Filed under: News, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of Greeley, Colo., pleaded guilty in a military court to a charge that included not meeting with a superior when ordered to do so and not reporting to duty at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. Lakin, a 17-year veteran, faces up to 18 months in prison and dismissal from the Army when he is sentenced on that charge.
Citizens who never cared before about the deficit, in fact, could not even spell "deficit," are suddenly mad as hell about the deficit. Now that a black man has gotten elected, this deficit is their only reason for living.
Citizens are suddenly afraid of "socialism." Never mind they had never heard of "socialism" before 2008 and couldn't define it if you asked them. It just sounds scary, and they are convinced that the black guy is trying to impose it on all of us.
One of the more original racism disguises is the so-called "Birthers." This group questions whether Obama is a natural-born citizen as the Constitution requires for presidents. They maintain that President Obama was not born in the United States and thus cannot legally be president of the United States. In other words: nutjobs.
This movement and its bat-sh*t philosphy has been taken to the next level by Army Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of Greeley, Colorado. Lakin is an Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan, because he challenges President Obama's eligibility for office.
He does not believe Obama was born in the United States, which would make him ineligible to be president and, consequently, ineligible to be commander-in-chief of the U.S. military.
He infamously posted a series of YouTube videos, where he proclaims that any reasonable person looking at available evidence would have questions about Obama's eligibility to be president and that he had "no choice" but to disobey orders. He said he would "gladly deploy" if Obama's original birth certificate was released and proved authentic.
Never mind that officials in Hawaii say they have seen and verified Obama's original 1961 birth certificate, which is on record with that state. Birthers aren't satisfied with that assurance or the "Certification of Live Birth" Obama has released. Forget that it was widely available on the Internet during the last presidential election. Never mind that his mother was a citizen, automatically making him a natural-born citizen. Who needs facts getting in the way of good ole-fashioned racism?
I wonder if Lakin demanded a birth certificate from any other president in the last 17 years he's been in the army. I wonder if he got the memo that Al Gore actually won the popular election, yet Bush became president. But there was nothing illegitimate about that presidency, was there?
Although this is clearly racist drivel from Lakin and his Birther crew, my heart does not bleed at one less racist in the American military. Lakin, a 17-year veteran, faces up to 18 months in prison and dismissal from the Army when he is sentenced on that charge.
Army officials tell NBC News instead of jail time it's "likely" the court will order him discharged from the Army. A discharge could prove to be very costly for Lakin. Army officials say at 18 years of service, Lakin is two years short of full retirement, which over a lifetime could total as much as a couple million dollars in retirement pay and benefits. Well, how about that, the story has a happy ending after all!
I hope holding on to his racist ideology and abandoning his fellow troops during war time was all worth it. Who knew "be all you can be" only applied if you weren't a black man running for president.
Watch CNN's Anderson Cooper give Lakin a much-deserved grilling here:
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