Does it Really Matter if Obama isn't American?

I spent my time on July Fourth in several different places. I was at a farmer's market in the morning and left from there to my office to finish up some bookkeeping. I rode my motorcycle up to Lake George and put in an appearance at a gathering in Usher's Park that my friend Dave had invited me to. There were about twenty people there eating and talking and I hung out for a while.

At one point, I walked over to another gazebo to catch up with a hockey friend spending the day with his family. When I returned, there was a vaguely familiar gentleman holding court with a small group who seemed attuned to his every word. It hit me that this was, "tax protester" and "Obama citizenship guy", Bob Schultz. I had read stories about him and seen his picture in the papers before. I had also seen more than a few interviews with him, most notably the one in Aaron Russo's brave film, "From Freedom to Fascism". I have no problem with the taxing of my income to aid the collective but I share many of Mr. Schultz's assertions that the way in which it is done is unconstitutional (at best).

Lately, I see much convergence between Libertarian and Green ideals; the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, the Federal Reserve, Ballot Access. We sound so much alike on so many issues of which Schultz has clearly been a fighter and a spearhead. His efforts to dump the Patriot Act, end foreign wars entirely and provide a proper audit of the Federal Reserve are legend.

Many Americans do not realize that the "Federal Reserve" is actually a privately-owned bank from which our government borrows its money (with interest) to pay for 100% of our federal programs. So, every cent of your federal tax dollar is actually paying off debt to bankers, not funding programs. Also, during the Bush/Obama nightmare, roughly 2 trillion dollars has gone missing and is totally unaccounted for. I know plenty of people from all sides of the political spectrum who want to know where the hell it went!

Ron Paul and Denis Kucinich have sponsored a bill (HR 1207) demanding a proper audit of the Fed and 55% of congresspeople have signed on. Bernie Sanders has introduced a companion bill in the Senate called the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S 6o4), as well. I recently got to ask my district's new Congressman, Scott Murphy, whether he would support HR 1207. He maintained that he felt the GAO (General Accounting Office) was taking care of it and that the Fed was already being audited by an "independent firm like Price-Waterhouse" but he also said that he would not be against more oversight.

I have kept abreast of some of Bob Schultz's many activities since he ran for Governor on the Libertarian ticket in 1994 and while I may not agree with everything he does, I have always thought him someone who seems dreadfully misunderstood (and vilified) by the corporate media. They are so quick to ridicule him for his legal challenges against the IRS and other entities that have so obviously taken on powers which most Americans agree are beyond their right. Many would agree with Schultz that these entities are, in fact, unconstitutional. I wanted to speak with him and measure him up for myself. He, and his wife, Judy, were very gracious with their time. We spoke for about two hours. I learned a lot.

Bob explained that most of his activities through his foundations (We The People Foundation, We The People Congress) are geared toward preserving a person's right to petition for redress of grievances. This right was first conveyed by King John as outlined in the Magna Carta and (more recently) in the United States Constitution.

The First Amendment to our Constitution clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now, what good would a "petition for redress of grievances" be if it was to go unanswered? Schultz explained that he has, for over 20 years, been documenting all of the "unanswered petitions" he and others have made to members of our government asking them to explain behaviors, procedures, institutions and decisions that are clearly not constitutional. It should be noted that, in the Magna Carta, the King only had 40 days to respond to such a petition before he was assumed a tyrant and could be stripped of all his belongings (with the noted exception of his life). If our government has not responded to literally 100's of Bob's requests over two decades what should they have to give up?

He told me about the Constitutional Congress he has planned for this fall. Delegates from around the country will meet to decide what to do about our tyrants and their lack of response. I'm considering going.

Unfortunately, I enjoyed my conversation with Schultz so much that I forgot to talk to him about the whole embarrassing issue of the Obama "citizenship campaign". I couldn't believe that he was really the guy behind what was so obviously a frivolous (maybe even a racist) campaign. As I was riding home, I thought to myself that there had to be more to it.

I remember speaking with Ralph Nader after the Democrats took over the house in 2006. He was on the warpath at the time, pushing for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for their war crimes. Pelosi and Conyers had just, insanely, stated that impeachment was "off the table". I asked Ralph if he really thought that the Democrats would show any stomach for prosecuting these war criminals when their party was so on board with both resource wars and all the lies that led to them?

I remember his reply well. He said that this went far beyond the sad farce of corporate politics. "We, as citizens cannot let this go unanswered. It is of vital importance that we set an example of Bush and Cheney so that their predecessors will not continue degrading the rule of law. They have to know that there will be very severe consequences for violating our Constitution and that we, the citizenry, will hold them accountable!"

I understood where Ralph was coming from then (and I still await some substantive action from the Democrats - ha ha ha). On my motorcycle ride home, I began to see this whole Obama citizenship thing as important for exactly the same reason (constitutional precedent).

Now, there is no question that I am not personally a fan of Mr. Obama's. In fact, I see him as nothing more than the newest "Sales Rep" for the military-industrial-congressional complex and I think his cowardly stance on most majoritarian issues proves me correct in this. He is quite obviously beholden to a different set of corporate vultures than his predecessor but it seems this set wants basically the same things the previous one did.

In my heart of hearts, I probably don't agree with our constitution's "natural born" citizen requirement. I think the country of one's birth should be irrelevant in judging who is best to govern (it wouldn't even be on a list of things that matter to me) but Schultz, like Nader, seems pretty concerned about this casual setting of an unconstitutional precedent and I can agree fully with that thought process. I decided, based on my face-to-face assessment of Schultz, that he must have some reasonably solid basis for this citizenship accusation and decided to spend some time reading his propaganda on the matter upon my return home.

Now, I would ask that you be as open-minded as you can about this question I will ask.

Would it be all right if Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for President even though we all KNOW that he is not a "natural born citizen"?

I can see the lines splitting along the fake ideological divide already.

I like to think that most independently-minded folk would say that he obviously could not run for president because he is not a natural-born citizen.

Some Republicans might find a way to rationalize a YES answer but I think that most would say the answer is NO.

Democrats will have likely have a tougher job with their answer. To say, "NO, of course Arnold can't run", is to legitimize a discussion of whether or not Obama is actually a citizen by birth and if he's not ... well, he has no business being President, right?

I can only say that our Constitution is not a popularity poll. It is our law and there is a mechanism to amend or alter it. Unless it is actually properly changed, my opinion about it, and yours, are totally irrelevant. We are simply to observe the law as it is written until it is amended.

Having read what Bob has posted about Obama's birthplace and what Salon has to say and Snopes and the Washington Post and the NY Times and Keith Olbermann and too many others to mention, I would say there are legitimate grounds for concern. The law, as it currently stands, says very clearly that you must be a "natural-born citizen" to become president and it does seem that Obama (who has consistently refused to release the same documentation any American would need to secure something as routine as a passport or a driver's license) may not be a "natural-born" citizen.

The most compelling evidence is that he would only allow Hawaii to release a copy of a "Certification of Live Birth" (which is a computer-generated piece of paper and not an original document). He has refused to release a copy of his actual "Birth Certificate" that would clear up this whole mess instantly. Is that because it is easy to forge a document that is merely printed out of a computer database today, but would be much harder to forge a document, like a proper Birth Certificate, that experts could easily look at and test the age and authenticity of? Is it not being "released" because it does not, in fact, exist at all? I mean, let face it. If the man was born in Hawaii, where is the birth certificate to back it up and why is he being sketchy about it?

A "Birth Certificate" is what you or I would need to use as proof of identification in any practical application. It has hospital name, full information about parents, occupations, addresses, a raised seal from the state in question and the attending physician's signature, among others.

The "Certification of Birth" Obama has released is a whole different animal. It would not be usable as an original piece of ID by any of us. Anyone who has traveled between even just the US and Canada knows the difference between these two documents. How is it possible that our standards of ID are so much lower than for someone who has access to the "big red phone"?

An American parent may certainly confer status to his or her child but immigration law at that time makes it clear that there is a gray area where Obama's mother was concerned. She was 18 when he was born and may not have lived there long enough to qualify as someone able to confer "natural-born" status to Barack.

Anecdotally, to compound all of this, there is a transcript of an interview with Obama's paternal grandmother which has her saying that she was present when Barack was born ... in Kenya. The woman is apparently still alive and I have to wonder if we, in fact, live in a free country, where the corporate media interview is in which they follow up with her to clarify her misstatement? Have you seen that interview? Neither have I.

So, maybe, Bob Schultz isn't just some crazy, xenophobic, white guy trying to implement a racist (or Republican) agenda. Maybe he is, instead, an uber-concerned citizen incensed at the constant degradation of our Constitution.

Read through his arguments for yourself. Most of those I read label Schultz a "conspiracy theorist" because the courts have all been very quick to dismiss the many cases brought before them concerning Obama's citizenship. What I find very interesting is that I did not come across a single case that was dismissed for lack of merit or evidence. They were all dismissed because the citizen bringing the suit was not seen as being "personally injured" by Obama's natural-born status (or lack thereof). That throws up some red flags for me as well.

It reminded me of all those crazy conspiracy theorists back in 2000 who were so enraged when the Supreme Court decided not to allow a recount and anointed King George. Should we be any more trusting of the judges who so casually dismiss the discussion of Obama's citizenship? Let me know what you think.

When you're done checking out the Obama situation, you might want to check this out for balance. John McCain was more definitely unqualified to run as he was born in the Panama Canal Zone a full year before the law that would allow his parents to confer "natural-born" status to him.

Does this mean that Ralph Nader was actually the winner? He did come in third. ;-) That would certainly be cool! Man, I would sleep so much better at night knowing that we were really getting out of Iraq AND Afghanistan, that we were burning the Patriot Act, ending extraordinary rendition and torture, re-instituting Habeus Corpus, asking the world to forgive us for letting everything get so damn crazy after WWII, ending corporate personhood, instituting fair federal ballot access rules and public campaign finance for ALL candidates, proportional representation, an end to the electoral college, funding of real clean energy and the incentivizing of electric cars, solar panels, wind and hydro power, setting up single-payer health care just like our veterans have ... I could go on all day but that's all just a dream.

We would have to actually want those things to vote for them. Eugene V. Debs was once asked if he had any regrets and he answered thusly; "The Constitution of this country pretty much guarantees the people that they can have almost anything that they want. But they don't seem to really want much of anything at all, do they?"

Scott Murphy Comes To Town

I went to visit Scott Murphy on Tuesday morning. The new Congressman was opening the doors of his new congressional office in Glens Falls, N.Y. Located at 136 Glen Street, it is just around the corner from my own cafe. About 65 people were gathered to voice concerns and ask questions of the 20th District's newest representative. Murphy appeared calm and thoughtful as he answered all the questions asked of him for about 45 minutes.

He first spent twenty minutes talking about his initial 7 weeks in the House and extolling the virtues of the Credit Card Reform bill and the Mortgage Reform bill which he voted for. He also spoke at length about his support of the recent (and controversial) Energy Independence bill. One citizen critic opined that the bill was a boondoggle designed to put carbon-trading credits under the control of Wall Street bankers.

Murphy noted that there were pluses and minuses to the bill and pointed out that, in New York state, we spend far more for power than other states because we have already done so much to clean up our power sources. He cited, as well, the credits that were negotiated right before the bill passed concerning "woody biomass". These credits, he said, will favor pulp and paper mills like Finch-Pruyn, located in Glens Falls, which he specifically mentioned.

Although many questions were asked, a reasonably large number of people were in the crowd to voice their support for a Single-Payer Health Care plan (HR 676, Improved and Expanded Medicare For All). We were there to ask Mr. Murphy why he has not signed on as a sponsor to the bill. John Thomas, from Hartford, asked him to define single-payer as he saw it and Peter Lavenia, co-chair of New York state's Green Party asked why he would not sign on as a sponsor.

Murphy said that, "I haven't decided which of the various bills that I am going to vote in favor of or against." He went on to say that he was looking at access to health care for those who don't currently have it but also the retention of "choice" for those who do. Further, he said that Americans "have the most expensive system with the most mediocre result."

David Nicholson, a Vietnam Veteran, was holding a sign that read, "Rub Out The Two Party Mafia" and a compatriot of his had one that said, "Washington. You're fired!" I spoke to Nicholson prior to the event and he said that he wanted to ask about whether or not Murphy would support the HR 1207, the bill Ron Paul and Denis Kucinich have sponsored which would allow for proper auditing of the Federal Reserve. They did not have a chance to speak directly with Murphy before he took the event indoors, so after pledging my support (as a businessman, an employer and a person who grew up under a single-payer system) to HR 676 and urging him to consider supporting it, I asked if he would support Ron Paul's bill.

He maintained, as many elected officials have, that an independent firm already audit's the nation's bank, but he also said that he would not be against further auditing being done directly by the General Accounting Office to allow for better oversight of the privately-held bank that has literally made $2 trillion disappear right in front of lawmakers' eyes.

He had made an earlier statement about troop withdrawals from Iraq under Obama and I asked how he felt about the historical number of mercenaries that were being deployed to replace the soldiers now headed from Iraq to Afghanistan. I asked if this switch, along with our 14 permanent military bases in Iraq, could really be looked at as any sort of meaningful "withdrawal"?

Murphy responded, "As we are bringing our troops back, there are also people that are hired by the U.S. and by Iraqi Security Forces to provide security and, my hope is that, over time, we're drawing that (number) down as well."

Lastly, I asked him why our state's dairy farmers are still being forced to deal with subsidies and price controls in an age when people are starting to eat real food and are getting used to paying what it is actually worth. I also asked his position on N.A.I.S. (the National Animal I.D. system which would have every farm animal tagged and coded for federal oversight).

Murphy said he has spoken with many dairy farmers and that he spent several days trying to figure out all the nuances involved in our "anachronistic" system of dairy pricing. He said that he was working towards answers but that it was a very complicated issue.

As for the tagging of every egg, chicken, cow and piglet, he said that it is not something "the agricultural community is very excited about" and that
he would not support it "at the current time".