AMAZON FLOWS OUT OF CALIFORNIA

AMAZON, WE HARDLY KNEW YE: (Literally.)
Got this email yesterday from the folks at good ol' Amazon dot com:

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Dear Amazon Associate,

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers - including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you - even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice.

As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

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My comment:

So apparently, I've just been de-associated. Odd thing is, though, that I am not now, nor ever was, an "Amazon associate"!

Otherwise, you would have been seeing this page, and all our other pages, totally loaded with tons of ads to buy my junk at Amazon. (And I'm sure that both you and I would've remembered something like that!)

Plus my mailbox over the last several years would likewise have been filled with "Amazon associate" checks, which also wasn't the case. In fact, I have never received even ONE single check regarding any program ("associate" or otherwise) from Amazon. As in nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

Oh, well - whatever. I certainly don't wanna rain on their tax dodge parade - the Amazon is water-logged enough, already!

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DODGERS DECLARE BUM-UPTCY

DOUGH-DEFICIENT DUMMY: Frank McCourt shown earlier this month,
babbling away at a press conference about one of his many screwups.

By Ed Gauthier
My Dodger Blue
Is Tried And True

The Boys Of Summer are declaring what?

There are very few stories in the history of sports about which this jaded journalist has ever shed even a symbolic tear. But this is one of them.

Financially hapless head of the team Frank McCourt is even trying to shaft Vin Scully! (I know, I couldn't believe that, either - but I swear I'm not making that up to further dramatize these already dire doings.)

Hey, why doesn't someone like Donald Trump just buy the Dodgers and then give the team as an early Christmas present to Tommy Lasorda? Works for me.

I'd like to have gathered a boffo bouquet of clever cuts directed at Frank "Divorce Court" McCourt, Bud "Mr. Big" Selig and the rest of the rubes in this crummy cast of characters, but when I heard about this just a little while ago, I realized that I'm way too ticked off about it to offer anything close to a rational rundown on the situation.

Instead, I'm going out for a walk to cool off.

Here's the link - read it and weep about it for yourself.

FULL STORY

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OBAMA AN OBOGUS? OF CORSI IS!

PRESIDENTIAL POSER EXPOSED: This is certainly a slap in the face
to all of us flaming liberals, who had backed Bama no matter what.

By Ed Gauthier
Tired Of The Lies
That Are Drawing Flies

This week the good Reverend Manning interviewed author Jerome Corsi, whose new book Where's The Birth Certificate goes into great depth regarding the whole Barry Obama birth records debacle, which our site (and many others) are yakking about recently.

Corsi's book is the definitive word on the subject. We recommend it as an AMAZing ONe. COMe up with the money to buy it, wherever books are sold.

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U.S. NATURAL BORN CITIZEN RULES

WOULD YOU BUY A USED ID CARD FROM THIS MAN?
Made it in Photoshop or found it in a box of Crackerjacks?
It's totally legal. No problem. I swear. Really.
All the President Obama fake birth cerificate hoopla this year has brought to the fore the answers to the following Constituional question:

Just exactly who is a natural-born citizen? In other words, who is a citizen at birth, such that this person can be President or Vice-President. ?

The 14th Amendment defines citizenship this way: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But even this does not get specific enough.

As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps. The Constitution authorizes the Congress to do create clarifying legislation in Section 5 of the 14th Amendment; the Constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4, also allows the Congress to create law regarding naturalization, which includes citizenship.

Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in the gaps left by the Constitution. Section 1401 defines the following as people who are "citizens of the United States at birth:

• Anyone born inside the jurisdiction of the United States. (1)
• Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States (provided that being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe.)
• Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national. (2)
• Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
• Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21
• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
• A final, albeit historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

(1) Jurisdiction: There is an exception in this law — the person must be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. (This would exempt the child of a diplomat, for example, from this provision.)

(2) U.S. Nationals: A "national" is a person who is considered under the legal protection of a country, while not necessarily a citizen. National status is generally conferred on persons who lived in places acquired by the U.S. before the date of acquisition. A person can be a national-at-birth under a similar set of rules for a natural-born citizen. U.S. nationals must go through the same processes as an immigrant to become a full citizen. U.S. nationals who become citizens are not considered natural-born.
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BTW, these provisions also allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born.

Anyone falling into the above categories is considered "natural-born," and is eligible to run for President or Vice-President. Of course, why they'd ever want to is a totally different question!

CONCLUSION: In the Presidential/Vice-Presidential category, Obama does NOT qualify. End of story.

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