I have a confession to make: I could never become President of these divided states of A-mery-ca. Why? Because I was born in the land of the good collie weed and Red Stripe Beer, that's why. And thus I would not qualify to be president under our current Constitution.
Now it seems that Mr. Morton (because he is always salty) wasn't born within these borders either. Some folks are even questioning whether he should be eligible to run for president. Seems Mr. Morton was born in a place called Coco Solo, on a military base in the Panama Canal Zone. The consitution states that one has to be a "natural born citizen" to become president.
Natural born citizen and what is its true meaning is the question here. This question is not as cut and dry as some folks might think. One professor who studied the situation even told the New York Times that it wasn't a "slam dunk." That may or may not be true, but in my humble opinion the Obamaholics should leave this one alone. There is just no there there, and I think the rethugs would welcome this battle.
This one goes to Mr. Morton from where I sit. U.S. Military bases and Embassies are considered A-merry-can soil, and the base Mr. Morton was born on in 1936 (damn he is old) was clearly under U.S. military control when baby McCain came popping out. And then there is this:
USC TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER III > Part I > § 1403"Any person born in the Republic of Panama on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this chapter, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States employed by the Government of the United States or by the Panama Railroad Company, or its successor in title, is declared to be a citizen of the United States." Besides congress passed a law way before my time saying that children born to U.S. citizens are natural born citizens.
So it would appear that my man is safe. Again, it would be a bad political move for the democrats to even make this an issue. McCain was born to military parents who were ordered on that base, and we are all aware of his own personal sacrifice as a Naval pilot. Still, I think it's interesting that this base in the Panama Canal was considered U.S. soil, but the frat boy's administration wanted to suspend the constitutional rights of those prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Hmmmmmm.
You really have to wonder though. If this was the "O" man, and he found himself in a similar situation, would A-merry-cans react the same way? Would we be getting all the cries of this is a non issue that we are getting now with McCain? Somehow I don't think so.
We were just talking about that in one of our classes--if it had been Barack. Believe it or not, we were on a video-conf. phone with an ex-Pakistani secret service dude. (We're doing the "Daniel Pearl" project at Georgetown; new evidence in the case and yes...everyone is still pissed off that a white woman played Marianne Pearl in that dumbass movie). The Pakistani cop was telling me how the whole thing was a joke with McCain and his birthplace, as "white Americans look out for each other." He said questions about Barack's ethnicity raised by Hillary and the GOP are causing "anger" in the Muslim world. I think he was full of shit and tryng to impress us, but it was interesting talking to this scumbag nonetheless and getting the view of the election from the Third World.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Third World--keep you fingers crossed at the progress in Kenya...
PS my wife, who works for Lexis-Nexis, was up in Philly yesterday. She said she did not see a single black face in three of the big firms she went up there to visit.
It would be a BIG deal if it was Obama. Even if he'd been born exactly where McCain was, the NYT headline would read, "Manchurian Reality: Obama Actually a Saudi National". And then that picture of him in the traditional outfit would be splashed across some front pages. Opposite that we'd see a photo of Hillary doing the cabbage patch.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, THANK YOU for pointing out what a racist sleaze Buckley was. Our media is acting like the man was the second coming of Christ or someone to pay homage to and the opposite is the case.
After looking at the image of John M I could not read the post. All that neck & lack of lips made me throw up in my mouth a little.
ReplyDeleteBygbaby
This is plain stupid. I never thought I would be on the same side as John Megalomaniac McCain, but there is nothing to this story... never was. It's only a story for the ignorant reporters in the corporate media who apparently aren't familiar with the law...or with life for U.S. military or foreign service families. There are well over a million Americans who have been born overseas to U.S. military or foreign service personnel. Just today there was another stupid reporter spouting off "it's still an open question.... he may not be eligible". NONSENSE!!!
ReplyDeleteThe problem here is that Congress hasn't done enough to clarify the law for the idiots. But in a nutshell, the "natural born" requirement was never intended to exclude Presidential candidates who were born on U.S. military bases overseas. When the earlier laws were included in the Constitution, the U.S. was not the kind of empire that it is today, with hundreds of military facilities around the globe. Congress simply has not kept up with the times... instead of taking care of their lawmaking responsibilities, they are too busy holding hearings about Major League Baseball and other mindless bullsh@t.
The original laws were intended to make sure that the Commander-in-Chief remained true and loyal...that no foreigners could subvert the office of President. It was not intended to stop someone like McCain from running for office (although I wish there was something that could stop him).
And on the question of loyalty to ones nation... one could argue that we have had Presidents (like the one in place right now) who were born right here in Amerikkka, who have not had the nations best interests at heart...and seemed more disloyal than loyal.
There were 4 kids in my family...and each one was born in a different Country. So this nonsense regarding McCain is just annoying to listen to.
Field- After reading your opening comments, I thought you were going to go there too... But I see you recovered nicely at the end... even breaking everything down.
Nicely done...and it saves me from a lot of typing...trying to explain.
And regarding Obama...
ReplyDeleteYou and I both know that they would not allow him to run.
I'm sure Billary probably checked into this and has already looked for ways to exclude him.
Being born outside the U.S. would be an issue for Obama and not McCain. What bugs me more right now is that Obama gets slammed over the Farrakhan endorsement, while McCain can publically express pride about the support of John Hagee, who has preached, among other horrible things, that Hurricane Katrina visited New Orleans because of God's judgment against homosexuals. dsbnola.com has a good blog about this. I know we're in for a lot more separate "rules" for these two candidates
ReplyDeleteAgain, it would be a bad political move for the democrats to even make this an issue.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, they will definitely do so.
He (Obama) has already found himself in this situation.
ReplyDeleteRemember Clinton supporter Stephanie Tubbs Jones? She went off on a tangent saying that those Somali clothes were from Barack's "Native Country" whatever that means.
Damn A.I. are you a history prof. Your analysis of this law is on point!
ReplyDeleteChris,tell your wife that if she went to ten more medium sized plaintiff firms, it would have been the same way. (The dearth of Af. American lawyers)
We have been making an issue of it here with the bar.(Ironically, the head of the bar is black. Well, he looks black)
But in a way this is a good thing, because it forces us to do for ourselves. I feel for the young lawyers coming out of law schoo though, who need the high paying jobs with the big firms to pay off student loans etc.
a.f. good call on that racist preacher, John Hagee, who supports Mr. Morton. Hmmmm no mention of him on FIX NEWS?
And physioprof, you are right, they (the dems) will find a way to f**k it up:) They always do.
Brother Field, as a combat medic in Viet Nam (Dust Off) I see things thru the eyes of someone who stayed in Viet Nam and had to go out into hostile fighting for a year, while Mc Chicken stayed in a prision camp for five years(out of harms way. Being a Black Veteran of that war I cant see him as a hero. He is a survivor. This "hero lable" is used to place artficial worth to his service. Being a prisioner of war .. his first duty was to escape so is it plausible to say he was inadequate as a combtant tohave been held for such a long lenght of time. We do get comfortable in our miseries. Truth is in war there are no heroes...there are POWs, KIA or survivors. So stop with this adoration of a pilot that bombed peolpe from great distances that so happened to get knocked off. As well as personal sacrifice.. personel sacrifice is an intentional act. In war.. no one goes into combat without hope of surviving otherwise it would be suicide. I thank Mc Cain for doing his job high above the battles but I am sure for the times a lot of us minority soldiers would have like to have been a part of that WHITE ELITE CLUB. nOW i KNOW i MAY BE ATTACKED FROM OTHERS..but if you were there..welcome home if not YOU will never image what we would call hero and "personal sacrifice". StillaPanther2
ReplyDeleteField and Christopher - If you're looking for Black attorneys, they are all here in the city of Homer S. Brown. http://www.hsbla.org/
ReplyDeleteI noticed a distinct difference between the Allegheny County Bar Association:
http://www.acba.org/ACBAsite/Diversity/index.asp
and the Philadelphia Bar. http://www.philadelphiabarlawyers.com/HowItWorks.phpAssociation
HiFN,
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know if both parents are American citizens then a person may be born anywhere in the world and be considered an American citizen.
Quite a shame you weren't born in the U.S., field. I feared as much when I saw the comment about "your family's land" in Jamaica in you Castro post the other day. To be honest, you were going to be my go-to guy for a presidential run in 4 years if Hillary manages to evicerate Obama somehow and McCain's so-called straight talk ends up trumping Obama's public speaking abilities.
ReplyDeleteI was told that the "natural citzen" clause was written by one of the founding fathers as a strike against his rival, Alexander Hamiliton. Mr. Hamiliton was born on a slave ship, if I recall correctly, that sailed from Barbados. I am not sure but I think the law was suggested by Madison, Adams or Jefferson.
ReplyDeleteHey Field here's the address of what I told you about. They remind me of that militant group in the Robin Williams movie, the World According to Garp. http://www.sugarnspice.typepad.com/
ReplyDeleteFrancis Holland is on the warpath fo'sure. Look, I for one am happy McCain's running. I want him to loose, of course but I'm happy he's the opposition.
ReplyDeleteYes, the natural citizen thing was a slight at Hamilton (whom I swear had some brotha in him) but some of the Federalists went for it because they themselves didn't want any crazy ass Frenchmen--fresh off chopping m-fs heads off in the Revolution and on the way to making a young midget bisexual named Bonaparte dictator, emmigrating to the US and taking over the government.
hi field, good to read from you, actually i keep reading blogs, because of your blog: it s so d**n honest and enjoy reading. i would like to invite you to write an article for my newly launched website, if you want to, sybil at sybilamber.com, formerly anthropologicdiary.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteIf it were the "O", man, the answer is the invoking of the Constitutional Amendment that prevents Ah-nold Schwarzeneggar, Henry Kissinger or the late Tom Lantos from thinking about running for POTUS, although Orin Hatch was trying to do an end-run around it to get the "Governator" in.
ReplyDeleteMcCain = finding a loophole so he can run.
Obama = born in Hawaii, and he got in under the wire, too. Hawaii had only been a state for two years, in 1959 - Obama was born in 1961. Five hundred miles further out in the South Pacific, and he might have been in U. S. Territory like Guam or American Samoa. Any further than that - he's in Japan at that point, and not eligible for POTUS.
Only in America...
Anon. 7:17AM (StillPanther2) thank you for your service my brotha, and you know what a true battle is over in the combat zone and here at home. But still, I don't think I could have lasted a day in that damn VC prison camp. They would have killed my black ass the first day.
ReplyDeletedeacon blue, let's change the consitution. I know they are trying to do it for Ahhhnold. :)
"..Mr. Hamiliton was born on a slave ship, if I recall correctly, that sailed from Barbados. I am not sure but I think the law was suggested by Madison, Adams or Jefferson."
Why even go to school when you can come to the field's blog? Anon.2:13PM thanks for the history lesson.
anon.3:19PM, thanks for the kind words.I read other blogs because of the people who comment on my blog as well.
kid, thanks for the link fam.