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McHenry: "I Haven't Seen Enough Evidence" Whether Obama Is A Citizen

We can add another name to the list of Republican officeholders who won't say that President Obama is a citizen, thus playing into the Birther movement: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC).

McHenry was asked by a constituent at a town hall meeting whether he thinks Obama is a citizen. "I haven't seen enough evidence one way or the other," said Mchenry, who also added that the issue is being addressed "in the courts."

Late Update: McHenry's office has given this statement to Greg Sargent, backtracking and seeming to affirm that yes, Obama is an American:

"As I stated last night, I have not carefully reviewed the evidence as a jurist would. However, from what I have read, I have absolutely no reason to question President Obama's citizenship. I anticipate that as a legal matter the courts will continue to come to the same conclusion."

46 Comments

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you fu&cking P*ssy.......

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Just to reiterate, because McHenry's denial/correction is ridiculous, yesterday we have Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Republican chairman Michael Steele siding with Palin on this. And here we have another Republican Congressman (McHenry) joining the conspiracy theory group that our president is a foreign-born enemy of our country.

And these are the people we are supposed to have an honest and serious discussion with about health care reform in order to create a bipartisan plan????

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oops....didnt hide enough letters....

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Very well said though.

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Well, McHenry probably saw that PPP recently showing that most Republicans in North Carolina are batshit crazy and willfully ignorant. He's just going with the flow.

I thought that our country regained it's sanity last fall. I was wrong. It's fucking crazier than ever. And it's that way because we elected a black Democrat as president and now he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do during the election campaign.

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A base libel. McHenry is no follower. He's always been a leader in the areas of batshit insanity and willful ignorance.

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The country made great strides towards regaining its sanity last fall. What is happening now is that the bat-shit crazy faction is panicking and running out of the shadows into the light.

It's sort of like blowing a bug bomb to kill cockroaches. There is a last gasp of energy as all the cockroaches are dying and come running out into the open in the kitchen before they die off.

To continue the analogy, we now have to control the explosion of dying cockroaches and make sure they haven't left a bunch of eggs in the walls to breed up a whole new generation behind them. We also need to get the whole colony and all its associated supports like FOX "News" and Lou Dobbs. Can advertisers be induced to stop paying for them as is currently the case with Glenn Beck?

Not a perfect analogy (cockroaches are nicer than conservatives for one thing) but definitely a satisfying one.

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Make sure the dead enders don't drag the poison on your food as they stagger around in their death throes.

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Still fighting mental health in some parts of the country, eh?

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This man is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Incredible!

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Which is exactly why he said what he said. He wants to remain in the House. And because most of the folks who put him in the office think Obama is a Muslim socialist illegal alien who wants to kill disabled children and senior citizens, he needs to flash his birther creds.

I didn't think the crazy could be turned up anymore than it was during the Clinton years. I was wrong.

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You left out racist, fascist, and left-handed.

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Watch, it dammit!! I'M left-handed!

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I didn't think the crazy could be upped, either.

Who knew?

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And he's not even the dumbest or the craziest by a long shot.

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It just goes to show you that "teh stoopid" is not a scarce commodity.

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It's all about loyalty credentials. To be a member of their little circle, which is getting smaller by the day, you have to publicly reject reality. You have to be willing to expose yourself to ridicule and rise above the rest of the world and be separate. It's has a Christian flavor to it. The fact that they are scorned gives their stand a martyr-like air, and they really do want to be portrayed as the martyr.

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One of the final steps in brainwashing someone is to send them out as an evangelical for the cult. It really sets the cult mindset and makes it extremely difficult to break.

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Yes, like setting concrete.

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That "clarification" isn't walking anything back. It's the same bullshit response they all give after they say, "I'm with you, birthers!" Walking it back would have been:

"My comments were taken out of context. I believe President Obama was born in the United States. Period."

But he didn't say that, did he?

Also note that he says that he has "no reason to question President Obama's citizenship." Dog whistle, man. The birthers don't doubt that he's currently a US citizen from a legal perspective...they don't think he was born in the United States.

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And this is exactly what he wants. He looks like he is being rational through his spokesperson and makes his base happy himself.

Win/win.

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As I stated last night, I have not carefully reviewed the evidence as a jurist would. However, from what I have read, I have absolutely no reason to question President Obama's citizenship. I anticipate that as a legal matter the courts will continue to come to the same conclusion.
To paraphrase his namesake, "Give me ambiguity or give me something else!"
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Well I have no reason to believe the Mr. McHenry is a cocaine pusher and a pimp despite whatever rumors about these serious transgressions.

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Well, I certainly haven't seen enough evidence that Rep. McHenry is a closeted homosexual, in spite of his being unmarried and having shared a house with a young male aide.

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Apparently, I missed something; Obama's citizenship is being adjudicated somewhere? Jeebus.

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I have received no information contrary to the assertion that Rep. McHenry blows goats. However, my assumption continues to be that he does not blow goats. The truth will out.

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McHenry chose his words very carefully indeed. While Obama's citizen has itself been called into question. Being only a "citizen" does not mean he is a "natural born" citizen within the meaning of Art. ll, Sec. l, Cls. 5 of the U.S. Constitution.

Obama's published COLB -- you know, the one everybody says "proves" his citizen -- was only "Filed" and never "Accepted" by the State Registrar, as it states right there in the lower left-hand corner of his COLB. What this means is, there is some information contained in Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth" document that could not be independently verified at the time his birth certificate application was filled out.

McHenry spoke the truth in both instances...we don't have enough evidence one way or the other to say Barack Obama has met his Constitutional requirements, as every other president has, with the possible exception of Chester Arthur, to be President of the United States.

ex animo
davidfarrar

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My God, you've discovered the Chester Arthur conspiracy, too? Speak the truth, man! Write a book about it.

PLEASE, devote all your time to uncovering the connections between Arthur and Obama. Someone's got to do it!

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Having an accepted COLB is not a Constitutional requirement to be President of the United States.


The Constitutional requirement is that the President be a 'natural born' citizen of the United States. Most -- including the Republican Party -- interpret this to mean not naturalized. Even if the requirement is that the person is born in the United States Obama qualifies because he was born in Hawaii.

Oh, how do I know that natural born as interpreted by the Republican Party means born to a United States citizen? By the candidates they consider and choose:

McCain ---- Panama
George Romney ------ Mexico
Goldwater ----Arizona TERRITORY

And, oh yeah, Ted Olson agrees with me. NYT Dec 8,2008.

Do your research before swallowing garbage whole.


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I have done my research. In terms of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the issue. There is no doubt a person born in this country of two U.S. citizens, naturalized or otherwise, would be a "natural born" U.S. citizen as it pertains to Art. ll, Sec. l, Cls. 5 of the U.S. Constitution.

If a child is born of two U.S. citizens outside of the United States, there is a possibility the child may not be a "natural-born" citizen.

If a child is born in the United States of only one parent being a U.S. citizen, there is a possibility the child may not be a "natural-born" citizen.

The key to understanding what the term "natural-born" citizen means in Art. ll, Sec. l, Cls. 5 of the U.S. Constitution, goes to the "allegiance" of the child. What allegiance does Barack Obama have, assuming he was, in fact, born in Hawaii, to the United States. To answer this question we must look in detail into Barack Obama's upbringing. To do this, Barack Obama must provide his records, which he has thus far refused to do. Without strong, corroborating evidence, Patrick McHenry would be correct. At present the record fails to "prove" Barack Obama meets the requirements as set forth in of Art. ll, Sec. l, Cls. 5 of the U.S. Constitution.

One final note, the only thing Hawaiian officials can attest to is the information contained in Barack Obama's certificate of live birth document.
Their attestation is only as good as far as the information on Barack Obama's certificate of live birth document can be independently verified.

I have suggested a means by which Mr. Obama can settle this matter in an earlier post:

"First: Release all of his educational records he is presently withholding, all federal records, including all previous passports issued, foreign or domestic, social security numbers that have been and are presently assigned to Barack Obama, Jr. or to any of his aliases.

"Second: Allow his long form, Hawaiian "Certificate of Live Birth" document, to be examined by a panel of (independently assigned) forensic experts to the determine the document's authenticity.

"Thirdly: Depending on the information contained therein, produce corroborating evidence.

"Lastly: Take the now "full" record of Barack Obama's allegiance to this country to the Supreme Court, even with his new appointment, and have him declared a "natural born" citizen."

Should the U.S. Supreme Court declare Mr. Obama has met his constitutional qualifications, I will be proud to call him my President, but not until.

ex animo

davidfarrar

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If a child is born in the United States of only one parent being a U.S. citizen, there is a possibility the child may not be a "natural-born" citizen.

Bzzt, no.

Sorry, stoopid Birfer, either release all pertinent information showing that you're a US citizen, or stop pretending to be a Supreme Court justice on the internets.

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Ad hominem, ad hominem, ad hominem, that's all you got when you are faced with the truth.

My post represents the closest the U.S. Supreme Court has come to actually defining what the term "natural-born" means as far Art. ll, Sec. l, Cls. 5 of the U.S. Constitution is concerned.

ex animo
davidfarrar

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Wong Kim Ark is the closest the Supreme Court has come to defining 'natural born' and unless and until something is decided otherwise it is the supreme law of the land. You may wish otherwise: get over it. As set forth in Wiki but the money quote is the direct quote from the Supreme Court:

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* United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898): In this case, the majority of the Court held that a child born in U.S. territory to parents who were subjects of the emperor of China and who were not eligible for U.S. citizenship, but who had “a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the emperor of China” was a U.S. Citizen.

The Court stated that:

The constitution nowhere defines the meaning of these words [citizen and natural born citizen], either by way of inclusion or of exclusion, except in so far as this is done by the affirmative declaration that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.'[17]

Since there was no definition of "natural born citizen" found in the constitution, the majority adopted the common law of England that was a carry over from feudal times.

The court ruled:

It thus clearly appears that by the law of England for the last three centuries, beginning before the settlement of this country, and continuing to the present day, aliens, while residing in the dominions possessed by the crown of England, were within the allegiance, the obedience, the faith or loyalty, the protection, the power, and the jurisdiction of the English sovereign; and therefore every child born in England of alien parents was a natural-born subject, unless the child of an ambassador or other diplomatic agent of a foreign state, or of an alien enemy in hostile occupation of the place where the child was born. III. The same rule was in force in all the English colonies upon this continent down to the time of the Declaration of Independence, and in the United States afterwards, and continued to prevail under the constitution as originally established."

The majority did not adopt the dissenters claim that 'under the jurisdiction' meant that no allegiance was 'owed' to a foreign government implying that whatever the laws of a foreign jurisdiction might seek, what was important was that the United States had jurisdiction over persons lawfully here and not subject to diplomatic immunity.

As to allegiance, a child born in this country with dual nationality taken from this country as a small child to other nation in which he has citizenship, the test is whether or not that child on its majority returns to reside in this country and assume the duties of citizenship. Obama has met this test outstandingly. See Elg.

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Ad hominem or not, you are still a dumbass. I thought everyone knew that a child born in the US, regardless of the citizenship of their parents, is a natural born US citizen.

It's why immigrants do everything they can to have their child on US soil, to improve their own chances.

So why don't you take on some 'truth' for a change instead of your foolish revisionist statements of US law?

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David,

its interesting how you want Obama to prove to you that he's a natural born citizen. According to you he must meet 4 tests that you, a critic, create.

I'm afraid you're going to have to live with 'President' Obama for at least the remainder of his term.

Now, what about this theory that Bush/Cheney brought down the trade center buildings?

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"Lastly: Take the now "full" record of Barack Obama's allegiance to this country to the Supreme Court, even with his new appointment, and have him declared a "natural born" citizen."

The Supreme Court does not operate this way and I doubt they are going to start operating this way now. They have had several chances to take on this issue through court cases, which is how they do operate, and they have turned them all down.

Numbers three and four of the requirements are new. Not too long ago, all Obama had to do was produce the long BC and have it examined by an independent panel. Now corroborating evidence and SCOTUS certification have been added. Why?

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Research? Schmesearch -- they don't need no stinkin' research!

When you think about it, all the people who believe this are guilty of allowing a "fraudulent election" take place. What a bunch of stupids!

Actually, this is only one thing: racism. They just can't stand the fact that we have a black president; and the fact that he is smarter than all of them really gets their goat too!

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Your tinfoil hat is choking off the circulation to what's left of your brain. You should see someone about that.

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davidfarrer says;

...we don't have enough evidence one way or the other to say Barack Obama has met his Constitutional requirements.....

Of course the "we" you refer to is you, the dentist/lawyer/real estate agent Orly Taitz and the rest of the birthers. But of course there will never be enough evidence.

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McHenry is a twit. That said, he's doing a typical bait and switch.
Don't piss off a wingnut constituent, then have his office issue a "clarification" that makes him sound a little less wacko. Knowing full well that his constituents won't be aware of the clarification.

That is, unless someone stands up at the next town hall and reads both what McHenry said and what the clarification said, and asks
him which of the two is the right response?

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McHenry says he hasn't seen enough evidence one way or the other.

'One way' is the evidence that shows he was born in Hawaii; birth certificate, 2 newspaper notices, Hawaiian Government officials attesting to same.

So now Patrick, what evidence do you see the 'other way', the way that shows he wasn't born in Hawaii?

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Yes, John,

I am glade you ask these two questions. Even though I have already addressed them, I will be happy to explain them to you again.

The picture a few websites have posted of what they purport to be Obama's Hawaiian "birth certificate" -- which Obama, himself, has never accepted responsibility for -- including the one posted on Fight-the-Smears dot com, which they have since taken down -- states in the lower left-hand corner "Date filed by Registrar August 8, 1961."

What this means is the registrar (State of Hawaii Health official) couldn't independently verify some information that was placed on Barack Obama's birth certificate application and, therefore, was simply 'filed'.

In normal birth certificates filed in Hawaii and everywhere else, a birth is generally accomplished at a hospital, with an attending physician, nurses, et cetera, who sign on to the child's birth certificate as independent witness. In these cases, the information supplied to the State Health officials, the registrar, is marked Date "Accepted" by the state registrar.

In Obama's case, we simply don't know what that information was that the Hawaiian Health officials could not verify. It will take a close examination of his long-form Certificate of Live Birth document to answer that question, plus corroborative evidence.

Now as far as the two newspaper clips go, they were produced by the newspaper staff themselves as a matter of routine, information taken directly off of Obama's long-form Certificate of Birth. And as such, if there was an error in the information on Obama's birth certificate application, it would automatically be reproduced in these two newspaper clippings, as can be seen by the incorrect residency address listed in both of these two clippings.

As you can now see, Barack Obama has not proven by any measure he has met his constitutional requirements to be President of the United States and the sooner he can do so, the sooner we can put this matter to rest.

ex animo
davidfarrar

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I just looked at my two son's "Certificates of Live Birth" and the "date filed" is noted. There is no "date accepted."

Take some advice from Sarah Palin, and

STOP MAKIN' THINGS UP! \

When you pull stuff out of your ass, it doesn't pass the sniff test, you know!

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...including the one posted on Fight-the-Smears dot com, which they have since taken down...

OK, you need to let go of this untruth, too.

http://www.fightthesmears.com

The certificate is here on the same site:

http://www.fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birthcertificate.html

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This is a basic tenant of the Republican playbook: If a fact does not help the Republican cause, never confirm its accuracy.

This is why Republicans hate science, or can't do science; it's really hard to determine if the law of gravity helps or hurts the Republican cause, so they can't confim it as truth. We all know that reality has a strong liberal bias.

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condewe,

well gravity is just a 'theory".

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