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When Roger West first launched the progressive political blog "News From The Other Side" in May 2010, he could hardly have predicted the impact that his venture would have on the media and political debate. As the New Media emerged as a counterbalance to established media sources, Roger wrote his copious blogs about national politics, the tea party movement, mid-term elections, and the failings of the radical right to the vanguard of the New Media movement. Roger West's efforts as a leading blogger have tremendous reach. NFTOS has led the effort to bring accountability to mainstream media sources such as FOX NEWS, Breitbart's "Big Journalism. Roger's breadth of experience, engaging style, and cultivation of loyal readership - over 92 million visitors - give him unique insight into the past, present, and future of the New Media and political rhetoric that exists in our society today. What we are against: Radical Right Wing Agendas Incompetent Establishment Donald J. Trump Corporate Malfeasence We are for: Global and Econmoic Security Social and Economic Justice Media Accountability THE RESISTANCE

Monday, October 25, 2010

TO LEAK OR NOT TO LEAK

This past Friday (10/22/10) an international organization released the largest United States classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (Titled 'The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009.

The culprit of all this is Bradley Manning. Private First Class Bradley E. Manning (born 1987) is a United States Army soldier who has been arrested and charged with the unauthorized use and disclosure of U.S. classified information.

Manning was an intelligence analyst assigned to a support battalion with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, Iraq. Agents of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command arrested Manning based on information received from federal authorities provided by an American journalist informant, Adrian Lamo, in whom Manning had previously confided. Lamo stated he came forward as an act of conscience. Lamo said that Manning claimed, via instant messaging, to be the person who had leaked the "Collateral Murder" video of the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, in addition to a video of the Granai airstrike and around 260,000 diplomatic cables, to the whistleblower website Wikileaks. The media has described Manning as a whistleblower.

On July 5, 2010, Manning was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with violations of Article 92 and Article 134, for "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system," and "communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source". The maximum possible prison sentence for the charges is 52 years. An Army spokesman stated that an Article 32 hearing, similar to a grand jury, would be held to determine whether or not there was enough evidence to proceed to a court-martial.

Having held a Top Secret SCI clearance for 25 years I am astounded how a "American" could betray his/her country in such a deviant way.

Now that the documents are out, all kind of synopsis and hypotheses will emit on how the US military has run amok. There is a reason that this database was titled "top secret". Not for civilian consumption, period!

Wikileaks claims this is "history" that the world needs to know.

NFTOS can tell you that these documents are going to portray a "lying" Bush Administration.



Having worked for the Bush Administration I can tell you that these documents will not paint a rosy picture of "Axis of idiots".




While we deplore Manning and Wikileaks disgusting acts of treason and disregard for "secret' information, lets now show the country the true colors of George Bush and his fellow pathological liars for what they are. Traitors and liars!

We already knew that U.S. and other coalition forces were inflicting civilian casualties that had the effect of enraging local villagers and often driving them into the enemy camp. We already had plenty of evidence that elements within Pakistan's intelligence services were giving support and guidance to the Taliban insurgency inside Afghanistan, even though Pakistan is supposed to be our ally in the fight against the terrorists.

Overall, though, the most shocking thing about the "War Diary" may be that it fails to shock. The documents illustrate how futile -- and tragically wasteful -- it is to send more young men and women to fight and die in Afghanistan. They also show that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld would stop at nothing to bullshit America. A pattern as we have now come to learn was pathological! Did we ever get truth from George Bush?

Having been in the theater of war for over 25 years I have learned that war is ugly, very, very ugly! I have also learned that these documents are titled "top secret" for a reason.

This is not a left or right issue, this is a United States issue. These documents now disclosed make our country a lot more vulnerable. I doubt Manning and Wikileaks understand that, or maybe they do. Either way if found guilty Manning should be immediately executed for treason upon the guilty verdict.




As for Julian Assange, spokesperson and editor-in-chief for Wikileaks, (also known as Australia's most famous ethical computer hacker.") NFTOS can only hope that this "dark
demented vermin gets 'vetted" like his released documents, and then lets see what falls out of the closet of this rapist."



Like Cheney and Bush outing Valerie Plame, Manning and Assange just weakened a country!

NFTOS

"Majority Leader" John Boehner



With 8 days left til mid-term voting, Americans have never been closer to having a "tool" be the house majority leader than now. Ok Maybe, the "eye of Newt" Gingrich was worse.

Boehner(not pronounced BONER but BAy-ner) spent most of his political career railing against corruption and scandal in Washington, though—ironically—it was a series of Washington scandals that directly resulted in the few professional successes Boehner's had, including his Congressional seat and House Majority leadership.

In May 2009, weekly tracking polls indicated that Boehner remained the most unpopular politician in the United States.

1990, Boehner took advantage of the Republican politician disaster-scandal trifecta that befell Ohio Congressman Buz Lukens who was caught engaging the services of a prostitute. An African-American one. A sixteen-year-old one. For 40 dollars. (Though nearly everyone has denounced Luken, many do admire his frugality.)

Helping to lift the people of Ohio and their respected Senate seat being involved with an underage sex scandal, Boehner entered the United States House of Representatives where he would later be involved with a an underage sex scandal.

15 years afterward, Boehner would learn about creepy emails Congressman Mark Foley sent to a young page, but not tell anybody about it until months later. Except then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, which he's "99% sure" he did. Overall, most people remember pretty clearly whether or not they helped cover up for a sleazy old man harassing children, but John Boehner is not most people.

In his first year, Boehner and six other congressmen formed the gang of seven. Among the major achievements of the gang of seven are the public exposure of politicians who'd overdrawn their bank accounts and cracking down on the free ride that congressmen were getting at that national travesty: the congressional barbershop. Not so much a "gang" as, say, a coterie, this "gang" was just like the Crips if instead of robbing and murdering people, they solely went around committing municipal code violations.

Boehner was one of the chief authors of the Contract with America, a document that many citizens remember existing though no one can actually recall the contents of it. This may be attributable to the Contracts ardent support for a series of initiatives that many Americans agreed with in principal but realistically, couldn't give a shit about.

In 2006, Beohner again displayed his aptitude for taking advantage of other people's criminal indictments when he succeeded Tom Delay as the House then-Majority leader.

Electrifying conservatives with his stern pro-business, anti-corruption, small government positions, Boehner would quickly disappoint most of his supporters by approving $9.8 trillion dollars in President Bush's budgets. While most lawmakers are unable to follow through on every promise they make, it is uncommon for a politician to do the complete inverse of every promise they made.

"Thankfully," following the 2008 Presidential election, Boehner returned to his original stance against major government spending once it became politically convenient. While it's difficult to argue that he has displayed consistency in his Republican "beliefs," there is one position he has been able to stringently adhere to: being opposed to whatever the overwhelming public opinion supports at the time.


Connections to lobbyists
In June 1995, Boehner distributed campaign contributions from tobacco industry lobbyists on the House floor as House members were weighing how to vote on tobacco subsidies. Boehner eventually led the effort to change House rules and prohibit campaign contributions from being distributed on the House floor.

A September 2010 New York Times story said Boehner was "tightly linked" to lobbyists.



With no immediate solution to the current policies and issues at hand, it remains to be seen if Boehner will remain firm, rigid, and inflexible in his positions or whether the potential success of him becoming the house majority leader will cause him to shrink away limp, deflated, and flaccid.

John Boehner, congressman extraordinaire, or Dante's Inferno leader with a great tan....



NFTOS