Saturday, November 08, 2008

What About Obama’s Grandmothers?

Barack Obama will visit Hawaii in December to honor his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died on Nov 2 in Honolulu at 86 after a long illness. No plans for Dunham's funeral or memorial service have been announced.

Although it will be more than a month since her death before Obama returns to Hawaii, the Honolulu Advisor reported Thursday that it isn’t uncommon for funerals to be held “more than a week after the death of a Hawai'i resident because of the time it takes for loved ones to fly to the Islands.”

There have been no news reports as to burial arrangements for Madelyn Dunham.

According to the Voice of America News, US President-Elect Barack Obama's 84-year old step-grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, wants to travel to the United States to witness the inauguration of her grandson on January 20, 2009.

Although Sarah is Obama's step grandmother, the president-elect reportedly treats her like his natural grandmother.

Because Barack Obama’s step-grandmother, Sarah, has been so very adamant that Senator Barack Obama, was born in Kenya, and that she was present and witnessed his birth in Kenya, not the United States, his eligibility to run for President has been questioned.

Attorney Philip J. Berg filed a U.S. Supreme Court Writ of Certiorari and Application for Stay of the Presidential Election based on affidavits by Rev. Kweli Shuhubia and interviews by Bishop McRae with Sarah Hussein Obama.

According to Family Security Matters, U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter rejected an emergency appeal for the court to halt the tabulation of the 2008 presidential election results until Barack Obama can prove his eligibility to run for office because “ordinary” American citizen such as Berg lack standing to bring such a suit.

A 34-page memorandum that accompanied the court order from Judge R. Barclay Surrick stated that “ordinary citizens can't sue to ensure that a presidential candidate actually meets the constitutional requirements of the office.”

Congress would have to pass a new law granting citizens the power to police the Constitution's eligibility requirements for the Presidency.

According to World Net Daily, Berg said the defendants "are required to respond to the Writ of Certiorari" by Dec. 1.

The governor’s office in Hawaii has stated that it has a valid birth certificate but has rejected requests for access “and left ambiguous its origin.”

. .Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii. . . Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born. . .

7 comments:

  1. "So very adamant that he was born in Kenya?" If by that you mean one single unsubstantiated audio tape and hundreds of conservative sites claiming they have evidence (which is oddly never presented).

    His birth certificate has been verified, give it up; there are no legs for this theory to stand on. All these crackpot lawsuits will be gone in a few weeks.

    The people have spoken, Barak HUSSEIN Obama is YOUR president.

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  2. You loose legitimacy when you continue to rant about debunked myths.

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  3. If she does come to the US Obama knows that she can be subpoenaed to testify. Don't look for her to show up.

    Debbie Hamilton
    Right Truth

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  4. The birth certificate and 'myth' you say has been verified is not a vaulted birth certificate. In fact, the only requirement to get a Hawaiin certificate of live birth is that at least one parent be a citizen of Hawaii for 1 year prior to the birth. The actual location of the birth does not matter. Case in point, Obamas sister, who admits she was born in Kenya, does in fact have a Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii.

    The problem with this entire issue is that Obama could very easily put it all to rest by providing a vaulted birth certificate, which he says in his book that he has. Why has he refused to do so? Why did he mention having the Birth Certificate in his book?

    I dont know which side is correct. What I do know are the facts, not what some blogger is spewing to be facts, but actually researching myself. The 'crackpot', 'legitimate','myth' comments only show how uninformed, uneducated and easilyfooled you are.

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  5. joseph:

    Thank you for your well-informed comments!

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  6. As I understand it, after 1982, Hawaii required the Mother to live in Hawaii for year prior to the birth of a child, to enable the child to receive a certificate of birth.

    Before 1982, I think, a parent need only ask to receive a certificate of birth for a child.

    There is also a question about Philip Berg's right to "standing" in the courts. The Constitution says nothing about "standing." I understand that "standing" is simply a judicial intervention."

    We should know that Obama is natural-born. If Congress or the powers that be know that he is natural born, then it is particularly egregious that they have not put this matter to rest.

    And what do we think about Obama? Our President being a natural born citizen is required. Someone must be big enough to step up and settle this. It should not be necessary for a citizen to spend his own money.

    The whole thing is disgusting.

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  7. Re Obama being born in Kenya:

    If Obama had been born in Kenya, there would be a record of his mother arriving in Kenya in the archives of the Kenya government.

    The critics of Obama, who allege that he was born in Kenya, have not shown anything like this. All they would have to do is to go to those files in Kenya and show that Obama’s mother had been in Kenya in 1961. But they have nothing.

    I listened to the tape, and it is not clear that Obama's grandmother understood the question. The translator (who is also apparently a relative) says repeatedly that Obama was born in Hawaii. In any case, it is not evidence. She could be referring to Barak Obama senior, Obama’s father, who certainly was born in Kenya.

    The officials in Hawaii say he was born in Hawaii. They have seen his birth certificate in his file.

    The certificate (or certification, whatever) of live birth has been accepted as legal proof of Obama's birth in Hawaii by a court in Virginia. (Monday. See: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123806/posts)

    After Berg, several other cases against Obama on the natural born citizen issue were brought in other states.

    While most of them just did what the Berg case did, which was to rule that Berg had no standing to sue, some of the others looked at the “evidence” - and concluded that the stuff was absurd.

    In Ohio, for example the judge (magistrate) said:

    “(Neal) presented no witnesses but himself. From that testimony, it is abundantly clear that the allegations in [Neal]’s complaint concerning “questions” about Senator Obama’s status as a “natural born citizen” are derived from Internet sources, the accuracy of which has not been demonstrated to either Defendant Brunner or this Magistrate … Given the paucity of evidence… this Magistrate cannot conclude that Defendant Brunner has abused her discretion in failing to launch an investigation into Senator Obama’s qualifications to hold the office of President of the United States. ” See:
    http://www.oxfordpress.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/10/31/ws103108obamasuit.html

    In Virginia, which was just ruled on Monday, the judge went further and said that the certificate of live birth was good proof that Obama was born in Hawaii, and there was NO proof presented that he was born anywhere else.

    Here is a report from a web posting that is not official, of course, but it seems accurate mainly because the fellow who posted it was AGAINST Obama. He is disappointed, but accepts the ruling. You can find this post at : (
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123806/posts)

    (Note that sometimes the author correctly puts COLB correctly and sometimes he types it as CLOB, but he means certificate of live birth throughout.)

    Quotes:

    The Court made the following findings:

    1. The Certification of Live Birth presented to the court is unquestionably authentic.

    The court noted that the certification had a raised seal from the state of Hawaii, had a stamp bearing the signature of the registrar of vital statistics. The court found “wholly unpersuasive” any of the internet claims that the birth certificate was altered in any way. Furthermore, the document itself was accompanied by an affidavit from the State Health Director (of Hawaii) verifying that the document is an authentic certification of live birth. The court held that there could be no doubt that the document was authentic unless one believed that the state of Hawaii’s health department were in on an elaborate and complex conspiracy – and that there is not a shred of evidence that this is the case.

    2. The Certification of Live Birth establishes that Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen.

    The affidavit of the State Health Director states that the information on the CLOB is identical to the information on the “vault” copy of the birth certificate, and that both documents establish that Mr. Obama was born in Honolulu. The Court noted that the CLOB is valid for all citizenship purposes. The court noted our argument that the COLB is not valid for determining citizenship, but referred us to Hawaiian law that states otherwise. “There is no difference between a certificate and a certification of live birth in the eyes of the state. For instance, either can be used to confirm U.S. citizenship to obtain a passport or state ID.” The court found that Hawaiian law makes the COLB valid for all purposes with the exception of determining native Hawaiian heritage for certain state and federal benefits. The court held that if Mr. Obama were born elsewhere and the birth registered in Hawaii, the “place of birth” line on the COLB would reflect that fact. The court stated that there could be no doubt that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii and that any argument to the contrary was fanciful and relied on completely unsubstantiated internet rumors.

    3. For that reason, 8 U.S.C. §1401(g), which at the relevant time provided as follows:

    “The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: ***(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years:…..
    is irrelevant to this matter, as Mr. Obama was conclusively born in Hawaii.

    4. Mr. Obama did hold dual citizenship in the U.S. and Kenya until he became an adult. When Barack Obama Jr. was born Kenya was a British colony. 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 by virtue of being born to a father who was a citizen of the UK. Obama’s UK citizenship became an Kenyan citizenship on Dec. 12, 1963, when Kenya formally gained its independence from the United Kingdom. The court noted that 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.
    Thus the court held that as a citizen of the UK who was born in Kenya, Obama’s father automatically received Kenyan citizenship via subsection (1). So given that Obama qualified for citizen of the UK status at birth and given that Obama’s father became a Kenyan citizen via subsection (1), thus Obama did in fact have Kenyan citizenship in 1963.

    However, the court further held 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. The court held that there was no evidence that Mr. Obama has ever renounced his U.S. citizenship or sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4, 1982.

    The court held that there was no legal requirement that Mr. Obama renounce his Kenyan citizenship or affirm his U.S. citizenship in order to maintain his status as a natural born citizen.

    5. Mr. Obama did not lose his U.S. Citizenship based on the acts of his parents, including adoption by an Indonesian citizen. The Court held that no action taken by the parents of an American child can strip that child of his citizenship. The court cited to the 1952 Immigration & Nationality Act, Title III, Chapter 3, Sections 349 and 355, which was in effect in the late 1960s when Obama went to Indonesia, and which stated that a minor does not lose his US citizenship upon the naturalization of his parents or any other actions of his parents, so long as the minor returns to the US and establishes permanent US residency before the age of 21. Thus the adoption of Obama did not serve to strip him of his U.S. citizenship. The fact that Indonesian law does not allow dual citizenship is irrelevant, as U.S. law controls. Furthermore, the Court held that traveling on a foreign passport does not strip an American of his citizenship. The Court noted first that there was no evidence that Mr. Obama traveled on an Indonesian passport (Mr. Berg and others we reached out to for evidence never provided any evidence of this claim or any other of the claims we could have used some proof of.) Nonetheless, the court held that such travel does not divest an American of his citizenship.

    The Court makes other holdings and findings that I won’t bother you with here. Needless to say, the decision is wholly against us. The court finds the claims against Mr. Obama’s citizenship “wholly unpersuasive and bordering on the frivolous, especially in light of the complete absence of any first-hand evidence on any critical issue” and further classifies it as “conspiracy theory of the lowest sort, fueled by nothing than internet rumor and those who truly want to believe egging each other on.”

    I like the part about “conspiracy theory of the lowest sort.”

    Repeat: “The court held that if Mr. Obama were born elsewhere and the birth registered in Hawaii, the “place of birth” line on the COLB would reflect that fact. The court stated that there could be no doubt that Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii and that any argument to the contrary was fanciful and relied on completely unsubstantiated internet rumors.”

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