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Sunday, August 19, 2012

The Sunday Morning News

Posted by on Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:38 AM

Posted by news intern Mike Gore

Bad for Obama: Unemployment rises in states he needs to win.

More Crap from Russia: Madonna sued for supporting gays, which is a crime.

Please Just Fire Him: SPD Lieutenant in trouble again. He was removed as part of the city's 20/20 plan.

Leave Him Alone: Assange asks US to call off its proverbial dogs.

Maybe They Found Her: Large debris field found in hunt for Amelia Earhart.

New Spiders: Big-clawed spider found to be living in caves and dark forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Creepy or Cute: Man fights for right to keep his wife buried in the front yard.

 

Comments (22) RSS

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JonnoN 1
Free Bradley Manning!
Posted by JonnoN on August 19, 2012 at 9:22 AM
2
I'm not getting the whole Julian Assange-is-a-hero thing. To me, based on what I remember of what he did and the stuff he released, he's more of an oportunistic self-promoter who was causing chaos for his own benefit, not out of some idealized sense of duty. He set out to trash a country's diplomatic reputation, he did it, and he got caught. Should we begrudge that country (ours) if it wants a little payback?
Posted by floater on August 19, 2012 at 9:25 AM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 3
Watchers of "I shouldnt Be Alive" know that almost anything can happen after accident situations. People thought to have no chance have survived weeks even on the open seas...floating half way around the world.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on August 19, 2012 at 9:25 AM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 4
#2

I think it is more like he played the game at "their" level and now is running around saying, oh, please, please help me.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on August 19, 2012 at 9:27 AM
Pope Peabrain 5
Russia loves Al Assad but hates gays. Man, what a fucked up country. Could we please boycott Russian tourism?
Posted by Pope Peabrain on August 19, 2012 at 9:40 AM
6
Why should Manning be free? I'm pretty sure when you sign your contract with the army, releasing secret government documents is high in the list of things you can't do.
Posted by Sugartit on August 19, 2012 at 9:52 AM
Fred Casely 7
The omission of the word "late" in that last item evokes Monty Python:

"Four hours to bury a cat?"

"Yes, well, he wouldn't keep still — all that scratchin' an' howlin'..."
Posted by Fred Casely on August 19, 2012 at 10:05 AM
8
I wish we'd call off the dogs already so that that jackass Assange can be tried and serve his time for those alleged rapes (and get his face out of the public eye) already.
Posted by suddenlyorcas on August 19, 2012 at 10:21 AM
Tacoma Traveler 9
I love the news story about the front yard grave. There's a quote from an Alabama official stating, "We're not living in the 1800's anymore".

Yes, Alabama, yes you are.
Posted by Tacoma Traveler on August 19, 2012 at 10:26 AM
gloomy gus 10
Holy shit - the Spanish judge Garzon, Pinochet's nemesis hounded from the bench, is now Assange's lawyer?
Posted by gloomy gus on August 19, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Westlake, son! 11
"Earhart disappeared on a flight that would cement her place in flying history as the first woman to circumnavigate the world...The island where they believe Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, crash-landed"

LOL, she had a male navigator yet was set to get credit for being the first woman to circumnavigate the world? Man navigates properly to island, woman driver blows it and kills him. Amazing. I never knew about Fred until now.
Posted by Westlake, son! on August 19, 2012 at 10:36 AM
12
I don't want to associate myself with the sentiments of #11, but I'm perpetually amazed by the continuing fascination for Earhart. As I look at her biography, she was interesting, and a talented self-promoter, but she was not a tremendously accomplished explorer or innovator. None of what she attempted would have been a world first; much of it wasn't even a world first for a Woman. And yet there are seemingly annual expeditions to seek her remains, at significant and sometimes tremendous expense - why? Why her, and not others? Are there no better archaeological questions these resources could be put to?
Posted by Warren Terra on August 19, 2012 at 10:49 AM
mikethehammer 13
Where the hell is my cute/funny/irreverent embedded dancing animal video? This is an outrage! I demand justice! (in the form of irreverent video.)
Posted by mikethehammer on August 19, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Teslick 14
As if I needed another reason not to go into a cave around here, but really, giant clawed spiders???
Posted by Teslick on August 19, 2012 at 11:23 AM
15
#13: Not at all what you were asking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eob7V_WtA…

"Alan Rickman Drinks Tea"
Posted by LMcGuff http://holyoutlaw.livejournal.com/ on August 19, 2012 at 11:23 AM
dnt trust me 16
@9
Yeah, a good story. My interest is always piqued by someone who builds their own home.
Posted by dnt trust me on August 19, 2012 at 11:39 AM
balderdash 17
@2, nobody's saying he's humble or easy to get along with, but at least grant Assange the courage of his convictions. Nobody dedicates an entire life to a nonprofit project like WikiLeaks without believing in what they're doing. He may be guilty of grandstanding and self-promotion but he also pretty clearly believes powerfully in transparency and informed democracy.

@11, wow, misogynist stereotypes and know-nothing blowhard armchair piloting. Have you ever been forward of coach in an aircraft that wasn't parked at a terminal, or were you just desperate to crack the world's lamest "dumb broads" joke?
Posted by balderdash http://introverse.blogspot.com on August 19, 2012 at 1:21 PM
Ipso Facto 18
Free Bradley Manning!

Free* Julian Assange!

http://video.pbs.org/video/1946795242

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

*(i.e. stop persecuting him, I know he's not technically incarcerated... yet)
Posted by Ipso Facto http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/voterocky/pages/602/attachments/original/1348622109/fbcomic_copy.png?1348622109 on August 19, 2012 at 1:37 PM
rob! 19
@12, I'm kind of talking through my hat here, but I think there's an interesting parallel to be drawn between Steve Fossett and Amelia Earhart as wetware ballast.

Is it really all that deserving of accolades and near-deification if, whether through expenditure of your own wealth acquired in unrelated endeavors or through innovative PR efforts, you mount high-profile attempts to topple records although your own expertise in the chosen arena is fairly shallow?

Fossett had almost unlimited funds to throw at his various hobbies and achieved records in round-the-world ballooning, powered aerial global circumnavigation, unpowered soaring, sailing, etc.

Yet I think there's an argument to be made that, despite the primary FAA finding in the crash that killed him ("inadvertent encounter with downdrafts that exceeded the climb capability of the airplane"), he in fact made rookie mistakes: he flew too close to rising mountainous terrain in the erroneous belief that clear conditions indicated safety and he failed to file a flight plan, resulting in a protracted expensive search that endangered many other people.
Posted by rob! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZBdUceCL5U on August 19, 2012 at 4:20 PM
20
First, please sign this petition for the guy, Gov. Don Siegelman, and authentic democratic type, who was railroaded into jail by Karl Rove's gang. This is very, very important:

http://www.change.org/petitions/presiden…

Next, according to emails downloaded from that Stratfor run, the Obama-convened grand jury handed down an indictment for Julian Assange, and Sweden has a now well established record for sending people to countries which do indeed have the death penalty (called extreme rendition, which the CIA did to several Swedish citizens).

And for those who still don't get it on Wikileaks:

A WikiLeaks Primer

Originally, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange fled Iceland as he was under surveillance by business-suited strangers, plus he was tipped off by the bank where the WikiLeaks’ account was located that they had been approached by US government personnel.

In Sweden, Assange was immediately approached by a Bonnier family publication for exclusive rights in publishing WikiLeaked documents. Assange declined their offer, both against the principle of exclusivity, and because he’d been advised that the publication was similar to Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids; not necessarily respectable.

It is important to understand that the Bonnier family is a major European media family (Bonnier AB is one of the 10 largest media companies in the world), who’s ownership extends to American publications such as Sports Illustrated, Popular Science, Time, etc.

The woman who first approached Assange for consensual sex, Anna Ardin, worked for one of the Bonnier family publications, and while her present source of income is difficult to determine, she appears to be surviving nicely. Ardin would later approach the second young lady, Sofia Wilen (who also had consensual sex with Assange), to accompany her to the police.

The law firm which volunteered to represent the two women is comprised of two law partners, Claes Borgstrom, who has two sisters who work for Bonnier family companies, and Thomas Bodstrom, who publishes through the Bonnier family media company (he writes legal fiction).

Bodstrom was also the Swedish Minister of Justice who had OK’ed the CIA’s illegal kidnapping of several Swedish citizens of Arabic origin --- also called extreme rendition --- who were transported to Egypt for torture (and what could have led to murder), but were eventually released and sued the Swedish government in Swedish courts, winning a financial judgment against them.

Sweden claims it would never allow extradition to any country with a legalized death penalty, yet by allowing extreme renditions to such countries, we know this to be a lie.

Originally when the women approached the police, a junior prosecutor on duty ordered Assange to remain in Sweden, but the Swedish Prosecution Authority shortly dropped all charges as they had no merit.

Later, after allowing Assange to leave Sweden, and due to political pressure from the highest levels of government, the Swedish Prosecution Authority resumed the case without merit, seeking Assange’s extradition, solely for questioning, in violation of both existing Swedish law, and the regulations pertaining to issuing European Union arrest warrants (two very important points!).

During those early events in Sweden, Anna Ardin had chat message traffic with reporters for a Bonnier family tabloid, Expressen, which indicated criminal conspiracy and malfeasance on her part, and while her attorney, Claes Borgstrom, illegally directed her to delete this evidence, she forgot to delete the copy from her blog site, later downloaded by an enterprising Australian journalist.

Unfortunately, this has received scant attention or reportage in the corporate media.

Later, the other law partner and former Justice Minister, Thomas Bodstrom, went on a book tour in America, where he routinely spread disinformation about the WikiLeaks/Assange case. Much of the time Bodstrom stayed at a residence in Virginia, a short drive from the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

A curious coincidence, or logistical necessity?

The present Justice Minister, Beatrice Ask, who resurrected the extradition case against Assange, was originally appointed to her cabinet positions by Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister who is presently the Swedish foreign minister.

Carl Bildt appears unfavorably mentioned in several WikiLeaked cables, and was a director at Lundin Petroleum during their involvement in massacres of Sudanese living on oil-rich land in that African country.

Later, in America, a relatively unknown author named Jaclyn Friedman, would attempt to publicize the consensual sex case against Assange as rape charges. Friedman’s web site, at that time, displays her boasting of enjoying sex with multiple male partners in a given week’s time, although at times Ms. Friedman claims to be an avowed lesbian?

Perhaps more troubling is that Ms. Friedman was published through Perseus Books, which at that time was owned by the private equity firm, Perseus LLC, which was also listed as the business address, for tax purposes, for the American Friends of Bilderberg, Inc., whose directors are listed as David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle.
The business contact for that group at Perseus LLC and either the firm’s CEO or a senior executive, was James Johnson, a major character featured in a recent book by NY Times financial reporter, Gretchen Morgenstern, cited as playing a major governmental role in the subprime mortgage meltdown.

A Bonnier family member, Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier, was and still may be the Swedish ambassador to Israel.

Quite a bunch of improbable connections pertaining to a strange case of consensual sex?

[A recent important article on Bradley Manning’s trial can be found at the site below.]

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-m…
More...
Posted by sgt_doom on August 19, 2012 at 5:37 PM
21
Execute Bradley Manning.
Posted by Death to Traitors on August 19, 2012 at 6:56 PM
Cato the Younger Younger 22
You all realize Assange has not been charged with any crime yet right?
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on August 20, 2012 at 2:07 AM

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