Well, President Obama has officially commuted the sentence of Chelsea (née Bradley) Manning.
Given the blasé attitude of this Administration regarding sensitive/classified information (Hello, Mrs Clinton and her bathroom server!) this doesn’t really come as any surprise, although I am heartened by the fact that Manning’s sentence was commuted, rather than pardoned.
Commuting the sentence means that Manning is still a convicted felon, with a criminal record.
I am saddened by what I fear will be the unintended (or maybe intended) consequences of this act: there were many current and former military members (your Humble Scribe among them) who seriously believed that as soon as the conviction was handed down, Manning should have been taken outside, placed against a wall, and shot.
While President Obama is probably trying to appear kind and magnanimous, to those of us who believed that 35 years was considerably softer than the justly-deserved oxygen jig at the end of a hemp rope, this commutation smacks of a certain level of contempt towards us.
The perception of contempt, point in fact, that causes those of us who voted for someone other than Trump to be less unhappy about the Cheeto Jesus winding up with the Hot Seat At The Oval Office.
Not happy about it, mind you. But a jolly sight less unhappy about it.
I didn’t take Manning to raise, and my da’ taught me not to offer advice to those who are neither kith nor kin … but in this case, I seriously advise that Manning take the Golden Ticket that has fallen, find a quiet hole, and pull it in after. Live quietly and low-profile. Disappear.
Or Manning can hit the limelight, make political hay, and continually remind The Deplorables of the perception of contempt, and we’ll see what shakes out in the mid-term elections.
Meh. I’m good either way.
Now to see if President Obama wants to pull a contempt two-fer and pardon Bowe Bergdahl. Any takers?
LawDog
The lesson here is easy, if you commit treason, the next Democrat to come along will eagerly forgive you if you cut your wedding tackle off and sew on some funbags.
$10 says if his name was still Brad he'd be serving his whole sentence.
Also I think Obama wants to trick Julian Assange into giving himself up so he can get revenge for the DNC leaks (Assange said he wouldn't fight extradition to the US if Obama gave Manning a pardon).
The suggested form of address is "The Traitor Manning".
Manning will probably make a spectacle of himself by travelling to NC and challenging the HB2 bathroom law in place there.
I'm betting Manning will be dead by July…
Brad's not scheduled to get out until May, but his "gender change" surgery is scheduled for April.
Mr. Trump should have Manning delivered to the closest Greyhound bus with a one-way ticket to anywhere, $50 cash, a winter coat, and his discharge papers, as of 12;02PM ET Tuesday. Let him pay for his own medical bills, and don't let his lawyer sue.
Agreed. Since President Trump can't undo what Obama has done re Manning, be magnanimous and let him out early. Since he won't be under the care of the prison system any longer, his medical expenses should be his own concern. Or his Obamacare insurance provider's. That way, if he lives long enough to see his April appointment, his elective surgery is his responsibility, like it would be for anyone else.
I won't hold my breath waiting for the erstwhile POTUS to pardon Snowden, whose "crime" was to reveal wholesale spying on the American Public without warrant NOR PROBABLE CAUSE, BY THE GuBBERMINT of which he was presumably the head.
Every Obama (or the Dems in general) do something this stupid, I get closer and closer to jumping on the Trump Train. AT this point, I might as well jump on early so I cna have a good seat in 2020.
Like you, I did not vote for the Cheetoh in Chief. But, the ongoing reaction by the losing side to the Cheetoh in Chief has made it fairly certain I will vote straight R in the next general election.
BTW, I like the idea of the Cheetoh in Chief being charitable and commuting Manning's sentence to time served immediately after his inauguration. That way no more tax payer money will be wasted on Manning.
Statistically speaking, post op transsexuals live pretty miserable lives.the cold fact is that 'gender reassignment surgery' is mutilation, and research (which the Mainstream Progressive Culture would rather not consider) seems to show that after such surgery, transgender persons slowly realize that they have been lied to and butcher. Many of them battle with clinical depression for the rest of their lives, and/or commit suicide.
Manning is probably going to live a short and miserable life, and end up putting a period to his own existence. It probably would have been more merciful to blow his brains out for him.
I'm guessing he'll write a book, and it will sell millions of copies. Maybe he'll use the money for a brain transplant. His is definitely not working correctly.
He also pardoned Oscar López Rivera.
I guess he wants to release all of the "political prisoners."
I'd love to see a pardon breakdown by ethnicity. What the media doesn't report is telling.
I heard on the radio that he'd "commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning". I haven't seen the wording of it, but that's what I'd have done.
"Well, yeah, I commuted Chelsea's sentence, but the verdict and sentence were given to Bradley Manning, so you're not going anywhere, freakshow. Back in your cell."
I'm absolutely certain our soon-to-be-ex-President (thank everything ethereal!) isn't as mean as I.
–Tennessee Budd
The prison between a madman's ears is a far more dismal place than anything allowed the Federal government by the Constitution.
Lawdog,
Could your explain why you think Manning deserves to be executed, or what harm you felt was done by these leaks? I'm a bit surprised at your vehemence.
I've been looking at the reports about the material Manning leaked again. As I recalled from when this was first revealed, much of it seems to describe government misconduct. Some of the conduct, like defense contracts purchasing young boys for Afghan officials to rape, is abhorrent. Revealing that both the US and Japanese governments ignored warnings prior the disaster at Fukushima looks to be exactly the kind of thing I would want a whistle blower to reveal. I don't see how that would cause any harm to national security.
The closest thing to sources and methods looks to information that US Diplomats acquired DNA and other personal information from the UN Secretary and others. Some of the information I can see reasonable justification for keeping secret (the official civilian death count in Iraq that two administrations denied exists) but again I'm not seeing that having much of a national security impact.
Defense Secretary Gates was quoted as saying "Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is this awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest." That seems like a pretty accurate summary.
While a lot of people have claimed these leaks were very harmful, I haven't seen anyone be able to point to anything more concrete than saying that these leaks will make informants and other less like to trust us in the future. Is there some harm or negative impact I'm missing?
While some of the leaks described conduct I can see being justified by the dicitates of Realpolitik, I think we'd all agree that stopping child rape and nuclear disaster are good things. Even with the more questionable information that was also leaked, I don't see the harm of the leak outweighing that goal. Since you obviously seem to feel differently, I'd be interested to hear why.
For one, he didn't know what the hell he leaked. There's no way he went and read through everything; the sheer volume of material makes it impossible. He just pulled a bunch of stuff and sent it on. Two, there were the names of a lot of informants in those documents. People who were helping the US with information got big targets painted on them by Manning and Wikileaks. Blood on their hands. Not to mention, that is going to make others reluctant to help with information in the future.
Ivyan,
You say "Blood on their hands" but my understanding is that Manning was charged with aiding the enemy, but found not guilty of that charge because the prosecution was not able to show any individual was directly harmed as a result of the leaks. Do you have any information that contradicts that?
You're kidding, right?
Why do you want him to be innocent?
Just because they couldn't produce evidence in court, doesn't mean no one's died. It's easy enough to 'disappear' someone.
If he'd wanted to blow the whistle about specific things, there are ways to do that. He scooped up 750,000 documents and helped display them for all the world to see. A reckless disclosure of information without a thought for the consequences.
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