The clearly delusional Wingnut Daily brings us an update on the birfer who refuses to report for duty:
A U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida scheduled to report for deployment
to Afghanistan within days has had his military orders revoked after arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office.His attorney, Orly Taitz, confirmed to WND the military has rescinded his impending deployment orders.
“We won! We won before we even arrived,” she said with excitement. “It means that the military has nothing to show for Obama. It means that the military has directly responded by saying Obama is illegitimate – and they cannot fight it. Therefore, they are revoking the order!”
She continued, “They just said, ‘Order revoked.’ No explanation. No reasons – just revoked.”
You have to see the headline to believe it:
This guy is going to get court-martialed so quickly, brutally, and publicly that it isn’t even funny, and his lunatic lawyer thinks they have won something. It hasn’t even occurred to them that the order to deploy was rescinded because they are about to hammer him with disciplinary action.
*** Update ***
More here, and Greyhawk senses a set-up.
Miriam
I hope he gets court-martialed but I wouldn’t count on it.
Ash
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/14/stefan-frederick-cook-sol_n_231383.html
O……rly? Apparently Obama was a citizen back in May, but not anymore. I bet they finally found the birth certificate for Barack X Soetero Sorros Osama!
MFA
Neoconcientious Objector?
gbear
This story is made for popcorn. Popcorn will be made.
MFA
New billboard:
“Oh. That’s where the certificate is. Nevermind.”
Eric U.
Seems like they should have left the orders in place so they could screw him over more thoroughly when he didn’t follow them. One of the annoying things about this to me is how disruptive it is to a unit that is trying to deploy. I would be as vindictive as possible.
kay
@Ash:
That’s really funny. I often wonder about Orly’s dental practice. In a white-knuckled way.
Dear God. Imagine sitting in that chair? Might be time for whatever professional board polices mental fitness to have a look.
Bertie Wooster
I think they have to court-martial him. It’s not like he asked for conscientious objector status; he directly challenged the legitimacy of the chain-of-command, from the top no less.
To paraphrase Sgt. Barnes, if you allow that to happen publicly without consequences, “the machine breaks down”.
Where did Orly Taitz go to law school, by the way? Regents U?
A. Mendoza
I still don’t understand the whole “birther” thing.
Are they saying that the already presented birth certificate and birth announcements are fake? What exactly will satisfy their concerns?
RememberNovember
Her husband’s probably canoodling with the cabana boy while she exercises her attorney-client “priveledge”. New hope for ambulance chasers!
jenniebee
LOL, he’s just lucky the AUMF wasn’t actually a Declaration of War (although, for Afghanistan – what was the Congressional authorization for Afghanistan? Anyway, if there’s an actual Declaration of War in place I’m pretty sure you can get shot for trying to pull this shit.
kay
@A. Mendoza:
Read one of the complaints. They’re conditional. if he produces this then they want this other thing.
They got a lotta alternate theories.
Zifnab
I don’t see why the military wouldn’t want to sweep this embarrassing escapade under the rug. Pull him off active duty, give him some “shut the fuck up” desk job, push him into early retirement, and forget this whole thing ever happened.
Now, if anyone else decides he wants to skip out on redeployment – someone without a media spotlight on him – I have no doubt that guy’ll get dragged into a back room and beaten with bags of soap. But if I was Major Dumbass’s commanding officer, I’d just want this whole thing to go away.
Brachiator
@A. Mendoza:
Nothing.
SATSQ
Ash
@A. Mendoza:
Nothing.
RememberNovember
Orly? Ya Rly!
feebog
I think it is pretty clear from the snipet posted by Ash that he will not be court-martialed. But here is my question…If the Major had a change of heart and decided that he did not want to deploy to Afghanistan, then why not just say so to his superior officers and get his orders changed? Why all the drama? Unless of course he is simply a Drama Queen in camo who wanted to see his name in the news.
Michael
In a few years, some sanity may kick in, causing him to examine the wreckage of his career and life. Hopefully, he’ll hunt Orly down (along with everybody else who encouraged him on this) and apply electrodes to the steel dentistry in her mouth before Dexterizing all of them as an example to others who might try and counsel somebody into these sorts of actions.
For shits and giggles, I’ve always enjoyed Quatloos for news on tax protestors (the snark is great). There’s a lot of material on that site, but here’s the tax protestor forum.
http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=6acf75a624770e18eddd7794f455ef2d
Joshua Norton
Uh, yeah. That’s exactly how it works. You get your deployment orders and all you have to do is say “Nah, I don’t think so” and they back right down. Barry is real scared of you!!
Without knowing anything about the lawyer involved, I’d say she sounds like another Regent University superstar.
SGEW
Again: How did this guy get promoted to Major?!
Bootlegger
You’re all missing the point. The military is siding with the Birthers, this is the first move in The Coup.
Or so it goes in my mind when the Wingnuts make The Move.
amk
Looks like thus guy volunteered in May so that he can pull this shit now. Would be interesting to see what happens next.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Hold it. He volunteered for an active duty tour in May only to file suit in July because he questions the legitimacy of our President, yet he had up to the day of his deployment to change his mind and stay home? He was free to stay home, no questions asked? Instead, he gets this freakshow of a dentist/lawyer to file suit?
Holy shit, this fuckwit is twenty pounds of elephant shit in a two pound bag. I hope his military career just hit a wall.
kay
@feebog:
The whole point of the birther lawsuits are too make Obama illegitimate. That’s it. The point of filing birther lawsuits is filng birther lawsuits.
PeakVT
What exactly will satisfy their concerns?
Exactly nothing will satisfy their concerns.
It’s like Whitewater but without anything that has the slightest appearance of being fishy.
Jon
Sigh. It’s times like these I wish we could post images.
Leelee for Obama
Why are they always from Flori-DUH! It’s one of the most embarrassing things about my relocation. KO says w/o FL, he’d almost have to do away with Oddball! Too true!
Also-I’ve never actually seen a living straw-man. Wow, wait long enough and you see everything!
Ash
@Jon: Oh god, there are SO MANY “ORLY” images that are just begging to be posted.
Zandar
@Bootlegger:
Which will be followed by General Order 2: Anyone who does follow Barack Hussein Obama is the Enemy.
The Red Dawn fantasies keep inching closer to reality, folks.
Bertie Wooster
She’s a dentist who got her law degree online – not even Regent U.
She called out Chief Justice Roberts recently. Classy.
“After Roberts gave his talk, he took questions from the audience. Taitz, in her black, turtleneck sweater and gold pendant, was the first person at the microphone. She explained that she was a lawyer who had come all the way from Southern California. She asked Roberts whether he was “aware of some illegal activity that is going on in the Supreme Court of the United States,” and then mentioned that she had printed out a petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures asking for an investigation into the fact that “Barack Hussein Obama, a.k.a. Barry Soetoro, is totally ineligible to be president.” Audience members chuckled as she was interrupted by Roberts—“Thank you very much, ma’am”—and told that she could hand her suitcase full of documents to the security personnel in the room.”
Scott H
Would the Commander in Chief’s signature have been on this Major’s orders to deploy – or, some Colonel’s, who may be feeling a little jilted right now?
MFA
Taitz has written on her blog, regarding the Obama administration:
.
“I hope that the men in this country, particularly in our military will finally revolt against this travesty of Justice. If our government and our elected officials and our judiciary have failed us, then it is time for the new government, new elected officials and a new judiciary.”
I’m pretty sure she was calling for a military coup.
kay
@Bertie Wooster:
The illegal activity she’s referring to is this: birthers regularly accuse clerks in federal courts of deleting their electronic filings. They went after one by name.
They’re really horrible people.
Michael
It makes every every complimentary endorsing officer on his OERs look bad for helping this idiot along.
Barry
DougL hit it on the head – this was a clear set-up for a propaganda stunt.
And he seriously needs to be court-martialed.
scarshapedstar
I can’t wait to see the revolutionaries marching through trailer parks, proudly waving their orange-powdered fingers in the air…
Bertie Wooster
@kay
They are. I have the pleasure of working with some of them. The noises made remind me of the Clinton drug-running/KGB/assassination conspiracy theories. As thoroughly incoherent as they are devoutly believed.
OC Weekly did a profile of Taitz.
http://www.ocweekly.com/2009-06-18/news/orly-taitz/1
PaulW
I’m not completely sure of the military rules, so I have to ask: is that Standard Operating Procedure to rescind a deployment if they are going to issue disciplinary action?
Doug Mataconis
Personally I smell I rat:
February 1, 2009: Major Cook signs on as a “military Plaintiff” with Orly Taitz, a phenomenon I noted back in February’
May 8, 2009: Major Cook volunteers for deployment to Afghanistan
July 10, 2009: Major Cook files a lawsuit asking to get out of his deployment because Obama is not a “natural born citizen”
This looks like a setup from the beginning
A. Mendoza
Ash
Yeah, deep down inside I know this, but its still hard to grasp the idea that something so utterly irrational can be believed so feverently by so many.
Also, when I first glanced at the screenshot of the wingnut website I thought his lawyer was the Brady Bunch-era Shirley Henderson.
Anoniminous
@MFA:
In other words, what this country needs is a coup de etat.
On Topic:
We’ve seen this before with Ollie North. In a couple of years he’ll have a nice gig on the Winger Rubber Chicken circuit talking about the Great IslamoLiberalFascistNaziCommunist Conspiracy and how he bravely Made a Stand™ & etc. etc. etc.
If he has the necessary looks and communication skills he’ll move up to Fox News.
Mnemosyne
@A. Mendoza:
A military coup that overthrows Obama and installs Dick Cheney as President for Life.
Leelee for Obama
@Mnemosyne: Cue photo of Leelee rolled into a cringing ball of tears and misery! God, what a scenario!
Michael
OT, but can I say that I want really bad things to happen to Erickson?
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/864316.html
What an obnoxious little brownshirt tool. “Curtail” – that’s how these fucks have operated for years.
Matt
When did Florence Henderson become a wingnut lawyer in Florida?
PaulW
@A. Mendoza:
They want their own Far Right Conservatives in charge. Of everything. Government, military, courts, schools, churches, hospitals, parks, your places of business, your own private homes, everything. Permanently.
Barack Obama could well be 100 percent American, 100 percent competent, 100 percent qualified and the Far Right will STILL attack him, anything to weaken his authority, anything to cause embarrassment, anything at all. All because he’s Democrat, all because he’s ‘liberal’, all because he’s Black, he’s The Other, all because they genuinely believe that all makes him a ‘traitor’ in their all-perfect eyes.
I’m still waiting for them to attack Obama for how he ties his shoelaces. That’s how bad they can get outside of open acts of violence.
Brian J
If any outlet considered part of the mainstream media (and yes, this would include Fox News) even tries to treat this as a story of a soldier being unfairly attack, I’m just going to snap. That’s the only possible way that this could be considered a “victory” for the other side, since it would confirm (in their warped minds, at least) that they really are victims. If a cesspool like WND tries to spin this, I won’t be surprised, but any organization that even tries to claim legitimacy should throw this story right in the trash.
Pasquinade
Cook is a FReeper
http://washingtonindependent.com/50789/obama-birther-soldier-is-a-freerepublic-poster
ChrisNBama
John, you are so correct! I went to Drudge earlier today, and saw the link (emphasized in red, as usual), and read this Worldnet article. My first thought was–like you–that this guy has “won” a courtmartial. He is about to get the boot, and they are ecstatic, somehow, that they’ve achieved some great victory–phyrric victory, to be sure.
Not only that, this guy is a Major. He’s not some grunt (not that there’s anything wrong with grunts, for the PC crowd on this list). He’s going to lose quite a bit. But for the likes of his slime spewing lawyer, what becomes of the defendant in this case is irrevelant to the larger cause they champion, which is propagating this myth that Obama is an illegitimate president.
One thing I truly love about America, is that we can have whole factions of woefully misguided people in this land that don’t have to worry about the government rounding them up and sticking them in Bachmann’s re-education camps.
kay
@Bertie Wooster:
“It’s difficult to estimate how many people believe that Obama isn’t eligible to be president. Berg claims the number is around 15 million (he’d like to see awareness reach 75 million, at least). World Net Daily, a right-wing news site that publishes a steady stream of Obama-slamming stories, reportedly has gathered 380,000 signatures for its petition related to the matter. But, as with any online petition, there’s no way to know how many of those are duplicates or fakes. Taitz has been able to direct her readers to flood government officials with so many e-mails, phone messages and letters that they eventually return her phone calls.”
The point of the lawsuits is to discredit the idea that he’s President.
PaulW
@Matt:
Ever since Jack Thompson lost his license to harass video gamers.
Dennis-SGMM
Because the correspondence-only school (William Howard Taft University) that issued Taitz her law degree is not ABA-accredited Taitz can only practice law in California. She is a member of the California Bar Association but she is not listed as a member of ABA. She did however pay the fee and file the required paperwork to be admitted to the Supreme Court Bar. I’m guessing that she wasted her money on that one because the word “frivolous” fits the birther nonsense to a T.
Taitz is the same genius who got into a pissing contest with her webmaster who then spilled many beans and locked her out of her website. The comments were a thing of beauty for a while. Turned out that the webmaster was also the domain’s owner so Taitz had to get a new site.
pharniel
right. i’m pretty liberal in teh classical sense, but at what point to calls for coups and insurrections stop being protected speech and start becoming Sedetion?
honest question to the laywers here.
Cassidy
@PaulW: Depends on the situation. If you have a Soldier who commits a major felony prior to deployment, he/ she will be left on Rear Detachment to face charges, to include a charge of Missed Movement in most cases. If it’s something small that needs to be handled, but generally falls under Administrative Action, then said Soldier will deploy and just fulfill whatever Corrective Action is deemed necessary by the Chain of Command.
It’s hard to say where this one will blow. I’m genuinely hoping for a public Court Martial myself. Honestly I don’t see how they cannot.
Gregg Carlstrom
My favorite part is about halfway through the WND article:
Maybe WND’s readership will gain a new-found respect for international treaties?
… nah, doubtful.
HRA
A simple solution to this to demote him way down, give him the worst job available and let him simmer in his stupidity.
None of the above, I believe, will generate a civilian court or military court case.
1. A conscientious objector does not volunteer.
2. You volunteer for a specific duty and do not show up for it when you are ordered to do so equals being AWOL.
3. AWOL means brig time and even worse when your country is at war.
Am I right?
Karen
While I hope he’s fried, along with his numbskull attorney, thanks John. Now I have that song stuck in my head & it won’t go away.
Michael
Batman Jack! LOL – he hated me. Jim Robinson (crazy as he is) was obligated to ban Jackpeace because he kept threatening to sue posters who would dispute him on Free Republic.
Common Sense
@Dennis-SGMM:
Tell me more.
Jen R
@A. Mendoza:
Proof that Obama is actually a white Republican. Short of that, forget about it.
David
That Taitz woman is USING that soldier as an advertisement for her anti-Obama cottage industry. She’s going to ruin his life and she’s vile.
Cassidy
@Mnemosyne: No one has to worry about that.
Quaker in a Basement
“Say, look! All them Sioux Indians are just ridin’ around in circles! Looks like we win, Gen. Custer!”
Nylund
Orly Taitz got her law degree online from a correspondence school called William Howard Taft University. This school is NOT accredited by the American Bar Association and Orly is NOT a member of the American Bar Association. This would seem to bar her from practicing law, but apparently her online diploma mill gives her a “limited exception” for California and she did pass the California Bar so she apparently can practice law in California but nowhere else.
But there are rules to what you can and can’t do as a lawyer (rules about frivolous lawsuits, deceiving a client, etc.) and I believe she has practiced law outside of California. That is, she’s done a lot of things that in theory that should cause her to lose her ability to practice law in California, but so far she hasn’t, and as far as the American Bar Association is concerned, she isn’t a real lawyer.
In short, Regent University would be a huge step up for her.
Zandar
Oh yes. WOLVEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEENS.
Is there no one here who will rid Orly of this troublesome Kenyan?
David
To buy into the Obama-is-not-a-citizen thing you have to believe that there has been a 47 year long, CIA-complicit, conspiracy to have the newborn baby Barack Obama illegally installed as president.
RememberNovember
@Leelee for Obama:
In Flori-duh it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.
Hammy
Orly Taitz is not licensed to practice law in the state of FL (flabar.org) and should be prosecuted for the unauthorized practice of law and for misrepresenting that she is a licensed atty. She also lacks a professional license as a health practitioner (www.doh.state.fl.us)
Doug Mataconis
Nylund,
Membership in the ABA is irrelevant to whether someone is allowed to practice law, that’s controlled at the state level.
Nonetheless, you are right. Orly got her degree from a correspondence school that is not ABA accredited. Under California law, she was nonetheless permitted to sit for the California Bar Exam, which she apparently passed. However, because of the type of law school she went to she would not be able to use her admission in California to gain admission to the bar of any other state.
It is also my understanding that the CA Bar has an ethics complaint against her pending based on her behavior in the birther cases.
Ash
@pharniel:
I’ve been wondering this as well.
Ben
Ahhh……I now see why John Adams signed the “Alien and Sedition Act” of 1798! Libeling the POTUS is serious.
MikeJ
When it goes beyond trolling. Ignoring trolls is the right response almost all the time.
Jules
What exactly will satisfy their concerns?
Nothing.
Unless that black man in the White House stops being black….or President.
They try to dress their racism up in “concern” for this or that, but what really is all about is that the conservative movement is imploding, they lost the election and there is “ghetto trash living in the White House”….and not as the household help.
CapMidnight
“Orly”?! Whatever happened to euphemisms?
The Grand Panjandrum
So is Orly Taitz our girl with kaleidoscope eyes?
Dennis-SGMM
@Common Sense:
IIRC, the dust-up occurred in April of this year. Taitz accused the webmaster of ripping off Paypal donations to her birther foundation and went so far as to file a complaint with the FBI. The webmaster denied doing so and, as far as I know, has never been formally charged. The webmaster notified Taitz that she would be locked out until she withdrew the FBI complaint, Taitz dug in her heels thus the new site. An interesting aside is that Taitz no longer accepts donations via Paypal preferring direct mail instead.
Taitz pursuit of her fifteen minutes of fame may result in her disbarment in the only state in which she can legally practice law. Submitted to a Candid World has a nice rundown of Taitz’ various stupidities, including the practice of law in a state where she had no legal right to do so. Why the California Bar Association hasn’t begun disbarment proceedings already is a mystery to me.
LarryB
John!
OT: I had to turn the ad-blocker back on because of those crazy animated ads you’re running today. Ouch! my poor eyes.
Bootlegger
Regarding legal (or illegal) sedition, I think it has to go beyond “calling” for an overthrow, which is an opinion and protected as such. When a discussion of how to start an insurrection begins, so does sedition.
Per Wikipedia, there hasn’t been a prosecution for it since 1961.
rumpole
This makes sense–in CA, anyone can take the bar exam (and apparently pass it). I hope she sues–’cause they do have rule 11 out there, I’m told.
rumpole
This makes sense–in CA, anyone can take the bar exam (and apparently pass it). I hope she sues–’cause they do have rule 11 out there, I’m told.
Greyhawk
He won’t be court-martialled. As a Reserve IMA VOLUNTEER he didn’t have to go in the first place. Somehow WND missed a few details…
http://www.mudvillegazette.com/032369.html
Paul L.
This quote by Sotomayor applies to John Cole and Blackfive’s Uncle Jimbo on Major Cook.
“I am also not so sure I agree with the statement” is a strange way to express agreement.
Dennis-SGMM
This just gets better and better. McClatchy is reporting that Taitz filed Stefan’s case with the United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia. Apparently, the fact that she can only practice law in California is not going to keep her from her crusade.
Chris Andersen
@PaulW:
I doubt even that will satisfy them. I think we are dealing with a class of people that could be fairly labeled “congenitally disgruntled”. They will never be happy with anyone who is in charge. Yet they are convinced that if they just get out the people who are in charge, everything will be great!
Joy
I just read the OC article. I’m speechless although I shouldn’t be. I can’t fathom the nuttiness of this.
Xenos
@MikeJ: Do you know how many lawyers have experience litigating sedition cases, either as prosecutors or defense counsel? The number has to be vanishingly small.
As for Orly, she is probably alright for the moment if she filed for pro hac vice status with the complaint. Opposing counsel will be able to get her removed with little trouble, but they will need to file a motion to do it. That is not a big thing compared to the enormous ethical violations she is guilty of. She may even be criminally liable depending on the states she has gotten involved in.
Ed Drone
I’d say, “Crucifiction,” but that’d make Obama the messiah, wouldn’t it? So I guess they’ll settle for conversion to a white Republican and capitulation on everything the American people voted for in 2008.
Ed
Michael
Damn – I just checked PACER. Filed July 9, and this was filed today. And yes, the Army is participating in the defense of the suit, so soon to be former Major Cook is about to get an ass pounding he’ll never, ever forget.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
COLUMBUS DIVISION
____________________________________
MAJOR STEFAN FREDERICK COOK, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Case No. 4:09-CV-82 (CDL)
)
COLONEL WANDA L. GOOD, et al. )
)
Defendants. )
)
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS
PLAINTIFF’S APPLICATION FOR A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
COMES NOW Defendants, by and through counsel, the United States Attorney for the
Middle District of Georgia, and respectfully submit this Memorandum in Support of Defendants’
Motion to Dismiss the Application for a Temporary Restraining Order submitted by Plaintiff,
Major Stefan Cook.
I. INTRODUCTION
Major Cook is a Army Reservist assigned to perform reserve duty at Headquarters, U.S.
Southern Command (“SOUTCOM”), in Miami, Florida. Major Cook received mobilization
orders to report active duty at MacDill Air Force Base on July 15, 2009, and then to Fort
Benning, Georgia, on July 18, 2009, for deployment to Afghanistan with U.S. Special Operations
Central Command (“SOCCENT”). Major Cook now comes before this Court seeking a
temporary restraining order to challenge his deployment orders to Afghanistan claiming that “the
Commander in Chief is not constitutionally qualified nor [ ] legally elected or appointed to
succeed to the office of President of the United States.” Plaintiff’s Application for a Temporary
Case 4:09-cv-00082-CDL Document 5-2 Filed 07/15/2009 Page 1 of 6
2
Restraining Order (“TRO App.”) at 6. This case no longer presents a live case or controversy,
nor does Major Cook have standing to pursue his claim; therefore, the Court lacks subject matter
jurisdiction over his claims and they should be dismissed.
II. ARGUMENT
A. Motion To Dismiss For Lack Of Jurisdiction
A proper basis for a motion to dismiss is when the court lacks jurisdiction over the
subject matter. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). Unlike a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, consideration of a
Rule 12(b)(1) jurisdiction-type motion need not be limited; conflicting written and oral evidence
may be considered and a court may “decide for itself the factual issues which determine
jurisdiction.” Williamson v. Tucker, 645 F.2d 404, 413 (5th Cir. 1981). See also Lawrence v.
Dunbar, 919 F.2d 1525, 1529 (11th Cir. 1990), Scarfo v. Ginsberg, 175 F.3d 957, 960-961 (11th
Cir 1999) (11th Circuit adopts Williamson, Id., rationale for viewing motions to dismiss based on
Rule12(b)(1)).
B. Major Cook’s Request for Injunctive Relief is Moot
Major Cook’s Application for a Temporary Restraining Order should be denied as moot.
The Commanding General of SOCCENT has determined that he does not want the services of
Major Cook, and has revoked his deployment orders. Defense Exhibit (“DEX” A). “A case is
moot when it no longer presents a live controversy with respect to which the court can give
meaningful relief.” Ethredge v. Hail, 996, F.2d 1173 (11th Cir. 1993), citing United States v.
Certain Real & Personal Property, 943 F.2d 1292, 1296 (11th Cir. 1991).
In his Application for a Temporary Restraining Order, Major Cook asks that the Court
Case 4:09-cv-00082-CDL Document 5-2 Filed 07/15/2009 Page 2 of 6
3
enjoin Defendants from deploying him on active duty until the constitutional qualifications and
eligibility of the President and Commander in Chief can be established. TRO App. at 20. Major
Cook’s mobilization orders have been revoked, see DEX A, therefore, he is no longer subject to
deployment or active duty service. As such, there is no longer a live case or controversy upon
which this Court can give meaningful relief. Accordingly, Major Cook’s Application for a
Temporary Restraining Order should be dismissed.
C. Major Cook Lacks Standing to Pursue His Claim
Without mobilization orders, Major Cook lacks standing to pursue his claims. Standing is
an “irreducible constitutional minimum” that has three elements. Lujan v. Defenders of
Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992); see also Florida Family Policy Council v. Freeman, 561 F.3d
1246, 1253 (11th Cir. 2009) (employing Lucan’s three-pronged test). First, a party must have
experienced an injury in fact: “an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete
and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.” Lujan, 504 U.S.
at 560 (citations and quotations marks omitted). Second, there must be a causal connection
between the injury in fact and the defendant’s conduct that is “fairly …traceable] to the
challenged action of the defendant, and not …the result [of] the independent action of some third
party not before the court.” Id. at 560-61 (quoting Simon v. E. Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426
U.S. 26, 41-42 (1976)). Third, a favorable decision must be likely to redress the complained of
injury. Lujan, 504 U.S. at 561 (citations omitted).
Major Cook cannot demonstrate that he will experience an injury in fact. His
mobilization orders have been revoked and he is no longer subject to active duty military service
or deployment. Major Cook asserts that he is not reluctant to serve his country in the Armed
Case 4:09-cv-00082-CDL Document 5-2 Filed 07/15/2009 Page 3 of 6
4
Forces. See TRO App. Plaintiff’s Verification at p. 2. Thus, Major Cook’s claim that he would
be harmed by his participation in the war in Afghanistan because it could lead to his
classification as a “de jure war criminal,” not entitled to the protections of international law, is
no longer an actual or imminent threat (if it ever were), and certainly amounts to nothing more
than conjecture on his part.
Additionally, a favorable decision on Major Cook’s Application for a Temporary
Restraining Order, the only thing currently pending before this Court, would no longer redress
the complained of injury. Major Cook has asked that the Court issue a temporary restraining
order to enjoin the execution of his mobilization orders which would bring him to Fort Benning,
Georgia, and within the jurisdiction over this Court. As set forth above, those orders have been
revoked and Major Cook no longer has orders giving him any presence within this judicial
district. Thus, this Court would no longer be the proper forum for his claims, and lacks
jurisdiction to redress the complained of injury.
Accordingly, Major Cook no longer has standing to pursue his claims, and his
Application for a Temporary Restraining Order should be dismissed.
III. CONCLUSION
Defendants respectfully request that the Court dismiss his Application for a Temporary
Restraining Order.
Irony Abounds
Going to an ABA accredited law school is important (thus getting her degree from a non-ABA accredited law school is relevant – she essentially got her degree because she breathes). Not belonging to the ABA, however, is a non-issue. There is no requirement that a lawyer belong to the ABA and it essentially is just another organization sucking dues out of professionals.
spudvol
Military.com declares Orly victory.
http://www.military.com/news/article/anti-obama-gis-afghan-orders-revoked.html
Michael
She paid the pro hac vice fee, but she didn’t file her complaint electronically, so I don’t see any accompanying application to practice pro hac vice. She also forgot to send in her $350.00 filing fee, so she’s got a deficiency letter on that.
different church lady
@A. Mendoza:
A: Nothing.
As Eschaton says, “This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.”
different church lady
@Brachiator:
Oh dear… great minds think alike. And so do ours.
Michael
Yet another discussion site used mainly by Korean War Era corporals and buck sergeants who rarely got out of sight of the CONUS quartermaster depots they worked in.
Doug H.
@Doug Mataconis: Beat me to it. If he this had been a last-minute decision, he might’ve got off easily. Screwing over his unit just to make a publicity stunt for conspiracy kooks, though? I sure hope Cook likes Fort Leavenworth in the winter.
Of course, this is all fine to Our Lady of Nitrous Oxide. He’s just one more martyr in the great crusade to
scam the racists out of their life’s savingsoust that uppity negro.Michael
Oh, Jesus Christ – I just grabbed the TRO request and it is so chock full of crazy I don’t know how to express it.
Ash Can
Excellent. Let Taitz et al. crow and celebrate and dance in the streets all they want. It’ll just make them look all the stupider when the hammer comes down — and judging by Michael’s post @ #86, it looks like that’s going to be the case.
kay
@Joy:
Dismissing it as nutty is misguided, in my opinion.
Look what they’re actually doing here. They’re filing case after case, knowing they don’t have standing and/or that the court won’t take jurisdiction. That results in vast numbers of people believing these cases are being dismissed on a “technicality”, although both standing and jurisdiction are hardly “technicalities”. It means you’re the wrong person to bring suit and you’re in the wrong court. Doesn’t get much more basic than that. Calling dismissal on jurisdiction or standing “a technicality” is ludicrous.
They’re discrediting the legitimacy of the President, based on nothing but wild rumors. It’s deliberate. This isn’t about law, it’s about using the courts to smear someone.
They could do this to you, personally.
Anyone can file anything. What anyone can’t do is get their reputation back.
Michael
I genuinely enjoyed this statement:
Pregnant with meaning, given the Army’s participation in the pleading. The order itself is plain vanilla Army speak, but there’ve obviously been some communications.
ARMY HUMAN RESOURCES COMMAND
1 RESERVE WAY
ST. LOUIS, MO 63132-5200
AHRC-PLM-S 14 JUL 2009
ORDERS A-06-916551R
COOK STEFAN FREDERICK EAD8 MAJ EN 155 54 7803
4207 HARBOR LAKE DRIVE W096AA
LUTZ FL 33558
THE FOLLOWING ORDER IS REVOKED OR RESCINDED AS SHOWN.
ACTION: REVOKE
SO MUCH OF: FORMAT 162 A-06-916551 AHRC DATED 09 JUN 2009
PERTAINING TO: EXTENDED ACTIVE DUTY ORDER OF
COOK STEFAN FREDERICK
155 54 7803 MAJ EN 21B
FOR ARMY USE: AUTHORITY: 10 USC 12301 (D)
ACCT CLAS: 21 9/0 2010.0000 01-1100 P1A1000 11**/12** VFRE F3203 5570 01FFGU
12161 21 9 2020.0000 B1 B1TC 135197 21T1/21T2 COO7803T916551 VFRE F4209
AZTD2E 12161 CIC: 2920B1AZTD12161 9199-STL-18JUL09
FORMAT: 705
************** LOUIS B. WINGATE
* AHRC * COL, FA
* OFFICIAL * COMMANDING
**************
DISTRIBUTION: 1 SOLDIER
1 SOC CENTRAL (SOCJ1) 7115 S BDRY BLVD 813-828-6378 MACDILL AFB FL 33621
1 USA ELM HQ USSOUTHCOM 3511 NW 91ST AVENUE MIAMI FL 33172
Case 4:09-cv-00082-CDL Document 5-3 Filed 07/15/2009 Page 1 of 1
Zandar
squish.
steve s
Those birfer billboards that say “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” make me really wish I was independently wealthy, and could buy the next billboard on the road and put up, “It’s in Hawaii, Corky.”
Tsulagi
Actually I’m thinking it probably did occur to the brilliant duo.
Seems very likely he volunteered for deployment just to set up this situation. So he’d have standing in a civilian court.
Then if that fell through because his orders were revoked, as they just were, if there was disciplinary action they’d be able to bring the birther defense in an Article 32 hearing then court martial. Either way they get what they want. Really smart. They thought it through. No doubt have the champagne chilling for certain victory.
Except the presiding judge can start the proceedings saying “This court recognizes President Obama as our lawful Commander in Chief. There will be no challenges heard toward that fact. You have another line of defense?”
I hope they do court martial this dumbass. Darwin at work.
Joe Max
I still think this is one of those 11th dimensional chess moves by BO. Why “release the vault copy” or whatever they think that means when it’s such a great way to keep the ultra-wingnuts chasing their tails and making themselves look like idiots? In public. Repeatedly. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Trollhattan
You durn libruls and your durn facts. How can this forthcoming oppressive military action upon the plucky major possibly fit into the birthers’ meme? How?!?
I want to note the last time I saw a hairdoo like that Orly person is sporting, I was either being served drinks at a bowling alley or on a PSA flight.
That is all.
White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob)
“Oily Taint”? She should sue her parents for that name.
Augustine
@SGEW:
The only thing they could find to do with him, however, was take him into the Army as a private and make him a major four days later so that Congressmen with nothing else on their minds could go trotting back and forth through the streets of Washington, D.C., chanting, “Who promoted Major Major? Who promoted Major Major?”
Tsulagi
@Michael: Reading through that, yeah, it looks like Major Cook is cluelessly sitting on top the anvil while the hammer is getting cocked.
shelley matheis
Wassamatta U
Served? How does this apply to this guy?
yellowdog
The governor of Hawaii is a Republican and is not likely to be inclined to help Obama in a 12 dimensional chess game.
Anyway, it seems possible/probable that there is no ‘vault copy’ because the records were all transferred to an electronic format years ago.
Martin
I thought she looked more like Mom from Futurama.
jibeaux
@Tsulagi:
I’m missing something. I do a very different area of law, but this looks to me like a simple motion to dismiss his suit as moot as the order to deploy has been revoked and therefore there are no issues in dispute. What’s the coming ass pounding?
Litlebritdifrnt
Any officer (or lawyer who represents him) who thinks that having a CG of your command say that “he no longer wants your services” is a “win” is delusional. Luckily Cook already has his 20 years in, if he is smart he will resign before they can his arse.
bvac
Yikes, now I know where Tom Tomorrow gets his reference photos from.
jibeaux
Also too, how/why would they court martial a guy whose orders they have revoked? It just looks to me like Cook signed on, for whatever reason, for another tour; decided he didn’t want to go after all when he got his marching orders; filed his nuttier than a fruitcake temporary restraining order motion with his nuttier than a fruitcake semi-lawyer; and the Army said, wait, Major Birther D. Lunatic doesn’t want to go? What a coincidence, we’re already chockablock with crazy anyway. So, okay, then, stay here.
I could see a dishonorable discharge, probably, I don’t really know where else they’re going to go with this, though.
Bertie Wooster
@ WH Dept. of Law –
Now all future birther stories will make me think of “Oily Taint”. Thanks, I think.
Something tells me Maj. Cook at the very least does not retire with a Major’s rank or pay.
And if they can’t court-martial him, they can certainly OTH or Dishonorably Discharge him rather than letting him retire. (Or Section 8?)
Tony J
So we have this –
Plus this –
Call me a shill for the popcorn industry if you will, but I can’t help wondering if we’re going to see Cook’s postings to Freeperville used as evidence to show that he never actually intended to serve in Afghanistan, but rather conspired with a pseudo-lawyer to stage a publicity stunt in order to embarass the Armed Forces and their C-in-C.
That strange sound you hear? It’s a sonic-boom emanating from the simultaneous gulp of horror performed by the honchos at FR after they purged their records of Cook’s posts and then pondered the question “Was that still legal now that Cheney isn’t running things?”
Batocchio
Hey, only dead fish go with the flow. He’s doing it for the good of Alaska.
gex
@jibeaux: I guess I don’t know enough about the military, but I would certainly hope that signing up in May just so you can sue your way out of it in July at least gives them some ground for court-martial.
Michael
Sadly for him, there are several chunks of the UCMJ that apply.
He’s actually fairly close on mutiny/sedition, given the comments of his idiot lawyer.
gnomedad
@Joe Max:
Wingers :: Obama = Tunch :: John with laser
jibeaux
@Tony J:
That Timeline O’ Crazy and the conclusion that it is a staged controversy certainly makes sense. I am still not figuring out what possible consequences it could have beyond the dear Major’s retirement.
Presumably they were hoping for a prolonged court battle up the Supreme Court with the Army trying to make him serve and him bravely fighting the good fight against the Kenyan national usurper, all the way till they could give Roberts a second copy of their, um, evidence — rather than the good riddance he seems to have gotten…
Longshot
I think this is more likely a “framing” of the rescinded order, so that they can react with tones of shocked betrayal and OMG THERE MUST BE *MORE* TO IT THEY’RE REALLY SCARED NOW b.s. when the court martial comes down the pike.
Cassidy
@jibeaux: Answers for both comments. As a reservist, he is still in federal Employ for one. Secondly, if I understand correctly, said commission is given by the POTUS, and it can be taken away. If he doesn’t “retire” then he loses all benefits, etc. Essentially, his years of service are for naught and he gets nothing for it.
Also, he can be Court Martialed under a fairly broad concept in the UCMJ: Conduct Unbecoming a Commissioned Officer. And, the Court Martial would fall under his current Chain of Command, said people who no longer wish to have his services.
jibeaux
@Michael:
Maybe. I’m not sure that the legal argument in a motion for a restraining order, however batshit crazy, is really going to constitute conduct or contempt, though, and I have my doubts that the Army is going to get into the stomach churning business of combing through FreeRepublic commentary either. I’m just really skeptical that they’re going to bother engaging him in any way other than cutting him loose. I could be wrong.
The Grand Panjandrum
So this guy has either caused some poor fucker to get last minute orders to deploy, or his unit is deploying down one officer. Nice. He fucked his buddies no matter how you slice or dice this one.
I hope he ends up doing time at the DB in Leavenworth.
jibeaux
@Cassidy:
Agreed that his retirement after the years of service can, probably will, be for naught. As for whether the Army pursues anything else against him, I’m willing to take the negatory on that if someone wants to set up another pool ala the NCAA tournament (presumably with fewer brackets.) Shoot, if I looked I could probably find the odds on some sort of Vegas-based site already, couldn’t I? I remember reading once how on the interwebs you could basically bet on anything in the world you could think of and many, many things you couldn’t.
Tsulagi
@jibeaux:
Gross insubordination.
From the military filing you can see they want it completely out of civilian court now arguing Cook no longer has standing and also that the civilian court lacks jurisdiction.
The sarcasm in that filing is pretty evident. Cook’s services no longer desired; that’s great. Deciding to make that motion plus what I’m reading in it is they want his ass.
A dishonorable discharge carries the weight of a felony conviction.
Will
@Ash:
Then he must have signed up for this duty in May so he could turn it down on this basis in July. For the press.
jibeaux
@Tsulagi:
Okay, a discharge with the weight of a felony conviction would be bad. But I’m not sure how you would argue gross insubordination when his deployment orders have been revoked. That would seem to me to be the definition of moot.
jibeaux
Well, this is completely O/T but I just saw this from yesterday’s TPM, that Michael Steele’s diversity plan is “to say, ‘Ya’ll come!’ I got the fried chicken and potato salad!”
I’m just sort of embarrassed for him now. Someone said he was a black guy’s idea of a white guy’s idea of a black guy, but it’s starting to look an awful lot like he’s just a white guy born into the wrong body. Like a transgender person, only with race, and still trying to make the birth situation work out and pretty much just still in denial about the whole thing. Your thoughts welcome.
Tony J
Sure, the military can decide not to put Cook through a court-martial, that wouldn’t be too surprising, given the utter lack of interest the White House is likely to display. But it could also turn out that they do decide to court-martial him for overtly trying to defraud the military as part of a publicity stunt.
Put it this way, if Cook had been on the Left, and he’d conspired like this with, oh, Michael Moore say, at any point during Bush’s two terms, solely in order to publicise his opinion that the 2000 election was stolen, I would have no doubt that this would be ‘cable-catnip’ and the subject of a massive campaign to screw him sideways with the UCMJ.
But it’s 2009, and Cook’s crazy is of the Righty-Tighty brand, so it’s not so attractive to the MSM or the White House to make a big deal over it. It may just go away.
But if there’s a feeling in the military brass that it might be advantageous to have a few credits in the bank where it comes to the guy who’s going to be signing their paychecks for the next decade – as there well might be, given the state of the GOP – putting a patently fraudulent freeper like Cook through an adversarial court-martial in order to stamp “Armed Forces Approved” on the Presidential birth certificate might look like a win-win for the military.
And wouldn’t that be something to see?
Joel
@White House Department of Law (fmrly Jim-Bob): I’m glad I’m not the only one who reads the name as Orly Taints. Sounds like a gay porn movie filmed in a Paris airport.
Mnemosyne
I would be more worried that there wouldn’t be any consequences if the guy was in the Air Force, where the wackos have been trying to take over for years. The Army is not going to play this “he’s not the real president” bullshit. No matter what the higher-ups opinion on the birther controversy is, they can’t allow open mutiny in the ranks.
Not that Cook cares, anyway. He has a guaranteed spot on wingnut welfare no matter what happens. You think Rush Limbaugh is going to pass up a chance to have this brave, brave American on his show? Or Glenn Beck? Or Sean Hannity? Hell, the guy probably already has a book deal with Regnery.
Cassidy
@jibeaux: Gross Insubordination amounts to refusing to deploy. Conduct Unbecoming is basically saying you acted like a jackass. The problem this guy has is that he isn’t really high enough in rank to get the “quietly retire” treatment. Major’s are a dime a dozen and are at the beginning of their Field Grade status. And the Army can be particularly thorough when it wants to be. I’ll give you an example.
I knew a guy, when I was a Private (he was a Corporal), who was cheating on his wife. Apparently his wife was prudish in the bedroom and only offered one position, etc. When she found out, she came to the Chain of Command, who not only charged him with adultery, but also sodomy, Conduct Unbecoming, etc. They prettymuch brought out every charge they could on this guy. I don’t know the whole back story of why, as it happened before my time. They didn’t really have to nail this guy with all this, as the adultery was plenty, but they did.
Added: Orders can be rescinded and then issued right away for activation to receive UCMJ.
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
Oh, it’s not going to happen. But it is the only thing that would satisfy the birfers.
ETA: Your four-year-old would be satisfied if you gave her ice cream for dinner every night, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
peach flavored shampoo
Plumber/Taitz 2012!
gex
@jibeaux: How about the fact that when he volunteered to go, Obama was CIC. What has changed? Nothing. It was his entire goal to rig this so he can refuse to go. It’s definitely gross, if not gross insubordination.
Leelee for Obama
I will invoke the agreed upon form of Dem Party prayer:
” To Whom It May Concern, if indeed there is a Whom:
Please let this be so!”
jibeaux
@Tony J:
I guess I just think that it doesn’t really matter to the birthers what happens with the Army, they are not going to accept him. It won’t matter if he personally knocks on their door accompanied by the Joint Chiefs to show them the original of his birth certificate with a raised seal and lets them examine the kerning and shit, they are going to call him an illegitimate Kenyan-Indonesian usurper until their death and if possible, beyond. They are certifiably insane and they have no legitimate argument that merits defending or any other serious consideration. I am inclined to the think the less attention paid to them, the better. But who knows.
jibeaux
@gex:
Oh, definitely. I understand that. All I’m saying is that for the civil courts, and as is abundantly clear I do not know anything about the court martial, if there is not a current controversy at stake they will not hear it. Say the city decides they’re going to condemn your property for a road, and you file for an injunction to stop them. And the city changes their plans and says they don’t want your property after all. And you want to press your case for injunctive relief. It will be thrown out. There is no longer anything in controversy, it may have been at one time, but it is now moot, and no matter how right you were and how wrong the city was, there is nothing for the court to decide. It may definitely be different for the Army, but I don’t logically see how you would get past the fact that they are no longer requesting he deploy if the insubordination is that he refused to deploy…
pharniel
and don’t forget the interpersonal relationships angle.
if he’s being a dick, as a major, to his suprior, pretty much means he’s pissing on the boots of colnols(sp) and generals right?
last time i checked you don’t get to that level without having a healthy (or even grossly obese) ego and many may have taken this little stunt a might bit personally and unlike some pissant sargent who’s in the shithole with a 2nd lt. these are the kinda guys that senators call when they hear about their parents/kids/wives/etc. being ill.
in short, not people to fuck with.
Tsulagi
@jibeaux:
The reason his deployment order was revoked was that he was arguing outside his chain of command President Obama is not the lawful CIC. Challenging his legitimacy. And in doing so challenging his chain of command’s authority. Not being able to proceed with his argument in civilian court or having it dismissed does not render it moot to the military.
Military command is not a democracy where free thinkers are encouraged to voice and have their personal issues recognized so everyone can arrive at an empathetic, satisfactory consensus to all. All Major Cook needed to know is that his chain of command recognizes Obama as the CIC. Period. No discussion. If he wasn’t aware of that fact, he could have asked.
Court martialling his ass would have the benefit of letting any other retarded birther in uniform contemplating similar action know there are consequences. Also, it would put on court record military recognizes Obama as CIC. Not that it’s needed, but just another notice to idiots.
gex
@jibeaux: I get you. I just think that even with the orders rescinded, the fact of his behaviors leading to this necessity ought to give them something to work with.
shelley matheis
Just saw this on Free Republic
But I thought this was supposed to be a big victory for their side.
peach flavored shampoo
I know absolutely nothing about the military, but I would think they’d have to punish him rather sternly to prevent this nonsense in the future. For unit members to be able to suddenly sue their way out of deployments with no backlash would set such a insane precedent as to destroy military command and order.
But again, I’ve never served.
Mnemosyne
@jibeaux:
Except that what the Army actually said in the court filing is that they “no longer require his services.” That’s not, “Oh, okay, he doesn’t have to go.” It’s, “His ass is about to be fired, so it’s not the civilian court’s business anymore.”
I’ve never been in the military but in civilian life when your boss says, “Your services are no longer required,” it is not a prelude to a happy conversation and ends with security guards walking you to your car with a box full of stuff from your desk, assuming they don’t have police there to arrest you.
Barry
jbeaux, insubordination doesn’t require current standing, so to speak (warning: IANAL, and don’t even play one on TV).
Think of it this way – a subordinate is ordered to do a task by superior, doesn’t like it, and publicly curses out the superior. For whatever reason, the superior revokes the original order. This does *not* let the subordinate off of the hook for the insubordination.
Lesley
The fear of being brutally killed in terrifying Afghanistan had nothing whatsoever to do with this reserve soldier’s desire not to go there. Uh huh.
Bring me that swamp land, Jeeves, I have a new customer.
jibeaux
@peach flavored shampoo:
But he didn’t sue his way out of a deployment. The injunction would not have been granted, I feel pretty comfortable in saying. If others file for injunctive relief and the Army doesn’t want to cut them loose, I feel pretty sure the Army is going to win that one.
asiangrrlMN
Put me on the ‘nothing happens to him but a book deal’ side because sometimes, it’s just better to keep on walkin’. In other words, this is not of interest to anyone in traditional media. Obama won’t pursue it. That’s not his style. I’m not sure the Army really gives a shit, except, as others have pointed out, that Major Cook screwed over his unit by doing this. Oh, and because they might want to set a precedent of not doing this kind of shit for other birfers. I have no idea how the army works, though, so I will defer to John and other army vets on this one.
To be purely petty, I really hope he does get court-martialled. This kind of grandstanding needs to stop.
As for Orly, I really hope SHE gets the hammer brought down upon her. She’s disgusting.
jibeaux
@Barry:
Yeah, you’re probably right about that. Still, I don’t really see them pursuing this. Has anyone started my pool yet?
Jon H
@asiangrrlMN:
“As for Orly, I really hope SHE gets the hammer brought down upon her. She’s disgusting.”
TAITZ! GTFO!
colleeniem
Hi, military officer here. Don’t have much time, (and shouldn’t be on this site anyways), but the language of post 88 from the Army means: Don’t worry about it. We will take care of it in our own way.
Further meaning: the Major’s ass is grass.
They can do all manner of financial things to him (i.e. forgoing retirement) that a civilian court can’t. I hope he had a good TSP account to get him through. What a jackass.
Tony J
Of course not. Anyone so deep in that kind of desperate rejectionism is never going to be happy with a walking, talking slap-in-the-face like Barack Hussein Obama stamping his curly-toed sandal in their face – forever, but they’re a lost cause anyway, fuck ’em.
The optics of a military court-martial making an example of a freeper who thought he could screw with the US Army solely to gain publicity for a right-wing propaganda campaign aimed at encouraging mutiny amongst the Armed Forces against their consitutionally elected Commander-in-Chief, however….
Because that’s what Cook was doing here. Conspiring to fake a commitment to serve so that he could get up in front of a military court and call for a military coup against the elected Government. The louder that’s trumpeted the better.
pharniel
@jibeaux: I don’t know. This is way to close to mutany and as upthread said, if we were actually in a state of war would (and has been in at least britian) an immedeatly executed kinda deal.
With all the guys still pulling tour after tour it would set a bad precident of ‘sue and you get to not go to afghanistan for free’ and one of the things that cannot be tolerated in a functional military is allowing people to be able to leave whenever they want.
Elie
Facts are not important to this movement or the related White American Tribe. They have “beliefs” that are important to “true believers” and all others are “the Other”, “heretics” or not part of the clan..
Its a waste of time to argue about objective “facts” to them…they are a clan, a way of life (thinking/being), that is under threat. In their world, they believe that the clan IS the world and that its values and ideals are the only thing that matter. In this case, a black man cannot be President of the American White Tribe/Clan — and they believed that the United States was theirs and only theirs…
What to do?
It will take time, but eventually they will become less prominent as their position becomes more and more irrelevant and — they will grow old and die and their descendants are growing up in a different America..
gnomedad
@peach flavored shampoo:
Or,
Almost-a-Plumber/Almost-a-Lawyer 2012!
Tony J
Put it this way, I don’t see how the military can’t court-martial Cook for what he’s done. It may have seemed like a good idea over at Freeperville, but actually taking legal action against the military in order to publicise a campaign that seeks to convince serving military personel that their chain-of-command is illegitimate and should be ignored…
Okay, I know I’m constantly blind-sided by how stupid wingnuts can be, but isn’t this something close to an actual hanging offence?
Which is the long way of saying, I don’t think you’re at all petty for hoping Cook gets put through a court-martial.
mcc
@Michael: So I’m not sure I see specific reason to believe this guy is going to face disciplinary action? But:
Goodness, that sounds ominous.
maurganne
@spudvol:
The scary part about this article at military.com is the number of commenters who are still wondering why “he hasn’t shown his original birth certificate.” I can’t believe people fall for this kind of crap.
Tony J
@Leelee for Obama:
Seconded. Do I hear a No? No? Then it’s passed.
Sweet.
Trinity
@colleeniem: Thanks for sharing your perspective! And even more thanks for your service.
Catsy
So let me get this straight. Orly’s latest bit of fuckwittery involved finding a Major in the Army Reserves willing to impale his career on her ego by volunteering for duty in Afghanistan, then filing a lawsuit to challenge his deployment orders on the grounds that Obama may not be legally President.
Legally, as a reservist assigned to a volunteer assignment, he could change his mind at any time up until the day of deployment. So the Army has rescinded his deployment orders and responded to the lawsuit with a motion to dismiss on the grounds that the complaint and relief sought by the plaintiff are now moot.
Orly refers to this as a victory and says that the Army is declining to stand behind Obama’s legitimacy.
In the real world, what happened is that the CO of SOCCENT decided he didn’t want this moronic fuckup in his theater or chain of command, and the Army is currently considering rewarding the Major with a coveted job in the 177th Utah coastal defense brigade.
Eric U.
my view as an officer for 11 years is that anyone under the rank of O-6 is a grunt. Majors don’t get to do anything fun. I suspect this guy was going to retire as a Major, hopefully this doesn’t happen.
Chattering Class
Being represented by Gnarly Tats?
Chattering Class
Who would hire a lawyer named Gnarly Tats?
Michael
I think its mighty close. He’s impugning the entire NCA with his suit, his public statements and his lawyer’s statements on his behalf.
And it is a capital crime.
ART. 94. MUTINY OR SEDITION
(a) Any person subject to this chapter who–
(1) with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny;
(2) with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or disturbance against that authority is guilty of sedition;
(3) fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.
(b) A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
Comrade Tudor
I love our troops, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Leelee for Obama
@Tony J: Ain’t democracy a beautiful thing? I’m kinda sniffly here!
Michael
And today we learn that he’s been fired from his contractor job because DSS now has issues with his clearance. He also had 2 hours’ worth of conferences with his boss in four calls, apparently last night, where he doesn’t hardly believe it happened to him.
The boss also seems to suspect publicity stunt on the deployment, which didn’t go over well with anybody in the company.
Robertdsc-iphone
Haha. Great image.
Litlebritdifrnt
I hope they throw the book at both him and Orly, and I hope he enjoys applying for those communistic unemployment benefits and food stamps. Orly has been pushing this for some time, she was warned by many people that she was going to get someone in the military in trouble with her antics, now we have been proven right. I hope the Judge in Georgia throws the book at her tomorrow and sanctions her.
aarrgghh
according to cook’s dentist-lawyer, cook has now joined the proud ranks of the unemployed:
colleeniem
@Trinity: You’re very welcome! Among other things, you’re currently paying my not inconsequential salary with your tax dollars. So I should actually get to work and make sure you’re getting your value…but the BJ commentariot make it hard to resist.
Just to reiterate, his command is going to take him to the cleaners, and rightfully so. Army doesn’t truck with mutinous cretins, ESPECIALLY reservist mid-level O’s. Adultery? bah. Conduct unbecoming? Meh.
Failing to obey a lawful order? Holy s#$%, son, get ready for the hammer to fall.
And yes, the comments at the Military.com site make me so terribly upset. I’m going to pretend they don’t exist.
LarryB
What I want to know is, given that the Army is so desperate for bodies that they’re recruiting autistic kids, convicts, and Nazis, how come they let this Cook guy sit on the shelf for over a year after he volunteered? It makes me wonder just how much they wanted him.
maurganne
@jibeaux: I agree with you. They clearly call the request moot because the order to deploy was revoked. If they bring him up on charges, it won’t be insubordination.
Even if it wasn’t a moot argument because of the revocation, I don’t think this qualifies as insubordination. That’s because it truly was a voluntary deployment rather than an order to deploy. He had up to 30 days before his deployment to withdraw himself as a volunteer. He never made the request, but it was within his rights. That’s just one of the facts of the case that make it so ridiculous- if his real purpose was just to avoid deployment, he could have just told them so and gotten out of it. Instead, he files a lawsuit. It’s pretty obvious what his motivations were, just as it’s obvious that he doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on no matter how you look at it.
Wile E. Quixote
Is that his SSN? If it is I can’t believe that DoD is so careless as to put it out there where anyone can get it and presumably do nefarious things with it.
Indylib
@asiangrrlMN:
Coming from my perspective as a military spouse I’m going to opine that the Army does indeed care. According to the Military.com story this idiot lawyer claims that she has 170 clients that are service personnel. The military is likely use this case to nip this shit in the bud. They might be inclined to just discharge an enlisted person, but an officer is a different matter. This is a matter of leadership and respect for the chain of command. This douchebag Cook could easily be court-martialed for Conduct unbecoming an officer.
Michael
I assume so. Its in an open record filing on his orders, that were a necessary exhibit filed with a defense against his motion.
And now Lou Fucking Dobbs has picked up the birther megaphone to try and inspire some violent unrest, so I can’t say as I’m real sorry about Major Cook’s SSN privacy.
Tony J
@Leelee for Obama:
Exactly. I find it hard to believe that the toppity-top brass in the US military haven’t licked a finger and put it up in the path of the gale-force winds driving the Republican Party towards the cliff marked “Not relevant to the debate over funding”.
There’s only one game you can have skin in these days, and that means no upside to tolerating mutiny in the ranks.
What? You thought the Freepers would rest on their laurels after driving anyone with a dark complexion out of the GOP tent? This is them trying to apply the wingnut purity-test to the military and hoping it works out like in those books they like reading.
Naganappen. As the internets say.
Indylib
@maurganne:
I seriously doubt that most of the birfer sounding idiots on that comment thread were real military (active-duty or retirees). The FR jackasses follow the stories and carpet bomb the comments.
maya
@Michael:
Well, lookie there. Does anyone know a good Nigerian Bank connection? No Down Credit company? Shady Lane loan officer?
Wile E. Quixote
So I looked at Oily Taint’s website and found that Major Cook has now joined the ranks of the 1st unemployed wingnut battalion. Here’s what Taint has to say about it:
Taint then goes on to spin out a conspiracy theory about DoD telling SimTech to fire Major Cook as an act of retaliation for his brave and courageous filing of this lawsuit. I have to say that if I were Major Cook’s boss I would have fired him as well, and if DoD had called me up to say “fire this guy because he’s a brave whistleblower against Obama” I would have had to say “Sorry, I already fired his ass for fucking over our company.”
Seriously, this guy goes out and volunteers for deployment to Afghanistan. His employer assumes that he’s volunteering in good faith and works with him to grant him military leave and to find a replacement for him while he’s away. Then his employer finds out that it was just a stunt, that Major Cook never really intended to deploy and that this was just something he did to get standing for a stupid lawsuit, if someone did that to me I’d be incredibly angry and I wouldn’t be inclined to bring them back onboard because who knows what kind of nonsense they’ll pull in the future to fuck over the company. Seriously, this is like someone lying about a relative dying so they can claim bereavement leave, it’s bullshit and it sounds like a lot of people at the company know that it’s bullshit and are talking about it. Have fun finding a job Major Cook, I can’t imagine an employer out there who’d be willing to touch your dumb and disloyal ass.
Wile E. Quixote
IANALAHNAFCATSOT (I Am Not A Lawyer And Have Not A Fucking Clue About This Sort of Thing). So I notice that Taint refers to Major Cook as “Plaintiff Major”? Is this correct legal terminology? If I had sued the Army for something when I was in would I have been referred to as “Plaintiff Sergeant”? Or is this just another example of Taint trying to look as if she knows what she’s doing and failing miserably?
Thanks
Wile E. (The “E” stands for “Plaintiff Galactic Overlord”) Quixote
chuck
ORLY solicited this client in Florida?
That’s practicing law without a license. Pro hac vice doesn’t enter into it. I understand there’s ethics complaints against her already, and with that charge, it’s pretty much certain she’s going to be disbarred in CA for it.
kay
I think it’s probably good it reaches a head. They’ll take everyone they involve down with them, including Lou Dobbs, which is a wonderful thing, in any set of circumstances.
Maybe Orly can be the new fresh face of the conservative movement. She’ll get a slot on FOX.
Trinity
@kay: Lou Dobbs? What’s his connection?? I’ve missed something…
Bonnie
Apparently, Cook has co-counsel.
http://charleslincoln3.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/a-modern-american-military-hero-major-stefan-frederick-cook/
Mnemosyne
@Catsy:
I’m holding out for a transfer to Thule Air Base, myself. I’m sure they must have an Army liaison on the base and, if they don’t, I’m sure they’ll be happy to appoint one.
Frankly, to me that would almost be better than court-martialling him. Especially if his internet access is mysteriously spotty.
kay
@Trinity:
I went to his website. He’s interviewing Orly. It’s his big scoop.
I read some of her related rants. A lot of her objections to Obama center on the fact that she’s convinced he’s a Muslim.
It’s ugly, bigoted stuff. I can’t believe an ostensibly mainstream outlet is giving her a forum.
I think Mr. Dobbs will regret that. This goes to his credibility.
Mnemosyne
A few fun facts about Thule, from the Air Force’s website:
I would gladly pass up a court-martial if the major were assigned to Thule instead.
BDeevDad
@shelley matheis: Let’s see, I work at a defense contractor and I’m saying the head of the military is a fraud and my lawyer says soldiers can now disobey all orders. No this won’t effect my company, so they’ll support me suing their customer.
Trinity
@kay: thanks kay. I’m surprised…but then again I’m not. CNN in many ways has become Fox-lite.
Litlebritdifrnt
FYI Orly is now just a sock puppet, her new “Legal Clerk” who is writing all the pleadings (while still stupid are alot better than her previous piles of shit) is a convicted felon, former attorney who is disbarred in three states. Charles Lincoln. This is his website.
http://www.charleslincoln.spiritualpatriot.com/bio.html
kay
@Trinity:
I’m not surprised. I dislike him more than the FOX people because he’s such a fraud. He found a marketing niche, and it involves demonizing better than half the country, and making the other half more stupid. He is without redeeming qualities.
kay
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I don’t understand why the California Bar governing authority doesn’t initiate a character and fitness inquiry.
She’s crazy, and she’s got clients. They need to call her in for a talk.
Slim Tyranny
@David:
And they were dumb enough to go with “Barack Hussein Obama II” as the kid’s name.
Litlebritdifrnt
@kay:
Kay – a very comprehensive, well researched and well written complaint has been filed with the State Bar of CA listing all of the ethics violations that Orly has committed including, but not limited to, soliciting clients in states where she is not licensed, filing frivilous pleadings, out and out lying in pleadings, berating judges and court clerks, urging her followers to harrass court officials. In this latest case she is required to have a sponsoring attorney from the Middle District of GA in order to be granted pro vice hac status, so far no such sponsoring attorney has been identified. I hope the Judge sanctions her tomorrow.
mcc
Wow, this is getting interesting quick.
So here is a question– how do clearances work for actual members of the armed forces? For example in Maj. Cook’s case would his clearance have been obtained through / held by Simtech or the Army?
Piper
I’ve been trying to get an answer for so long and cannot get one Birther to answer this question (there doesn’t seem to be anyone defending this idiocy here but maybe you guys could help me out): what is the narrative?
.
I mean, is the theory really that Barack Obama’s teenage mother, the Republican Governor of Hawaii, the CIA and many others have been involved in a half century-long conspiracy to install a baby named Barack Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the United States? And they have been plotting this since before the modern Civil Rights movement?
.
I mean, that can’t be it, can it?
.
Can’t get over the irony that one of the two major party candidates for President WAS born outside the United States- John Sidney McCain III.
Michael
Enabling sockpuppetry around here will get your ticket punched so fast your head will spin. I know guys who do it as a helping hand, and I warn them that their good deed in helping a loser keep some groceries and a roof will bite them on the ass.
Nobody ever listens.
Mike
Security Clearances are issued by DOD and the government can pull them on a moments notice, DUI, get arrested, file a lawsuit against the President, lot’s of reasons to lose your security clearance financial debt spouse abuse they will pull your clearance etc any reason they want really the govt giveth and the govt taketh away……
this Major is really going to wish he never went down this road maybe he and Plumber Joe can become a 2 man neocon road team but I have a feeling unless this Major has his 20 years in he will never see a retirement check from the Reserves now I doubt if they ever call him back to active duty unless it is to court martial him…..
kay
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Thanks so much. I read the ethics opinions in my state because they’re on the front page of the court reporter. I skim them almost monthly. Lawyers here are getting one and two year suspensions for lesser violations than this clown.
I thought she was out when she named a federal clerk, and accused him of deleting electronic filings. I thought, “she’s done”. Nothing happened. I do know our process is slow as molasses. I’m glad the wheels are turning.
Mike
If your parents are overseas like Germany Panama, Korea, Japan and in the service of the nation either military or foreign service and are citizens of the US you are also considered a citizen of the US it is in the rule book McCain is a citizen as is my wife her father was in Korea in 1952 her mother was in Germany after he came back in 1953 and moved them to South Carolina he obtained her US passports etc to establish her American citizenship and we have her birth certificate in German with an English translated copy and she is American and not German, however under German law she can claim german citizenship since she was born there, but if she does, at the same time she is announcing the reliquishment of her US citizenship so that ain’t never happening. When I want to make her mad I call her Adolphs niece rofl her father was an Army NCO he retired after Vietnam 2 real wars was enough for him.
Singularity
@144
LOL. This guy’s civilian job was with a defense contractor. Good thinking there, Major Fubar.
Here’s a Freepy link about his firing. The comments are hilarious. I suggest that they all boycott Simtech until he’s rehired. lololololol.
And the best part is going to be when he catches his dis-dis and can’t get hired anywhere else. If you are drummed out on a dishonorable, do you lose all your clearances?
shelley matheis
Set your egg timers for how long it takes WingNuttia to claim that Obama personally had this guy fired.
Mnemosyne
@Mike:
They are if they were born within the last 30 years or so, but it’s a major gray area for people born earlier (like McCain) because the laws were different then. That’s why Congress passed a resolution declaring McCain a natural born citizen despite the law.
I sometimes suspect the whole birfer thing got started as a Rove-style “turn your enemy’s strength against him” operation that went out of control because, as usual, the Republicans underestimated how nutty their base really is.
scav
@shelley matheis: do eggtimers work in reverse? I mean, we are talking negative time for this sort of whinging.
jerry 101
Lets see…He volunteered to go to war.
Then, he refused to deploy and filed a lawsuit challenging the authority of his Commanding Officer (the President being the Commanding Officer of everyone in the military).
I believe that failing to show up for a deployment makes you AWOL.
Not sure if that’s exactly right – he may not have been required to report for duty prior to filing the lawsuit, etc, but it appears that he was supposed to deploy and then went AWOL and filed the lawsuit (he could have changed his mind at any time up until he was supposed to deploy).
There’s a very good chance that he could receive a court martial. He already lost his clearances – the DoD contractor he worked for fired him because the DoD wouldn’t let him into the facility he was working at as a contractor anymore (which says revoked clearance to me) and his employer didn’t have need for a guy without clearances.
Even if he isn’t court-martialed, he’s probably looking at a dishonorable discharge.
That’s what you get when you listen to conspiracy theorists and hire a lawyer who got her degree from an online “University”.
And his lawyer ain’t exactly a born citizen. She was born in Eastern Europe, growing up as a citizen of a communist country, then she moved to Israel (and got her citizenship there as well, I believe) before moving the California and getting her citizenship here.
I don’t think she really understood the questions on the citizenship exam…
Molly
@Tsulagi:
I worked for an ex-Ranger officer for years. This pretty much sums up his attitude about, well, everyone. Perfect combination of sarcasm, lack of any kind of patience for BS, and awareness that he is completely in charge, period, no discussion. Your opinion, while entertaining, is completely irrelevant.
I loved the man.
And this is exactly why I do not believe this will result in a pat on the butt and best wishes for Major Cook.
Hope it was worth it to him.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mike:
OT, but I wish this country would allow dual citizenship. Most others do allow it, iirc.
Sister Machine Gun of Mild Harmony
Orilly?! Orly is an communist immigrant? That is so awesome! If she keeps tempting fate by filing frivilous lawsuits and attempting to practice law in states she isn’t licensed in, that violates some laws, which could get her deported. That would be the most of these many delightful ironies… if she, the high queen of wingnuts, was deported inaccordance with a law enacted by wingnuts!
colleeniem
@mcc: Yeah, officer and clearance holder here, at home so I can speak my piece. This fucknut thought he could very publically and legally challenge the top levels of his chain of command and retain his clearance? Like Mike said above, they take it away so fast when it comes to little infractions, like illness and debt, if they think you are corruptible, or might be a soft target for espionage. He will never work for a security agency, government or contractor, again.
Again, I can’t believe he’s wasting his life pension on this. He must be really far gone, and if that is the case, he should seek help. He’s really unfit for any command at any level.
Leelee for Obama
@arguingwithsignposts: It is my understanding that many naturalized Americans hold dual citizenship? What about the American citizens who live in Israel and are Israeli citizens? They vote in both nations’ elections, do they not? I’m not sure of this, but I think it’s legal?
Mike in NC
Co-hosting with Glenn Beck, maybe? A match made in wingnut heaven. Maybe they’ll read the letters sent in to them by ex-Major Cook as he counts down his two-year sentence in Leavenworth.
Dennis-SGMM
@Molly:
Major Cook will probably face a General Court Martial. Before a General Court can be held there must be a pre-trial investigation unless the accused waives it so Major Cook will have to wait a bit for the other shoe to drop.
One interesting aspects of this is that should Major Cook face a court martial he is entitled to representation by a military defense counsel at no charge to him. He can also be represented by civilian counsel at his own expense. Anyone care to bet whether or not he’s stupid enough to have Taitz defend him?
Jon H
You know what’s awesome?
We can probably look forward to another 7 and a half years of this crap.
It’d be worrisome if Taitz were competent, or had some money and influence.
But she doesn’t. So it’s all just amusing.
Dennis-SGMM
@colleeniem:
Just guessing but, the officers who signed off this joker’s Fitness Reports are probably a bit nervous right now.
arguingwithsignposts
@Leelee for Obama:
Naturalized, yes. But you can’t – as a native american – have a dual citizenship, from what I understand.
Nellcote
Wow, fired from Simtech. That’s one of those innocuously named corps. at the heart of the Military Industrial Complex. Major Oops!
Bonnie
@colleeniem 213
I read elsewhere that he might not be in danger of court martial because he is a reservist. Is that your understanding as well? Those excerpts from the UCMJ about mutiny and sedition certainly seem applicable.
Ben
@arguingwithsignposts:
I think the restriction is that you can lose your US citizenship if you are naturalized as a citizen elsewhere, which is not the same thing as dual citizenship being banned.
Anyway- so does this guy have a post-military plan? Is he going to become a professional wingnut, a la Joe the Plumber?
arguingwithsignposts
@Ben:
I don’t think I understand the diff. for instance, if I were to move to the uk and want to become a uk citizen, i’d have to renounce my u.s. citizenship, right? but if I were british, and came to the u.s., i could retain uk citizenship and be naturalized here.
that type of thing shouldn’t be the case, imho. if it’s not, then i stand corrected.
Ben
@arguingwithsignposts:
No, I think that’s basically right. The exception I was alluding to is that some countries will recognize you as a citizen by virtue of your ancestry, and you don’t necessarily have to go through naturalization in that case.
qwerty42
@arguingwithsignposts: I seem to recall hearing that (at least at one time), persons who had a parent or grandparent who was a citizen of the UK were eligible for UK citizenship. My grandfather was born in Ireland when it was still part of the UK and it seems Ireland has a similar law. No idea if you’d automatically loose US citizenship by doing this (and i believe some court decisions dating back to the Vietnam war make loss of citizenship difficult — not impossible, just difficult) .
mcc
So I have no personal knowledge of any of this, but for one example, here’s the Department of Foreign Affairs for the nation of Ireland.
No requirement of renunciation is listed . Associated Content asserts:
Litlebritdifrnt
From PJ the military websites are calling this guy a “blue falcon” loosely translated “a buddy fucker” by his actions he has probably required some inactive reservist to be called up with absolutely no notice, or the unit is going to deploy one man short. The dudes in the military don’t like this kind of shit, it gets their back up.
Tsulagi
@Molly:
Guilty as charged. Not even going to try to plea it out.
There are two women in my household, SO and daughter; I’m fully aware I’m not completely in charge.
Anyway, have zero sympathy for Major Cook losing his civilian job or facing a possible court martial. Even the often slow Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive gets it right…
arguingwithsignposts
@mcc: @qwerty42:
thanks for the clarification. perhaps the commenter above was misinformed about his wife’s situation. I do seem to recall reading something about having to give up your u.s. citizenship if you became a citizen of another country. It’s confusing as all get out, and shouldn’t be the case. Plenty of people are dual citizens and it hasn’t corrupted their countries.
Jon H
Here’s the deal with dual citizenship in the US.
If the non-US citizenship is acquired automatically (via marriage, birth in another country, etc) then there’s no problem having dual nationality.
The problem is only if you apply for nationalization in another country.
R-Jud
@Jon H:
Yep. And in some countries– for example, the UK, where I live– marriage only gets you “indefinite leave to remain”, not instant nationalization. I’m cool to live here but I don’t get to vote. I could apply for nationalization but that would jeopardize my US citizenship.
My daughter, on the other hand, has both a red and a blue passport– she was born here in Blighty, but has a right to US citizenship as my daughter. She won’t, of course, be running for president in future, unless they amend the constitution. If we move to the US and Mr. Jud decides he wants to be a US citizen, he can eventually do that while remaining a UK national.
chuck
@Dennis-SGMM:
My guess is she won’t be allowed in the courtroom and he’ll have a court-appointed defender assigned to him instead.
Dennis-SGMM
@chuck:
That would be my guess too although he was stupid enough to listen to her in the first place and shoot himself down in flames so…
I just wonder whether or not he’s realized yet just how badly he fucked himself.
Tsulagi
@Dennis-SGMM:
Given his apparent cost-benefit analysis, don’t think basic math is his strong suit. Which is a little surprising as looking at the Army filing posted above, he’s a 21B, a combat engineer. Must be a Liberty U. engineering grad.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I guess Orly is doubling down with this refiling of the case:
Two more idiots joined in the fray? Buy popcorn stocks now!
PurpleGirl
Cook is a systems engineer. Having lost his security clearance and being given the boot by SimTech, there is no other company that will hire him now, either as staff or a contractor. He has truly fucked himself royally as the saying goes. His job was very much tied to military consulting — who needs his expertise. But he’s been drinking the cool-aide for a while now. Stupid man. I hope there aren’t children depending on him.
colleeniem
@Bonnie: Good question, but no, that’s one of those catch-22s–reservists have the same obligations under military code as active duty personnel. That would be pretty confusing if they didn’t, and he certainly was acting with respect to active duty orders–I’m not a JAG, but I’m pretty sure that makes a difference too.
Sorry for anwering so late.
pattonbt
Re dual citizenship, its not totally clear, but the basics are:
1) If you somehow have second citizenship kind of given to you (ancestory, marriage, etc.) then the it is OK. Or…
2) If you actively seek citizenship in another country it is OK as long as it is not with the intent of giving up your US citizenship. Quoted from the state department website “However, a person who acquires a foreign citizenship by applying for it may lose U.S. citizenship. In order to lose U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign citizenship voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. citizenship”.
Why I know this….I am a US citizen by birth (unlike our POTUS – kidding!) but have lived in Australia for six years. I am in the process of applying for Aus citizenship with no intent of giving up my US citizenship.
Jon H
@PurpleGirl: ” His job was very much tied to military consulting—who needs his expertise.”
I wouldn’t go that far. He apparently has some Cisco certification, which aren’t military-specific and should be marketable, at least if anyone’s actually hiring network managers.
pattonbt
My two cents on idiot Cook…..
At first I thought ‘nah, this is a “walk on by” case for the military and they will leave him alone’. I mean, why deal with it?
Oh how quickly one forgets though that the military is a world unto itself and military politics is a different game (I was active duty Army, E-4 in the late 80’s early 90’s).
So two reasons why this guy is toast.
1) The Army doesnt like people who challenge their authority. Add on top of that this guy is an officer, it relates to deployment to an active war zone and the obvious stunt aspect (probably the most pertinent part) of the suit its over for this guy.
2) This will also fall in the active duty versus reservist fight. Active duty higher ups tend to view their weekend warrior counterparts with suspicion in the best of times and outright contempt at the worst of times. Reservists bascially work from guilty until proved innocent in the eyes of active duty people. But once a reservist shows how much of an idiot he is, active duty betters go in for the kill.
So, again, this guy is toast.
Wile E. Quixote
@mcc
Major Cook has two separate security clearances. One will have been granted through the military when he enlisted the other will have been granted through DoD for his civilian work. I don’t know why they do things this way, when I started work outside of college I worked for a research lab that had some defense contracts and I did some work on classified computer systems. So even though I held a clearance through the Army National Guard I had to go through another investigation to get the clearance I needed for my civilian job.
However even though the clearances are separate an event that terminates one, save for routine administrative events such as a clearance being revoked because it was no longer required or that person was no longer employed at that company, will affect the other. So if Major Cook loses his civilian clearance for misconduct he’ll also lose his military clearance, and if he loses his military clearance his military career is over. Man, this guy is just chock full o’fail.
Jon H
Suggested name for this: The Failcook scandal.
Wile E. Quixote
So I went to Wikipedia and looked up US citizenship and nationality requirements and from there came across this gem about Chester A. Arthur:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Arthur
So it appears that birther bullshit isn’t anything new.
Jon H
OMG, a commenter at greyhawk’s post asked, basically, “What would the military do if Hugo Chavez were elected President?”
As in, literally, Hugo Chavez.
Bonnie
colleeniem – Thanks for the clarification. No problem about the timing – I lost the computer to my son for a few hours :-)
gimmeabreak
@Bonnie:
No sign yet that Orly has Georgia counsel. Charles Lincoln can’t practice law anywhere – he’s been disbarred in a few states.
mcc
@Wile E. Quixote: Interesting, thank you.
Comrade Darkness
@ via MFA: Taitz “I hope that the men in this country, particularly in our military will finally revolt against this travesty of Justice. If our government and our elected officials and our judiciary have failed us, then it is time for the new government, new elected officials and a new judiciary.”
Because when the majority of people vote for someone I don’t like, democracy has failed and must be replaced with a fascist state headed by my authoritarian figure of choice . . . because I’m a Real™ patriot damnit.
patrick
@Joe Max:
Yes. also.
Grumpy Code Monkey
His lawyer is openly calling for a coup d’etat against the President of the United States. He just challenged the legitimacy of his entire chain of command in federal court.
Can anyone explain how this ends any way but badly for this schmuck? IANAJAG, but to me he’s flirting with Article 94 of the UCMJ in wartime; if that’s true, he is literally gambling with his life.
jjjeef
Has anyone ever seen a birth certificate? And what do birth announcements have to do with anything.