Update no.489

Update from the Heartland

No.489

25.4.11 – 1.5.11

Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,

President Obama publicly announced that U.S. Special Forces had killed Usama bin Ladin in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Along with the al-Qaeda leader, one of his sons, two couriers and a woman were also killed. No injuries to U.S. forces were reported. I am still collecting details.

The follow-up news items:
-- “WikiLeaks and the Espionage Act – Why Julian Assange is different from the New York Times”
by L. Gordon Crovitz
Wall Street Journal
Published: April 25, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576278883412892972.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
The Julian Assange and WikiLeaks saga continues [462].
-- The Obama administration filed its brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Log Cabin Republicans v. United States [USDC CA(CD) case no. cv-04-08425-VAP (2010)] [456, 457], indicating they seek a delay in the enforcement of the district judge’s strike down of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy [312, 408].

I received a link notice from a friend and regular contributor:
“This story has been forwarded to you from
http://www.alternet.org by [anonymous]:
This includes an interesting and accurate analogy to addiction.
-------------------------------------
“‘Why Are Americans So Easily Conned?’
http://www.alternet.org/news/150580
“Our blind optimism allows us to live in comfort zones, but it turns vast spaces of the world into death zones.”
My response:
Interesting perspective. Elements of reason and appropriate skepticism. However, I struggle with the alternative. Every advancement for mankind has come with mistakes, errors, poor assumptions and outright bad judgment. We learn and we get better. The tone of this essay suggests advancement is the addiction, as if remaining a rural, agrarian society is the only sustainable state.
FYI: interesting side note: just such a judgment was the basis for my first novel, in which Anod finds herself "stranded" in just such a culture of outcast humans.
A follow-up contributor comment:
“For me, the point of the article is this:
“‘One of an addict's biggest obstacles is his optimism i.e., he is convinced he can figure out somehow, someway to use his drug of choice in a less destructive way … and, by reflex, rebels against the deepening sorrow that he must change.’
“‘When large, powerful corporations create messes beyond their ability to control the damage wrought by their institutional cupidity, those in charge spare no expense aggressively confronting the problem … that is, of course, by means of public relations blitzes aimed at the general public, while tsunami-sized waves of campaign contributions flood the coffers of elected officials.’
“I can find no way to quarrel with that in light of recent events and less-recent ones dating back at least to Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez disaster. And once again, I want to point out that this is not an either/or situation. What the article suggests, and I agree, is that some levels of risk (as with Chernobyl and Fukushima) are not justified by their benefits, which ought to lead society to prevent that risk, even if it costs corporations profit.
“Incidentally, I thought the ‘outcast’ society in Anod were the heroes. Not so?”
. . . and my follow-up response:
I shall not quarrel with your assessment. Just one FYI: Chernobyl was not a corporate accident; the power plant was a government facility. Nonetheless, your point is taken and agreed – we must do everything we can to prevent damaging accidents like Chernobyl, Macondo, Fukushima, Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island, et cetera ad infinitum. The question is, how? What do you propose as an alternative?
Yes, the Betans were / are heroes. They sacrificed and defended Anod against her far more powerful antagonists. They certainly represent those choices a society should make. Yes, they chose banishment because they refused to accept the accommodation necessary for the advancement of The Society.

Who among us seeks to publicly defend pornography, obscenity, prostitution, or the infinite myriad of other perversions we dislike and disapprove of in our society? Unfortunately, we all missed the point! It is not the pornographer or the pervert we should be defending, but rather the Liberty and freedom to choose our individual pursuit of happiness we should be vigorously defending, even for those with whom we disagree. Their freedom is our freedom . . . a fact far too many of have apparently forgotten. I will argue that is our moral obligation, nay duty, to defend the rights of those with whom we are disgusted or disapprove, for there but for the grace of God go each of us. We cannot – must not – remain silent any longer. It is way passed time for We, the People, to assert our will upon our representatives and legislators to repeal or amend all those laws that intrude upon our fundamental right to privacy and impose upon our most precious freedom of choice in our individual pursuit of Happiness.

A separate thread extended this foolish debate about Barack Obama’s citizenship and thus eligibility, and pushed me past my threshold of tolerance.
I do not know why I have devoted so much time to this task . . . an example of a voracious curiosity unchecked, I suppose. I am not the one who needs convincing. I have not doubted the citizenship of Barack Hussein Obama from the get-go. Yet, the persistence and progressively more sophisticated subterfuge of the so-called “birthers” shocked my curiosity to action – could they be correct? So, off I went on my quest for knowledge.
Short version:
FACTS:
21.August.1959 = Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States of America.
4.August.1961 = Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Thus, by definition and law, Barack is a natural born citizen. Full stop! It does not even matter who his parents were – not their citizenship, not their marital state, nothing.
Nonetheless, the conspiracists and naysayers have and will attack any little element not to their liking. So, we shall make the effort to assess the worst-case scenario.
Long Version:
FACTS:
21.June.1788 = New Hampshire was the 9th of 13 states to ratify the U.S. Constitution, which in turn made it the law of the new Republic. The relevant provisions of the Constitution as ratified:
Article I, §8, Clause 4:
“To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization . . .”
Article II, §1, Clause 4:
“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.”
Article IV, §2, Clause 1:
“The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.”
26.March.1790 = An Act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization [c. 3 (1 Stat. 103)], which Congress enacted to fulfill its responsibility under Article I, §8, Clause 4, stated in relevant part:
“And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: Provided also, That no person heretofore proscribed by any state, shall be admitted a citizen as aforesaid, except by an act of the legislature of the state in which such person was proscribed.”
January 1833 = the protections of the Bill of Rights applied to the Federal government, not the states, as affirmed by Barron v. Baltimore [32 U.S. {7 Pet.} 243 (1833)] [335]
9.July.1868 = The 14th Amendment was ratified by the states.
14th Amendment, §1, Clause 1:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
14th Amendment, §1, Clause 2:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;”
28.March.1898 = United States v. Wong Kim Ark [169 U.S. 649 (1898)] [399] affirmed the rules established by Congress for citizenship and naturalization.
7.July.1898 = President McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution [Joint Resolution No. 55; 2nd Session, 55th Congress; 30 Stat. 750; 2 Supp. R. S. 895], which annexed Hawaii, thus becoming U.S. territory under the law. [489]
27.June.1952 = Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) [AKA McCarran-Walter Act] [PL 82-414; 66 Stat. 166] [314] [450], enacted comprehensive immigration reform. Included under INA was:
8 U.S.C. §1401(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 five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: . . . This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its present form on that date;” also,
“A person born abroad out-of-wedlock to a U.S. citizen mother may acquire U.S. citizenship under Section 309(c) of the INA if the mother was a U.S. citizen at the time of the person’s birth and if the mother was physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the person’s birth. The mother must be genetically related to the person in order to transmit U.S. citizenship.”
So, where does all this legal mumbo-jumbo lead us? The Constitution authorized the Federal government to establish naturalization law, which includes the definition(s) of citizenship and eligibility to hold the office of president. Congress passed and the President signed into law the Naturalization Act of 1790 that covered children born outside the jurisdiction of the United States. Barron v. Baltimore [335] established that the Constitution applied to the Federal government, not to the states. The Constitution authorized the Federal government to make and enforce naturalization and immigration law, which in turn meant the state’s did not have any authority to set naturalization law. The 14th Amendment set forth law that citizenship applied all people born within the jurisdiction of the United States – blacks, whites, reds, yellows, women, men . . . ALL – as defined by the Federal government, regardless of the citizenship of the parents. United States v. Wong Kim Ark [399] reinforced the definitions of citizenship, including children born to a U.S. citizen (father or mother) outside the jurisdiction of the United States. The Newlands Resolution of 1898 annexed Hawaii as U.S. Territory, thus under the jurisdiction and law of the United States. Pursuant to its constitutional authority, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA) [450], which was signed into law on 27.June.1952, and enacted comprehensive immigration reform that clarified rules of naturalization, including children born to mothers inside or outside marriage, or inside or outside the jurisdiction of the United States. Stanley Ann Dunham was born in Wichita, Kansas on 29.November.1942; she remained within the jurisdiction of the United States from the time of her birth until she gave birth to a son at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 4.August.1961. In accordance with the Constitution and prevailing naturalization law, the child born to Stanley Ann in 1961 is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States of America, thus, Barack Hussein Obama II is fully and rightly eligible to be President of the United States of America.
Now, I equally recognize that folks so inclined will not accept any of these facts. They are against President Obama no matter what the facts are. They will attack anything and everything – the paper, the statehood of Hawaii, the Durham family, or the conspiracy of hundreds of unrelated people to alter the facts. Barack Obama is a Natural Born Citizen and legally elected President of the United States. End of story!

News from the economic front:
-- Standard & Poor's reduced Japan’s forecast long-term rating from stable to negative, citing the risk to the country's economy from the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis at Fukushima.
-- The U.S. Federal Reserve indicated its intention to end its controversial US$600B bond-buying program, as the Fed prepares to battle looming inflation in an environment of continued high unemployment.
-- The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.8% in 1Q2011, down from the 3.1% increase in 4Q2010, as higher prices, especially for gasoline and food, put pressure on spending by Americans. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of demand in the U.S. economy, rose at a 2.7% rate in the first quarter. Higher prices pushed the inflation rate up to 3.8% -- the biggest increase since 3Q2008.

No comments from Update no.488.

My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)