Like it or not--HE'S A US CITIZEN!

One thing the birthers never come up with and that is a certificate that Barack Obama has renounced his citizenship, which is necessary for one to no longer be a US citizen. The process sounds simple:

To renounce U.S. citizenship, you must go in person to a U.S. embassy or consulate outside the U.S. and sign before a consular officer an oath or affirmation that you intend to renounce your citizenship.

At the end of a formal process one is issued with a Certificate of Loss of Nationality.

One can renounce US citizenship if they do not have another nationality. Although, the Foreign Affairs Manual instructs State Department employees to make it clear to Americans who will become stateless after renunciation that they may face extreme difficulties (including deportation back to the United States) following their renunciation, but instructs employees to afford such persons of their right to give up citizenship.

As for being a Kenyan Citizen: Kenya’s constitution prohibits dual citizenship in adulthood. 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). In other words, Obama’s father was Kenyan, not British. Any citizenship which would have come from Obama’s father would have been Kenyan and not British.

The Kenyan Constitution prohibits dual citizenship for adults. Kenya recognizes dual citizenship for children, but Kenya’s Constitution specifies that at age 23, 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.

President Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya. Thus any claim that Obama can have to being eligible for Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1984.

The same applies for Indonesia. The latest law regulating Indonesian nationality is Law No. 12/2006 (UU No. 12 Tahun 2006). This law revokes Law No. 62/1958 (UU No. 62 Tahun 1958).

Generally, Indonesian citizens are those natural Indonesian people and those of other nationalities that are endorsed by the law as Indonesian citizens. The Indonesian nationality law does not recognize dual citizenship except for persons under the age of 18. After reaching 18 years of age individuals are forced to choose one citizenship.

Again, like Kenya, Obama would have had to make the affirmative act of choosing Indonesian citizenship when he turned 18.

Even if Stanley Ann Dunham renounced her US citizenship, it wouldn’t have effected Barack Obama’s citizenship since he needs to make the affirmative act renouncing for himself (citizenship cannot be renounced by an agent). The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, Title III, Chapter 3, Section 355, says:

“A person having United States nationality, who is under the age of twenty-one and whose residence is in a foreign state with or under the legal custody of a parent who hereafter loses United States nationality under section 350 or 352 of this title, shall also lose his United States nationality if such person has or acquires the nationality of such foreign state: Provided, That, in such case, United States nationality shall not be lost as the result of loss of United States nationality by the parent unless and until the person attains the age of twenty-five years without having established his residence in the United States.

So, there is no way under US law that Barack Obama could have lost his US citizenship due to action of his own OR that of his mother before he was 21 years of age. Under US law, he maintained his birthright US citizenship with no loss or interruption, and no deed for “naturalization” or any “oaths of citizenship” because Natural-Born US citizens don’t require them.

Obama is not a dual national since neither nation he was alleged to have citizenship recognises dual nationality. Additionally, he has not taken the affirmative actions required to acquire either Kenyan or Indonesian nationality.

Like it or not, Barack Obama is a US citizen, and he’s YOUR president.

Sources:
Does Barack Obama have Kenyan citizenship?
Indonesian nationality law
The Indonesian Citizenship Myth

Arizona Head Birther, Ken Bennett, Backs Down

HuffPo reports

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett backed off his birther demands on Wednesday, going so far as to say that he considered the matter of President Barack Obama's ballot eligibility "closed."

On Tuesday night, Bennett, also an Arizona co-chair for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, apologized for creating controversy and feeding a birther frenzy by requesting that Hawaiian officials verify the president's birth documents.

"If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent," Bennett, who had earlier threatened to keep Obama off the ballot if his inquiry wasn't met, said during an interview with radio station KTAR.

Did he embarrass Arizona? Well, as hard as that might be to do, he certainly did.

What could have caused the public turnaround?  Was he less than sincere all along, or did something happen to change his mind?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Stupid, Old, White, Ill-educated Bigoted Southerners Prove Racism and Paranoia Continues to Thrive in the South

I continue to be amazed that the state of California has failed to act on the multiplicity of complaints to their bar association against Orly Taitz.

The woman has a correspondence school law degree that is from a school neither accredited by the state of California, nor approved by any Bar association or chapter, which probably explains why Orly Taitz is so extravagantly incompetent as a lawyer.  Apparently she isn't any better at dentistry or real estate.  (She doesn't appear to be competent at much of anything.)

About the only thing she IS good at doing is exploiting the racism of the right, and conservative paranoia for money. Well.......that and being an unintentional source of hilarity for the rest of the nation who aren't racist or paranoid conservative extremists.  Machine gun shoots are a favorite location for batshit crazy Taitz to troll for clients from current and former members of the military, and for her financial contributors to lunacy like this.  Her support tends to come from the less educated red necks in the so-called 'red' states.

Being ignored is about the best that Orly Taitz and her birther nut jobs can hope for; they could be subject to worse consequences, like the $20k fine for contempt against Tatiz by Judge Clay Land.  His legal decision in that matter was one of the most well written, articulate, and in places wonderfully witty legal documents I have ever read.

And yet, people keep giving money to this ditzy dumbass .......... and not only her, but Ron Paul, and when he makes comments about black people not being familiar with paychecks, they give money to people like the Nut Gingrich and other conservatives as well.

from the HuffPo : Georgia Birther Hearing Proceeds Without Obama, Without Effect

A hearing to determine whether President Barack Obama is eligible to be on the primary ballot in Georgia took place on Thursday, with the defendants, Obama and his legal team, notably absent.
Georgia Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi subpoenaed the president last week after refusing to hear his legal team's challenge to the case, but neither Obama nor his lawyers ever planned on showing up.
Instead, Obama attorney Michael Jablonski wrote a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican and the ultimate arbiter on the question of Obama's ballot eligibility, telling him that he expected Kemp to throw out the "baseless, costly and unproductive" case.
Kemp responded, telling Obama's counsel that they would skip the ballot hearing "at your own peril."
The true nature of the "peril" Obama might face, however, began to play out during Thursday's proceeding.
The complaints being presented at the hearing are based off various claims that Obama is either beholden to an 1875 Supreme Court ruling that determined "natural born citizens" were people born in the United States to parents who are both U.S. citizens, or that he is using fraudulent documents to prove his eligibility.
California attorney Orly Taitz, queen bee of the birthers and a proponent of the latter belief, stood before what Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described as "100 people ... most of them older white Americans" to argue her plaintiff's case.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Judge Malihi was forced to cut her off during her closing arguments, when she attempted to serve as both lawyer and witness.
In the end, no groundbreaking arguments, testimony or evidence were presented at Thursday's hearing, perhaps a testament to the tired nature of these challenges. Taitz is one of the most seasoned veterans of the birther movement, and the fact that she was even granted a hearing came as her first "victory." She was fined $20,000 last year by a Georgia judge for filing frivolous lawsuits of the same nature.
Even with the decision by Obama's legal team to completely ignore the supposed merits of the case, Bookman writes that Secretary of State Kemp is likely left with only one choice:

At any rate, the final decision is Kemp's. Regardless of what Malihi recommends, Kemp does not want to become the Republican secretary of state who ruled Barack Obama off the ballot in Georgia. Becoming a birther hero would not begin to compensate for the lasting infamy such a step would bring him, especially because such a ruling would be challenged in state or federal court and almost immediately overturned on any number of reasons. Kemp would then look like a fool and put an end to any further political ambitions he might have. I doubt that’s the course he will choose to take.

While Kemp, Malihi and the plaintiffs watched the case unfold, Obama was in Las Vegas, expanding upon an energy blueprint that he had unveiled at his State of the Union address.