Red Herrings And Dead Meat

In a sure sign that there are powerful factions in Illinois politics hellbent on getting Gov. Rod Blagojevich impeached for something, (by Lincoln’s birthday, if Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has anything to do with it) the latest move in the Mad Hatter’s chess game has U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald petitioning the court to agree to release redacted copies of four wiretapped conversations with an unnamed lobbyist to the “Get Blago” (before he talks?) impeachment committee.  These conversations have nothing to do with the sensationalized “Hot Senate Seat Sale Scandal” accusing Blagojevich with attempting to auction off the president-elect’s vacant seat to the highest bidder, which has been tabloidized in the mainstream press…

In a motion filed Monday, Fitzgerald wrote, “Although many relevant communications were intercepted, the government believes that, on balance, it is appropriate to seek the disclosure of four intercepted calls, in redacted form, to the Committee, and that disclosure of the calls by themselves would not interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation.”

The motion emphasizes prosecutors do not take a position on whether Blagojevich should be impeached.

The motion also says that while U.S. law “does not necessarily require the government to obtain judicial authorization before disclosing intercepted communications to other law enforcement or investigative officers, the government does so here out of an abundance of caution and in order to afford
the interceptees in the recorded calls an opportunity to be heard and to object, if they so choose.”

…in fact, Blagojevich’s lawyer, Ed Genson makes the case that the same “internal investigation” self generated by the Obama transition team it clears, clears Blags, too.  Check.

Genson’s next move, calling for the impeachment panel to subpoena the principals in the Senate sale drama who have been interviewed by authorities in connection with the case, namely Valerie Jarrett  and Rahm Emanuel, who will officially resign from the House on Friday, was blocked by the US Attorney on the grounds that it could interfere with the ongoing investigation.  In other words, the stuff Fitz is willing to release has nothing to do with Team O, and the stuff that does is off-limits to the “Get Blago” panel.   Hmmmmm.

Was Obama Really Born?

From what I can tell from surfing the internet daily about Barack Obama for the last two years, a large number a significant segment quite a few some people are absolutely convinced that the circumstances of The Sheeple’s Choice’s birth render him unqualified to be president.  Contrarily, most of these folks do not believe the Teflon TelePrompTer Messiah is an alien, or was hatched from an egg or a pod, or even born in a manger, (which would make the job of president a real demotion, imho) or that he is not a citizen, but rather that he is not a “natural born” citizen as required by the Constitution, that old, dated document a lot of other folks seem to want to burn and start over, but that’s another subject.

Anyway, a lot bunch couple of people think that the “natural born” thing is pretty important, and that the Certificate of Live Birth the new King of Kings of the World posted all over the internet as proof that he’s not an alien pod-person would be a load of hooey even if it wasn’t PhotoShopped.   “Where’s the regular, long form birth certificate with the doctor’s name and hospital and baby’s weight and footprint on it, huh?” they ask in rare moments of lucidity.  “And, anyway, so what,” they say when they get a roll going, “you even said yourself your dad was a British citizen when you were born, and Hawaii wasn’t even barely a state at that time, and, on top of that, we’re not even sure who your dad really is, a lot of black guys went to Hawaii back then, there’re military bases there and plus, it’s warm, you know, and we heard your mom put out and got around, maybe even to Kenya, so how do we know you’re not Nat “King” Cole or Patrice Lumumba’s kid or something?  And, anyway, aren’t you adopted?”  This is a pretty rowdy bunch of theorists who can really think outside the box due to their natural KoolAid buzz aversion once the Twinkie rush wears off.

Now, as far as I’m concerned, “natural born” can mean a lot of things, like, delivered without drugs, or not breech, or non-Ceasarean, or casually dropped in a field by a working mother with no health insurance or accumulated sick time, or hundreds of other things (I don’t drink KoolAid, either, btw, and I’m all out of Twinkies, fyi.)  Personally, I believe Obama was created in a lab by David Axelrod from randomly accumulated scraps surreptitiously purloined over the decades from dead presidents and other smart, famous guys, and assembled on Astroturf through the miracle of secret, early stem cell and DNA technology, cleverly hidden over the years on a prototypical database by the parents of the guy who invented Google, but, that’s just my guess.

Anyway, it looks like we’re all wrong; according to this website, there is an official birth certificate here.  Shucks, and I just bought a brand new roll of tin foil and a book on millinery.

“When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4,1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.‘s children.

Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982.”

Fight the Smears