Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

This really is a full service blog.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

You are here: Home / One Toke Over the Line

One Toke Over the Line

by | 203 Comments

This post is in: 

back_to_the_future_no_gays_or_sluts_or_coloreds_allowedHere’s Ted Cruz talking about renouncing his Canadian citizenship. He, Princeton ’92 (cum laude), Harvard Law ’95 (summa cum laude) didn’t know he was automatically a dual citizen because his mother told him otherwise. So now, 42 years after his birth, he’s taking steps to deal with the situation, even though he says “My political perspective is focused on representing the State of Texas.”

And here’s Ted Cruz again, focusing on representing the State of Texas by giving an exclusive interview to stenographer/fellator Jonathan Karl, telling us that he doesn’t regret a single thing about his Tortilla Coast putsch, and isn’t it a funny thing that his coloring book is the top-selling coloring book on Amazon. That said, Ted does not agree with the coloring book that Obamacare is worse than any war. Everyone knows that the Civil War was worse than Obamacare because Ted’s side lost.

At what point do the starfuckers in DC realize that this obviously ridiculous human being is ridiculous? I’m thinking he’s about at his Rand Paul moment, to name another ridiculous figure who was their crush for a few months, until he repudiated the Civil Rights Act.

By the way, don’t miss the reviews of Ted’s coloring book on Amazon. Along with one of the reviewers, I do wonder who thought that partial birth abortion was appropriate in a coloring book for kids, though it will probably justify the purchase of a 120 crayon Crayola set.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  1. 1.

    Botsplainer

    Be happy that it’s just a coloring book and not a paper doll, punch out mix and match clothing book (with differing underwear styles, so characters are naked).

  2. 2.

    Comrade Mary

    Cruz announced he was hiring lawyers to help extricate him from his apparently unhelpful surplus nationality. … Cruz said he had been led to believe by his mother that it would have taken an affirmative act of claiming his Canadian citizenship, which the family had never done, to make it so.

    /facepalm

    So this man gets into American politics in a serious way but doesn’t have the curiosity, wit or sense of responsibility to put on his grown-up librarian pants and find out for himself what potentially surplus nationalities may be burdening him. Instead, he relies on his Mommy’s account and then blames her when it all goes poutine-shaped.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    My favorite Amazon review:

    I didn’t know how well I’d enjoy this book, seeing as how I only have white crayons. But, as it turns out, that’s the only color required! Magnificent!

    Heh!

  7. 7.

    Southern Beale

    We watched the Showtime documentary “$ellebrity” this weekend, which is about the paparazzi but it’s also about the media and how the media has changed. It was interesting, it touched on the deterioration of news in general, and pointed to Sarah Palin as the tipping point of when celebrity culture clashed with our democracy. Ted Cruz is a Sarah Palin wannabe, he wants to be a celebrity, but unlike Palin he also really does want to work — and that’s what makes him dangerous.

  9. 9.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    When his pollsters said he needed to reach out to people of color, he thought they said “people who color”.

  12. 12.

    scav

    Having found Goofus, now I’m looking for the hidden pictures. The support for legalized marajuana is foundational, but can that really be African American power even below that? And are they really going to be that into the ten commandments being a branch / offshoot of the constitution? (busy busy founding fathers, with their prototype tardis, but clearly they didn’t get George W better dentures on one of their trips as that would be encouraging a medical moocher). The free-floating environmental propaganda depicted rather than an industrial or financial setting is also problematic. Not even productive land with patented GMO Roundup™ monoculture!

  13. 13.

    Eric U.

    @Botsplainer: I still have my Reagan paper doll book. We did ridicule better back in those days, even though we didn’t realize how horrible his legacy would be.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Southern Beale:

    he also really does want to work

    Bwaaahaaahaahahaahaahaahaha…. gasp…. wheeze…. SB, you are such a card. A Republican in Congress who wants to work! BWAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAHAHA… gasp….. wheeze…. get’s funnier every time I say it.

  17. 17.

    cmorenc

    What Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are living proof of is that being gifted with a powerful intellect is not sufficient of itself to produce actual intelligent output, unless that intellect is moored to sound basic postulates and values. If the foundation upon which native intelligence rests is bullshit, the output is elaborately complexity built on a foundation of bullshit. The native intelligence can even be a handicap impeding the person from insight into just how noxiously full of their own bullshit they are, because they’re so resistant to anything challenging their self-concept as the smartest person in any room.

  18. 18.

    shelly

    Just as Conservatives seem to have a problem with humor, they also have a real talent for picking shitty illustrators. That line drawing of Cruz on the inside is pure nightmare material.

  19. 19.

    Fuzzy

    Cruz is the snake oil salesman whom plagued the west 150 years ago. Use any means and make any promise. Lots of pols do this but he seems to be really good at it. Get out the tar and feathers.

  20. 20.

    Ash Can

    Am I the only one who thinks Cruz’s “ignorance” about his citizenship, along with his amassing of lawyers to “fight” his Canadian citizenship, is all just a big (and not particularly well done) show for the rubes?

  23. 23.

    gvg

    The Amazon reviews were the nicest comments I’ve read in a long time. Glad to see people see Cruz realistcly and it gives me hope.

  24. 24.

    the Conster

    I don’t think the rubes a/k/a his base have grokked yet that his real name is Rafael Cruz. The coloring book seems to be proud of it, and that should make some teatard heads all explody.

  25. 25.

    Another Holocene Human

    @shelly: I wonder if Cruz in the pic better resembles the illustrator and I’m waiting for the real artist of the butterflies whose work was copypastaed into that weird cover pastiche to cry foul.

    No way that apeshit man-tree-pig-hybrid illustrator then suddenly grew a brain and drew anatomically accurate butterflies.

  30. 30.

    Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)

    @cmorenc:

    Yup. I agree w you Cmorenc.

    Additionally;

    The native intelligence can even be a handicap impeding the person from insight into just how noxiously full of their own bullshit they are, because they’re so resistant to anything challenging their self-concept as the smartest person in any room.

    …is a two-edged sword for everyone. Once any person has determined they are ‘smart,’ (no matter how, no matter if true) – every conclusion the Smarty arrives at can be challenged by the further thought ‘should this conclusion be reconsidered?’
    Some smart folks will be open to further thinking. Some smart folks will think; ‘Nope. I’m smart, I’ve already decided’

    How anyone decides between these choices probably draws that line between Brilliant & Insane, not to mention the lines between; Usually Correct / Usually Wrong, between quite a lot of pairings.

  31. 31.

    WereBear

    @Bill E Pilgrim: When his pollsters said he needed to reach out to people of color, he thought they said “people who color”.

    Awesome!

    Actually, a coloring book is about where his adult fan base lands on the intellectual scale; should work great!

  32. 32.

    Keith P.

    So American mother, Cuban father. Why did he end up US-Canadian. rather than Cuban-Canadian? Or does he have triple citizenship?

  33. 33.

    Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)

    @Raven:
    Very Cool!
    I love having that option come up.
    I think I derive a startling degree of satisfaction doing that.

    (At Ortho for your bride I assume. Hope all turns out wonderful and quickly)

  34. 34.

    gelfling545

    @Ash Can: Sure. How hard can it be to renounce?
    Do you renounce Canada?
    I do renounce it.
    And all it’s works?
    I do renounce them.
    And all it’s socialist-type health care?
    I do renounce it.

    Easy.

  35. 35.

    maya

    I can’t wait for FOXnuz to tell the rubes that, in a spirit of bi-partisanship, Ted’s lawyers will also help Obama renounce his Kenyan citizenship.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    At what point do the starfuckers in DC realize that this obviously ridiculous human being is ridiculous?

    It’s as if Glenn Beck were suddenly elected to the US Senate.

  40. 40.

    eric

    If you want to understand the mind of the American conservative, just remember one maxim: the ends justifies the means. It is that simple. I have written this many times before: if they are religious, then the holiness of their cause sanctifies all acts done in His honor; if they are neo-cons they are Straussains, in that the rightness of the political end and the avoidance of political ill (communism, nears, etc.) justifies all acts done in furtherance thereto. So, whether or not Cruz is a true believer or perhaps just a grifter, there is nothing he wont say or do because there is no moral shortcoming attached to his conduct.

  42. 42.

    Ash Can

    @JoyfulA: Just talking off the top of my head, but I’d bet the Cuban government does not confer citizenship to the offspring of defectors.

  43. 43.

    Central Planning

    I suspect there’s also a joke about an audio book for this thing, but I can’t come up with it.

  46. 46.

    eric

    @monkeyfister: “As a bigot, it’s hard for me to find books that advocate for and advance my position. Especially books designed for little kids. Thank God for this book.”

    LOLOLOL

  47. 47.

    JPL

    DPM, Since I don’t have a copy on hand, is that a true statement?
    I do wonder who thought that partial birth abortion was appropriate in a coloring book for kids, though it will probably justify the purchase of a 120 crayon Crayola set.
    What else is in the coloring book?

  48. 48.

    Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)

    @Raven:

    Here’s hoping your shoulder feels better soon.
    And, I’d bet that unless it started bothering you many, many miles ago (or something changed in your swimming form, …or your ‘form’ as in, an additional 200 lb of mass), that impressive exercise regimen is not the reason the shoulder is bothering you.
    I’ll be curious to hear what Ortho says.
    Cheers

  56. 56.

    Va Highlander

    @fka AWS:

    The irony here is that nobody but his base gives a single fuck about his dual citizenship.

    Actually, with respect to his presidential aspirations, it’s an interesting question. The Supremes have yet to officially consider what the phrase, “natural-born citizen”, means. Their is a reasonable argument suggesting that it means one born on US soil, thus Cruz is a US citizen by statute and not by birth.

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m guessing that most politicos, even those of a political ilk with Ted Cruz, would think it silly to have a self-themed colouring book. Ted Cruz must think every song is about him.

  58. 58.

    currants

    Is he an actual lawyer–as in, has he taken the bar somewhere? And doesn’t the bar exam application ask for one’s citizenship, anywhere? Seems odd that this hrrrm minor detail wouldn’t have shown up quite some time ago.

  61. 61.

    gogol's wife

    @Raven:

    I spend my life trying to get Fox News turned off at various health-facility waiting rooms. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t.

  62. 62.

    Mustang Bobby

    That coloring book is creepy on so many levels. First, there’s the fifties-style propaganda brainwashing clumsiness, and then there’s the subliminal stranger-with-candy look on his cartoon face. This guy looks like a perp from the files of SVU.

  64. 64.

    Citizen_X

    Anyone actually look at that “tree?” (It actually says “tea plant” at the base.) It’s got leaves labelled “gun rights” and “free enterprise” on the “ten commandments” branch (for some reason), and the very topmost leaf is labelled “White House.” That’s aboot some delusions of grandeur there, Ted, eh?

  68. 68.

    Mike in NC

    @Citizen_X:

    It’s got leaves labelled “gun rights” and “free enterprise” on the “ten commandments” branch (for some reason)

    You mean to say “Thou shalt stand thy ground!” isn’t one of the Ten (GOP) Commandments?

  70. 70.

    feebog

    How self absorbed do you have to be to publish something like this? I read the first three pages of comments and they almost all mocked the book. The few that didn’t simply expressed their loathing of the idea of a propaganda coloring book for children. The man is seriously ill and needs to get professional help.

  71. 71.

    WereBear

    We can all imagine the outcry if there was a President Obama coloring book, even if it was all about the White House vegetable garden, Bo & Sunny, and Al Green tunes.

    Things kids would find interesting.

    This is a freakin’ propaganda rag. Is it really aimed at children? Or have they discovered the average IQ of the Tea Party?

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @cmorenc:

    Let’s see now: Rand Paul’s intellect is based on the notorious bullshit of Ayn Rand.

    Ted Cruz’s intellect is based on the notorious bullshit of Dominionist “Christianity”.

    Yup. Your thesis is solid. Print it.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Comrade Mary:

    Yes, I’m afraid that’s exactly what it is. Note that the tree itself is a “tea plant,” and the very highest leaf of all is the “White House” leaf.

  79. 79.

    ericblair

    @Va Highlander:

    Actually, with respect to his presidential aspirations, it’s an interesting question. The Supremes have yet to officially consider what the phrase, “natural-born citizen”, means. Their is a reasonable argument suggesting that it means one born on US soil, thus Cruz is a US citizen by statute and not by birth.

    I think the argument is that citizenship conferred by descent is by statute, but citizenship conferred by physical presence at birth (jus solis) is directly stated in the Constitution. To me this looks interesting, but so what, you’re still a citizen by birth not naturalization. We definitely consider naturalization a barrier to being sworn in as President, since the succession laws deliberately skip over naturalized cabinet members and congresscritters.

    Cruz says he’s having multiple lawyers handle the matter. I hope they soak him on fees, since the whole process is a couple-page-long form that goes to the Canadian government and a tromp by Cruz over to the consulate across the street to sign off on it.

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Va Highlander:

    Well, actually, there is a more than two centuries old precedent that if you’re born of American citizen parents overseas (say, one is a diplomat at an embassy or something like that) then you’re still natural born.

    Now, mind you, the Teatards have gone to the lengths to explain that unless your parents are “natural born”, you can’t be. I’m expecting them to get into the minutia of “mischlinge” in discerning just how American you can be if your maternal great grandmother was naturalized, and if that exempts you from running for President. Particularly if your skin color is beyond just tanned, mind you.

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I might also point out that the Paullistas were jumping up and down like Homer Simpson being held back from a chili cookoff over John McCain’s supposed ineligibility to be President because he was born in the Canal Zone.

  86. 86.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    Thank you so much for pointing out the Amazon reviews – they are epic. “Perfect if you only have white crayons.” “My son wanted to color, but the Republicans keep filibustering him.” Seriously, it’s making me hope the next book out is a Michele Bachmann paper doll or something.

  87. 87.

    ericblair

    @WereBear:

    More IOKIYAR. These are the very same birthers who would slam any Democrat not born on sacred US soil.

    When it looked like Schwarzenegger might run for Presnit, there was a rightwing movement to get rid of the natural born clause as a bunch of useless archaic bullshit; now with Obama it’s Sacred Holy Writ. Don’t expect any consistency out of these assholes, since laws are just sticks to beat the Enemy with and not to be taken seriously.

    My understanding of the basis for this is that the founders were reasonably concerned that a foreign power (cough Britain cough) could parachute a noble into the US, get instant US citizenship, and win the Presidency, putting the new country back under de facto foreign control. This wouldn’t seem to be much of a risk these days, and I’d just rather do away with it.

  93. 93.

    danielx

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’m expecting them to get into the minutia of “mischlinge” in discerning just how American you can be if your maternal great grandmother was naturalized, and if that exempts you from running for President. Particularly if your skin color is beyond just tanned, mind you.

    There’s been some serious original research done in this area – degrees of family background and so on – that would probably help them greatly in their efforts, but Teahadists would have to read them in the original German.

  95. 95.

    Death Panel Truck

    @eric:

    “As a bigot…”

    That one was my favorite. “And I want to teach my children the same lessons. Without books like this one, we are in danger of raising a new generation of open-minded and tolerant adults . . . and it will be impossible to maintain our way of thinking if this happens.”

    Priceless.

  96. 96.

    Va Highlander

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well, actually, there is a more than two centuries old precedent that if you’re born of American citizen parents overseas (say, one is a diplomat at an embassy or something like that) then you’re still natural born.

    To the best of my knowledge, there is no such precedent. One so born is indeed a citizen by US statute, as I said, but there is no legal basis for calling them a, “natural-born citizen”. That remains an open question until the Supremes sit on it.

    What the Teatards have argued, at least in part, is that the US is jus sanguinus, that citizenship derives from the nationality of one’s parents, and not jus solis, being naturally conferred upon anyone born on US soil — with certain exceptions, of course. United States vs Wong Kim Ark, 1898, established that the US is jus solis, as a consequence of the language of the 14th Amendment.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    At what point do the starfuckers in DC realize that this obviously ridiculous human being is ridiculous?

    This is why when we have a tumbrel party, after the four surviving traitors who installed the deserting coward into office are dealt with, we deal with the Village. They get priority even over the Koch Brothers, Dimon, the Walton heirs, and the other 1% parasites.

    Villago Delenda Est.

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Va Highlander:

    Then you don’t know about a law passed in 1790 addressing that point.

    This is not to say that further legislation since then hasn’t further developed this, but when people were all in a lather over McCain’s supposed ineligibility, the 1790 precedent was cited as a remedy. Congress later specifically reaffirmed that McCain’s eligibility for the Presidency valid.

  105. 105.

    cokane

    As others have remarked, it’s weird that the Free Enterprise leaf grows out of the Ten Commandments branch. There’s nothing in the book of Exodus that advocates for free enterprise that I can remember. Plus, as Carlin explained, our whole economy runs on coveting shit… so?

    Conservatives can’t even do their own metaphors correctly.

  107. 107.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Ash Can: I don’t understand why he has to hire lawyers to “fight” his Canadian citizenship anyways. I was a Canadian citizen (probably still am since I’ve never renounced my Canadian citizenship) and now am an American citizen. Who cares about the fact that he was born in Canada, except his own racist base?

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    @Va Highlander:

    That remains an open question until the Supremes sit on it.

    This. The problem is that the Constitution restricts the Presidency to natural born citizens (and, irrelevant to the conversation, people who were living in the US when the Constitution was adopted) but never spells out exactly what a natural born citizen is. Most people assume that it means anyone who is a citizen by birth rather than naturalization, but that is just an assumption. I can imagine a stubborn “originalist” like Scalia deciding it meant only people who were citizens according to the criteria spelled out when the Constitution was adopted, especially if it temporarily advanced his political goals.

  110. 110.

    WereBear

    @Patricia Kayden: Who cares about the fact that he was born in Canada, except his own racist base?

    And the racist base would hand-wave it away, just as they did with Arnold running for Prez.

    No, this is the paranoid Cruz deciding his opponents are cut from the same Crazy Cloth as his followers. He’s forestalling a move from Democrats that would never come.

  112. 112.

    Va Highlander

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The Naturalization Act of 1790 was superseded by that of 1798, which did not address who was “natural born”. The act of 1798 was repealed in 1802, so far as I’m aware without addressing the question, either. This is why the Senate applied their patch in the case of McCain.

  114. 114.

    Roger Moore

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Who cares about the fact that he was born in Canada, except his own racist base?

    It’s not his racist base he has to worry about; it’s the racist base who support some other candidate in the primary who will bring it up as a reason not to vote for him.

  115. 115.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Raven: Good for you. I just avoid local businesses that insist on playing that channel. Never thought of actually objecting. /coward

  116. 116.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @shelly:

    Just as Conservatives seem to have a problem with humor, they also have a real talent for picking shitty illustrators. That line drawing of Cruz on the inside is pure nightmare material.

    Even the cover drawling of Cruz is amateurish. The portions on his torso seem off and the face is just meh. The artist is supposed to be showing what a cool guy Cruz is so you would think the face would be critical in something like this. It looks like they hired some Cruz fanboi from Deviant Art to do it. The whole thing almost tops Newt’s official portrait for shear cheesyness.

  118. 118.

    Redshift

    @WereBear:

    No, this is the paranoid Cruz deciding his opponents are cut from the same Crazy Cloth as his followers. He’s forestalling a move from Democrats that would never come.

    Either that, or it’s an attempt to forestall mockery and having his campaign dogged by questions about why his followers believe he’s eligible but not Obama. One might think that our political media would never be that adversarial, but remember, they’re lapdogs about serious issues, but on a very silly issue like this, they might actually run with it.

  119. 119.

    Karen in GA

    @SiubhanDuinne: Sounds great. If you want to get in touch, tack c627 on the end of my first name, at yahoo dot com.

    (Yes, I have a Yahoo email address. My great grandmother brought it with her from the old country, and it’s been passed down through the generations.)

  122. 122.

    Gex

    I just read that a Teabagger is going to primary Eric Cantor. Yesterday’s far right is today’s RINO, I guess.

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Va Highlander:

    Aha!

    Thanks for that information.

    I agree that the Supremes, or Congress, or someone, needs to define “natural born” so that it is unmistakable and clear what that means, otherwise, we’re going to be dealing with Teahadi twits forever on this topic.

  125. 125.

    Suffern ACE

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t know. I see that he is relaxed at the knees, feet equal to shoulders, torso twisting to store energy, and I’m thinking Cruz is practicing Tai Chi. He’s not just a scholar. He’ll be our physical a spiritual guide as well.

  126. 126.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Ash Can:

    along with his amassing of lawyers to “fight” his Canadian citizenship

    Renouncing Canadian citizenship means filling out a four-page form and paying 100 Canuckibucks. There’s some stuff that’s not entirely straightforward (information about travel, parent-related stuff) but implying that it’s some herculean task is just more bullshit.

  130. 130.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Punchy:

    I really wish the fucktards of the media would stop saying that people “believe” in evolution. It’s not a matter of belief, it’s a matter of accepting a body of accepted, verified, scrutinized fact that isn’t based on wishful thinking or collections of fairy tales, but on observation and testing, always subject to modification as new facts come to light.

    In the case of Rethuglicans, it’s their minds being diminished by their unrelieved fear and hatred of the modern world, except for the stuff they like, such as Pornotube.

  133. 133.

    Va Highlander

    @Villago Delenda Est: You’re most welcome. I spent far too much time learning about this stuff during Oily Taint’s 15 minutes of fame. What stuck was that it’s not really as simple as it first appears, though obviously some of the details have since escaped me.

  135. 135.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    Most people assume that it means anyone who is a citizen by birth rather than naturalization, but that is just an assumption.

    I think it’s a logical assumption, but, yes, it needs, apparently, to be spelled out in statute that way, along with defining in detail how one is a citizen by birth, which I militantly demand not be jus sanguinus. I reject the Blut und Boden bullshit completely…I don’t think the Founders thought much of it, either, seeing as they rejected a lot of contemporary European ideas about blood ties, hereditary titles, and all that rot. They were egalitarians, after all, at least rhetorically.

    However, you do have Nazi shitstains like Pat Buchanan making that sort of argument, which is why I wish my WASP ancestors had kept his Irish ancestors out of this country.

  137. 137.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Va Highlander:

    I love being enlightened.

    As I said above, it’s pretty obvious that SOME people in this country need to have this spelled out for them, preferably in words that contain fewer than three syllables, so as not to confuse them, what exactly “natural born” means. Perhaps it prohibits those delivered by Cesarean section? After all, that’s not natural, now is it? How about turkey baster babies?

  138. 138.

    ? Martin

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I think it’s a logical assumption, but, yes, it needs, apparently, to be spelled out in statute that way, along with defining in detail how one is a citizen by birth, which I militantly demand not be jus sanguinus.

    Except that it’s not a logical assumption given that at the time the Constitution was written, not one person would be qualified to be President for at least 35 years. Nobody in the country was naturally born, so the entire nation started out as an exception to the rule.

  140. 140.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    He apparently needs a phalanx of lawyers to fill out the form. Eventually. I mean, hasn’t this Canadian citizenship thing been floating around for nearly a year?

  141. 141.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @? Martin:

    Well, “natural born” at the time of the adoption of the Constitution meant, I’m sure, if you’re here, your are natural. It was the future they were addressing.

    The fact that we’re discussing this so much right now is an indication that the ambiguity needs to be addressed so that it’s very difficult to mount a challenge to anyone’s eligibility because the rules are clear.

    But that’s probably wishful thinking on my part. Orly Taitz will find a way to split hairs to validate her racism.

  142. 142.

    scav

    @Villago Delenda Est: Forget mere Cesarean, anyone born to a drug-using mother should be excluded as the spawn of GOD-defying infidels. Epidurals are Demonic / Demoncratic in nature! “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Neener Neener you less than omnipotent ones that failed the trick test I arbitrarily created! Bwaaaaa-haaa-haaaaaa!”

  143. 143.

    MomSense

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I really wish the fucktards of the media would stop saying that people “believe” in evolution. It’s not a matter of belief,

    Same goes for climate change. We don’t ask if people believe in gravity!

  145. 145.

    WereBear

    @Villago Delenda Est: He apparently needs a phalanx of lawyers to fill out the form. Eventually. I mean, hasn’t this Canadian citizenship thing been floating around for nearly a year?

    Whatever his reasons (and we’ve come up with at least three) it’s gotta be theater to convince who-ever that he’s serious.

  147. 147.

    MomSense

    @? Martin:

    Except that it’s not a logical assumption given that at the time the Constitution was written, not one person would be qualified to be President for at least 35 years. Nobody in the country was naturally born, so the entire nation started out as an exception to the rule.

    Take the example of Washington. He was born in Virginia but it was a British colony at the time. Is that what you mean?

  149. 149.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I think it’s a logical assumption, but, yes, it needs, apparently, to be spelled out in statute that way

    I think there’s a question of whether it can be spelled out in statute. Final interpretation of the Constitution has always been left to the Supreme Court. Congress has the power to enforce the terms of the Constitution by statute, and the President has the executive power to enforce the laws enacted under the Constitution, but neither has the power to change the meaning of the Constitution. If they did, it wouldn’t be worth the vellum it’s engrossed on.

  153. 153.

    J R in WV

    Dread Pirate,

    Thanks for sharing this breakthrough Art Project with the world.

    I would never have known that Rafael was a superior artist if you weren’t taking care of publishing the really important news for your admirers.

    Especially thanks for linking to so much more information about Senor Cruz, like this part of the description of the book:

    Cruz has openly identifies with the Tea Party and garners support from the Republican Liberty Caucus and many independents including democrats.

    As you can see, this sentence has both incorrectly used yet simple English forms, as you might expect from someone who isn’t really a native-born American, as well as disrespect for the Democratic Party, which currently holds power over both the Executive branch of government AND the Senate, half of the Legislative branch of government.

    My favorite review is the one that quotes from the book a little bit, he quotes:

    “an objective review… of this real life superhero.”

    Another useful review posits that if a Latino Cuban Canadian can move the the USA and run as an “anti-immigration white conservative, that shows me anything here is possible!” How True!

    America is truly a super-powered country, where any delusion is possible, no crazy too far!

    Thanks again, MisterMix! You Rock!

  156. 156.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    Nobody in the country was naturally born, so the entire nation started out as an exception to the rule.

    Sure, but that exception was spelled out in the black letter of the Constitution:

    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

    The exact meaning of a “natural born Citizen” was not spelled out clearly, so its exact meaning is a matter of interpretation.

  157. 157.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well, “natural born” at the time of the adoption of the Constitution meant, I’m sure, if you’re here, your are natural. It was the future they were addressing.

    The future they feared they’d see was either German — there were already rifts in the Pennsylvania body politic on language lines — or one dominated by immigrants from the UK, who might be irredentists.

  159. 159.

    scav

    @Poopyman: McDuff smiting The Scottish Namesake is usually accounted a good thing, but that may just be among the media elite. Is tree-disguised and sword-your-ground succession now a part of our brave new world?

  164. 164.

    EconWatcher

    @GregB:

    I didn’t care for the selfie with Cameron, Obama and whatshername. Although it didn’t warrant the wingut freakout it naturally got, I did think it showed poor taste at a great man’s funeral.

    But posing in front of Arbeit Macht Frei? Who would do that? Even for the Newtster, that’s cringeworthy–and that’s saying something.

  166. 166.

    ericblair

    @Roger Moore:

    I can imagine a stubborn “originalist” like Scalia deciding it meant only people who were citizens according to the criteria spelled out when the Constitution was adopted, especially if it temporarily advanced his political goals.

    This is always a danger with the conservatives on the court, who saw fit to force Dubya on the country by judicial fiat. I don’t remember if the little fact that Cheney and Bush were both from the same state in every reasonable sense of the phrase ever made it to the courts and am too depressed to go looking.

    The Supremes have had a free ride as far as political interference goes, and if we get a big enough majority in Congress it’s time to impeach some of these fuckers for decisions like that.

  168. 168.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Were citizens of German origin discriminated against during and after WWI?

    Yes. There were various forms of legal discrimination against them, and a lot of semi-formal and informal attempts to reject German culture. A classic one was replacing words of German origin with euphemisms, e.g. sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage” and dachshunds were “liberty pups”.

  171. 171.

    Roger Moore

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    I believe there was actually more anti-German sentiment during WWI than there was during WWII.

    Yep. A big part of it was that the outright xenophobia and paranoia during WWII tended to focus on the more obviously different Japanese Americans rather than German Americans. There were a fair number of German Americans who served in Europe during WWII- my grandfather’s memoirs include a number of stories about them- while Japanese Americans were deliberately kept out of the Pacific Theater to avoid possible problems with conflicted loyalties.

  172. 172.

    scav

    @schrodinger’s cat: The Know-nothing party isn’t new, just twitter-ated to the, No! Nothing! Par-tee! The Threat of Hypenated-Americans! and their drug-addled (beer!!! on Sundays!!) is amusing me, as as the legitimated war on christmas Oh Tannenbaum! (and presumably Stille Nacht) collateral damage.

  173. 173.

    StringOnAStick

    @schrodinger’s cat: My FIL’s German immigrant family moved back to Germany in 1934 because of (1) listening to German government representatives sent to the US to encourage Germans to move back and get jobs rebuilding their country, (2) lack of jobs here for German immigrants. I don’t know if the latter was discrimination based on WWI or news about the growing threat from a resurgent Germany. They realized that Germany was gearing up for war and moved back to the US right before the war broke out, losing everything they had brought with them to Germany and any wealth they had accumulated while working there. He tells me they “were on the last boat to get out”, but that may be an exaggeration.

    My FIL had a collection of 8 mm family movies that we transferred to digital a few years back; he told us how his dad had destroyed any films that had things like Nazi party banners in the background of what were just films of him and his sister, being little kids doing little kid stuff outside. It was hard to avoid having that stuff in movies because they were in a big city and it was everywhere; Hitler and crew were nothing if not thorough propagandists. There are two very brief glimpses of a Nazi banner in one reel that didn’t get destroyed. Once they returned to the US they were watched and contacted by the FBI throughout WWII, which is why his father destroyed those films. It really sounded like harassment to me.

  175. 175.

    Paul in KY

    @? Martin: I would say (hypothetically) that if you had been born in America (in one of the colonies), that would have counted.

    Andrew Jackson had that story made up about him fighting redcoats at 6 or so, as he was born on a ship coming to America & thus would have been ineligible.

  176. 176.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I really wish the fucktards of the media would stop saying that people “believe” in evolution. It’s not a matter of belief, it’s a matter of accepting a body of accepted, verified, scrutinized fact

    I know. It’s like debating whether you “believe” in gravity, or photosynthesis.

  179. 179.

    ericblair

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I think it’s a logical assumption, but, yes, it needs, apparently, to be spelled out in statute that way, along with defining in detail how one is a citizen by birth, which I militantly demand not be jus sanguinus. I reject the Blut und Boden bullshit completely…I don’t think the Founders thought much of it, either, seeing as they rejected a lot of contemporary European ideas about blood ties, hereditary titles, and all that rot. They were egalitarians, after all, at least rhetorically.

    If you actually mean this, you’re going to end up with a significant number of stateless children. You mean that any Americans overseas, including working and vacationing, would not pass on their citizenship if they have a child born outside of the US? The vast majority of countries do not have any concept of jus solis, so the child wouldn’t be entitled to that country’s citizenship.

    There are issues with unrestricted jus sanguinis, namely colonies of citizens outside the country who have no real ties to their country and become diplomatic problems. The US requires (in most cases) a certain residency interval in the US by the parents in order to pass on citizenship, which IMO works pretty well. Canada has moved towards limiting jus sanguinis a lot more strongly, which has caused chaos with Canadian diplomats overseas and has already led to stateless children in likely contravention of UN charter.

  181. 181.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WereBear: Such a thing probably exists. Somebody recently gave my daughter a strange coloring book devoted to Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge. People who seem intended to be the Obamas do show up in it on one page.

  182. 182.

    Roger Moore

    @ericblair:
    My understanding is that the US has traditionally placed some restrictions on foreign-born children of citizens to prevent people from being able to claim citizenship generations after their last ancestor left the US. There have generally been both requirements that people trying to claim citizenship by birth both reside in the US for some length of time and make an affirmative claim of citizenship. This was an issue in my family, since my mother is a third generation citizen born abroad. She had to jump through a few hoops to be able to claim citizenship.

    ETA: Though Congress has occasionally stretched the rules to make it easier for some foreign-born children of citizens to claim citizenship, e.g. bastard children of American servicemen who might have had a hard time getting to America to claim their citizenship.

  184. 184.

    ericblair

    @Roger Moore:

    There have generally been both requirements that people trying to claim citizenship by birth both reside in the US for some length of time and make an affirmative claim of citizenship.

    To be clear, the parent(s) have to show residence in the US for a certain period of time to pass citizenship on to their children. For that child (Kid X) born abroad to pass on US citizenship to their children, Kid X will have to take up residence in the US for a certain period of time, otherwise no. That will kill off an overseas colony in two generations.

    As a comparison, Canada has gone to a system where, if a child (Kid C) is born to Canadian parent(s) but not in Canada, the child of Kid C will not be Canadian unless he/she is born in Canada. This essentially creates two classes of Canadian citizens: those that can pass on citizenship to their children by blood and those who can’t. It also means that if Kid C’s kid is born outside Canada, it’s likely that the child will be stateless unless they are born in one of the few countries like the US that actually has jus solis. It doesn’t have a diplomatic exception like you would think, either. I know some Canadian diplomats and they’ve been fighting this law since it was enacted. It’s a really crappy law.

  186. 186.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Roger Moore: The version of the residency requirement that applied in the early 1960s came up in the context of whether Obama would have been a natural-born citizen even if he had actually been born in Kenya. There’s an argument to be made that the answer is no, because his mother was just barely too young for it to be possible for her to satisfy the residency requirement (if her marriage to his father was legally valid, which is also open to question; if not, then different rules apply and he would inherit citizenship).

    But by even talking about it one is throwing birthers more of a bone than they probably deserve. Not that they understand these issues. I’ve seen one try to smear Obama by claiming his birth was illegitimate, apparently not realizing that this would also make Obama a natural-born citizen by jus sanguinis.

    Anyway, this is probably the reason that the official emphasis has always been on Obama’s place of birth rather than his parentage; it’s legally completely unambiguous.

  187. 187.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @ericblair:

    Some Teahadis/birthers make the claim that Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, on US soil, isn’t “natural born” because his father was not “natural born”, They claim that to be “natural born” your parents must have been “natural born”, and that opens the way to investigating family trees to make sure there are no Mudbloods in there somewhere.

    BTW, I think that the children born of American citizens (like those with who are in the military) overseas, should be counted as “natural born”. As discussed earlier, this was addressed as an issue as early as 1790.

  188. 188.

    Roger Moore

    @ericblair:

    To be clear, the parent(s) have to show residence in the US for a certain period of time to pass citizenship on to their children.

    Not exactly correct. Anyone born abroad must meet residency requirements and make an active claim on citizenship to count. The parents don’t necessarily have to meet those requirements if they were born on US soil but moved away before living in the US for the legal period of time, but their foreign-born children would. And a colony could survive if they were only mostly expat and made a practice of returning to the US for the statutory period in order to claim citizenship. Of course that would mean retaining more than just blood ties to the US, which would reduce the dangers associated with the overseas colony.

  189. 189.

    Roger Moore

    @Roger Moore:
    Hmm. I don’t think I was clear in that response. The bigger point is that there isn’t a residency period to pass on one’s citizenship, it’s that there’s a residency requirement to claim citizenship. Foreign-born citizens of Americans born abroad don’t automatically become American citizens; they have to meet specific requirements to do so. If they fail to meet the residency requirements and/or actively claim citizenship, they can’t pass along American citizenship because they aren’t citizens themselves.

  190. 190.

    ericblair

    @Roger Moore:

    Anyone born abroad must meet residency requirements and make an active claim on citizenship to count. The parents don’t necessarily have to meet those requirements if they were born on US soil but moved away before living in the US for the legal period of time, but their foreign-born children would.

    I don’t think this is true; please cite official sources if this is the case. Citizenship law has changed multiple times, so this may have been the case back a couple of generations. My read of the INA is that there is no residency requirement on the child to be a US citizen; he/she is one from birth and will be until death even if he/she never sets foot in the US, however his/her child would not be a US citizen unless one of the US residency tests for the parent(s) is satisfied.

  192. 192.

    karen

    @WereBear:

    More IOKIYA R White. These are the very same birthers who would slam any Democrat black person not born on sacred US soil.

    FIFY

  193. 193.

    stinger

    @Suffern ACE: “I wonder who the last president was who could trace his ancestors back to 1790 on both the distaff and spear branches of the family.” Haven’t most recent presidents had family trees done? If only to show how Irish they are? I seem to remember that for Clinton, Obama, and Reagan, at least.

  195. 195.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    He apparently needs a phalanx of lawyers to fill out the form.

    Perhaps that’ll make him more sympathetic to the immigrants who have to fill in way more complicated forms without the assistance of lawyers every fucking day.

    Nah.

    I think the natural-born citizen thing for the presidency will be dropped eventually, but heavily post-dated, so that it only applies to anyone born (or perhaps who reaches voting age) after the amendment is approved. Gives them a few decades of leeway.

  197. 197.

    mclaren

    At what point do the starfuckers in DC realize that this obviously ridiculous human being is ridiculous?

    No, a much better and far more urgent question is:

    How did this ignorant incompetent lackwit ever manage to graduate cum laude from Princeton and summa cum laude from Harvard Law School?

    Ted Cruz’s grades seem to me a profound and devastating indictment of America’s Ivy League college system.

  198. 198.

    debbie

    At what point do the starfuckers in DC realize that this obviously ridiculous human being is ridiculous?

    Hopefully, not until the day after the 2016 elections.

  199. 199.

    dww44

    @mclaren: Actually, it’s my impression that Ted Cruz is the opposite of the description you’ve applied to him here. A number of months ago Chris Hayes, on his show, relayed his experience observing Cruz’s performance in front of the Supreme Court, arguing a case, something Cruz apparently did a lot of. Hayes remarked at the time that Cruz was dangerously intelligent and someone the left should be afraid of. It seems to me that his analysis has proven to be right on the money. Cruz is a far right winger all right, but he’s neither dumb nor uneducated.

  201. 201.

    mclaren

    @dww44:

    So if Ted Cruz is so “dangerously intelligent,” why couldn’t he see what was obvious to everyone else? Namely, that threatening to default on the national debt was dumb and pointless and self-destructive and doomed to abject failure?

    Oh…wait…it was all “part of his brilliant plan.”

    Yeah.

    Right.

    The same way the sinking of the Titanic was just a part of the captain’s brilliant plan.

  203. 203.

    Jack the Second

    My great grandparents, third or fourth generation Midwesterners, grew up before WWI speaking German. My grandparents grew up speaking English.

Comments are closed.