Hope, Change, and Falsified Birth Documents

So, this may come as no new news to many, but we still have no idea where our president was born. Now even the hospital he claimed as his birth hospital is covering up both the claim and the supporting letter.

That linked article actually borders on silly to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of web coding. Of course the html-created version of something is going to be different from the actual scanned letter.

Concerning the cover-up, however, this blogger considers the fact that the 'official letter' initially displayed on their website was actually just html to have been a rather obvious give away that something was wrong.

The hospital is answering no questions, naturally, and refuses to comment.

I, with most people, believed myself to be reasonable in dismissing the initial claims of Obama not being a naturally-born citizen as far-fetched. After all, if he hadn't been, surely someone would have stopped him from running early on, right? And besides, this kind of thing doesn't actually happen in America, right? "Not in Germany..."

But as time goes on, the simple refusal to supply necessary paperwork and information is starting to convince me. If he is a natural-born citizen, why not just supply the papers to prove it? And sorry, laser-printer copies are not considered valid.

Unfortunately, those in places of influence have more or less utterly bungled the issue, by using the issue not to block Obama's nomination on straightforward legal lines, but to whip up anti-Obama hysteria. I don't support the man's positions, philosophy, worldview, or decisions either, but that doesn't mean I have to convince the world to shrink back from the idea of his presidency on an emotional level. There is more than enough evidence present to demand clarification, but it should have happened early, and concertedly, not all along the way in random alarmist fits and starts.

That being said, of course I support inquiries into the matter.
Up to this point, Obama's supporters have basically brushed aside efforts to resolve the matter as irrelevant. Which is only natural, considering his entire rise to power has been exactly that: a power play. Republicans lost at the political game. Whether due to scruples or incompetence, or more likely a combination of the two, does not now matter. Either they will pull themselves together, function as an effective opposition party, and gain some ground in the next few rounds of elections, or they may go the way of the passenger pigeon.

The facts seem to support the conclusion that the condition of Obama's natural born citizenship is at least under a great deal of reasonable doubt; all that needs to be done is to push forward with that mindset. Yet any efforts we see now are by contrast fractured and ineffective.

Perhaps Obama's seeming strength is due largely to the incompetence of his enemies.
Should a different crowd arise, or a leader unite them, he would be advised to plan cautiously for 2012.

UPDATE: The story continues... now a soldier is refusing to deploy, claiming that Obama has no authority to command the US Military, since he is not a natural born citizen and thus cannot be President. Legal proceedings are underway...

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Walk softly, and carry a big schtick?

Obama is currently in Russia, making more treaties which we will, if history is any indication, be expected to unilaterally honor.

However, in keeping with my general preference to pick out non-obvious (or at least less obvious) aspects of current news, I'd like to analyze a recent quote by Obama made while in Russia.

The quote is as follows:

"The future does not belong to those who gather armies on a field of battle or bury missiles in the ground."

Apart from the odd phrasing in this particular instance, this sentiment is nothing new.
It's the exact opposite of Teddy Roosevelt's bit of wisdom "Walk softly, and carry a big stick.", and represents the opposite approach, of talking big yet bringing no force to back up your words.

This is, as an aside, exactly the philosophy which brought us into the Pacific theater in WWII, with numerous strongly-worded reproaches of Japan's expansionary actions, yet no force in the region to give them weight. The aggressive faction of the Japanese government concluded that ours were idle threats, and proceeded with their imperialistic ambitions.

Russia would naturally be no different, nor would China, who as we've recently seen has no problem with backing up their words with deadly force to subdue unruly outlying provinces.

They are all too happy to hear words denouncing force, when force is exactly what they are accumulating.

In our world, force rules. In other words, in a secular sense, the future belongs precisely to those who -do- gather armies and bury missiles. The US has secured and maintained its freedom only by means of these things, and when it abandons them, its freedom will quickly follow.

Now the leader of our country has denounced both; it must be no coincidence that he clearly despises our freedom as well, a fact underlined by the unprecedentedly rapid dismantling of it since his administration took power.

One is left to wonder whether the last vestiges of our freedom will give way before external forces, or internal dissolution. Time will tell.

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