The Embarrassing Case of Major Cook
There has been a lively discussion on my post yesterday about Army Reserve Major Stefan Cook. And in fact, at a libertarian gathering I attended last night, the topic came up when a lunatic conspiracy theorist, kind of out of nowhere, raised Cook as some sort of hero.
(As an aside, I think the whole question of Obama’s birth status is as moot as it is ridiculous. Conservatives spinning their wheels about it look as pathetic and devoid of substance as the Bush-haters did after Florida in 2000. Believe me, we’ve got tons of policy differences, and dwelling on something so difficult to nail down as this will only waste our resources that would be better spent fighting cap-and-trade, activist judge nominations, confiscatory tax increases, Stalinization of our healthcare industry, take-overs of our other industries…need I go on?)
More information has come to light since I posted, and I’m kind of glad I caveated my original reaction as heavily as I did. I knew Cook was a kook, simply based on his expressed reasons for not wanting to deploy. Moreover, based on some of the links I received in the comments of my original post, and what has happened today in Federal court, I find his derangement goes even further.
Here’s what looks like is going on with this jackass:
He’s an ObamaBirth conspiracy theorist, we already know. Based on a Free Republic post that was attributed to him, he’d earlier taken part in a class-action suit against the president questioning his citizenship from which nothing came.
Cook then volunteered to deploy and then waited, apparently, until he was about to leave to once again raise Obama’s citizenship, this time as a reason for not wanting to go. Here, it seems, Cook seemed to be too clever by half, because as an Army Reservist, he’s allowed, once he’s volunteered to deploy, to back out.
Now, I’ve received many questions about this, and many are hoping that, as a military member myself, I can shed some light on this volunteering/un-volunteering buffoonery. I must say, I’m left a little confused myself. When I volunteered for deployment, it was made pretty clear that I was on the hook for the trip, hell or high water. On the other hand, the way it technically works is that, when someone volunteers for a deployment, the Reserve HQ requisitions that money and allots it to the unit to which the Reservist is assigned. The UNIT is then responsible for filling the billet with whomever they want to send. Usually, it’s that guy, and obviously it should be. Sometimes, though, if something comes up (his wife gets pregnant, he gets sick, or somehow is inelligible after all), he can back out, but it’s the unit who must find someone else to send. So he basically screws one of his pals who has to go in his stead.
What seems to have happened here (my speculation only) is that Cook knowingly volunteered for a deployment to Afghanistan with the intention to make a stink about Obama’s citizenship in order to therefore bring the issue to the forefront. But unintentionally, he let the air out of his own balloon because the DoD simply revoked his orders, which was the basis for a federal judge today to dismiss his claim against the president for ordering him in the first place. Basically, the judge said, “well, you’re not going to be deployed now anyway, so beat it.”
So now not only is Cook a nutjob conspiracy theorist, he’s also an idiot for not knowing that when he unvolunteered, he’d be losing his basis for going to court in the first place. What’s worse, he’s also a dick. He had no way of knowing that they’d simply revoke the orders. As far as he should have known, one of the guys in his unit would have had to go instead of him.
Let’s boil it down:
Cook is a conspiracy theorist who wanted to prove his point so badly that he chose to risk the life (people die there, you know) of a fellow unit member by hooking his organization with a deployment to Afghanistan he knew full well he wasn’t going to take himself and would instead have to be filled by a colleague. Then his attorney mischaracterizes the revocation of the orders in order to paint the president as having caved (a theory for which, to a degree, I fell yesterday in my post). Their frivolous lawsuit is thrown out because he was too stupid to foresee the military not wanting to deal with his BS (by revoking the ordes), leaving him with no legal standing in the first place.
If you ask me, maybe this guy should still be court martialed, this time under Article 133.
-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)
19 Comments »
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I realize it is not all that good an argument to say “well, the Dems did it so we ought to be able to do it too” because two wrongs do not make a right. However, it is kinda fun to hit Obama with just a smidgen of the crap that the Left threw at Bush for 8 years.
Comment by Not Always Right — July 16, 2009 @ 1:50 pm - July 16, 2009
Haha, it almost rhymes
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 16, 2009 @ 2:24 pm - July 16, 2009
The guy’s a Cunningham fringe-dweller and the military did the right thing via revocation. I am surprised, though, that Obama hasn’t made a point of embarrassing these folks in an effort to paint all his opponents with a broad brush.
Comment by Ignatius — July 16, 2009 @ 2:31 pm - July 16, 2009
Believe me, we’ve got tons of policy differences,
I don’t get the sense that “we” are engaged in this, rather it’s a relative few. My guess would be that it’s even fewer than the number of liberals who pushed for the impeachment of Bush. I’m not aware of any members of Congress who are supporting this either.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — July 16, 2009 @ 2:44 pm - July 16, 2009
One would almost think Obama has WMDs.
Comment by Ignatius — July 16, 2009 @ 2:57 pm - July 16, 2009
I think equating who Bush was elected with not having a valid birth certiticate is not a good comparision. A controversial recount process stopped by a 5-4 ruling of Supreme Court judges is not the same as not being born in the United States and so not being eligible to be President. I wrote about this on my blog, although I tried my best to ‘de-kook’ it. They are different not just in specifics, but in size.
Although I agree with you in a way- Democrats don’t care at all about the Constitution, so it really doesn’t matter now that morons put them in power.
Comment by A Conservative Teacher — July 16, 2009 @ 4:26 pm - July 16, 2009
I’m sure there’s a nice, lonely and forgotten communications hut in northern Alaska or Greenland that the good Major can guard this winter….
Comment by Ted B. (Charging Rhino) — July 16, 2009 @ 5:35 pm - July 16, 2009
In other words, Colorado Patriot said what I said, only longer, and with more detail.
Most of which would have been discovered at several reliable milblogs. Two that spring to mind are Blackfive and Mudville Gazette. In fact Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette has posted a timeline and formed conclusions similar to CP.
No disrespect, CP, I appreciate the analysis. It’s always nice to have another nail in the coffin.
A Conservative Teacher, on the other hand (what’s with the Conservative-this, Conservative-that, anyway? people can’t figure out the conservative orientation of the blog without detailed instruction?), is very wrong. There is no question whether Barry has a valid birth certificate, nor is there a valid question whether he is an American citizen. The only people who can’t accept that basic fact are precisely analogous to dimwit lefties who spent the last eight years chanting “selected, not elected.”
I’ll quote a bumper sticker originally addressed to die-hard Southern Civil War romanticists, that I redirected to the Florida 2000 crowd: “You lost. Get over it.” No matter how much you bewail the situation, Barry Obama is a legal citizen who won the 2008 presidential election. Apparently the die-hards can’t comprehend just how dumb they look to the rest of the country. Worse than that, they (by extension) tar other conservatives, libertarians, or Federalist independents by giving the impression that all opponents of Obama are that crazy.
Yep, the blue-state Democrats just can’t wait to embrace the birther brigade…
Comment by Casey — July 17, 2009 @ 1:01 am - July 17, 2009
I don’t think this birth certificate is the sort of rabbit hole I want to go down, but I am passing curious about all the other stuff Chairman Zero is hiding, like his college transcripts, admission records, and medical records. Obviously, there is something there he doesn’t want the public to see.
If we have to see Mark Sanford’s personal emails because “it’s in the public interest,” then why can’t we see Chairman Zero’s college records?
Comment by V the K — July 17, 2009 @ 8:03 am - July 17, 2009
If by ‘longer and with more detail’ you mean ‘explained the reasoning, did research, explained why he was a moron confirmed the effects of his withdrawl and that he’s a loon’, then yes, it was longer with more detail.
Comment by The Livewire — July 17, 2009 @ 8:50 am - July 17, 2009
What an unmitigated schmuck. For not only making an ass of himself and embarassing his unit, I hope they toss him out somehow for leaving a fellow soldier to fill in for him.
Comment by John — July 17, 2009 @ 9:33 am - July 17, 2009
Same here.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 17, 2009 @ 11:13 am - July 17, 2009
TL, there are many weird things about Casey’s comments, here and elsewhere. Here, like the fact that he would imagine we don’t read milblogs, or that he would think it’s a great coup for him to espouse a position that some of us already espoused. It’s kinda fun to watch him stamp his little feet.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — July 17, 2009 @ 11:18 am - July 17, 2009
Before you close your mind and chant “Obama won, he now is king”, you should wonder a bit. On the birth certificate thing, I’m okay with you really believing that is is valid- there are questions about it, but whatever. There is fire though to this smoke.
On my blog, I wrote several months back about how Obama’s registation card is fake- well, not fake exactly, but doctored. The stamps on the card authenticate them to a date decades ago, but the shape of the stamp wasn’t used until the last couple years. Looks like Obama doctored up this document right before running for President. Is this a rabbit hole too?
Comment by A Conservative Teacher — July 17, 2009 @ 3:31 pm - July 17, 2009
Not Always Right, on some level, you’re right. But on an individual basis, people who were not victims are taking revenge on people who were not offenders. Hard to see how that adds up to “getting even.” In fact, stated that way, it reminds me a lot of affirmatvie action.
Comment by tim maguire — July 17, 2009 @ 3:39 pm - July 17, 2009
Fixed it for ya.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — July 18, 2009 @ 6:07 am - July 18, 2009
Reference; the elgibility of Obama, Jr. to be POTUS.
I find it curious that one whould dismiss the importance of our President being eligible under the US Constitution to serve. Yes, there are many important policy issues before us but does that excuse the rule of law, particularly in regards to eligibility. I don’t care about Major Cook as an individual example but I am concerned about our president being above the law. If we are to dismiss this issue as irrevelent, will he also be excluded from the issue’s of equal justice under the law, free speech or any particular Article of the Constitution?
Under the Constitution, one must be a Natural Born Citizen; a citizen born of two (2) US citizens. As Obama, Jr. has himself declared his father Obama, Sr. was a Kenyan citizen, Obama, Jr. can not be eligible as he was NOT born of two US citizens. This requirement, particular to the Presidents eligibilty, was inserted by our forefathers due to concern over conflicted loyalities to our country. His place of birth is almost irrelevlant, except it is curious he spends thousands to prevent release of his certified long form birth certificate and school records…. why? Don’t care, well just wait till he decides to ignor a constitutional right you’re concerned about. And I will add, this is the same exact standard and defination of NBC used to vett McCain in April, 2008, by the Senate Judicial Committee. Was Obama, Jr. even vetted?
Comment by Jon Long — July 19, 2009 @ 3:16 am - July 19, 2009
http://www.thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2009/04/aka-obama-fans-all-together-now-say-omg.html
Cook is an American Patriot and Obama hasn’t proven to me either that he is a Natural Born Citizen.
Comment by EDinTampa — July 19, 2009 @ 10:57 am - July 19, 2009
Jon Long,
You display your ignorance in not understanding what the Constitution says versus what you claim it says, which are two different things. THe Constitution DOES NOT require the President to be born of two U.S. citizens. The Constitution (specifically Article II) requires the President be a “natural born citizen.” The entire provision reads:
“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Additionally, under federal law, a person is a “natural born citizen” if among other things he or she was born in the United States (which the State of Hawaii claims Obama was) OR Anyone born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time).
Obama meets the definitions.
I am not an Obama fan but claiming he is not a citizen is nothing more than moonbattery and gives conservatism a bad name.
Comment by Dave N — July 19, 2009 @ 8:27 pm - July 19, 2009