Obama Citizenship Still a Thorny Question

Please forward this alert to a fifty-caliber friend!

On August 24th this year, then US Senator Obama was sued in US District Court by Philip J. Berg Esq. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/980050/obama_lawsuit_citizen_or_not.html) over the question if Barak Obama was qualified to hold the office of President of the United States to which he aspired and was campaigning for. Philip Berg’s lawsuit alleged that Barak Obama:

• Is not a natural Born Citizen
• Lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia; and/or
• Has duel loyalties because of his citizenship with Kenya and Indonesia.

John,

I was reviewing the latest Internet news on the Obama birth certificate saga and found an extensive article by someone trying to document what the definition of "natural born citizen" is by citing various court cases. The question has raged for weeks in the blogosphere as to what constitutes a "natural born citizen" and people have questioned why the Founding Fathers did not define what they meant in the Constitution. The actual truth is, that all questions about Obama’s birth certificate are an obfuscation; birth in Kenya, lost citizenship due to his stepfathers legal shenanigans in Indonesia and while all are very intriguing, they are irrelevant in proving that he is ineligible to be President. In addition, Congress has passed unconstitutional laws regarding "natural born citizenship" and the definition has changed repeatedly according to their whim of the moment. Congress did not know the source of the original wording.

The Constitution trumps all of their meaningless laws and does not change over time. In 1905 the Supreme Court ruled that "The Constitution is a written instrument. As such its meaning does not alter. That which is meant when adopted, it means now." [South Carolina v. United States, 26US Supreme Court 110, 111 (1905)]. In light of this ruling, I thought there must be some contemporaneous literature which proves what the Founding Fathers meant by ‘natural born citizen’ since their failure to include a definition suggests that there was a commonly-understood and accepted meaning at that time."

Thinking about it for several hours, a name that I had run across in the "Federalist Papers" came to mind, I put "Vattel" in my search engine: up came ,Vattel’s "The Law of Nations" (see: http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_97-01/971_vattel.html). It was written in 1758 by the Swiss diplomat and lawyer Emmerich de Vattel. (see:http://www.constitution.org/vattel/vattel_01.htm) on the Constitution Society’s website. I have not seen any other writer address this fact because almost no one has heard of it, which is a sad testimony to how we have forgotten our heritage.

Sure enough I found the answer in Chapter XIX of Book I, entitled "OF OUR NATIVE COUNTRY, AND SEVERAL THINGS THAT RELATE TO IT." Vattel states in Part 212: "The natives, or naturalborn citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens." Since Vattel’s work was well known throughout the colonies and constitutes evidence as to the contemporaneous definition of "natural born citizen" intended by the Founding Fathers. Since Obama was admittedly born of a Kenyan father, even if he was born on U.S. soil he is not a natural born citizen. Because of the Vattel’s reference, we now know the definition and don’t need a Supreme Court ruling, which would likely go against us since we have only four of nine conservatives. Of course, if this is widely publicized it might help hold them accountable.

As further evidence, I read an article that Obama and some other Democrats pushed a Resolution through pertaining to McCain’s citizenship status with the ulterior motive of having it apply to Obama. During the Senate Judiciary hearing Dept. of Homeland Security Chertoff said that "My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen." (see: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200804/041008c.html). Unfortunately McCain was born in Panama, not US soil but land under the Canal Zone lease. Therefore by the Vattel definition he is not a natural-born citizen either!

Coalinga Rifle Club Schedules .50 Caliber Shoot

Click for more pictures

For those of you who have been with the Fifty Caliber Shooters Association (FCSA) for more than the past 10 years, you’ll probably remember all the good times and matches that were held at the Coalinga Rifle Club in central California in the 1990’s. For Teri & I, Coalinga was one of our favorite ranges to shoot on and the people we met there and the times we had bring back some of our fondest memories during the past 18 years. Without going into a long dissertation on the subject, FCSA was asked to leave Coalinga and told not to come back way back in the beginning of our struggle against legislation to ban the .50 BMG.

Recently, a group of very dedicated people have gotten together and over the past several months have very diplomatically created an opportunity for fifty caliber shooters to once again enjoy the pleasures of one of the best shooting ranges in California.

I’d like to take the opportunity to introduce some of the key people who have worked so hard to make this happen.

Bob Pohl - Central CA (Fresno I think)         Brett Berger - Concord CA
Dale Jeong - Oakland CA         Joe Rios - Colton, CA
Lee and Sheri Rasmussin - Langley, WA

Besides having to navigate a very difficult path to overcome the hard feelings between FCSA and the Coalinga Rifle Club this group of stalwart individuals had to come up with a way to provide shooting benches to hold a sanctioned .50 caliber match on a range that had no such facilities. For the past six months I’ve had the privilege of sharing in the email conversations that have been going back and forth between this group and several other fifty caliber shooters. Not the least of which is Lee Rasmussin and his wife Sheri from the state of Washington. If you don’t know, Lee is in the concrete business and when it comes to building shooting benches for .50 caliber shooters, there probably isn’t anyone better to do that job.

Dale Jeong and Bob Pohl contacted Lee asking for his advice on building some shooting benches at Coalinga and these photos depict how labor intensive the task is when it comes to building a competitive shooting bench. Bottom line is, Bob Pohl has been able to secure a firm date to host a .50 caliber match once again at Coalinga Rifle Club. The date set is:

The weekend of June 6th-7th, 2009

For specific match information check your last issue of VHP or the FCSA web site at:
http://www.fcsa.org/visitors/matches09.htm

 
EDM Arms Windrunner Model 05 Semi-automatic Rifle

WIN an EDM Arms Windrunner Model 05 Semi-automatic Rifle!

As you all know, FCI has to depend on our supporters to provide the funds for us to continue in our role. I'm asking everyone to take the time to go to our website and look at the current fundraiser we are hosting. Bill Ritchie, owner of EDM Arms in CA has graciously donated a $10,000 rifle to FCI to be given away to some lucky winner. We have made this drawing very attractive and we need your help and support. Please CLICK HERE and look at our fundraiser. I think you'll be pleased.

To view our full-page, printable fundraiser flyer, complete with clippable coupon for entry, CLICK HERE. Please print out a few and give to some fifty cal friends.

Best regards and safe shooting.

John Burtt
Chairman, FCI