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Here's to our American heroes.

One could be in a cell for life.  The other is free for the moment in Russia.  Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are two American heroes who have shown how desperate the American government has become.

The government tells us that we don't need to keep secrets from them unless we are up to no good.  But when the citizens turn that line back on the government, they completely ignore it.

Bradley Manning leaked information such as the murders by the United States Armed Forces of Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen (Reuters reporters), among others.  They were shot by people in gunships.  A misidentification is one thing.  But a coverup followed.

"For more than two years after the shooting, Reuters and other organizations sought probes into the deaths of Noor-Eldeen and other journalists killed in Iraq, but the U.S. military withheld key information on the grounds that it was classified. The military also refused to release a video taken from one of the gunships that captured the complete sequence and radio communication during the shootings."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namir_Noor-Eldeen)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeed_Chmagh)

That kind of information should get out.

As for Ed Snowden, he uncovered (after others had already done so without as much evidence) a vast network which shreds the 4th Amendment by allowing the government to spy on anyone, anytime, without any probable cause or warrant.  For simply making this public to the citizenry (and to congress also), he is being labeled a traitor.

John McCain is especially crazy.  He already wants to aid Syrian terrorists, and now he's calling for missile batteries to surround Russia because that country took Ed Snowden in.

I don't think that America was always like this.  In some ways it was, and there has never been fairness to all in America.  But as gays are finally starting to get the rights that they deserve, the rest of us are undoubtedly becoming quite a bit less free.

I hope that the American government never catches Snowden.  After all, the majority of Americans are rooting for him.

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