UPDATE:
Props to Semiq in the comments section.
The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.
Didn’t see this coming.
At least one other appeal over Obama’s citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg’s lawsuit.
These people just won’t stop.
A rec’d diary over at Orange Satan has a great breakdown.
Especially on the douchebag Clarence Thomas.
Crazy.
This wouldn’t have been a blip on the horizon, much less a diary, except that Thomas kept the case alive by agreeing to put it to the Court conference. Thomas’s action is highly unusual, to say the least:
[Trevor] Morrison [a professor of law at Columbia University School of Law] said that Thomas’s actions are once in a decade. “When that does happen, the case has to be of an extraordinary nature and this does not fit that circumstance,” he said. “My guess would be that Thomas accepted the case so it would go before the conference where it will likely be denied. If Thomas denied the petition, then Donofrio would be free to go to the other justices for their consideration. “This way, I would guess, the matter would be done with. Petitions of Donofrio’s types are hardly ever granted.” New America Media 3 Dec
During the primaries, I loved visiting some of the more fringe sites and laughing at the level of crazy. The line between tinfoil and sanity was very blurry. I chalked a lot of it up to emotion and figured the normal haters would calm down after the election.
Most of the country has:
More than three of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, approve of the job Obama has done so far – broad-based support he’ll need as he faces tough decisions ahead.
By 69%-25%, those surveyed approve of his pick of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his former Democratic primary rival, as secretary of State.
By an even wider margin, 80%-14%, they favor his decision to ask President Bush’s Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to stay on the job.
I love it when polls refute what tv pundits and blogosphere pundits try to sell.
More of that here.
In the poll, Americans by more than 3-1 say they trust Obama more than Bush to handle the economy. By 58%-33%, they support Obama’s plan for a huge spending package to spur economic growth.
The survey of 1,010 adults, taken Monday by landline and cellphone, has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
There’s little concern Obama is relying too much on veterans of President Clinton’s administration. By nearly 4-1, those polled predict the officials will make the incoming team more effective, not less so.
Singer:
These numbers are just stunning, and serve as further proof that Barack Obama will enter the White House with a greater mandate than any newly elected President in a very long time. While I certainly do not expect this spread to hold indefinitely, or even necessarily for the duration of Obama’s first 100 days in office, this level of support gives Obama the juice to hit the ground running on January 20.
But I was wrong. I took my afternoon stroll through the Sludge Report to see where the right wings talking points currently are at.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
Will Supreme Court take case on Obama’s citizenship?
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of Obama’s election.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Among those filing lawsuits is Alan Keyes, who lost to Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race. Keyes’ suit seeks to halt certification of votes in
They let this tool run for a Senate seat?
Geez.
Talk about having low standards.
He’s in it for the publicity (I hope) but some of these same bloggers are acting strangely in real life.
Five more suits, all later dismissed, were filed in Hawaii by a person who is currently suing the “Peoples Association of Human, Animals Conceived God/s and Religions, John McCain (and) USA Govt.” The plaintiff previously sought to sue Wikipedia and “All News Media.”
Which makes if even more surreal when I read this on some of the most fringe sites out there.
(no links, but not hard to guess where to find them)
Queen Kitty speaks.
BHO II is only a symptom, if it wasn’t him it would be Gov. Richardson or somebody else. People in the law and in Congress wanted to see The Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, otherwise known as The Hatch Amendment of 2003, passed, it reads:
“Section 1. A person who is a citizen of the United States, who has been for 20 years a citizen of the United States, and who is otherwise eligible to the Office of President, is not ineligible to that Office by reason of not being a native born citizen of the United States.
Section 2. This article shall not take effect unless it has been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States not later than 7 years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.”
and would replace Article II’s natural-born citizen clause. Under this Amendment Schwarzenegger, Granholm, Martinez, etc, etc would be Eligible. I’d probably back it, were it to be passed clean and Bill Clinton favors it heavily, but I’d still have doubts about dual citizenship. What I object to is that the Constitution is being perverted and the law defied to produce the same effect.
Whether you use Article II with Jay’s letter, Blackstone, Swayne, etc and the Law of 1790 to show intention, which is what I believe you should do, or add the XIVth Amendment with the Act of 1866 as Madison does, you get the same result, BHO II is not a natural-born citizen. Neither is Governor Richardson, neither was Governor George Romney and it is possible that Senator McCain isn’t either. I suspect that if he were to be found Ineligible Congress would push for, and get, the Hatch Amendment passed and he would stand again in 2012. At that time I strongly suspect he would lose.
This post had 250 comments by the way.
Nuggets like this:
Free America
I understand most of this article from a definition standpoint.
What I don’t understand though is why the SCOTUS would choose not to hear this case. They have to understand the legal implications on the Constitution if they let the usurper take the highest office of the land.
Someone help me out. If we accept that Judah’s facts are correct and that his definition of natural born citizen would prohibit BHO from taking office – then why would the SCOTUS not hear this case? I’m confused.
You’re fucking right you are confused.
Wendy
Brilliantly researched and written. That you know WHAT to research and WHY is as important as the conclusions you draw from it. With your permission, I would like to submit this work along with Parts 1 and 2 of Divided Loyalties to Justice Clarence Thomas. Please let me know if this is okay by email. Thank you for all the time spent on these works….as I said….BRILLIANT.
Heh.
I have nothing more to add.
What a joke.
