Every week there seems to be a new wonderful video (either star-studded or homemade) directly or indirectly supporting Obama. It makes me wonder whether the Republicans have produced any videos that have gone viral in a virile way? Are the McCain-Palin supporters watching their own funny videos? (I mean, besides O'Reilly.)
I had a friend alert me to Berg's lawsuit, and I must say, it's actually refreshing to see reasoned argument in that video. The problem as I see it two-fold:
1. Obama has produced his birth certificate, and unless it's proven fraudulent, that makes him a natural born citizen.
2. There's no way the US government would take away citizenship from a child who's mother took him to a foreign country, no matter what the school records of that country say.
"As a historical matter, U.S. citizenship could be forfeited upon the undertaking of various acts, including naturalization in a foreign state, service in foreign armed forces, and voting in a foreign political election (with a few exceptions, such as municipal and local elections as opposed to presidential and other national elections). However, a line of U.S. Supreme Court decisions beginning with Afroyim v. Rusk constitutionally limited the government's capacity to terminate citizenship to those cases in which an individual engaged in conduct with an intention of abandoning their citizenship. In the wake of administrative practice changes adopted by the U.S. Department of State during the mid 1990s, it is now virtually impossible to lose one's citizenship without expressly renouncing it before a U.S. consular officer.
That Supreme Court case from 1967 (when Obama was 6) "set an important legal precedent that a United States citizen cannot be deprived of American citizenship involuntarily."
Berg is reduced, then, to arguing that a small child should have had his citizenship revoked involuntarily. Since the SC said, um, no, that's not permissible, seems to me this case is closed. Obama never lost his citizenship.
Of course, I'm no lawyer. That said, don't you think that if the RNC lawyers thought there was anything whatsoever to this the case would already be before the Supreme Court?
Thanks. That's a relief. As Berg himself says, if there were substance here, the DNC should/would have been going crazy to stop his candidacy.
Sadly, though, true or false, it seems like another building block in the foundation of hatred that the right is laying for Obama's first term. Tina Fey says, if McCain/Palin win, she's leaving earth. The right says, if Obama wins, he's a lying, un-American, illegitimate, terrorist-loving terrorist whom someone should kill.
I was always kind of freaked out by how much my father hated Bill Clinton, and I still don't know how much it was his considered opinion and how much he was influenced by the manufacture of hatred led by Fox, but it seemed to be the latter. Clinton was painted as hateful for carrying the mantle of cultural relativism from the 60's. What will make Obama hateful? That he's elite and eloquent is not enough. That he's black is not enough. No: he's pro-defeat in Iraq. He wants to sit with Ahmedinejad. He likes terrorists like Ayers. Heck, he is a terrorist.
That so much hatred is being kindled before Obama can even take office makes me worry that the right is ready and willing to tear the political fabric. Just tear it up.
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Every week there seems to be a new wonderful video (either star-studded or homemade) directly or indirectly supporting Obama. It makes me wonder whether the Republicans have produced any videos that have gone viral in a virile way? Are the McCain-Palin supporters watching their own funny videos? (I mean, besides O'Reilly.)
For what it's worth, here's a video with half a million views in the four days since it was posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6_k3NtXZs
Certainly no charm to it, but a certain amount of traction.
The ACORN videos I happened upon had nothing like these numbers.
I had a friend alert me to Berg's lawsuit, and I must say, it's actually refreshing to see reasoned argument in that video. The problem as I see it two-fold:
1. Obama has produced his birth certificate, and unless it's proven fraudulent, that makes him a natural born citizen.
2. There's no way the US government would take away citizenship from a child who's mother took him to a foreign country, no matter what the school records of that country say.
From Wikipedia:
"As a historical matter, U.S. citizenship could be forfeited upon the undertaking of various acts, including naturalization in a foreign state, service in foreign armed forces, and voting in a foreign political election (with a few exceptions, such as municipal and local elections as opposed to presidential and other national elections). However, a line of U.S. Supreme Court decisions beginning with Afroyim v. Rusk constitutionally limited the government's capacity to terminate citizenship to those cases in which an individual engaged in conduct with an intention of abandoning their citizenship. In the wake of administrative practice changes adopted by the U.S. Department of State during the mid 1990s, it is now virtually impossible to lose one's citizenship without expressly renouncing it before a U.S. consular officer.
That Supreme Court case from 1967 (when Obama was 6) "set an important legal precedent that a United States citizen cannot be deprived of American citizenship involuntarily."
Berg is reduced, then, to arguing that a small child should have had his citizenship revoked involuntarily. Since the SC said, um, no, that's not permissible, seems to me this case is closed. Obama never lost his citizenship.
Of course, I'm no lawyer. That said, don't you think that if the RNC lawyers thought there was anything whatsoever to this the case would already be before the Supreme Court?
Thanks. That's a relief. As Berg himself says, if there were substance here, the DNC should/would have been going crazy to stop his candidacy.
Sadly, though, true or false, it seems like another building block in the foundation of hatred that the right is laying for Obama's first term. Tina Fey says, if McCain/Palin win, she's leaving earth. The right says, if Obama wins, he's a lying, un-American, illegitimate, terrorist-loving terrorist whom someone should kill.
I was always kind of freaked out by how much my father hated Bill Clinton, and I still don't know how much it was his considered opinion and how much he was influenced by the manufacture of hatred led by Fox, but it seemed to be the latter. Clinton was painted as hateful for carrying the mantle of cultural relativism from the 60's. What will make Obama hateful? That he's elite and eloquent is not enough. That he's black is not enough. No: he's pro-defeat in Iraq. He wants to sit with Ahmedinejad. He likes terrorists like Ayers. Heck, he is a terrorist.
That so much hatred is being kindled before Obama can even take office makes me worry that the right is ready and willing to tear the political fabric. Just tear it up.
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