Okay, South Carolina. Give The Trophy Back To Arizona.
Arizona is a doozy. South Carolina occasionally tries to be the nuttiest state, but, Darlin’, Arizona has honed crazzzy down to an art form.
The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November.
Oh yeah, that right there is the United States of Damn America. One crazy old fart sheriff in a small town in Arizona, who couldn’t find his own butt with both hands and a search warrant, gets himself a case of contagious batcrap crazy (Latin name: Guanotitus), spreads it all over the state, and the Center for Disease Control can’t get enough vaccine or reading material over the mountains to save folks so the result is that Barack Obama can’t be on the ballot in that state. Welcome to Arizona. Please pass the popcorn.
And why is Ken Bennett, Arizona’s Secretary of State, doing this? Because he got emails.
Bennett, the state’s No. 2 elected official just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), said his investigation isn’t personal. He said the reason he started looking into it is because he got more than 1,200 emails asking him to do so after Arpaio’s investigation came out.
Dude, last week I got 1,563 emails asking me to try Viagra but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go buy me a gender re-assignment. I also won the Nigerian lottery at least that many times in my emails, but you do not see me packing for Africa, do you?
New slogan for the state? Arizona: That’s Entertainment!
Thanks to Deb for the heads-up.
I would think the Feds would come down hard on some little hick that is trying to screw with a national election – to the tune of some hard time..
1If I were to incite hateful rhetoric against the President of the USA I would have the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI all over my butt. Not to mention the NSA snooping everywhere. Why? Because I am just a private citizen. Guaranteed I would be looking at some cell time in Gitmo.
So why doesn’t any of this apply to Republican Loonies?
2I read about this earlier today on TPM. Seems about eight weeks ago, Bennett sent a request to the Hawaii Department of Health asking, not for a copy of the birth certificate but for “a verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate.
3Hawaii responded by asking him for proof that he is the Arizona SOS and for copies of the Arizona laws proving that the secretary of state really is the person in charge of handling the ballots.
Last year I read that Hawaii had to ask for the appropriation of additional funds to handle the many requests for copies of the President’s birth certificate. Just saying “No, you don’t have a right to receive a copy of another person’s birth certificate” involves staff time & resources and costs $$$. And, of course, responding to the many birthers takes time away for process legitimate requests for copies of birth, death, etc., certificates.
Emails? This guy can read?
4I think it’s the heat … maybe there is something in the water … but they are all batcrap crazy! If they want to secede from the Union, maybe they should be allowed to do that and put a huge fence around the entire state and let it be known that if they want to play, they can play with themselves! And no one can get in and no one can get out without a writ from the Prez. If there are any solid Dems in that state, then they need to be looking for another state of consciousness because there are no conscious Republicans there. They are all brain dead with their heads up their behinds!
I swear to God, they are getting crazier by the day!
5“A verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate?” Where did Ken Bennett come up with that? Did he stay up late one night watching the movie “Animal House,” and decide that Double Secret Probation also had applications in politics?
6Birthers are interesting creatures. Sheriff Joe is already being sued for being a racist and his birther posse proves that he is an idiot. The evidence against President Obama’s long form birth certificate is that it has layers. Heck even Faux News understands that Adobe Acrobat creates layers when you scan most documents http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/04/29/expert-says-obamas-birth-certificate-legit/ If Faux’ own expert says that the Obama birth certificate is legit, then you know that Sheriff Joe has been out in the sun too long
7So, basically, this dingleberry is saying that, in letting Obama on the ballot four years ago, the previous AZ SecState was an incompetent boob, right?
What was her name? Jan Something. Bruja, maybe?
8I hate to remind you of this bit of history – BUT – it began many years ago. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH – the Legion of Nitwits were on there way to California for a convention. Az is as far as they got. Two very superior reporters, Montini and Roberts, remind us of our wacko politics with every edition of the Arizona Republic. Austinhatlady, you are spot on.
9In her defense it still looks like Jan Brewer is working off that 40 year bender she was on.
10Please don’t lump all us Arizonans in with these nutjobs. 1253 emails in a state of 6 million+ does not a crazy state make. There are lots of sane Arizonans, we’re just not as loud as our crazy counterparts.
Also, Arpaio is sheriff of Maricopa county, where 2/3 of Arizona’s population lives. He is, unfortunately, not a small town sheriff. But he is one “crazy old fart”.
11Rick: Yeah that “certification in lieu of . . .” would have struck me as strange also if I I hadn’t just submitted a request to the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics for a “certification in lieu of a certified copy of a death certificate.”
12The Texas website says this:
“When you order a birth verification or death verification letter, you will receive a letter that verifies whether or not the record of a birth or death was filed with the State of Texas. If the record was filed, the verification letter will include the person’s name, date of event, county in which the event occurred, and state file number.” And that also states: “Verification letters are not considered legal substitutes for birth or death certificates.”
Arizona probably has a similar provision. Guess the Arizona SOS knew Hawaii wasn’t going to provide a copy of the original BC and so asked for the “certification.” I’m amused that Hawaii said “Prove that you’re really the SOS and that you are authorized to do this.”
Thanks, Bud.
I love that Hawaii asked him for proof that he is the SOS of Arizona. This is totally bizarre. Our country has gone around the bend. Let all the sane folks stand up and say so, real loud.
13Sometimes I think when asked why I voted and will vote again for President Obama I should say “because he wasn’t born in the US, we all be crazy so him being foreign we have a chance” but then the tinfoilers would hyperventilate, pass out, the rapture people would think they missed their big moment and chaos would ensue. Better I just say because he’s smart, educated and the best chance I have to have a retirement living INSIDE a building instead of a box on the street.
14Is “verification in lieu of a certified copy” anything like a “fax your injunction”?
15Are these writers channelling Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde” or just flipping open a set of Rules of Civil Procedure and picking out the first words their fingers land on?
This is the home of SB1070 and the state that refused to recognize MLK Day until recently. That hot sun realy does bake brains. Glad I only lived there for 4 years (Air Force brat).
16The Stupid is strong in this one.
17I guess Arizona has not heard of Article IV, Section 1 of the US Constitution which requires full faith and credit be given to the acts of other states. The State of Arizona can not tell the State of Hawaii what is required on birth certificates.
18Maybe we should keep a low profile and hope that he does strike the President from the ballot. At that point it shouldn’t be hard to convince any federal court to throw out all of Arizona’s electoral votes. Hopefully other states will follow his lead and this election will be a bit easier.
19Bennet — in addition to being SoS responsible for who can appear on Arizona’s ballots, and the No. 2 elected official behind Jan Brewer — also serves as co-chair for Mitt Romney’s Arizona campaign. I say if he, in all his Birther bat guano craziness, excludes the sitting President of the United States from the ballot, and thereby disenfranchises half of the state’s voters, then Arizona should have its Congressional representation removed. I live in Arizona and I hang my head in shame!
20*banging my head on my desk*
21As someone from Hawaii (and the same high school as Obama) I can assure you that the birth certificate displayed by Obama is indeed what the Dept. of Health provides. I feel for them, all the crazies demanding the “long form” birth certificate ended up costing them lots of money in time, copying, and of course personnel. Those costs fell on us tax paying citizens/residents of Hawaii. As Austinhatlady pointed out, it also took time away from those of us who had legitimate requests for things like real death certificates (I needed my father’s). Arizonans are just loony! I hope this SOS gets his hat handed to him, and some Gitmo time, by the Secret Service, Homeland Security, or some other federal agency. Then he can have a personal tax audit going back 10 years. And I wish Sheriff Arapaio the same!
22Well, it’s been a little over a hundred years since Arizona was promoted from territory to state, and it looks like they just didn;t get the hang of it. Maybe it’s time to demote it back to its former status.
23I would be amused by AZ if it were not such a sad state…maybe it’s too much sun?
Confession: I’m a born and raised Louisianan. I know crazy.
Whatever happened to shame?
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