I only caught the end of the live broadcast of The Power Hour program Terry Lain segment. There were hints that Lakin was considering running for public office. Callers were happy to not only restore Lakin’s rank but to give him the promotion to Colonel that he was up for before he went off the reservation. Lakin was there with his assistant Marco Ciavolino, Trustee of the Terry Lakin Action Fund, who did some of the talking. Lots of plugs for the Terry Lakin Action Fund web site, now accessible at TerryLakin.com.
The program archive is online. Select June 15, first hour.
I guess Lakin still hasn’t realized that he threw away his career for nothing. Conspiracy theories are more addictive than heroin. Addicts ruining their lives and hurting their families is nothing new. Tragic, but not new.
I missed it. I saw your comment though. 🙂
It is archived here:
http://archives2011.gcnlive.com/Archives2011/jun11/PowerHour/0615112.mp3
I haven’t had time to listen to it.
If Lakin is reduced to begging on radio programs to raise money for living expenses that does not bode well for campaign fundraising.
Starts at 10:10 for the masochists who want to listen to this cack
At 11:50, Lakin states that “we have a valid question that still needs to be answered” thus confirming that, surprise! surprise!, the release of Obama’s long-form BC did not resolve Lakin’s concerns about the President’s legitimacy. At 20 minutes I quit listening due to illness.
” i was lead down a path i chose to follow.”
i dropped out long before then.
I find things like this painful to listen to.
The laugh track is missing.
I believe Lakin is a convicted felon and hence ineligible to vote or hold public office in most states for at least a period of time or, in some, the rest of his life unless he is pardoned.
This man is a sad case.
Not sure about this. I suspect his conviction was not the equivalent of a felony or hewouldn’t be allowed to keep his medical license, would he?
I predicted at the beginning of the Lakin Affair (I think on this site) that he would be conned into thinking that the “political prisoner/martyr” tag could be parlayed into a political career. Sometimes I really hate being able to say “I told you so”.
Can find any definitive info on exactly what his conviction entails….felony or misdemeanor. Same with his discharge; I suspect it’s dishonorable and that can cause lots of problems but again I can’t find anything specific.
There was one reference to his medical license being in Kansas and it being under review.
I can’t find it either. I’m pretty sure it was exhaustively and authoritatively discusses on CAAFLOG about the time of his trial, but I can’t find it now. Perhaps it was discussed here, but I can’t find it here either. I seem to remember it was Phil Cave that gave the definitive answer, but I’m not sure. Perhaps someone else can find the reference.
I believe the upshot was that 6 months military confinement does not equate to a civilian felony, nor does Lakin’s dismissal constitute a “dishonorable discharge”. Therefore there is no ‘automatic’ disqualification from the medical license.
Therefore it is up to the discretion of Medical Boards in Kansas or Colorado and D.C. or Maryland or wherever it is that he is licensed to decide whether his actions constituted endangerment to his clients or whatever the terminology is.
I’ll keep looking and if I find something I’ll post it.
I believe Lakin was known for being a good and caring doctor. He was a poor soldier and made a mockery of military discipline and commmand. He was punished for that. It would be best, I think, if he were able to find a place where a doctor is needed and forget the birth certificate. Revenge is not the issue. There are so many communities where people have no access.
Lakin should put the entire episode behind him, and accept the fact that he made the wrong choices. I don’t know what effects his conviction has on his medical career, but I how that at some point he will be able to use his intelligence for something worth while.
More like a post-child. Most politicians seems to dance the dance with Obama’s birth certificate. Never, willing to directly challenge its validity, but willing to appease people like Lakin. Lakin is still obsessed with it, which is very detrimental to any political career. However, he is still being “conned.”
I think that Lakin is smart enough to be able to become a doctor, but book smarts and common sense do not always go hand in hand.
I think that he likes the attention and back slapping from the birthers, is fine with the nuttiness of it all, and is not about to go to anyone’s 9 to 5 regular job as a doctor. He would much rather go on TV/radio, have folks tell him he is a GREAT PATRIOT, and that he should be President instead of President Obama.
He’s really a sad fellow, and I wonder why someone who loves him won’t tell him that he should really stop making a fool of himself, and go to work to provide for his family.
OK, I’m sort of blogging as I listen.
Warning! This show is in a state of Level 4 Cluelessness. “Someone’s declared a level 4 nuclear emergency in Nebraska,” bellows the hostess, “and we’re not even hearing about it! I don’t know what a level 4 nuclear emergency means….”
No kidding. Add “Google” to the list of things she doesn’t know. Took less than a minute to turn up this, in which the OPPD says A) it’s not an “emergency”, simply a standard cautionary response to the imminent flooding; B) Level 4 is, in fact, the “least-serious of four emergency classifications”. And C) the plant’s been in cold shutdown since April, anyway.
“…and may be a level 5 declared.” Does this show have fact-checkers? Fire ’em.
“He was court-martialed for his pursuit of confirmation of Obama’s eligibility”
Wow, who knew? I thought it was because he disobeyed deployment orders.
“…or what didn’t happen on 9/11”. Conspiracy theories are like Lay’s potato chips. Nobody can eat just one. Scratch below the surface of any birther and you’ll discover a catfight of conspiracy theories struggling to get out.
“OK, we recognize the problem. Let’s find the answer.” Must be a misspeak. She obviously meant, “Let’s ignore the answer.”
I guess I don’t have much opinion on what Lakin himself had to say. Re: birtherism he really didn’t say much at all, beyond his insistence that there are still unanswered questions. This isn’t the first interview I’ve heard him give and I’ll confess personally I kinda like the guy. As a human interest story I was interested. As to the whole court-martial thing, never having been in the miltary, let alone within a thousand miles of a courts martial proceeding, I prefer keeping my ignorance to myself. 🙂
Back in the seventies there was a school of psychology called “transactional analysis” which categorized our daily experiences as either “warm fuzzies” or “cold pricklies”, and postulated that we all tend to seek out the warm fuzzies. To me, that sounded not so much like a pyschological theory as common sense.
Of course we’d rather hang out with the warm supporting crowd. That’s just human nature. If I were in Lakin’s position, I strongly suspect I would be doing exactly what he’s doing. I’ll certainly fault him for being a birther, but not a human being.
–Nathanael
LTC Lakin is still a member of the Army, subject to the UCMJ, and yes, entitled to be referred to as LTC for the moment.
His punishment included a Dismissal, which is the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge. If, as I presume, his conviction and sentence is affirmed on appeal he will lose the right to hold himself out as a commissioned officer. The dismissal effectively revokes his commission in the armed forces. I believe there are then federal statutes which would have to be researched, but which may make it a crime to falsely represent yourself as a commissioned officer of a particular grade. There’s been litigation over something similar — The Stolen Valor Act.
He is still subject to Army and DoD regulations (similar to the Hatch Act) about political activity. That includes prohibitions on the use of rank and military status for the purpose of gaining political office, etc. [http://goo.gl/hff5l]
He does not have a felony. He has a federal conviction which would have to be disclosed.
It is unlikely he would retain a security clearance.
It will be discretionary for him to retain medical licences.
Holding himself out as a COL would be a false official statement at least. Once his misconduct began he was “flagged,” which means all positive actions were either terminated or withheld. He would have been removed from the promotion list. Technically he could say he was “selected” for colonel before his “troubles” began.
Interesting. This status remains until his appeals are exhauisted, is that it?
How about pay and benefits? Does he still have his ID card? Can he wear his uniform?
My recollection is that there are state laws that deal with dishonorable discharges and whether the person can vote, possess a firearm, etc. Will his dismissal have the same effect?
So, the process is not over yet. Interesting.
He has an ID card. He and his family are entitled to continue using military medical care, commissary, Exchange, gas station, and on-base clubs and facilities until he receives his DD214. The day that CAAF denies his petition for review (in about 6-9 months) he will be pending issuance of a “mandate.” Once the mandate is issued it usually take a month or two for the Army to issue the DD214. At that point he will be required to surrender his ID cards and he is no longer in the Army.
He can be recalled to full duty at any time prior to the issuance of the DD214, because he’s only on unpaid “appellate leave.”
Sorry, don’t remember the answer to the firearms, etc., question. Dwight “My Liege?”
What are the odds he would be recalled to full duty?
That would undoubtedly send the conspiracy driven birther world into a moist froth and tizzy.
Zero. Unless he commits serious misconduct under the UCMJ while in an appellate leave status. Even then it may be unlikely because the Army won’t want to deal with him and any more of his shenanigans. Basically they’d likely hold off to avoid giving him another pulpit — IMHO.
He’ll be a popular guy at the officer’s club!
So…he’s on unpaid leave. Is that just base pay or all compensation? Housing?
Wow….you start thinking about it and it’s just mind boggling what this guy threw away.
AS Phil said, about zero. At this point the military pretty much considers him an “administrative burden”. They’re not about to do anything to present him with an opportunity to cause more trouble. The final dispensation of such a case takes awhile, but time is one thing the military has lots of.
I sincerely doubt you’d see him there. Blue Falcons are not popular people, and Dismissed Blue Falcons even less so. He may technically be entitled to the Officer’s club, but it would not be a very welcome place for him.
The scuttlebutt among my old army buddies, including those still serving, is that he’s universally hated in the military, despite what the birthers would have people believe.
No pay, zero, zip, nada; nor any allowances such as BAH (housing). And no, there is no COBRA eligibility.
“Soldiers on excess leave are not entitled to pay and allowances.” United States v. Paz-Medina, 56 M.J. 501, 503 n.6 (Army Ct. Crim. App. 2001); see Department of Defense Financial Management Regulation, Volume 7A: Military Pay Policy and Procedures Active Duty and Reserve Pay, ch. 48, para. 4811 (Feb. 2001), and ch. 26, tbl. 26-5 n.4 (Feb. 2002), http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/fmr/07a/index.html.
So, he’s a “kept man’ now.
I was joking.
You hope the man has sense enough to stay away from anything to do with the military…..but that may be asking too much.
I know this is a little off-topic, but how popular is Obama in the military? I ask because the day the long form was released, one of our local talk radio guys, Howie Carr, responded to a caller (and a birther) who talked about the Lakin case, saying that shows how much contempt Obama has for the military.
I wanted to call in and set Carr straight, but I doubt I would have made it past the screener.
I can relate an anecdotal account of Lakin’s popularity within the military. Last year I sat next to a brave young soldier returning from Afghanistan on a commercial flight. We chatted about conditions there and what combat was like. He had been in a convoy that was attacked. I asked him if he had heard of LTC Lakin. He said “Yes, we know about him and we all think he is a turd.”.
>>Holding himself out as a COL would be a false official statement at least
Phil,
I thought that in all but the most formal spoken conversation, a Lieutenant Colonel was conventionally addressed or referred to as “Colonel,” somewhat akin to the way a commander British Navy was addressed as “Captain” if he held a command. The father of a college classmate was a retired Lieutenant Colonel, and I recall addressing him that way.
I would have thought that the same usage applied as well in casual and semi-formal writing, if for no other reason than to save effort, but I guess that possibility has been preempted by the military’s odd fixation with acyms and abb’v’ts.
I think the fact that you automatically get busted down to “inmate” when you goto a Military Prison, and that doesn’t go back up once you get released. So, he’s no longer a Colonel, and should not refer to himself as one.
Sure, but I was asking the slightly different question of whether it’s improper to address or refer to a Lt. Col. as “Colonel.”
Chancery has it correct. It is not improper to informally refer to a “colonel” even though the person is a LTC. Also, within the Navy we have the same custom that the commanding officer of a ship is called the “captain” regardless of rank.
IN the army a Lt. Col is addressed as Col, but introduced or referred as Lt. Col.
This is in the same way as all grades of General are addressed as General.
Another view from ‘Maj D’ at military.com