'who knew' would run into thousands.
he didn't say and you'll be too dumb to notice.' for nothing...
Unbelievable..
Apparently that bill failed to pass. Do you know what the provisions were? It may have clarified McCain's status if it had passed, but it probably wouldn't have done anything directly for Obama, since he obviously was not a child of military personnel. I'd assume, though, that Obama sponsored it so that McCain would be loathe to challenge O's constitutional qualifications during the upcoming campaign as a payback.
I think you are giving Barney Frank a little too much credit for his supposed clairvoyance. I think his speech was more grandstanding and pandering to immigrants in general than specifically trying to smooth the way for Obama four years down the road.
lol.... I was just stating the obvious. I made the post to identify the month, not realizing it was already in the original article.
Thanks js93.
At one time, in 1790, there was a provision in our government for the children born overseas to U.S. citizens to be considered natural born Citizens. But it was repealed or revoked by 1795. That kind of says it all, you know.
What’s the National Broadcasting Company’s position?
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