Arizona may keep Obama off Pres. ballot

[The Yosemite Bear]

my joke is about pretending to be MEN IN BLACK as in the goons that all the racists and conspiracy theorists live in fear of comming from the UN.

[Dalton]

Stay on topic Bear.

[Darth Fanboy]

So it looks like some emails have gotten out that took place between Hawaii and Ken Bennett. Will post some choice bits here in a bit.

[Darth Fanboy]

I've trimmed out some of it but my previous post links to the emails in question that can be read in their entirety. If I have cut out anything that harms context I will repair it ASAP and will apologize for any mistakes.

From: Jill T. Nagamine
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:11 PM
To: Drake, Jim; Bennett, Ken
Subject: Re: Request from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office

Dear Mr. Bennett and Mr. Drake—

My apologies for not responding immediately. I have recently been away from my office a great deal, including today. My client, the Department of Health, has forwarded your request for verification of President Obama’s birth record to me. We need more information to substantiate that you are eligible to receive verification. Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 338-18(g), provides:

*snip*

(2) A governmental agency or organization who for a legitimate government purpose maintains and needs to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of the agency’s or organization’s activities;

*snip*

As the Secretary and I initially discussed, it appears that you might be eligible for verification of the record based on subparagraph (2), but we need to see what your authority is “to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of your activities.” Will you send me a copy of your law that allows this, and will you send me information that shows:

(1) What list are you updating?
(2) Is it your normal procedure to update all entries on your list by requiring birth data verification?
(3) Are you requiring birth data verification of all entries on your list, rather than just targeting one name on your list? (please provide evidence that you are doing so)

You may address your response directly to me, and I will relay it to my client.

Thank you,
Jill T. Nagamine
Deputy Attorney General
State of Hawaii

Bennett replies saying that he should have the eligibility based on his being chief elections officer for the state of Arizona, and does not really respond to items 2 & 3 on the list bolded above. He also says the following:

I understand your client’s initial trepidation in responding to this request given the significant amount of email, fax and phone call traffic that this issue has spawned. My office too has received numerous constituent requests and I agree with Director Fuddy’s assertion in her letter of April 25, 2011 that the sheer volume of inquires has “been disruptive to staff operations and have strained State resources.” However, I am concerned that a rejection of a request by another State’s chief elections official will dramatically exacerbate an already untenable situation.

Nagamine's response to this email by Bennett worth reading the link in its entirety, basically saying that she cannot find anywhere in the Arizona laws Bennett is citing that he is being given the authority he claims and says that he can have the information he wants so long as he can prove he is eligible to do so.

The emails from Bennett to the birthers themselves are caused for some depressed laughter as well, and I say it's depressed laughter because it's so sad how nuts these people can be. Although in the emails he does not come off as the same level of head case the birthers who are hounding him are. I wonder if he realizes that the tv time he's getting as a result of his halfhearted pandering are doing him more harm than good? He hasn't gone far enough to make the far right people happy.

[Gil Hamilton]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/2 ... 38160.html

He's Bennett has pretty much given up on this, claiming continuing to claim that he was totally just doing his job and not pandering to birthers because he wants to be governor in two years. He's backed off on the request, has stated that Obama is going to be on the ballot if he fills out the same paperwork as he normally was and I understand that now that he has, Hawaii has gone "Sure, we have it!".

This is pretty damn embarrassing for Bennett. The turn of events have been

Bennett: "So, hey, Hawaii, I've been getting a lot of emails from the nutcases I want to be governor of... er... concerned constituents that Barack Obama is a dirty foreigner. Provide me with verification certifying that the birth certificate you released is real and that you have it."
Hawaii: "What? We already released that ages ago and we don't have a procedure for your request, bro. L2Google."
Bennett: "Hey, if you don't, I'll... I'll KEEP OBAMA OFF THE BALLOT!
Hawaii: "Sure you will. Unlike you, we've got Google here and you can't do that."
Bennett: "I swear by the nutcases I want to be governor off that I will! I'll keep him off the ballot and... and... he'll be like totally pissed!"
Hawaii: "Ok, ok, calm down, Kamehameha. Look, just send us verification that you are entitled to do whatever it is you want to do and we'll send you the whatever."
Bennett: "WHAT?"
Hawaii: "Sorry, bro."
Bennett: "Look, I'm just trying to do my job here... alright fine. I'll stop."
Hawaii: "Cool, bro, cause we totally have his birth certificate. I'm holding it right now. We are appending an image we found on Google to you. You will find it is a picture of his birth certificate with the Seal of Hawaii photoshopped to the trollface from a site called 4chan. Mahalo!"