UCMJ Article 88

In my recent Letter to the Editor I must have hit a nerve with Sam Prince! I believe I pissed him off. You can go to this link and read his rebuttal http://cairomessenger.com. Find “This weeks issues” and tab to page 5. After reading his article / rebuttal scroll down to the bottom of the page and read Ken Wood’s letter to the editor. Ken Wood is direct and to the point.
It appears I am Detractor Number 2; I don’t like being in second place. I’ll have to try harder! So look out Detractor Number 1, I’m gunning for you!
Sam says I insulted him by calling him a “little Rush Limbaugh”. I would like to set the record straight. I said he “sounds like a little Limbaugh”. Sam doesn’t get alliteration. I thought it was hilarious. It really wasn’t an insult; it was more of an observation. If anyone was insulted it might have been Rush Limbaugh.
Sam wanted to know if I had spent a day in the military. Well I haven’t spent a day in the military; I’ve spent 7665 days and for Sam that’s 21 years of active service. He was big on writing about his enlistment and commissioning oaths, well he is not alone. I’ve taken 2 enlistment oaths, my initial commissioning oath and subsequent oaths every time I was promoted. I had the honor and pleasure of administering the oath to my wife when she was commissioned. She also took the enlistment oath as an enlisted soldier before going to Office Candidate School (OCS). As enlisted soldiers we were assigned to Military Intelligence and worked as Intelligence Analysts. After OCS I was branched to Armor and she remained in Intelligence as a Counter Intelligence officer. Sam Prince is not the only one who’s had some life experiences serving his country.
I had to laugh out loud reading his commentary on the UCMJ. Sam Prince wrote, “By oath, I could not then nor can I now be compelled to comply with an illegal order or anything unconstitutional. Even today, if I commit an illegal act, I can be tried by court-martial under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.” If that is correct then Sam should pay more attention to the UCMJ. I call your attention to Article 88 of the UCMJ. “Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”
Now let’s be honest here, all retired Commissioned Officers are under the UCMJ only in theory. Nobody in the government really cares one flip what Sam Prince has to say. There is a great article by Lieutenant Colonel Michael J. Davidson in the July 1999 issue of Army Lawyer, entitled “Contemptuous Speech Against the President.” If you’ve let your subscription lapse to the Army Lawyer, you can Goggle it on the Internets. My point here is Sam Prince engages in embellishments and over statements in all his articles. He never gives examples or proof in his writings. There is always a communist lurking in the shadows ready to pollute our precious body fluids and Obama is taking us into Socialism. But we never know what or how this is happening. He has only rhetoric with no substance; just sound and fury.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sam Prince is Fucked Up like a Soup Sandwich.

Sam Prince wants Obama to fail!!

Sam Prince says he wants Obama to fail!! The Cairo Messenger has the entire article at http://www.cairomessenger.com/ . His views are just right of Attla the Hun. So I had to write this letter to the editor.



Sam Prince sounds like a little Limbaugh! I don’t think much of Rush Limbaugh but doesn’t Rush deserve some credit for the “I want Obama to fail” shrill? Some time ago I said Mr. Prince should give up caffeine and there for a while it looked like he’d taken my advice. But it looks like he’s fallen off the caffeine wagon. Sam Prince is back to seeing a socialist and communist behind every Bush!
I can’t see where President Obama and Vice President Biden flubbed (Sam’s word) their oath. In fact Chief Justice Roberts admitted he was the flubber. And to be technical about it, Roberts still got it wrong the second time. There is no “so help me God” at the end of the President’s oath, just as there is no religious test for public office. Our Constitution is very clear on this subject.
The thing that bothers me the most about this week’s article is its tone. Sam Prince sounds like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum when he doesn’t get what he wants. He sounds hateful, mean spirited and divisive. Mr. Prince has the right to his opinion, as does everyone in America. But implying that there are no Americans of African descent and calling President Obama’s mother a hippie supports my position that he is mean spirited and divisive. This tone is uncalled for in a public debate. Adults should be above this sort of thing.
I went back and checked on some of Mr. Prince’s past articles; the Roddenberry Library maintains copies of the Cairo Messenger all the way back to the turn of the 20th century. It makes fascinating reading. I recommend reading the articles from the 16th and 23rd of January 2008 both are entitled “What should we look for in presidential candidates?”
Sam Prince actually does a pretty good job of explaining the Constitution and how it applies to the office of the President. Maybe he should have reread those articles before he wrote this last one. In his article from January 16, 2008 he summed it up with “Our job as voters is to decide which candidates are most able to run for the job of president of the United States. That is not an easy job.” On January 23, 2008 he wrote “Shortly, we will be casting our ballots for the individual we think is the best candidate to represent our respective parties in the November general election.”
Well Mr. Prince we did that, we Americans voted and your guy didn’t win. It happens. In 2000 and 2004 my guy didn’t win either. I had to suffer through 8 years of Bush, but never ever did I or anyone else say “I want Bush to fail.” If our President fails our country fails. And that as they say is not an option.
Mr. Prince wants us to believe President Obama has some evil plan to turn America into a communist state or at best a Socialist Democracy. As weird as that sounds it is still Mr. Prince’s belief and he is entitled to it. He should give us proof, not petty and divisive comments. Our country and our world are going through rough times right now, the last thing we need is to push people’s buttons just to get a reaction. We need strong and insightful debate; these issues effect us not only as a nation but our children’s future.

And that why Sam Prince is Fucked Up like a soup sandwich!!