Friday, April 6, 2012

Tea Party Marine who criticised Obama should be dismissed, finds military board

Via Billy

Sergeant Gary Stein found to have committed misconduct over his comments about the president

He faces an other-than-honourable discharge, meaning he will lose benefits and be barred from military bases

Defence attorney's claim the Marine's First Amendment rights have been breached

A military board has recommended dismissal for the Tea Party Marine who wrote on Facebook that he would not follow orders from President Obama.

A Marine Corps administrative board found that Sergeant Gary Stein had committed misconduct with his online campaign against the president.

After a daylong hearing at Camp Pendleton, California, board also recommended that Stein's discharge from the military be on an other-than-honorable basis.

That would mean that the disgraced sergeant would lose his benefits and would not be allowed back on any military base.

Stein's lawyers had argued that the 9-year Marine, whose service was to end in four months, was expressing his personal views and exercising his First Amendment rights.

More @ Mail Online


5 comments:

  1. Oh freakin' well..

    A Marine sergeant should know better. Regardless who the CIC is, keep your pie-hole shut in public forums.

    Ain't nobody in the Navy or USMC with metal on the collar gonna stand with this idiot.

    We had it drilled into our mushy skulls in boot camp and all the time thereafter.

    He signed the contract. Sucks to be him, I suppose.

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  2. We had it drilled into our mushy skulls

    :) He'll be on the Tea Party/Libertarian circuit now.

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  3. IMHO, he crossed the "free speech" line when he brought his service into his political speech.

    Had he said "I'm John Smith, and I think Barry Soebarka is not qualified to be POTUS and hence he has no authority to issue orders to our .mil", he'd be well within 1st Amendment bounds.

    But - unless I misunderstand - that's not what he did.

    He stood tall and said "I'm SSgt. John Smith, USMC, and I will not obey orders from Barry Soebarka because ..."

    With that distinction in mind, their handling of his case was proper and reasonable IMHO.

    Frankly, he's lucky they gave him OTH - at least he won't lose his 2A rights!!

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  4. I don't see how they could have given him a dishonorable.

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