Generally bad sense of humor

[edschweppe]

This story (from the Associated Press via boston.com) sounds at first like a typical dumb e-mail joke running around the Net, and a nitwit state employee getting caught forwarding it to his buddies:

It opens with a flag burning ceremony, and moves on to events like a John Kerry "fake medal toss" and a "Free Saddam" pep rally.
On six different occasions, "Ted Kennedy proposes a toast."
This mock schedule for the upcoming Democratic National Convention was circulated among workers in the Massachusetts state government -- including the head of the National Guard -- one of the millions of crude Internet spoofs that clog e-mail accounts every day.

The guy getting in hot water for passing it along, though, is Major General George W. Keefe, Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard.
An expletive-deleted two-star general!
Christ. I'd have thought that surely someone with that much time in would have at least half a clue. If nothing else, he might have heard about Article 88 of the UCMJ (10 USC 888), which states:

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

Not having seen the specific text of the email in question, I don't know if he managed to violate Article 88. But, ferchrissake, I'd think he'd know better than to risk it!