FactCheck Checks Obama's Birth Certificate

Fact Check is given access to Obama's birth certificate and endorses it, which neither surprises me nor prompts a reassessment of any official editorial positions.  However, they close with this sloppy logic which I have derided before; they are commenting on a birth announcement which appeared in a Honolulu newspaper a week after Obama was born:

Of course, it's distantly possible that Obama's grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday.

Tres amusant.  But it is much less distantly possible that the grandparents planted the story in order to buttress their grandchild's claim to American citizenship as protection against a day when their daughter would be trying to gain custody of a black child with a Kenyan father in a Kenyan court.  Divorces do happen, even nasty ones.

Comments

[GMax]

Buffet has done the same thing as Gates and set up trusts with nearly all of his assets. He keeps control, has all of his expenses paid for, puts every family member on the payroll etc etc but since the Trust is a separate taxpaying entity, who knows what the really really rich pay.

The Exxon tax return would fill a small commercial building, and Buffets various returns are going to be quite voluminous and complicated too.

Expect that Buffet takes every benefit available in the tax law, that is what he pays that Big Four CPA firm to do.

[Rick Ballard]

Andrew McCarthy comes out smoking on Obama is The One (for abortionists).

It's a clip and save to bring out whenever Captain Zero hauls out his "the least among" line.

[M. Simon]

The thing with the lawsuit is, there's not a judge in the country who would issue a temporary restraining order between now and the convention, and once the convention is over there's not a judge in the country who would try to unscramble the eggs.

I think there is a Barry Goldwater precedent. Some one filed suit on him in AZ about his eligibility to be on the ballot.

Wouldn't such a case make any decision by a judge open to an appeal all the way up to the SC?

McCain Citizenship.

[M. Simon]

"Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory, Arizona was a territory, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court," McCain told reporters Thursday on his campaign plane. "And there's no doubt about that. And it was researched again in 2000."

The Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. territory at the time of McCain's birth on Aug. 29, 1936.

From above link.

[clarice]

Greatest lede ever nomination:
DEPENDING on which opinion poll you read, US Presidential candidate Barack Obama is either tied with rival John McCain, leads by a tiny margin, or has been overtaken. This is confusing to many pundits, who don't understand why a far-left, first-term Senator with dodgy mates, no policies, a profound humour deficit and a habit of committing astonishing gaffes isn't in front by 20 points. After all, Obama isn't exactly starved of press coverage.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24224809-5001030,00.html>Pop goes the O bubble

[hrtshpdbox]

"I can't imagine why they picked him as a speaker.."
Yep, Wexler's on the roster, alright; the rationale is probably just that the pickins' are so slim.

[Jim]

"When the Virginia results came in, Governor Kaine couldn't bring himself to look up at the TV. He was already crestfallen by the evening's emerging landslide. Something some analyst (David Gergen?) had said a half-hour ago - "epic landslide victory by candidate no one really liked" - seemed to be playing on tape loop in the center of his skull. The walls of the now-funereal "war room" seemed to be closing in on him and he felt the blood rushing out of his head. He thought he heard someone on the TV saying that McCain had taken Virginia by 11 points. His aides couldn't seem to meet his glance as he...."

etc.

[MayBee]

Obama's tax statement yesterday is just bizarre all around. He's trying to explain why he'd tax the "rich" while he tells a story about how much his family struggled...at the income level he now defines as rich.
President Barack Obama would raise taxes on young family Obama.

But I don't know what the hell Obama is talking about with the waitress, and he doesn't either.

Heh heh heh

[Rick Ballard]

GMax,

I think that standard refusal note probably worked OK in the beginning. I'm beginning to wonder if Edwards called in the NE himself though. Did he find out he was being vetted by Obama and just didn't want to risk being asked?

[M. Simon]

Re: Citizenship.

If Goldwater got vetted, I'm sure who ever is behind the Obama suit found the best state for standing based on the Goldwater case.

[M. Simon]

Re: Citizenship.

If Goldwater got vetted, I'm sure who ever is behind the Obama suit found the best state for standing based on the Goldwater case.

[clarice]

Jim, In wandering about your site, I read your review of the Manchurian candidate. I thought your comments original and rather brilliant.

[Jim]

Thanks, clarice.

[Brian G.]

Obama is a citizen of the world. Just ask him.

It doesn't matter if Obama was born in Hawaii, Indonesia, Kenya, or Anarctica. I won't be voting for the Socialist.

[bgates]

I think the point Obama was trying to make was that if his taxes were raised a mere 1-2% (which, for the purpose of this story, his plan would do), it would not be a problem for him (because, for the purpose of this story, he and Michelle do not worry about riding lessons, fruit, arugula, &c). The tax money raised could then be placed in an envelope and mailed to a waitress (because, for the purpose of this story, there are as many Senators, bestselling authors, and hospital vice presidents in the country as there are waitresses).

[phwest]

Actually, I looked over Barack's tax returns after they were released, and what struck me was how high his taxes actually were, even before his income exploded after becoming a Senator. For 2000-2004 the Obama's AGIs were around 250k, and they would be paying around 60k in Federal income taxes. Basically a typical return for a high-income low-asset dual wage earning household. All the income on the wage line, reduced 15% or so from itemized deductions (heavy on local taxes) and family exemptions.

I can only assume his comment was directed at some kind of "flat tax" hypothetical or something, as he clearly has been paying taxes at a much higher rate than most Americans.

[centralcal]

OT, but Clarice do you know where Mark Steyn has gone. I don't see him on tv or at NRO - did he take a vacation or something?

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Steve Diamond has more CAC documents up. They're the reports from CAC to the national Annenberg Challenge, justifying their existence.

Snooze inducing reading, but fascinating how someone could string so many words together over 5-6 years and say absolutely nothing of substance.

Paraphrasing: We took your money and raised money elsewhere from people who are too stupid to be trusted with it. We gave it away to friends of ours. We'd like some more.

[clarice]

centralcal, I don't know. OTOH I don't know how he's able to do all that he does and i hope he's on a nice long vacation.

[thelonereader]

You know after the Obamarama loses in November, there is NOTHING to stop him from sending all the waitresses in Chicago an extra
2k if he so desires. If I remember correctly he wasn't much of a giver donation wise until he entered the race for president.

[centralcal]

Jay Cost has a piece up about the "State of the Race."

Obama = Jimmy Carter
McCain = Gerald Ford

oh, and the Press/Media are a bunch of dunces.

[clarice]

"fascinating how someone could string so many words together over 5-6 years and say absolutely nothing of substance. "

Spend more time on education matters and you'll see nothing but this sort of carp. I think ed depts have a rule against the active voice in describing everything from curriculum to experience.

[sbw]

nothing of substance...

Wrote this note on the way to work this morning after NPR butchered reporting on Obama's house. In its entirety NPR said, "The McCain campaign is responding with talking about Obama's 1.6 million dollar home.":

The appearance of news coupled with the appearance of education put society at great risk.

[sbw]

**puts**

[clarice]

sbw, I refuse to listen to radio news accounts(including NPR) which are to news what sugar pops are to a proper breakfast..airy, bad for your brain, useless as a means of learning anything.

[betheweb]

Has anyone come up with an Obama/Dunham marriage certificate?

[Danube of Thought]

I have never heard about any such lawsuit against Barry Goldwater. I am certain that it never reached the appellate court level, let alone the Supreme Court, because there is no appellate case law on the subject. (When a trial court--in the federal system, a District Court--renders a written opinion, it does not establish any legal precedent.) Hard to believe McCain told that story--maybe he really is senile.

Has anyone else ever heard of a Goldwater suit? I do recall the issue coming up at the time, but I don't recall any legal action.

I suspect that the lawyer filed his suit in Philadelphia because that's where he lives.

[M. Simon]

DOT,

Since you are tied into the legal system why not check to see if there is a SC case?

Maybe it went direct to the Supremes.

[M. Simon]

sbw,

**puts**

The proper spelling is putz.

[clarice]

From Jonathan Turley:
"Some past contenders for the presidency would have forced the question if elected – but weren’t. The last time that we faced this question in a serious candidate was Barry Goldwater, who was technically born while Arizona was a territory in 1909. Other such questions were raised by Mitt Romney’s father George Romney, who ran in 1968 despite his birth in Mexico, and former Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who was born in Paris.

The problem is that such an issue is only “ripe” for review after a general election and before the swearing in ceremony. While it is conceivable that a ballot challenge (contesting the eligibility to be on a ballot) is possible, a court could deny any pre-election lawsuit as an impermissible request for an “advisory opinion.”

Any review would turn on a difficult interpretive question. Two obvious meanings are possible. The Court could view the term as referencing a purely territorial qualification: people born within our borders. The Court could also view the meaning as encompassing a parentage meaning: covering people born to citizens regardless of the place of their birth. The latter interpretation would make natural born status as synonymous with citizenship and the colloquial term “native son.”

Interestingly, McCain and Olson each articulated different theories of why he is eligible. When confronted last week. McCain cited Goldwater and articulated a territorial argument – suggesting that a territory is U.S. soil and Panama was a territory. McCain insists that Goldwater had resolved the question, yet that is not accurate. It was never resolved because Goldwater was never elected president."

http://jonathanturley.org/2008/03/06/the-supreme-redux-is-john-mccain-ineligible-to-be-president/>Goldwater case never tested in court

[Danube of Thought]

The issue never has reached the Supreme Court--again, I'm mystified as to what McCain was talking about. In the USA Today article in which he is described as telling the story to the press, the paper also says that the McC campaign has asked Ted Olson to research the issue. From the article:

"Olson said he is still researching the issue but is certain McCain is qualified. The plain meaning of natural-born citizen' includes those born to parents who are citizens, particularly when they are born on a U.S. military base as McCain was, Olson said.

"'I am confident that the United States Supreme Court, should it ever address the issue, would agree,' Olson said in a statement."

I'm not able to do legal research in any convenient way, but on a matter of this kind I think we can be pretty confident simply based on the absence of any Google hits.

[JorgXMcKie]

"fascinating how someone could string so many words together over 5-6 years and say absolutely nothing of substance." -- Patrick Sullivan

"Spend more time on education matters and you'll see nothing but this sort of carp. I think ed depts have a rule against the active voice in describing everything from curriculum to experience." --Clarice

Jeez. Read just about anything that comes out of a College of Education or written by anyone with an EdD. It takes a further quote, from Gertrude Stein, "there's no there there."

[Sara]

About that waitress. She must be a very bad waitress to only make $16,000. My son was in restaurant management for over 15 years and at one time had responsibility over 3 restaurants and many many waitresses. He also dated a bunch of them. He was making somewhere around $55,000-$60,000 a year and all those gals he dated were bringing in as much or more than he was. Hasn't Barry ever heard of tips?

One of the girls he was most serious about was a waitress and a full time college student and she made more a night than my son's paycheck for a week.

[Sarge]

Just wondering out loud:

Was "African" officially considered a "Race" in 1961?

Isn't it a nationality, not a race?

In pre-civil-rights 1961, wasn't the official legal term still "Negro?"

I don't know, that's why I'm asking.

Has any other reader seen a birth certificate that lists "African" as a race?

Before, or after, the Civil Rights Movement?

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not sure I buy Turley's "ripeness" argument in the article to which Clarice linked (although it would provide a nice way for a court to defer deciding the issue). But I simply cannot imagine that the US Supreme Court would decide, after a national election in which a person was elected president, that the constitutional language and history are so clear as to require that the election be declared null. To me it's entirely inconceivable, at least in a case like McCain's (or Goldwater's). If it could ever be conclusively established that Obama was unambiguously a citizen of some foreign country, and any possibility of dual citizenship was convincingly disproven, maybe the outcome would be different--but I don't see that happening.

So far as I can determine, there is at least one lawsuit pending against McCain on this issue, filed last month (I think). An earlier suit filed in the central district of California was withdrawn.

[sbw]

At the risk of repeating myself, everyone needs to read Richard Mitchell. A voice in the wilderness in the 1990s, his works are available at Amazon and for free online at this website.

"The Underground Grammarian does not advocate violence; it advocates ridicule. Abusers of English are often pompous, and ridicule hurts them more than violence. In every edition we will bring you practical advice for ridiculing abusers of English."

[Sara]

All this hoohaw over foreign born makes one wonder why the new thing for celebs is to have their babies in foreign countries. Seems we've had a rash of that lately, Brangelinas, Tom Cruise, Cruise/Holmes, etc.

[Sue]

Sara,

Obama is closer to the average than you are.

[MarkO]

I’ve just scanned the thread and I have learned at least two things:

No matter who wins the election, the country is going to be run by damn foreigners

and

For the first time in probably two decades, Hillary got forked.

We're headed for the last roundup.

[Sue]

Sara,

I was talking about a waitress's salary. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[clarice]

People on tv keep saying Obama's deferral of his VP announcement and the text messaging gambit is great..PHEH==only to fill empty air time. Who cares any more? If he'd done this last week, he'd not have given McCain the opening (with his gaffes) to respond with such hard hitting attacks..

[Sue]

Well, according to http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-Waitress>this the average is $37,000. So we are all wrong. ::grin::

[Sara]

Sara,Obama is closer to the average than you are.

Hmmm, things must have gone down hill since the late '80s and thru the '90s.

My d-i-l is always threatening to quit her management job and go back to waitressing where she could make some real money.

I don't know though as I've never worked as a waitress myself.

[Sara]

AofS has this about Berg, the filer of the lawsuit:

The lawyer who sued is Philip J. Berg, certified nutcase. He's a Clinton supporter, former gubernatorial and senatorial candidate, former chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery (PA) County, former member of the Democratic State Committee, and former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He's also a Truther. Like all Truthers, he falls for the simplest of tricks. For example, he cites Wikipedia for some of his claims.

[Danube of Thought]

SBW, the website sounds intriguing, but it keeps freezing my computer when I try to open anything on it.

[Sara]

Althouse has found a Law Review "case comment" that Obama wrote.

Obama's law review case comment — about the rights of a fetus againt its mother.

[Sue]

I wish I could remember who I was reading the other day that predicted this would happen because the money wasn't adding up to carry a 50 state campaign. Whoever it was, they were right.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/22/obama-stops-advertising-in-red-battleground-states/>::grin::

Obama Stops Advertising in Red Battleground States

[ParatrooperJJ]

Factcheck is funded by Soros.

[Rick Ballard]

Sue,

That might have been WLS in this piece over at Patterico's. The "50 state" hogwash belonged to Dean - not Captain Zero. Over the side it goes.

I don't believe he'll give up on VA though. It's the only one where he had a glimmer and he needs it for a little pressure on McCain.

[GMax]

The stunning part is that it includes Virginia and Florida.

That pretty much means he must hold all the Midwest and pick off Colorado or Ohio.

And McCain gets something like $87 million for the six weeks after the Convention. That is the equivalent of $58 million a month and he needs to do no fundraisers to get it either. Plus all those donations that would come in can go to the RNC or the RNCC. And there is already a huge advantage at the RNC v the DNC and Howie Dean.

[kim]

Any idea why Florida hasn't a glimmer? It was like the Battle Ground of Gettysburg once upon a time. How has it become:

'Old, forgotten, far off things, and battles long ago.'

?
=

[Sue]

Rick,

That's it. Thanks. You even linked it the first time.

[kim]

I'm tellin' ya, he's gonna end up dragging Congressional Democrats with him. How does that fit into Cardinal Edwards?
===============================

[bio mom]

Supposedly it is just during the convention. Plenty of coverage coming anyway.

[sbw]

DOT: SBW, the [Underground Grammarian] website sounds intriguing, but it keeps freezing my computer when I try to open anything on it.

DOT, the website has changed since I was last there. Now, the free contents are in the left column and something new called sharetext is down the middle. Stay in the left column and browse around. Let me know if you have further problems and I'll explore.

According to Mitchell, this bureaucratic jargon is turning us into a nation of baffled, inept, frustrated, and--ultimately--violent people, and the public schools are to blame. For the past thirty-five years, they have taught children to socialize rather than to read, write, and cipher--the only disciplines that foster clear language and logical thought. Mitchell's alarming conclusion is that our schools are turning out illiterates who will never manage their lives--because, lacking "the power of language," they can't think.

[Sara]

I am a big fan of Colleen McCullough, especially her "The First Man in Rome" series of historical novels. Does anyone else see a corollary between Obama's Invesco extravaganza to the old Roman "triumphs" that returning Roman generals/Senators put on to announce their triumphal returns to Rome after military campaigns?

I can't get the picture out of my mind.

[clarice]

The thing is this eduspeak is just (a threadbare) cover for muddled thinking.

[PaulL]

I think the VP pick for Obama will be Michelle.

[Rick Ballard]

"Any idea why Florida hasn't a glimmer?"

The FL demographics aren't that good for Obama. FL is a little too old, a little too white, has too many evangelicals and the wrong flavor of Hispanics. It may be that the ad drop is just for the convention period, although I don't really know why he's advertising anywhere during a week in which he will have almost all the news coverage.

I believe that what we're seeing is that the nickel and dime givers (the "Trippi specials") aren't coming back with more lunch money. His drop off in the 18-29 bracket may reverse when school starts but there is also a strong possibilty that his unicorn has thrown a shoe with the cool kids (who count much more in opinion polls than they do on election day).

[Elliott]

Sara,

I wonder who will whisper, "Memento mori."

[centralcal]

I'm with you Clarice. The VP announcement seems rather late and anti-climatic no matter who it is.

He should just pick Michelle - she seems like the boss of the family anyway and we know for sure she can be an attack bulldog.

[Milhouse]

This Berg lawsuit is nonsense. There's a vast difference between saying that Obama has not yet positively proven that he was born in Hawaii and making a positive claim that he was born in Kenya. If Berg claims Obama was born in Kenya the onus is on him to prove it, not to demand that Obama disprove it. So he loses.

Worse, he claims that even if Obama was born in the USA he's still ineligible, either because he holds multiple citizenships or because he lost his US citizenship. Both claims are so frivolous that Berg should be sanctioned for making them.

All he needed to do was look at the constitution, which makes no mention of a requirement that a president not have foreign citizenships. So long as Obama was born in the USA, is over 35, and has lived in the USA for 14 years, he's eligible no matter how many other citizenships he holds. And the second claim directly contradicts the 14th Amendment, which says that anyone born in the USA is a citizen. US citizenship cannot be lost except by voluntarily renouncing it. (See Afroyim v Rusk) Even if he was adopted by his Indonesian stepfather and became an Indonesian citizen, he'd still be a USA citizen as well, and therefore eligible for the presidency.

[centralcal]

oops - PaulL beat me to it!

[MarkO]

I prefer morituri te salutamus, usually said just before I serve the first game of the set.

[centralcal]

Okay, a little snark about our favorite MSNBC reporterette (Andrea Mitchell) from Jossip:

"With Mitchell's aggressive lobbying more public than ever, her reputation at NBC continues to suffer. Already, reports one source, staffers are tired of her whining when one of her stories gets killed because of a breaking news event. And her refusal to admit mistakes has others miffed."

And, I couldn't stop laughing over this from the comments: "She has THE most God-awful show on MSNBC right now - it's like getting a root canal - she can't even read the teleprompter. When she isn't busy shilling for the Obama campaign like a horny schoolgirl, she's busy filling in that crater face with spackle."

I thought for sure the commenter was Clarice, but it was a guy named Paul!!!!

LUN

[clarice]

HEH--It's her punishment for lying about Scooter.

[Sue]

I think Obama waited to long to announce his VP pick. It was kind of exciting at first, guessing, but now it is Yawn City.

[bad]

O/T possible connection between Michelle Obama and Bernadine Dohrn from Riehl World View.

LUN

[centralcal]

Exactly Sue! But, then, when you think about it, all of his "big" events are kind of like that! A big fizzle.

[Sara]

Obama to amend report on $800,000 in spending 

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign paid more than $800,000 to an offshoot of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now for services the Democrat's campaign says it mistakenly misrepresented in federal reports.

An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in "get-out-the-vote" projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary.

FEC spokeswoman Mary Brandenberger said it is not unusual for campaigns to amend reports, even regarding large sums of money.

But, said Blair Latoff, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee: "Barack Obama's failure to accurately report his campaign's financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign's interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud. For a candidate who claims to be practicing 'new' politics, his FEC reports look an awful lot like the 'old-style' Chicago politics of yesterday."

... more

[Soylent Red]

Yawn City

How much will you wager on whether they interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring us special Election 08 coverage of his choice, complete with anchorperson faint smiles and nods of approval?

If this ponce gets elected, I'm taking my free health care and having my teeth capped, because he has nearly caused me to grind my current dentition into nubs.

[Danube of Thought]

It's starting to look like he's going to make his announcement on Nightline or something.

"Does anyone else see a corollary between Obama's Invesco extravaganza to the old Roman 'triumphs' that returning Roman generals/Senators put on...?"

Maybe more like that light-show thing that turned Jerry Brown into Governor Moonbeam, and made him a laughingstock for twenty years.

I'm with Millhouse--I wouldn't be surprised to see Berg hit with monetary sanctions. I've known many a federal judge who wouldn't hesitate to do just that.

[clarice]

That's very old news, bad.

[MayBee]

Oh, you guys are all just forgetting how exciting the dating scene is. If you remember that, you'll understand the eager anticipation about Obama's VP announcment.

Obama to Press: Hey, I'll give you a call sometime.

(Press can't even wash hair for fear of missing phone call)

[Sara]

I think the whole thing with this texting is stupid. All the reporters are on the list, so I expect to know from one of those annoying BREAKING NEWS interruptions by Fox sooner than most who get the text.

[glasater]

This is a little off topic but could be interesting to some of the folks who post here.

It is called Typosquatting the US presidential election and refers to people typing in close but not quite "on" google searches and how they could be conned.

Excerpt:

According to a recently released study by the Pew Internet Project entitled “The Internet and the 2008 election“, 45% of Americans are in fact actively engaged online

[Sara]

Who is pushing Chet Edwards?

Why it is San Fran Nan herself:

Pelosi Calls In Her Chets?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you a question about the vice presidency. Senator Obama seems to be closing in on a pick. And “Newsweek” reported today that you’ve been pushing one of your colleagues in the House, Congressman Chet Edwards of Texas. Now not a lot of Americans know much about Chet Edwards. Why would he be a good vice president?

[Jane]

I heard sometime last week that the announcement would be Saturday morning. I guess no one believed that report. Or perhaps like everything else in Obama's campaign it is subject to an expiration date.

What America really needs is a president who likes to toy with his constituents.

[Elliott]

Jane,

Is the birthday Mr. Right's?

[bad]

Jane

How is your brother-in-law? Hopefully, he has had a great recovery.

[PeterUK]

"He should just pick Michelle - she seems like the boss of the family anyway and we know for sure she can be an attack bulldog."

More screwing in the Oval Office?

[Soylent Red]

What America really needs is a president who likes to toy with his constituents.

In the words of the Obamessiah himself...

"Awwww...you know I'm jus' messin' whicha."

[Soylent Red]

More screwing in the Oval Office?

***shudders**

[centralcal]

Puk - well, at least they are married to each other! and, uh, VP or not, they will be doing it somewhere in the White House if they get that far.

[B-Rob]

"But it is much less distantly possible that the grandparents planted the story in order to buttress their grandchild's claim to American citizenship as protection against a day when their daughter would be trying to gain custody of a black child with a Kenyan father in a Kenyan court."

OK, let me get this straight: the Dunham's run an announcement in the newspaper on August 13, nine days after the birth because a newspaper birth announcement would sway a Kenyan court in a divorce situation . . . but a Hawaii birth certificate wouldn't?

[centralcal]

Anybody have an in with Drudge? He has "DRAMA" at the top of his page. Shouldn't it be changed now to YAWN?

[Soylent Red]

they will be doing it somewhere in the White House
**shudders again**

if they get that far.
**shudders, breaks into cold sweat, runs for bathroom**

[PeterUK]

"Puk - well, at least they are married to each other! and, uh, VP or not, they will be doing it somewhere in the White House if they get that far."

I suppose it's better doing it to each other rather than your country.

[Sara]

It is a real snapshot on how much this country has changed in the last twenty years.

In the lead up to 1988, Joe Biden was kicked out of the presidential race because of a charge of plagiarism that was iffy at best. (He was accused of stealing words from a Brit's speech, although in all but one reciting he had cited the source.) Fast forward to today.

Not only is Biden a front runner for the Veep slot, but we have a candidate who surrounds himself with fraudsters, felons, bombers, racists, anti-Semites, bigots and thieves. And is, himself, a liar.

[GMax]

PUK unfortunately it will be both.

[hit and run]

How is RichatUF doing with Fay? Who else here lives in FL? Anyone affected?

[Sara]

H&R: I posted yesterday about my daughter in Florida being without power for hours and finding a 3 1/2 ft. alligator in her flooded front yard. Haven't heard anything today, but that is probably because without power all her phones are dead. I tried to call both her numbers and they roll to voice mail.

[anduril]

Well, you have to grant one thing to Obama--at least he hasn't surrounded himself with murderers. Oh, wait, wasn't the Weather Underground responsible for a number of murders? Hmmm. I was about to say, at least he didn't get an endorsement from OJ.

[Rick Ballard]

Why should average American citizens get off any better than the Chicago school kids did when Obama and Ayers teamed up to screw them out of an education?

It's about time that America learned what progressivism is really about - and there's no better way to do it than to turn The Machine loose nationally.

[Jane]

Bad,

My brother in law is doing great, chomping at the bit to go back to work - thank you for asking. Elliott - yeah it's Mr. Right's b-day. He just keeps getting older. Imagiine that.

[hit and run]

Happy B-Day Mr. Right!

You're my favorite.

[centralcal]

I sure hope the Dem delegates are taking a lot of drugs for their convention. They will need to, to look at the podium/stage!

LUN

[B-Rob]

And Mike G, you wrote:

"We do know that after his mother married Lolo Soetoro, the adopted boy's name was listed in Indonesian records as "Barry Soetoro," and he was known as "Barry" until he finished high school and applied to college. Being "Barack Hussein Obama II" would help establish his claim for a legacy admission, since his father went to Harvard, too ... and besides, it's a way cooler name."

Just one question: do you have a link to that Indonesian school enrollment form? Because I find it HIGHLY unlikely that a poor country like Indonesia would maintain legible, paper records of a single individual student from the mid to late 1960s! And they would also be in the local language, too. Do you read Indonesian? What does the name "Barry" translate to in Indonesian?

And another thing: any proof Obama played the "legacy" card to get into Harvard? Do you have a link to a copy of his application or recommendations showing that they mention his father at all?

[centralcal]

Happy Birthday to Jane's Mr. Right!

[Elliott]

Happy birthday to Mr. Right!

By the way Jane, what did he think of the One's appearance in Berlin?

It does seem to be a good month for birthdays. Both presidential candidates, Carl Pettersson, Kerri Walsh, Usain Bolt, Sara's son, Julia, Mr. Right.