Eventually, I hope to ascend to your plane of knowledge, at which point I can skip the reading/responding step, and go straight to being a tool.

4/27/2011 2:55:13 PM

99% of the people who have maintained that he's not a US citizen think that Hawaii is a country.

4/27/2011 3:27:45 PM

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/on-the-birth-certificate-idiocracy/237941/

BOOM

4/27/2011 3:54:31 PM

^

Quote :

"and his super-radiant smile"

That is as far as I got. I had to change my pants.

4/27/2011 3:59:41 PM

dude can't have a super-radiant smile?

4/27/2011 4:04:22 PM

I'm going to say that the hard headed hard-liners from both sides of the spectrum poison the well for the rest of us...

blech...

4/27/2011 4:24:39 PM

Didn't he just give credence to all of those people whom he said were ridiculous?

Or maybe he opened the flood gates for the requests that have started to come in about releasing his school records.

4/27/2011 5:31:12 PM

ignoring them wasn't working unfortunately.

4/27/2011 5:37:21 PM

From the article:

Quote :

"6) Why didn't Obama do this before? Who knows. Perhaps some genius strategy to enmire the Republicans with the nuttiest part of their constituency? Perhaps a prideful sense that this kind of "prove it" gesture was beneath him? Perhaps resentment at the obvious racial component of the "not born here" sentiment? I don't know. But consistent with point #3 above, it probably wouldn't have made any difference."

Obama's behavior regarding the birth certificate is not consistent with someone that has nothing to hide. Or is the author here correct? Did he purposely allow this distraction to persist? That sounds about right for a guy that couldn't possibly win a battle of ideas, and would rather divert people's attention to non-issues.

4/27/2011 5:49:46 PM

^so you are agreeing that he is smart enough to get into the ivies...

4/27/2011 6:04:45 PM

^He did get in. I guess Trump is trying to see if he got special favors or AA to get in. I cant think of any other reason it would be important to anyone really. Although people loved talking about Ws grades before they were higher than Kerry's.

4/27/2011 6:19:55 PM

Quote :

"Why didn't Obama do this before?"

because this is the precise time that you want to have this come out. all of the bullshit will die out well before Nov. 2012 and it won't affect the election now. Plus Donald Trump sent investigators to Hawaii to "find" evidence supporting Obama's claim, how easy do you think it would be for Trump's folks to "not" find anything. "Yeah, we looked EVERYWHERE, no birth certificate here" the press conference / media shitstorm is easily imaginable and then Obama would HAVE to produce the document to discredit Trump afterwards. now Trump just looks like a chump.

4/27/2011 7:40:40 PM

Quote :

"I guess Trump is trying to see if he got special favors or AA to get in."

Hurray, more coded race baiting to sustain the constituency that just can't come to grips with the reality that a black man was legitimately elected president.

On that note:

4/27/2011 8:15:53 PM

Quote :

"Hurray, more coded race baiting to sustain the constituency that just can't come to grips with the reality that a black man was legitimately elected president. "

I cant imagine any other reason to want the grades. imo

4/27/2011 8:34:57 PM

And one more, just for fun:

Quote :

"TRUMP: If you look at what he’s doing in Libya, which is a total disaster. Nobody even knows what’s going on in Libya. If you look at what’s happening with gasoline prices where he said he has no control over prices, which he does if he gets on the phone or gets off his basketball court or whatever he is doing at the time."

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/27/trump-obama-basketball-court/

4/27/2011 8:40:25 PM

Quote :

"^so you are agreeing that he is smart enough to get into the ivies..."

I don't doubt that he could have legitimately gotten into an Ivy League school. Who knows how well he actually did while attending. Even if he got straight As, that doesn't prove that he's fit to shape federal policy or even run an organization.

Obama doesn't offer leadership, and that's probably the core issue. A leader would have gotten this shit out on the table early on and settled the debate. A conniving prick would have purposely left it unsettled for political gain.

Quote :

"because this is the precise time that you want to have this come out. all of the bullshit will die out well before Nov. 2012 and it won't affect the election now. Plus Donald Trump sent investigators to Hawaii to "find" evidence supporting Obama's claim, how easy do you think it would be for Trump's folks to "not" find anything. "Yeah, we looked EVERYWHERE, no birth certificate here" the press conference / media shitstorm is easily imaginable and then Obama would HAVE to produce the document to discredit Trump afterwards. now Trump just looks like a chump."

So you also think this was a calculated move. Interesting.

4/27/2011 10:57:00 PM

yes I think it was a calculated move in response to Donald Trump. congrats to Trump for "forcing" the president to do something. whoop-dee-doo lets move on. i think in the end its all just politics and Trump took the bait and Obama will end up president again.

4/27/2011 11:19:15 PM

Quote :

"A leader would have gotten this shit out on the table early on and settled the debate. A conniving prick would have purposely left it unsettled for political gain."

this

4/27/2011 11:27:22 PM

the fact that there was debate on this at all shows how fucking retarded people are and how petty most republicans are. This type of moronic bullshit is why I left that group of dickfors.

How many previous presidents needed to reveal their birth certificates to the public?

4/27/2011 11:54:15 PM

Hopefully, all of them. The government is always strict about formal requirements, no matter how silly they sometimes seem. Why would this be any different?

[Edited on April 28, 2011 at 12:05 AM. Reason : ]

4/28/2011 12:04:46 AM

Show me a link to any coverage of a public release of birth certificates for Clinton or Bush, which should be recent enough to have google-cached articles available.

I was not able to find any such thing.

Let's show a little intellectual honesty here. Obama was badgered about this shit because his middle name is Hussein and he's half black.

[Edited on April 28, 2011 at 12:08 AM. Reason : .]

4/28/2011 12:07:39 AM

That's undoubtedly why he's been the target of these inquiries. I acknowledge that on the last page. Obama was raised in the United States. He should be very aware of how stupid and bigoted many Americans are. Was it really not "worth his time" to take the tiny amount of effort and produce this document? That would have been the ultimate, "okay, shut up already." As soon as the rumors that Obama was Muslim/not a native citizen/whatever started to surface, he should have had the sense to end it.

4/28/2011 12:16:54 AM

I think Obama is a vampire, and until he proves to me that he is not a vampire, I am going to continue to believe he is. Ever see Obama eat garlic? Didn't think so.

4/28/2011 12:38:25 AM

also read (in an e-mail) that he's a member of NAMBLA

I won't rest until he kills this rumor

4/28/2011 12:44:07 AM

He was also born with lady-parts.

4/28/2011 12:50:56 AM

Quote :

"Let's show a little intellectual honesty here. Obama was badgered about this shit because his middle name is Hussein and he's half black. "

While you easily jumped on the implied racism which I dont think is being intellectually honest imo. I do think it does have to do with his father and some questions on where he was raised. As he did spend time overseas. That does provide some mystery to his childhood and possible birth, esp when the actual birth certificate wasnt provided.

Now do I think this is all politically motivated? you bet. Do I think it is race motivated? no

No one claimed racism when they questioned if McCain was US born when they were going after where he was born. This is no different, just easier to play the race card.

Hopefully this issue will die now. Obama himself said he has more important things to deal with. Which he does. Then he go to do the Oprah show, which just isnt one of the important things I was hoping he was talking about. lol

4/28/2011 9:35:26 AM

I agree with you and others on the shit like going on oprah, and whatever. Let me be clear, I'm not an Obama fan whatsoever.

There are tons of reasons to dislike the guy as a president, yet a fucking birth certificate is what moronic tea baggers decide to focus on.

The thing is, IT NEVER MATTERED. Again, the fact that his mother was a US citizen grants him natural born citizen status regardless of where he was born. It's the same law that allows McCain to be a natural born citizen, the same law that allows children of soldiers and diplomats born abroad to be US citizens, but it's a lot easier to simply follow the mob mentality without actually being informed, isn't it?

4/28/2011 10:25:19 AM

^judging from the media the last 24 hours the birth certificate was ALL anyone from the GOP or the tea party talked about for the last 2 yrs. That just isnt the case. Hell even Trump kept wanting to talk about something else yet the media kept asking about the BC.

starts around 3:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLbnFDieox0


^you are right, it never mattered.

4/28/2011 10:36:01 AM

Quote :

"esp when the actual birth certificate wasnt provided."

Ummm... yes it was. His legal birth certificate was provided. When you go and get your birth certificate, it's not this document Obama had to hire lawyers to go and get.

And when you have people wrongly thinking Obama was born in Kenya, then there's definitely a racism factor to this equation, it's naive to deny this. People weren't saying that John McCain was secretly born in Nazi Germany (or wherever it is unwanted white people come from), not that McCain's eligibility ever came into question. You didn't see a plurality of Democrats believing he wasn't eligible.

[Edited on April 28, 2011 at 5:33 PM. Reason : ]

4/28/2011 5:31:15 PM

Quote :

"Again, the fact that his mother was a US citizen grants him natural born citizen status regardless of where he was born. It's the same law that allows McCain to be a natural born citizen, the same law that allows children of soldiers and diplomats born abroad to be US citizens, but it's a lot easier to simply follow the mob mentality without actually being informed, isn't it?"

100% FALSE. Nice try though. There is a law that specifically grants McCain natural-born citizenship, but it might not have necessarily applied to Obama, as he had only one US Citizen parent. Moreover, there were, as I understand it, laws at the time that put certain residency restrictions on automatic citizenship for children born outside of the US to one US citizen parent (and I believe it was specific to the mother), and it is questionable that his mother would have fulfilled those requirements.

Quote :

"And when you have people wrongly thinking Obama was born in Kenya, then there's definitely a racism factor to this equation, it's naive to deny this."

yeah. the fact that his father was from somewhere else has nothing to do with it. nope, no siree! pull a random black man off the street with two US citizens for his parents and undoubtedly the GOP will say he was born in Kenya. Yep, that makes 100% sense

[Edited on April 28, 2011 at 5:55 PM. Reason : ]

4/28/2011 5:54:00 PM

Obama was getting too much heat about Bradley Manning and has released him into normal prison population. Yay for the president of the united states of america condemning torture...sorta...privately...or at least occasionally. I mean, I'm sure Manning will still get raped and beat to hell, but at least it's no longer sanctioned and encouraged by the commander in chief.

4/28/2011 6:31:26 PM

Quote :

"yeah. the fact that his father was from somewhere else has nothing to do with it. nope, no siree! pull a random black man off the street with two US citizens for his parents and undoubtedly the GOP will say he was born in Kenya. Yep, that makes 100% sense "

So youre saying under Conservative thinking, it's perfectly rational to question someone's citizenship based on a parent being a foreigner, despite all rational and legal evidence otherwise? And you wonder why minorities shy away from the Republican party...

I didn't realize this double-standard for minorities was so codified in rightist-thought.

4/28/2011 6:36:00 PM

Quote :

"yeah. the fact that his father was from somewhere else has nothing to do with it. nope, no siree! pull a random black man off the street with two US citizens for his parents and undoubtedly the GOP will say he was born in Kenya. Yep, that makes 100% sense "

exactly. Or the fact that they lived overseas?

^moron, I dont know what is so hard to understand about people having some doubt. Him releasing his BC erases all doubt. end of story.

double standard for minorities.... really?

4/28/2011 7:15:23 PM

Quote :

"So youre saying under Conservative thinking, it's perfectly rational to question someone's citizenship based on a parent being a foreigner, despite all rational and legal evidence otherwise?"

no, not at all. I'm saying it had little to do w/ skin color and everything to do with the fact that he had a foreign-born father and spent a a portion of his childhood overseas

4/28/2011 7:43:14 PM

user 1 says nothing whatsoever about race having any meaning in a discussion

user 2 calls user 1 a racist

user 1 has to defend against accusations of racism, 's, and goes back to chit chat

rinse, repeat

4/28/2011 9:12:30 PM

Quote :

"100% FALSE. Nice try though. There is a law that specifically grants McCain natural-born citizenship, but it might not have necessarily applied to Obama, as he had only one US Citizen parent. Moreover, there were, as I understand it, laws at the time that put certain residency restrictions on automatic citizenship for children born outside of the US to one US citizen parent (and I believe it was specific to the mother), and it is questionable that his mother would have fulfilled those requirements."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/25/barack-obama-donaldtrump

Quote :

"The Naturalisation Act of 1790 provided that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens." Just three years after the constitution's adoption, this would seem to give an early and powerful repudiation of the birther reading of the clause. But it cannot, on its own, clarify the constitution. In United States v Wong Kim Ark, the US supreme court ruled that a child born in the United States to two US domiciled foreign parents not serving with a foreign government was a natural born citizen. This set the precedent that natural born citizenship could be granted by the principle of "jus soli", or citizenship from birth in the United States. However, as illustrated by the Naturalisation Act, jus soli cannot account for all Americans. To fill the space of absent court clarification on American citizens born abroad, Congress has provided statutory definition for natural born citizenship. Title 8, section 1401 of the US Title Code provides these definitions to include (among other qualifying citizens) those born abroad to one American parent and one foreign parent, provided the American parent spent five years in the US prior to the child's birth. The strength of section 1401 is in its clarification of the clause in a logical manner, compatible with the constitution and in a way that can account for American citizens not physically born in the United States. Because the law grants citizenship even to the Obama of the birther universe, the birthers reject section 1401 as unconstitutional. In contrast to the logic of section 1401, the birther reading of the natural born citizenship clause is highly problematic. Put simply, if the only natural born citizens are those born inside the United States, then many "natural'" Americans are left out in the cold. The state department foreign affairs manual (pdf) notes that under the constitution's 14th amendment, US government installations abroad are not part of the United States. Therefore, according to the birther approach, this would mean, for example, that while a child born inside the United States to foreign tourists or to illegal immigrants is a natural born citizen, John McCain – born on a military base in Panama – is not."

[Edited on April 28, 2011 at 9:28 PM. Reason : . ]

4/28/2011 9:28:23 PM

Quote :

""The Naturalisation Act of 1790 provided that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens." Just three years after the constitution's adoption, this would seem to give an early and powerful repudiation of the birther reading of the clause."

too bad that law is no longer applicable. DOH!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23415028/ns/nightly_news/

Quote :

"Title 8, section 1401 of the US Title Code provides these definitions to include (among other qualifying citizens) those born abroad to one American parent and one foreign parent, provided the American parent spent five years in the US prior to the child's birth. "

That's how it reads NOW. at the time of Obama's birth, it required, IIRC, 5 years of residency AFTER THE AGE OF 14. His mother left the US before 19.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001401----000-notes.html
note the amendments.

Quote :

"Therefore, according to the birther approach, this would mean, for example, that while a child born inside the United States to foreign tourists or to illegal immigrants is a natural born citizen, John McCain – born on a military base in Panama – is not.""

yeaaah... except for the fact that there were other laws that said differently. What shitty journalism.

4/28/2011 11:14:38 PM

Holy hell at that last quote. They even say he was born on a military base. Retards.

4/29/2011 9:11:39 AM

Quote :

" mean, I'm sure Manning will still get raped and beat to hell, but at least it's no longer sanctioned and encouraged by the commander in chief."

If you know this is going to happen to Manning, then the President must know this is going to happen to him. (He's a pretty smart guy...definitely smarter than me and probably smarter than you.) And if the President knows this is going to happen to him if released into GP and still releases him, doesn't that sanction the rape/beatdown?

4/29/2011 9:55:25 PM

If you know California is going to one day fall into the ocean, then the President must know this is going to happen to California. (He's a pretty smart guy...definitely smarter than me and probably smarter than you.) And if the President knows this is going to happen to California if tectonic plates continue to move and still does nothing, doesn't that sanction the falling of California into the ocean?

4/29/2011 10:17:46 PM

hmmm... in one, the President can take direct action to affect the outcome. in the other, unless Obama REALLY IS the messiah, I'd be hard pressed to think that Obama can stop the movement of tectonic plates. I'm just saying...

4/30/2011 4:36:59 PM

5/1/2011 1:01:31 AM

^that was great. Very funny.

The fact he is so likeable will get him reelected, though I dont think his performance warrants it.

5/1/2011 9:32:04 AM

Can I just say that last night was the single hottest moment a first lady has had in the history of the US

5/1/2011 11:29:13 AM

@ducantrussell It's fun to watch the White House Correspondents dinner and imagine the grinning ghosts of Afghani children laughing at Obama's quips.


when I voted for Obama, I thought it was because I believed he would do a bunch of stuff I'd wanted someone to do (and that it meant Sarah Palin would be no where near the White House). if I were to vote for Obama again, it'd mostly be because he's someone I'd want to have a beer with. [Paul/Kucinich '12]

Quote :

"Can I just say that last night was the single hottest moment a first lady has had in the history of the US"

I'd agree, if not for Mamie Eisenhower's epic sex tape

5/1/2011 11:38:57 AM

Quote :

"@ducantrussell It's fun to watch the White House Correspondents dinner and imagine the grinning ghosts of Afghani children laughing at Obama's quips."

This pretty much sums up why I can't make myself give a shit about Obama clowning on Trump at a fucking party.

5/1/2011 1:55:53 PM

PEOPLE ARE DYING WE CANT HAVE FUN

EVER

5/1/2011 3:37:20 PM

i'm still smoking

i'm still laughing

i just ain't gonna embrace the good party times of the dude sending the bombs

5/1/2011 5:38:30 PM

oh sorry, edit:

ITS OK TO KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HAVE FUN WHILE IT'S HAPPENING

is that more of what you are getting at?

5/1/2011 6:13:13 PM

almost

i don't really feel its okay to kill at all, regardless of "innocence"

5/1/2011 6:37:40 PM