There is very little discussion about the conflict between the U.S. Constitution's requirement that the U.S. President must be born within the USA and Sen. McCain's birth in Panama. The whole issue seems to have been brushed aside so as not to make waves, or maybe this is the GOP's opportunity to slip one by the American Public so some other foreign-born Presidential candidate can use this precedent in a future election. The DNC seems happy to deny the Primary votes of folks from Michigan and Florida, but turns a blind eye to the conflict between the GOP candidate's offshore birth and the Constitution's requirement.
Posted by grascarp at April 3, 2008 03:38 AMMcCain was born in the Canal Zone, was he not? That's U.S. territory.
Posted by Joelarama at April 3, 2008 03:59 AMOr, it WAS U.S. territory.
Posted by Joelarama at April 3, 2008 04:00 AMIsn't the wording "natural born citizen"? It doesn't say anything about being born on US soil. Frankly, I always took it to mean that you had to simply be born a US citizen, rather than becoming one later. So if you were born in England to American parents, you're still American because you were born to American parents. I don't think that's how the courts would interpret it, but that's what I always took it to mean.
Posted by CG at April 3, 2008 04:18 AMThe Repubs believe that "natural born citizen" means someone who was not born by way of test-tube. Just ask'm.
Posted by gtash at April 3, 2008 05:29 AMThat's a good one gtash. The common denominator for Reugs is they're all dumb as hell.
Posted by JohnT at April 3, 2008 05:59 AMShould be Repugs.
Posted by JohnT at April 3, 2008 06:01 AMI have a sister and brother who were born in the Panama Canal Zone. Our Dad was in the Air Force, my Mom from Guatemala. They never have been questioned.
It's pretty silly to even bring up. There would be hundreds of thousands who were military or diplomatic brats that would be told they weren't citizens.
Posted by Seven of Six at April 3, 2008 06:30 AMthere are many, many more reasons not to vote for McOld besides where he was born. This issue is a timewaster.
Posted by T2 at April 3, 2008 06:51 AMjus solis- by the land. born in the u.s. you are a 'natural,' u.s. citizen.
jus sanguinas- by the blood. born of u.s. parents anywhere in the world you are a 'natural' u.s. citizen.
that's why it didn't get traction. territories and military installations, count as american soil.
hopefully, this teflon mc cain campaign abrahms is running gets picked up by more outlets. unfortunately, heads like joe scar, shout all dissent down, or attempt to anyway. why can't we do an all out media blitz highlighting how he's sold out to become pres. doesn't sound to maverick like to me...
Posted by anthony at April 3, 2008 07:36 AM“No person except a natural born citizen,
shall be eligible to the office of President”
John McCain was born August 29, 1936 in Panama.
http://americanchaos.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/john-mccain-is-he-even-eligible-to-be-president/
If you are born on a military base anywhere in the world, you are considered 'natural born citizen' of America. I agree, this is a non-issue.
Posted by Judith at April 3, 2008 07:54 AMI don't watch tv much, so does anyone know if the truckers protesting the high price of deisel fuel got any attention by the MSM?
Posted by Judith at April 3, 2008 07:58 AMThere is very little discussion about the conflict between the U.S. Constitution's requirement that the U.S. President must be born within the USA...
It's amazing how many people talk about the U.S. Constitution without actually knowing what it says in the U.S. Constitution.
Posted by snark at April 3, 2008 08:00 AMIt's amazing how many people talk about the U.S. Constitution without actually knowing what it says in the U.S. Constitution.
It's pretty much how we got into this mess in the first place, isn't it?
Posted by iamcoyote at April 3, 2008 08:04 AMjudith,I saw a front page headline today,not about the truckers, but about the amount of Gas being wasted in the Iraq war. I guess it all ties together. Speaking of Iraq, would anyone care to discuss the al Maliki debacle last week???? Something other than Obama and Clinton?
My take on it is that Cheney and McOld's visit was to tell Maliki he needed to shake the doors in Sadr-ville prior to Petraeus' Congressional Testimony, and it back-fired big time. Now Bush/Cheney is making out like the US had no idea Maliki was going to attack al Sadr's forces. This sounds so typically Bush...make terrible decisions and then pretend they didn't make them at all when they fail. I just find it hard to believe Maliki did this without any US push. Now he's left out in the cold, again, for following Bush's orders.
Obama's latest SD endorser, former Sen. Melcher of Montana, supports Obama because he's been "against the war from the start" - an UNTRUTH from Obama's stump speech.
Of course, the FACT is Obama opposed the war when he couldn't vote - then funded a dumb war he "opposed" when he could vote.
So if SDs are THAT uninformed....
Yikes!
I don't watch tv much, so does anyone know if the truckers protesting the high price of deisel fuel got any attention by the MSM?
Yes Judith, it got a 3 minute blip on NBC (Brian Williams) the other night when they were talking about diesal going up to 4 bucks a gallon.
Posted by Seven of Six at April 3, 2008 08:15 AMThere is a lot less substance to the argument over John McCain being a "natural born citizen," than the fact the the R's slipped one by the public--not once, but twice-- on the Constitutional suggestion that the President and the Vice President should not be residents of the same state....
Posted by jackalope at April 3, 2008 09:06 AMLet's face it. If Hillary or Obama get the Dem nomination, McOld will be president The press will beat up on Hillary and lots of people will not vote for a black guy who is liberal. I don't care how many states Obama has won in the primaries, all those states vote Republican in the general election. Obama was on Tweety's show yesterday (Matthews is a real Hillary hater) and he was impressive. I'll vote in November for whoever has a D behind their name, But, it's not looking good. Boy, I sure hope I'm wrong.
Posted by joanne at April 3, 2008 09:19 AMI agree we should have "natural born citizens" in the White House.
What we have now are "natural born killers".
Is McCain another one?
"We wake and sleep everyday scared that any time a rocket might fall over our heads," an employee in a foreign embassy told IslamOnline.net, asking not to be named.
"We can see in the faces of many militaries inside the Green Zone that even they are worried about the situation."
snip
A senior militant for Sadr militia seemed to claim credit.
"We are just making tests. Much more damage can be caused by our weapons," he said.
"We will use them in right time to show that the US military is unable to secure not only the Green Zone but all Iraq and maybe they decide that the best thing to do is leave our country for Muslims to govern."
Baghda's Green Zone Turns Red
by Afif Sarhan, IslamOnline, Tue. Apr.1, 2008
"Attacks on the Green Zone will continue and continue to get more precise from now on.
snip
They can be only countered by denying the opponent all suitable firing locations. Aside from massive aerial bombing of densely inhabited civil neighborhoods, the U.S. has no way to achieve that within Baghdad. It will therefore do massive aerial bombing of densely inhabited civil neighborhoods.
snip
Of course the resistance knows exactly where is what in the Green Zone. How many of the Iraqi Green Zone workers had relatives killed due to U.S. induced violence?
snip
Ambassador Crocker will now likely be in the Al Faw palace next to the Baghdad airport. The U.S. has named that area Camp Victory...That place, like all other U.S. bases in Iraq, has been infiltrated and will come under precise mortar and rocket attacks when the resistence is ready for a bigger push.
Retreat From The Green Zone
by b, Moon of Alabama, April 2, 2008
"Would it not be a good idea for those thinking of the Green Zone attacks as leading to a helicopters-on-the-roof experience, to think instead about the Israel-Fatah-Hamas pattern in this GreenZone-Maliki-Sadr situation, resistance leading to quarantines, media blackouts, and the other accoutrements of collective punishment?
Media silent on US air strikes in sealed-off Sadr City
by Badger, Missing Links, Thursday, April 03, 2008
"The time has come to express your rejections and raise your voices loud against the unjust occupier and enemy of nations and humanity, and against the horrible massacres committed by the occupier against our honorable people,"
snip
A senior member of Sadr's bloc in parliament said the prime minister "must stop playing with fire, or the Sadr bloc and the Mehdi Army are ready for this battle, a crucial battle."
"The prime minister is trying to escalate the situation, and the brothers from the Sadr bloc are calling for calm," Sadrist lawmaker Bahaa al-Araji told a news conference.
Iraq's Sadr calls million-strong march against U.S."
by Peter Graff and Ahmed Rasheed, Reuters, Thu Apr 3, 2008
"The battle of Basra may be virtually over. But nobody's talking about the invisible Battle of Mosul.
snip
...the Kurds are...annexing strategically crucial, oil-rich Tameem province, whose capital is Kirkuk, with reserves of up to 15 billion barrels.
snip
This year, a smatter of Sunni and Shi'ite political parties united in calling the Kurdish platform "too large and irrational" - and that included Muqtada [al-Sadr] and former prime minister Iyad Allawi.
snip
It's a total impasse. Sunni Arabs in Iraq would never forgive any government in Baghdad for delivering Kirkuk to the Kurds. And the Kurds will fight to the death for Kirkuk.
snip
...12,000 Iraqi Kurd troops plus 9,000 mostly Kurd police are using the Americans to perform their slow motion ethnic cleansing of [Mosul's] Sunni Arabs while the Americans - with only 1,900 soldiers on the ground - spin it as a success for the "war on terror".
The other Iraqi civil war
by Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, Apr 3, 2008
It's always darkest just before it goes totally black.
Posted by Pvt. Keepout at April 3, 2008 11:18 AMRandi Rhodes suspended from Air America Radio for calling Hillary Clinton a "fucking whore."
Good.
Posted by iamcoyote at April 3, 2008 02:07 PMA senior militant for Sadr militia seemed to claim credit.
"We are just making tests. Much more damage can be caused by our weapons," he said.
I'm wondering when journalists working the Iraq occupation will understand the military term "probe"?
Pvt. Keepout, Can you explain (or maybe Shirin will stop by), about the relationship between the Kurds and their religion. Aren't most Kurds Sunni, with some Shia?
Posted by Seven of Six at April 3, 2008 02:36 PM