Today in Sociology our prof polled us about where we get our news. (It was a component of a really interesting lecture on mass media in our lives, and whether it is liberating or oppressive, and stuff about the public sphere that goes back to the Agora in Athens from 500 BCE. I am really loving this class.) She asked us to raise our hands when she said the category where we get most of our news. In a lecture with probably 200 attendees, 3 people said radio, 25 said major news networks, 25 said the Colbert Report and Daily Show, a whole lot said "the internet", and 2 people said the newspaper. When one girl asked if it included accessing the newspaper online a lot of people, probably 30, said newspapers or news aggregates. I raised my hand for the Daily Show and Colbert report, and the internet. I watch the Daily Show about 3 times a week, and it is more current than my bloglines feed so a lot of times I learn about American issues on it, and then go and see what the feminist bloggers and sociologist bloggers I read say about it, or what a google search comes up with.

We also talked about Wikipedia. Everyone in our class probably uses it every day, because it is easy to understand, and has lots of primary sources that would be harder to find slogging through google search results. Wow, that was a very long introduction for what I found today on wikipedia while looking up things about the Barack Obama natural born citizen controversy. (It is whether he is not one. As far as I could tell, a lot of the arguments, such as him living in Indonesia as a child, are not very valid, because I checked wikipedia for citizenship laws and it just says you have to be born here, or a variety of other situations, but that (and having a Kansan mother) are what apply to him.) The best argument for it is that Hawaii allowed foreign births to be registered in Hawaii, but the source is a petition to release his long form birth certificate. Not a primary source for that info.

Children born overseas out of wedlock

There is an asymmetry in the way children born overseas to unmarried parents, only one of whom is a U.S. citizen, are treated. Children born abroad to unmarried American mothers are automatically considered natural-born citizens, as long as the mother has lived in the US for a continuous period of at least one year, anytime prior to the birth. But children born to American fathers unmarried to the children's non-American mothers are not considered natural-born citizens (or citizens at all) unless the father takes several actions:

• Provide financial support to the child until he reaches 18,
• Establish paternity by clear and convincing blood evidence,
• Acknowledge his paternity formally before the child has reached his 18th birthday
  • This last element can be shown by acknowledging paternity under oath and in writing; having the issue adjudicated by a court; or having the child otherwise "legitimated" by law. USC § 1409(a).

Because of this rule, unusual cases have arisen whereby children have been born overseas to American men (and non-American women), brought back to the United States as babies without the mother, raised by the American father in the United States, and later held to be deportable as non-citizens in their 20s. The final element has taken an especially significant importance in these circumstances, as once the child has reached 18, the father is forever unable to establish paternity to deem his child a natural-born citizen.

This distinction between unwed fathers and mothers was constructed and reaffirmed by Congress in response to concerns that a flood of illegitimate Korean and Vietnamese children would later claim American citizenship as a result of their parentage by American servicemen overseas fighting wars in their countries. In many cases, American servicemen passing through in wartime may not have even realized they had fathered a child. The Supreme Court, by 5-4 majority in Tuan Anh Nguyen v. INS, established the constitutionality of this gender distinction.

"In many cases, American servicemen passing through in wartime may not have even realized they had fathered a child." I guess because they are soldiers, not biologists. I am with the 4 Supreme Court justices who think that is stupid. I am totally sure that is how they phrased it, too.

John McCain was born on August 29, 1936 at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, Panama, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain^[2] At that time, the Panama Canal was under U.S. control. (b. 1912).

Barack Obama, the current President of the United States, was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, in the state of Hawaii^[1] to Barack Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Nyang’oma Kogelo, Siaya District, Nyanza Province,^[2] Kenya Colony, British Empire), and Ann DunhamFort Leavenworth, Kansas).
(1942–1995)

I don't know, there are only like 5 requirements.