Would that the lawyers' bright line rule would clarify whether our president is or is not a legitimate occupant of the highest office of our land. Even persons who are citizens of other nations have a stake in this. Witness a letter to the editor of the Financial Times that was printed in the Saturday, September 5, 2009 paper:
"American patriots should read the US constitution" Published: September 5 2009 03:00 Last updated: September 5 2009 03:00
From Mr John Sabalis.
Sir, Edward Luce (“Health opens a new front in America’s culture wars”, August 15) writes in reference to the US presidency that “foreign-born candidates are ineligible”. In this, he unwittingly puts himself in the same camp as those on the American right who have not read the constitution.Article II, Section 1 of the constitution restricts the presidency to “natural born citizens”. Nowhere does it say the person must be born in the territory of the United States.Section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act defines the rules for US citizenship, listing the circumstances for persons who qualify as “citizens of the United States at birth”. Paragraph (g) of that section awards such citizenship to persons born abroad of at least one US-citizen parent. President Barack Obama’s mother was a US citizen, so even if he was born in Kenya, Indonesia or Shangri-La he would still have the right to American citizenship by birth. It seems the argument of the “birthers” is stillborn.I am a native-born American, with two children born abroad of a foreign mother. No member of the lunatic fringe is going to tell me my daughters are not Americans by birth. The constitution is a wonderful document; those who profess to be patriotic Americans should read it some time.
John Sabalis,Dubai, United Arab Emirates
I hope that the editor prints my response to Mr. Sabalis's letter (copy below):
From Dr. David J. Harter.
Sir, John Sabalis gives us good advice in "American patriots should read the US constitution." But when he writes about our president's clouded citizenship he lapses into simplicity and misses the point of the debate. He sees the large print but not the fine print.
Our president's citizenship is questioned by Philadelphia lawyer Philip J. Berg in Civil Action 2:08-cv-04083-RBS, US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania: "Obama was born at Coast Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya, located in Coast Province. Obama's father was a Kenya citizen and Obama's mother a U.S. citrizen who was not old enough to register Obama's birth in Hawaii as a "natural born" United States citizen. The laws on the books at the time of Obama's birth required the U.S. citizen parent to have resided in the United States for ten (10) years, five (5) of which were after the age of fourteen (14). Obama's mother was only eighteen (18) years old when Obama was born in Kenya. Nationality Act of 1940, revised June, 1952, United States of America v. Cervantes-Nava, 281 F.3d 501 (2002), Drozd v I.N.S., 155 F.3d 81, 85-88 (2d Cir.1998)."
Granted, there is a lot at stake here. Granted too, this is a matter of fine not large print law. But even I who am not a lawyer can see that this is a matter for the bright line rule. I believe Berg asks a legitimate question and he and all other Americans deserve an unambiguous answer.
From Dr. David J. Harter.
In point of fact, the technicality of Obama's mother's age and residence history, as above, are not the only reasons that he may not be a US citizen. He appears to have been a citizen of Indonesia after having been a citizen of Kenya. Now there is nothing wrong with being a citizen of either of those two countries but Obama would have to have sworn allegiance to the United States of America sometime before his eighteenth birthday to have established his US citizenship, something to which he was eligible I should add. But he appears not to have taken advantage of the opportunity. In fact, he appears to have used his Indonesian passport to travel to Pakistan and neighboring countries after age eighteen. Records for Obama's having sworn allegiance to and having received citizenship papers from the United States of America are no where to be found. But there are records of his having been enrolled in Indonesian schools as an Indonesian citizen by the name of Barry Soetoro, natural or adopted son of Lolo Soetoro, MA, of Jakarta, Indonesia. Long story, but the Indonesian government of the time was a police state and identities were verified and records kept, as in all police states. Just as there are no witnesses to his live birth in Hawaii but witnesses to the same in Kenya, there are no witnesses of Obama's changing his citizenship to US from Indonesian. But there are witnesses to his having been enrolled in public school in Indonesia as a citizen of the country and as a son of the citizen, Lolo Soetoro, MA.
As is often the case with clouded identities, there are other serious questions being asked: was Obama a Muslim in childhood and young adulthood? Was he ever baptized a Christian? If so, where is the baptismal certificate? (For non Christians, this issue of baptism is a bright line rule for being a Christian. No way to become a Christian without receiving the sacrament of baptism. There are lots of different denominations of Christians and they dispute theory and practice large and small ad nauseam but they do agree on one issue: no baptism, no Christianity.)
Our president has said on multiple occasions that he is a practicing Christian. I would not care if he claimed to be a practicing Muslim or an atheist, for that matter. But since he has claimed to be a Christian, I would like to see the proof of that. I am a Christian and have a baptismal certificate and would be happy to show him mine. Something tells me he doesn't have one, though, or he has one but it is like the birth certificates he has shown us--those records that have been shown to independent graphic specialists who judged them to have been altered and forged. (Go to http://www.dailykos.com/; http://fightthesmears.com/; http://factcheck.org/ to see the birth records Obama submitted.)
This is not a smear campaign. The election is over. Citizens voted for change. All true enough. But our nation is a nation of law and order as established by the founders and as incorporated in our constitution. This question of eligibility is a matter of bright line rule. The answer(s) to lawyer Berg's questions and those of others are overdue. Obama is a public person. It is the right of the citizen to examine the matter of eligibility. As disgraceful as it is that this matter of legitimacy was swept under the rug, it has not stayed under the rug. Even writers to foreign news papers bring the issue to print. America waits for her answer to this question: is Obama a citizen of the republic of which he is president?
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John Hanson (1715-1783) was the first president (1780-1783) of the United States under the Confederation before the Oligarchs took power with the Constitution which allowed Bush to be president and the ownership of guns. Hanson was an Oldenburg Moor, a black nobleman, and like Elijah-Moses-Enoch-Baptist-Mahdi-Elvis, went to space on a fiery alien ship and never died. Hanson has returned as Obama to end the evil Oligarchy! This is why they could never find Obama's birth certificate! Danny Lazare is right to want to change this NRA chad Oligarch Constitution which allows the angry white talk radio males to object to Obama's berth certificate! We must impeach Scalia to disable the southern oligarchs of Calhoun, Corker, & Shelby and their demented Constitution. They have this evil bill of rights with rights for hate speech, guns, lobbyist blogging, campaign bribery, states, property, bonuses, and other oligarchic thievery that needs to end! Such euphemism, like when they call you boy as if they ever intend to call you man when you "grow"! This is why we must oppose oligarch-serving superstition by supporting one-state solutions in India-Packistain, Palestain-Isreal, Turkey-Grease, Creatia-Servia, Armeania-Asbyjean and Zahir-Condo. Then we can abolish greed and superstition across the globe with free psychiatric healthcare. We need to do domestically like we did in Servia, to teach these oligarchs they have no rights to be superstitious racists
ReplyDeleteRe: "In fact, he appears to have used his Indonesian passport to travel to Pakistan and neighboring countries after age eighteen. "
ReplyDeleteHe never had an Indonesian passport. He was never an Indonesian citizen. Here's how to check, ask the Indonesian embassy: ((202) 775-5200). The US State Department also says that Obama was never an Indonesian citizen. (http://www.scribd.com/full/17508463?access_key=key-1vg7c228ugapeqcnkki6, and look for the answer at 40.)
Re: "witnesses to the same in Kenya."
There are NO witnesses or valid birth documents showing that Obama was born in Kenya. The grandmother tape shows that his Kenyan grandmother said that Obama was born in "America, Hawaii." Listen to the complete tape, until after the question "Wherabouts was he born," and you will hear the answer "America, Hawaii." http://www.obamacrimes.com/Telephone_Interview_with_Sarah_Hussein_Obama_10-16-08.mp3
As the Wall Street Journal put it: "Obama has already provided a legal birth certificate demonstrating that he was born in Hawaii. No one has produced any serious evidence to the contrary. Absent such evidence, it is unreasonable to deny that Obama has met the burden of proof. We know that he was born in Honolulu as surely as we know that Bill Clinton was born in Hope, Ark., or George W. Bush in New Haven, Conn."