Somehow, I ended up making a comment a couple of weeks ago at a web site called govtslaves.info, correcting some factual error in an article. Yesterday there was a reply:
DOC3: Who cares fool. If Obama is ineligible then he is removed from office and all laws he signed, including Obamacare are null and void. How great would that be for the Nation?
DOC3’s remark is similar to ones I see frequently, expressing a belief that somehow Obama’s presidency can not only be ended, but erased. They just want it to all go away. “Magic bullet” is the phrase used by historian Jesse Walker to describe one of the three main motivations for the birther movement:
Wishing for a magic bullet. This is the most obvious motivation: the search for a bolt of lightning that would end Obama’s career without the pain of political persuasion.
Walker, Jesse (2013-08-20). The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory (p. 316). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Any US presidential election involving Barack Obama is in the past, and Obama won despite the birthers. Birthers are, however, the ultimate denialists. Their belief in the Magic reset button requires them to deny two things about the law:
The first is what the Constitution says about how the qualifications of US Presidents are determined. The 20th Amendment to the US Constitution details the process through which the election of our presidents is certified by Congress. It makes it clear that the Congress is the arbiter of the qualifications for President of the United States. Congress has decided that Obama is eligible twice. The Constitution does not provide a means for them to un-certify the election. Obama could be removed from office through impeachment, but impeachment is not retroactive.
The second is a legal principle called “the de facto officer doctrine.” I have written fully on that topic before. See my article “What’s done is done? the de facto officer doctrine.” Even if Obama were someone found to be ineligible, whatever he did in office stands.
No amount of magical thinking is going to undo the Obama presidency.
for a lot of birfers, hitting the reset button would just be just icing on the cake. because first and foremost, “!!!OBAMA MUST BE DESTROYED!!!”
remember, they’re only concerned about preserving the constitution!
In an interview, the author said that what bothers these people the most is that “Obama just waltzed into the Oval Office like he belonged there.”
Their fevered fantasy is to wake up in an America where they can say “We’ve never had a black President!” Sad, pathetic bunch.
Birther hypocrisy never ceases to confound me. All these losers who whine about how much they love the Constitution and how they believe Obama is destroying it seem to have no problem embracing unconstitutional tactics when it means they get what they want. Want Obama out of office? Sure, create a fake rule about removing usurpers and pretend it’s in the Constitution.
I NEED the birthers, I’ll be the first to admit it. It’s always good to have some group to feel inherently superior to.
The Cro-Magnons had the Neanderthals; the Spartans had the Herlots; the Nazis had everybody else.
Thinker,
What the birthers love is their pretend Constitution. I’m sure that the magic reset button is in there somewhere…
Time to bring in the Onion…
“Area Man Passionate Defender Of What He Imagines Constitution To Be”
http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-passionate-defender-of-what-he-imagines-c,2849/
The birthers never seem to notice that nobody pulled the magic reset button on Chester A. Arthur.
That’s because Old Chet and Lord Soros bamboozled everyone. Or Mario wasn’t there. Or something… In any case, it is completely obvious (to the birthers) that if we had just pressed the reset button then we wouldn’t be in this mess now. Actually, I think the truth is that if the birthers were able to make logical connections (like you just did), then they would easily recognize the impossibility of the magic reset button—leaving them no way to rationalize away President Obama’s legitimacy.
I have heard birfers argue that the Wong Kim Ark ruling doesn’t count because the decision was written by Horace Gray, who was appointed to SCOTUS by usurper Chester Arthur. And Gray clearly wrote the ruling to legitimize Arthur, who he knew was not a natural born citizen by the Vatel definition. I believe Tracy Fair has said that.
I am fond of reminding proponents of the magic reset button that if every law which Obama signed were to be abrogated it would mean that the Bush tax cuts expired at the end of 2010.
I haven’t researched whether it also would require the resurrection of Osama bin Laden.
The magic reset meme predates my awareness of the birthers. I assume it was there from the beginning of the denialism, as a basic, wishful assumption?
Well, naturally the birfers assume they would get to pick and choose, Rickey!
As with everything else, these children what all the goodies, but don’t want to pay for them.
“The 20th Amendment to the US Constitution details the process through which the election of our presidents is certified by Congress. It makes it clear that the Congress is the arbiter of the qualifications for President of the United States. Congress has decided that Obama is eligible twice.”
Actually birthers agree on this but disagree that Obama was decided eligible twice. Obama was never vetted and it was Congress’s job to weigh his eligiblity. Congress failed to do that twice.
I will agree that Obama’s eligible is simply not possible. Do so would competely unravel our system of government as we know it.
I’ll tell you who isn’t fond of the Magic Reset button! Mr Resetti!
http://youtu.be/KcTf6CCHr-w?t=50s
I don’t recall exactly when it got started, but I think it really took off around the time ObamaCare was passed.
They took a vote. You may not like their process, but it’s what they’ve always done.
The Wong decision was 6-2. Even without Gray, 5 justices concurred with what he said. No difference.
Where does the constitution discuss “vetting?” When was any president ever vetted by Congress?
It takes one senator and one representative to file a written objection to the certification of the electoral votes for a president-elect. No senator and no representative objected to the certification of Barack Obama’s electors in 2008 or in 2012.
There is no statute or case law that requires Congress to act.
In 2012, Barack Obama was vetted by the courts and by state elections commissions. There were 50 eligibility lawsuits & ballot challenges heard in 22 states. No court or state election commission found that Barack Obama was ineligible. Two challenges are still pending, Taitz v Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee, Obama et al in Mississippi and Mc Innish v. Chapman in Alabama.
How did Congress “weigh (the) eligibility” of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt…….uh you get the idea. Your answer, sir?
John is a racist troll.
Congress “vetted” Pres. Obama in 2008 and 2012. It voted unanimously to certify the results.
John, the racist troll, advocates a point of view that is not accepted by any of 535 people charged with determining that issue. How about that john. Your point of view is so silly and worthless than you could not even persuade one member of Congress to vote your way.
Since when!!! If that were even remotely the case then there wouldn’t have been the end run attempts around the 20th Amendment, producing the string of 200+ abject and absolute resounding and humiliating failures in the judicial system, not to mention the ongoing humiliation of the entire birfer contingent. Whether you, or they for that matter, like it or not, the American people by a sizable majority “vetted” and approved Obama, not once but twice. They looked at the so called evidence of fraud and rejected in part and parcel. The Congress had two opportunities to make their opinion known, if it was anything different, and did not do so at either junction, so your statement, is like your premise, faulty and full of the usual holes.
President Obama was vetted for over two years as he ran for President. If the research that RW’ers wanted done was incomplete, they only have Fox and other RW representatives to blame. It’s hysterical to hear Hannity & Limbaugh talk about how PBO wasn’t vetted yet they have hundreds of researchers at their fingertips, willing to do the work for them. The problem is that then Senator Barack Obama was vetted after the ’04 Democratic convention and the speech he gave. The vetting turned up nothing that indicated problems in Obama’s past or present dealings. In fact, the GOP was indeed quite worried about the lack of findings because they didn’t know what they’d use against Obama if he ran for President in the future. If you think that all this nonsense had been out there for someone to find, especially someone from the opposition, and they didn’t find it, you’ve got your eyes closed. Try opening them and taking a look at reality.
John, you truly are a confused, lost soul. So what’s your buddy Zullo up to now days? Also, I still would like to know who is the forger, John? Why don’t you give us her name?
If I recall, some claimed that it would get rid of TARP, passed under Bush.
john,
How has your Congressperson responded to your “concerns” about Obama’s eligibility?
“If I recall, some claimed that it would get rid of TARP, passed under Bush.”
and get rid of those curly light bulbs! (another Bush-era law)
birthers do agree that if Obama is ineligible he doesn’t have to protection of the impeachment process. Impeachment is for only legal presidents.
And Obamaphones? (Reagan-era)
Not just that. Their hope is that such an event would also make it impossible for another black man/woman to be elected President for at least another 100 years.
German RWNJ’s have known it for decades. They try to argue why the Federal Republic of Germany doesn’t actually exist but the German Reich still does, therefore everything that happened after 1945 is legally void (and would be reset when the Reich is reinstated). I’m aware of this claim since at least the early 1990’s.
“Yosemitest: Obama is NOT a United States Citizen, and is NOT a LEGAL IMMIGRANT.
He has no VISA allowing him into this country.
Barack Hussein Obama II IS ILLEGAL !
He should be IMPEACHED IMMEDIATELY, tried for TREASON, SENTENCED to death, and then have his body deported back to Kenya.”
Not a citizen, not a legal immigrant, yet tried for TREASON??
Deporting a body?
What’s next? Hanging his soul?
“Obama was never vetted.”
—Yes, he was. What you mean is “Obama was never vetted in a manner that agrees with my delusions.” So, he was vetted contrary to your eligibility theories? Tough.
“No Judge has decided Obama’s eligibility on the merits.”
—Yes, they have. What you mean is “No Judge has ruled in a way that agrees with my delusions.” There IS no ‘merit’ to the entire Birther argument.
“Why can’t we find one honest Judge who’ll follow the Constitution?”
—See link to Onion article above, viz: “…what he imagines the Constitution says.”
“Obama isn’t the legal President.”
—Yes, he is. You are not the authority in these matters, that’d be Congress and the SCOTUS. They disagree with you, and their opinion IS what MAKES for “a legal President.” Not yours.
So tell it to the hand. The hand I use… well, never mind.
Birthers agree on a lot of things they are completely wrong about.
Doesn’t it get tiresome being so wrong for years and years on end, John?
Which is why birthers continue to be so wrong and fail at every step. What a fool
I’ve told you birthers numerous times:
This would create a legal loophole the Founders certainly didn’t want.
If any judge could just declare the President ineligible and throw him behind bars, who would need impeachment anymore?
You are saying that some Clinton-appointed judge could just have declared GWB ineligible? Then why did Al Gore even bother taking Gore vs. Bush to SCOTUS?
Actually Magic M that was incorrect. George W. Bush’ team took it to SCOTUS. Gore took it to the Florida Supreme Court where it belonged.
Thanks for the correction, I always mix that one up.
What a wonderful place GITMO is for ALL of these lovely people to go and spend their Golden Years! It is as if it was built for the purpose!
See, There IS a God!
*PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
When you rearrange the letters:
“An Arab Backed Imposter”
The farce is strong with this one.
I wonder who he thinks built Gitmo?
I wonder who he thinks prevented Obama from closing Gitmo?
I wonder if his present health insurance covers psychosis medications?
ROTFL, yes our God has blessed our President with a win, twice now 🙂
Actually, John, the only thing I want to hear from you is the explanation of this:
“john October 16, 2013 at 2:08 pm #
I sent the following letter to the Arlington National Cemetery Administration:
Dear Administration,
When the government reopens, I am planning on taking a trip to Washington DC. I plan to visit Arlington National Cemetery. I am an avid treasure hunter and I am asking permission if I can metal detect on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. Millions of people visit the cemetery and I want to metal detect around some of the green and the graves. I would promise to fill any holes I made and the administration can even keep an eye on me to be sure I fill in the holes I make at some the graves. I know this is an unusual request by I understand the National Park Service with approval of the President placed barricades in front of the memorials including the WWII Memorial denying Vets access to them. It seems this was OK with National Park Service and President so I don’t see why there be would a problem to allow me to metal detect around the green and the graves of Arlington National Cemetery. Thank you for your time in this matter and I look forward to quick response.”
1. What was the response from the cemetery administration?
2. How did the treasure hunting project work out? (Did you find anything good or were you arrested)
3. What was the point of it?