Senator Questions Obama Eligibility

World Net Daily ^ | Feb. 22, 2009 | World Net Daily

[patriotgal1787]

WASHINGTON – A U.S. senator has weighed in on the continuing controversy over Barack Obama's eligibility for office by saying he has never seen proof the new president was actually born in Hawaii.

"Well, his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told constituents in Cullman County. "You have to be born in America to be president."

[FrogMom]

Essentially, we reset back to January 19, 2009.

Except the money spent cannot be unspent. If it's been sent out, it's gone. Our deficit is still tripled.

[FrogMom]

Who is Dick Shelby? What is his part in this?

[Hostage]

The Canal Zone was considered an ‘unincorporated territory’. Look it up versus an ‘incorporated territory’.

The Panama Canal Zone was considered a US possession outside the United States. However, Senator Shelby’s remark if quoted correctly was in the context of American jurisdiction.

I’ll take this as a good reference link:
http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_citi.html

The above link breaks down Section 1401 of USC Title 8 into several categories one of which is ‘in a US possession’. That can be construed to be in the America versus inside the United States.

In any event this is all splitting hairs. We know what Senator Shelby meant and we know he is one of the finest characters possessing a fine mind in the US Senate.

[mcshot]

...”My thoughts on SCOTUS skirting the issue is if he is found to be not eligible, the civil unrest (read that riots) would not be pleasant.”

Ah but this would be a cleansing and patriotic event that would solidify the Constitution as the basis for our Republic. I welcome such an event as a “coward”.

[Candor7]

Senator from Alabama, and former Chair of the Senate bank Committee who ripped the Porkulus to shreds and on the floor opposed the bail out in October as a boondoggle, and he was right.

He is one of a few left who deserves his seat.

[azishot]

Richard Shelby. Republican Senator from Alabama, says that his (BO’s) father was Kenyan and he hasn’t seen any birth certificate.

[Michael Michael]

That's not true. What's required is to be a "natural born citizen". McCain wasn't born in the US, but he is a natural born citizen. He was born to two US citizens in the Canal Zone

It is true. Unless you're born in the United States, the only kind of US citizen you can be is a naturalized citizen, which is not a natural born citizen. It's right there in the Fourteenth Amendment. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States..." And Congress cannot amend the Constitution via simple legislation.

[PilotDave]

The 1790 act was poorly written. It include provisions for citizenship only for “free white persons with good moral character.” It was overwritten by the 1795 act, which dumped the “natural born” and “white” wording. Don’t confuse being a citizen with what the framers had in mind for being eligible for POTUS. “Natural Born” is/was a purity test for only one job. Our glorius founders didn’t want any divided loyalty for that job. Obama was born a British citizen. George Washington and Ben Franklin et all wouldn’t be happy.

[Michael Michael]

You not only have to be born in America you have to be a natural born citizen, Obama doesn’t qualify as natural born even if he had been born in the same cabin as Lincoln.

You might wish to take that up with James Madison:

It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. Birth however derives its force sometimes from place and sometimes from parentage, but in general place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States; it will therefore be unnecessary to investigate any other.

James Madison, House of Representatives, May 22, 1789

[Steven Tyler]

I, too, have not seen the 0bama Birth Certificate.
Has anyone seen the Birth Certificate????
....Anyone...?????

[FrogMom]

Who is Dick Shelby? What is his part in this?

I'm going to go bang my head on the wall...

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I am the oldest of four. My 3 younger siblings are the natural children of my father, I was adopted by him when he and my mother married.

When he died my 3 sibs (under 18) needed a copy of their birth certificates for SS benefits. We were all born in VA but lived in GA. My grandmother went to fetch the BC’s from the office of Vital Statistics in VA and picked up a copy of mine just because she was there. That's a Grandma for you :-)

Their BC's were quite ornate, with pretty paper and a floral border. Not only was it a raised seal, but a gold seal at that. Their names, parents' names, where born, sex, what hospital, weight, length, time of birth, race, single birth, and other details.

Being adopted mine was dull. My name, mother's name, [adoptive] father's name, date, sex, hospital, city, and a dull raised seal.

Granted, Virginia is a long way from Hawaii; things were not done the same.

If he was born in Hawaii, I would expect his original Birth Certificate to have more details than one that has been corrected (changed) because of a legal adoption. Unless he has that original certificate, it would be next to impossible to get a certified copy of it after the adoption.

There is no way in hell I could get a copy of my original certificate (but I am not from Chicago and I am not the first black President). I could not even get a dull copy of one with my biological father's name on it.

So where did the one with daddy obama's name come from? The only legal documentation of his birth would have Soetoro on it. Not Obama. He may have petitioned a court to correct his BC, but that does not make him a legal child of SRO. Soetoro would still be listed as his father. It does nothing but document a lie.

Taking it to the next level..why lie?

I guess what I am saying in my own convoluted way is the original birth certificate be step 2. Step 1 might be pinning down details of the adoption. It might be why he is stonewalling. He knows people are looking in the wrong place for the right detail.

[Paleo Conservative]

It is true. Unless you're born in the United States, the only kind of US citizen you can be is a naturalized citizen, which is not a natural born citizen. It's right there in the Fourteenth Amendment. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States..." And Congress cannot amend the Constitution via simple legislation.

The 14th amendment doesn't limit citizenship at birth to just those born in the US and subject to its jurisdiction, it just says that everyone born in the US or US territories and suject to the jurisdiction of the US is a US citizen. This meant that former slaves and children of slaves became citizens. Prior to the 14th amendment, slaves were living in the US under the jurisdiction of the US but were not citizens and had no rights as citizens of the states. The 14th amendment says nothing about the status of the children of US citizens born overseas.

[Michael Michael]

McCain provided every last scrap of ANYTHING surrounding his birth circumstances—for molecular scrutiny!!

McCain didn't provide anything to the public. The images of the birth certificates that people have been claiming were supplied by McCain were not. They were supplied by a rather shady character named Donald Lamb. And if the certificates he provided are in fact the real deal, they directly contradict McCain's claim as to where he was born.

It was those certificates that Hollander used against McCain in his eligibility lawsuit. This was mentioned in a footnote in the judge's order to dismiss:

McCain] was born in the city of Colón in the Republic of Panama.” Hollander has also provided a copy of McCain’s birth certificate, which lists his place of birth as Colón. The defendants dispute this theory, but it is irrelevant to the present motion in any event.

All McCain has done is let a Washington Post reporter look at a "hospital" birth certificate in private. No photographs or scanned images of this certificate have ever been made available to the public.

[Paleo Conservative]

Don’t confuse being a citizen with what the framers had in mind for being eligible for POTUS.

I don't think the founding fathers wanted there to be many different classes of citizens. There are basically just two types of citizens of the US, those who were born US citizens and those who have been naturalized.

[Michael Michael]

McCain had the additional claim to being a natural born citizen because the Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. Territory when he was born.

Actually Gabriel Chin makes an argument against the Canal Zone being US territory at the time McCain was born in the paper he wrote for the Michigan Law Review.

Why Senator John McCain Cannot be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship

Take it for what it's worth.

[Paleo Conservative]

Written by an Obama voter.

[little jeremiah]

So what is your solution or plan?

[little jeremiah]

I shudder at the destruction of America that will happen if he is not dragged off the stage.

[Michael Michael]

Actually I think it goes further than that. McCain was born in a hospital outside the U.S. territory in Panama.

That depends on whether you believe McCain's claim as to where he was born (the family hospital on Coco Solo Naval Air Station), or where the birth certificates provided by Donald Lamb say he was born (the Colon Hospital, in Colon, Panama). Each contradicts the other.

HOWEVER, because both of his parents were legal U.S. citizens, etc. McCain is a natural born citizen according to law (in place when he was born and now)

No one can be a natural born citizen who was born outside the US or its territories. That's as per the Fourteenth Amendment, and as I've said previously, Congress cannot amend the Constitution through simple legislation.