Court martial recommended for Bradley Manning

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Investigator urges court martial for WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning

An Army lawyer assigned to consider evidence that Pfc. Bradley Manning leaked thousands of military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks has concluded that Manning should face a court martial on the charges, the Army announced Thursday.

Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, who oversaw a weeklong hearing into the case last month, concluded that the proposed charges of aiding the enemy, releasing classified information without authority and other violations of military law “are in the proper form and that reasonable grounds exist to believe that the accused committed the offenses alleged,” an Army statement said. It provided no other details on the contents of Almanza’s report, which was not released.

The most serious charge against Manning carries the potential death penalty, but prosecutors have said they will not seek a capital sentence in the case. An Army spokesperson confirmed that Almanza endorsed proceeding with the case precisely as prosecutors urged. “The Investigating Officer also recommended against seeking the death penalty in this case,” the spokesperson said.

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This isn’t exactly a surprise. The hearing was basically a procedural formality and the evidence limited. The recommendation now goes up the chain of command and it’s unlikely to be rejected. Absent some kind of plea agreement there will be a court martial in a few months.

Meanwhile Julian Assange remains in England, fighting extradition to Sweden where he is facing sexual assault charges.

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More First Dude (with Larry The Cable Guy)

via Barbaric Thoughts, see how Todd Palin deals with an unexpected but friendly visitor.

Open thread.

Anglachel’s back!

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The Sage of San Diego showed up over the holidays:

A Long, Nasty Year

[...]

I keep up with the news but have resisted the urge to comment. Pretty much everything I said back in 2008 about the wrong track the respectable people on the Left were determined to take has come true, not that they appear to notice. The Boyz of the Blogz continue to be as shallow, narcissistic, clueless, and self-congratulatory as ever, no matter how many times the Incomparable One and the Shrill One smack them upside the head.

My political perspective doesn’t align with most other blogospheric positions, left or right. I am unimpressed by the street rebellions (though I agree with Eric Hobsbawm that it is like 1848 all over again), rolling my eyes at the wasted opportunities of the Occupy movement, and deeply cynical about the antics of hacktivists, from Julian Assange to Lulzsec to Anonymous. A customer of the company the Spousal Unit works for got attacked by Anonymous a while back and it was days of effort to keep the little fuckers from bringing down the site. No, not amused by these hooligans whatsoever.

I watch an allegedly liberal intelligentsia unable to escape its collective fantasy that anyone who rejects Obama can only be doing so because they are racist, not because the guy is to the right of Richard Nixon. No, I won’t be placated by the knowledge that the Right is worse – shitty governance is shitty governance even if the choice is that or obscenely shitty governance. It’s bad and sad when you realize Nixon would be an improvement.

In the absence of material improvements to living conditions brought about by the Long Recession (which, truth be told, really started when Reagan took office), increasing numbers of people will vote their resentments. If it won’t get better, you might as well make other people hurt. The high-minded left doesn’t want to consider that the dumb-shit cop who pepper sprayed the protesters at UC Davis is a perfect representative of the portion of the 99% who must be wooed away from the reactionary right if any high-mindedness is to have an actual effect in the world. That’s the deep failure of the left in this country since LBJ.

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Good writing is like good acid. It opens your mind and think of things you never did before.

If you really want to turn the wonk up to eleventy try this:

Modes of Reaction and Revolution

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Welcome back Anglachel. I hope you stick around awhile.

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