Matt York/AP
The Arizona House of Representatives (file)
A so-called birther bill is now in Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s hands. State lawmakers approved a bill requiring all presidential candidates to prove U.S. citizenship before appearing on the state ballot. It cleared the state House in a 40-16 vote late-yesterday, and the state Senate on Wednesday.
Arizona would become the first state to go to this extreme. You already need to be a natural born citizen to run for office, as any first-grader can probably tell you.
Birther conspiracy theorists say President Obama wasn’t actually born in Hawaii. This fringe group argues he was born in Kenya, and therefore ineligible to hold the nation's highest elected office.
Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama's citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificates have been made public.
The author of the bill, Republican Rep. Carl Seel of Phoenix said, "this bill is about the integrity of our elections," and not President Obama.
Thirteen other states have considered similar birther proposals. Arkansas, Connecticut, Maine and Montana defeated them.
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I think the bill is unconstitutional because the state has no authority to regulate federal elections. The same rationale applies to id laws for federal elections.
What happens when someone disputes the authenticity of birth records? It doesn't seem to appease the birthers when the State of Hawaii authenticates Obama's birth records, now.
I had an argument with a birther the other day. He claimed that the Obama birth certificate looked different from his, there for it had to be fake. I pointed out that his birth certificate looked different from mine.. and mine looks different from the one ones I have for my kids. (My kids are from a different municipality but from the same state as mine.)
Who becomes the arbiter of authenticity in Arizona?
It's even more stupid and racist than y'all think - AZ will take a certificate of circumcision in lieu of a long form birth certificate, as proof of citizenship (see link). I don't suppose there's a biblical scholar among them who recalls that Muslims circumcise their sons, too.
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/truth-stranger-fiction-az-birther-law
Actually the circumcision thing left a huge loophole for teabaggers who want to remove citizenship rights from children born to undocumented workers. So now in anti-immigrant Arizona, an undocumented worker could give birth to a baby boy and have him circumcised and then use the circumcision certificate as proof that their baby is a natural born citizen (of course just in Arizona). Oh yeah now I can't wait to elect the son of an undocumented worker as our 2016 president. Just thinking of all the years of turmoil it will cause brings me great joy.
Not to mention females and not every individual has their sons circumcised.
What about non-circimcised males and women? Are they off the list now in AZ if this farce passes which it obviously WILL as all it needs is ol' Brewer's signature? Oh, the way the far-right is treating women lately, they'll be losing their rights to vote soon after their reproductive rights are totally eliminated by the extremist lunatic fringe. SMH!!!
We can always woo Ms Ballbricker out of retirement to check those tallywackers if it comes to that & she's still around. I'll bet she's looking for a job since the Porky's movies have long since been over and might need the money.
I wonder if they'll take this to its logical conclusion, and remove John McCain from his senatorial office?
Because, you see, McCain is not a natural citizen of the US (by birther logic). Yes, he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. But, according to the Panama Canal Treaty, all land and water in the Zone remained the sovereign territory of the Republic of Panama! We just rented the space. So Little John was born on land belonging to Panama. He's a natural citizen of Panama (according to birther logic).
Therefore, Arizona must impeach John McCain. Now!!
You are not required to be a natural born citizen to be Senator.
It seems a no-brainer that if there are eligibility requirements to hold office, that you should have to prove that you meet these requirements. You should have to prove that you are a natural-born citizen in order to run for POTUS.
However, all this nonsense as it relates to President Obama is a waste of time, deflects attention from the real problems at hand, and makes a whole bunch of people just look stupid.
You don't have to be a "natural born citizen" to be in the Senate. You have to be a "natural born citizen" to be President.
Also the second part of the statement for requirement to be president BOTH parents must be US citizens to be a natural born citizen...that would make Mr. McCain just fine!
Actually the 14th amendment of the Constitution says only ONE parent has to be a U.S. citizen for the child to be a natural born citizen (no matter where the child is born).
Folks seem to forget, teabaggers don't understand logic. This line of attack is simply to attempt to bother the president & remind him that his parents are dead
Mike, I assume that you are correct, though, so many states have local issues on the same voting day as Federal, is there a hole there for this, rather disgusting, concept to be written, that could bypass the federal election issue? Just asking.
This is awesome. We're asking a candidate to prove that they are a natural born US citizen. Nothing more. If you fight it, then perhaps you're not a natural born US citizen. Pretty cut and dry. I'm sorry that other people take it as an attack on Obama. It was inspired by Obama for sure... but it's not an attack.
I have heard this phrase and it's quite applicable: "Put up or shut up."
If you are natural born, then prove it, if not shut up and quit wasting our time.
~The Black Sage
Uh-huh. And for 2012? You mean he's going to get grandfathered in because he is already president or is he going to have to satisfy Az for his eligibilty? If he has to prove to Az then yes, it is an attack. And you can be sure there are more yahoos gunning for him there than were going after Giffords.
In your American passport it states where you were born. Not every state has a long form birth certificate in some states it is a small piece of paper with a stamp on it. This is ludicrous they want something to be standardized that was never standardized, it is about Obama nothing else. Maybe the call should be to have each state standardize their birth certificates to represent all of America but that would be government having too much to say. Total lunacy.
He's not "fighting it"; he is giving us the proof of birth given by the state of Hawaii. What difference does it make what the heck it's called? He was born in the United States. Get off of this already!
The President could easily resolve this by releasing the long form birth certificate. It will have the doctor's certfication on it as a witness to his birth. Why is that important? You guys should read the law in Hawaii on how you can get a certification of live birth, (which is what was released), I thinkg it is Section 57-8&9 of the Territorial Public Health Statistics Act in 1955. It makes even a guy like me, that thinks it was economically unlikely that he was born anywhere else, uneasy. Why the President just doesn't end this is beyond me. I mean there is an Army officer in prison over the President's refusal to release that stupid document. (Please don't say that he released it already. A certification of live birth is not the long form birth certificate with the doctor's certification. If you read the Hawaii law you will see why it is important to have the doctor's certification on the document.)
This is probably not worth responding to but hey someone has to educate the teabaggers. Hawaii does not release the long form of the birth certificate even to the person to whom it belongs. You as the person to whom the birth certificate belongs can "LOOK" at the long birth certificate but are prohibited under state law from obtaining a copy. The only birth certificate Hawaii will provide is the short-form. Now I realize that's a lot of words but I'm just hoping some of them will sink in.
Trump is such a lying dirtbag as I did not "need" my birth certificate to get my driver's license either like he claimed on that latest diatribe of his. Anyone that would serioulsy consider voting for Donald," I don't care about Libya, I only want the oil" Trump doesn't deserve the right to VOTE!!!! This creep only cares about HIMSELF, the filthy rich and HIMSELF. In that order and anyone else can kick it. Has he EVER built one place that the average person can afford to rent or live in? NO!!! Case closed.
Don't you think his birth place was checked out when he registered to run for president? The Secret Service, CIA, and FBI ALL check it. After he got the nomination, It was ALL cheched again. EVERYTHING from the day he was born.
This was checked and rechecked and checked again, verified and settled in Congress, by the Supreme Court and still, the birthers WHINE on.....Hmmmm, they were all pretty quiet when our last "President" was elected "President" by a Supreme decision even though Gore won by popular vote and of course we libs didn't rag about it for the next FOUR YEARS and then rag four MORE and start far left nut bag movements that FORCE pregnant women to get abortions, make sure everyone is a christian and want OUR religious beliefs crammed down everyones throats or lack of religious beliefs for that matter.... but WOW, elect a President who DARES to want some equality for the other 98% by passing a HCR law to TRY and insure more people and he's a radical socilaist dictator so what do you DO? Tell the middle class no more Medicare & Medicaid for YOU and screw the environment because WE don't think clean air and water is important anymore if some dude can save a couple million bucks by dumping his toxic waste into the nearest lake and river. Attack women's rights and make people think the USA is going to become a country of ISLAM to pass dumb laws that are completely useless and moronic!!! So who cares if how many people get sick or get poisoned as long as that bad ol EPA is snuffed out and all the rest of those rotten Big Government programs because they're all TOO LIBERAL and wasteful SPENDING!!!!!!! OH and we MUST impeach this man at all costs even though he was elected by a fair elction by the majority of the people and don't be giving me the fabricated Fax News Glenn Beck Acorn BS either as that was how got elected and his "muslim friends" helped him because HE"S NOT A MUSLIM!!!!! Head roll here.
What a waste of time. Jobs and the economy are should be the focus.
President Obama was issued a United States Passport year and years ago. Anyone that has been through that process knows what is required to prove citizenship. If the U.S. State Dept. decided he was U.S. citizen all those years ago; then that is good enough for me and should be good enough for everyone else. If state legislative bodies have the time to waste on this tripe; then perhaps they also have the time to figure out more creative ways to balance their ledgers besides providing more tax breaks for corporations and millionaires. This is just ridiculous non-sense to feed the ignorant unwashed masses with more prejudicial fear mongering.
Don't know if was a U.S. passport, these are records being withheld.
yo jeff, dont drink the water it has FLUORIDE in it & its going to kill you, idiot teabagger
These people really really scare me to the core. You cannot prove to them what they are afraid to see.
And this is a surprise that Arizona, the "Mississippi of the West" is pulling this stunt?
No it isn't a surprise that it is Arizona. They own the greatest abyss on the planet and most of them have fallen into it.
Ah circumcision!!! I thought circumcision was beyond inhuman so I didn't have my son circumcized, now here comes my grandson no circumscision. So because I made a choice,  my child and grandchild cannot run for president of this country because maybe some state don't like the look of the birth certificate and they are not circumcized. Are these people for real, please tell these people there are men out there who are not circumscized.
Ironically they chose circumcision as a valid criteria - hmmm were there only bonehead men voting? Well women in the USA cannot be circumcised. When women are circumcised in other parts of the world we shudder and call it female genital mutilation.
So what happens if a women is born in say "Hawaii" which only prints the short form of a birth certificate and let's say her negligent parents failed to circumcise her at birth; would she then be ineligible to run as President just in Arizona? Bonehead law, by boneheads for boneheads. We need a cutoff IQ level for legislators.
And Baptismal certificates....that's a total JOKE if I ever heard one. Since when does a baptismal certificate hold any water? I was baptized in Canada but my mother is American before she had to move there, got married and had children of her own. We moved to the USA before I was 2 and I lived here basically my whole life and I got my citizenship here after I turned 18 so I COULD vote, etc....I don't even know Canadian history since I never grew up there and went to American schools all my life. My baptismal certificate doesn't mean squat and neither does my "birth certificate" since I was legally adopted by my step-father and my adoption papers took the place of my birth certificate when it was sealed by the courts because of my last name changing. I don't even have access to it anymore and my naturalization papers/adoption papers ARE my legal papers I have to use them for everything per my lawyers. So far, they have sufficed with NO arguments and I am legal in the eyes of the courts in this country.
Would they "throw ME under the bus in AZ"? Probably, since they seem to think the US Constitution doesn't apply to them for some reason. No problem since I have no intention of EVER stepping into that cesspool of racism and hate.
Ugh!!! When my mother wrote to the state of Arizona for her birth certificate, do you know what they sent her??? A CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH!!! Enough already, AZ!
 OK, let's assume for a moment that reality is false and Obama "was" born in Kenya or somewhere outside the U.S. Are we also to believe that his mother was not his mother? The reason I ask is simple. While the Constitution says that a President must be a "Natual" citizen of the U.S. Title 8 of the U.S. Code has for decades defined a Natural Citizen as someone (among other possible qualifiers) as one who if born outside the U.S. but to one parent who is alien and another who is a natural born U.S. citizen that they are considered a natural born citizen so long as the parent who was also a natural born citizen lived in the U.S. for 5 years. This would mean that if Trump is correct that Obama was born in Kenya or somewhere that he's blowing a silent horn because the law that defines and has for at least 60 years defined it makes him a natural born citizen.
Good information.
Google is a wonderful tool, just wish that tool Trump could get his daughter to log on for him.
From Title 8 of the U.S. Code
e) a person born in an outlying possession of the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth of such person;
Why does this keep coming up without anyone researching the law? Why does it keep coming up without anyone looking for Ann's passport or exit visa? If she hadn't left the country before he was born, then there's a pretty good chance that he was born here. Are we really so pissed off that a black guy is president that we cannot find something else to go after him with?
Trust me, if his name had been Barry Dunham, this crap never would have been an issue to begin with-PERIOD.
"Free pass?" What have YOU been smoking? All you need to do is use a little tool called Google to see he's done a lot for this country but sorry if that is too much work for you. I am not going to be your intel on the President so you can either check this or continue to say stupid things. Somehow, I am guessing you'll choose the latter. Chow!
It was just 2006 when the GOP was actively supporting the idea of repealing the "Natural Born" Citizen clause. They wanted to be able to put Arnold Schwartzenneger on the ballot. A "B" list actor just one generation removed from being a Nazi under Hitler and easily the worst Governor in California history since at the last "B" list actor had the job in the 70's.
I just looked at my 58 year old "original" NH birth certificate, it doesn' say anything about being a "live birth" but when I look in the mirrior I do think I am alive. I have never even heard of a "live birth certificate" until you know who came around. Nor have I ever been asked for my "live birth certificate". Passports and drivers license agencies just "assume" that I was a "live birth".
Am I alive or not????? I am so confused
apologies for the rant
I wonder how many of the GOP candidates will be unable to put their names on the ballot in AZ if this law actually becomes law and is upheld. Sometimes it really is best to be careful what you wish for.
So I was just wondering, if Obama isn't qualified to be President then he wasn't qualified to sign into law the extension of the "Bush" tax cuts for dolts like Trump. Would Trump and his buddies then have to pay the higher rates, since the cuts expired 12/31 and would they be subject to penalties for not paying them? Hmmmm....perhaps the budget could benefit from Trump's pursuit of this thing.
When does this asshattery ever end? Like all the wing-nut states passing laws that want to ban "Sharia Law" from "becoming law" in their states. Ever hear of the First Amendment of our Constitution? This pretty much took care of that pesky "religion" problem over 200 years ago whack jobs.
What is this "long form birth certificate" that the birthers and "THE DONALD" keep asking President Obama for? I just looked at my BC and it states "Certificate of Live Birth". I was born in Washington State. It's the only kind of BC. Excuse me, Mr. Combover, the BC you provided on TV is a hospital certificate that your parents got your cute little newborn footprints on. Try getting a passport with that. Hey all of you Birthers! Why don't all of you provide your Birth certificates so we can see what a "long form birth certificate" looks like. Why don't you just admit that you have a problem with the great tan that the president has you racist biggots. For those of you who are old enough, remember the character, Archie Bunker from "All in the Family"? He looks like a choir boy compared to the garbage that the tea partiers and their big corporation buddies and birthers are doing. Shame on you all!
I had to laugh as when we were watching TV the other night my seven year old saw Trump and she said: " He has yellow hair and it's weird looking". I just started laughing and had to tell her: " That's because it's fake honey".
teresa, not that it matters because your 7 year old is right. his hair is weird looking. ryan seacrest did an interview with trump, where he smoothed back his hair with his hand. i thought he was totally bald on top, but he is not. he must be balding in areas on the top of his head, and the way he combs his hair, and sprays it to help keep it in place, prevent his bald spot(s) from showing. oprah's show offered to do his hair for him, you know, to give him a nice cut so he doesn't have to do the comb over, i would assume. he has a right to wear his hair the way he wants, and vanity is preventing him from seeing that a good cut would look a lot better than how he wears his hair now. i would think he would want to change his hair, since he certainly gets enough crap over it. but, after all, he is Donald Trump.
When will Arizona realize they are not above the U.S. Constitution? First the immigration bill, what
are they going to try next? Somehow it seems like there is a me first mentality among conservatives today.
There is more to it then just being born in the U.S. To be President you must be born to two parents who are U.S.citizens at the time of birth. Obama is clearly hiding something. There has been evidence of record scrubbing prior to Obama becoming senator. Two million spent in keeping this hidden. Were is the transparency? He is deliberately opaque on this subject.
Read Article 2,Section 1,Clause 5 of the United States Constitution.
Article 2, Section 1 Clause 5 of the United States Constitution:"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.". Why is this so important jeff? As the Clause you show actually shows that you are completly insane & should quit reading conservapedia.BTW there are Russian coming in your drinking water with fluoride. Also I would be opaque about this also IF I had so many completly insane people saying it was not true, basically it make you idiots look like what you are, IDIOTS
lmfao @ reasonable statement, quick gthomas there is fluoride coming in the form of russians. I know facts are terribly troublesome, but I indeed put up the" reasonable" statement in front of a mirror & saw that jeff is as insane as you are. go ahead dude tell us what article 2 section 1 clause 5 says
awwwwe poor ole gthomass them pesky facts seem to be your downfall EVERY single time. go ahead and read the entire constitution & get back to me on where you think obama has violated it. this post was about the section i reposted & was nowhere near what the idiots like you think it means, in fact at no point does it say the person's parent/s must be born here, just think if you live long enough a spanish speaking person born from illegals might actually become president, oh boy how fun will that be watching you loons go through the entire process of hating the usa again. BTW there are russians in your water disguised as fluoride trying to kill you, oh my, wait what was that noise, you better go check on it, might be an alien. IDIOT TEABAGGER
What is a teabagger? A teabagger is someone who will say "i hate gov run healthcare but dont ever lay a hand on my medicare. a teabagger is someone who says lowering taxes increases the overall budget. a teabagger tries to make someone feel small from a typo by saying they are from another country WHILE having several typos in their own statements. a teabagger is someone like gthomas completly insane & always change subject when called out on their insanity, like when they cry article 2 section 1 clause 5 THEN after actually seeing what that clause says, they switch to article 2 section 4 , then they switch to article 1 section 7, BUT most of all a teabagger is willing to swollow anything some nutcase says
Liberal Progressive Jason: Were is the transparency he promised 1ooo times in his campagin ? Why the money being spent to hide all his records? He may very well have been born here but clearly there is something he does not want out. He is not being Presidental and forthcoming with the American people. I guess you libs are still sore from the Nov elections! I hope you enjoy Larrys show tonight with the other 100,000 that will be watching!
awwwwwe poor ole jeff , i guess the part of constitution you attempted to pervert was not pervertable. & the ones who are sore about elections are you idiots who cant stand to see obama in the white house
hahahaha give to charity loser, they need it more than me. oh wait you teabagger dont believe in giving to charity
"no keep my own money" " charity sucks" spoken like a TRUE teabagger