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Friday, September 23, 2016

BIRTHER


BIRTHER

August 4, 1961 born Kenya Honolulu, Hawaii

A cranky opinion for

CRANKY OPINION SATURDAY


Before I go on a rant about this President Obama Birther thing that should have been put to bed by now let me state unequivocally:

It is my opinion that “Natural born citizen” means one who is a citizen at birth, not just one who is born in this country.  Barack Obama wherever he was born, (and his birth certificate says it was Hawaii) was born to a citizen mother and by that alone he is a “Natural Born Citizen.”  After all, why would the child of an illegal immigrant who snuck over the border to give birth, and then was taken back to his parent’s country be more qualified to be President than someone born to a US citizen in another country and then brought back to the US?

End of argument. *


Now about the Birther issue, who is to blame for that argument?  His opponents in the 2008 primary election and then after the general election latched on to the suspicion that Obama was not born in the US and therefore is not eligible as a “Natural Born Citizen,” hogwash (see above) but still where did this come from and why was it not squashed right away?

Obama’s own biography claims he was born in Kenya.  Either he was born in Kenya as his biography claims or he failed to edit his own biography.  I self-published two crappy books and the first thing I did before publishing was to write a short biography.  I would think that Obama also wrote his own biography.  Who would write a book and have someone else write the biography or at least not edit it if it was written by someone else? 

The source of the Birther movement comes from Barack Obama who either wrote and edited his biography and for some reason wanted to show his birthplace as Kenya, or he did not write or even edit his own biography…even after his book was published.

That and the little publicized fact (in 2008 and before) that Barack Obama was known for most of his young life as Barry Soetoro, which is at least a little bit unusual.

When the first request to prove he was born in the US was raised by the media, and according to many was questioned by Hillary Clinton or her campaign staff, Obama produced a short form birth certificate.

This short form certificate is legal in Hawaii for most identification.  It looks pretty official, but truth be told it would not be very hard to fake it and given the Kenyan birth claim on his own biography it did not seem enough to put the question at rest.  I doubt this certificate would pass muster in New Jersey as proof of age for a Little League team never mind President of the United States.

I have a birth certificate that I need for a driver’s license and Passport that is the original with hand and foot prints on it for crispy sake.

When pressed for a long form complete original Obama did not produce one until April 2011.

Why did this take so long?

So in summary, the Birther issue is bogus in the first place because Obama is a “Natural Born Citizen” regardless of his country of birth by virtue of his mother’s citizenship.

It became an issue because Obama himself claimed he was born in Kenya and some people choose to interpret “Natural Born” as “born in this country”, not “a citizen at birth.”

The issue could have been put at rest immediately if the long form original certificate had been produced immediately instead of dragging it out and arguing that the form they did produce was proof enough.

Anyone who made a big deal out of the Birther issue was foolish, but the foolishness was raised by Barack himself and not decisively quashed as quickly as possible.

At this point, the issue is closed.  Barack Obama’s Presidency is almost over and the question of “Natural born Citizen” was bogus in the first place, but the blame for the question being raised and the question dragged on for so long (2008- 2011) and the blame for inevitable conspiracy theories lies with Barack Obama himself.

Regardless, at this point…What difference does it make?

The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and not necessarily that of management…Mrs. Cranky. 


A child born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one alien parent acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under Section 301(g) of the INA provided the U.S. citizen parent was physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for the time period required by the law applicable at the time of the child's birth. (For birth on or after November 14, 1986, a period of five years physical presence, two after the age of fourteen, is required. For birth between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, a period of ten years, five after the age of fourteen, is required for physical presence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child.) The U.S. citizen parent must be the genetic or the gestational parent and the legal parent of the child under local law at the time and place of the child’s birth to transmit U.S. citizenship.

23 comments:

  1. You are absolutely correct in your interpretation of natural born. In any case, I agree. However, the longer the "birther" thing was stretched out, the more foolish SOME people looked. It was a calculated move by Obama - and a smart one politically.

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  2. Being Canadian one tends to shrug one\s shoulders about these tornadoes in a tomato can. What could be done about it now? Indicate the past two presidential terms didn't really exist? Considering how the histories of our two countries have been manipulated for the public I guess it could be done. I believe your opinion is correct though..

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  3. Have a fabulous day Joe. Hope you and Mrs. C are doing something fun this weekend. ☺

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  4. I doubt most of what is on the news anymore and didn't for a minute think he wasn't a natural citizen.

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  5. The "Birther issue" was just another way for conservatives to try and undo a presidential election they couldn't otherwise win. Trump made himself the "Birther-in-chief" and he can't walk away from that now. But then Trump tries to "walk back" everything he says. True, Hillary is prone to telling fibs, but Trump is a pathological liar yet the media refuses to call him out on all his lies.

    You say Obama is responsible for the birther issue? Gee, why is it that only our first African American president was called upon to release the long form of his birth certificate? Racism, that's why!

    On another note, if Obama HAD been born in Kenya in 1961 hew wouldn't been Kenyan; he would have been British because Kenya didn't get its independence from the UK until 1963.

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    1. He is responsible for the questioning because he is the one who said he was born in Kenya had zero to do with race.

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    3. Both of my children were born in Japan. My husband and I were stationed in the military and are both citizens. My children were issued state department birth certificates. Just because you tell people you were born in a different country than US, doesn't mean you are not a citizen of the United States. This can be confusing to people who do not understand how citizenship is established. There are many ways.

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  6. I appreciate the clarification on this Joe. My whole life I thought a person had to be born IN the U.S. in order to be Pres. And of course, the flip side of all of this is that it truly doesn't matter now. Oblahma is on his way out and more questionable things are to come I'm sure... Happy weekend Joe.

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  7. From the beginning, i said he had to be a citizen because his mother was. People argued with me, but the fact remains. The Constitution requires you be a citizen from the day you are born to become President, and if your parent was a citizen and just happened to be out of the country at the moment you were born, it doesn't make you less a "born citizen."

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  8. I dislike the fact that if anyone questions our President, he/she is considered "racist." Unfortunately, President Obama has done little to improve race relations in this country, regardless of where he was born.

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  9. Man, there are a lot of half, or semi, or sorta truths out there, aren't there?
    I imagine you took time to look up what actually occurred, Joeh, but maybe not everyone else did. For their info:

    In 1991, the literary agency Acton and Dystel wrote a pamphlet with biography's of 90 authors, of which Obama was one. Each bio was a brief, two paragraph summation. Indeed they wrote that Obama was born in Kenya. They wrote it, not Obama. By their own admission, during the whole birther issue, the President never saw or approved it, and it was later corrected in another issue.
    Isn't that just a little bit different than saying that in his bio, the president himself wrote that he was born in Kenya? Just a little?
    Sorry, I know my comments are not particularly welcome, but sometimes the innuendo is just too much for me.
    Cheers,
    Mike

    P.S. If anyone is curious, they should just google the issue.

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  10. Not sure what your issue is, I stated "Who would write a book and have someone else write the biography or at least not edit it if it was written by someone else?" If my bio was listed anywhere, I would edit and correct it if there was a significant error...I think it strange many people do not, But that is clearly where the rumor started So what? It did not effect his eligibility to be President under the Constitution.

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    1. What if you didn't? even know about it. Above you write, and I quote: "It became an issue because Obama himself claimed he was born in Kenya and some people choose to interpret “Natural Born” as “born in this country”, not “a citizen at birth.”
      "...Obama himself claimed..." No, he didn't. Someone else did without his knowledge. Go back, read what you wrote. He didn't know, or write it. Big difference in what you wrote.
      Silly to respond, cause no matter what the actual facts are, people who don't want to believe what happened, won't. And, like Trump, it seems that if someone just keep repeating something, defacto it becomes the truth, in their opinion.
      Dead horse thoroughly beaten here, eh?

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    2. From the research I have done I believe it is likely he knew about the Kenya birth claim and either gave that information (not sure where anyone else would have gotten it) or encouraged it as it made him more interesting at the time. So I maintain it is likely that the birther movement came from Obama himself. It is also clear from the research I have done that it would not have made any difference with regards to his Presidential eligibility.

      I think that if he was actually born in Kenya he would have made the argument that he was clearly a "Natural Born Citizen" under the correct and obvious interpretation of the Constitution. I think he was caught with a silly fabrication that was meaningless at the time but was fodder and a nuisance when he ran for President. Hillary's campaign picked up on it and tried to use it to derail him and Trump used it do gain attention to himself. I think Obama is probably sorry for not setting the record straight way back when, and Trump is probably sorry for raising a position that does not bode well for his current aspirations.

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  11. I never read much about the whole birth certificate thing, in part because the cast of characters suing over the issue was a little sketchy.

    I care a lot about whether the people we elect as President meet the Constitutional requirements. The unquestionably American mother sort of satisfied me.

    In 200 years, they're going to find out he was just a CGI special digital effect like Yoda in the Star Wars prequels. Fortunately, I won't be around to be embarrassed that I was fooled by it.

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  12. Everything I know to say about that, I learned in supervising kindergarteners on the playground: "He started it!"

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  13. People's identities are sometimes manipulated for their own gain. Example: My boss was born in Wyoming and named Kevin. He went to Mexico and came back with an accent and a Mexican name. Even his family was astonished, but he has used his new identity to his advantage in his career. Maybe that's why the correction to Kenya wasn't made until the birther issue wouldn't go away.

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  14. I was born in Alabama, which in most parts of the country, would make me foreigner, but anyone who wants to see my long form birth certificate is out of luck because long form birth certificates are a yankee thang and we're agin 'em. If they want to drive down here and talk to my deer rifle they are welcome to bring their pansy asses down here and....holy crap!!! This whole birthier argument is making us all a little loopy :)

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  15. Joe, what biography? And if Obama had written it, wouldn't it be an autobiography? This is all hogwash, a product of the conspiracy right wing nutcases. Please don't help them out.

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  16. If he had stuck with Barry, he could have avoided all of this;)

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