Wankers of the Week: Crappy Holidaze

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, well…the holidaze is upon us. Eggnog ad nauseam, and enough turkey to put an entire army to sleep. And cranberries to wash all the gunk out of our urinary tracts at the end of it all. Gotta love this time of year! And don’t get me wrong, I do. When I’m not stressed out from having to cook and clean everything under the drearily pale, distant and short-lived Yuletide Sun, that is. But there are people who deserve to get nothing but coal (or worse) in their stockings tonight…and here they come, in no particular order:

1. Scott Fucking Walker. He’s the Grinch that stole Well Woman care from Wisconsinites. Think they’ll notice? Think they’ll recall him over it? Remember, women are 51% of the local population. Do the math, people. Do the math.

2. Michele Fucking Bachmann. Um, Crazy Lady? Believe it or not, there IS such a thing as Muslim Americans! And last time I was in Minnesota, I saw them with my own eyes. Didn’t surprise me a bit, but I bet it would give you a nasty shock to know that yes, they are actually there, leading normal, patriotic, productive lives. That Hitler-in-the-building comparison is a nice touch, too. (And dang, it is a SAD day when I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with that old stopped clock, Ron Fucking Paul.)

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PS: Ha, ha.

3. Bryan Fucking Fischer. If there IS a hell anywhere, it is right here on this Earth, in this life. And it is a joint project of theo-cons like him, and neo-cons like the late, unlamented Hitch Bitch. And part of the punishment that besets us all in this earthly Hades…is to be subjected to endless, idiotic harangues from either side. As I said last week: A pox on both their houses!

4. Mike Fucking McQueary. His story is still apparently mutating, but one thing is now becoming increasingly clear to me: He still doesn’t grasp the very basic fact that a grown man subjecting a child to anal penetration…is RAPE. By definition. No two ways about it.

5. The Fucking Conservative Party of HarpoFuckingLandia. Remember, this isn’t Canada anymore. And they are not the Government of Canada. And to prove it, how about a bogus claim that our VERY made-in-Canada long gun registry is already scrapped? Wankers and bullies, the whole fucking lot of them. And LIARS, too. And I hope the New Year brings down absolute HELL upon their lying asses, with daily protests so loud that none of them can sleep, think, or rubber-stamp another fascist bill all year. PS: Ha, ha. I do so love a good food fight. You?

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6. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. How the hell did someone so overfed still manage to graduate high school with a brain so utterly malnourished? And why are so many fucking idiots out there still keeping this fucking Pigman in slop by listening to his swill? Let’s face it, people, if everyone got what they deserved, he’d get NOTHING. If you’re still scrounging around for New Year’s resolutions, how about making it so? PS: Boo fucking HOO. I don’t suppose it’s any great secret that even Kim Jong Il was better than the Repugnant Party, who wholeheartedly endorsed and built the world of shit this world is currently in.

7. Manuel Fucking Batson. I agree that smoking and drinking are stupid things for teenagers to do…but really, demanding nude pix from her, in exchange for some of yourself? What kind of creepy punishment is THAT? PS: Petulant tweetings about it won’t make you look any less like a pervert, dude. If you really wanted women who were of legal age, wouldn’t you look someplace other than a gym where high-school girls practice cheerleading?

8. Rick Fucking Perry. And the laffs just keep on rollin’. This week, Crotch waxed even more hypocritical, telling a bi teen that gays had no place in the military — even though they’ve been there for as long as there has been a military, with no harm done to troop morale EVER. And shouldn’t he know that, seeing as he was in the US Air Force? Oh yeah, that’s right — still in the closet. Then, he couldn’t even get Kim Jong Il’s name right, calling him “Kim John the Second” (who was the first?) And oh my gawd, WTF is this? Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much. From behind his wife’s skirts. What a guy!

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9. Mitt Fucking Romney. Meanwhile, Mittens consolidates his statesmanlike posture by pronouncing on the easiest foreign-affairs matter he could possibly have picked…the sudden death of Kim Jong Il. This all would be very nice, except that Mittens lived, and continues to live, a life of luxury while mistreating his own family dog. Which rather makes that posture a wank, wouldn’t you say?

10. George W. Fucking Bush. This wank is a bit of a Ghost of Christmas Past, seeing as it involves a certain late North Korean dictator, a stupid-but-catchy phrase from David Fucking Frum, and nukes. But I think you’ll agree that Dubya deserves to be haunted by it until the end of time, seeing as North Korea’s nuclear accession took place on his watch…and, despite all his tuff-talkin’, he did fuck-all to stop it. It’s also worth noting that beyond a couple of underground tests, that North Korean nuclear “threat” proved largely empty. Not to mention that the biggest threat to the Asia-Pacific region remains, as ever, the US State Department. Yes, that’s right, the same country which remains the only one ever to use nuclear weapons in war. (Including “depleted” uranium munitions in Iraq.) Which kind of puts those North Korean nukes, scary as they may seem, into perspective, no?

11. Jules Fucking Manson. He sounds more like CHARLES Fucking Manson, if you ask me. But hey, numb-nuts, thanks for laying bare the entire ideology of the Teabagger Party and the Libertardicans both. Thanks for reminding us all that it’s nothing but racism plus guns, wrapped up in a shit-stained rag that used to be the US constitution. Now go shoot your own fugly face off, ‘kay?

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12. Jim Fucking Flaherty. Yeah, who cares if Canadians can’t afford to get sick or injured anymore. Let’s just go for that good ol’ all-Amurrican ideology of “can’t pay, don’t play”, at all costs! Here’s a thought, Jimbo: How about you fucking feds stop playing tiddlywinks with OUR taxes and OUR economy, and quit buying unnecessary jets and $2-billion security for summits we can’t afford to host and don’t give a shit about because they accomplish NOTHING for us, eh?

13. William Fucking McCallister. Polygraph tests are at best unreliable; a liar with steady nerves can beat one, while an honest person with shot nerves will appear guilty. But no one more so than this so-called polygraph examiner, specializing (so he advertised) in cases of “marital infidelity”, who conveniently drugged his female victims, then asked inappropriate questions and sexually assaulted them while they were strapped to the machine. In one case, he demanded oral sex in exchange for telling the woman’s husband that she “passed”. Weirdest pervert ever? Certainly a candidate.

14. Jason Fucking Kenney. There are plenty of legitimate reasons not to eat Chiquita bananas (support for the Honduran coup, anyone?) But the laughable “ethical oil” from the tar sands of Alberta is not one of them. It doesn’t belong in anyone’s engine, and its byproducts definitely do NOT belong in our air, water or soil. Which is where these “ethical oil” byproducts actually do end up, in unconscionable amounts. And which is why Jason is such a greasy little wanker this week. Perhaps he’d like some “ethical oil” sludge in his stocking? That could be arranged!

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(And for our so-called environment minister, Peter Fucking Kent, ditto.)

15. Newt Fucking Gingrich. You know your vows and pledges don’t mean anything when a marital-cheating agency endorses you and your frightful hypocrisy on a big, fat billboard. But it sure is good for shits ‘n’ giggles, innit? PS: Speaking of which, ha ha. And ha, ha, ha.

16. Sarah Fucking Palin. What? YOU again? Hey Sawah, Baby Jesus just called. He says to fuck off, get out of politics, and stop wearing miniature torture devices around your neck.

17. Cassie Fucking Wright. She’s whitey-white, full of shite, and none too bright. Which makes her a PERFECT president for the College Repugs. Holla!

18. Ron Fucking Paul. His policies are “winning” like Charlie Fucking Sheen was “winning” when he went on a manic tear. You’ll notice I used quotation marks for a reason. “Winning”, in this case, means something more along the lines of batshit fucking crazy. And how can one claim to disavow racist things published in one’s own newsletter, if one did not endorse them and agree with them enough to publish those things in the first place? PS: And homophobic too. Shocked, SHOCKED, I tell ya. All we need now is anti-choice, and we’ll have the entire Unholy Trinity!

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19. Ted Fucking Nugent. I’m with Keitho. The Noodge is, indeed, a fucking asshole. He’s an asshole who dodged the draft by sitting in his own shit for about a month, back in the day. So he’s got no business calling anyone else a “dirtball”. And what’s this about “good for my conservative soul”? If you’re a conservative like this, you don’t HAVE a soul. You sold it long ago, remember?

20. Maria Conchita Fucking Alonso. Picking on Sean Penn is never smart. But then again, neither is Conchita. (She’s never SANE, either.)

21. Jay Fucking Gray. Isn’t there some kind of ethical rule for journalists against fraternizing with their prospective interviewees, at least over alcohol? If not, then there damn well should be. Especially if you’re fraternizing with a creep like Joe Fucking Amendola. I mean, UGH.

22. Kim Fucking Kardashian. Gee, do you suppose SHE’s a 1%er? If her “earnings” from last year won’t do the trick, this year’s insta-wedding profits just might. Maybe next year, she’ll start paying some real taxes for a change. PS: Yep, she’s a 1%er, all right. Right down to the highly profitable sweatshop crap. TAX THE FUCKING BITCH ALREADY!!!

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23. Andre Fucking Curry. I don’t know what’s most disturbing about this: the fact that he admits to hitting his child, that he ties her up with tape to keep her from hitting back, that he took a picture of her in that bound-and-gagged state, or that he posted it to Facebook. Or that some people think it was just a joke. Fortunately for the baby, the law takes those things very seriously.

24. Deangelo Fucking Mitchell. Trying to beat a coke-smuggling rap is a wank sure enough, but getting your little brother to dispose of the evidence in such a way that it kills him? That is seriously sick shit. (And if you ever wonder why I will never even TRY cocaine, or any other hard drug, read between the lines, people. That shit has literally been IN shit. Someone else’s shit. Up their butt. Yeah, that sounds real glamorous now, doesn’t it?)

25. Stephen Fucking Woodworth. How to reopen a “debate” that you know you’re going to lose, and lose badly? Simple: Never mention the dirty-wirty word (ABORTION!!!) that you’re actually “debating”. Question: Why is it always the most disgustingly unsexy MEN who think this “debate” should be “reopened”? If fetuses are so sacred to them, let THEM get pregnant, already! Then we’ll see how long the “debate” lasts.

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26. Amy Fucking Koch. How refreshing to know that ‘winger men aren’t the only Family Values hypocrites around. Female conservatives are just as two-faced! Doesn’t that make you feel so much better about the whole damn bunch? PS: Ha, ha.

27. Jim Fucking Sensenbrenner. Michelle Obama may or may not have a big ass, depending who you ask. But there’s not much doubt that he IS one. And he really should learn to watch his own diet if he’s going to go around criticizing a woman who’s not half as broad in the beam as HE is.

28. Trent Fucking Arsenault, AGAIN. Last week he got listed for illegal sperm contributions. This week, how about just for WANKING? Yeah, that’s right…he captures his “donations” on camera, to be uploaded to the Intertoobz later on, so that other wankers can wank to the sight of him wanking. Is this really the kind of guy you want siring your offspring, ladies? (And just imagine the awkwardness of having to explain THAT to your kids when the time comes. You know you’re gonna have to.)

29. Francis Fucking George. When’s the last time you saw a Gay Pride parade morph into a KKK rally? NEVER? Well, isn’t that funny. Because this crazy cardinal thinks they all will do that, if not this year, maybe next year; and if not next year, the year after that, etc. I’m sure this will come as a considerable shock to all the gay Catholics out there! Meanwhile, not a word about how the Church is persecuting the gays, much like the KKK does with the blacks. Which is pretty hypocritical and wankish when you also consider just how many child molesters, most of them straight, are hiding under those strangely KKK-like robes of theirs.

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(Sorry, I just HAD to. Yes, I know you’ve seen it before. But that one is just so fabulous, it will NEVER get old!)

PS: Sign, sign, sign. Please.

30. James O’Fucking Keefe. A sexual harasser, as well as a crapaganda whore and all-around sleazeball? Well, I never. (Okay, maybe not never. I figured it was only a matter of time before someone charged him. I’m just surprised it’s taken this long!)

31. Rex Fucking Murphy. It used to be that I merely disagreed with him because we had radically different opinions; now, I don’t just disagree with him, I find him utterly and inherently disagreeable. What tipped it? His not-so-tacit endorsement of Harpo, and the latter’s bland hostility to anything other than corporate or religious-fundamentalist interests. And Rex’s utter denial that there is any hostility there, and his labelling of over 60% of Canadian voters as “extremists”, instead. What is he, fucking BLIND? Or is he just senile? It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that he consistently falls somewhere on the far right end of the spectrum. If he’s an “independent thinker”, then hola peones, I’m the fucking Queen of Spain. Time for CBC to retire him, and put Rick Mercer on in his slot. He’s a WAY more interesting and acerbic ranter-with-a-Newfie-accent than the laboriously sesquipedalian Mr. Murphy anyday.

32. Margaret Fucking Wente, yet again. She started out all right, but then she, too, pulled a Rex Fucking Murphy. What the hell is wrong with these idiots???

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33. Cornelius Fucking McGillicuddy the Fourth. Every year, around this time, PDVSA and CITGO make poor gringos feel a little bit better with cheap heating oil. And every year, like clockwork, Scrooge McGringo cranks up the fauxtrage gin-mill and kvetches about evil commies and how poor people need to freeze and starve as an incentive to do…what, nobody really knows. Maybe turn out professionally stupid, like him, and support dirty Alberta tar-sands oil? Seems as good an answer as any.

34. Brent Fucking Bozell. He “might want to say” that Barack Obama looks like a “skinny, ghetto crackhead”. And WE might want to say that Bozo looks like a fucking racist idiot. (Come to think of it, so does Mark Fucking Steyn.)

35. Joe Fucking Arpaio. See what happens when your deputies kill a man? You get blocked everywhere!

36. Bob Fucking Vander Plaats. Since when is GREED a Family Value? Or influence peddling? Not very Christian, I must say…

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And finally, to all the fucking bankster wanksters out there crying about how poor misunderstood you are so much more productive than all the rest of us, and how we should stop protesting all of you for wrecking the global economy. This as you prepare to celebrate Xmas, and maybe even New Year’s Eve, without coke and hookers for a change, because you know just how bad that’s gonna make you look. You poor widdle self-sacrificing dears, how could we 99%ers, whom you all ripped off like there was no fucking tomorrow, ever hold your myriad highway robberies against you?

Oh gee, let me think…

Maybe it’s the way you threw people out of a job, then foreclosed all their homes? Or the way you played Texas Hold ‘Em with money that came from depositors’ pockets, not yours? Or the way you claimed you were Too Big To Fail, all the while failing harder than that bicycle stick-dude on Failblog.org? Or the way you diddled hard-working, TRULY productive people out of their pensions? Or maybe it’s just the way you call yourselves Job Creators while creating precisely ZERO new jobs. How’s that grab you for justifications? Kind of makes all your whining sound petty and mean and stupid and ungrateful, doesn’t it?

Well, duh…that’s because IT IS! We’re the ones producing so YOU can steal and hoard it all and play like you’re John Fucking Galt. Who, by the way, is just a poorly drawn fictional character, and a steaming load of shit, too. Just like Y-O-U.

Good night, crappy holidays…and GET FUCKED!

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: Caption Time in Bolivia

It may be the holiday season for most of us, but Latin American heads of state aren’t getting any rest. While Evo is off signing bilateral agreements in Peru with Ollanta, his vice-president, Alvaro García Linera, is holding down the fort at home.

Now, the big question of the day: What do you suppose he’s saying here? Leave a caption in the comments slot below…

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Julián Conrado: Soon to be freed?

It’s too early to say yet whether he’ll be freed, but it looks like a certain FARC guerrilla (and folk singer) whose capture sparked a huge outcry will, at least, NOT be sent back to face the draconian justice system of his homeland:

The Public Ministry has released, in writing, its opinion with respect to the extradition request for the Colombian guerilla, Guillermo Torres Cueter, alias Julián Conrado, and considers that the extradition will not proceed.

This according to Attorney General for the Republic, Luisa Ortega Díaz, who explained the proceedings during an appearance on the program “All Venezuela”, on VTV.

Ortega stated that if the crime for which a person is wanted includes the death penalty, the person may not be extradited. She argued that the decision corresponds to the fact that in Venezuela, life and human rights are preserved, and Venezuelan law does not permit the death penalty.

Conrado was apprehended this past May, on a farm estate near Barinitas in the state of Barinas, by officers of the National Anti-Drug Office (ONA).

Regarding any possible illness the guerrilla may be suffering, the Attorney General said that the order has already been given for an investigating attorney to visit him and personally verify his condition.

Translation mine.

At the very least, it’s a good sign, and sure to be seen as an early Christmas present for Julián and his supporters. There was a lot of pressure brought to bear on the Venezuelan government shortly after the arrest, and the international community got involved to try to save Julián’s life. So, while Venezuela’s relations with Colombia continue to improve, Bolivarians and leftists everywhere have nothing to fear; Chavecito and his government will not be compromising their revolutionary principles on this one. For the time being, Julián Conrado won’t be going anywhere. And there is now a good chance that his request for asylum will be granted.

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Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Huguito Chavecito, Law-Law Land | 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again…

Time, that is, for PDVSA to help capitalist people in need…and for right-wing nutters to go condemning those crazy Venezuelan commies and their insufferable social conscience:

Happy Yule, and ¡¡¡VIVA CHÁVEZ!!!

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Posted in Barreling Right Along, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off on It’s that time of year again…

It only takes a girl…

Hard truths and true hope. Girls know them.

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Glass houses, Your Barackness.

Glass houses.

President Barack Obama’s sharp criticisms of Venezuela’s human rights record and its ties to Iran are heightening tensions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Monday responded by calling Obama a “clown” and telling him to mind his own business.

Obama appeared to stiffen his stance toward Chavez in his remarks, which were published Monday by the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. Some of Obama’s Republican opponents have also been strongly critical of Chavez, and analysts expect the Venezuelan president could become a popular target of criticism as American politicians feud over foreign policy ahead of next year’s U.S. presidential election.

While Washington has long criticized Chavez, Obama’s remarks were some of his hardest to date. He pointedly raised concerns about what he described as threats to democracy in Venezuela.

“We’re concerned about the government’s actions, which have restricted the universal rights of the Venezuelan people, threatened basic democratic values and failed to contribute to the security in the region,” Obama said in written responses to questions from the newspaper.

Of course, it’s important to consider the source here. El Luniversal is a virulently oppositionist newspaper. It’s backing a “unity table” of failed right-wing candidates. So of course it’s going to go fishing for nasty words from Obama to Chavecito. The embarrassing thing is, His Barackness obliged. And the ‘Cito gave him a prompt pantsing for it:

Chavez wasted little no time in responding. He said on state television, “Mr. Obama came out, attacking us, but that’s not out of the ordinary for us.”

The Venezuelan leader added, “Obama, take care of your own business, focus on governing your country, which you’ve turned into a disaster. Leave us alone.”

Touché! The US still has a major, Repug-corporatist-made recession to dig out of, and His Barackness has been rather slow off the mark to address that. Must be all that hopey-changey bipartisan bending-over and ankle-grabbing.

Meanwhile, in Venezuela, things are going nowhere but up, in spite of the supposed human-rights violations of Chavecito — which, you’ll note, are left deliberately vague by El Luni AND His Barackness. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, too.

And Chavecito has pegged a couple of things very accurately here: All this tough talk comes in a pre-election year. And oh yeah, another thing, too:

Chavez suggested Obama’s stances toward Venezuela are a campaign ploy.

“He’s looking for votes,” Chavez said. Addressing Obama directly, he added: “If I could be a candidate there in the United States, I’d sweep you away.”

Yep: It’s that hopey-changey thing. Chavecito has it for real; he doesn’t need to use it for a campaign slogan.

I bet he’d have no qualms about sending the Bush Crime Mafia to The Hague, either. Unlike His Barackness, the ‘Cito has already lived through one coup attempt, and he’s not afraid of another; he knows from experience that the people have his back. Which is why he can also laugh at the pro-putsch rhetoric coming out of Washington, and why his “I could sweep you” is not exactly an idle boast. Chavecito has already made a thorough fool of Dubya, and he won’t hesitate to do the same to any other US president who pushes his luck.

There are plenty of people in the US who admire that kind of cojones, and who are sick to death of the lack of it in their politicians. They would vote for him tomorrow if he ran there — and if their media could only give an accurate account of his record. Too bad that like the so-called journalists of El Luni, most of the US media are also hopeless hacks.

Who’s the buffoon now, eh?

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Morticia! You Spoke French!, Obamarama!, The United States of Amnesia, W is for Weak (and Stupid) | 3 Comments

Sanity comes ashore in Virginia

Q. How do you know when DADT is truly D-E-A-D?

A. When something like this happens, and nobody gets arrested.

The two women in the video are both petty officers in the US Navy. And as you can see, they’re glad and relieved to be out of the closet now, and no longer in danger of losing their jobs.

The new DADT? Do ask, do tell…just don’t get all bent out of shape over it. A kiss is still a kiss.

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Bradley Manning, the movie

Prevention of Injury (POI) from kyle broom on Vimeo.

An indie film takes a fictional look at real, currently unfolding events. Must see!

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Stupid Sex Tricks: Braggadocio 2.0

Via Glamour, I heard about this. The developers call it “I Just Made Love”; I prefer to call it “I Just Made An Ass Of Myself”:

Description

Did you just made love? Or just want to check where people near you made love? I just made love lets you do all that and more!

Oh my. It’s so exciting the author broke his English on it!

I guess you’re wondering what this sexy app looks like, eh?

Sigh. Whatever happened to kissing and not telling?

Now, if they would only make an app that teaches the poor clumsy geeks some finesse, or tells them to stop texting and go back to snuggling, I’d be all over that…

PS: I’m not kidding about the socially-inept geek bit, guys. You don’t want to be HIM, do you?

PPS: Here’s another weird little iPhone app that I guess was meant to be sexy. It’s a clock composed of little naked men, marching around and around and around. Who comes up with these things?

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How Wired missed the real Assange/Manning story

A couple of days ago, Bradley Manning celebrated his birthday behind bars for the second year in a row. He’s still awaiting trial, with no word on when it will begin. But the outcome of the trial looks to be a foregone conclusion already. Wired, which also broke the story about Adrian Lamo turning Bradley Manning in, today claims to have found the definitive link between Manning and the man who published all the shocking classified materials Manning gave him:

A government digital forensic examiner retrieved communications between accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning and an online chat user identified on Manning’s computer as “Julian Assange,” the name of the founder of the secret-spilling site that published hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables.

Investigators also found an Icelandic phone number for Assange, and a chat with another hacker located in the U.S., in which Manning says he’s responsible for the leaking of the “Collateral Murder” Apache helicopter video released by WikiLeaks in spring 2010.

Until Monday’s revelation, there’s been no reports that the government had evidence linking the two men, other than chat logs provided to the FBI by hacker Adrian Lamo. Assange is being investigated by a federal grand jury, but has not been charged with any crime, as publishing classified information is not generally considered a crime in the U.S. But if prosecutors could show that Assange directed Manning, that could complicate Assange’s defense that WikiLeaks is simply a journalistic endeavor.

The news of the chat logs came on the fourth day of Manning’s Army hearing being held to determine whether he’ll face court martial on 22 charges of violating military law for allegedly abusing his position as an intelligence analyst in Iraq to feed a treasure trove of classified and sensitive documents to WikiLeaks.

Mark Johnson, a digital forensics contractor for ManTech International who works for the Army’s Computer Crime Investigative Unit, examined an image of Manning’s personal MacBook Pro and said he found 14 to 15 pages of chats in unallocated space on the hard drive that were discussions of unspecified government info, and specifically referred to re-sending info.

Pretty damning stuff, eh?

Yeah, I’ll admit it doesn’t look good for Bradley Manning, or Julian Assange either. If you believe that the two of them should be tried for espionage, this certainly seems to bolster that contention. But the real point of the story, which would blow the whole “espionage” theory out of the water, has been missed: It’s not how Manning got his hands on all that data (which we’ve already known about for quite some time), nor how he fed it to Julian Assange.

The real story, the part Wired isn’t reporting, is not the HOW, but the WHY.

And the WHY is no secret. It has already been reported elsewhere, but bears reiterating here. Bradley Manning saw what the US was really up to in its many overseas missions, diplomatic and military, and that it was all rotten. He hated what he saw, and he wanted to make sure everyone, no matter who or where they were, knew what he knew. He didn’t spy for any foreign government; he blew the whistle on his own. He wanted the whole world to know what was really going on in Iraq, because horrible, graphic footage like this…

…was obviously not going to make it onto any nightly newscast.

Mainstream media would only spin that video, at best; at worst, they would censor it altogether. The Internet is the only place that would disseminate a video as damaging to the US’s international reputation as Collateral Murder has turned out to be. And the Internet is the only place where such a video would be mirrored, as many times as needed, so that censorship could never take hold of it.

That’s why Bradley Manning leaked the classified materials to Julian Assange, and why Julian Assange posted it to Wikileaks.

It’s not that the two of them are spies. Spies, by definition, work for somebody else, an outside entity. An outside enemy. Neither Bradley Manning nor Julian Assange can be demonstrated in a court of law to be in the employ of an enemy, so espionage charges would make no sense (although I’m sure the US government is looking to press them anyhow). They were neither working for the enemy nor seeking to BE the enemy. Their only crime, if a crime indeed it was, was exposing the unattractive truth about US foreign policy. A truth which foreign nationals have long known, and which complicit media in the US and elsewhere have long covered up.

And for that awful truth, Bradley Manning may hang. Literally.

I don’t think he did anything wrong, myself. What is wrong with telling the truth, even when powerful interests don’t want it known?

NOTHING.

But there is plenty wrong with what we see in the Collateral Murder video. And if anyone in uniform should go on trial for anything, let it be the as-yet-unnamed helicopter pilots, “Bushmaster” and “Crazyhorse”, who deliberately and coldly killed the Iraqi journalist for Reuters, Namir Noor-Eldeen, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh. And who also fired on innocent Iraqi civilians, including some kids in a van, who stopped to try to help the two wounded men.

And while we’re at it, let’s send the entire Bush Administration to The Hague. After all, they are the ones who sent “Bushmaster” and “Crazyhorse” to Iraq to play real-life shooter games with innocent Iraqis as targets. The war is now officially over. How about prosecuting those who declared it, on a false pretext, and for greed?

Oh yeah, I forgot. High-ranking criminals can’t be prosecuted. And Barack Obama has already (shamefully) taken that option off the table. So unless someone stages a citizen’s arrest of any of those thugs while they’re visiting a foreign country, it’s unlikely that we’ll see any of THEM subjected to the abuses and indignities that have befallen Assange and Manning. Much less any legal prosecution.

The shameful complicity of the US government, corporations, and media in crimes against humanity just never seems to end. And that’s the real story that Wired, like other mainstream sources, will never print.

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Posted in Angry Pacifist Speaks Her Mind, Barreling Right Along, BushCo Death Watch, Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Good to Know, If You REALLY Care, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Obamarama!, The United States of Amnesia, The War on Terra, W is for Weak (and Stupid) | 4 Comments