It was reported back in 2011 that Bradley Manning was unhappy living as a man, but now we know that for sure:
Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman.Remember how we were entering into a new phase of Republican skepticism about war and the national security state? Remember how all those GOP senators helped Rand Paul on that drone filibuster?
"I am Chelsea Manning. I am female," the Army private wrote in a statement read on TODAY Thursday. "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." ...
"I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility)," he continued in the statement....
Well, that moment is over. Republican support for neo-isolationism was always greatly exaggerated by the media, but Republicans are really going to rally 'round the flag and muscular jingoism if the best-known convicted national security leaker has now made himself an ideal target of ignorant right-wing mockery in this way.
Headline from one winger blog: "PERFECT SYMBOL FOR THE POSTMODERN LEFT: BRADLEY MANNING WANTS TO TRANSFORM HIMSELF INTO A GIRL." From that post (all caps in original):
HE STOLE NATIONAL SECURITY SECRETS AND EXPOSED THEM TO HURT THE USA AND THE WEST.I'm sure this blogger won't be the last right-wing opinion-slinger to go this route -- I'm sure others will cite Manning's gender issues, the rape charges against Julian Assange, the pole dancing of Edward Snowden's girlfriend, and Glenn Greenwald's homosexuality in order to conclude that, somehow, "sexual decadence" and leaking are linked aspects of depraved leftism.
NOW - TO BE HAPPY AND FULFILLED - HE WANTS HE PENIS CUT OFF.
AND THE LEFT SEES NOTHING WRONG HERE.
And even if that doesn't happen, I'd say GOP neo-isolationalism effectively died before it could even start to develop. The Benghazi attack and the Obama administration's inability to magically calm the turmoil in Syria and Egypt inevitably make the right-wing base more responsive to Republicans who offer the traditional "peace through strength" message. War skepticism of the Ron Paul variety can't compete with that.
Of course, Rand Paul hasn't really been trying very hard. I'm still convinced that dog whistle to the right in the Rand Paul filibuster was "Stop Obama and Holder from using drones against law-abiding gun owners" -- that it had nothing to do with foreign policy. He's not backing Manning, as I told you yesterday. Oh, and he's now backing sanctions on Iran.
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
