Posted 3:31 PM by Gerald Klaas
I just wrote a letter to the editor of the Sacramento Bee in response to an anti-birther editorial by Eugene Robinson.

• In his editorial "The Berserk 'Birthers'", Eugene Robinson states "that there is not a scintilla of truth....in the whole 'birther' idea", and then goes on to compare them to those who believe the world is flat, even suggesting that they should wear tin foil hats.
  
  But Robinson avoids the one (and only) question that unites 'birthers', that being the question of which controlling legal authority has verified Obama's eligibility? The answer is NONE.
  
  True, there are those who believe Obama wasn't born in Hawaii, but there are also those who believe Obama couldn't be "natural born" whether or not he was born in Hawaii, since the common understanding of the term "natural born" at the time of the ratification of the Constitution was based on English common law and such writings as William Blackstone, Commentaries 1:354, 357–58, 361–62 (1765), which required BOTH of a person's parents to be citizens in order to be considered to be "natural born".
  
  As long as there is disagreement about the meaning of the term "natural born", and as long as there is no assigned legal authority to verify such elegibility, this issue will not go away.
  

Posted 6:12 PM by Gerald Klaas
Are we really this close to fascism that the White House openly asks citizens to report private conversations if they oppose their political agenda?

• These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Posted 7:50 PM by Gerald Klaas
Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona continues to irritate Janet Napolitano and the Department of Homeland Security by arresting illegal immigrants. So why isn't the federal government beating him to it? I don't know ask Janet....
Anyway, apparently Arpaio's deputies arrested a couple dozen illegals the other day

• Ten of the illegal immigrants were released because they had committed no other crimes, and that fact pitted Arpaio against Homeland Security. Arpaio says the feds told his deputies to let them go, while Homeland Security says the decision was exclusively Arpaio's.

Hmmm, could it be a difference of interpretation? Between Arpaio and Napolitano, I know who I believe.