Clay Bennett for February 19, 2010

…the teddy bear is smarter than the average Tea Partier…

Give her some flying lessons?

its nice to see people who’ve never been to a teaparty berate them….its a left trick…like chicken little gore has pulled on the world….you haven’t been you have no facts..but that won’t stop you

See! Never lose faith in our youth…That Build-a-Bear comes with an authentic Birth Certificate: something our President doesn’t have. Which Hawaiian Hospital were you born in Barack? As a “birther” myself - although I claim no affiliation with any one else claiming to be a birther; I can attest to the fact that Tea Partiers claim no affiliation with the likes of me, either. Do Lib pundits and editorialists really think lying and name-calling substitutes for real policy debate?

There are too many uneducated people in this country. They can’t read, can’t spell and can’t think for themselves. They believe all the fears the Republicans lie about. They don’t even realize how they’re being used.

If you go to

http://www.treasury.gov/bureaus/

you will find the following statement:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the largest of Treasury’s bureaus. It is responsible for determining, assessing, and collecting internal revenue in the United States.

You can find there a link to the IRS website, and the website has a gov suffix. If it’s private, they are doing a good job of looking public.

GENIUS!

rikoshay rabbit – I think you should check the accuracy of your sources. The Federal Reserve System is a complicated mixture of public and private, but it is firmly situated in federal law. Here is some of what wiki says about the Federal Reserve System:

The Federal Reserve System is subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, and so is legally obligated to inform the public about its organization, procedures and rules. In addition, the Act requires the Fed to establish uniform standards for the conduct of formal rule-making and adjudication. According to the board of governors: “It is not ‘owned’ by anyone and is ‘not a private, profit-making institution’. Instead, it is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects.” In particular, the US Government does not own shares in the Federal Reserve System nor its component banks, but does take all of its profits after salaries are paid to employees, a dividend is paid to member banks that is 6% of their capital investment, and surplus is put in a capital account. The government also exercises some control by appointing its highest-level employees and setting their salaries. According to the Fed, there are presently five parts of the Federal Reserve System: The presidentially appointed Board of Governors, a governmental agency in Washington, D.C. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which oversees Open Market Operations, the principal tool of national monetary policy. Twelve regional privately-owned Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation, which divide the nation into 12 districts, acting as fiscal agents for the U.S. Treasury, each with its own nine-member board of directors. Numerous other private U.S. member banks, which subscribe to required amounts of non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks. Various advisory councils.

I don’t claim that wiki is the court of last appeal, but on such a clear topic, it would be odd if it were wildly inaccurate. I would certainly want to see very persuasive evidence against what they say.

church – unfortunately, the Republicans have not limited membership in their party to sane persons. (Nor, I hasten to add, have the Democrats.) Prominent conservatives have questioned the validity of Obama’s citizenship. Is that position sane?

Constitution: “Article I Section 8 Powers of Congress: The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect taxes”

Subsequent also to the Constitution the Congress can grant powers to the President (Executive Branch) or if you prefer

Constitution: “Amendment XVI- The Congess SHALL have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and regard to any census or enumeration.”

Screw wiki on the wall if you wish, but sometimes it helps to actually read the source and authorization for laws and administration of government.

I can’t see how people who refuse the ACT of asking questions can therefore say that we, “the Birthers” are in the dark. In what hospital was Barak born? Why does he not produce the long form certificate and/or the hospital issued document with the doctor’s signature? Yes that’s right, I’m almost the same age as Barak and I can produce no less than three Birth Documents myself. Where are the birthing room nurses and doctors saying, “I helped bring Obama into the world?.” Why are his college transcripts and enrollment records being kept private? Why do the Superiors involved (Hawaiian Records officials, Governor of Hawaii) use parsed language to handle this issue? Obama, show us your Birth Certificate!

I don’t know why I bother – I don’t expect to convince SmellChecker, but for any others who might still believe that this topic merits discussion:

Quoted in USA Today 7/28/2009: “I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago….”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154599/page/1 FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as “supporting documents” to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

And you can also check out further information, including the birth announcement in the newspapers, at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp and at many other websites.

SmellChecker: if you don’t like Obama, that’s okay. If you disagree with every thing he’s ever said or done, that’s okay. But this birth certificate thing is not going anywhere. Either he really is a natural born US citizen, or else there is a conspiracy so vast and so smart and so foresighted that electing Obama was just a tiny detail in their overall plan. My theory? He’s really from another planet.

Dear ricoshay rabbit: if you really believe that the federal income tax is unconstitutional, I suggest that you refuse to pay your taxes, and when they come to collect the money you should challenge them in court. Then you will find out the status of the law.

Well, you’re braver than I would be. Good luck.

lonecat: Chiyome spits out a form response and it satisfies you… FactCheck.org has seen and handled a short form BC. The circumstances of the short form are well known: they are easy to get hold of, if for some reason, you are missing your own BC. Places that require a LongForm BC will accept the short form substitute passed out by the Hawaiian Records office. Right there we see a reason for Chiyome to play “legal”. Also keep this in mind: -Republicans didn’t want to win -What a “naturalized citizen” is has not been hashed out in the Supreme Court. -Obama is a man of “color”- this would be the First President of any color to be sand-bagged because of his citizenship in the face of majority approval for his candacy. -The majority of Americans would accept him as “American” because of his Mother; even though the specifics of her background would rule her out to give birth automatically to an “american” baby (If we adhere to accepted law currently and at the time he was born). -Hillary’s Goon squad was the first to push this issue: now there is silence, and curiously, a do-nothing liberal president. -For a liberal, he is personally likeable ; and I honestly would accept him over the recent performance of the Cons in many areas. -The Courts have found no standing for people like Berg…Bad law, for sure. So, if you- who consider yourself informed and “reasonable” didn’t know these pertinent facts and yet consider anybody who raises the question a nut; just think of the prejudice of somebody with something on the line actually going before the public, their peers, and the courts to dispute the electability of this, the First Black American President. As I just stated, in many ways I’m glad he is President and this is also especially beneficial for America to have this man serve honestly and effectively as a true President of the People. Yet the silence and secrecy of the events surrounding his birth is quite glaring. You and others may want the issue to go away but the question of eligibility won’t go away anytime soon. Plus, he needs to show us his College, employment, and Health records; something every other modern president has produced.

Keep this in mind: Only one person has the legal right to view and comment on Barak’s LongForm Birth Certificate at this time; and that is Barak. The courts have dodged the issue and left it up to public opinion (they actually have no precedent to force a candidate to show his birth certificate, I believe). I once left a post where I admitted that I was 98% sure Barak was an American citizen; if only for the fact that I find it hard to believe that somebody privy to the true facts (i.e. someone who has seen a true Birth Certificate or not when necessary) would not have come forward by now. It is also possible, with the short-form farce as a diversion, the obliviousness of the arrogant media, and the unwillingness of the Republicans; the truth could still be bottled up in a small group of willing conspirators at the top of Obama’s administration.

BTW rik:

How’s Wesley Snipes been doin?

@ Church - I do think the birther nonsense started with a few rabid Hill fanboys (and fangirls), or nearly so (who knows where they got the idea from). Unfortunately, it didn’t end with them.

Ahhh, she’s so cute…She looks like a young Ann Coulter.

Pardon this foreigner wading into an issue I find mildly amusing. It is a subject I have had to investigate and reseach for my own reasons, just not for American citizenship.

Regardless of where Obama was born, he was born unto an American mother. Even if he was born on the moon, under American law he’d still be a Natural Born American. My daughter has 4 nationalities. Four. I’ve checked and she complies with all 4 countries’ citizenship laws whether through jus sanguinis or jus soli. She already holds or is on identity documents for 3 of those 4.

Are these “birthers” going to request to see Obama’s mother’s birth certificate, too? Edit: (ah, I just read smellchecker/pup’s post more carefully and I see they question the validity of this at time of his birth. Oh brother. :-| I’ll have more tea then, laced with something stronger please.)

No, there is a question of consistency of his mother being stateside and being over the age of automatic citizenship while being away. The citizenship of the Mother does not also automatically qualify the child for citizenship, either. His second father also repudiated his U.S. citizenship (I believe) and allowed him to become Singapore-an.

Libs, in the end, have no answers and hope critical issues will just go away and that they can sway political opinions by giving something away… That works everywhere else in the world, Libs, except here; because we got guns…