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Making an Example

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for being a whistleblower.

The prosecution argued for a 60 year sentence, specifically to make an example of him to deter others from leaking classified information.

Ironically, the example they are actually making is that being a whistleblower is considered as bad as being an enemy spy. The Brennan Center for Justice called Manning’s sentence “unprecedented”. “It’s more than 17 times the next longest sentence ever served” for providing secret material to the media. “It is in line with sentences for paid espionage for the enemy.” Indeed.

The ACLU pointed out the hypocrisy of his sentence. “When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system.”

Amnesty International has the best answer. “Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for decades, the US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror.”

UPDATE: This case takes a bizarre new twist, as Manning announces that he is transgendered, and intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman. Manning’s attorney read out a statement on the Today show on NBC, saying “I am Chelsea Manning. I am female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition.”

UPDATE 2: I completely agree with this opinion piece in Politico. Read it. It proposes a set of rules for prosecuting whistleblowers that make a lot of sense:

  1. Government employees who expose misconduct should not be punished more severely than those who engage in misconduct. Among the more blatant injustices of the Manning case is that Manning was prosecuted more intensely, and punished far more harshly, than other soldiers (and their superiors) who authorized and engaged in war crimes, including the torture of prisoners and the killing of civilians.
  2. Not all leaks are the same, and the law should not treat them the same. … Indeed, unauthorized disclosures of information relating to government fraud, corruption, or illegal activities should not be prosecuted at all.
  3. The government should have to demonstrate that the leaked information had been properly withheld form the public. Rampant overclassification of information about critically important government activities is a chronic and widely recognized problem.
  4. The government should be consistent in its enforcement of criminal laws against leaking. … Even while the Obama administration has brought an unprecedented number of leak prosecutions, it has simultaneously provided favored reporters with vast amounts of classified information for the production of news reports and books that further its preferred narrative.
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Why Republicans Will Not Repeal Obamacare

Meet Clint Murphy. Last week, while Newt Gingrich was explaining why Republicans couldn’t repeal Obamacare unless they came up with a better replacement, Murphy showed a more direct example of why they can’t repeal Obamacare.

Murphy is a Republican foot soldier. The kind of party activist who has worked on Republican campaigns including Casey Cagle, John McCain, and Karen Handel. The problem is, political foot soldiers like Murphy only have paid jobs during campaigns. And even in this era of perpetual campaigns, they are going to find themselves out of work from time to time. Which means that if people like him ever get one of those dreaded “pre-existing conditions”, without Obamacare’s requirements that insurance companies cannot turn you down for having a pre-existing condition, they would never be able to qualify for health insurance.

And of course, in a high stress job like politics, eventually you will get a pre-existing condition. In Murphy’s case, it was testicular cancer.

It doesn’t matter that after some chemotherapy his cancer has been in remission for over a decade. And even if the cancer didn’t count as a pre-existing condition, Murphy also has sleep apnea, a condition for which the insurance companies also turned him down. So even though Murphy is only 38, he has no health insurance.

Last week, on the same day as Newt Gingrich was speaking, Murphy made a post to his Facebook account about Obamacare:

When you say you’re against it, you’re saying that you don’t want people like me to have health insurance.

When Georgia’s health insurance exchange opens in October, as mandated by Obamacare, Murphy says he will “absolutely” sign up.

Murphy also points out the irony of how repealing Obamacare could push people like him into bankruptcy, which could lead to welfare, and thus increase the cost of government.

However, Murphy himself isn’t above acting ironically. He is even supporting Karen Handel for the US Senate next year, even though Handel’s campaign remains committed to “a full stop and defunding of Obamacare in its entirety now” and calls for shutting down the government this fall if that doesn’t happen.

So is all the noise about repealing or defunding Obamacare just bluster to fire up the base? I for one do not believe the Republicans will ever do it. They would just be cutting off their own nose to spite their face.

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Transparency?

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

You know, I don’t blame Obama for all of this. After all, the Patriot Act was enacted before he was even elected, and anyone who voted against it was practically branded a traitor. We are paying dearly for our idiotic knee-jerk fear-ridden reaction to 9/11.

But Obama sure seems to be doing his best to get blamed for it. Appointing James Clapper to investigate this? Seriously? What’s next? Appointing Bill Clinton to investigate adulterous sex in the White House?

As usual, I take a moderate position in this. Yes of course we need an intelligence service in this country. And of course there will be secrets kept from the American people. But the pendulum seems to have swung way too far to the extreme of too many secrets and no accountability. We need to fix this now or risk doing more damage to our country than any outside terrorists could ever do.

UPDATE: Rachel Maddow makes my point better than I could. It is almost as if our government is going out of their way to prove that government spying is out of control.

UPDATE 2: Good editorial in The Guardian “As a Democrat, I am disgusted with President Obama“. I can’t say I’m this disgusted with Obama, but I can’t argue much with the reasons why.

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Late Night Political Humor

“The new iPhone is coming soon. The new iPhone is going to have a new feature that actually keeps track of your every movement. Then President Obama was like, ‘Right. NEW feature’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Yesterday, President Obama met with the Greek prime minister to discuss reforming Greece’s economy. President Obama talked with the prime minister of Greece about the economy. Actually, it’s ‘the blind leading the blind’.” – Jay Leno

“Yesterday, Obama met with the prime minister of Greece at the White House. When he heard the leader of Greece was there, Biden said, ‘John Travolta’s here?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Anthony Weiner has released a 19-page booklet on how to improve life in New York City. Oh, please. If Weiner wants to improve life in New York City, he should move to New Jersey.” – Jay Leno

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Late Night Political Humor

“A man in Colorado wants marijuana to be classified as a vegetable. I just have to say that that’s an ingenious way to get Americans to stop smoking pot.” – Conan O’Brien

“The New York City Department of Education says that only 26 percent of the city’s students passed the English portion on a recent standardized test. But on the bright side, they’re too bad at math to realize how bad that is.” – Jimmy Fallon

“I guess you all heard about this terrorist threat the president warned us about. One of the reasons Al Qaeda is upset with the United States is because we are giving aid to Yemen. We didn’t have a choice. When life hands you Yemen, you give them Yemen aid.” – Jay Leno

“The Secret Service is asking people on Twitter to report any suspicious tweets. So now if your boss catches you on Twitter, just tell him you’re protecting the country.” – Conan O’Brien

“Before they went on vacation, Congress voted to exempt themselves from Obamacare. They gave themselves a special exemption because they thought it was too expensive. So the people who voted for Obamacare for us voted to exempt themselves from it. You know how doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. Congress apparently takes the ‘Hypocritic Oath’.” – Jay Leno

“The Mars rover Curiosity is celebrating its first anniversary on Mars. So far, in the year it’s been up there it’s sent back 70,000 photos. I know that sounds like a lot, but it’s still less than Anthony Weiner sent out.” – Jay Leno

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The 3 Pillars Come Tumbling Down

We have been reassured repeatedly that the three branches of government all have exercised extensive and rigorous oversight over the NSA spying program. Obama repeated this claim just last week:

As President, I’ve taken steps to make sure they have strong oversight by all three branches of government and clear safeguards to prevent abuse and protect the rights of the American people.

Well, those reassurances are almost entirely false. A newly revealed internal audit of the spying program, which details thousands of constitutional violations, was never even shown to the President, Congress, or the FISA court.

As the EFF puts it:

The pattern is now clear and it’s getting old. With each new revelation the government comes out with a new story for why things are really just fine, only to have that assertion demolished by the next revelation. It’s time for those in government who want to rebuild the trust of the American people and others all over the world to come clean and take some actual steps to rein in the NSA. And if they don’t, the American people and the public, adversarial courts, must force change upon it.

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Late Night Political Humor

“During a fundraiser last night, Mitt Romney told Republicans that they need to pick a candidate for 2016 who can actually win. And Republicans said, ‘Yeah, I wish you told us that last year. But hey, thanks a lot.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“The Republican National Committee now says if NBC and CNN don’t pull plans for a Hillary Clinton miniseries and movie, they won’t hold any Republican debates on those networks. That works for me! Now if we could just get the Democrats to pull their debates, we wouldn’t have to watch any of that crap.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama has called off a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of diplomatic differences. Also, Obama didn’t like Putin’s demand that the summit be held shirtless and on horseback.” – Conan O’Brien

“We had President Obama on the show last night. It was a huge honor, but all the security made it difficult getting into the building. Security was checking IDs, the Secret Service was searching cars, Donald Trump was out front checking birth certificates — it was crazy.” – Jay Leno

“U.S. embassies are closed all around the Middle East this week due to a terrorist threat. What happened was the U.S. intercepted a conference call of 20 Al Qaeda operatives. Twenty on one conference call! Who is their carrier? I go under a bridge and my cellphone drops the call, but they can get 20 people in one call from a cave?” – Jay Leno

“Michelle Obama’s new initiative is to fight obesity through hip-hop. She hopes it goes better than the previous initiative – fighting marijuana use through reggae.” – Conan O’Brien

“This story just gets crazier: Two more women have come forward to accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual misconduct. That brings the total to 13 — or as Filner calls it, a groper’s dozen.” – Jay Leno

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Gag Me With A Rule!

Jen Sorensen
© Jen Sorensen

The real situation is even more bizarre than the comic suggests. The state’s top insurance regulator isn’t even allowed to be interviewed by the media about this. Also, the person responsible for implementing the Affordable Care Act in Missouri is not allowed to be paid by the state, so he is being funded by a nonprofit group and then is “loaned” to the state.

It seems like Obama haters are doing everything they can in order to sabotage the ACA, I guess so they can later claim that it is a failure.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Welcome to a very special edition of ‘The Tonight Show.’ The White House announced that in the coming days, President Obama will be reaching out to Americans who have lost their jobs. In fact, that’s why he’s here with me tonight. He’s talking to me personally.” – Jay Leno

“As our studio audience knows, the security today was incredible. In fact, first lady Michelle Obama already had the Secret Service sweep the president’s dressing room for chips, pizza, ice cream – any kind of snack, donut, any kind of sweets.” – Jay Leno

“This weekend President Obama celebrated his 52nd birthday. For his birthday, Michelle Obama jumped out of a cake and told him he’s not allowed to have any.” – Conan O’Brien

“Happy birthday to President Obama! He turned 52 over the weekend. You can see he is getting a little grayer. In fact, they are starting to call him ‘The Silver Fox.’ That’s because most of the silver in his hair was caused by Fox.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama celebrated his 52nd birthday yesterday. You can tell he’s getting older because he no longer supports President Obama.” – Jimmy Fallon

“All our best to former President George W. Bush, who is recovering from successful heart surgery today. All day the media have been sending get-well wishes to President Bush. Fox News sent flowers. MSNBC sent a steak and cheese fries. ” – Jay Leno

“Photos of the royal baby’s birth certificate have surfaced. Kate’s occupation on the document is listed as ‘princess’. It’s always inspiring to me when a new mother decides to remain in the workplace.” – Conan O’Brien

“The Boston Globe newspaper has been sold for $70 million, even though 20 years ago it went for $1.1 billion. I couldn’t believe that story when I saw it for free on the Internet.” – Jimmy Fallon

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Republicanado!!!

Tom Tomorrow
© Tom Tomorrow

Coming soon as a major motion picture!

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Quick, Queue the Music!

Lesley Stahl explains the big problem with our political system in one minute. Network responds by queueing the “we gotta go now” music.

It is amazing of how ingrained money is in our political system. The next time you hear someone in the news say that so-and-so is not a serious political candidate, that is just a euphemism for saying they haven’t been able to raise much money. It is sick and disgusting.

We all know that what Stahl is saying is true, but we aren’t allowed to talk about it. Our politicians have become nothing more than whores.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Happy birthday to President Obama! He will be 52 years old on Sunday. I bet he can’t wait for Michelle to wheel out that tofu cake with the broccoli icing.” – Jay Leno

“If you’d like to get the president a gift, you can’t go wrong with Edward Snowden. He would love that.” – Jay Leno

“The Republicans in Congress voted to repeal ObamaCare for a fortieth time today. It’s really now less a governing philosophy; it’s more like Charlie Manson applying for parole.” – Bill Maher

“40 times, really? Which kind of raises the question, can you file a restraining order against 242 people?” – Bill Maher

“The White House approved an exemption in Obamacare coverage for Congress and members of their staff. Members complained that the Affordable Care Act will cost them thousands extra a year in premiums. Wait a minute. It’s their bill. If it’s too expensive, why did they name it the Affordable Care Act?” – Jay Leno

“Russia also has the Winter Olympics, and that’s a big mess too because, you know, Russia is really, really anti-gay. You know this? Seriously, they said they would arrest any Olympic athletes for ‘promoting’ homosexuality. In a related story, figure skating has been canceled.” – Bill Maher

“The Pope said gay Catholics should not be marginalized. He said, ‘Who am I to judge them?’ I think it’s like anything else, when you get to know gay people they don’t come off as gay, they come off as people. You stop being anti-gay. And who has more gay friends and coworkers than a Pope?” – Bill Maher

“In an interview with Univision, Anthony Weiner said he created the online name, Carlos Danger, as a joke. Weiner was like ‘Come on, what’s funnier than the name Carlos Danger?’ They we’re like, ‘uh, Anthony Weiner?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“There’s a big fight in the Republican Party between Chris Christie and Rand Paul. In an effort to end the spat, Paul offered to have a beer with Christie. But Christie refused. Christie said, ‘It’s going to take a lot more than a beer to win me over. You’re going to need wings, stuffed potato skins, tater tots, ribs, onion rings – I need the whole deal.'” – Jay Leno

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Just Give Me 10 Good Reasons

Global Secular Humanist Movement
© Global Secular Humanist Movement

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Science v. Faith

[These are excerpts from an AP story. You can’t make up stuff like this.]

A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday.

Hannah Gastonguay said her family was fed up with government control in the U.S. As Christians they don’t believe in “abortion, homosexuality, in the state-controlled church,” she said.

U.S. “churches aren’t their own,” Gastonguay said, suggesting that government regulation interfered with religious independence.

Among other differences, she said they had a problem with being “forced to pay these taxes that pay for abortions we don’t agree with.”

Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband “decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us” when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny island nation of Kiribati in May.

But just weeks into their journey, the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving them adrift for weeks, unable to make progress.

The boat had taken a beating, and they decided to set course for the Marquesas Islands. Instead, they found themselves in a “twilight zone,” taking more and more damage, leaving them unable to make progress.

They could have used a sail called a genoa, she said, but they risked snapping off the mast and losing their radio and ability to communicate.

They had been on the ocean for about two months and were low on supplies. They were out of food and were down to “some juice and some honey.” She said they were able to catch fish, but they didn’t see any boats.

Still, we “didn’t feel like we were going to die or anything. We believed God would see us through,” she said.

At one point a fishing ship came into contact with them but left without providing assistance. A Canadian cargo ship came along and offered supplies, but when they pulled up alongside it, the vessels bumped and the smaller ship sustained even more damage.

They were getting hit by “squall after, squall, after squall.”

“We were in the thick of it, but we prayed,” she said. “Being out on that boat, I just knew I was going to see some miracles.”

Eventually, their boat was spotted by a helicopter that had taken off from a nearby Venezuelan fishing vessel, which ended up saving them.

“The captain said, ‘Do you know where you’re at? You’re in the middle of nowhere,'” she said.

They were on the Venezuelan ship for about five days before transferring to the Japanese cargo ship, where they were for nearly three weeks before landing in Chile on Friday. The Chilean newspaper Las Ultimas Noticias reported the story of their arrival.

“They were looking for a kind of adventure; they wanted to live on a Polynesian island but they didn’t have sufficient expertise to navigate adequately,” police prefect Jose Luis Lopez, who took the family’s statement at San Antonio [Chile], told the newspaper.

Hannah Gastonguay said the family will now “go back to Arizona” and “come up with a new plan.”

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Late Night Political Humor

“At a concert this week, Justin Bieber rubbed a fan’s smartphone on his crotch. In a related story, Justin Bieber is now in 3rd place in the New York city mayoral race.” – Conan O’Brien

“The latest scandal for Weiner is that his communications director called a former intern a ‘slut bag’. But Weiner says he won’t fire the communications director and vows to stand beside her. And she was like, ‘How about we just stand side by side?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“More problems for America’s creepiest mayor, San Diego’s Bob Filner. An eighth woman has now come forward to say that she was sexually harassed by him. She said she would’ve come forward sooner but the line was too long.” – Jay Leno

“Mayor Filner now wants the city of San Diego to pay for his sexual harassment lawsuit. He says it’s only fair because he harassed women only on government time, never his own time.” – Jay Leno

“In what has to be the most outrageous defense ever – this is real – Filner’s lawyer said if there’s any liability, it’s the city liable for failing to give the mayor sexual harassment training. Oh, come on now. Just shut up!” – Jay Leno

“It seems an audio sex tape that Monica Lewinksy recorded for Bill Clinton at the height of their affair back in the 1990s has now been leaked to the National Enquirer. With all these scandals involving Anthony Weiner and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, it’s nice to see an old pro come out of retirement and show these guys how it’s done.” – Jay Leno

“In a new interview, Republican Senator John McCain implied that he might vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. McCain’s getting old. He also said he’d consider voting for oatmeal.” – Craig Ferguson

“Congress has a month-long vacation coming up, but House Republicans are being pressured to use their time off to reach out to women, young people, and minorities. So they all got together and decided to go to a Selena Gomez concert.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Mayor Bloomberg wanted to outlaw giant sugary drinks. He wanted to try to force a ban on sugary sodas and they overturned it. That’s fine, but what about a ban on texting while you’re running for mayor? Why can’t we get a ban on that?” – David Letterman

“Today Illinois became the 20th state to legalize marijuana. The state also changed its name to Chillinois.” – Conan O’Brien

Andy Richter: “What the national language of the United States?”
Conan O’Brien: “Third grade English.”

“Edward Snowden, the guy who leaked all that information about the NSA, finally got to leave the Moscow airport this morning after being held there for five weeks. When asked what he wanted to eat, he said, ‘Anything but Cinnabon’.” – Jimmy Fallon

“The big ‘Smurfs’ movie sequel is out. It’s cute little elves that live together in harmony. And the Pope said, ‘Who am I to judge them?'” – David Letterman

“President Obama is going to appear on ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno. That’s going to be awesome. The most powerful man in the country is going to interview President Obama.” – Craig Ferguson

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