Getting nervous
Bookworm on Mar 07 2010 at 9:09 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
The Group-Palooza that I blogged about here is taking place in Marin today. There are 400 attendees plus a long waiting list. The local Organizing For America (the Obama activist organization) is getting nervous, and sent an emergency email out to its followers saying that it would be “embarrassing” if more “teabaggers” showed up in Marin than OFA members.
I’ll remind you of my predictions about the gathering, the first of which is already proving to be true:
1. The Groupa-Palooza will be surprisingly well attended. (True; see above.)
2. The conservatives in attendance will achieve something approaching euphoria simply because they can be open about their political views.
3. There will be fringe, crackpot groups attending, such as Ron Paulians, just to name one of the less savory groups that self-affiliates with the conservative party. There will also be some Birthers who haven’t yet acknowledged that the birth certificate ship has already sailed.
4. No matter how small the percentage of fringe groups in attendance, those are the only groups that will get media attention.
Sadly, because of pre-existing family commitments, I will not be able to attend. So it goes.
Related posts:
- Are Bay Area conservatives willing to emerge from their seclusion?
- Four conservatives in a parking lot
- Obama already having a nervous breakdown?
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The ‘nervous’ are taking out ads.
The American Civil Liberties Union is hammering the Obama administration this weekend for reversing its pledge to try 9/11 terror suspects in civilian courts.
“If the president flip-flops and retreats to the Bush military commissions, he will betray his campaign promise to restore the rule of law, demonstrate that his principles are up for grabs and lose all credibility with Americans who care about justice and the rule of law,” Romero said.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/85303-aclu-to-release-full-page-nyt-ad-criticizing-white-house-for-911-trials?page=1#comments
Just curious why you think the “birth certificate ship has already sailed?” I don’t consider myself part of any “fringe” group, but I still want to see proof the man is a natural born citizen. I want to see his college transcripts, his passport records, any real evidence the Commander in Thief should be in the White House. I’d like some real facts about his past. Even BHO can’t keep all the details straight about his birth, or his parents so-called marriage. If this debacle of ‘health care reform’ passes, the birth certificate (or other proof that King Hussein is not a natural born citizen) may be the only way we have to reverse it. That is, if the Republicans that appear to be poised to overtake Congress this fall have enough cajones to pursue the matter. I won’t really be happy until BHO is behind bars or deported to his native country, wherever the hell that is. I hate to think what will happen if that comes to pass, but I also hate to think what will happen if it doesn’t.
Hmph. I’m not even sure that the “birth certificate ship” was ever more than a paper boat running in the gutter. (Given that the local newspaper reported his birth, I think there’s adequate evidence. And, of course, even if a so-called “real” birth certificate (do people really not understand how these things work?: he’s already released a copy that would be adequate to get a passport), then the BC conspiracy would talk about a forgery.)
I think that the Obama campaign is strongly encouraging “birther” sentiment, for it detracts from other records he’s kept hidden, such as his transcripts and record from Occidental College. There has been reasonable speculation that he held dual citizenship as a child (no big deal, really), but that he used it to attend Oxy as an “international” (i.e., non-American) student. This would not disqualify him from the presidency, of course, but if it is true, it would have some political impact.
So, from his point of view, it makes sense to encourage ‘birthers” in order to distract attention from other places where transparency is lacking.
I just got back from Groupa-Palooza (3:50 p.m.) and am happy to report that attendance was heavy and that there was no counter-demonstration whatsoever. The two cops monitoring the entrance to the Mill Valley Community Center looked utterly bored, which was fine with me.
The only sign outside I saw that could have even remotely freaked the local former AP newswoman who declated that tea partiers are seditionists was a photo of Obama with a Hitler moustache. Trite as hell and the people standing next to it were pretty much ignored.
I’d say there were about 300 people when I got there at 2:45 p.m., the maximum that fire code rules say can be in the main room at any one time. The booths included lots of congressional candidates flying their flags, as well as various anti-tax groups, fringe parties (American Independent, Libertarian), local Republican clubs, Objectivists and various Bay Area county tea party organizations.
Event organizer Sally Zelikovsky orchestrated an impromptu auction of a large humble pie to send to Nancy Pelosi when/if Obamacare implodes. Somebody forked over $120 for the pastry, with the proceeds slated to go to the Air Force JROTC at Novato High School.
A petition by Novato citizens to force all contractors who win city contracts to hire only citizens or legal immigrants is, according to the young fellow I talked to, about 80 percent of the way to its goal of sufficient signatures to make it on the next local ballot.
I was over at Instapundit and something jumped out at me; I wondered what Book and everyone might think…
I was reading these two “entries” by Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) :
CALIFORNIA UPDATE: Billions in red ink drowning California’s cities, schools and counties, too. I heard my state’s Finance Commissioner on George Korda’s talk radio show, and it’s clear that he regards California’s situation as a cautionary tale. I hope that other states are taking the same lesson.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Don Surber: “I blame incrementalism. Some sob sister story creates a new program for only pennies a day that quickly becomes an expensive bureaucracy. And well, here we are.”
What struck me? A potentially very useful phrase…
You’ve heard the phrases: “Bleeding Heart Liberal” and “Knee-Jerk Conservative”.
Also remember how well this one stuck: Reagan’s “Welfare Queen”.
Don Surber wrote, and Instapundit quoted, about incrementalism always creating a big bureaucracy: “Some sob sister story creates a new program…”
Sob sister.
I’ve been lamenting the fact that liberals quote a single bad incident that happened or happens to someone, as an excuse for creating a new program, almost always causing more problems than they solve. AND increasing the national government’s scope, size, and influence – which is something they *always* want. Always.
Sob sister. It may well be that this is the phrase that can be used against them. Much like bleeding heart liberal, knee jerk conservative, and welfare queen are evocative of “problem” attitudes that lead to nothing but trouble, “sob sister” may be usable as the short-hand for the ridiculous trait of liberals to use a bad story to create another overwhelming program that contributes in the end to the crushing national debt, out of control government, and our eventual failure.
Nice idea, Mike – but you know those liberals always tweaking their own personal realities.
They’ll turn it into some reality show called The Saab Sisters, who drive environmentally ‘correct’ cars, crisscrossing the country on a mission to undercover all those poor souls, who have to wear their deceased sister’s dentures.
Charles – WHAT!!! ONLY 2 cops to protect the citizens and public property from those crazy anarchists, Sadie said chuckling.
Not to worry … the front page will have only Obama poster with mustache.
colorless.blue.ideas… If he did have dual citizenship, it would indeed disqualify him from holding the office of the President, for he would no longer be considered a “Natural Born Citizen.” I’m not a constitutional lawyer (or a lawyer at all), but that’s my interpretation based on what I’ve read on the subject. I would be happy to see Zero’s Occidental College transcripts. Or anything… during the election, I read a blog from an attorney who attended Harvard Law at the same time as ODopey, and didn’t remember him. Zero was ‘editor’ of the Law Review, but never wrote any articles? That’s the frustration that I’m feeling. This ‘man’ has a ghost of a past, a manufactured history. I’d be willing to bet he received less than stellar grades in college, that’s probably part of the reason for the withholding.
>>If he did have dual citizenship>>
There’s no question about his dual citizenship, assuming that the senior Obama is listed on his birth certificate – wherever it is – as his father. The question is then about a possible third citizenship, which he probably would have obtained as a result of his adoption by Soetero – his mother’s second husband, an Indonesian. The question is – which citizenship was he using when he went to Pakistan in ’81. If his US citizenship was renounced by Soetero when he adopted him, apparently it would not actually cause him to lose his citizenship unless he acted in some way to accept the Indonesian citizenship after he was 21. This has something to do with the renunciation of a minor’s citizenship not being affected by actions of the parent, unless acted upon by the individual after reaching the age of majority. Obama had to be a citizen of Indonesia in order to attend school there – and we know he _did_ attend school there.
Colorless:
If you think those birth announcements were “reported” by the paper, you know nothing about how newspapers work, nor how Hawaii worked in those days. This ship may well have sailed, but its papers are still in doubt, and Lloyd’s of London will NOT be paying of when it founders. The “ship has sailed” line may well come to sound a lot like “settled science” sounds now.
I make no allegations about his citizenship. All I have ever wanted is to see the damned BC. I’ve had to show mine. TRANSPARENCY as promised is all I want. Very carefully worded assertions that two government officials have seen it — but no one else is allowed to — would make our Founders die laughing, then crying. Where is the vaunted Fourth Estate?
Folks, the law will not leap out of the book — or the Constitution — to enforce itself. We may be a government of laws, but if the people who are entrusted with enforcing those laws let them slide, then we have no law, and we then have a government of a few people making it up as they go along.
“Folks, the law will <strong>not</strong> leap out of the book — or the Constitution — to enforce itself. We may be a government of laws, but if the <strong>people</strong> who are entrusted with enforcing those laws let them slide, then we have no law, and we then have a government of a few people making it up as they go along.”
Bill, you’re point is why I say “the boat has already sailed.” There is no one — and that includes no one in the judicial system — who is willing to state that Constitutional law re citizenship must be enforced by actually seeing a birth certificate. Up until Obama, the law was always observed passively, simply because we knew who our presidents were. Having a cipher in the White House is a first and, because this cipher is a one man third wire because of his race, nobody — and I mean nobody — anywhere near the political establishment is going to touch his birth certificate.
As for me, I agree with many, Jack Cashill included, who say he was born in Hawaii, but that the birth certificate will simply show something unsavory about the circumstances of his parentage. As I always say, I’d be much more interested in this “brilliant” president’s education and employment records. (Although, as I also always say, it’s bizarre that no one, pro or con, has appeared to support or destroy those claims of brilliance. Where is his past?)
>>…if the people who are entrusted with enforcing those laws let them slide, then we have no law, and we then have a government of a few people making it up as they go along.>>
Exactly. No more “equal justice under the law”…the law will be enforced as those few people decide. _THAT_, my friends, is called corruption, and _that_ is why third world countries _are_ third world countries.
3 links tied into a nice bow, starting with the first one from Ace of Spades (overnight thread)
http://ace.mu.nu/
Too many unanswered questions continues with MO
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/03/to-be-lawyer-or-not-to-be.html
and ending with then Senator AWOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah9W24oMIRc&feature=player_embedded
Bookie,
If you are saying we have a bunch of feckless, self-centered, CYAs in DC, I’ll agree. I’ll even agree that the Ship of State is at sea. And I’ll agree that the CIC (Cypher in Chief) was probably born in Hawaii of one American citizen, which I think would satisfy most Americans. All this stuff about later husbands renouncing a child’s citizenship seems un-American to me. I’d have a harder time if he did it himself after age 21.
BUT. It seems to me that a True American Statesman in this situation would have gone OUT OF HIS WAY to be more Catholic than the Pope, to borrow a phrase, and HONOR the document he suposedly taught, and lay out his Constitutional eligibility, not run from it.
George Washington made a point of stepping down after two terms, though there was not then any Constitutional reason that he should do so. I’m sure other great Americans have done similarly honorable things out of respect for the Constitution, and the People.
And, wasn’t it members of a once-great political party who brought down….somebody….while righteously opining about The mere Appearance of Impropriety?
Well, I think it’s about damned time for the APPEARANCE of some testicular, or ovarian fortitude, and for the APPEARANCE of a decent respect for the opinions of their fellow citizens among those elected to represent us.
Sadie…
The first two links are both to the DirectorBlue site. No Ace link…
>>All this stuff about later husbands renouncing a child’s citizenship seems un-American to me. I’d have a harder time if he did it himself after age 21.>>
Bill – at the time (mid 60s), Indonesia and the US were not on good terms. We know he was an Indonesian citizen because he attended school there, and Indonesian citizenship was a requirement for attending school. We also know that because of the bad relationship, his father would have had to renounce his US citizenship. That would not affect his US citizenship, unless Obama took some action after age 21 (then the current age of majority in the US) to confirm his Indonesian citizenship. Two questions are then raised about his actions: first, a visa for traveling/staying in Indonesia is limited to 3 months. Obama stayed in Indonesia much longer than that when he was writing his book. On what authority?? Second, he traveled to Pakistan in 81, at a time when visas for travel to Pakistan were not being issued by the State Department for US citizens. What passport did he use for his travel there? Remember the big to-do about access to his passport being illegally made in spring of ’08 (?)? Why? what did the someone find? Something or nothing?? Supposedly, it was accessed by a Hillary proponent – I don’t know. I do know, though, that the only actual witness (and I’m not sure how he was a witness – as computer expert or what else) is reported to have been killed in a hit and run automobile accident. True or not, I don’t know. Could someone have been cleaning up?? I know – the old conspiracy thing. But there _was_ a lot at stake, and not just for O. People have certainly been killed for less.
It’s probably going to be something that ends up in the history books, and I won’t live long enough to get the answers. Darn!
I guess we can all look forward to the Oliver Stone version of the “truth” in some future epic.
The key witness in the Obama/McCain/Clinton passport breach was not killed in a hit-and-run, but probably killed in a HIT. Here’s an article from the Washington Post about the murder.
No matter the state of the ship, we have to keep up the pressure and not succumb to the whims of the lamestream media on this issue. Eventually, a hero will emerge and press for the truth.
sorry suek..
I cut and pasted what I read on Ace of Spades HQ, which includes the links from post 13.
Overnight Open Thread
—Maetenloch
Last call for the weekend. Might as well start it early since some people have the ‘work thing’ tomorrow.
Is Obama a Legal Phony?
Well he has never released his law school transcripts, he was Editor of the Harvard Law review yet never published any papers, and after graduating he seems to have never tried a case. And now it turns out that his vaunted Professor of Constitution Law gig was really a patronage sham and he was nothing but a politically appointed part-time lecturer.
So given his recent public mistakes about Constitutional law, you start to wonder how much does he really knows about the law and whether his entire career has been a successful con. The only objective evidence of his competence is that he passed the bar in 1991, but given that it was in Illinois I’m not sure I’d bet the farm on it being completely above board. Also why did both he and Michelle both give up their law licenses (his in 2008, hers in a voluntary surrender in 1993)?