Real Americans And Real Presidents
Posted in Events dear boy. Events, Politics at 10:51 on 17 July 2009
Remember my prediction that Barack Obama would be plagued by Republicans questioning his right to be President from the moment of his inauguration?
I was taken to task by someone in a comment for the temerity of my suggestion.
However, I have now been borne out not just once, but twice*. And he’s only been President for six months!
*For, apparently [thanks to Almax for alerting me to this – unfortunately Alastair’s (extremely good) blog is restricted to 35 readers] there are folk saying Obama wasn’t born a US citizen and so is an illegal commander-in-chief. They are called Birthers and want to see his birth certificate.
This is part of what Almax wrote:-
“In the land of the cranks free there’s now a certain amount of steam behind a campaign based on the proposition that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and therefore cannot constitutionally be President.
The proponents of this view are called “Birthers” and they have taken to erecting billboards like the one above, demanding to see the President’s birth certificate.
The latest development is that one of the Birthers, United States Army Major Stefan Frederick Cook has, via his lawyer, the superbly-named Orly Taitz, filed legal proceedings in the District Court of Georgia, for a restraining order to prevent the Government deploying him to Afghanistan.
While there might be lots of good reasons for not going to Afghanistan (eg I’m scared, mammy), here is the one advanced by Cook and Taitz –
“Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Cook would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command, “simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. Hawaii became a US State in 1959.
Here is the birth certificate in question, which naturally Birthers say is a fake.
Well, that might be a fake, but slightly more awkward is this August 1961 entry in the Honolulu Advertiser –
Some Birthers say that Government agents engaged in time-travel shenanigans and recently warped themselves back to ’61 to insert this notice ex post facto.
America? Dontchaluvit?
In the greatest democracy in the world© it would seem some Americans are not democrats at all. Even with a small d.
Tags: Barack Obama, Politics
Jim Steel
18 July 2009 at 23:38
But even if it were true, wouldn’t that also disqualify eight of their first nine presidents since they were born in British territory? Or am I missing something?
No recess for the week â Ed. - Scottish Roundup
19 July 2009 at 12:29
[…] on the issue of Scottish independence. Malc lauded European tolerance. And moving further afield, Jack Deighton reported on Republican attempts to question Barack Obamaâs right to be US […]
jackdeighton
19 July 2009 at 23:05
It’s certainly true now that you have to be born in the US to become its president. For Arnie, for example, to become President the law would have to be changed.
I think possibly the rule would have been if the first eight or nine were born in the territories that became the US they would qualify.
Jim Steel
21 July 2009 at 21:38
Oh. Like Hawaii, then. I kmow, I’m just being being twisted. Hey, taking the Birther argument to its logical conclusion also means that Japan never attacked the United States in 1941.