Jan 8, 2009 at 6:39 AM


Could Barack Obama be the first President of the United States that is not a U.S. citizen? The issue cropped up during the campaign. I became aware of it after he was nominated by the Democratic Party. I still wonder how this controversy is even possible. Who is responsible for checking the qualifications of the presidential candidates?

In a story on World Net Daily, Supreme Court to take up eligibility question again, the story is laid out with some history and the concerns the question raises. This would be a further shredding of the Constitution, or certainly the respect for it, if we learn after he is sworn in that he indeed is not a natural born citizen. While many people write this off as conspiracy theory level hype, the question is real and to date is not sufficiently answered by Senator Obama. He only needs to produce a genuine birth certificate to put the whole issue to rest. Why didn't he do so during the campaign when the question was raised?

The next issue would be, should Senator Obama not be eligible, what to do next. Is the second place finisher in the election the president? If Obama is sworn in then found to be ineligible, would Senator Biden become President? Would there be a new election with President Bush remaining in office until the new president is selected? This leads back to my original query. Who verifies the eligibility of the presidential candidates? How can this one fall through the cracks? With all the over-regulation and extensive policies and excessive hoops to jump through whenever dealing with the government, I find it hard to believe there is nobody or no office that is responsible for the verification of qualifications. This issue should have been resolved at the time of the filing to run for office and not be remaining an issue on the day that electoral votes are being counted and about to be ratified by Congress.


_________________
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6 That doesn't leave much wiggle room. Yet, we continue to try to get right with God on our own terms rather than submit to Jesus Christ.

To read with links in the story, go to my blog page.


Here is the kind of stuff that keeps people wondering. In his book, Dreams from my Father - A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama, he writes about his father coming to the U.S.

BOOK EXTRACT: A Kenyan father 'black as pitch', a mother 'white as milk'; a heritage of tolerance from grandparents Gramps and Toot . . . and early innocence of racism, writes Barack Obama

AT THE time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more and less than a man. He had left Hawaii back in 1963, when I was only two-years-old, so that as a child I knew him only through the stories that my mother and grandparents told . . .

He was an African, I would learn, a Kenyan of the Luo tribe, born on the shores of Lake Victoria in a place called Alego. The village was poor, but his father - my other grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama - had been a prominent farmer, an elder of the tribe, a medicine man with healing powers. My father grew up herding his father's goats and attending the local school, set up by the British colonial administration, where he had shown great promise. He eventually won a scholarship to study in Nairobi; and then, on the eve of Kenyan independence, he had been selected by Kenyan leaders and American sponsors to attend a university in the United States, joining the first large wave of Africans to be sent forth to master western technology and bring it back to forge a new, modern Africa.

In 1959, at the age of 23, he arrived at the University of Hawaii as that institution's first African student. He studied econometrics, worked with unsurpassed concentration, and graduated in three years at the top of his class. His friends were legion, and he helped organise the International Students Association, of which he became the first president. In a Russian language course, he met an awkward, shy American girl, only 18, and they fell in love. The girl's parents, wary at first, were won over by his charm and intellect; the young couple married, and she bore them a son, to whom he bequeathed his name. He won another scholarship - this time to pursue his PhD at Harvard - but not the money to take his new family with him. A separation occurred, and he returned to Africa to fulfil his promise to the continent. The mother and child stayed behind, but the bond of love survived the distances . . .


He writes, "on the eve of Kenyan independence" and "In 1959, at the age of 23, he arrived at the University of Hawaii as that institution's first African student."

History says, December 12, 1963: : Kenyan independence day.


The following is from FactCheck.org, but realize that it is assuming he was born in Hawaii.

In 1959, Kenya was still a British Colony, as it was in 1961 at his birth.
When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom's dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.'s children:

British Nationality Act of 1948 (Part II, Section 5): Subject to the provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth.

In other words, at the time of his birth, Barack Obama Jr. was both a U.S. citizen (by virtue of being born in Hawaii) and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (or the UKC) by virtue of being born to a father who was a citizen of the UKC.

Obama's British citizenship was short-lived. On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya formally gained its independence from the United Kingdom. Chapter VI, Section 87 of the Kenyan Constitution specifies that:

1. Every person who, having been born in Kenya, is on 11th December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or a British protected person shall become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December, 1963...

2. Every person who, having been born outside Kenya, is on 11th December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or a British protected person shall, if his father becomes, or would but for his death have become, a citizen of Kenya by virtue of subsection (1), become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December, 1963.

As a citizen of the UKC who was born in Kenya, Obama's father automatically received Kenyan citizenship via subsection (1). So given that Obama qualified for citizen of the UKC status at birth and given that Obama's father became a Kenyan citizen via subsection (1), it follows that Obama did in fact have Kenyan citizenship after 1963. So The Rocky Mountain News was at least partially correct.

But the paper failed to note that the Kenyan Constitution prohibits dual citizenship for adults. Kenya recognizes dual citizenship for children, but Kenya's Constitution specifies that at age 21, Kenyan citizens who possesses citizenship in more than one country automatically lose their Kenyan citizenship unless they formally renounce any non-Kenyan citizenship and swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya.

Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.


The following is an excerpt from PeoplesPassions.org.

In 1961, as opposed to TODAY, Section 301(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended (INA) required the following: A child being born to one alien parent (i.e.. Non Citizen) and one citizen parent in a marital relationship, required that the sole US citizen parent to have resided in the United States for a period of ten years, five of which must have been over the age of 14. Today's version of the law has somewhat different residency requirements for the US citizen parent. But the law, as it applied on August 4, 1961, required ten years presence, five after the age of 14.

Barack Hussein Obama I (dad), was a citizen and national of Kenya. He was not, nor had never been, a United States citizen. Ergo, he is the "alien" parent in this scenario. Stanley Ann Dunham (mom) was a US citizen by virtue of having been born in the US. At the time of Barack Hussein Obama II's birth on August 4, 1961, Ms. Dunham was 18 years old, having been born in November of 1942. As such, if Barack Hussein Obama II was born outside the US or its Outlying Possessions, on August 4, 1961, then Ms. Dunham could not transmit her citizenship to her son because she failed to have accumulated the necessary physical presence requirements that the LAW (that pesky and inconvenient thing that oftentimes gets in the way of "change") demanded.

The earliest in which Ms. Dunham could have transmitted her citizenship to a child born outside the US would have been when she was 19 years of age, which was in November of 1961 and NOT in August of 1961, when Obama was born.

It's that simple. If he was born in Kenya, or anywhere else for that matter, other than the US or its OLP's, then he is not, nor can never be, eligible to hold the office of President of the United States of America inasmuch as he does not, nor never can, fulfill the requirements of Article II, Clause V of the Constitution of the United States. It's not an optional thing, regardless of whether or not someone thinks it's fair or not. It's the law, that pesky, recurring inconvenience that seems to get in the way, time and time again.

and...

Assuming that Mr. Obama has a legitimate Certification of Live Birth, the question must be asked: "Why post a forgery?" The answer is as follows:

A: There does not exist a legitimate, authentic birth document for Obama showing birth anywhere in the US.

OR

B: He does have a legitimate Certification of Live Birth issued by the State of Hawaii. However, that document shows his place of birth as being in Mombassa, Kenya and NOT in Hawaii as the forged copy claims.

What is troubling and frustrating is that Obama can, and has had the ability to do so for quite some time, resolve this matter by simply providing a certified copy of his authentic birth document. The only reason that is reasonable for his failure to do so is that he simply doesn't have a document that shows he was born in the US. His documents all show birth in Kenya.

An interesting article on Hawaii and their practices.
Hawaii Issues Birth Certificates to Foreign Born Residents!


An article concerning my original question,
Who Enforces the Constitution's Natural Born Citizen Clause?
The following is from,
Amazon.com to Barack: You Are a Socialist, We’ve proven it!

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.”

Norman Thomas said this, American socialist, and one of the founders of the ACLU as well as 3 time Presidential candidate as a Socialist right here in the USA.


_________________
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6 That doesn't leave much wiggle room. Yet, we continue to try to get right with God on our own terms rather than submit to Jesus Christ.