More details on the Webster Cook impeachment

You can find them at Greg Laden's Blog — it's a little dense with legalese and unfamiliar acronyms, but it sounds like he was kicked out of the student senate for "wrongful performance of a normally lawful act", whatever that means. More information is promised for later.

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Nice forgiving Christians they are.

"Take your crackers with you and don't come back, you cur!"

Typical Christian love.

These are the same guys who whine about being 'persecuted' and that they have done nothing to deserve it. *roll eyes*

Now I suppose is the time to say something like...

"They wouldn't DARE kick him off if he was a muslim"

lol

"wrongful performance of a normally lawful act"

That's the one that *always* comes back to bite you...

By minusRusty (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

Cook was convicted of misfeasance, defined in the Impeachment Statutes as follows:

A. Misfeasance, defined as a lawful act performed in a wrongful manner by a Student Government official in execution of his/her duties.

If we assume that the "lawful act" was taking part in the Eucharist and the "wrongful manner" was not putting the wafer to the use intended by those conducting the ceremony then it seems to me that the question becomes one of whether Cook claimed to be acting in his official capacity as a member of the student governing body or otherwise gave those present reason to believe he was so acting. If not, I would contend there was no misfeasance.

By Ian H Spedding FCD (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

"wrongful performance of a normally lawful act"

Mr. Orwell, line 1.

By Jason Failes (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

Curious. Why isn't there a mention of this on Nisbet's blog?

As a 'friendly atheist', you'd think he'd have won over so many moderates that injustices like this wouldn't stand. Boy, I'll bet he's got a line right to the Pope and God Himself (the first atheist ever to do so, I might add--witness the power of positive framing!) So why is this still happening?

Wait, I think I understand now. In the forging of the grand friendship between atheism and theism, we should expect a few bars of pig iron to get hammered. Looks like CzechoslWebster Cook is one of those bars.

Sorry about the kangaroo court and all, Chump, but we just can't risk mussing our haircontributing to a negative image of atheism by criticising the actions of your religious Inquisitors.

So he got kicked out for a codified version of the "you're doing it wrong!" internet meme?

Maybe we should ramp up and investigate the other members. Anyone ever blow their nose with toilet paper or a napkin? Use a knife as a makeshift screwdriver? Use the side of their fork to cut their food?

Misfeasance is a contract law term. He probably signed a contract when he was elected to the Student Senate that stated that his rights were limited contractualy i.e. can't do anything to bring shame upon the office or some such. What the rest of it is saying is that what he did, taking the cracker, wasn't illegal, but was not acceptable behavior for a Student Senator.

These crackers are given away for free. There is no verbal nor written contract when you accept the cracker. So, how can there be a "wrongful performance" for something that was given away freely with no prior agreement for its use? Once the cracker was given to the student, he owned it.
Apparently, the proper handling of jesus is to eat him, crap him out the next day, flush him down the toilet, and finally treated at the local sewer treatment plant. So, I suppose at some point I've unknowingly drank jesus.

Sorry, but I could not personally get past the fact that two of the principles involved in the impeachment are actually named Furbush and Swallows. I kept laughing and losing my place.

By Badjuggler (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

If we could only impeach the idiot in the White House. I heard he only has 141 days left (as of yesterday).

I'm guess pulverizing the Eucharist and snorting it would
peg the misfeasance meter as well.

No doubt ol' Bill is real proud of himself. Jerk!

"in execution of his/her duties."

So it was his duty to be there or not? If it was not a duty then it hardly is a misfeasance. And as the separation of church and state does exist then such a duty could be depicted as a malfeasance by the student senate.

Boy, I love the ornery law texts.

By jagannath (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

Re #9:

So he got kicked out for a codified version of the "you're doing it wrong!" internet meme?

Um, don't you mean the "UR DOIN IT RONG" internet meme?

"You're doing it wrong!": UR DOIN IT RONG!

Please, kill me before I meta again...

If we could only impeach the idiot in the White House. I heard he only has 141 days left (as of yesterday).

Do you really want President Cheney in office, even for 140 days?

"President Cheney"...heh.

Just who do you think has really been running the country the past 8 years already? Chimpy? Hah!

Darth Cheney IS the real president--impeach him, too.

I call on Cook again to consider a lawsuit.

The judiciary and rules voted against impeachment, but the Catholic part voted for it, because their little feelings got hurt.

Did I read that right?

What happened to separation of church and state? If there's a Catholic student organization at that school and someone gets kicked out (but it carries zero academic weight), I'm fine with that. But for a Catholic organization to carry official weight at the school? That's just wrong.

Did Cook discriminate against anyone? Did he break a law?

And I'd feel the same way if the shoe was on one of the many other feet. Had Cook gone to a gay pride event and refused to wear the rainbow pins they were handing out, no problem. Was this a Buddhist event and he kept the incense, no big deal. If this was an Islamic event and he didn't put on the Crescent, no big deal.

This is lawsuit material. No brainer. And the more I read about this, the madder I get.

wrongful performance of a normally lawful act

The entire student senate should have sex with me! This is normally lawful. The entire student senate has not has sex with me. This is wrongful performance of having sex with me. Therefore, they must all be impeached.

It sounds like these kids screwed up parliamentary order at every possible turn. If the article in #17 is accurate, though, they were right to expel him. I just can't tell from here.

How about we leave writing-angry-letters-without-understanding-the-situation to the Catholic League?

By Epistaxis (not verified) on 03 Sep 2008 #permalink

I'm too drunk to google anything right now (I'd get distracted by nude celebrities), but Cook was not given the opportunity to cross-examine some witnesses, and was not informed of information which was to be used against him. Certain interviews were not disclosed, but were used as evidence, leaving him to cross-examine without preparation.
And the rules of senatoring only apply "misfeasence" if he was acting as a student senator.
I don't live too far from Orlando, so if I get the chance, I'll go down there and urinate on the grandest statue on UCF's campus.

Misfeasence.

The case seems to have been made by the combination of Cook being a member of the Senate and the Liturgy being held on the University Campus. By attending a "function" on campus he cannot disconnect from his role as Senator.

At any rate a whole lot of people were convinced. The vote was 22-7 with one abstaining.

By Max Verret (not verified) on 04 Sep 2008 #permalink