I am embarrassed for you. Mesa County is still suffering through high unemployment, and yet the only legislative issues that you think are important are conspiracy theories driven by racists who don’t think a half-black man should be living in the White House? When you said, in an E-mail to me, that you were only following ALEC in your legislation, I had no idea that you weren’t thinking about anything on your own. Do you realize that this same stupid bill was just passed in Arizona, and Governor Brewer, who is a Republican and could hardly be called liberal, vetoed the bill? This is legislative nonsense. You are wasting the time of every person who touches this bill until the moment it is killed by adults in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

The bill proposes a constitutional amendment to the already over-amended Colorado constitution. What it would do is place on the ballot in the next election a requirement that all elected officials in the state submit proof of citizenship before taking an oath of office. Somewhat amusing is the relaxed standard for proof of citizenship: A passport, or a legible photo copy of a birth certificate, or a certificate of naturalization, or any document acceptable to U.S. authorities.

I say “relaxed standard” because the federal requirements are a certified copy of a birth certificate. “Certified” means that an official of the state places a seal on the document, saying that the information contained therein is accurate. A photo copy, legible or not, does not contain either the state seal or certification of accuracy.  For the record, Obama posted a certified copy of his birth certificate on line a long, long time ago.

Homework:

Colorado Birther Bill