Wednesday, August 21, 2013

SO, WOULD PRESIDENT RAND PAUL PARDON BRADLEY MANNING?

Bradley Manning was sentenced today:
A military judge sentenced Pfc. Bradley Manning on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for providing more than 700,000 government files to WikiLeaks, a gigantic leak that lifted the veil on military and diplomatic activities around the world....

The judge, Army Col. Denise R. Lind, ... could have sentenced Private Manning, 25, to up to 90 years....
I assume that many nouveau libertarians are planning to go into 2016 telling us that HILLARY CLINTON IS JUST AS BAD AS BUSH AND OBAMA!!! and only Crazy Uncle Liberty Jr., aka Rand Paul, can save us from the tyranny of the national security state, as embodied in, among other things, the prosecution and sentencing of Bradley Manning.

Well, here's a pin to burst that bubble:
Sen. Rand Paul raised some eyebrows when he stated that he does not have a lot of sympathy in regards to whistle-blower Bradley Manning’s verdict ... at a Cato University event....

Sen. Paul reasoned that there need to be some laws that protect certain secrets and that Manning put many lives at risk by releasing millions of pages "willy-nilly". His main concern is that whistle-blowers break laws in order to reveal state secrets.

"There do have to be laws to protect some secrets. I think if you've got the, you know, the plans on how to make a nuclear bomb that is a state secret. If you give that to the enemy, that is being treasonous," said the Senator from Kentucky, "Even if you reveal it, you just have to have laws against that. What Manning did was just willy-nilly, just released millions of pages of things and I think some people have said there is potentially some harm from that. You know individual agents that could have been killed or put at risk from this. So there is a problem with that. So I just can't support that."
Oh well -- maybe one of the ten enlightened billionaires Ralph Nader hopes will run for president will actually win and issue that pardon. It could totally happen!

4 comments:

Victor said...

Some Libertarian, this boy is.

He makes W look like a towering intellect.

Rand Paul should not be a US Senator.
He shouldn't even play one on TV or film.

Hell, I wouldn't ask this moron to water my plants if I was going on vacation.
When I came home, they'd either all be dead from being over, or under, watered - or smoked.

Glennis said...

Rand Paul is also the guy who said that it would be OK for law enforcement to shoot a suspected robber exiting a liquor store, no due process.

He's a libertarian for himself, but an authoritarian for you and me.

Victor said...

Aunt Snow,
I do believe you've come upon the perfect description of what a Libertarian really is!

John Taylor said...

Please don't put the phrase President Rand Paul in a headline again. Very frightening.