Imagine how much laughter would be induced by a young person who claimed an inability to find work because he or she lacked the time to obtain a Social Security card. Even more laughable would be someone who takes the time to fly from Texas to Washington, D.C. in order to testify at a trial yet claims she can't find the time to obtain a voter identification card. Well, Henry Jackson of the Associated Press actually wrote that up with a straight face until AP was forced to delete it after the sheer absurdity of it was pointed out by J. Christian Adams of PJ Media. Here is the AP laughline care of Adams before it was deleted in sheer embarrassment:
Victoria Rose Rodriguez, 18, told a federal court in Washington that she had limited documentation — a birth certificate, a high school transcript and a student ID card with a photo on it — but is currently a registered voter in Texas. She said her parents are too busy to take her or her twin sister to get the new voter identification cards required by the law.
Adams' story was posted at 2:19 PM on July 11 and just a few hours later the AP deleted Jackson's inadvertent comedy nugget from their voter id story via an update at 5:30 PM CDT. The deletion obviously came after the AP folks read Adams' appreciation of Jackson's unintentional comedy act:
Naturally, Henry Jackson doesn’t seem to note this obvious laugher, that Rodriguez has parents too busy to get the ID, but can hop a plane in San Antonio and spend at least a day in Washington, D.C., and then ride back home. In fact, Jackson (and the rest of press) simply laps up the government’s stories without question.
Unintentional comedy from Henry Jackson at AP which inspired this intentional comedy skit from Adams:
There was a time in the Voting Section when the DOJ wouldn’t introduce such absurd evidence. The conversation would go something like this:
Young lawyer: I want to call Victoria Rodriguez. Her parents are too busy to give her a ride to get photo ID. They don’t have the 30 minutes to spare.
Older seasoned lawyer: Well, do you really think that is a good idea? Don’t you think we open ourselves up to a devastating cross examination about priorities?
Young lawyer: I’m not sure I follow.
Older seasoned lawyer: We’re not going to call her. Texas will point out the absurdity of us calling a witness to say she doesn’t have time to get a photo ID but can fly 2000 miles to testify at trial. Who took the time to drive her to the airport? We’d need to get her a cab to make this story work. Isn’t going to happen. It could prove embarrassing.
Add a southern accent to the old seasoned lawyer and I’m pretty sure this is the exact conversation that would occur. These days, as we know, irrational decisions are being made from root to branch.
Fortunately for Henry Jackson, AP mercifully deleted his laugh line from his story after the PJ Media mockery so he was able to dodge the laughingstock bullet... Uh, NOT A CHANCE! With the NewsBusters Eye of Sauron firmly focused upon him, Jackson's deleted absurdity is destined to spread far and wide on the Web. Rather than be forgotten, his laugh line will follow him now and forever...unto the end of time.
