The extremist right just got one more thing to worry about--if they're still here in 17 years.

[DFW]

If they haven't managed to make the Earth uninhabitable in the meantime, Republicans just got one more reason to be looking over their shoulder in about 17 years. There's a new Democrat in town!

My granddaughter, born over ten months ago in Frankfurt, Germany, was FINALLY granted her U.S. citizenship today. It took my daughter, as U.S. citizen living in Germany and working for a U.S. firm here, over TEN MONTHS and a mountain of paperwork to get U.S. citizenship for her baby daughter, but it finally paid off. We will have one more voter in our ranks in 17 years and seven weeks unless the Republicans find a way to make American citizens born in "libbrul" countries ineligible to vote (I wouldn't put it past them to try).

As a contrast, to get U.S. citizenship for my daughter when she was born in 1985, I went to the U.S. embassy in Germany, waked into their consular section with no appointment, presented the documents they asked me to bring, and, within 90 minutes, walked out of there with her U.S. birth certificate, her first U.S. passport and her Social Security number, something they said this morning that they couldn't give my granddaughter until she had her passport--which they could have made up for her on the spot, but some useless regulation now prevents unless, of course, your last name is Trump, McConnell or Kushner.

[malaise]

1. Love it

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Wow, persistence sure pays off, my dear DFW!

I'm glad to hear about this happy resolution, finally.

I'm also sure that this baby girl will not only be a liberal, but a smart one, given her genealogy.

Congrats to your family!

[DFW]

5. My daughter is already the brains of the family (along with my brother)

The baby's father is a German citizen, and a genius who is completely down to earth, though he is a young senior partner in the same firm (he made the recommendation to hire my daughter! ). The one phrase you will never hear from either of them is, "I don't think I can manage that."

This is the same daughter who, instead of trying to clerk for some judge during her first summer break from Law School, opted instead to work for the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone. That baby is bringing one VERY powerful packet of genes to the table!

Thanks for the post, Peggy!

[Ohiogal]

3. This is certainly good news!

Congratulations for finally navigating this ridiculous hurdle!

[DFW]

7. I can't help but wonder

Did my own (unfortunately, still) Senator Cruz, born in Canada to a Cuban father, have to go through all this to get his US citizenship?. He is older than my daughter, so probably not. Did he vote for crap like this to be enacted into law? Probably so.

[unc70]

4. Procedural question

Were the procedures made more complicated because your daughter was also born outside the US? I haven't looked recently, but in the past the rules were more stringent for second generation non-native born citizens. Been a few years since I was digging around in the current Naturalization Act.

[DFW]

6. The U.S. consular authorities didn't say so, although you might have a point. I don't know the rules

They DID demand that she prove ten years of residence in the USA, and demanded ORIGINAL transcripts from her schools, which were in Hawaii, Washington, DC and New York. She said they did praise her on her thoroughness in complying, but to what extent it really mattered, we can't say. Often, documents demanded turn out to be meaningless.

When my wife and I got married in Washington, the US embassy said she had to bring what is called an "Ehefähigkeitszeugnis." This basically means a "document certifying unmarried status." To get this document certifying that SHE was single, the Germans demanded MY birth certificate (I refused--they lose things, so I sent a certified copy), but couldn't tell me why they needed it.

Anyway, when we arrived in the USA, we got our blood tests and went to the Arlington County Courthouse to get our marriage license. We had all those crazy documents ready, including the hard-fought Ehefähigkeitszeugnis. When we got to the personal data of the marrying couple, there was no space for "country." I guess the people who made up the marriage license forms for the county of Arlington, Virginia, were not aware of other countries besides our own. So, where I was supposed to fill in the city and state of my wife's birth, I filled in city of Quakenbrück, state of Niedersachsen, and handed it in. The clerk stopped when she got to Quakenbrück and Niedersachsen, and asked, "is that Germany?" We said yes. She said, "I thought so," stamped our form and we had our marriage license. She never even asked to see all that ridiculous paperwork the German and American consular authorities said we needed to have. It reminded me Alice's Restaurant and all the 8 by 10 color glossy photographs that the blind judge was never going to look at.

[Hortensis]

8. A 10-month-old granddaughter! How wonderful.

Every day is a new adventure at that age. And, as you say, she'll be able to vote-kick some ass when it's time, especially with someone like you for her grandfather.

[DFW]

9. My daughter is from the same cloth, I promise you!

When she was in high school in Hawai'i, her extra-curricular activity was sea turtle tagging on Molokai. When she was in undergrad in Washington, she was an intern at Emily's List, and founder Ellen Malcolm said she was the best intern they ever had. I first met (then-) Senator Barack Obama at an Emily's List event. Apparently, he used to hang out there a lot while he was a Senator. And then, of course, the UN War Crimes Tribunal in Sierra Leone. She is pretty fierce, reminds my of my paternal grandmother. She was the Labor Liason for Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York City for a while. He eventually fired her for being too friendly with the labor unions. Not much seems to have been lost over the generational passages.

[Hortensis]

12. Wow to her heritage. She's a lucky girl.

Watching our grandchildren develop toward adulthood, and wondering, is a special gift of our ages. The youngest was singing his thoughts to himself the other day while he did his homework about not asking him what he was going to be when he was grown up because he was already himself.

[DFW]

14. Your grandson is in direct contrast to me

I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up.

When I do, I'll let y'all know!

[Hortensis]

17. :) My husband neither.

His mom and I think it was a happy little expression of ego, and contrariness. His parents joke that they're not sure if they've produced a future president or serial killer because he's fiercely competitive and never does anything halfway. I hope they all got a good share of my husband's eternal child, though.

[Karadeniz]

10. Congratulations, Granny! You have reasons to feel content in your accomplishments

and we have a bit more confidence in our future! Well done!

[DFW]

11. Granny?

My wife would be very surprised to find out that I hid THAT from her for 45 years!

(Every cell an XY chromasome, really!)

[NBachers]

13. I hope she grows up to ask this question:

[DFW]

15. Daddy is from the Bodensee area of Germany

I think her Mama will be the one to ask--and if not I will be happy to fill her in--IF she likes horror stories.

[NBachers]

16. As long as the past tense is valid at the time.

[DFW]

26. Here's hoping!

If these people have any say in our future, we won't have much of one.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

18. Congrats, Grampa

[DFW]

25. I'm not totally used to that title yet.

Give me a little time!

[Initech]

19. We need to vote all of their sorry asses out!!

[Hekate]

20. Congratulations, DFW!

[kag]

21. Congratulations!

What state will she vote in? I'm hoping it's the same as yours. Texas needs all the Dems it can get.

I just got back from my niece's wedding in Austin. I won't be at all surprised to hear soon that they will be producing a little Texas Democrat of their own soon. My whole family are liberal Dem Texans, and they all vote! Oh, how I would love to see my home state (I'm now in Colorado) return to the politics of Ann Richards and Molly Ivins.

[DFW]

23. Well, she'll have 17 years to decide what state to vote in

Don't forget, her mom, my daughter, started out in Hawaii, made a 4 year undergrad pit stop in Washington, and ended up in New York, where her sister now is.

I'm still left in Dallas, and most of my outfit there is a bunch of solid Democrats as well: There are a few exceptions, but we have a LOT of Hispanic and AA people in our outfit, and along with the majority of EA people being Democrats anyway, I'd say we are probably a 90% Democratic crowd if not more.

[gopiscrap]

22. Congratulations

I am from Frankfurt also

[DFW]

24. Her official residence is just outside

A small town called Königsstein. I have only been there twice very briefly, and don't know much about it, except that it is considered "Frankfurt area."

[gopiscrap]

39. I know of it, been there a couple of times

[mercuryblues]

27. She will be old enough to vote for my son

He actually has a plan to run for president. When he was 11 he had a plan to survive a zombie apocalypse. Hey, a plans a plan.

[DFW]

30. Tell him to go for it

My daughter would probably never want to be president. She is not a publicity hound, and I don't think she'd be interested in that big a pay cut.

[mercuryblues]

34. That's what surprised me

My kid shuns attention.

[DFW]

35. I think we're getting into the "go figure" zone! n/t

[vlyons]

28. that's right, they want to make it as difficult as possible

in hopes that people will get discouraged and give up trying. They hate us, mistrust us, see us as the enemy, and would send us to labor camps if they could. It's not for no reason that Trump loves Kim Un-Jun.

[DFW]

29. Republicans have long seen Stalinists as their role models

All that "antikommanist" noise was just a phony ruse.

[smirkymonkey]

31. Congratulations DFW!

What is your granddaughter's name?

[DFW]

32. Maya Lisa

I nicknamed her "Jambalaya" because she's so spicy!

[smirkymonkey]

33. Lovely name!

I am partial, of course. Her middle name is my first name! She sounds like she is off to a great start in life! I am sure you and your whole family must be very proud!

[DFW]

38. She's a handful

But she's mostly in a good mood, and has amazing powers of concentration for an infant. Probably end up being one of these kids who joins Mensa before they finish Kindergarten or something.

[panader0]

36. Cool Bro.....

[DFW]

37. Yeah, we ain't gonna be around forever.

Someone has to be there to carry on, and it's not too early to think about who, is it?

[B Stieg]

40. Congrats!

Sounds like quite a saga...

[DFW]

41. Never a dull moment, that's for sure

With me, it's never a moment, period.

[study war no more]

42. excellent

My daughter will be voting age in 2020!!!

[LittleGirl]

43. Congratulations DFW!

I am so happy for your daughter, son in law and granddaughter and wife, of course! Yay. And my first name is Lisa so I'm quite fond of her already

I can't believe it took 10 months to do this paperwork. It's disgusting. When my hubby applied for his green card, it too, took forever. We were living near Stuttgart at the time. The embassy in Frankfurt had his UK passport for 5 months so he couldn't travel at all and that was a period of his employment when he needed to travel abroad and couldn't.

I wish her nothing but the best of life and good health. Peace.

[DFW]

47. Thanks for that! My daughter just gave herself a little present for her perseverance.

Well, OK, maybe not so little, and not just herself. Her big sister, who lives in the States (New York City), wanted to have a bachelorette party before getting married this summer. My younger daughter, who never does ANYTHING halfway, said, OK, where did you have in mind? Oh, says her big sister, I was thinking maybe the Caribbean. The little sister in Frankfurt takes it literally, reserves a mansion for 11 women, and called me today as she was boarding a flight from Frankfurt to Miami.

Miami? What are you doing in Miami? Oh, changing planes. For where? The Turks and Caicos Islands. Yeah, sure. Yes, really!!

She left the baby with the father, and really flew off to the Turks and Caicos Islands to chill out with her big sister and nine of their closest friends. The place she rented apparently has an ocean side view and its own movie theater (I'm not even going to ask what films they'll be seeing). This is by far the longest time she will have been apart from the baby (6 days), but their house in Germany will be full of other kids and relatives, so she won't be bored. My daughter busted her ass to become the youngest partner ever at her international law firm at 31, makes megabucks, doesn't spend anywhere near all of it, even after 50% taxes, and so treats her older sister to all sorts of perks she could never afford on her own. She treats us to things, too. For my wife's birthday last year, she got us all front seats to a Rolling Stones concert in Stuttgart.

My wife and I are proud of her not because she makes wads of money, but because she remains unimpressed by it and has more fun spreading it around than hoarding it. THAT, we think, is indeed what you called "the best of life."

[bigbrother05]

44. Good for her, Opa

That sounds about right for the current Junta.

When I came to Wuerzburg in 2003 with an official passport, I needed to renew my expired tourist one. The Frankfurt Consulate sent a team to the post and took all requests for anyone needing birth certificates, citizenship, passports, etc. Lots of GIs and spouses with children as well as folks like myself filled an auditorium and were handled on a first come/first served basis. About 3 weeks later my new passport was delivered.

Trump was elected because he said government doesn't work and he's spent every waking moment making that statement come true.

[DFW]

46. He's doing Norquist's work for him

Drowning it in the bathtub, and grinning as the life fades.

[dlk]

45. Congratulations! That's Wonderful News!

[DFW]

48. Just wait 35 years

This baby girl could end up being the first woman to be both Chancellor of Germany, and then President of the United States after she has had some experience as a head of government.

Hey, why not? After Clinton and Obama left office, plenty of German and French friends said,"he's term limited? Can we have him when you're done?"