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Friday, November 20, 2009

Army Concerns Over Palin Book Signing Trumps First Amendment!

The U.S. Army plans to prevent media from covering Sarah Palin's appearance at Fort Bragg on Monday, fearing the event will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama, officials said Thursday.

Fort Bragg spokesman Tom McCollum told The Associated Press that the military post's garrison commander and other Army officials had decided to keep media away from Palin's book signing, which will not include a speech.

"The main reason is to stop this from turning into a political platform," he said. "There are Army regulations that basically prohibit military reservations from becoming political platforms by politicians."

Those Army regulations have never been bought to bear against any other politicians. Senators and Congressional representatives have made political speeches on military installations for decades, and now, suddenly, there is an enforcement of those regulations? How about this fact - Sarah Palin is not presently a "politician". She holds no political office, nor has she announced her candidacy for any political office. How is she a "politician"? She is, at this point in time, a private citizen.

Since when does the "Army's" concerns over what may be, at an otherwise open to the public event, allow the garrison commander to suspend the First Amendment rights of Sarah Palin and the press? Or, could it be that the Fort Bragg garrison commander is taking his directions from higher up the chain of command? And if that's the case, how high up did the order originate? The Pentagon? Or the Pentagon by direction of the White House? That's where the real politicians are. Generals are appointed, so Colonels (Captains in the US Navy) and above suck up to every Congressperson and Senator they can find, hoping that their name will be passed along to the President. The President nominates military and naval officers for the rank of Brigadier General (or Naval equivalents) and above, and that nomination is historically rubber-stamped by the Senate.

It's a sad state of affairs when our Constitution is so easily contravened by the government and/or the government's agents. Will this decision be upheld? We will just have to wait and see. The AP and The Fayetteville Observer are protesting the decision to ban media. Let's hope they are successful! It appears the Democrats and the liberal left fear Sarah Palin more than they fear Muslim terrorists - they are taking every opportunity to belittle, berate, denigrate and marginalize everything Sarah says or does. If they didn't fear her, they would ignore her.

BLOGGER'S NOTE: 24 HOURS AFTER THIS POSTING, THE ARMY APPARENTLY SAW THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS AND DID WHAT WAS RIGHT.

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