President Obama will have to deal with birthers

International World News ^ | Jan 1, 2012 | Greg Rogers

[punchamullah]

Zero’s released BC, or whatever it is, does not list Big BO as Afro-American, but simply ‘African’.

[frog in a pot]

Congress has the authority and duty to decide on the elig of the president...

Agreed.
However, motivating even a Republican-controlled Congress to decide the eligibility of this sitting president seems politically impossible.

But, if this sitting president wins the next election, Congress will have the opportunity by statute to address the issue when the Joint Session rolls around in January, 2013. A duty, as you know, that for political purposes each and every chose to ignore in 2009.

Any reader that does not know what you and I are talking about should take a look at my About Page.

[Brown Deer]

if you cannot trace back to the Mayflower, you cannot be President.

Where did you get that information?

Looks like Mitt Romney has a few Mayflower ancestors (ancestry of Mitt Romney's great great grandfather), such as Joan Hurst, John Tilley, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland.

The fact is, most of our U.S. Presdents were NOT Mayflower descendants.

[frog in a pot]

You are saying what I have been saying for three years.

Then perhaps you too were blown off by your members of Congress prior to the election in 2008, as were a number of FReepers when we reached out to them in person and by letter and explained there was nothing of record that demonstrated the candidate was a U.S. citizen let alone an NBC.

[eddie willers]

Where did you get that information?

From some of the "I'm-a-better-more-pure-American-that-you-are" people that frequent these stupid Birther threads.

PS. It was also satire.

[Doe Eyes]

Now for 200 years or so, everyone, including yours truly, sort of had an idea that an "NBC" had to have two (2) parents who were American citizens. Unfortunately, no one felt the need to write that down in simple declarative English.

It will be difficult to remove a President or to prevent the President Elect from taking office based on a "citizenship requirement" that is not clearly spelled out in the Constitution.

[cynwoody]

It was a characterization reserved EXCLUSIVELY for those who are born in the country to citizen parents.

Any concern about "citizen parents" that may have existed became obsolete upon the adoption of the Fourteenth. Citizen parents only matters if the kid was born abroad (e.g., John McCain).

In any case, it would be really tough to walk this back, given Obama's daddy's background was well known years before the 2008 election:

Chief Justice John Roberts, just making sure

Stare decisis et non quieta movere.

(For those of you in Rio Linda, Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative Republican, appointed by GWB.)

There is no way the Court is going to find natural born to mean anything beyond citizen by birth.

[cynwoody]

It will be difficult to remove a President or to prevent the President Elect from taking office based on a "citizenship requirement" that is not clearly spelled out in the Constitution.

Quite so. We need to make sure he's defeated at the ballot box in 2012! Can't rely on birther fairy tales and magic charms.

[little jeremiah]

Placemark.

[little jeremiah]

The child who was born with the name Barack Hussein Obama might have been born in HI. Or maybe not.

But the man now known as BHO is another matter entirely.

[SvenMagnussen]

Barry Soetoro, born in Honolulu, HI on Aug 4, 1961 was an Indonesian national when he enrolled at St. Francis Assisi, Jakarta, Indonesia.

He couldn’t have been a Natural born citizen of the U.S. because he is a citizen of Indonesia. Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship. Eventually, Barry Soetoro, moved back to the U.S., changed his name to Barack Hussein Obama II and obtained US Citizenship through the naturalization process.

[cynwoody]

Fairy tales!

Zero was natural born a citizen, and parents cannot revoke a child's citizenship. Indonesian law is irrelevant.

Of course, parents can raise a red diaper baby, and, if the sheeple are as clueless as they were, said red diaper baby can become President. You can't depend on a Constitution to prevent the sheeple's stupidity.

[SvenMagnussen]

The Obama administration instituted a policy in 2009 stating a parent cannot move out of the country and renounce the citizenship of a minor. It’s a recent policy guidance and not U.S. Law.

No such policy existed in 1966,67. In fact, there is policy for a minor to recapture his/her U.S. Citizenship after they return to the U.S. Obama could have recaptured his Natural born status, but chose not to.

Obama chose to naturalize as a U.S. Citizen after he turned 18. We know Obama returned to Indonesia before his trip to Pakistan. And we know Obama has publicly stated he went to Indonesia to visit his mother. The problem is his mother was living in Hawaii at the time getting a divorce from her husband, Lolo Soetoro.

Obviously, Obama went to Indonesia to renew his Indonesian passport before he went to Pakistan.

[cynwoody]

The Obama administration instituted a policy in 2009 stating a parent cannot move out of the country and renounce the citizenship of a minor. It’s a recent policy guidance and not U.S. Law.

Irrelevant. Just ask Marie Elizabeth Elg, if you can find her ghost. She was born in 1907 in NYC to Swedish immigrants, who took her back to Sweden when she was four. In 1929 she turned up in the US, only to be notified by FDR's pigs at the US Department of Labor that she was illegal and liable to be deported.

But the Court found she was natural born, 8-0. She'd have made a better President than the Doofus on the Dime.

[PA-RIVER]

If living as an adopted Indonesian citizen doesn’t disqualify someone for the presidency, WTF does?

[PA-RIVER]

A Muslim citizen of Indonesia qualifies for the presidency.

You can beat me with a shovel until I stop breathing, and I still wont accept that pile of bullshit as truth.

[Godebert]

"Unfortunately, if the USSC is asked to decide the second requirement - two citizen parents - we run the risk of a decision based largely on politics. Notwithstanding that element avoids anchor babies running for office. In that regard it seems better the Congress decide the matter at the next Joint Session called for that purpose."

Congress can only propose Amendments to the Constitution by 2/3 vote in both houses of congress, which would then require ratification by 3/4 of the state legislatures.

[philman_36]

She was born in 1907 in NYC to Swedish immigrants, who took her back to Sweden when she was four.

Details, details...PERKINS, Secretary of Labor, et al. v. ELG. ELG v. PERKINS, Secretary of Labor, et al.
Her parents, who were natives of Sweden, emigrated to the United States sometime prior to 1906 and her father was naturalized here in that year.

Now, if only BO Sr had been, at the minimum, a naturalized citizen instead of being a British/Kenyan subject then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[DiogenesLamp]

So you take as ‘the truth’ something reported by a Washington Post reporter. That reminds me of when a Boston Globe reporter covered for John Kerry when he wouldn’t release something. I can’t remember what that was, however.

Actually, my tendency is to disbelieve anything reported by the Washington Post, but the man has evidence and is testifying to facts about which he claims first hand knowledge. The burden of proof therefore shifts to someone contesting his claims, and in the absence of any credible proof to the contrary, I have to accept what that reporter (And John McCain's mother) says regarding the issue.

As far as i'm concerned, John McCain was born on an American Military base in the Canal zone. Even if he wasn't, as far as i'm concerned he is the MOST NATURAL, of natural born citizens. No one can question the allegiance or loyalty of the children of our fighting men.

[DiogenesLamp]

Vattel. Jus sanguinis certainly, jus soli no. To be a Natural Born Citizen, you need to have satisfied both conditions.

If you are going to cite Vattel as the authority, notice that Vattel specifically exempts a nation's fighting men from the jus soli requirement.