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Apr. 27th, 2011 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinished watching last week's Justified - which continues be incredibly entertaining. It has a dry wit that I really appreciate. Also Timothy Olyphant and Walter Goggins are not bad on the eyes.
If you haven't checked out this gem, and like the modern Western genre ( a lot of people don't),
I think they are doing a marathon tonight on F/X - getting closer to the season finale and they always do marathon's around that time.
On the American News front - a few wryly amusing bits. Okay, they amused me.
1. President Obama has released an official version of his birth certificate. Apparently he got tired of all the weird controversy regarding it. And yes, if you are at all curious he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii (which is the capital of Hawaii and one of our states believe it or not, they even have, gasp, electoral college votes!)
For people who aren't American or familiar with our wacky Constitution - and are scratching their heads over this: The President of the US has to be born in the US aka natural born citizen. Not just a citizen, but actually physically born here - probably goes back to the whole Founding Father's thing and our wars with our imperialistic forebears, France, Spain, and England. Ironically enough the first group of Presidents weren't born in the US, so...curious as to when this decision was actually made and why. Ah..found it courtesy of Wiki, the lazy person's guide to everything (although you do need to be careful with Wiki on some topics such as celebrities - it apparently is about as reliable as the National Enguirer on that score.) :
Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as President of the United 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 grandfather provision of the "natural born Citizen" clause provided an exception to the "natural born" requirement for those persons who were citizens at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. (The first several Presidents prior to Martin van Buren as well as potential Presidential candidates such as Alexander Hamilton were born as British subjects in British America before the American Revolution and this grandfather clause would cover them.)
Additionally, the Twelfth Amendment states that: "[N]o person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." The Fourteenth Amendment does not use the phrase "natural born citizen". It does provide that "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."
So according to Wiki, the rule was actually, no one can be President of the US unless they are a natural born citizen, or happened to be here prior to the Constitution being drawn up and were a British subject. Ironically? We've never had a Native American as President. I guess they put in the loop-hole to avoid that problem, because if it weren't there - the only people who would have qualified back then were well kids born here and the Indians (Native Americans). Of course you could argue that Native Americans aren't really natural born citizens or even citizens of the US, since they live on reservations with rules and governments that are completely separate.
As to why? Ah here it is:
On June 18, 1787, Alexander Hamilton submitted to the Convention a sketch of a plan of government. Article IX, section 1 of Hamilton's plan provided:
No person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a Citizen of one of the States, or hereafter be born a Citizen of the United States.[3]
On July 25, 1787, John Jay wrote to George Washington, presiding officer of the Convention:
Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.
Yeah, can't have that. After all it's not like Foreigners or British subjects and weren't born in the US or that Alexandra Hamilton wasn't...wait.
Which is why Arnold Schwarznegger can't run for President. Donald Trump is feeling very honored for making a big issue of this. But Trump isn't satisfied, he wants his report cards. I don't know about you? But I think Donald Trump has far too much time on his hands.) The President said we don't have time for this silliness. (No, we'd rather be watching the gossip about the Royal Wedding - far more interesting across the pond. They don't argue about these silly things.) What is highly amusing about this controversy and why the GOP is looking like idiots for pursuing it (okay not all of the GOP, just the lunatic fringe...which they wish would just go away.) is that President Obama was a Constitutional Law Professor - he knows this stuff better than most people do, he taught it.
2.Half of the Americans are going to be glued to their tv sets on Friday to watch the Royal Wedding.
(Does anyone else remember the last one - it was on all the networks and took forever (we watched them drive to the chapel in their carriages for about two hours...made the OJ Simpson race seem rather entertaining by comparison) and was boring as hell. It also ended in divorce, scandal, and all sorts of problems. Those nutty Royals. Although I shouldn't talk, we have Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. Want to trade?? Probably not. But was worth a shot.) The other half really don't care. According to a poll of NY'ers. (Guess which group I fall into? People, I don't care about my own relatives weddings, why would I care about about some rich stranger with a title?) Now with the age of cable - I'm guessing it won't be on all channels. But I'll be at work, so won't notice.
3. A council woman from Chinatown has gotten tired of the illegal vendors of rip-offs clogging the streets of Chinatown and has introduced a bill that will make it illegal to buy the rip-offs, and if you are caught buying one or with one - you will be charged a $1000 fine. The paper this morning wondered if a $15 rip-off of a Luis Vitton bag is worth $1000, considering the original probably costs less than that. The tourists are quite upset about this.
If you haven't checked out this gem, and like the modern Western genre ( a lot of people don't),
I think they are doing a marathon tonight on F/X - getting closer to the season finale and they always do marathon's around that time.
On the American News front - a few wryly amusing bits. Okay, they amused me.
1. President Obama has released an official version of his birth certificate. Apparently he got tired of all the weird controversy regarding it. And yes, if you are at all curious he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii (which is the capital of Hawaii and one of our states believe it or not, they even have, gasp, electoral college votes!)
For people who aren't American or familiar with our wacky Constitution - and are scratching their heads over this: The President of the US has to be born in the US aka natural born citizen. Not just a citizen, but actually physically born here - probably goes back to the whole Founding Father's thing and our wars with our imperialistic forebears, France, Spain, and England. Ironically enough the first group of Presidents weren't born in the US, so...curious as to when this decision was actually made and why. Ah..found it courtesy of Wiki, the lazy person's guide to everything (although you do need to be careful with Wiki on some topics such as celebrities - it apparently is about as reliable as the National Enguirer on that score.) :
Section 1 of Article Two of the United States Constitution sets forth the eligibility requirements for serving as President of the United 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 grandfather provision of the "natural born Citizen" clause provided an exception to the "natural born" requirement for those persons who were citizens at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. (The first several Presidents prior to Martin van Buren as well as potential Presidential candidates such as Alexander Hamilton were born as British subjects in British America before the American Revolution and this grandfather clause would cover them.)
Additionally, the Twelfth Amendment states that: "[N]o person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." The Fourteenth Amendment does not use the phrase "natural born citizen". It does provide that "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."
So according to Wiki, the rule was actually, no one can be President of the US unless they are a natural born citizen, or happened to be here prior to the Constitution being drawn up and were a British subject. Ironically? We've never had a Native American as President. I guess they put in the loop-hole to avoid that problem, because if it weren't there - the only people who would have qualified back then were well kids born here and the Indians (Native Americans). Of course you could argue that Native Americans aren't really natural born citizens or even citizens of the US, since they live on reservations with rules and governments that are completely separate.
As to why? Ah here it is:
On June 18, 1787, Alexander Hamilton submitted to the Convention a sketch of a plan of government. Article IX, section 1 of Hamilton's plan provided:
No person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States unless he be now a Citizen of one of the States, or hereafter be born a Citizen of the United States.[3]
On July 25, 1787, John Jay wrote to George Washington, presiding officer of the Convention:
Permit me to hint whether it would not be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government, and to declare expressly that the Command in chief of the American army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.
Yeah, can't have that. After all it's not like Foreigners or British subjects and weren't born in the US or that Alexandra Hamilton wasn't...wait.
Which is why Arnold Schwarznegger can't run for President. Donald Trump is feeling very honored for making a big issue of this. But Trump isn't satisfied, he wants his report cards. I don't know about you? But I think Donald Trump has far too much time on his hands.) The President said we don't have time for this silliness. (No, we'd rather be watching the gossip about the Royal Wedding - far more interesting across the pond. They don't argue about these silly things.) What is highly amusing about this controversy and why the GOP is looking like idiots for pursuing it (okay not all of the GOP, just the lunatic fringe...which they wish would just go away.) is that President Obama was a Constitutional Law Professor - he knows this stuff better than most people do, he taught it.
2.Half of the Americans are going to be glued to their tv sets on Friday to watch the Royal Wedding.
(Does anyone else remember the last one - it was on all the networks and took forever (we watched them drive to the chapel in their carriages for about two hours...made the OJ Simpson race seem rather entertaining by comparison) and was boring as hell. It also ended in divorce, scandal, and all sorts of problems. Those nutty Royals. Although I shouldn't talk, we have Donald Trump and Sarah Palin. Want to trade?? Probably not. But was worth a shot.) The other half really don't care. According to a poll of NY'ers. (Guess which group I fall into? People, I don't care about my own relatives weddings, why would I care about about some rich stranger with a title?) Now with the age of cable - I'm guessing it won't be on all channels. But I'll be at work, so won't notice.
3. A council woman from Chinatown has gotten tired of the illegal vendors of rip-offs clogging the streets of Chinatown and has introduced a bill that will make it illegal to buy the rip-offs, and if you are caught buying one or with one - you will be charged a $1000 fine. The paper this morning wondered if a $15 rip-off of a Luis Vitton bag is worth $1000, considering the original probably costs less than that. The tourists are quite upset about this.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 04:10 pm (UTC)(Now I'm not sure how accurate this is - my mother told me, not that she isn't necessarily an accurate source of information, but this is the same woman who told me that Jennifer Garner's father was Jim Garner (he's not).) Not that this is enough to run for President, you also have to prove that you resided in the US for a specific number of years, and it would help if you voted in some of the US elections. Which is Donald Trump's problem - people have been going after Trump for his somewhat lax voting record. So, he's decided to distract them by going after Obama. It sort of worked....which I guess says more about our media than it does Trump.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 05:52 am (UTC)* Any proof will be dismissed as forgery if I feel like it.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 04:16 pm (UTC)[Forgot to mention the reason Trump was doing all this, besides being in Bill the Cat's body in the 80s - apparently the news media started researching Trump's voting record and discovered it is non-existent. The man only voted twice in more than 20 years. He's never voted in a primary. They've also been researching his income tax records....and tax history, which is not exactly on the up and up. So to distract the media - Trump decided to point out things that Obama doesn't have. It's basically the old - hey, don't look at me, that guy's worse...the fact that it worked says more about the US media, I suspect than it actually does about Trump.]
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 04:16 pm (UTC)Justified
Date: 2011-04-28 10:48 am (UTC)Oh, Canadian here and I'll watch the wedding. I watched the last one all by my lonesome in my apartment in Tsawwassen in 81. I'd made some chocolate chip cookies and at that time I could eat that stuff without expanding.
I don't know what I feel about the Birther BS that is going on in your country. I only have one request to the network news folk...stop giving air time to that shabby man with the comb-over.
Rufus
Re: Justified
Date: 2011-04-28 04:21 pm (UTC)The wedding is very popular here. According to the newspaper, there's a viewing party under the Manhattan Bridge at 5am, with a 100 people attending...champagne will start flowing at 9:30am.
And they plan on airing the event live in Times Square.
It appears to be more popular here than it is over there. They even have designers doing knockoffs of Middleton's gown.
American's love their fairy tales. We don't have a royal family here...the closest we can get is Brad and Angelina Jolie or the Obamas...and that's just not the same thing. Not quite sure why our culture is still obsessed with it.
Physically born here
Date: 2011-04-28 04:58 pm (UTC)Re: Physically born here
Date: 2011-04-28 10:56 pm (UTC)I wondered about that. Because technically speaking if Barak Obama had been born in Kenya, he'd still be an American citizen because his mother is an American. Or does it have to be both parents?
I know it was an issue with John McCain - who was actually born abroad - Panama Canal.
Re: Physically born here
Date: 2011-04-29 01:08 am (UTC)Re: Physically born here
Date: 2011-04-29 04:38 pm (UTC)Re: Physically born here
Date: 2011-04-29 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 05:23 pm (UTC)Also, things are not looking good for clones.
There's no such law for British prime ministers; we've had one who was born in Canada and another whose native language wasn't English. (It was Welsh, which is kind of the equivalent of a Native American president, I suppose...)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-28 11:12 pm (UTC)Just started listening to a punk music programme on BBC Radio Foyle. Mickey Bradley's first track played tonight? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSrOJ1ig6tI
I like the man's sense of humour :-)
Still under Willow & Tara's spell,
Ray.