Dude, it’s in the Constitution, man

“The Chock Full O’ Nuts Party”

YO:

Tell Will Durst that the president can be “born on foreign soil.” This issue came up when George Romney, who was born to Mormon missionaries in Mexico, ran for president. The constitution says the president must be “a natural born citizen,” which is taken to include children of U.S. citizens no matter where the child is born. I think we’ve had a cesarian president or two, but the constitutional provision may exclude test-tube babies. Test-tubees don’t seem natural to me.

Whatever,

M. Mark Miller
Knoxville, Tennessee

I like Will Durst, but he’s a bit uneven in the female arena — Cybill as cheesecake, whatever — Women are not food products. We are people. Human beings, not human beans. Get it? Got it? Good. And Bob Hope was born in England, therefore he cannot run for President. Get your facts straight.

Wage Peace,

Mary Burwell
Lolo, Montana

The attached “funning” of the Reform Party is a disappointment to me as a Mother Jones reader. All of what is said is media driven, and I thought you were an alternative information source.

Marilyn Tighe

Back in the day when there were two corporations, Junior…

“Focus On the Corporation: Hold on to Your Phone Bills”

As much as I love to read the articles on your website, I was a bit bothered by the one discussing the phone mergers.

The authors summarily dismiss the notion that a consumer may find a benefit in receving a single bill for phone, wireless, Internet, cable, etc. To me that would be a nice convenience. I think they were trying to say the cost of that convenience may be higher than desired by the unknowing, ill-informed consumer. However, the authors failed to make that point.

Finally, I had hoped that the authors would have discussed a bit more the political implications of these billion dollar mergers. With each new merger (Time Warner/CNN, Disney/ABC, Philip Morris/Kraft) these companies gain more employees (often in various regions of the nation and world), which then increases their political clout. Philip Morris is notorious for using its Kraft Foods plants around the country as leverage against states wishing to implement taxes or laws against tobacco.

These “corporate nations” not only exceed the GNP of some countries, but they far too often have more powerful arsenals to work with. If a politician from Dallas gets presented a bill that may tighten FCC restrictions, do you think that person would even consider voting for it if that meant a huge Sprint collection center over on LBJ Freeway might move to Arizona?

The power wielded by these multi-nationals is dangerous both economically and politically. If you think politicians are in the hands of the corporations now, just wait until we’re left with only two major long-distance carriers. We’ll all be telling our grand kids about this old government agency called the FCC….

Mark Sternfels