![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
From Twitter 04-26-2011
Apr. 27th, 2011 03:00 amTweets copied by twittinesis.com
Apr. 27th, 2011
Today's Lesson URL
Apr. 27th, 2011 10:52 amEvery once in a while we see someone we'd rather not interact with, for whatever reason. My friend Joel once had an encounter like that, and learned a lesson therefrom.
More F*ckwittery in the United States
Apr. 27th, 2011 09:35 pmIn preparation for the Presidential election next year, President Obama has finally gotten the State of Hawaii to release his original birth certificate. This is not usually done, but a group of f*ckwits called "birthers" have been doubting the facts of the President's birthplace since he first ran for election. They said that he must have been born in Kenya (where his father hailed from), or in Indonesia (where he spent a few of his primary-school years). He just couldn't have been born in the United States.
Now, of course, the birthers are saying that the fact that his father was not an American citizen makes it problematic that Obama is qualified to be president. The definition of "natural-born citizen" has never been decided by the Supreme Court, but the general idea is that anyone who is born in the territory of the United States is a natural-born citizen. Obama was born in the territory of the United States. Thus he is a natural-born citizen. There are questions as to whether people born outside the territory of the United States to at least one US citizen parent are "natural-born citizens", but this has never come before the Supreme Court as all mainstream presidential candidates have been born in the United States or its territories. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory, but I am fairly certain that had he been elected he would have been considered a "natural-born citizen". John McCain was born in the Panamá Canal Zone before it was handed back to Panamá; his parents were both US citizens. Had McCain been elected, I don't believe that any "birthers" would have come out of the woodwork to challenge McCain's eligibility for the Presidency.
Let's just call this what it is: racism, pure and simple. President Obama would not have been challenged in this way had he been of pure white ancestry. To continue this silliness after the documentary proof of his birth in Hawaii has been released is just a symptom of f*ckwittery.
Now, of course, the birthers are saying that the fact that his father was not an American citizen makes it problematic that Obama is qualified to be president. The definition of "natural-born citizen" has never been decided by the Supreme Court, but the general idea is that anyone who is born in the territory of the United States is a natural-born citizen. Obama was born in the territory of the United States. Thus he is a natural-born citizen. There are questions as to whether people born outside the territory of the United States to at least one US citizen parent are "natural-born citizens", but this has never come before the Supreme Court as all mainstream presidential candidates have been born in the United States or its territories. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory, but I am fairly certain that had he been elected he would have been considered a "natural-born citizen". John McCain was born in the Panamá Canal Zone before it was handed back to Panamá; his parents were both US citizens. Had McCain been elected, I don't believe that any "birthers" would have come out of the woodwork to challenge McCain's eligibility for the Presidency.
Let's just call this what it is: racism, pure and simple. President Obama would not have been challenged in this way had he been of pure white ancestry. To continue this silliness after the documentary proof of his birth in Hawaii has been released is just a symptom of f*ckwittery.