Posted on 04/06/2012 9:26:41 AM PDT by Mozilla
A US Marine faces possible dismissal after posting critical remarks on Facebook about US President Barack Obama, with a review board recommending a less than honorable discharge.
Sergeant Gary Stein (26) a nine-year veteran, posted comments on Facebook and other websites calling Obama a coward and "the economic and religious enemy," a Marine Corps board was told during an all-day hearing on Thursday.
Stein had urged Obama's defeat in the November election, writing "screw Obama" in one posting, and had founded a website called Armed Forces Tea Party, apparently in support of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement.
On one site he sold bumper stickers reading "NOBAMA 2012."
The three-member board meeting at Camp Pendleton, a military base in southern California, announced its decision on Thursday. The final decision will be made by a commanding general.
Stein had no comment after the decision, but Mark Brewer, one of his civilian lawyers, said: "We're disappointed but we're going to keep fighting for this Marine."
During the hearing, Marine lawyers argued that Stein be booted over the remarks about Obama, who is the commander and chief of US armed forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.iafrica.com ...
Hey......The big “O” put out the word “can no one rid me of this noisy noncom” and some perfumed prince undertook the task.
What branch/unit. how long?
Me: twenty years never felt like a slave. Ran a business after I retired, found that I had more freedom to do my job on active duty than I had as a civilian. My service was in the navy.
Army 10+. Now DoD civilian, 7+. When one functions under UCMJ, especially article 134, one has no rights.
If he is still charged and tried even as one who has not over-stepped those guidelines, then the government is wrong in their prosecution of this Marine. The old standards might have been changed, but the old standards were an effort at preserving as much as possible of first amendment rights for the military.
Personally I am convinced that this prosecution would never have taken place if the President had been Bush or any other Republican. The problem is that this Marine chose to publicly criticize “The One” and the brass were advised by the powers that be that ANY public criticism of the Megalomaniac shall not be tolerated.
If there were a draft or this had been during the Vietnam War and they threw out every soldier who publicly criticized the CIC, then there would be an epidemic of this kind of public criticism.
The fact of the matter is that this kind of benign criticism and expression goes on all the time within the ranks and within e-mails and blogs and it does absolutely nothing to deter morale or good order or discipline. If anything this prosecution will cause more deterioration in morale and good order than it could possibly help. Further it will become harder and harder to field a voluntary army if the public becomes aware of how severely the opinions of soldiers in the field shall be punished.
Nothing good will come out of this firing. Obama willnbe appeased. I guess that is the important thing.
Just between you, me, and the wall, P-M, if my president were a narcissitic, megalomaniac with dictatorial tendencies, the last thing I’d want would be a “career” army. That was Mussolini’s path to power.
Although it might rob some freedom...and the constitutional concept of militia mitigates this thought...a draftee just wants to do his time and go home. He doesn’t want to reward his overlord with the keys to the kingdom.
And being able to put a “pink army” in place is a very dangerous thing.
“They was wrong. The United States is a constitutional republic not a democracy.”
And you are so proud that you’ve learned this tidbit?
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