On Tuesday, September 9, in the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse at Santa Ana, California, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter gave the American people renewed hope that the words of the U.S. Constitution still have meaning. Judge Carter has set a tentative date of January 26, 2010 to hear arguments in a case that “challenges Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president based on questions over his qualifications under the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.”
Attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice, representing Obama at taxpayer expense, entered a motion for dismissal on Friday, September 5, arguing that the allegations against Obama were “frivolous” and that the lawsuit was filed in the wrong court. Judge Carter refused to consider the motion to dismiss and set a hearing date for October 5 to hear arguments on the motion.
If the judge refuses the motion to dismiss, which is highly likely, it is expected that he will then order expedited discovery, forcing Obama to release his long form birth certificate; his passports and visas; his primary and secondary school records from Indonesia and Hawaii; his college records from Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard; his writings and published articles from those three institutions, and other documents related to his status as a “natural born” U.S. citizen.
A decorated Marine with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star to his credit, Judge Carter has said, previously, “If there are legitimate constitutional questions regarding Obama’s eligibility, they need to be addressed and resolved.” Now that the case has finally gone before an impartial court, we may finally get answers to a host of questions that demand answers. For example:
- Why does Obama’s Kenyan grandmother insist that she was present at his birth at the Coastal Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya on August 4, 1961?
- When his mother married an Indonesian in 1967 and moved to Jakarta, did she renounce her American citizenship? If so, did she also renounce six-year-old Obama’s citizenship?
- When he was adopted by his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, did he automatically become an Indonesian citizen? Obama’s school records from Indonesia indicate that he was a citizen of Indonesia and that his religion was Muslim.
- When his mother sent him back to Hawaii at age ten to be raised by his grandparents, did he apply for reinstatement as an American citizen? Did he take the required loyalty oath at age eighteen?
- When he applied for admission to Occidental College in 1979 and to Columbia in 1981, did he apply for admission as an American citizen or as a foreign student?
- If he received student aid at Occidental, Columbia, or Harvard, did he claim American citizenship or foreign citizenship?
- When he traveled to Indonesia and Pakistan in the summer of 1981, what passport did he use: American, British, or Indonesian?
These are all important questions and the American people deserve to have answers to all of them. But now an additional question has been raised that involves the Democratic Party and what the party knew about Obama’s eligibility at the time he became their nominee.
In a September 10 article for the Canada Free Press, titled, “The Theory is now a Conspiracy and Facts Don’t Lie,” conservative writer JB Williams exposes what may be a conspiracy by the Democratic National Committee to either divert attention from the question of Obama’s eligibility, or to insulate the party itself from any blame in nominating an ineligible candidate.
As Williams explains in his column, he received from an anonymous source two documents purporting to be the official certification of the nomination of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be president and vice president of the United States, respectively. The first contained the following standard certification language:
“THIS IS TO CERTIFY that at the National Convention of the Democrat Party of the United States of America, held in Denver, Colorado on August 25 though (sic) 28, 2008, the following were duly nominated as candidates of said Party for President and Vice President of the United States respectively and that the following candidates for President and Vice President of the United States are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution.”
Affixed below are the names and home addresses of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The document is signed by Nancy Pelosi and Alice Travis Germond, Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and notarized by Shalifa A. Williamson.
The second document, however, contained only the following certification:
“THIS IS TO CERTIFY that at the National Convention of the Democrat Party of the United States of America, held in Denver, Colorado on August 25 though (sic) 28, 2008, the following were duly nominated as candidates of said Party for President and Vice President of the United States respectively…” followed by the names and home addresses of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and signed and notarized identically to the first document.
The only difference between the two documents is that the words, “and that the following candidates for President and Vice President of the United States are legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution” are strangely absent. Other than that, the two documents are identical… even to the typographical misspelling of the word “through” in the second line of the certification.
Knowing that Obama supporters have forged and circulated documents related to the question of Obama’s eligibility, causing some anti-Obama forces to circulate false information which could later be used to discredit “birthers,” Williams was immediately wary of the documents from the anonymous source. Accordingly, he requested copies of Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin certification documents from state election boards in several states.
What he found was that all of the McCain-Palin certifications contained the necessary declaration of eligibility… i.e. “We do hereby certify that a national convention of Delegates representing the Republican Party of the United States, duly held and convened in the city of Saint Paul, State of Minnesota, on September 4, 2008, the following person, meeting the constitutional requirements for the Office of President of the United States, and the following person, meeting the constitutional requirements for the Office of Vice President of the Unites States, were nominated for such offices to be filled at the ensuing general election, November 4, 2008, viz;”
Affixed below were the names and home addresses of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. The certifications were signed by John A. Boehner and Jean A. Inman, Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the 2008 Republican National Convention, and notarized by Sheila A. Motzko.
However, he was not surprised to find that, in each instance, the Obama-Biden certifications failed to include the standard language asserting that the candidates being certified were, in fact, “legally qualified to serve under the provisions of the United States Constitution.”
Inquiries have been placed with a number of other state election boards to determine which version of the convention certification was filed in those states. Readers are invited to contact their state election boards to determine which version is on file.
In the process of selecting individuals to serve as president and vice president there are three major opportunities for proper vetting. The first opportunity arises at the national conventions when delegates assemble to select their candidates. The second opportunity arises following the General Election as members of the Electoral College prepare to cast their votes for president and vice president. And the third opportunity arises as members of Congress convene in joint session to tabulate and certify the Electoral College votes from the various states.
In the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States it appears that the system failed at every level. Since it is debatable whether Obama is eligible under constitutional requirements, the doubts that have been raised should have been cause for intense vetting by the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the Democratic members of the U.S. Electoral College, and every member of the U.S. Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike. All have failed in their implicit responsibility to question Obama’s eligibility. In each instance, those with the vetting responsibility were forewarned.
But now, in the months ahead, it appears that the question of Obama’s eligibility will finally receive the examination it deserves. If he is found to be ineligible under Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, none of his acts as president will have the force of law and it will become necessary to remove him from office and immediately deport him. Let’s hope that he finds life in Indonesia to be more to his liking than life in these United States.
In the meantime, true patriots can take comfort in the fact that Judge Carter is a Bill Clinton appointee and that he will hear arguments on Obama’s eligibility in a courthouse named after the twentieth century’s greatest president, Ronald Reagan. I believe it’s called “poetic justice.”