The Humble Libertarian original

"A military judge on Wednesday morning sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks... According to the military, Manning is required to serve one-third of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole... The decision was immediately condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union. “When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project." Source: Washington Post Hat tip: Memeorandum Libertarian resources on Manning: The Truth About Bradley Manning [Video] by: Stefan Molyneux Manning's Apology Is A Forced Confession.. Obviously

Edward Snowden was nominated by a Swedish sociology professor for the Nobel Peace Prize: Russia Today - A Swedish sociology professor has nominated Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize. He says the NSA whistleblower could help “save the prize from the disrepute incurred by the hasty and ill-conceived decision” to give the 2009 award to Barack Obama. In his letter addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Stefan Svallfors praised Snowden for his “heroic effort at great personal cost.” He stated that by revealing the existence and the scale of the US surveillance programs, Snowden showed “individuals can stand up for fundamental rights and freedoms.” ... But Kristian Berg Harpviken, senior researcher and deputy director at the International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), told Interfax news agency that it is very unlikely that Snowden will become a Nobel Prize laureate. Harpviken said that all major deadlines have passed, meaning that Snowden will have very little ...

Because global warming: Anyone else feel like he's being a jerk?

[ WIKILEAKS ] Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful. On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions. This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to fright...

And is she involved in Washington-led operations to arm Syrian rebel groups that include radical Islamic Jihadists, even members of Al Qaeda? Bruce Majors does some deep digging into this story at The Insomniac Libertarian. Check it out .

"A new audit (pdf) from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has found significant weaknesses in the oversight intended to keep the Pentagon from giving contracts to Taliban and other insurgent factions. ... The conclusion is that the Pentagon has ended up contracting out to insurgents in the past, but even more frighteningly that it is almost certainly still doing so unwittingly, with Inspector Sopko urging Centcom to implement additional controls to examine contracts already given, and any future ones." Source: AntiWar.com Your tax dollars at work. Washington is taking your money from you, and giving it to terrorists, using it to pay people who are attacking and killing your sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters, moms, and dads. Why isn't this a front page story? Who do we get to charge with aiding the enemy for this?

Glenn Greenwald cuts through the bullying and sanctimony of Thatcher's hagiographers with his usually deft application of sound reasoning (h/t Memeo ): Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette News of Margaret Thatcher's death this morning instantly and predictably gave rise to righteous sermons on the evils of speaking ill of her. British Labour MP Tom Watson decreed: "I hope that people on the left of politics respect a family in grief today." Following in the footsteps of Santa Claus, Steve Hynd quickly compiled a list of all the naughty boys and girls "on the left" who dared to express criticisms of the dearly departed Prime Minister, warning that he "will continue to add to this list throughout the day". Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, with no apparent sense of irony, invoked precepts of propriety to announce: "Pygmies of the left so predictably embarrassing yourselves, know this: not a one of your leaders will ever be globa...

By: Wes Messamore Business Insider has the exclusive : Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul revealed this week that he would support moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a surprising position that contradicts conventional wisdom about Paul's stance toward the Jewish state. Paul first made this position known Wednesday night, during a private meeting with evangelical leaders interested in helping the Texas Congressman reach out to the conservative Christian community. According to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider, the leaders started off the meeting by asking Paul whether he would sign an Executive Order to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a major policy objective for Israeli hardliners and many leaders in the Christian Right. "The real issue here is not what America wants, but what does Israel want," Paul told evangelical leaders, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insi...

By: Wes Messamore On Russia Today , Alex Jones discusses how global power players are working to orchestrate global control over the world's economy and natural resources to advance an agenda of radical population reduction and a return to pre-industrial feudalism. If you think this is over the top or hard to believe, I have only one question for you: Why? Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

By: Wes Messamore At the level of production humanity is now capable of in the world today, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should go hungry, and yet so many still do. Why? The answer is no great mystery. The proximate causes and their root cause are easy enough to ascertain. Cross-reference a map of conflict zones in the world with a map highlighting areas of malnourishment and it isn’t difficult to draw the correlation between starvation and war. Look again at which governments rank as the most corrupt, and note that they typically govern nations that also rank as the least well-nourished. Government corruption, then, is strongly correlated with world hunger. Finally, pay close attention to one of the most far-reaching and historically significant, yet under-reported stories of our era: the dramatic rise in global food prices , and it should be no wonder that so many of the world’s people remain hungry even at a time when there’s no good reason for anyone not to have enoug...

By: Wes Messamore In political discourse, especially heated partisan political discourse, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis are often used as a point of comparison for one’s enemies across the aisle, and while both “sides” in America do it, both sides also never fail to call the other one out for making an unfair, petty, hyperbolic attack for partisan reasons. The use of the Hitler or Nazi comparison is so common that in 1990, U.S. attorney and author Mike Godwin coined an adage that has become well known on Internet discussion forums as Godwin’s Law: “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” But there’s a real difference between the partisan sniping that you’ve read before and what you’re about to read next. This is not an article about how Barack Obama is just like Hitler, and neither is it an article about how George W. Bush was just like Hitler. You won’t be reading about Democrats or Republicans ushering in a Fourth...

Mashable reports : "Julian Assange is still under house arrest in Britain while he appeals extradition to Sweden, but that’s not stopping the audacious secret-spiller from planning his next move: running for a seat in the Australian Senate. Assange announced his run through Wikileaks, the leak-disseminating organization he founded. He’s still wanted in Sweden to answer accusations of sexual assault and rape, but according to Wikileaks, that doesn’t stop the Australian native from running for a senate seat in his home country." The Associated Press adds : “We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run,” WikiLeaks announced on Twitter. Assange has criticized Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s center-left government for not standing up for him against the potential threat of his extradition to the United States for prosecution over WikiLeaks’ release of hundreds of thousands ...

Aww, sad George W. Bush: "All that trouble to go to Iraq, and all I had to do was... make a 30 minute viral video." Silly liberal humanitarians, wars are for neocons. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

"Judge, isn't a soldier required to report a war crime?" That's what one protester, David Eberhardt of Baltimore, said out loud as a military judge adjourned a hearing to arraign Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in Ft. Meade, Maryland last week for allegedly leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks . It was the only outburst during the proceedings. The judge didn't respond. Yes, David, reporting overt war crimes being committed and covered up under the pretense of "classification" and "national security" is a moral and patriotic duty to one's country-- especially when they include actions that were putting our own troops on the ground at risk. The American people have a right to know what their government is doing in their name and with their tax dollars. If they understood, maybe more of them would have started questioning the wars and endless nation building a long time ago. That's why Manning is an American hero . I was pleased to l...

Send tens of thousands of young men and women overseas to invade two countries, overthrow their governments, and facilitate the process of transition to a new regime-- all over a period of more than a decade-- and while most of them are going to behave honorably and intelligently, it is simply unavoidable that you're going to have a few idiots in the mix. Let international agencies like the Brussels-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization take the lead in organizing their efforts, and you're going to have a few more idiots and idiotic incidents. Very angry and increasingly violent protests have raged for a week now in Afghanistan precisely because of the actions of a couple such idiots-- two NATO personnel who Afghan witnesses have described as Americans were seen burning Korans in a fire pit , an act that anyone-- especially NATO personnel working in the country-- should know by now would offend the people of Afghanistan, incite violence, and put other Americans in danger. ...

I'm no moral relativist, but I do think there are many judgments we make about other cultures that can be legitimately chalked up to cultural differences, not moral deficiencies, and hey, I hate to get radical here, but maybe some aspects of whatever your culture happens to be might not be so great after all. Maybe think about it a little before judging others. I've discovered in the last year of my life that extended overseas travel can be a powerful remedy to cultural jingoism. Thought I'd share the cartoon above to catalyze some introspection. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

The warmongering against Iran is reaching a fever pitch : The Washington Post - An assessment by U.S. spy agencies concludes that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States, highlighting new risks as the Obama administration escalates pressure on Tehran to halt its alleged pursuit of an atomic bomb. In congressional testimony Tuesday, U.S. intelligence officials indicated that Iran has crossed a threshold in its adversarial relationship with the United States. While Iran has long been linked to attacks on American targets overseas, U.S. officials said they see troubling significance in Tehran’s alleged role in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year. U.S. officials said they have seen no intelligence to indicate that Iran is actively plotting attacks on U.S. soil. But Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said the thwarted plot “shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamen...

Rand Paul is lending his voice and name to help the National Association for Gun Rights to stand against a proposed UN treaty that many gun rights advocates believe would endanger Americans' Second Amendment rights. Paul writes : Dear fellow American, If we’re going to defeat the UN’s Small Arms Treaty gun owners have to turn the heat up on the U.S. Senate now before it’s too late! Please sign your Firearms Sovereignty Survey and put yourself squarely on the record AGAINST ratification of the UN’s Small Arms Treaty. For Freedom, Rand Paul U.S. Senator (R-KY) Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

2011 was the year that all of the people of the world stood up against the global financial elite and the economic destruction wrought by the century-long modern central banking paradigm. Read all about it in my latest at the Independent Voter Network. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

A Chinese village in revolt is under siege by police who hope to cut off its food supply and starve the protesters out. There response as they barricade their town to keep the police out: "...there’s no need to worry." Read my full coverage at The Silver Underground . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page