Dear Lisa L. Williams, SF Pride Board President:<\/p>\n
“He does not now, nor did he at that time, speak for SF Pride.”<\/p>\n
That’s pretty rich coming from the president of an organization whose name
\nimplies that you speak for LGBT folk.<\/p>\n
“even the hint of support for actions which placed in harms way the lives
\nof our men and women in uniform — and countless others, military and
\ncivilian alike — will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco
\nPride”<\/p>\n
Um, go fuck yourself please? Your mindless jibber jabber flag waving
\ndunce cap saluting McCarthyesque patriotism poses far more risk to anyone
\nthan Bradley Manning’s actions ever posed. Sure, you could say that
\nManning’s actions posed some risk to people, but that’s the fucking price
\nyou pay for waking up in the morning. Just by driving to work in the
\nmorning you run the risk of running over someone in a cross-walk. Shit
\nhappens. At the end of the day if no one stands up for what’s right,
\nnothing gets fucking done and the status quo perpetuates forever. I don’t
\ngive a fuck about “your” men and women in uniform.\u00a0 I give a fuck about
\nthe countless civilians that have been killed by the actions of “your”
\nmen and women in uniform.\u00a0 I will not tolerate your “hint of support”
\nfor mass murder and genocide.\u00a0 Go fuck yourself, please for the love of
\nGod, go fuck yourself. What the fuck do you stand for, Lisa L. Williams,
\nother than playing the perfect game of Obamaeqsue rope-a-dope
\nmiddle-ground moderate political talking head football?<\/p>\n
“There are many, gay and straight, military and non-military, who believe
\nBradley Manning to be innocent.”<\/p>\n
Are you fucking serious? Maybe you shouldn’t be talking for anyone.
\nEveryone knows he did it. People don’t support him because they think
\nhe’s innocent. People support him because they know he’s guilty, and they
\nappreciate that what he did was the right thing to do. By framing it as a
\nquestion of a guilt\/innocence test, you’re rigging the debate so that he
\nfails. What’s your interest in persecuting legitimate patriotic
\nwhistle-blowers, Lisa L. Williams?<\/p>\n
-Elliot Smith<\/p>\n
Glenn Greenwald:<\/p>\n
Thus, while Bradley Manning is persona non grata at SF Pride, illegal
\neavesdropping telecoms, scheming banks, and hedge-fund purveryors of the nation’s
\nworst right-wing agitprop are more than welcome. . . .<\/p>\n
Even the SF Gay Pride Parade is now owned by and beholden to the
\nnation’s largest corporations, subject to their dictates. Those who run
\nthe event are functionaries of, loyalists to, the nation’s most powerful political
\nofficials. That’s how this parade was so seamlessly
\ntransformed from orthodoxy-challenging, individualistic and creative
\ncultural icon into yet another pile of obedient apparatchiks that spout
\nbanal slogans doled out by the state while viciously scorning those who
\nchallenge them.<\/p>\n