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The Obamas: Drag Style!

December 17th 2008 17:52
Everyone's favorite drag diva has released a truly fantastic picture!

In the photo we find RuPaul impersonating both President Elect Barack Obama and the future First Lady Michelle Obama.

Lookin' Good!

Rupaul as the Obamas
Rupaul as the Obamas


The photo is part of a promotion for Rupaul's upcoming show on LOGO called Rupaul's Drag Race which premieres on Feb 2, both on TV and at LOGO Online!

Barack has never looked so fabulous!
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Across the blogiverse (I Like it better than blogoshpere), including right here in the friendly confines of our own little blogging community, there are people crying foul when it comes to the issue of Barack Obama's citizenship. This is despite the fact that clearly the preponderance of evidence shows that indeed President Elect Barack Obama is a Natural Born U.S. Citizen, and anyone who screams from the rooftops that he is not is blind to the facts before their eyes. This is a very long post, but I urge everyone to read it in total, as this issue does not seem to be going away, even though it has been settled repeatedly in every way.



So, let's just lay out the facts, let them speak for themselves, and stop spreading ill-conceived conspiracy theories...at least about this issue!

Claim: Barack Hussein Obama's Birth Certificate is a fake, a forgery, a Photoshop document, not real.

"Evidence" used to back the claim: The birth certificate doesn't have a raised seal, It isn't signed, the certificate number is blacked out, the document is a "certification of birth," not a "certificate of birth." Obama's father is listed as "African" on the document, even though black people at the time were referred to as "Negroes".

Facts: A number of people have been allowed to touch, feel, and hold the actual certificate. Photos have been released that dispute the illegality of the document. In the pictures, a raised seal is clearly visible. The signature on the document is a standard issue stamp on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates).

As to the issue of the blackout, Obama spokesperson Shauna Daly says, "[We] couldn't get someone on the phone in Hawaii to tell us whether the number represented some secret information, and we erred on the side of blacking it out. Since then we've found out it's pretty irrelevant for the outside world." And for those who would question that answer based on the fact that it came from the Obama campaign, the number has since been released and it has been identified in person. The number is 151 1961 - 010641.

obama birth certificate number


As for claims against its validity based on the "certification of birth" vs. "certificate of birth" scenario, lets also put that to rest. The document in question is a "certification of birth," which seems to be causing all of the uproar. It is also known as a "short form birth certificate". It is printed by the State and has all of the necessary information required by the State Department. The long form contains details like birth weight, height, etc. Legally, the long form cannot be reprinted or photocopied, therefore the short form with all of the pertinent information was displayed by the Obama campaign, and is just as legal as that long form.

Further, a birth announcement was listed in the Honolulu Advisor, on August 13, 1961. Those desperate to refute every bit of hard evidence claim that Obama's grandmother planted the announcement, on the off chance that her newborn Grandson may one day become President. Even this has been refuted, as Honolulu birth announcements at the time came directly from the Vital Statistics Office as reported by local hospitals.

Finally, the issue of the word "African" appearing on the document. This is cleared up very easily. Plainly, the conspiracy theorists simply have the wrong information. According to the Department of Health in Hawaii, parents are allowed to identify their race and ethnicity themselves, and "we accept what the parents self identify themselves to be." If Barack Obama Sr. claimed himself to be "African" (which makes sense since he was from Kenya) then that is what they would put on the document. Problem solved.

Raised Seal on Obama Birth Certificate
Raised Seal on Obama Birth Certificate


Claim: if only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of birth, the citizen-parent "must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16." Obama's father, of course, was not an American citizen, having been born in Kenya. That leaves his mother, who was a natural-born citizen, but who was only 18 when Obama was born, on August 4, 1961.

"Evidence" to back the claim: ??????

Fact: The confusion here lies in the definitions of the concepts of jus sanguinis and jus soli. According to jus sanguinis, a person's citizenship is passed down through their blood. In otherwords, whatever the citizenship of the parents happens to be, so goes the citizenship of the child. However, this is not the only way to determine citizenship. There is also the matter of jus soli. This means that a person's U.S. citizenship is based on the place that they were born. Born on U.S. soil = U.S. Citizen. Period. This is why people who wish for their kids to be U.S. citizens sneak across the border to have their children here. Because it automatically makes you a natural born citizen. Obama's mother was a U.S. Citizen. But even if that was not enough, he was born on U.S. soil, and therefore, a natural born citizen, and eligible to be President of the United States of America. The only time that jus sanguinis comes into play is if the child was born outside of the U.S. Which Obama was not, regardless of how badly the naysayers want to believe it isn't so. Which leads us to...



Claim: Obama's Paternal Grandmother says he was Born in Kenya and was present at his birth.

"Evidence" to back the claim: A taped recording of Bishop Ron McRae of the Anabaptist Churches of America during which he asks a translator to confirm that she was "present" at his birth, and she says yes.

Facts: This one is sketchy at best. First of all, I listened to the tape, and you can too, just do a You Tube or Google search for it. Brother McRae calls to speak to them, and starts out the conversation by earning their trust, saying that he is praying for Obama. It is clear that he is calling with the agenda of seeking "evidence" that Obama was born outside the U.S. He even sighs heavily when agreeing to pray for Obama (some Christian charity!) Anyway, after exchanging pleasantries with the translator who is barely audible and Obama's grandmother who is even less audible, he asks if she was present during the birth. She says yes (well, the translator does). The problem here is that throughout the conversation, the line is fuzzy, there is a language barrier between even the translator and the interviewer, and the pre-existing agenda. It would not hold up in a court of law.

What is known, is that Sarah Hussein Obama is on the record having said, ”son of the village”. Does this mean he was born there? I think you could easily argue that this means his father was born there and that he is a son of the people. And, incidentally, the village of his Grandmother is not the only one to claim Obama. Some unearthed records indicate that he is a son of a tiny village of Moneygall, Ireland. Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall, and now they are claiming him as their own. Something tells me no one there is claiming he was born there, even though they say he is a "son of the village".

Obama with his Paternal Grandmother
Obama with his Paternal Grandmother


Claim: He is a Muslim.

"Evidence" to support the claim: His time living in Indonesia, pictures of him in "Muslim" clothing, Muslim family members.

Fact: This one I care so little about anymore. So what if he were a Muslim...what would that mean? Is that unconstitutional? Would that make him unfit? If he had been raised or influenced by Islamic believers as a youth, could he not change his mind? Is that impossible? Oh, and about those pictures that I am sick to death of seeing....I have a picture of myself dressed as a witch when I was younger. Does that make me Wiccan? Besides, I found this incriminating picture of Obama online today...

Obama In Holy Land
Say it isn't so! Obama is secretly Jewish!!


Finally, I'd just like to make a few Constitutional pointers. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that some part of the claims is proven to be correct. (Which we've already disproved, so this is purely hypothetical pondering) The term ‘Natural Born Citizen’ is used as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States. Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution states: ‘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.’ The 14th Amendment goes on to further define this statute. ‘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.’ It does not use the terminology of "Natural Born Citizen" at all. "Natural Born Citizen" is not defined anywhere in the Constitution, and even the Supreme Court has not given a specific definition of the Constitutional determination of "Natural Born Citizen".

Obama Pledge of Allegiance


My reason for making this point is that all of these claims and smears that Obama is not qualified to be President based on his citizenship status are based on loose interpretations at best as to the meaning of the terminology in our treasured document. It is notable that many of our earliest Presidents had parents who were born on Foreign soil and did not obtain official U.S. citizenship.

I find it disturbing that so many people who claim to be "Patriots" and "strict Constitutionalists" are howling at the moon over these ridiculous claims, and yet they sat by and cheered as their chosen President undermined that very document repeatedly throughout his terms in office. Heck, Bush is even quoted as saying, "it's just a goddamned piece of paper".



All of the claims made by the far right fail to provide one scintilla of evidence that President-elect Obama is anything other than what he says he is. Rest assured, although he may not have been your choice for President, the sky is not falling, the Republic will live on, and we will make it though this Presidency without having to change our middle names to Hussein. God Bless America!

Oh, speaking of names, there has been a bit of a stink made about Barack Obama's name possibly having been changed at some point in his life due to his mother's second marriage. While there is no real proof that his name was ever anything other than Barack Hussein Obama, he was called Barry when he was younger (I wonder what that could be short for?) and it isn't a stretch to imagine that maybe when his mother was married to someone else he went by that last name for a time. It happens every day. But, what's in a name? At least 8 Presidents have changed their name.

Ulysses Simpson Grant -- changed from Hiram Ulysses Grant
Grover Cleveland -- changed from Stephen Grover Cleveland
Woodrow Wilson -- changed from Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Calvin Coolidge -- changed from John Calvin Coolidge
Dwight David Eisenhower -- changed from David Dwight Eisenhower
Gerald Rudolph Ford -- changed from Leslie King, Jr. (changed when his mother remarried and his stepfather legally adopted him)
William Jefferson Clinton -- changed from William Jefferson Blythe (changed when his mother remarried and his stepfather legally adopted him)

If indeed Barack Obama forged his Birth certificate and has been faking his true identity since birth, that would mean that he had hundreds if not thousands of co-conspirators since 1961 in several coutries. They would range from conspiring officials at the Hawaii Department of Health, the Cook County (Ill.) Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office, the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois and many other government agencies. Not to mention Senator John McCain, because believe me, if this were true, you better believe he'd have his attack dogs all over it...or maybe he's in on it! (cue the dramatic creepy music!)

Can we all relax now?

Sources for information contained in this post:

Factcheck.org

Politifact.com

You Tube

Washington Post

Chicago Tribune

My own damn common sense!











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