Lawmakers want all presidential candidates to prove U.S. citizenship

Scripps News ^ | July 1, 2009 14:28 | Trish Choate

[Red Steel]

A group of House Republican lawmakers want all future aspirants for the White House to produce a U.S. birth certificate to prove they meet constitutional requirements to be president.

The legislators this week waded into a controversy that has roiled the conservative talk-show and blogging fringe since the hottest days of the presidential election campaign -- when the validity of the citizenship of both Barack Obama and John McCain were questioned.

McCain was born to U.S. citizens on a military installation in the Panama Canal Zone. Obama was born in Hawaii, the son of an American mother and a Kenyan father.

Court cases challenging both candidates' citizenship sputtered. So have the accusations about McCain.

But, on the political right, suspicions that President Obama was actually born in Africa -- fueled by the absence of Obama's certified "long-form" birth certificate -- rage on. One of the most vocal advocates of that point of view is aging singer Pat Boone.

The GOP House members sponsoring the birth-certificate resolution -- which has gained the nickname of the "birther bill" -- are Reps. Bill Posey of Florida; John Campbell of California; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Bob Goodlatte of Virginia; and Randy Neugebauer, John Culberson, and John Carter, all of Texas.

"Most Americans are probably surprised that they don't" have to document meeting the requirement, said Blackburn spokesman Claude Chafin. "A lot of people expressed surprise to her since (last year's presidential campaign) that people don't have to actually document anything."

Neugebauer's support for the bill and comments about Obama's status as a natural born citizen drew fire from MSNBC "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann, a liberal pundit, who pronounced the congressman's constituents "idiots" for electing him.

Does Neugebauer in fact doubt Obama's citizenship? "I don't have the documentation one way or the other," Neugebauer said this week. "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.

"It's not about President Obama," Posey 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, Texas.

He said it was frightening that the lawmakers are trying to 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.

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.

He said he, too, has taken heat, but from the liberal end of the blogosphere. "Tin hat" and a "wing nut" are some of the names he's been called by liberal bloggers.

"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."

On Wednesday, pundit 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.

[cranked]

Perception matters only till actual proof is made public.

[cripplecreek]

Would have been real interesting if Roger Calero had won.

[caper gal 1]

What part of “Duh” don’t they understand? And we haven’t been doing this all along even though it’s a Constitutional requirement because . . . ?

[Carling]

I’d argue that the proof won’t make it into the normal news venues, or that the news venues will say that McCain being born in Panama was a more relevant issue (which it obviously is not).

[ckilmer]

Here is Gov (commerce secretary elect)Bill Richardson saying in Spanish that Obama is an "immigrant." (So he understands understands "immigrant" issues.)The context suggests that by "immigrant" bill richardson means "illegal immigrant"



Here in plain English is the Kenyan Ambassador saying that Obama is born in Kenya.



Obama's own flacks deny that obama was born in Kenya but do acknowledge that he had a dual citizenship up until 1982

from obama's own site factcheck.org by way of fightthesmears on his dual citizenship at birth

“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children.

Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.”(Someone will want to cache the above web page because it will be taken down eventually.)

Here is the problem with fighthesmears narrative: We already have recorded that Obama's wife michellle said Obama's mother was "very young and very single" when obama was born. British law at the time of obama's birth only gave citizenship from the father to the son in the case that the father is married to the mother:ie the son is legitimate. See wikipedia 2.4.3Since obama's parents were NOT married -- how did obama get his British/Kenyancitizenship? Its not unreasonable to think that he got his British/Kenyan because he was born there--and not because of his parentage. Interestingly, recently both WorldNetDaily and DailyKos have reported that a copy of Obamas Kenyan Birth Certificate is on sale at ebay by an accredited seller. For more google references to the seller see colmado_naranja Once again, Just one piece of evidence could easily be dismissed. It is the accumulation of evidence that is troubling.
It is well established that Obama did travel to Indonesia and Pakistan in 1981. In a tape of his speech at this April 6, 2008 San Francisco Fundraiser, Obama discloses his trip to Pakistan (40:17) when he was in college. On what passport did he travel?

A last arguement for baraks people might be that of course the Kenyans would have an interest in claiming that obama was a "son of the soil" both as a matter of pride and as a matter of bucks coming their way. However, if Obama was not born in Kenya -- then why wouldn't Obama release his original long form birth certificate. Instead of just releasing his long form birth certificate he has paid his lawyers 1 million dollars from campaign contributions since Sept 08 to squash the suits brought on the issue. On top of that according to the LA Times since the election -- the Kenyans feel that Obama has gone out of his way to snub/ignore/distance-himself them. The Kenyans are putting up reasons like perhaps they are insufficiently perfected for him to notice them--but here in the USA we have seen Obama throw a number of embarrasing people from his past under the bus. Exactly What IS a Natural Born Citizen?

The thing has become a joke in washington. Joe Biden Joked at the Gridiron Dinner in March 09.

After mentioning one of the Republican speakers for the evening, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was born in Austria and that one of the Democratic speakers, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, was born in Canada, Biden chortled: "Folks, this is going to be Lou Dobbs' worst nightmare. "

From there, Biden transitioned to the birth certificate controversy.

Les Kinsolving asked the Presidential Press Secretary Gibbs to release the long form birth certificate. The press secretary suggested mockingly that the copy of the short form birth certificate supplied online is Obama's long form birth certificate. Not so. See the press conference out take here.

The White House 'dialogue' site has to be scrubbed regularly because of long form birth certificate eligibility posts. Rush Limbaugh joked several times on his radio show on 6/10/09: "What do God and Obama have in commen? (Answer) Neither have birth certificates." Even the liberal LA Times on June 30, 2009 in an article dripping with contempt--conceded that the thing Obama's people posted online was "technically... not a birth certificate".

[ckilmer]

A detroit radio station called the Kenyan embassy after the election of Obama. After a a few minutes they get through to the ambassador of Kenya.

The ambassador of Kenya says that obama was born in Kenya and that his birth place has become a national shrine.

Listen to the recording here

The quote is around 12:35, so if you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, you can jump ahead.
The transcript reads:

Radio Jockey: President elect Obama's birth place over in Kenya -- is that going to be a national spot where he was born

Ambassador Peter Ogego: its already an attraction. his paternal grandmother is still alive

Radio Jockey:But his birth place...they'll put up a marker there

Ambassdor Peter Ogego: It would depend on the government. Its already well known.

Here is an abridged Utube version of the the radio interview. So you can hear just the relevant parts.

It can be reasonably pointed out that the DJ was trying to entrap the Ambassador and that the Ambassador fell into his trap.
However, if you listen to the long version of the radio interview --you’ll notice he used the same strategy on two different occasions and the ambassador gently brushed him off.

First, he tried to force the ambassador to sing the Kenyan national anthem. The ambassador referred him to the kenyan website.

Second he tried to push the ambassador into saying something about maybe Kenya becoming the 51st state. Again the ambassador said that Kenya was a sovereign country. ie No.

He used the same technique on the question of Obama’s birth place. This time the ambassador did not brush him off. Rather in answer to the question as to whether Obama was born in Kenya --he says "It is well known."

Because the ambassador answered no in the two previous examples -- you can't say that the ambassdor was either a fool or ill advised.

Finally, you might ask well doesn't he know that saying Obama is born in Kenya would make trouble for Obama? The answer there is why should he be concerned? He has heard no suggestion in the mainstream media that there might be a problem there. So to say what is already well known--as he says--would be no problem.

Here is a utube video of Ambassador Peter Ogego speaking at a conference. Ambassador of Kenya H.E. Peter Ogego To verify that the voice on the radio is Ambassador Ogego-- compare the radio voice with the DJ to the voice on the Utube that goes with Ambassador Ogego. Ambassador Peter Ogego is introduced a bit after minute 18..

They are the same.


Subsequently, the Kenyan ambassador said that he meant Obama's father was born in Kenya. However, when pressed about Obama's birth place:

"I don't know," he said with a tone of irritation. "You should ask your government. I know his father is Kenyan."

However, that's not what the original transcript suggests. clear="all" /> Finally, there is a Affidavit of Bishop Ron McRae which is part of the Berg case. The Bishop says pretty much the same thing as the Ambassador.

"Additionally, it is common knowledge throughout both the Christian and Muslim communities in Kenya, that contrary to news media propaganda here in the United States, US Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim and not a Christian, and that he was born in Mombasa, Kenya and not in the State of Hawaii as falsely purported by the Obama campaign for presidency of the United States."

While you cannot impeach the ambassador's character, you can impeach McCrae's character. After all, he's just an itinerant preacher. But McCrae has been to Kenya. Still that makes two people who say that it is common knowledge in Kenya that Obama was born in Kenya.
Then of course there is a video of Obama's grandmother saying that Obama is born in Kenya
There is a case to be made that Obama mother didn't mean Obama was born in Kenya but rather that he is a "son of this village". However, witnesses insist that she said she was present at obama's birth in Kenya. If taken alone, perhaps she could well be ignored. However, her take is in keeping with others both high and low.

Again here is a pdf transcript of Kenyan National Assembly on Nov 5, 2008, the day after Obama was elected. Over and over again there are references to Obama being a "son of the soil" of Kenya and a Kenyan. On page page 3275 there is this passage:

HOUSE SHOULD ADJOURN TO DISCUSS ELECTION OF MR. BARRACK OBAMA

Ms. Odhiambo: On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. It is not on this issue. I stand on a point of order under Standing Order No.20 to seek leave for adjournment of the House to discuss the American presidential election results.

(Applause)

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President-elect, Mr. Obama, is a son of the soil of this country. Every other country in this continent is celebrating the Obama win. It is only proper and fitting that the country which he originates from should show the same excitement, pomp and colour.



Again. It is not the one thing. Rather it is the tide.

The American Thinker explains here why the short form that Obama released is not sufficient for Hawaii. The Obama administration could put this to rest by releasing his long form birth certificate. But he doesn't. Instead of just releasing his long form birth certificate he has paid his lawyers over 1 million dollars from campaign contributions since Sept 08 to squash the suits brought on the issue. Why bother. The Arnold would have run for president long ago and likely won if he were a "natural born" american. He's not. He's naturalized. So he can't run. And he knows it. (though there were some trial balloons sent up a couple years back about changing the law--that went nowhere.)

Like the Arnold, Obama looks to be a naturalized citizen--but maybe he's not even that. Here's a footnoted timeline of obama's life 1961-2008. Its especially helpful to look at 1961 and 2008. Of interest is this: Interesting timeline with footnotes of obama's life.

of note

On April 10, 2008 Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduces Senate Resolution S. Res. 511 to “recognize that John Sidney McCain is a natural born citizen.” The resolution is allegedly meant to clarify that McCain is eligible to be President even though he was born in Panama. Because McCain’s parents were both Americans and he was born in Panama because his father was stationed there while in the military, existing law already covers McCain and he is eligible to be President. McCaskill’s resolution thus serves no purpose – except that language is included to try and provide a “blanket cover” for other foreign born candidates without military backgrounds, in order to enable Obama to be eligible to be President. This is the language that Obama inserted “Whereas previous presidential candidates were born outside of the United States of America and were understood to be eligible to be President;” This Clause has no particular relevance to McCain [The language is inserted by Obama.][301,303]

301# http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/obama-born-in-kenya-new-information/#more-3844

303 # http://watchdog.net/b/us/110/sr511

Obama's Senate efforts to airbrush his past were augmented by his top Intelligence Advisor in March 2008. Obama's Intelligence Adviser Involved in Security Breach. Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser, John O. Brennan, heads a firm that was cited in March [2008] for breaching sensitive files in the State Department’s passport office, according to a State Department Inspector General’s report released this past July. The security breach, first reported by the Washington Times and later confirmed by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, involved a contract employee of Brennan’s firm, The Analysis Corp., which has earned millions of dollars providing intelligence-related consulting services to federal agencies and private companies. During a State Department briefing on March 21, 2008, McCormack confirmed that the contractor had accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John McCain, and that the inspector general had launched an investigation. Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to “cauterize” the records of potentially embarrassing information.

[cripplecreek]

Even if this were to pass with Obama grandfathered in, I suspect it would hurt his chances of a second run pretty badly.

[Red Steel]

I agree, (miracle ;-) it’s easier to get states to pass this law. However, the effort to go the federal law route gives it some more visibility. And I doubt Obama would sign it into law...unless he throws in the towel for 2012. Second thought, he may not sign it out of spite and still not run in 2012.

[Star Traveler]

One could hope... :-)

[NonValueAdded]

Setting aside the "is he or isn't he" issue, IIRC there WERE names on the Presidential race ballots in some states that were unequivocally foreign born citizens and thus ineligible to serve. It has been no big deal up until now as these were fringe candidates with little or no chances of capturing a single electoral vote.

However, what the many court challenges to Barack Obama's eligibility HAVE revealed is THAT THERE IS NO APPARENT QUALIFICATION PROCESS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL (and that precious few of us have the "right" to ask that the Constitution be followed - but that is a whole different thread). Whether or not you dismiss "birthers" as kooks, the Constitutional Qualification question is a loophole that must be closed for future elections.

I doubt we'll see Federal action but if even one State enacts a rigorous process and if we have a free and independent Press, that should be enough. Has anyone seen signs of the latter?

[lilylangtree]

Start with the fraud NOW. If obozo the clown doesn’t produce the BC, start proceedings to remove his sorry a**.

[BARLF]

I agree.

[BARLF]

If he’s a democrap my thinking he made it up.

[Secret Agent Man]

Even if he was born in Hawaii, he is not a “natural born” citizen. He is a natural citizen, because he was - if you believe it - born on American soil, and at least one parent an American citizen.

But to be a ‘natural born citizen’ - not only requires being born on American soil, but that both parents are American citizens. Obama’s father was not American, but Kenyan. Therefore Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen.

[FTJM]

Funny how Keith Olbermann had to be be referenced in story about a House Bill. The language in this bill needs to require that a vault copy long form birth certificate be provided and release for hospital records.

[Red Steel]

Take it one step further. If Obama was born overseas he should have been naturalized to become a US citizen. If he was not, then he’s a alien.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Good idea, but it’s a little late. Still, it’s good to hear from the Republicans once in a while. I had forgotten they existed.

[JamesA]

Heck yea, How about proving all lawmakers are qualified, get rid of the nin-cum-poops.

[Lera]

Well we wouldn’t even have this problem come up if we required them to get the same security clearance as the men and women who serve in our military are required to get.
If we required the same of our law makers in the House and Senate a whole bunch of them would not qualify for the positions they now hold. One of them would surely not now be president and another would not be Speaker of the House.

[txhurl]

0 will be a one-term lame-duck pretty soon.

What’s funny is the sponsors could attach all kinds of crazy stuff to the bill and the Rats couldn’t object.