Posted on 12/05/2008 10:18:12 AM PST by STARWISE
Four days ago, Roger Bredow uploaded a video to YouTube beseeching like-minded people to come to Washington, D.C. and stand with him outside the Supreme Court.
"[Barack] Obama was born a dual citizen," Bredow said, "British, and a citizen of the United States, at birth." This, said Bredow, meant that the president-elect could never take the oath of office.
And on Friday, the Supreme Court would read Donofrio v. Wells, a suit brought by a New Jersey poker player against his state elections officer, which laid out the charges in the hopes of nullifying the election.
Today at 8 a.m., they came.
"If I'm going to be honest with you," said Bredow, sporting a floppy American flag hat that he'd promised on YouTube he'd be wearing, "I thought I might be the only person here."
He had flown in from Georgia. The other fifteen to twenty people who cycled in and out of the small protest had traveled shorter distances—southern Pennsylvania, northern Virginia—but they felt they had to do something.
The "dual born citizen" claim is the latest (and maybe strongest) attempt by Obama conspiracy theorists to argue that he can't be president, but most of the people I talked to had questioned Obama's citizenship long before this.
"I first heard about it from Phil Berg's case," said Julie Menge of Williamsburg, Virginia, referring to a case that alleges, among other things, that a 2007 state of Hawaii reproduction of Obama's birth certification is forged, and that Obama's paternal Kenyan step-grandmother Sarah was in the room when he was born.
One protestor claimed that a mysterious Muslim imam blessed Obama's birth in Kenya, and that this fact would eventually be revealed, somehow. (He cited African Press International, a bizarre web site that claims it has, but will not make public, a tape of Michelle Obama ranting about racist media coverage of her husband.)
At 9 a.m., a black minister who would only give his name as Brother Pittman led a prayer circle and a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. Pittman, who lives in Silver Spring, came as a "representative of the Rev. James David Manning," a Harlem preacher who became an Internet legend for a February sermon in which he called Obama a "long-legged mack daddy" who was "born trash."
"I've been shunned by members of my own family," Pittman said. "I tell them, do the research! Go online and look up the facts! This is all about openness and why Barack Obama won't answer questions about who he is."
There's nothing new at all about small, strange protests outside the court, whether or not the justices are at work.
While the Obama protestors were praying, a group of 16 young Christians walked up to the other side of the Court steps, strumming a guitar and lighting candles before holding a pro-life prayer vigil.
Police and tourists looked on and a very small group of journalists grabbed the Obama protestors for interviews. "This story is writing itself," said a Mother Jones reporter as he filmed the prayer circle.
The Supreme Court will announce whether it will actually consider the Obama lawsuit as early as today and as late as Monday.
If (as expected) the Court tosses the suit, Bredow will start challenging Obama's legitimacy based on "foreign money that went into his campaign."
Other protestors said they'd start contacting members of the Electoral College. Steve Brindle, who drove down from Pennsylvania, said he'd called his senators yesterday.
"There aren't a lot of people out here today," said Brindle. "There are a lot of people talking about this back home. Really, everyone's asking questions."
A picture (or three) is worth a thousand words. Thank you for making this important point.
I’ll accept that decision.
Thank you, MrB. Me too.
Touching post. Thank you
Typically, the press does the vetting -- they certainly did when it came to Bush, McCain, and even Kerry when forced into the debate by the SwiftBoatVets. They steadfastly refused to examine the inconsistencies in Obama's birth narrative, or much of anything negative in his background.
Hillary? The only time she could have done it, without alienating the black vote, would have been early on, before the primaries began, and he hadn't yet locked down that constituency. Aside from the fact that Obama was supposed to be the "future" of the Dems, and not the "present," she got complacent, as the favored candidate, and underestimated the power of the race card, O's ruthlessness in using it, and the media turning on her.
McCain? The bipartisan, media-friendly wonder? You can't be serious. Most of the stuff of McCain's attacks on Obama came from folks who dug it up on the internet; his campaign staff were obviously clueless. And if Jeremiah "GD America!" Wright was off limits, do you seriously think he was going to risk questioning anything personal in O's background?
Since zero can’t provide a birth certificate, maybe he was born in a colon also? :)....
Agreed, it is a sad time for the rule of Law.
This election was about making history. That we did by making US Constitution irrelevant
How will you arrange that meeting?
No one said anything about "first-class" or "second-class". But the Constitution does say: No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President
There are two classifications of citizens whether anyone is offended or not. Either you are a Natural Born citizen or a Naturalized citizen.
Figure of speech. Of course.
“Me” being the American public.
Thanks for the PING’SSSSSSSS Lucyt;) keep them coming, I might miss something....
OK, but do you really think that the SCOTUS will feel that is necessary, to go on tv and publicly declare one way or another?
Yes, I’m sure the bible does.
“No matter what happens, God bless those people for having the GUTS to travel there and pray for America.”
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I agree with you. God bless those brave souls. I would have gone had I lived closer. I would rather stand with a few good men and women, than stand with the masses who do NOTHING!!!
Maybe somebodys mama dropped him on his head ?(8-10 times)
Lotta that seems to have happened...;0)
Imagine if all the Beatle Baileys in the army said hey, you ain’t holding up your end of the oath’’ so I’m not gonna hang around. If they screw up the oath to protect an defend, then it’s null and void automatically, right?
Makes sense to me since he is the only other one that received Electoral votes right? CO
No. I don’t recall them EVER doing anthing even remotely resembling that.
Perhaps a press conference (no I don’t expect any of the Justices to attend), to take the opportunity to educate the public on the fundamental primacy of the Constitution, and the fact that its (and only its), guidelines were followed in arriving at this decision.
Yes. That is undoubtedly expecting too much.
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