CONSTITUTIONALGOV.NET

While watching the Fox News channel’s weekend show Journal Editorial Report where James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal is a frequent guest (as well as a frequent guest on many other Fox News shows), I wonder why we give propagandist James Taranto any quarter anywhere in journalism.  I’m speaking in particular of James Taranto’s propaganda piece from July of 2009 entitled It’s Certifiable.  At the time, Leo Donofrio (who brought one of the suits regarding Barack Obama’s eligibility to hold the Office of the Presidency) unequivocally outed Taranto for being a propagandist in the piece.  Since that time, Donofrio has taken down his blog posts as he pursues his legal career defending Chrysler dealerships and the Bankruptcy proceedings that closed over 700 Chrysler dealerships.  I thought, however, it might be a good time to revisit Taranto’s propaganda and place back into the blogosphere the distorted facts and lies that Taranto spun on July 30, 2009 just so that we can all be clear that Taranto has no credibility.

Like all good propagandists and spin misters in the media today, James Taranto can count himself among them.  In July of 2009, Taranto’s piece It’s Certifiable was a piece debunking “Birthers” claiming in part that articles written in support of “Birthers’” claims were misinformed.  Then Taranto did exactly what he was writing against by completely misinforming his readership.  First Taranto cites the law:

Birth Abroad to One Citizen and One Alien Parent in Wedlock: A child born abroad to one U.S. citizen parent and one alien parent acquires U.S. citizenship at birth under Section 301(g) INA provided the citizen parent was physically present in the U.S. for the time period required by the law applicable at the time of the child’s birth. (For birth on or after November 14, 1986, a period of five years physical presence, two after the age of fourteen is required. For birth between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, a period of ten years, five after the age of fourteen are required for physical presence in the U.S. to transmit U.S. citizenship to the child. (emphasis mine)

Then, as Leo Donofrio coined, Taranto writes the following offending passage:

Obama was born before 1986 to married parents, and his father was an alien. Thus if it were an overseas birth, his mother would have to have lived in the U.S. for 5 years after age 14 in order for her child to be a natural-born American. Mrs. Obama was only 18 when Barack was born, so she had not even lived 5 years after age 14.

This is something of a technicality: Someone born overseas and after 1986, but otherwise in identical circumstances to Obama, would be a natural-born citizen thanks to a law signed by President Reagan.  (emphasis mine)

In the first passage, we see where the law is quoted that the law talks about U.S. citizenship; however, in the passages where Taranto is writing, he leaps to the term natural-born citizen.  Nowhere in the law is the term natural-born citizen used.  One of the reasons that Taranto never attempts to explain this discrepancy is that he wants to make sure his readership never gets an inkling of the truth.   Those who write the laws have no authority to write natural born citizen law.  Being a natural born citizen is a condition at birth that cannot be legislated because it simply follows natural law that is immutable and more importantly not subject to legislation.  Taranto wants to make sure that you don’t ponder this fact. 

Further there is no reasonable excuse for Taranto to substitute the words U.S. citizenship with natural-born citizen.  Taranto uses the substituted words because his overall piece is to degrade and debunk the “Birthers.”  The definition of propaganda in its essence (according to dictionary.com) is to disseminate:

information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

Taranto’s entire piece (a multi-part piece) was deliberately attempting to harm the “Birther” movement.  Regardless of the legitimacy of the “Birther” movement and/or their positions, to outright lie in a piece trying to debunk them in an attempt to add to the propaganda against them is just wrong, and James Taranto was a willing participant in this action.

I think one of the comments on Mr. Taranto’s piece sums up best exactly what Taranto is doing here and exactly the position of those who still revere our U.S. Constitution as our primary protection against future tyrannical rule.  The commenter (Shawn Quin) wrote:

ONE FINAL LASTING COMENT THAT CANNOT BE REFUTED:

A Natural born citizen is one created by the NATURAL FACTS AT BIRTH, and NO LAW is required, and NO LAW CAN make one a “NATURAL” anything….laws create legal fictions….and any law that tries to usurp the Constitution is VOID because it takes a Constitutional Amendment to do that, and neither you , I or the rest of America has voted for such an Amendment

so Mr. Taranto, hope you sold more interest by smacking the bees nest …and fortunately for our country you have been severely stung for you gross misrepresentations.

Hope selling your ethical integrity was worth the price……..

You see the supposed enlightened elitists like Mr. Taranto would have you think that if they tell you something it must be so.  When Mr. Taranto quotes the law that only speaks of U.S. citizenship and then writes would be a “natural-born citizen” what kind of fool follows someone like Taranto down the proverbial rabbit hole?  It is amazing to me that the propagandists are so blatant with their lies, and yet their lies still prevail.  James Taranto would have held a high position in President Woodrow Wilson’s progressive administration as Taranto is a progressive.  For those of us trying to restore Constitutional government, Taranto has no quarter with us.  Any credibility he once had was completely dismissed when he wrote It’s Certifiable.