Obama's birth certificate; you can't keep a good conspiracy theorist down

by Jay McDonough

Did you know the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked by NASA?

Did you know 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government?

Did you know the government manages Area 51, where alien spacecraft and its occupants are being studied?

Well, maybe you don't but many do.  The believers are quite certain and absolutely dedicated to convincing the rest of us that moon landings and 9/11 were nothing more than big shams and that the rest of us are soooooo naive to believe otherwise.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments whether to consider a lawsuit challenging the validity of Barack Obama's eligibility to be president. 

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 California. Another suit by a Kentucky man seeks to have a federal judge review Obama's original birth certificate, which Hawaiian officials say is locked in a state vault.

Other suits have been filed by Andy Martin, whose case was dismissed in Hawaii, and by an Ohio man whose case also was dismissed. 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."

The most famous case questioning Obama's citizenship was filed in Pennsylvania in August on behalf of Philip J. Berg and sought to enjoin the Democratic National Committee from nominating Obama.  (Link)

The state of Hawaii attempted to resolve the issue once and for all before the election when they attested to the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate.  But like all good conspiracy theorists, the true believers won't allow these kinds of facts to interfer with the theory.

Marc Ambinder took a stab at injecting some reality:

Well, his birth certificate is valid, for one thing; it's survived scrutiny and has been sanctioned as valid by the legal authority empowered to sanction such things. A conspiracy to cover this up is -- would be -- preposterous.

A thinner version of the claim holds that Obama is a citizen, but not a natural born or naturalized citizen and this constitutionally ineligible. This claim rests on a fairly tendentious argument about Obama's father and mother. Obama Sr., wasn't a citizen; therefore, his son could not have been born to two U.S. citizens; to be a naturalized citizen, both parents have to be U.S. citizens. Also: the law requires citizen-parents to have spent a certain length of time in the state; Obama's mother was a woman of the world.

But the two-citizen parent rule, which is no longer in effect, applied to people born outside the U.S.  Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii, a U.S. state since 1959; (had he been born earlier, it wouldn't matter -- U.S. law granted natural born citizenship to every Hawaiian born after 1900.)

Now -- the 14th amendment is fairly clear on the subject:  All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

A further objection: to be "natural born," as the constitution requires, is to be born on U.S. soil (check) to two citizen parents (x mark.)  Again -- that claim has no basis in federal law, Supreme Court precedent, or English common law.

Legal experts give the appeal little chance of succeeding and anticipate the Supreme Court will decline to consider the lawsuits.  But - and here's the great part - the folks that believe in their heart of hearts Barack Obama is inelligible to be president won't be deterred.  They'll continue to believe regardless of evidence or court rulings.

You can't keep a good conspiracy theorist down.

Did you know the Nazis, during World War II, had a moon base and had made contact with half a dozen alien races? 

Comments

[wok3]

My favorite part is how the people pushing this garbage through the legal system fail to cast the same eye on McCain's eligibility, since he was born in Panama.

[Jonathan Sanders]

I know where did they get that crazy idea from? Oh wait, Obama's grandmother. She's the one who said she was in the delivery room when Obama was born in Kenya.
Look I don't have a problem with Obama being president. If his mom was on vacation in another country when he was born that's fine. The problem is the birth that was shown on Barack Obama's website does not have the seal of Hawaii stamped on it. Therefore, it makes people pose questions. That doesn't mean there's a conspiracy being commited by Obama. It just means there needs to be clarification on the issue and possibly in the constitution as to "born in the United States". I think if his mother was a US citizen when he was born then he is also until the citizenship is changed.