Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Name 'em & shame 'em


Take to to the Supreme Court? Sure, more chances to out Alvarez and show is face to more people so they will know him as the lying coward that he is.
When Xavier Alvarez was asked to say a few words about himself at a meeting of a California water board last summer, he decided on these: “I’m a retired marine of 25 years. I retired in the year 2001. Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got wounded many times by the same guy. I’m still around.”

Only the last three words were true.
You can't get away with that as easy as you used to.
Mr. Alvarez is scheduled to go on trial next month in federal court in Los Angeles for violating the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which makes it a crime to lie about having received certain medals.
...
Mr. Alvarez is facing the possibility of two years in prison and a $200,000 fine.
Now, hold your Constitution close, you are going to love this.
He is represented by a federal public defender, Brianna J. Fuller, and he has filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the First Amendment protects him.
Nice; firmly attached to the public teat the whole time.
Free speech experts say the motion is unlikely to succeed.

“On the other hand,” Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on his blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, “the legal issue is not as clear as one at first might think.” He cited the somewhat muddy Supreme Court jurisprudence in this area and an October decision of the Washington Supreme Court that struck down a state law making it illegal for politicians to lie about candidates for public office.
...
“My instinct is that there probably would not be a winning First Amendment defense because of the confluence of two factors,” Professor Smolla said. First, he said, it is hard to identify anything positive Mr. Alvarez contributed to any debate. Second, he said, “the integrity of the honors that the military bestows is very important.”
I don't think it will get too far either - but we are talking CA and the 9th Circuit. Speaking of CA, any CA tax-payers out there?
In California, where Mr. Alvarez continues to sit on the board of the Three Valleys Municipal Water District, an elected position, patience is wearing thin.

“There’s no question he’s pathological,” said Bob G. Kuhn, the board’s president, recounting some of what has come out of Mr. Alvarez’s mouth. “He’s had three helicopter accidents. He’s been shot 16 times. These are all fabrications.”

But Mr. Kuhn said the board was powerless to expel Mr. Alvarez, who continues to receive $200 per meeting and health insurance. The board has censured him, though, for putting a woman he falsely claimed was his wife on the board’s health plan.

At first, Mr. Kuhn said, he took no position on the wisdom of the criminal prosecution of his colleague.

“But we’ve had 40 or 50 veterans parade before our board, asking him to publicly apologize,” Mr. Kuhn said. “He has refused to do that. With that said, I have no problem with the prosecution.”
Yep, he is still there - and still lists his cell phone number.

Once again, we have B.G. Burkett and his book Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History, for setting the move towards having a law to get these jerks. I hope the law stands.

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