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Archive | April, 2010

George Washinton – natural born citizen

By on April 30, 2010 in Citizenship

President Washington

One of the very first articles I wrote for this web site, in  December 2008,  was George Washington, first in war, first in peace, and first presidential usurper. It wasn’t intended to be serious, but rather to expose the silliness of some literalist reading of history. The specious argument discussed in that article said that George Washington was not a citizen of the United States at the time of the ratification of the Constitution (Virginia joined later), and so not eligible to be president. The reason this argument is false is that the United States existed before the ratification of the Constitution, at least since the Articles of Confederation and I would argue following the Declaration of Independence.

Implicit in that story and the source where I found the idea, is the idea that George Washington was only eligible to be president because of that special exception in the Constitutional requirement of natural born citizenship, for those who were already citizens when the Constitution was ratified.  However, that is not really the case. George Washington was a natural born citizen. Continue Reading →

Ron Polarik vanishes in puff of smoke

By on April 30, 2010 in Joseph Farah, Ron Polarik

Back in July of 2009, I wrote an article here titled: Clearing the smoke, or blowing more smoke? The article was a piece by piece demolition of a faux investigative report commissioned by an alleged anonymous former intelligence officer that in reality was nothing but lies and half lies. That “report” was hosted on Joseph (WND) Farah’s blog called WesternJournalism.com under the title: “Clearing the Smoke on Obama’s Eligibility: An Intelligence Investigator’s June 10 Report”.

Now the “report” has been updated, again at WesternJournalism.com, as Clearing the Smoke on Obama’s Eligibility Updated. The original version of the article is just as stupid as the new one, with gems like:

Most people think of an original birth certificate as a state or hospital document containing a statement by a doctor or midwife.  The hospital document usually is accompanied by a footprint.

Then the article presents what it describes as an example of an authentic original birth certificate without footprints. 🙄

What has changed in the updated version is not notable, but what has disappeared is. The original version said:

Ron Polarik has made what several experts claim to be a cogent case that it is a forgery. There have been a couple of attempts to refute his argument and Polarik has replied to the most extensive of them. I do not claim expertise in this area, but I think it would be best for journalists and politicians to familiarize themselves with the arguments on both sides before they casually dismiss Polarik’s position without taking the trouble to understand it.

I guess now that Polarik has been identified, exposed and shown to have no special image analysis expertise, he is persona non grata at Farah’s place. So Polarik vanishes. Continue Reading →

California Representative wants to deport US Citizens

By on April 29, 2010 in Immigration, Tea Party, Videos

U. S. Representative Duncan Hunter (R – CA) said at a recent Tea Party rally that he was in favor of deporting natural born US Citizens who were the children of illegal aliens (start at 2:05 in the video below). There’s no chance that he misheard the question because he repeated it before answering the question. His justification for such extreme measures: “California’s going under.” This is not a misfire, because Hunter later confirmed his position to North County Times newspaper.

Hunter also drew applause from the crowd when he mentioned the new Arizona law to stop and verify citizens.

Hunter is quoted as saying: ‘being American wasn’t just about walking across the border. He said it’s something ‘in our souls.'” Hmmm. Do you get your soul from place or parentage?

Press coverage:

Tracing natural born citizen

By on April 28, 2010 in Citizenship

The British Colonies in North America used legislation, called “naturalization acts” to make foreigners into citizens. The Constitution of the United States vested the power of naturalization with the Congress (to set up a uniform system), but in the interim between American independence and the ratification of the Constitution (and even a bit later), the states continued to pass naturalization acts.

Let’s compare two acts from the State of Massachusetts during this interim period.

From the State of Massachusetts in 1785:

From the State of Massachusetts in 1787:

The language is almost identical; however, one uses the phrase “natural born subject” (a holdover from colonial days) and the other uses “natural born citizen.” Could there be any doubt that in this context “natural born citizen” and “natural born subject” mean the same thing. I think not.

When the Massachusetts House of Representatives used the phrase “natural born citizen” they considered it substitutable for “natural born subject” and that is almost certainly where they got the phrase.

Thanks for those who provided the images. Continue Reading →

Nairobi paper declares: Barack Obama was born in Kenya!

By on April 26, 2010 in Birth Location

Flag of Kenya

I was digging through Internet archives and came across an article from November 18, 2009. In response to letters from American questioners, Judy Munyinyi-Mumo of The Standard newspaper of Nairobi, Kenya responded on the topic of Obama’s birth place and on the meaning of remarks such as referring to President Obama as “Kogelo’s Son.”

“Barack Hussein Obama [was] born in Kenya”

I have always said that this blog was about facts, not about defending Obama. I hope I have proven that now. Here is the larger quotation:

To all the skeptics out there, here is one inescapable fact. There was a Barack Hussein Obama born in Kenya. He is the father of your president. He was a black man from black Africa. The name and the person Barack Hussein Obama Sr, came from a sleepy village in Kenya called Nyang’oma Kogelo.

And here is another inescapable truth: the fact that Barack Hussein Obama Jr was born in Hawaii has already been proved beyond doubt by your own government. He is a US citizen. His election a year ago and his popularity around the world baffled many Americans but the fact remains he is entitled to be president. Get over it, you conspiracy theorists and people of dubious intelligence who cannot accept your country is led by a person of African descent. Obama has been examined under your microscope for at least two years. If there was proof to the contrary, wouldn’t you have found it by now?

The article goes on to explain language used by Kenyans and the mistaken literalism placed on it by the nObama tribe. Continue Reading →