Qualified to be President?

Correction: edited in 7:49 am 11/7/08: DOH! Sure I did research on President elect Obama's birth and came across the interesting tidbits about requirements to be a US citizen, and that he didn't meet them. However it seems that I missed a line in my reading that stated that those qualifications only counted for children of a US citizen who was born OUTSIDE the US. President-elect Obama was born in Hawaii 2 years after it became a state so even if neither of his parents were citizens and arrived while his mother was in labor he would have been a US citizen. End correction.



I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet, but in doing some research for my last entry I came across a few interesting facts.

First that to be qualified to be President of the United States you have to be a Natural-born citizen.

Second, from my research (and I could/probably am wrong) President Elect Obama isn't a Natural-born citizen, he's a naturalized citizen.

According to Findlaw.com from Dec 24, 1952 until Nov 13, 1986, which encompass the time that Obama was born, "If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least 10 years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16." After Nov 13, 1986 anyone born on US shores who's parents requested it was considered to hold dual-citizenship as their parents country and the USA. I've not found anywhere that states this was made retroactive.

Obama's father has never been a citizen of the USA and his mother was 18 when Barrack was born. This means that Obama couldn't be considered a natural born citizen because his mother wasn't 21 (16 + 5 = 21) the minimum age a mother can give birth to a citizen, thus preventing him from being a legal candidate for the Presidential office. This is also what has prevented the current Governor of CA from running for the office.

Let me make it clear, I don't want to escape President-Elect Obama on a technicality, but if it was unconstitutional for him to run and he ran anyway what is he going to do for illegal immigrants who started their life in America by breaking the law?

Dr. King's Dream still unrealized

We've all heard the line: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. " by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Unfortunately watching the reaction to our Nations recent Presidential election this dream is still unrealized despite what the news channels would have you believe. I believe every broadcast I've seen has talked about President Elect Obama being the first African-American President as if the color of his skin will change how he leads. I'm sorry but I disagree, there are far more important differences than any previous president. An example is he's the first president who was born outside the continental US (he was born in Hawaii.) He's also the first President to spend a significant amount of his primary school years in a foreign country.

The first of these two may have very little effect but the second could be huge. I'm not sure if it will be for good or ill since I have a very low opinion of the US education system in general, but wonder if someone educated under a different values system at a very young age can really connect with the majority of Americans moral philosophy at some very core points.

I've never hidden the fact that I supported John McCain in the election not because I was a fan of his but because Barack Obama scares me with his Socialistic tenancies and extremist associates. Who you're friends with says a lot of the content of your character and I for one am going to judge President Obama on his character rather than his color.

Pledge to the next President

(Note: this was copied from Facebook and originally published 11/4/2008 at 5:34 pm CST)

It's 5:30 pm CST on election day I have no idea weather I'm writing this to John McCain or Barrack Obama, in all honesty it doesn't matter.



I pledge that no matter who is in the Oval Office, weather I agree or disagree with their policies I will always treat the office, and the person holding it with respect. I may not respect the man as an individual but I have, and always had the utmost respect for what that office represents.



In the past 8 years a lot of people (American and world wide) have trashed the office because they disrespect the present occupant. You can strongly disagree with the policies without disrespecting the office.



This is my Pledge, I will always respect the office, and respectfully disagree with policies I feel are wrong. Who will make the same pledge?

Introduction

I've put off creating a personal blog (I have one for my Digital Bootstraps project) because I didn't thing I would have anything to say that would be interesting enough for people to read, and comment on. Also while I find the things my cats do interesting I doubt most others would.

However this recently changed. I recently got drug kicking and screaming into Facebook by a friend so that I could keep in contact with a few people I went to High School with. During the Presidential election I wrote a couple of notes that got good responses and I enjoyed the debate that ensued.

I'm not exactly sure where this blog is going to go. I'm going to write about whatever interests me. For the most part that's my family, computers, politics, books, and history (specifically the American Civil War, and WWII) with a smattering of other geek culture thrown in for good measure.

Read or don't, subscribe or don't, it truly makes little difference to me as this is going to become an outlet for me to say what I feel so that I can watch how I grow and change over time. As most people do I feel I'm fairly open minded. If something disproves my beliefs I'll re-evaluate and change them.

I have a couple of notes on Facebook that I will probably copy over and will tag them as FACEBOOK in the interest of achieving them all in one spot, those that are no longer relevant due to the outcome of the election won't move.

Let the journey begin.

-B