Army Private Bradley Manning Found Guilty on 20 Counts, Including Several Violations of Espionage Act

Various reports indicate that Manning was convicted on 20 of 22 counts.

The press is spinning this as a victory for the defense, since Manning was not convicted of "aiding the enemy." Of course, to be convicted of espionage is de facto the same thing, but legally he won't be subject to possible life in prison without parole.

At the Los Angles Times "Bradley Manning acquitted of most serious charge, convicted of others." And the Wall Street Journal, "Manning Acquitted of Aiding the Enemy: Guilty of Most Lesser Charges Related to WikiLeaks Documents."

And the Washington Post has a nifty graphic, "Verdict in Bradley Manning case."

Garland County Jail Break Video

The dude got away.



And check the comments at this thread, lol, "UPDATE: Deputies arrest accomplice of escaped inmate, search continues."

Sydney Leathers on Howard Stern Show: #Weiner's 'Too Busy Jackin' Off' to Be Mayor

She's orgiastic about this whole thing.



And see the New York Post, "Weiner sext pal in raunchy tell-all interview: Phone sex '15 times a day wouldn't be enough' for obsessed pol."

Quitting Isn't 'How We Roll'

Oh hey, stay in the race, by all means.

The skeezy "slutbag" lulz are definitely how the Democrats roll.

London's Daily Mail has the original video of Weiner stoically pledging to, er, stick it out. See, "'Quitting isn't how we roll in New York': Tired Weiner insists he will NOT stand aside in new ad as his online mistress revels in humiliating him again in Howard Stern interview."

And here's Erin Burnett:



I'll have more coming up shortly.

Olivia Nuzzi 'Slutbag'

Well, she sure nailed it with that morning tweet.

Nuzzi published a "tell all" piece, it turns out. And boy, Anthony Weiner's ommunications director completely lost it.

Well, today will certainly be interesting. pic.twitter.com/OvwU0bNjDL
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 30, 2013

At Twitchy, "All class: Weiner aide lashes out at ‘slutbag’ former intern."

Here it is at New York Daily News, "Anthony Weiner intern reveals why she, fellows joined New York mayoral campaign" (at Memeorandum).

And Nuzzi had this at NSFWCORP, "Source: Weiner's Campaign Manager Quit Afer Being Lied To (And He's Not The Only Departure)."

TPM broke the story on the communications director, although I prefer not to link those progressive scumbags. They're as disgusting as a bunch of Weiner social-media cock shots.

Americans Once Again Divided by Race

It's the left that's dividing America, from the president on down to the lowest precincts of the despicable Democrat Party base.

From Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal, "Americans Are Once Again Divided by Race":

Like a lightning flash in a stormy sky, the Trayvon Martin case has illuminated the depth of the impasse between white and nonwhite America. But a similar dynamic looms less visibly behind Washington's standoff between a Democratic coalition that relies on overwhelming support from minorities and a Republican coalition still almost entirely dependent on the votes of whites, especially older ones.

Both developments tell the same challenging story: Even as America experiences its most profound demographic change in more than a century, our society is increasingly fracturing along overlapping racial, generational, and partisan lines. The diversity remaking America could be a source of rejuvenation and innovation, but today it is reinforcing our ferocious partisan polarization. The Martin case and the Washington stalemate both capture the escalating collision of perspectives and priorities between a growing, mostly younger minority community and our aging white population—what I've called the brown and the gray.

Yes, and the left owns that polarization, lock, stock and depraved smoking barrel.

Continue reading.

Barack Hussein Claims Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnamese Communist Revolutionary, Inspired by Founding Fathers

The background's at Fox News, "Uh Ho: Obama Says Vietnamese Dictator Inspired by Founding Fathers," and Wizbang, "Obama Claims Vietnamese Communist Ho Chi Minh was “Inspired by the Words of Thomas Jefferson”."

And here's the takedown, at IBD, "Linking Jefferson to Ho Chi Minh a New Low For Obama":

Few comparisons have been as odious as the one offered by the president linking one of the great mass murderers of history to one of America's Founding Fathers and authors of our liberty.

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were mortal and inhumane enemies who joined civilization after their hideous barbarism was defeated.

They renounced their former brutality, acknowledged their guilt and shame, and became our strongest allies as they genuinely embraced liberty and democracy. They did not forget their past. They repudiated it.

Vietnam has never repudiated its past while celebrating a faux victory over an American enemy that was never defeated on the battlefield but only in the halls of a Congress that abandoned an ally and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

President Obama met with his Vietnamese counterpart, President Truong Tan Sang, last Thursday in the same Oval office where LBJ picked bombing targets in a war he micromanaged into futility. The 44th president conveniently forgot Vietnamese history and slandered ours by linking a founder of our democracy, Thomas Jefferson, to the mass murderer Ho Chi Minh.

Sang had brought Obama a copy of a letter sent to President Truman from Ho in which the communist dictator spoke hopefully of cooperation with America.

Obama, stopping short of yet another apology, mused about what might have been, and noted "we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson."

That's technically true and historically accurate. Ho Chi Minh did frame the earliest portions of the 1945 Vietnam Declaration of Independence on the actual Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson in 1776. But while the future third president spoke of inalienable rights granted by his and our Creator, he meant it. Ho Chi Minh was only serious about the glory of the state.

Come to think of it, Obama is too, often leaving the word "Creator" out of any mention of our inalienable rights as mentioned in the declaration while he routinely ignores the Constitution and its restriction on his and federal powers.

To be charitable, one could claim Obama was just trying to humor a guest, as Trent Lott once did to Strom Thurmond.

But was it necessary to praise a man who killed approximately half a million people in an effort to consolidate his power, or to suggest ideological similarities between the architect of mass carnage and an author of liberty?

In consolidating his dictatorial power in North Vietnam, Ho went after landowners, intellectuals, school teachers, businessmen, civic leaders, anyone who might pose future opposition to his thuggish rule. Those who would not publicly confess their crimes against the state and the people were often brutally executed.

By early November 1956, when residents of An Giang province, which included Ho's birthplace village of Nam Dan, refused to pay what they considered oppressive taxes, Ho sent troops to collect, then sent in an army division, shooting. About 6,000 unarmed villagers were killed in a massacre obscured by the Soviet Union's suppression of Hungary.

After Ho's death in 1969, his successors did not miss a beat. Congressional Democrats and their allies in the media, such as the venerable Walter Cronkite, who had already proclaimed the war lost, helped ensure South Vietnam's defeat and ushered in an era of mass carnage, boat people and re-education camps that resulted in more death after the war than during it.

After Saigon's "liberation," the summary executions of tens of thousands of South Vietnamese began. Hundreds of thousands more were forced into re-education camps as 1 million boat people fled on anything that would float, with countless thousands perishing in the South China Sea. And let us not forget the killing fields of Cambodia, where 3 million were slaughtered.

This is the legacy of the man Obama said was inspired by Thomas Jefferson.

And really, is that so hard to understand? Is it that hard to understand that it serves American foreign policy no good purpose to stroke the vanity of Vietnamese Communists?

But leftists don't care about that. My money says Obama would liquidate at least 500,000 if it would help him keep power, but we can thank the Founders that he won't have the chance.

See idiot leftist ghoul Steve M. for the epic, morally bankrupt defense of Barack Hussein, the wannabe Communist dictator, "OBJECTIVE-FACT-ABOUT-LONG-DECEASED-ENEMY-GATE!!!"

Steve M.'s an asshole and a coward.

Oh, and did I mention loser? He's a asshole, loser and a coward.

PREVIOUSLY: "No Enemies on the Left? Progressives for Barack Obama." None.

Pope Francis' Statement on Homosexuality

He's a caring, loving pope.

Although his comments have set off a frenzied doctrinal search for answers, clarity, and stability.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Pope Signals Openness to Gay Priests: Pontiff's Comments Suggest Greater Acceptance of Homosexuality Among Clerics":

ROME — When Pope Francis said he wouldn't judge gay priests, he opened the door to a new era of reconciliation within the Roman Catholic Church, which has struggled for decades to confront the presence of homosexuality in its ministry.

The pontiff was traveling aboard a turbulent overnight flight to Rome from his first overseas trip—a journey marked by his plain-spoken appeals to Catholics to reground the church in grass-roots ministry—when he broached the delicate issue of how the Catholic hierarchy should respond to clerics who are gay, though not sexually active. In doing so, he departed from the posture that has long shaped papal thinking on gay priests.

"Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?" the pontiff told a news conference in response to a question. "You can't marginalize these people."

Pope Francis reaffirmed church teaching by referring to homosexual acts as a sin. But he wielded his formidable bully pulpit to shift the tone of how the church regards homosexual orientation at its highest ranks.

The pope returned to the Vatican from a weeklong visit to Brazil, where he was given a rock-star reception as an estimated three million people flocked to a Sunday Mass on Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach.

Analysts said that show of support is likely to strengthen his hand as he confronts myriad challenges, including alleged corruption at the Vatican bank and the sexual-abuse crisis.

The pontiff said women couldn't be ordained as priests, because the issue had been definitively settled by Pope John Paul II. However, he said he wanted to develop a "theology of the woman," in order to expand and deepen their involvement in the life of the church.

Continue reading.

I know some Catholics are in denial over this, but it is what it is. See Kathryn Jean Lopez, for example, "What the Pope Did and Didn’t Say on the Plane."

#Angels Pay Heavy Price for Pujols Gamble

I wrote about this at the time, hoping for the best, hoping to avoid an albatross.

There's always next year, but if you're an Angels fan, it seems like such a waste.

At the New York Times:

Arte Moreno basked in the spotlight of his own making at Angel Stadium in December 2011. Moreno, the owner of the Los Angeles Angels, was there to announce the signing of Albert Pujols to a 10-year, $240 million contract. Moreno explained that he was motivated partly by a desire to keep up with the Yankees, who had beaten the Angels in the 2009 playoffs.

“We could play Boston, then the Yankees, and we weren’t prepared to play with them,” Moreno said that day. “You look at what you can develop in the organization, what can you do in the market, what are the Band-Aids you can apply. We just didn’t feel like we had the depth to compete at the level we wanted to compete at.”

By trying to imitate the Yankees, Moreno’s team has become them: worse, actually.

The Yankees, of course, are feverishly hoping to escape the remaining four-plus years on their bloated 10-year, $275 million contract with Alex Rodriguez. One way out would be a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for Rodriguez’s involvement in the Biogenesis scandal, but that seems unlikely.

In any case, for all of Rodriguez’s baggage, he did lead the Yankees to a championship in 2009, the second year of his contract. For the Angels, the second year of the Pujols deal has become another washout.

While the creaky Yankees remain in the pennant race, gamely grabbing Alfonso Soriano and others to stay in it, the Angels effectively dropped out on Monday. They traded their most effective reliever, the left-hander Scott Downs, to the Atlanta Braves for the minor league reliever Cory Rasmus.

It was not a major move, but the timing was a clear acknowledgment of the Angels’ plight: the deal came two days before the non-waiver deadline, and one day after the news that Pujols was likely to miss the rest of the season with a partial tear of the plantar fascia in his left foot.

“I saw him earlier this season, and it hurt me to watch him run,” said one major league scout, who was granted anonymity so he could candidly discuss another team’s player. “It reminded me of when Mark McGwire had that problem, although he was in his late 20s. It might take Pujols a little bit longer.”

More at that top link.

But like I said earlier, I'm shifting this season's loyalties to the Dodger. They have a shot at the championship.

Cassadee Pope at the Grand Ole Opry

She's a sweeetie.



And a skater chick.

See, "Cassadee Pope to Make Her Grand Ole Opry Debut."

No Fatalities at Florida Blue Rhino Gas Plant Explosion

At LAT, "Florida gas plant explosion: No fatalities after massive blasts."



And see London's Daily Mail, "Huge blast rocks Florida gas plant as workers escape ALIVE: Two critical and residents evacuated after explosion heard 10 miles away."

#Weiner Sexting Partner Sydney Leathers Boasts of Milking 'Sugar Daddies' for Thousands

She's a skanky betty.

At London's Daily Mail, "WEINER EXCLUSIVE: Weiner's sexting partner offered sex for cash and bragged about milking sugar daddies she called 'super-pathetic' for thousands of dollars."

Very swanky.

Monica was hot by comparison. Seriously? http://t.co/J9iWkbXepF Really, seriously?

— ConservativeLA (@ConservativeLA) July 30, 2013

'Weiner Should Drop Out...'

At Quinnipiac, "July 29, 2013 - Weiner Should Drop Out, NYC Likely Dem Voters Tell Quinnipiac University Poll; Quinn Leads, With De Blasio, Thompson Tied For Second."

Weiner's got 16 percent support. He's gone softer than an ice cream cone at the state fair in July --- and that's saying it nicely.

Via Memeorandum.

Also at the Weekly Standard, "Weiner Drops to Fourth."

Drops. Sags. Wilts. Goes flaccid.

I don't know. It gets old fast.

Michelle Williams for Louis Vuitton

If you don't already, you'll have a thing for Michelle Williams after watching "My Week With Marilyn."

And here's the latest on the lovely lady, at London's Daily Mail, "From girl-next-door to smouldering Louis Vuitton model: Behind the scenes of Michelle Williams' first fashion campaign."

Smokin' Dana Loesch Destroys Democratic Strategist Christy Setzer on #Hannity

At Dana's blog, "From Hannity Tonight":

If the crux of your argument that congress is “childish” for doing its job of providing checks and balances to a runaway Democrat train of spending, you’re doing it wrong.

Skeezy Democrat skank, this Setzer lady:



Also at the Blaze, "DANA LOESCH RIPS REPUBLICANS NOT SUPPORTING DEFUND OBAMACARE EFFORT: ‘THEY’RE ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED’."

#Dodgers Beat Reds 1-0 on Yasiel Puig's Walk-Off Home Run in 11th Inning

I'm truly a suffering Angels fan, but the Dodgers are a reliable backup favorite. And they've had a lot of excitement this season, not least with Yaseil Puig.

At LAT, "Yasiel Puig homer has whiff-prone Dodgers smelling like a rose in win":

Yasiel Puig's phenomenal rookie season reached a new pinnacle Sunday when he turned a historic display of futility into a footnote washed away by more Dodgers glory.

Puig, after flailing through three of the team's 20 strikeouts against the Cincinnati Reds, hammered an 11th-inning home run into Dodger Stadium's left-field pavilion, delivering his team a 1-0 victory.

The strikeout total broke the record for the most by a Dodgers team in the modern era (since 1900), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

"You put your at-bats behind you every single time — what's in the past is in the past," said Puig, who thrust both arms upward in the instant after his bat charged through a changeup delivered by Reds reliever Curtis Partch (0-1).

"Even though three of those 20 strikeouts were mine, I kept giving it everything I had," Puig, speaking in Spanish, said through a translator. "We adjusted inning by inning, and the result was the result. My team won."

The victory, their 26th in 32 games, made the first-place Dodgers 9-1 since the All-Star break and 56-48 overall, and increased their lead over Arizona to 2 1/2 games in the National League West.

More at that top link. Hopefully they don't get cocky.

Ted Cruz Interview With Jake Tapper: We Need to Get Back to 'the Free Market Principles and Constitutional Liberties That Made America That Great Land of Opportunity...'

I'd say Senator Cruz should worry about reelection in 2016, and then pin his presidential aspirations on future elections. But your star doesn't often rise twice, so we'll see.



More at the Right Scoop, "Ted Cruz responds to Chris Christie: The principles of liberty are the foundation of this country" (via Memeorandum.)

Reporter Shea Allen is Hilarious!

London's Daily Mail has the story, with lots of photos, "Glamorous TV reporter fired after posting 'tell-all' blog about going bra-less on air and getting stories from people with a crush on her." (She posts photos of her tush, heh.)

I doubt she's upset with losing her job, if this selfie YouTube below is any indication.

And she's on Twitter.

I'd say she was a little too lively with social media for her job as a news anchor. She's droll, and that, among other things, obviously that didn't go over too well the folks at WAAY in Huntsville, Alabama.



More, from her blog, "No Apologies: Confessions of a red headed reporter":

This post was taken down because I was momentarily misguided about who I am and what I stand for. To clarify, I make no apologies for the following re-post. It's funny, satirical and will likely offend some of the more conservative folks. But it isn't fake and its a genuine look into my slightly twisted psyche.

Here's the thing, I've vowed to always fight for the right of free expression. It's allowed, no matter what the profession. I pride myself in having earned the respect of many because I make no apologies for the truth and hold nothing back. I don't fight for things because they serve me, I fight for them because they are right. Sources trust me because I am an unadulterated version of the truth. I won't ever bend just because its popular to do so and I'm not bending now.

This is my voice. Hope it makes you laugh.

1. I've gone bra-less during a live broadcast and no one was the wiser.

2. My best sources are the ones who secretly have a crush on me.

3. I am better live when I have no script and no idea what I'm talking about.

4. I've mastered the ability to contort my body into a position that makes me appear much skinner in front of the camera than I actually am.

5. I hate the right side of my face.

6. I'm frightened of old people and I refuse to do stories involving them or the places they reside.

7. Happy, fluffy, rainbow stories about good things make me depressed.

8. I've taken naps in the news car.

9. If you ramble and I deem you unnecessary for my story, I'll stop recording but let you think otherwise.

10. I've stolen mail and then put it back. (maybe)

Hillary Clinton Mini-Series

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "More Hillary Mini-Series Treatments." (More here and here.)

Background at USA Today, "NBC to air Hillary Clinton miniseries: Diane Lane will star, and the action will begin in 1998." Also at Memeorandum.

The leftist media's fluffing this woman up. CNN's been running Hillary stories all day, no doubt providing cover from the Weiner tie-in.

Shendelle Schokman Bikini Beach Stroll

Lovely.



PREVIOUSLY: "Smokin' Bikini Model Shendelle Schokman at Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas."