Bradley Manning versus Bob Woodward

Bradley ManningSome have sought to argue that Bradley Manning was not a mere whistleblower exposing government wrongdoing but someone who deliberately revealed classified secrets that benefited the enemies of the US, thus making his actions more akin to espionage. While this may not necessarily excuse his treatment, it definitely makes him a less sympathetic figure to the public than other whistleblowers and may explain why there has not been greater outrage at the way he has been treated.

But Glenn Greenwald takes that argument apart, showing that leaks of classified information by high government officials occurs routinely in the US. In fact, the government routinely advances its own agenda by selectively leaking secrets and Bob Woodward of the Washington Post is one of those people who has built almost his entire career by receiving and publishing such secrets. Greenwald argues that if Manning is being prosecuted, why not Woodward? In fact, Woodward even published information classified as ‘Top Secret’, something that neither WikiLeaks nor Manning are accused of doing. [Read more…]

Orly of Arc

You would think that with Barack Obama’s re-election, those who had sought to deny his legitimacy to hold the office for the last four years would have finally given up. But you would be wrong because they are convinced that they are fighting for truth and justice and have a tenacity that defies all reason. And in this cause, lo! lawyer/dentist/real estate agent/Birther Queen Orly Taitz’s name, like Abou Ben Adhem‘s, leads all the rest. [Read more…]

Why do some people hoard stuff?

hoardersI like to periodically clean up the spaces around me because I hate clutter but we all know people who seem to be minor or major hoarders, reluctant to give or throw away things that they have not used in years, are unlikely to ever use, or are even totally useless to them. They seem to not even be bothered by being surrounded by piles of stuff or to even notice it. [Read more…]

The Catholic Church’s many problems with pregnancy

The Catholic Church continues its war on women in ever-more bizarre ways, tying itself into all kinds of knots as it tries to enforce its policies on the people over whom it has some authority. For example, the church seems to hate the thought that women might be getting pregnant in ways that it does not approve of based on its medieval ways of thinking. As a result, it finds itself embroiled in legal cases that do not show it in a good light. [Read more…]

Obama’s war on whistleblowers continues apace

One of the major areas where Barack Obama has shamelessly and inexcusably reversed himself from what he campaigned on in 2008 is with regard to whistleblower protections. Candidate Obama praised those who blew the whistle on the Bush administration’s use of telecommunications companies to illegally spy on Americans, saying “We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk … Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal.” This was part of his promise to have one of the most transparent administrations ever. [Read more…]

Boy Scout denied Eagle Scout rank because he is gay

Ryan Andresen had dreamed of becoming an Eagle Scout from the age of six and had steadily worked towards it, creating as a project in high school a ‘tolerance wall’ of 288 unique tiles is an effort to create awareness of the need to combat bullying. He was devastated when his troop leader said that he could not be made an Eagle Scout because he had come out as gay. [Read more…]

What the Hagel nomination says about US political discourse

Harvard’s Stephen M. Walt, someone who belongs to the ‘realist’ school of US foreign policy analysis, writes that the nomination of Chuck Hagel for the post of Defense Secretary does not point to a significant shift in the direction of president Obama’s foreign policy but does represent a widening in the range of such discussions. [Read more…]