Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

North Texas congressman helping sponsor "birther bill"
Times Record News ^ | Monday, June 29, 2009 | Trish Choate

Posted on 06/30/2009 1:45:05 AM PDT by Red Steel

WASHINGTON — A North Texas congressman is among three Texans cosponsoring the so-called “birther bill” requiring presidential candidates produce a birth certificate to prove they meet constitutional requirements to be president.

U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer’s support for the bill and comments about President Obama’s status as a natural born citizen drew fire from a liberal pundit who pronounced the congressman’s constituents “idiots” for electing him.

Does Neugebauer, who represents Young County and part of Archer County, doubt Obama’s U.S. citizenship?

“I don’t have the documentation one way or the other,” the Lubbock Republican said in a telephone interview. “And so my assumption is that he is a natural born citizen, that hopefully the appropriate people checked that.”

Neugebauer and the bill’s author, Rep. Bill Posey of Florida, contend there’s nothing partisan or politically motivated about House Resolution 1503.

They pointed out that issues arose about both Obama and the Republican contender for president, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

“It’s not about President Obama,” Posey, a Republican, said. “It’s not about me. It’s not retroactive.”

A Texas government professor isn’t buying it.

“I think some of them are milking the situation for the upcoming election,” said Laurence “Casey” Jones of Angelo State University in San Angelo.

The frightening thing is lawmakers are legitimizing assertions of rightwing “birthers” who question Obama’s citizenship, said Jones, who teachers classes on the Constitution.

He sees no legitimate need for the bill.

“Anyone in Washington knows what’s already required to be president,” Jones said.

Intelligence officials conduct extensive background checks before presidents take office, he added.

Wichita Falls’ congressman said he’s fine with setting up filing requirements for presidential, Senate and House candidates.

“For all three, there are requirements in the Constitution,” U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, said. “And so if you want to set up a documentary requirement for them, then I’m fine with that.”

Thornberry said he thinks the issue has partly been fueled by Internet rumors about Obama that turned out to be false.

Posey said he’s building on his history of election reform begun as a Florida state senator after the rancorous 2000 presidential election.

Posey thought legislation requiring presidential candidates to produce a birth certificate would be a simple solution to citizenship issues.

“Most of the public thinks it’s the law now,” Posey said.

His bill has been referred to the Committee on House Administration.

A casual conversation on the House floor led to Neugebauer and two other Texas Republicans — U.S. Rep. John Culberson of Houston and U.S. Rep. John Carter of Round Rock — becoming co-sponsors.

Texans made up half of the bill’s six cosponsors Monday.

“The requirement is there in the law up front,” Carter spokesman John Stone said. “So all of our candidates in the future should respond and present the documentation up front, and then there can’t be any of these type of charges.”

Court cases challenging both candidates’ citizenship sputtered.

McCain was born to U.S. citizens on a military installation in the Panama Canal Zone. Obama was born in Hawaii, but rumors about his status haven’t died in spite of his Hawaiian birth certificate posted on the Internet.

That could be because World Net Daily and some conservative bloggers are still trying to raise doubts.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Posey said liberal bloggers have called him a “tin hat” and a “wing nut.”

“Some people have just taken it as an opportunity to create this warfare that I guess makes them look like a reporter or something, that they have created an issue,” Posey said. “But none of the articles that you read were objective.”

MSNBC “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann awarded Neugebauer a bronze “Worst Person in the World” award Wednesday.

“The people that elected you are obviously idiots,” Olbermann said on his show. “That does not mean everybody else is.”

Olbermann’s dander was up following Neugebauer’s answer to Lubbock radio host Chad Hasty’s query: Did the congressman believe Obama is a U.S. citizen?

“You know, I don’t know,” Neugebauer told Hasty last week. “I’ve never seen him produce documents that would say one way or the other.”

“Congressman Neugebauer has full confidence in the intelligence of the residents of the 19th Congressional District,” Neugebauer spokeswoman Michelle Ozanus said. “He knows they can make up their own minds regarding this legislation.

Jones said those who can, should diffuse a situation like that produced by the “birthers.”

He always tells his students they have rights to free speech.

But they also have a responsibility.

“Freedom’s not the right to do what you want, but it’s the power to do what you should,” Jones tells his classes.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: birthcertificate; certificate; certifigate; obama; olbermann
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

1 posted on 06/30/2009 1:45:07 AM PDT by Red Steel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

If it ever comes to a vote, it would have to be veto-proof to survive this administration.


2 posted on 06/30/2009 1:48:49 AM PDT by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

The left doesn’t like the Constitution. They prove it everytime they decry anything to do with documentation or proof of a president’s birthplace. Now I say this, in no way saying that we don’t already know that.


3 posted on 06/30/2009 1:49:05 AM PDT by FreeSouthernAmerican (All we ask is to be let alone----Jefferson Davis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

Yet another article that makes the assumption that Zero’s birth certificate has been posted on the Internet. It has not. A COLB is not a birth certificate. And, the Kenyan has spent close to $1 million to prevent people from seeing an original BC. That’s an awful lot of money to spend refuting a rumor.


4 posted on 06/30/2009 1:51:10 AM PDT by joejm65
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

“Anyone in Washington knows what’s already required to be president,” Jones said.

It is absolutely clear by now that this is manifestly untrue, utterly disingenuous, and deliberately misleading.


5 posted on 06/30/2009 2:00:04 AM PDT by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hammer

Thats like Donovan McNabb saying he didn’t know a game could end in a tie.


6 posted on 06/30/2009 2:03:32 AM PDT by FreeSouthernAmerican (All we ask is to be let alone----Jefferson Davis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

“Laurence “Casey” Jones of Angelo State University in San Angelo”

Another waste product from a “state” school, aka commies and slackers.


7 posted on 06/30/2009 2:04:01 AM PDT by Eagles2003
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
a liberal pundit who pronounced the congressman’s constituents “idiots” for electing him.

A lib over reacts to requiring proof of future presidential candidates meeting constitutional requirements. Gee, I wonder why.

8 posted on 06/30/2009 2:17:55 AM PDT by Need4Truth (Washington DC is a foreign entity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
No doubt about it:

If a judge ever rules that a state has the right and duty to require a presidential candidate to ATTACH/STAPLE his birth certificate to his application in order to run in a states' presidential primary and to have his name on a states’ presidential ballot for Nov. 2012, Obama will fight the judge's ruling with everything he has.

1. Obama knows that once a judge requires a presidential candidate to provide any type of birth certificate—even a short form like the Hawaii COLB-—a pandora’s box of political disaster could be opened against him.

2. For instance, as many of us found out for the first time this 2008 presidential campaign, presidential candidates must sign a routine eligibility form in most states in which the candidate declares/affirms/verifies that he is eligible to run for President of the United States.

3.NOTE: We voters have 1 to 5 days to challenge the candidate's information on that routine form, so we must be extra alert and ready at a moment's notice to challenge Obama's presidential application as soon as Obama signs his application in each state during the 2011-2012 presidential campaign.

At the very least, we must challenge Obama to provide verified documents, like a verified birth certificate, that he was even born in the United States.

4. Consider this: What do you think Obama will do if he has to answer challenges to his primary ballot application form in state after state?

5. Do you really think that he will simply respond to every challenge in a nice way, or, is it more realistic to think that Obama will send his gang of high-priced lawyers to fight the challenges?

6. Think about this: What do you think Obama will do this coming 2012 presidential campaign if many states require that a presidential candidate ATTACH/STAPLE a copy of his birth certificate to his routine application form, even if it is just a short form COLB birth certificate like the one from Hawaii?

7. I bet Obama will send his many high-priced lawyers to challenge the requirement that a presidential candidate must provide ANY type of birth certificate to get his name on a primary presidential ballot or on a 2012 presidential ballot.

8. My point is this: Obama does not want the public to examine or touch any form of his Hawaii birth certificate in any way whatsoever, not the short form COLB we see on the internet, and not especially the long form, the one with the doctor's name and the birth hospital name on it.

9.Why will Obama put up a vicious fight to stop states from requiring presidential candidates to ATTACH/STAPLE a valid birth certificate to their routine application forms?

10. The reason is that Obama knows that once the COLB Hawaii birth certificate leaps from a computer monitor screen into the hands of the public where the public can touch it and examine it as long as it wishes, he could be in a lot of political and legal trouble, because he knows that the public will examine it inch by inch to make sure it is as genuine as Obama claims, and there will be nothing Obama and his camp could do about it.

11. In my opinion, the last thing Obama wants is for the public to touch and examine his short form COLB birth certificate up close and under a microscope, even if it is one sent directly to each state by the Hawaii government.

12. Right now, as long his birth certificate is safely on the internet and not where the public can touch it and examine it, Obama is controlling everything, because all the public can see is a birth certificate on its computer screen. It can't touch it or examine it in person to make sure it is what Obama claims it is: A genuine birth certificate from Hawaii.

13. But once a birth certificate is ATTACHED/STAPLED to Obama’s primary presidential application form, it becomes part of the public record. It also will be a birth certificate that comes directly from and verified by the Hawaii government, not a birth certificate that comes from or is supplied by the Obama camp.

14. Many of us have heard this statement: A bird in the hand is worth two(2) in the bush.

15. Let me offer my version of the statement above as it applies to this Obama birth certificate issue: An Obama Hawaii birth certificate in the hand is worth two or two hundred Obama birth certificates on the internet.

16. Again, Obama is smart enough to know that once the public gets its hands on the short form Hawaii COLB, it could lead to political disaster, because a judge might just say to Obama: “You already gave Hawaii permission to release your short form COLB birth certificate so that you could ATTACH/STAPLE it to your eligibility form in each state, so I don't understand why you can't take that extra step and give Hawaii permission to release your long form birth certificate, the one with the doctor's and birth hospital's names on it.”

9 posted on 06/30/2009 2:37:58 AM PDT by john mirse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
Intelligence officials conduct extensive background checks before presidents take office, he added.

This is a blatant lie.

He offers this crap without a shred of evidence to support it.

He may believe this nonsense but he has no idea what the hell he is talking about.

Intelligence officials have no role to play in the election of a president of the United States.

I have never heard anyone supposed to be educated utter such a ridiculous statement.

Bill Clinton would have never been allowed to assume the office if intelligence officials had any say in it.

This professor presenting such blatant propaganda as "truth" says a lot about the trash we have teaching in universities.

10 posted on 06/30/2009 2:38:45 AM PDT by NoControllingLegalAuthority
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LucyT

Of possible interest to your list.


11 posted on 06/30/2009 2:42:59 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (Crazy is the new sane.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel; All

Does any one know what happened yesterday. Obama had to finally have answers in on a court case.....


12 posted on 06/30/2009 4:03:01 AM PDT by blueyon (It is worth taking a stand even if you are standing alone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blueyon

Per Mario Puzzo
http://puzo1.blogspot.com/2009/06/activity-in-kerchner-v-obama-congress_26.html

The feds filed a motion to dismiss the case

Friday June 26, 2009

Activity in Kerchner v Obama & Congress Case - Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss & Supporting Brief Received (this motion was expected)
Activity in Kerchner et al v Obama & Congress et al Lawsuit: The defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit was filed today and is posted on the PACER system as Document 27. A copy of defendants’ motion and supporting brief are available in the right frame of this blog. We all know that we have seen months of stalling from the defendants. We fully expected this dismissal motion which Obama has previously used when he was a mere candidate. The difference now is that Obama is the putative President and not simply a candidate with a 1st Amendment right to run for political office. As the putative President, Obama must show that he is qualified under Article II of our Constitution. We also know that Congress failed to exercise its Constitutional duty to properly vet Obama prior to confirming him as President at the Joint Session. The motion return date is July 20, 2009. We, of course, will file opposition to their dismissal motion prior to that date. I will comment more later after I have had a chance to fully study the motion and supporting brief in greater detail.

Read the motion and supporting brief here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16831085/

Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
185 Gatzmer Avenue
Jamesburg NJ 08831
Email: apuzzo [AT] erols.com
TEL: 732-521-1900 ~ FAX: 732-521-3906
BLOG: http://puzo1.blogspot.com

P.S. Also, please feel free to join the discussions and comments in this forum about the subject of the Natural Born Citizenship clause in Article II of our U.S. Constitution by [Clicking Here].


13 posted on 06/30/2009 4:38:53 AM PDT by Brytani (DC Freeper Convention and National Tea Party - FreepMail Me for rooms and convention info!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Brytani
In related news, the Obama Kenyan birth certificate Ebay bid is now US $666,766.00!

THE-TRUTH-ABOUT-USA-PRESIDENT-BARACK-HUSSEIN-OBAMA-

14 posted on 06/30/2009 5:55:51 AM PDT by Red Steel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel

It is not just his birth certificate that is required. He has to require birth certificates for both parents. Natural born means, both parents are also born on US soil.


15 posted on 06/30/2009 6:01:48 AM PDT by wbones8765 ("Give me liberty or give me death")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel; Slings and Arrows; Fred Nerks; null and void; stockpirate; george76; PhilDragoo; ...
Thank you, Slings and Arrows.

He always tells his students they have rights to free speech.

But they also have a responsibility.

“Freedom’s not the right to do what you want, but it’s the power to do what you should,”

16 posted on 06/30/2009 8:27:28 AM PDT by LucyT (We lived in the best of times, in the best place, in all of human history. - Lucy T.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
“Anyone in Washington knows what’s already required to be president,” Jones said. Intelligence officials conduct extensive background checks before presidents take office, he added.

But not on the President to be. Even if they did, what good would it do? The only criteria are those listed in the Constitution. Be 35 or over, be 14 years a resident in the US, and be a natural born citizen. The guy could have been a spy for the Soviet Union or Red China, but if he met those criteria, there wouldn't be squat "intelligence officials" (Notice he wasn't too specific about which ones) could do about it. Besides, who would they tell? Hundreds, if not thousands tried to get the appropriate officials in Congress, and the Vice President, to check it out, and there was no action at all.

with a all the controversy, if "intelligence officials" had checked out his natural born status, and found that he was indeed an NBC, don't you think they would have put it out?

17 posted on 06/30/2009 8:34:45 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
McCain was born to U.S. citizens on a military installation in the Panama Canal Zone. Obama was born in Hawaii, but rumors about his status haven’t died in spite of his Hawaiian birth certificate posted on the Internet.

Let's see. McCain's birth certificate, at least the ones posted, which are probably not real, show him born in Colon Panama, while the Obama "birth certificate" posted online is most certainly a fake contrusted with photopshop and possibly other graphics manipulattion software. (we know photoshop was used, as there is photoshop tag in the image metadata)

Me thinks the man doth protest too much. What harm is there in requiring "papers" to prove eligibility for President. We peons have to prove we are eligible for whatever, to work in the US for instance, many times over the course of our lives. Often that involves a birth certificate being presented. A real hard copy with raised seal. Often it can be the abtract version, but not always.

18 posted on 06/30/2009 8:42:00 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Steel
U.S. Rep. John Carter of Round Rock

My Representative!

19 posted on 06/30/2009 8:46:21 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wbones8765
He has to require birth certificates for both parents. Natural born means, both parents are also born on US soil.

It never meant that. But it could mean that both parents have to be citizens. So either a birth certificate, or naturalization papers.

However, most "long form" birth certificates show the parents birthplace, as well as the usual residence of the mother. The Hawaii BC from the 1960s did. Fields 7a,7b, 7c, 11 and 16.

Of course they don't generaly require proof of those entries, so a BC or naturalization papers from the parents might be a Good Idea.

20 posted on 06/30/2009 8:54:45 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson