News tonight!

[Bill1031]

Just saw this on news tonight that a Medal of Honor or lack of one, that can lie about winning one and get away with it on right of free speach! I really do not know what to say other than I am just totally PO'ed, to say it very lightly at what is going on in this country. I am sure Herb or someone will post a link but at this point as a former Marine or Patriot I am Pissed! Sorry If I offend some more rational thinking. I just needed to vent!!!!!!

[smltooner]

Bill.....I just finished watching the Fox video about this and I agree with you 100%.
We should send the SOB that lied about having a CMOH and the 2 judges that ruled the law is unconstitutional to every military base in the country and let them defend their actions in front of real soldiers. See how quick they get run out the gate.

[rsmith]

I understand the whole free speech thing, but there are some things you just don't lie about. Serving your country, be it the US, China, Germany, etc, is one of those things. Shoulda thrown him in jail. In my mind the guy scammed people and that's not legal.

[HandymanHerb]

Well it wasn't this guy

Vietnam vet lied about Medal of Honor

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI



esilvestrini@tampatrib.com



For two years, Vietnam War veteran Gary Amster drove around Florida with a license plate that said he had been awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award.



But Amster never received the Medal of Honor.



A federal jury Wednesday convicted Amster, 62, of three charges - a felony count of lying to a federal agency about having the medal and two misdemeanor counts of falsely representing that he had won the medal.


The felony carries up to five years in prison and the misdemeanors each carry up to a year behind bars. Sentencing is set for April 30.



Defense attorney Michael P. Maddux said Amster wrongly thought he had been given the honor because of a form that was mailed to him by the Army.



"He believed that he was a hero," Maddux told jurors in his closing argument. "Some people need to believe that they're heroes. That doesn't make them a criminal. You shouldn't make him a criminal."



But a federal prosecutor said Amster fraudulently altered the Army form and then used it to fool authorities; he filed the form with the Brevard County Clerk of the Court and then used a copy with the State of Florida seal.



"We don't prosecute people for wrong beliefs in the United States," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mosakowski. "We do prosecute them for telling lies in important matters."



The medal Amster claimed to have received represents "the thanks of a grateful nation," Mosakowski said. "It's against the law for someone who never earned that to claim that he did."



He said Amster claimed he was a sergeant leading a patrol that was ambushed by the Viet Cong and that he fought them off with his bayonet and lost a kidney as a result of battle wounds.



But the prosecutor said there was no evidence Amster ever saw combat; a fellow soldier testified they were stationed in headquarters with radios. Amster lost his kidney as the result of an infection brought about by a congenital condition, Mosakowski said.



"If the Viet Cong was responsible for him losing his kidney, they would have had to have beaten up his mother," he said.



Maddux said Amster had a good-faith reason to believe he had been given the award, pointing out that his client never received any money from the government because of his claims.



"They're here after him because of a license plate," he said.



Maddux said Amster already has been punished by having to go through the trial.



"It's time to let this veteran go home," he said. "Humiliated? Yes. I'm asking you to display your own mighty acts of individual valor in this case. Acquit Mr. Amster."



But Mosakowski urged a conviction.



"We're protecting the honor of our Medal of Honor winners, or our bravest of the brave and our heroes," he said.

[HandymanHerb]

Here's the one your talking about, I guess if your Hispanic in California you can say anything.
the other guy in Florida is going to prision,Hey good for Us


Court says lying about Medal of Honor no crime
August 18, 2010 by SusanaMontes


Filed under 1st Amendment News, News & Opinion
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A federal law making it a crime to lie about receiving the Medal of Honor or other military decorations violates freedom of speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

San Francisco Chronicle

August 18, 2010

By Bob Egelko

SAN FRANCISCO –Although a Southern California water board member convicted of violating the Stolen Valor Act made “deliberate and despicable” claims that he had received the Medal of Honor, the Constitution prohibits the government from prosecuting someone for merely lying, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said in a 2-1 ruling.

“The right to speak and write whatever one chooses – including, to some degree, worthless, offensive and demonstrable untruths – without cowering in fear of a powerful government is, in our view, an essential component of the protection afforded by the First Amendment,” Judge Milan Smith said in the majority opinion.

If lying about a medal can be classified as a crime, Smith said, so can lying about one’s age, misrepresenting one’s financial status on Facebook, or telling one’s mother falsehoods about drinking, smoking or sex.

Dissenting Judge Jay Bybee said the Constitution does not protect knowingly false speech. He said the lies told by Xavier Alvarez “dishonor … every service member who has been decorated in any way, and every American now serving.”

Alvarez, elected in 2006 to the Three Valley Water District board in Pomona (Los Angeles County), introduced himself at a public meeting in July 2007 as a retired Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor two decades before.

The court described him as a congenital liar who had never served in the armed forces but had repeatedly claimed to have been awarded military decorations. Alvarez also described himself falsely as a former police officer and pro hockey player, the court said.

Alvarez was the first person ever prosecuted under a 2006 federal law that prohibits falsely claiming to have won a military decoration. It is punishable by up to six months in prison, or a year for elite awards such as the Medal of Honor.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation, fined $5,000 and ordered to perform 416 hours of community service. His lawyer said he completed the community service but, in an unrelated case, was convicted last year of misappropriating public funds and was sentenced to five years in state prison.

A Palm Springs man who tried to impress former classmates at his high school reunion in Concord by showing up in a Marine Corps uniform encrusted with bogus medals pleaded guilty to the same crime last year. Steven Douglas Burton, 39, who had never served in the military, was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $250.

Jonathan Libby, a deputy federal public defender who represented Alvarez, said the Ninth Circuit “upheld the First Amendment in a very difficult case.”

Prosecutors could ask the full appeals court for a rehearing.

In Tuesday’s ruling, the court said the government can carry out the stated purpose of the Stolen Valor Act, to preserve the “reputation and meaning” of military honors, by publicizing the names of genuine recipients and false claimants.

There is no reason to assume that the meaning of military decorations “is harmed every time someone lies about having received one,” said Smith, who like Bybee was appointed by former President George W. Bush.

“Every nation needs to honor heroes,” Bybee countered. “The harm flowing from those who have crowned themselves unworthily is surely self-evident.”

Read the ruling at links.sfgate.com/ZKDP.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.