Birthers Say They Can Arrest President Obama

[c.d.]

http://now.msn.com/orly-taitz-leader-of-birther-movement-says-they-can-arrest-obama

c.d.

[sdreid]

Yeah, that other bunch was going to arrest Bush for war crimes too but it looks like he's still free.

Obama is a legally born U.S. citizen even if he was born in Kenya because his mother was an American citizen and was not legally married at the time. Her "marriage" to the elder Obama wasn't recognized because he was still married to another woman at the time of the ceremony.

[Errata]

Yeah, that other bunch was going to arrest Bush for war crimes too but it looks like he's still free.

Obama is a legally born U.S. citizen even if he was born in Kenya because his mother was an American citizen and was not legally married at the time. Her "marriage" to the elder Obama wasn't recognized because he was still married to another woman at the time of the ceremony.

For some reason the law says you have to be born on US Soil, so either Stateside or at a US military base. I don't know why.

Personally, I think that a woman who has a choice between choosing to give birth in Kenya or Hawaii is going to pick Hawaii every time. There don't seem to be a lot of mothers in the Birther movement, and I think it's because even if they were tempted, they picture giving birth in Kenya and come to the same conclusion I did.

[c.d.]

Hello Errata,

You don't have to be born on U.S. soil. If your parents are U.S. citizens and are vacationing in Europe when the Mother gives birth, the child is still a U.S. citizen.

c.d.

[sdreid]

The Constitution says "natural born Citizen" which I think courts would rule included Obama if he was born a legal U.S. citizen, which he was. George Romney was not ruled out of the Presidential race in 1968 just because he was born in the Mexican wilderness.

This birther thing is most likely a Democrat shill organization set up to discredit the opposition. The Democrats seem to always be the ones calling attention to the Birthers so guess what.

[c.d.]

A Democrat shill organization? Yeah it's not like the Birthers do anything to call attention to themselves.

c.d.

[sdreid]

That's all part of the plan.

[c.d.]

You might be on to something here, Stan. I mean think about it for a minute. Nobody could really be as wacked out as the Birthers in real life.

c.d.

[Ally]

Yeah Donald Trump, head birther nut... definitely a Democrat.

[sdreid]

He's a publicity monger not a real birther.

[Ally]

I thought there were no real birthers, they were all democrat shills. So hard to keep the paranoid delusions straight....

[sdreid]

The democrat shills are the real (meaning actual) birthers. It's a shill organization. No doubt some are fooled.

This isn't my idea. I'm surprised you hadn't heard it before.

[RivkahChaya]

You don't have to be born on U.S. soil. If your parents are U.S. citizens and are vacationing in Europe when the Mother gives birth, the child is still a U.S. citizen.

Your parents do need to register your birth with the embassy or consulate, though. It's unlikely that a couple is going to be "vacationing" oversees when a woman is close to going into labor (I suppose people with relatives in Mexico or Canada might drive over the border, but airlines don't let you board if you are very pregnant, and they are even stricter about long, international flights).

Anyway, people who are overseas for an extended period of time will need to get the child a return passport, and they will need to get the birth documented, and go to the embassy or consulate ASAP to make sure they get the child a US passport. If they let too much time pass, and don't have good documentation, they will likely have difficulty getting the passport.

In other words, if you show up at the embassy with a newborn, mother who looks like she just gave birth, and hospital discharge papers from the previous week, you won't have any problem. Particularly you won't have problem if you let the embassy know you are expecting a child, which'll be happening if you are a diplomat, and have government healthcare, but nevermind. If you show up with a 2-year-old, sketchy papers, a local birth certificate, the hospital doesn't keep records that long, etc., you will have problems.

I lived in Russia when I was 10, and some of my school friends, also from the US, spent several years there, and their mothers had babies, so I happened to ask about this.

Also, if your parents decide to make a statement, like some Jews I know, who move to Israel, have children there, don't register them as US citizens, and later return to the US, and the children have Israeli passports, they sometimes have a mess. They have a headache getting their children naturalized, which they decide to do, because push has come to shove, and their oldest child is about to be drafted. Their children are probably not considered "natural born citizens."

I have a cousin who moved to Israel when he was 18 and joined the Army, 25 years ago. He had a whole career there, just retired, and is moving back here later in the year. He's bringing his younger children. He made a point of having all his kids registered as US citizens at birth, so they would have the choice of not serving in the military if they didn't want to. He thinks a reluctant soldier is a dangerous thing.

[Cogidubnus]

Place of Birth

OK...as a right-ponder I assume a "birther" is someone who believes that President Obama, by virtue of foreign birth, doesn't qualify to be a US President?

It's not my nation, so why the hell should I care, but factual or not, how pathetic...qualification should surely depend on better criteria than just place of birth? How about ability for example?

As a disqualifier, how about minimum intelligence? (in which case George Dubbya surely fails) or corruption (Grant, Harding or Nixon)...or whatever?

All the best

Dave

[RivkahChaya]

None of which applies to Obama, BTW, because he was born in Hawaii.

Orly Taitz was born in what is now the Czech Republic. I don't know where she had legal training, but she doesn't seem to have the knowledge of the constitution the typical US citizen has.

She also seems really confused by the whole "Birth Certificate"/"Certificate of Live Birth," short form/long form, thing. I think she still hasn't figured that not every state calls a "birth certificate" the same thing. Some states call it simply that, some call it a "Certificate of Live Birth," some a "Certificate of Birth," some a "Certified Birth Record." I think there's a state that calls it a "Sealed Birth Record," meaning it has the state seal, not that it is closed, like certificates in adoption records.

There's also nothing called a "short form" or a "long form." The certificate you get from the county records office is the official certificate, notarized, with the state seal. It's printed by a computer in every state now, and accepted everywhere. What she calls the "long form," as far as I can tell, is a photocopy of the form that was filled out at the hospital, which has more information than appears on the official certificate, like the exact time of birth, but that's just because info like that isn't necessary for anything the official document substantiates. A photocopy of the form isn't official, isn't sealed or notarized, and won't get you a job, a license, or a beer.

There are some people who have hand-written, official, sealed certificates, which they obtained a long time ago, before the certs were printed on computers, and have somehow managed to hang on to them. I remember seeing one in my school records, but I don't know what happened to it. I have only the computer-printed ones now. Obama probably had a hand-written one once, but I'm sure the one he submitted to the State of Illinois when he ran for senate was a new one.