[ExI] u.s. military oath

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Damien Sullivan
> ... 
> Ah, if only people knew the Constitution!
> 
> If the President does not sign bills, they become laws by 
> default, unless Congress had adjourned (the "pocket veto")
> 
> (which has weirdness I didn't know about 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_veto
> )
> 
> So I think the default assumption would be that any bills 
> passed in the past term would remain laws by default, even if 
> not signed by a legitimate President... -xx- Damien X-)

Roger that.  This whole misadventure (the failed TARP fiasco) has been
expensively educational for USians.  We have been paying a lot more
attention to our own constitution and to what our politicians are doing to
us.

Here's one possible scenario:

Over the next few months, the current occupant will be forced to show a
birth certificate as evidence in a lawsuit involving the court martial of
three (and possibly more by then) senior military officers.  He produces
one.  The three are found guilty by court martial for refusing a lawful
order.  Military law calls for imprisonment of mutinous officers during
peacetime and execution in wartime, so the court must decide which we are in
currently, to determine if the officers are jailed or shot.  Congress hasn't
declared war on Afghanistan, so by the traditional definition we are
technically not at war, but rather in a condition similar to where were
during the "Vietnam conflict."  The court martial decides to give the
officers suspended sentences, for a new question arises.  Hordes of
disillusioned press people who will ask what passport the current occupant
used to get to Pakistan and back in 1981.  The answer to that question comes
up Indonesian.  The appeals court martial decides the three (or more)
officers can go free with honorable discharges and pensions, because there
was no legally recognized dual citizenship between US and Indonesia in 1981.
Travelling under Indonesian citizenship would renounce US citizenship, which
could later be reinstated with the appropriate paperwork.  This paperwork
will not be found.  It then comes out that the current occupant lived his
early life as Barack Obama the American at times and as Barry Soetoro at
other times, such as when travelling abroad and getting scholarships
normally reserved for foreign students.  The appeals court martial finds the
officers innocent based on that.  The impeachment trial finds the current
occupant not guilty, because the use of the alternate identity occurred
before he was aged 21, before which time contract law is generally
considered nonbinding.  The US muddles thru with a lame duck president until
2012.

Alternate scenarios welcome.

Do retain this scenario in a prophecy file, for your entertainment or
amazement a year from now, at which time I will be the Amazing Karnak or the
Crazy Carville or something in between.

spike