The tragic, pathetic demise of a birther
If the release of President Obama's birth certificate last month was the denouement of the birther saga, the release of Terrence Lakin from prison will be its bizarre coda.
Lakin is the veteran Army doctor who refused orders to redeploy to Afghanistan because he believed Obama was born abroad, not a legitimate president, and therefore that military orders were invalid.
Last December, Lakin, a lieutenant colonel, was dismissed from the Army and sentenced to six months in prison after, in the words of his supporters, inviting "his own court martial with the hopes that the normal processes of legal discovery would provide some answers." (The plan didn't work.) Supporters kept up with Lakin through a series of "prison diaries" that he mailed out to be posted online.
In what promises to be one of the stranger political spectacles of the year, a homecoming event is planned Saturday at the Southwest Airlines baggage claim area of Baltimore Washington International Airport. The website set up to support Lakin advises potential attendees that "there are no less than about 20 hotels within a mile or so of the airport" and suggests:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/birthers/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/05/13/terry_lakin_birther_comes_home