Friday, November 21, 2008

Gameplaying Re Obama Birth Certificate Reflects on Courts

A poster on this site has recommended Douglas V. Gibbs's Blog Talk Radio podcast . Doug's radio show is good and it would be worth your time to listen.

Doug's key point is that President-elect Obama's refusal to release his vault copy birth certificate reflects on his character. Even if there's nothing wrong with it, and that may or may not be so, a man of integrity would not play games. Barack Obama is a serial liar.

As well, the pissant propgandists at NBC, Fox et al. have refused to ask Mr. Obama to come clean. Without a competent media, which the United States lacks, democracy cannot function. Let us dust off our logic textbooks from college and do a modus ponens deduction.

1. If a nation does not have a competent, independent and honest media, then it cannot have a functioning democracy.
2. America does not have a competent, independent and honest media.
3. Therefore, America does not have a functioning democracy.

Moreover, the US court system is broken. The courts do not just interpret statutory law, which in this case is obscure and uncertain. Nor do they just interpret prior judicial decisions and dicta in what is called common law. Courts are also concerned with what is called equity. This is how wikipedia defines equity:

"Equity is the name given to the set of legal principles, in jurisdictions following the English common law tradition, which supplement strict rules of law where their application would operate harshly, so as to achieve what is sometimes referred to as 'natural justice.' It is often confusingly contrasted with "law", which in this context refers to 'statutory law' (the laws enacted by a legislature, such as the United States Congress), and 'common law' (the principles established by judges when they decide cases)... in general, a litigant cannot obtain equitable relief unless there is 'no adequate remedy at law'—that is, a court will not grant an injunction unless monetary damages are an insufficient remedy for the injury in question. Law courts also enter orders, called "writs" (such as a writ of habeas corpus) but they are less flexible and less easily obtained than an injunction...the plaintiff requests an injunction, declaratory judgment, specific performance or modification of contract, or other non-monetary relief, the claim would usually be one in equity...A final important distinction between law and equity is the source of the rules governing the decisions. In law, decisions are made by reference to legal doctrines or statutes. In contrast, equity, with its emphasis on fairness and flexibility, has only general guides known as the maxims of equity. As noted below, a historic criticism of equity as it developed was that it had no fixed rules of its own, with the Lord Chancellor from time to time judging in the main according to his own conscience. As time went on the rules of equity did lose much of their flexibility and from the 17th century onwards equity was rapidly consolidated into a system of precedents much like its cousin common law.

Now, why are courts reluctant to mandate release of the Obama vault copy birth certificate under equity? What principle at equity overcomes the public's right to know about the background identification of a presidential candidate?

The Obama birth certificate accentuates multiple problems confronting American democracy.

First, there is the probability that a manipulative liar has been encouraged and supported in manipulating and lying by pissant propagandists and the courts. Second, American democracy does not function because there is pissant propaganda, not mass media. Third, the court system is broken and corrupt.

Douglas Gibbs does a good job on this radio show.

9 comments:

Diogenes said...

Hawaiian law is clear: copies of the so-called long form document are not released except to a person seeking his/her own certificate, or the person's spouse, parent or legal guardian.

Any judge anywhere that would "order" the release of such document would be engaging in "judicial activism" which you loathe, as that judge would be ordering a state official to violate a validly enacted Hawaiian state statute.

Why would Hawaii do such a thing? Because the short-form "Certification of Live Birth" is a perfectly valid and legal document to certify a Hawaiian citizen's birth.

Obama produced such documentation.

A suggestion: take off the tinfoil hat and go buy a luxury car, you self-absorbed little man.

Douglas V. Gibbs said...

Thank you for the positive comments. I really didn't expect that this subject matter would dominate that episode, but I am glad it did - - -

Anonymous said...

African Press International released a story on wordpress stating that documents from Kenya providing details of the man's Birth were in fact in safe keeping. Documents that would in fact remove him from office. It isn't that they don't know it. It's will they do the right thing?

I realize that your story is on the media. Keep preaching it. However, the wordpress and many other stories of truth on the man have been removed randomly? mysteriously? The API is up now, the original article removed. API thanks wordpress for putting them back up. Not all articles are back up. But I ask you, if or when do we wake up and realize they don't give two cents shit...as long as they can move us a chess pieces to their ultimate demise. Is it true they are so desperate to make us do what we don't have to that they are ready to bomb us from our own side? I'll let you do the research. Because any story you come up with will be great.

Mitchell Langbert said...

Diogenes, once again you seek to use your lantern to blind us from the truth. I have looked at the Hawaii statutes and they say that anyone with a tangible interest in obtaining the birth certificate can obtain one. Any self respecting judge interested in the law and in equity would have mandated releasing the document to the public long ago.

Diogenes said...

ANd you know full well that that statute has always been interpreted to mean the person, his/her parents/guardians or spouse. It WOULD be "judicial activism" for a court (especially a non-Hawaiian court) to create a new definition of "tangible interest" now on an ad hoc basis.

And as for African Press International, it's a con game being played by a con man. Check out http://themountainsage.wordpress.com before you go too far down that road. Sage is as pro-Hillary as they come, but she's chronicled the exploits of the con man sometimes known as Sammy Korir quite well.

Mitchell Langbert said...

Once, again, "Diogenes" we see that your appropriation of the Cynic's name is a perversion, along the same lines as Adolf Hitler's appropriation of the German word "heil", which means "heal" or "holy". You no more seek the truth with a lantern than any ideologue.

There has never been a presidential candidate in history who hid his birth information for any reason. Nor has there ever been a Hawaiian case concerning this matter. Regulatory interpretations have been by ignorant bureaucrats who are not qualified to balance considerations important to a democracy.

The name "Diogenes" is not appropriate for you, and I have tired of your perversion of Athenian history. I think I'm going to start calling you "Meletus", which is a more appropriate moniker for you.

Meletus, if you cared about the truth or about democracy, you would want all information to be brought to light because, as Brandeis put it, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

But like your namesake, Meletus, you would accuse those who seek the truth of corruption.

You are no "Diogenes", you are "Meletus".

Diogenes said...

Ouch. Your irrelevancies really hurt, y'know? And it was a nice try, attempting to divert attention from the "issue" you've raised.

First off, Obama has "hid" nothing. he has, however, refused to jump through all the hoops set up for him by the tinfoil hat brigade, and for that I applaud him.

As for no Hawaiian case being brought, that's simply not so. The other darling of the the tinfoil hat brigade,one Andy Martin, filed suit in Hawaii, and it just got tossed out again on Wednesday. Why? Because Andy Martin had no standing

According to Judge Bert Ayabe, Martin "does not have a direct and tangible interest in the vital statistic records being sought, namely the birth certificate of President Obama." EXACTLY the issue which we've been discussing -- when you're not trying to obfuscate the issue with your lameass smoke and mirrors routine.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081121/NEWS20/811210355/1001/localnewsfront

So call me whatever you want, if it gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. I'll just call you a liar. It's not fancy or classical, but it's accurate and to th epoint.

Mitchell Langbert said...

Meletus, your efforts to hide the truth are illogical. If Obama has hidden nothing, why does he fight revealing his birth certificate in court? And Meletus, your Socratic judge's offering of spurious reasoning that any American does not have a tangible interest in seeing the president's birth certificate is again an effort to hide the truth.

You cannot have it both ways. If you aim to cloak the birth certificate in faulty legal reasoning, then you cannot be for openness and truth. If you object for an obstacle to be put in peoples' way to seeing the facts about the birth certificate, then you are a "Meletus", not a "Diogenes".

And in closing, I ask you, if the candidate were Bush, would you also be siding with the judge?

And, PS, Meletus, calling me a liar does not change your nature. Liars often say that those who seek the facts are at fault.

Anonymous said...

Obama gave meletus a action wire and two cigarettes for the responses here. Not on shread of truth to anything diogenes posted.

Go sit by your cell phone for your next duty Diogenes.