hiya tao walker… this country is home to many different people… which humans are you referring to?... which humans are you not referring to?...

this country is home to many different ways of living… which modes of being are you referring to?... which modes of being are you not referring to?...

and which portrayals in your post don’t apply to you?... and which portrayals in your post do apply to you?...

how quickly an earth full of people can forget that we’re all each just a human being…
a planet sustains us while every brain on it loses some of their own human common bond…
becoming living renditions of ideas caught between walls of space created by thought…
where basic states of awareness get lost in man-made homelands of contradiction!...

(although the human mind knows so little it still thinks it knows a lot… just go watch intelligence ask knowledge where wisdom is hiding)...

best wishes’n'ways for today to dawn upon!...

You’re right on Tao Walker.  You know as well as I, your words will mostly fall on
deaf ears.  The vast majority of the US population has too much pathology from an
ideology that kills life, within and without.

There’s nothing, it seems, that will illicit outrage from this deranged, callous
population.  Truthsayers are tortured here,,,, in the land of the free.  Thieves and
stylish intellectual frauds are rewarded, if not esteemed, ,, elected as leaders, with
tears of false hope.  It’s getting more disgusting than I could have imagined in my
darkest dreams.

The “America” referred-to by “sallysense,” in her pitifully plaintive appeal to its so-called “leaders” below, simply does not exist, and has never actually existed anywhere except in the fevered captive imaginations of “individual”-ized dupes like herown"self,” who prefer (desperately?) to believe all the pretty hype while studiously ignoring the actual bloody Record.  Nothing better illustrates one of the fatal flaws in the allamerican ‘character,’ this seemingly bottomless capacity for “self”-satisfying denial, that is such a large factor in the already dire yet still deteriorating (and mostly “self”-inflicted) predicament pointed-up so starkly by what’s happening right now to Pvt. Manning.   

The very real pain and hardship inflicted so cavalierly by the “self”-glorifying” misbehavior of theamericanpeople, on ‘others’ (not only Humans) all around the World, is now coming full-circle….as it inevitably must.  Only it is doing so having been processed through all the heterodyning ideological/institutional/technical amplifiers in the “global” gulag regime.

There is but ONE WAY (for those among “your huddled masses” here who have the good sense to recognize their own complicity in amerika’s imperialist rapine and plunder, and who will act conscientiously to atone for it) to lessen the impact of its positive-feedback-looped coming-home-to-roost CONsequences on their own and their loved-ones’ presently “individual” half-lives.  It requires the “sacrifice” of that CONstruct called the “self,” and all the superficial and superfluous nonsense demanded by the damned thing to keep it “satisfied,” which is generating all the toxic “side-effects,” the industrial-strength waste-“products” that are destroying our Mother Earth’s Living Arrangement, including all the tame Two-leggeds who are its sickness-ridden “tools.”

Once free of the “self”‘s death-grip, the natural Persons us Humans are by-nature can come together, naturally and spontaneously, into the genuine Organic Communities that are the Natural Organic Form of Humanity within Her Living Arrangement.  These Communities can then access the Living Virtue of Organic Functional Integrity, thus recovering their ability to function as the vital component in Her immune system that Humanity, as such, is.

Probably most americans, though, will just go on writing feckless letters to their “leaders”....still looking foolishly for some “easy way out.”

HokaHey!

Sally Sense:  Thank you for that.  Everyone can write a letter to Gates and speak out for truth and justice.  “Now is the time ...”  Contributions for Manning’s defense can be sent to Firedoglake. Google it for information.  Also write Amnesty International, Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, and American Civil Liberties Union. They ought to all get together with one voice for impact and visibility.

(A letter sent to Officials and the President.)

Dear Sir, 

My duty as an American citizen, who cares deeply about our country and people, is to speak up for the sake of our country and its principles, which are for truth and justness and human decency.

My conscience is speaking on behalf of Private 1st Class Bradley E. Manning, a soldier being held in inhumane conditions in the United States Marine Corps Quantico Brig in Virgina.  The reports of the conditions of his confinement are un-American.  They resemble the conditions found in repressed countries using inhumane treatment, those same conditions that United States leaders are quick to call horrible and deplorable.

Our country needs the truth for its own betterment.  Intelligence agencies which also consist of Wall Street lawyers and corporate heads, and whose influences steer towards manipulating the playing field to where their own best interests come first, have already wreaked havoc upon the state of our country.

We suffer the loss of our soldiers’ lives and health in wars where their enemies are the same fighters that our intelligence agency encouraged and funded years ago, being formed overseas to fight another country in an earlier era.

Just as Church and State do not mix well, neither does the Military and Wall Street Corporatism.  And no matter how hard a higher echelon of ties, tries to hide those enmeshments, it still shows.  We don’t have to look far to see the effects it has had.

Our country’s lifetime has gotten to the point where its health now needs the truth for its future well-being.  Nothing else will be able to continue to replace that.  See the facts for yourself.  There are those of high level status who remain in denial, believing that they can ultimately manipulate situations into some sort of silver lining, while failing to realize that their own denial does our country no good.

Our country needs its people’s conscientiousness.  It needs its people exposing the truth.  Our country does not deserve to become known as the quick cover-up capital of the world.  Nor does it deserve to be influenced into being another inhumane treatment facilitator either.  For those ways and means to become a policy of our country’s officials, just shows the weakness of conscience, which falls by following the methods of repressed lesser countries, rather than leading the way through the strength of truth and fairness.

No human deserves inhumane treatment.  And no one in our country who exposes the truth deserves inhumane treatment.  And our military does not deserve inhumane treatment amongst one another. 

Truth is not our country’s enemy.  Falsehoods may consider the truth to be an enemy, but our country and its principles don’t.  Our country’s principles need the truth.  For without the truth, our country’s principles will cease to be.

All around the world there are humans being persecuted for exposing the truth.  When there is a human in the Quantico Brig in Virginia being persecuted for exposing the truth, it just shows how well lies have taken hold.  And our country and military and citizens don’t deserve that.

You Sir, are in a position to intervene and stop the unfair and inhumane treatment of Pvt. Manning, and righten that unconstitutional dire situation.  You Sir, are in a position to show our country, and the rest of world, that the United States Military is not like the military of repressed lesser countries.

You Sir, are in a position to let our country and the world see, that you are on the side of truth and decency.

Please intervene to stop the unfair and inhumane treatment of Private 1st Class Bradley E. Manning.

Sincerely,

Sally Kline

The “I was having a bad day” defense might not work for him because he is not on “The List”.

YES, there is a “LIST” as far as we know.

The bar is set so high now that all I want is for him to have a pillow.

This sends an interesting message to the public.

Get a conscience and we will crush you.

THE IDEA OR ADVERTISING DEATH PENALTY IS TO DISTRACT
YOU FROM HIS SUICIDE; BUT FIRST THEY WANT JULIAN; SO
THEY WILL KEEP MANNING ALIVE; BUT ONCE JULIAN IS CAUGHT
MANNINGS DAYS ARE MUCH FEWER! Americans are good at
this, not much else!

ah, such heady wine.

Manning is the poster child now for “the military that isn’t business” (‘not the
private sector’ ) — well, actually, it is. It’s run exactly like a business. In fact, it
*is* a business.  Absolutely a business. Other fact: a business is run modelled
on the military.

The military is, and may well be, all proud of itself and its honor codes and all
that. Hey, it’s very romantic. But the brutal fact is that the military is just this
shy of an enslavement. Oh, I know; it’s for the cohesion and safety of each other
in combat. Discipline. Well, there’s a vast difference between discipline, and the
way that the military is actually run. And *that* is why there is, and has to be, a
military legal structure and code in and of itself. The fact that a military
personnel is presumed guilty until proven innocent, and that the military is a
legal system beyond the reach of its actual boss —the American public— is
clearly minor detail.

All of the above are merely minor detail. Manning is toast material because of
revenge. Nothing else. The military can rationalize its “honor” and oooooo
*responsibility* until it’s green in the face; the fact is, the military is a mental
fuckfest.

risking a wrathful smack-down that wouldn’t likely even be served up to GRYM
here at TD, I am going to reiterate a point of view, curiously seen as even more
worthy of contempt than that of those calling for the poor PFC’s head…

that the larding on of even more charges - potentially treasonous charges - further
reinforces the weighty ‘legitimacy’ of the ‘leaks’, thereby priming the pump for
even more useful deflective source disinformation to come gushing up - a series
of ‘leaks’, one might imagine, to really close the deal on a NATO invasion of Libya,
say

this play looks to be jest entering the 3rd scene of the first act -a drama that
could play out for years to come - in truth I hope I’m wrong

of course, civil exception always welcome

Not that it will do him any good in a U.S. court, but Manning should argue that he
is a whistleblower who acted in good faith against a military empire that has
shown complete disregard of, e.g., the Nuremberg Principles.

Tom Weidermeijer,

I too worked in various SSO’s during my military duty which is most likely why I am not a militarist now.

Means and methods are the actual things that are sensitive, the information is well, fleeting.

Reading wikileaks (Oh no you can’t!) I failed to see anything rising to the level of confidential material, mostly State Department gossip and personality profiles.  The people being written about already know they are AFU, wheres the secret?

The penalty for Mannings disclosures are already set and have been for some time.  What he did is nothing new he has just been sensationalized over it because it has put Hillary under the bus.

As it is written let it be done. 10 years max.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RL33502.pdf

If the military really wants to suppress further leaks, then it must execute PFC Manning.  Nothing works better than a firing squad.  Remember that General Eisenhower had a deserter shortly after the Normandy Invasion and though the family and public begged for mercy for a young boy not even 20 years of age just plain scared, but Eisenhower was fearful that any mercy shown would result in further desertion.  Needless to say the boy was executed and was the only US soldier executed by the military during WW II though there were other deserters and murderers who just received prison sentences.  This poor kid just picked the wrong campaign and the wrong general, perhaps so has PFC Manning.

Weidermeijer:  It is precisely this sentence in your comment that you and all the rest of us need to examine carefully, word for word:
  “It was not up to us to determine WHY it was classified.  This is the military and not the private sector.  This is our country we are protecting… not a business.”
  Counterpoint 1:  “It is not up to us .... ”  Does that mean that joining the military gives every soldier a license to kill, wreck, torture, destroy other people’s lives?  Who said so?  Does this kind of behavior really help, protect, improve anybody?
  Counterpoint 2: The purpose of “classification etc.” is to prevent people from knowing. On the other hand, democratic government absolutely depends upon openness and free distribution of knowledge available to the people who, after all, are those responsible for what their government does. How can they correct errors, prevent holocausts, contol crazy or evil leaders if they can’t get information on their wrongdoing?
  Counterpoint 3:  The Army is very closely connected to the “private sector”.  In fact, the “private sector” would be in big trouble if not for military support and vast expenditures. In addition, in current wars, the military itself has become largely dependent upon “private contractors” (mercenaries) getting rich off of the “business of killing”, which is private enterprise at its worst.
  Counterpoint 4. “It is our country we are protecting.”  This really begs a lot of other questions if taken for granted without questioning.
Particularly in the case of modern wars, it is becoming clearer and clearer that our country is being destroyed by wars, not protected by them. America has lost a lot more than it has won since Vietnam, and including our exploitations worldwide as “the greatest country in the world”.  Among other vitally important losses have been our own civil liberties, thanks to Mr. Bush et al. Equal justice for all stands in great danger of disappearing entirely when people fear to speak their mind in favor of changing government policies.  People changing government policies is exactly what democracy (self-government) is.  “I hold these truths to be self-evident. etc.”

  “Theirs not to question why,
  Theirs but to do or die ...” might have been adequate in the days of the “Light Brigade” but it is oddly inappropriate now in the age of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Tom,
“I was just following orders” is no defense for committing or covering up a criminal act, whether it is a violation of US law, the Military Code, or International Law.

That is the lesson of Nuremberg.

TAO Walker

Thank you.

Spoken as though from the lips of Looking Glass, an eloquent,  wise, brilliant,
humane and courageous person.  One with Mother Earth.

The local prosecutors in the D.A.‘s office routinely overcharge defendants to pressure them to enter into a plea bargain, so the prosecutors don’t have to go to trial.  If there is more than one defendant involved in the conduct, the prosecuter overcharges one to pressure them to testify against a co-defendant in exchange for a plea.

Is it possible that the U.S. government is confining Manning in solitary, in abusive if not torturous circumstances, threatening him with death, to force him to testify against Assange?  Isn’t that what’s really going on?  Isn’t this entire charade a disgusting example of the corruption of our country resulting from the empire, the wars, the torture, and everything else our government is so desperate to coverup?

I heard today that the international war crimes court will take up consideration of claims against Qaddaffi, as a way to pressure him to step down.  But they still won’t do anything about bush-cheney.  This really isn’t justice when the system is so corrupt that you can’t trust a thing that’s being done.

Tom Weidermeijer’s post gives me chills.
It reveals with aweful Orwellian certainty how closed a system the military really is. They do not have orders to think or even make moral evaluations which would require thinking, they are simply cogs in the Great Killing Machine deployed by the Vested Interests called the American government. Resistance is futile. KoolAid anyone?

“It was not up to us to determine WHY it was classified.  This is the military and
not the private sector.  This is our country we are protecting… not a business.”

You got that backwards, Tom.  I think you meant, “This is our business we are
protecting… not a country.”

Glad I could help.

The comment of “John Faust” below reminds this Old Indian of another “incident” in the sordid tale that is U.S. history.  When those People called by the americans “Nez Perce” were faced with being forced militarily out of nearly all their ancestral home country, and onto a “reservation” with the usual characteristic of consisting mostly of land unattractive to invading white-people, many of these Natives chose instead to leave the territory occupied by U.S. forces and go to Grandmothers’ Land, where some Lakotahs went with Tatanka Yotanka (“Sitting Bull”) after kicking Custer’s “iron-ass” on the Greasy Grass.  The story of the “Nez Perce” “flight” has now been thoroughly Disney-fied, which is to say stolen and co-opted (i.e.: allamerican-ized) by the very occupying forces which first necessitated then ended it with the usual ruthless violence.

Among the respected men of The People was a brother of the man called by the greedy oppressors “Chief Joseph.”  The brother’s name translated into English as “Looking Glass.”  He was one of those who had been very effective in helping The People elude regiments of military pursuers, even fighting-off a murderous attack by “irregulars” who’d caught-up with them in a place called today “The Big Hole.”

Because theamericanpeople could not stand to see their true reflection in the eyes and actions of Looking Glass, they had their smiling hired killer “Bearcoat Miles” chase-down and kill him….along, of course, with many of the Young Men, Women Children, and Elders who had made it so painfully plain that even “death” was preferable to being penned-up by the U.S gov’t in a CONcentration camp.

Every one of the millions of ‘shards’ into which the man Looking Glass was shattered that Day, on the freezing snow-bound prairie between the Muddy and Milk Rivers, have ever-since reflected-back to theamericanpeople their own twisted ugliness.  Until today it is undeniably obvious all around the world….and even in the eyes of many of their own Young People.

It is their insanely grotesque pretension to “exceptional”-ist virtue, which has always been the false-front behind which americans have perpetrated their vicious assaults upon Native Peoples in-pursuit of “resources” and empire, that Pvt. Manning is being scapegoated for “betraying.”  We are watching even now as all the machinery of the imperial command-and-CONtrol apparatus operates to paper-over this latest rip in the fraying “curtain” of institutionalized delusion “protecting” theamericanpeople from having to face the awful truth about their own collective “self.”

Read The Record and weep….‘cause your “sins” are back to haunt you, and it’s all-over now for the blue-coat wasichus.

HokaHey!

Tom,
it’s nice to know that you follow orders, no matter what they are.. I’m sure your
commander in chief could count on you not to divulge anything that might be
embarrassing or illegal, you know, torture, genocide, killing of civilians, much
less war profiteering, corruption.  I hope you stayed in the military, or, if not,
reenlist for Iraq (oh, I forgot we’re going to withdraw from there), Afghanistan,
or maybe even Iran, Libya. 

Our country needs patriots like you in the military..  Especially liberal ones who
believe in democracy and freedom of speech.  And I’m sure, if you’re called
upon to shoot who ever your commander tells you to, even an fellow Amercian
who’s a suspected terrorist (even though he may look like a union person
rallying for his so called right to organize) you’ll do it, because, hey, you follow
orders.  It’s very comforting to know.

Also, I bet you’ll vote for Obama again.  He’s doing the best he can in the
circumstances he’s been given.

Any one of you could be charged with aiding the enemy when you defend Bradley
Manning.  You will then be disappeared into solitary confinement, somewhere,
tortured indefinitely until you’re mind and body are ruined. 

I want to congratulate all of you who voted for Obama, rather than wasting your
vote on Nader.  It was such a wise, mature decision.  Sure, there were those who
warned you, provided proof that he was getting more money from the banks,
insurance companies, military contractors, oil companies, nuclear facilities, ,,, but
that’s politics.  It was the only reasonable thing to do, really,,,,,

Encouraging to see these comments.  Let’s just remember that this is going to take more than blogging.  Let’s get together and figure out what we can do, consistently, nonviolently, using all our various talents and creativity to save Manning, democracy, and quite possibly the United States.

It’s the “authoritarian mind” that is at work here.
How can that attitude be changed, appealed to, mitigated, understood, convinced, modified, become more tolerant, opened—whatever?  We have to deal with it on a massive scale and offensive resistance probably makes it worse. On the other hand, there are probably a number of different things we should and could be doing right now, wherever we are, that would help cure this “authoritarian” disease.  Ideas, anyone?

And by the way:  How long before “they” attack the freedom of the entire Internet?  It seems to be a great way to bring people together as well as to spread information.

It is official.  The USA is Orwell’s 1984 nightmare.  Not a single Bankster prosecution, not a single apology for bad behavior revealed, but they torture Manning for disseminating the Truth.  Nice Democracy ain’t it?  Can’t wait to vote for the next Corporate agent of “change”.

Bring him before a jury and let’s see what happens. 
My bet, it will be a kangaroo court. However, Manning
is a US citizen first, a soldier second.  He is
absolutely entitled to a free, fair, and open trial,
full stop.

From what I remember, Congress has not declared war. 
There is no “enemy” but US officials in high office,
and an Executive that makes war contrary to its
authority, and issues what amounts to bills of
attainder (also prohibited by the supreme law of the
land).  Our leaders are criminals, while our heroes
are extradited, exiled, in jail, or being evicted
from their homes and robbed of their meager savings.

Corporate profits are way up, thanks to the currency-
diluting bailout.  Proud to be an American yet?

Obama and this administration are despicable.

Kill the messenger!

If they didn’t kill Ames or the Walkers they have no business going for the death penalty here.  There hasn’t been a death penalty for anything similar since the Rosenbergs—and THAT was a frame job (especially Ethel, since her worthless brother admitted lying about her).

‘We’ are the enemy.

Manning is possibly guilty of unauthorized disclosure.

He did not spy for a foreign government nor accept money for his actions.

In my opinion he should be given a medal.

How stupid.  That attitude seems seriously antiquated.  Poor kid.

Criminal acts by usa and allies must be defended!
Kill the messenger!
Execute Bradley Manning!
Geo. Galloway,British MP collected money for HAMAS!!!!
Kill him!
Kill any one who questions!
Get Julian Assauge!
Kill the honest!
Kill the truth!!!
Total destructions the only solution!
Blow up the oil!!

“The Enemy” being the countries we invaded and occupied and from whom there was no danger and nothing to defend. Unfortunately Manning was too honest and intelligent to belong to an organization that does everything to suppress such qualities. After all the military is just the violent weapon of the corrupt unscrupulous corporate-owned administration deceptively launching the Department of Defense.

The severity and scope of the charges being made against Manning indicate clearly how much our government resents having its “right to secrecy” threatened.  They simply think they cannot afford to let ordinary citizens in on what is going on behind the scenes.  This is a real test for the American people and their devotion to democratic government.

One must first name the enemy that Pfc. Manning “aided”. It would seen that the enemy aided was truth. Truth is always the enemy of despots and our nation seems despotic enough these days.

‘Aiding the enemy’ is a charge punishable by the death penalty!? OMG, since we have made practically the whole evolving world our enemy, this could mean that anyone who donates to help children in almost any foreign nation (other than Israel, our ‘BFF’) is subject to being tied to a post and shot by a US army firing squad.