OVERRULED
Flash! All three objections were overruled today.
Michael D. Jackson filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Elections, one of three filed and scheduled for a hearing today (the others are Benjamin Freeman and Amanda Martin). I expected a flurry of post-nomination challenges at the state level, now that Barack Obama is officially the nominee of the Democratic Party. Various states impose tight limits on the timing of such challenges, and of course due to the short time between now and the November election, the hearing of challenges is expedited. Jackson’s hearing is scheduled for 10:30 am.
In the complaint Jackson argues that under Illinois law, he has legal standing to make a challenge to Barack Obama’s appearance on the ballot in Illinois. I was going to write that Jackson claims Obama is not eligible because of the foreign citizenship of his father, but I’m not sure he comes out and says this. He cites Minor v. Happersett and makes a point of showing that Barack Obama, Sr. was not a US Citizen. Jackson then goes on to discuss the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office investigation (failing to note that the investigation was not done by the Sheriff’s Office, but by a volunteer auxiliary).
While Jackson alleges that Obama’s birth certificate is a fake, he never alleges that Barack Obama was born outside the United States. Indeed, he says that Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen, but nowhere I can find does he say why.
The only grounds that I can find that Jackson asserts is that Obama is only on the ballot because of a birth certificate he submitted earlier, and since that is a fake, he can’t be on the ballot. In most of the ballot challenges, Barack Obama has not submitted any documentation of his birthplace, but in the prior Jackson challenge, Obama’s attorney did submit a copy of the long form birth certificate along with their motion to strike the objection (which the Board of Elections did). The birth certificate was cited in the rejection of the prior challenge, the hearing officer stating that it establishes that Obama is eligible. However, there is no requirement for a birth certificate in Illinois, so I don’t think Jackson has alleged sufficient facts to make a case, even if what he said was true.
This is one of those odd cases where the birther undermines his own argument. The only legal evidence that Barack Obama’s father is the foreign student Barack Obama Sr. is the birth certificate, which Jackson claims is a fake. He wants the certificate true for the purpose of showing Obama has a foreign father, but false for the purpose of showing he was born in the United States. I say that assuming what I believe Jackson intends to be saying, even though he never actually connects any of his facts and assertions with why Obama isn’t a natural born citizen.
Jackson also asks that James Tenuto, the hearing examiner in Jackson’s previous election challenge, and board chairman William McGuffrage not participate. Jackson thinks McGuffrage is biased. You can read Tenuto’s recommendation in the previous Jackson objection here. Perhaps Jackson didn’t like one thing that Tenuto said about Jackson’s pleading in the prior objection, saying:
Said pleading is illogical, nonsensical and not worthy of consideration.
See what you think about the new one:
Illinois Obama General Election Challenge
> “With petitioner suffering injury due to the unanswered questions…”
Why is no birther able to properly plead particularized injury? (Of course because they don’t have any, but at least they could *try*, couldn’t they?)
This argument practically invites a “no standing” strikedown.
The rest is partly disconnected (he does not really make an effort to claim Minor specifically limits NBC to having two citizen parents) and partly a fallback to birther Dark Ages (by referring to SR 511 as somehow “authoritative” on the definition of NBC, I mean, I ripped this to shreds on WND years ago).
So obviously these are the most moronic DIY birther challengers whose arguments don’t just ignore the severe smackdowns the same arguments got in previous cases (he does not argue why Ankeny is allegedly in error, or why WKA is not applicable) and rely on long-rejected non-authoritative “evidence”.
It’s also nice how he shoots himself in the foot by reminding the board that his arguments were rejected before as utterly stupid. 😉
This case is no thriller.
That was BAD!
It was a bit off the wall.
Do you remember the time when birthers were asking “who is it” when talking about the man in the mirror? Because they cannot heal the world if they’re unsure whether Obama is black or white, but they think he’s a smooth criminal, that’s dangerous!
My favorite is “For Christ and Country”
How about this wall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U
As Doc C says, Mr Jackson took exception to Mr Tenuto’s pithy and accurate assessment of his nonsense:
Mr Jackson’s “Objector’s Exception …” of January 2012 is amusing. It starts by following the principle that Farrar, Collette and all other birthers apply that a large mountain of repeated crap and lies is more believable that a small pile of nonsense, but he demonstrates his inner Taitziness with his final sentence:
Yeah, whereas this lying racist turd thinks he is doing something noble by his seditious attempts to overturn the democratically made choice of the people of the United States.
(OK, if he’d been a True Natural Born Subject of the Queen of Birthania, he’d have written that it would be “egregious fraud, massive corruption, conspiracy and racketeering”, but Jackson is clearly not very bright or good with words.)
And Corsi’s fat… wait… that’s Weird Al.
But at least you have a point.
My cereal is channeling the ghost of Vincent Price.
…He approves.
Oops! My bad. It’s Frank Nelson, not Vincent Price.
Frank also approves. “Yyyyyyyyeeeeeeesssss!”
LMAO! Kudos to everyone and their various clever riffs and puns on the real Michael Jackson’s song set… 😉
Still, the judge is just going to say “Beat it!”
Same here:
Ballot challenge ‘cross the land
The frog-march hour is close at hand?
Birthers crawl in search of dirt
And terrorize with the absurd
But no proof ever can be found
‘Bout how a Kenyan birth got down
Must stand and face the sanctions’ cost
And rot in echo chambers lost
The foulest stench of Orly Taitz
Another smackdown there awaits
Debunkéd crap from Corsi’s tomb
Believe in it? You’ll seal your doom
And though you fight to reach appeals
Your brain can think no further
For no more chance there is, it feels
The madness of the Birther
*evil laughter*
(with apologies to the real MJ, may he rest in peace)
I just sent a text: you are being followed
That made my Frank Nelson haunted cereal very happy.
“Nnnnnnyyyyyesssssssss!”, is a very difficult thing to spell in Cheerios mind you.
Flash! Jackson objection overruled. Phlegm at 11.
We’re having great pun with this.
And we’re just one pun away from a “13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo” reference!
What I don’t get about the SR511 argument is here is the full paragraph that birthers actually use to say is the “authoritative definition” of Natural Born Citizen:
“Whereas John Sidney McCain, III, was born to American citizens on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936”
Does that mean that only people who are born to “American citizens on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936” are Natural Born Citizens?
Guess that means that every President then is a usurper.
Honest to God, at first I read that as “For Christ and Crazy”
I think the only appropriate response is Hee hee
Jackson doesn’t need to explain why (he thinks) Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen, because to birthers, “non-citizen” is synonymous with “fake birth certificate.” To them, there’s no reason for a fake birth certificate other than claiming natural-born citizenship.
To some birthers it even means that a birth certificate on which every item is correct, is still a fake proving ineligibility.
Yeah, I missed the connection until way after I made my contribution. Some days thinking of clever posts just isn’t as easy as ABC.
Yeah, well, just Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough
That’s what I’ve been telling the WND crowd for about a year. None of them ever tried to argue against it, that usually was the point when the name-calling or the “but he’s a bad President” deflections began.
Hope everyone noticed … 3 official birther whackdowns in 29 minutes. That’s gotta be a record!
Thanks Illinois!
🙂