At one point in time, Bradley Manning was facing a life sentence, then 90 years in jail for his role in leaking classified information about the US to WikiLeaks. Many people have called Bradley manning a hero for exposing the information the US wanted kept secret. Most people expected that he would be sentenced to no more than 25 years in jail which is the amount of time the information he leaked would have remained classified. He will be eligible for parole after about 10 years because of the three years he has already served while waiting for the trial to be completed.
Actually, I think Manning's pretty lucky. The gov't asked for a 60-year sentence. Manning got 35 years, and he'll be eligible for parole in nine years. Considering the fact that he was a private in the US Army at the time, and that the Taliban's publicly announced they are licking their chops at the chance to murder any number of Afghans whose names were included as "American collaborators" in the documents Manning stole and gave to Wikileaks, I'd say he got off easy.
ReplyDeleteI really had to laugh when he argued his difficult childhood........and asked for leniency.
ReplyDeleteWow.
He is lucky.
He shouldn't have gotten any time. Fuck this country and fuck your secrets. Shouldn't be an asshole if you don't want to be exposed!
ReplyDelete@Kels, this is not the most articulate or elegant statement, but I must say I agree 1,000,000,000%. THANK. YOU. And please do not listen to the bullies. Apparently the mind control Big Brother has perfected has succeeded with a bunch of readers today.
Delete1984, anyone?
What did he "leak"?
ReplyDeleteReally? You don't know?
Delete@Lost, my friend, Great God Google offers a wide variety of illuminating tidbits.
I recommend opednews.com, bradblog.com, counterpunch.org, or truthdig.com if you wish to catch up on the global fracas Manning unleashed.
He is my hero and in my opinion is a political prisoner.
That's just my humble opinion.
This country gets worse everyday. A hero gets 35 years in prison while the Kardashians roam the streets free.
ReplyDeleteAs a military retiree. I feel treason should equal either a life sentence or the death penalty. When you take the oath to defend your country from both foreign and domestic enemies and then blatantly parricipate in espionage is an act of betrayal to his brothers and sisters in arms. Lord knows, you have to trust the man to your Left and right to literally have your back. The court system by treating this lightly only encourages the furure Mannings and Snowdens.
ReplyDeleteHoly Typos, guess I need to stop using Siri for my posts.
DeleteThank you for your service and I agree with you
DeleteI agree too, and i am as liberal as they come but I draw the line at treason.
DeleteTreason is when you conspire to damage a country through collaborating with enemies foreign or domestic.
DeleteManning was honoring his oath to the Constitution by exposing war crimes, many of which have never been prosecuted.
Blaming the messenger is an age old tactic of despots everywhere.
How is what he did even remotely treasonous?
This country has been changing centuries of established legal precedence to get a whole raft of war criminals and corpirate thieves off the hook.
What the hell has happened to us? Has anyone in the military read the same Constitution I have lately? Or better yet the Geneva Conventions?
I actually feel sorry for this young man. I think he got raped by the government all because he told their dirty little secrets.
ReplyDeleteFuck off Kels. Last time I checked no one was keeping you here.
ReplyDeletelostathome he compromised military members while they were just following orders. For some reason he gained access to secret ops he obviously shouldn't have known about.
'07 Baghdad airstrike is the one I can think of off the top of my head. He's lucky they dropped the 'aiding the enemy'. He's also lucky he wasn't charged with treason
Some of us have everyday things to worry about, and I'd like to leave but I literally can't. Pay off my student loans and relocate my family and perhaps I can fuck off. If you don't know my situation, you can kindly suck my dick and fuck off as well. Why should I care about protecting a country that doesn't give a shit about me? Tell the government to let me the fuck out if you're soooo unhappy with me being here.
DeleteHave there been any punishment for those who actually committed war crimes/torture? I won't hold my breath for a yes.
ReplyDeleteThis!
DeleteIt is rarely mentioned that part of what he released was video evidence of war crimes, specifically murder. I'm sure seeing that greatly affected his judgment later when he did the document dump. I can see where a person could think, f*** it.
Each and every member of the military who uses the excuse of 'following rider's is JUST AS GUILTY as the Nazis prosecuted during the Nuremberg Trials. Every member of the military is accountable to the Constitution, is responsible for honoring the Geneva Conventions, and is required to report war crimes, not COMMIT them.
DeleteThe TRAITORS are the people who spent their time writing legal justifications (John Woo), authorizing waterboarding(Cheney and Rumsfeld), testifying falsely in front of the UN to gin up a conflict with a country that had NOTHING TO DO with the so-called terrorist attacks on 9/11 (Colin Powell), and a MYRIAD of evil sons of pitches who sent American citizens to a series of defenseless hellholes like Afghanistan, Iraq, and etc etc etc for reasons that have nothing to do with the false flag operation that started it all.
Manning told THE TRUTH. Whistleblowers are required by law to be provided with support and protection.
Accusing HIM of treason is like accusing a priest of mind control while he is delivering a sermon.
Our priorities and capacity to comprehend the meaning of ethics, morality, and international law all appear to have skidded into a ditch full of toxic muck.
When an elected president of the United States of America authorizes a drone strike on an INNOCENT 16 year old AMERICAN CITIZEN and there is no immediate impeachment and arrest for committing a WAR CRIME I would say this 'democracy' has just jumped the shark.
God save us all.
Has* Dammit.
ReplyDelete..Jon you think this idiot was a hero?
ReplyDeleteDo you even know how he was caught?
Cleodacat..thank you for serving.
Thank you bacon ranch also thank you for your support as well.
DeleteBacon Ranch...yes I believe he is a hero. And I also believe Bush and Cheney and their whole crew are war criminals who should be in prison.
ReplyDeleteCheney will burn in hell. As will all those defending him. It's pathetic really, these people defending a man that would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat. All puns intended.
Delete@Kels, do you know what a pun is?
DeleteCheney shot a friend in the face with buckshot, never got charged, and his friend ended up apologizing for having the audacity to be in the way when Cheney AIMED AND FIRED,
Deletethere could not be a better metaphor for this man's depravity and the complete lack of accountability for the war crimes he is responsible for.
The oath taken by public officials and the military swears to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The ones guilty of treason are the people who took that oath & then trampled on the bill of rights. How can they take pride in defending our freedom when we give more and more of our rights away each day? I don't remember when the voters were asked to approve a new Bill of Not So Many Rights As We Used to Have But New Technology And All What Are You Going To Do?.
ReplyDeleteI think your English translator software stopped working for the second half of your statement.
DeleteThat post makes perfect sense if you take your fingers out of your ears and stop saying lalalalala all the time.
DeleteSad. When everything comes out (which is going to happen soon) people are going to wish they paid more attention and changed their actions.
ReplyDeleteI have been terrified for over a decade. Not sure we are gonna pull ourselves back from the edge of the cliff this time. I believe mankind is just plain suicidal. I am heartbroken and ashamed. This SimWorld game is HUGE FAIL.
DeleteAre you seriously telling me americans are unaware of durviellance in this day and age? Its anything but covert, there are cameras everywhere, people oversharing on facebook. Do you really think the govt sits down every night to read your mundane emails? Anyone can find out so much about you its ridicilous. Im not saying its right, but please spare me the pearl clutching.
ReplyDeleteSurveillance
Delete@Cleo, treason can only be committed during war time. That's why he wasn't charged with it...the government would have lost.
ReplyDeleteHis disclosure did occur during wartime. The war on terror will be ongoing just as the cold war existed for years. His act put our countrymen and our allies at risk.
Delete@Cleo it is obvious to me that you off any education in history, civics, or the law. You have drunk da koolaid of VS that our propaganda artists in the CIA have been feeding the American public for DECADES.
DeleteVERY SIMPLY: there is no declaration of war passed by Congress as required by the Constitution. Every single troop deployment over the past 20 or so years has been without authorization. The creepy War on Terror is a SOUNDBITE that the media has repeated so many times that we all hear it in our sleep. It is pure fearmongering but it is not REAL.
The CIA invented and PAID FOR Al Queda. Look it up.
I appreciate your service but you should have gotten an education instead. I feel very very sorry for you.
Just go to the Iraq Veterans Against War website. Don't listen to me. Listen to your fellow military cohort.
Why are we allowing a government FULL OF DRAFT DODGERS send young men off to hellholes to get their asses shot off, their brains destroyed, their spirits broken just to shoot a few illiterate desert fighters who have proven, by the way, to be more successful warriors than the whole Russian military?
Just. Ask. Questions. And before you go off on me, I am a proud daughter of a military man who resigned from the Navy in disgust over Nixon's shenanigans. BushObama areCIA assets and our Constitutional rights have been flushed right down the toilet by these TOOLS.
I feel so sorry for you. You have NO IDEA what you are talking about. You have been turned into a robot spouting talking points. I wish you the best. Maybe you should just not ask any questions, now I think about it. Your head might explode.
A government will take every bit as much power as its citizenry will allow it, legal or no. Government has long used fear of others and the unknown to take away freedoms and use the excuse, "as long as you aren't hiding anything you have nothing to fear." We all have something to fear from a government who blithely takes away our freedoms in the pursuit of power guised as "safety."
ReplyDeleteProtest and dissent against a government abusing its powers always starts small and those who are brave enough to speak up are nearly always branded traitors until the crimes a government commit start to affect even those who have nothing to hide/nothing to fear.
We all have something to fear from a government who would seize illegal power from its citizenry. We all have something to fear from a government that breaks the laws of our nation and then punishes those that inform the citizenry of broken laws by declaring that it is the whistleblower has broken the law (and please don't look to closely at what we have done). We all have something to fear from a government that tries to convince us all that what they are doing is in our best interest, that they did nothing wrong and scream, "Traitor...TRAITOR!" when the real traitors are those in our government who would circumvent the constitutional protections afforded to us all in a pursuit of more and more power.
We ALL have something to fear. We just haven't realized it yet.
YES. SO WELL STATED, LOLA. you are AWESOMELY well spoken and keenly aware of the horrible situation ee are in. THANK YOU.
DeleteCleo, a war can only be declared by a resolution of the US Congress. The government calls it a "War" on Terror because it frightens us and makes us willing to let the government do whatever it sees fit.
ReplyDeleteThere is no "War". We must be engaged in a legal act of war for treason to exist. Further, the act had to have been committed with the express intention of aiding and abetting the enemy. Even during war, if someone commits and act that has the unintentional result of aiding and abetting, it is not treason under our Constitution.
He spoke the truth, and exposed war crimes. Nothing that has been exposed by him and Stockton has been shocking, we all knew it. I think this guy was so shocked by what he saw after he was a true patriot unhinged him and he became a bit berserk. I can understand that.
ReplyDeletei haven't seen any evidence of others being ecposed by him, if someone could pinkie that would be great.
The whole thing is tragic, for him and for us as it shows what kind of state we as a country is in.
None of this surveillance is new, it's been going on for decades, probably since Regan or Bush.
Oh and before any Rep jumps down my throat, I'm sure there's very shady things Clinton did as well.
ReplyDeleteI wish we had a 2 party system! I found the majority of people would find a lot in common. Not the wingnuts no.
UGH my typos I wish we had an edit buttom!
ReplyDeleteWe were still at war in '07. It had been declared. Look it up.
ReplyDeleteHe serves 35 years.
ReplyDeleteThe asshole murderers who butchered that news crew and those trying to help them won't see a day in jail.
Fuck this injustice.
You have it exactly right. Why is it ok that those who clearly commit internationally forbidden crimes are walking around, and a whistleblower is TORTURED prior to being CHARGED and HE ends up serving jail time? So. Fucked. Up.
Deletemsgirl, he did indeed speak the truth but he put troops at risk in doing so. I'm not sure what people don't get about that.
ReplyDeleteHe also shared plans about missions that were covert,names of allies etc.
He is not a good person and I don't understand why or how anyone can be his defender. He tossed countless people under the bus.
The TROOPS were breaking every known international LAW. Shall we protect the burglars and the rapists and the bankers tooooo?
DeleteWow. Your moral compass is just BROKEN, Bacon. SERIOUSLY.
Manning isn't a hero. He didn't give out information because he thought it would help someone or because he believed in something greater than himself. Read the transcript between Manning and Lamo. Manning was unstable and insecure, and the only reason he released that information was because he was bored and lonely (he said this himself, several times). He's an accidental hero at best to the movement.
ReplyDeleteBacon Ranch, I repeat...war can only be declared by a congressional resolution. Legally, we never were (or are) in a "War". We may use that term colloquially to refer to a military action but legally, it has no meaning. There is a reason that the government has named the actions we have taken in the last decade+ "Operations".
ReplyDeleteI suggest you look up what is legal required by our Constitution to declare actual war.
I repeat, the Constitution states that the country must be at war for someone to be guilty of treason. We are not at war.
I suggest you visit Gitmo.
ReplyDeleteI also suggest you show respect for the people who defend your rights.
Most of the people still stuck in Vitro were innocent bystanders scooped up by overzealous cowboys in an attempt to show that we got a few bad guys.
DeleteDid you know there were kids as young as 10 or 11 when they were shoved into thathellhole who did NOTHING but do their jobs as shepherds?
The US is stalling on giving even MILITARY trials to these poor socks because THEY HAVE NO EVIDENCE. It is just a huge embarrassment and is a permanent stain on our national reputation.
Dawn. Just read a paper! Even the lamestream media has admitted Gitmo is a farce.
Wishing some go to Gitmo tells me all I need to know about you.
You are an ignorant, incurious, kneejerk bigotted bully.
I only hope you and your ilk are the first in line when the beartrap that has been set for us all snaps shut.
You probably won't even notice when the shit finally covers the fan. The inside of your mind is as polluted as the words you say.
@Kels Agree.
ReplyDeleteAccidental hero or not, we need to know what people are risking there lives for or why there is this financial struggle throughout the world that we are all paying for because of SECRETS, MONEY, and POWER of the few.
We can't keep believing the lies just to feel more comfortable. We can't keep cosigning to wars brought on by our government risking our friends and neighbors and innocents.
Also, the troops are already at risk! I don't think Bradley Manning is responsible for THAT!
Ugh, I need a drink. I need to burry my head in the sand and stick to the things i know...shopping, nail polish, and my father's BMW, and my poor, rich drunk mother in the Caribbean.
@Lola WORD UP!
ReplyDeleteAnd msgirl and orvilla too!! I thought I was all alone!!
DeleteThe US were more than happy to see Nelson Mandela go to jail in his early stages. Worldwide voices knew the truth, let it be heard and then suddenly the States changed their tune.
ReplyDeleteThe same will happen to Manning. He is a hero as an advocate of transperancy and equality for everyone except your country. Go on with your 'with us or against us' mentality, the rest of us with immortalize him as he should and cross our fingers he gets the Nobel.
It's an insult to Snowden to compare him to this pale bastard. This POS is lucky not to have gotten life (or his life). He exposed a lot of people who will die painfully because he wanted fame and political influence. I hope he doesn't live enough to get paroled.
ReplyDeleteSnowden, on the other side, just exposed evil things from the gov. and staff can live with no more danger.
Mandela was a convicted terrorist and propaganda who killed people in train stations. But this is not the theme of the topic. When he dies(hopefully soon), I'll keep on my argumentation.
ReplyDeleteHe did? Hey, and he got the Nobel peace prize!! Woot, more hope for Manning!! :D
DeleteYou people don't know what you are asking for.
ReplyDeleteGod forbid..you get it.
And wtf with the penis Remember? Seriously?
This is your hero advocate of transparency and equality talking about the "don't ask don't tell" policy and bragging about punching a woman in the face. Nobel prize winning material there.
ReplyDelete(01:44:33 PM) bradass87: DADT isnt really enforced
(01:44:56 PM) bradass87: top interrogator here has a civil union in NJ
(01:45:18 PM) bradass87: i punched a dyke in the phace…
(01:45:22 PM) info@adrianlamo.com: lol
(01:45:43 PM) bradass87: half the S2 shop was at least bi
(01:45:57 PM) info@adrianlamo.com: you know this personal-like? ; )
(01:46:05 PM) bradass87: it was all female
(01:46:10 PM) info@adrianlamo.com: ah
(01:46:46 PM) bradass87: i got sick of these dykes and their drama… it was worse than “The L Word”…
-----
I'm glad that information is getting out and liars are being exposed, but Manning is not a hero and it's ridiculous to paint him as a white hat because he stole military information and put it in a Lady Gaga CD case. Snowden at least is TRYING to do something, not acting like a pissy 15 year old mad because he can't download porn at school.
Manning is a teeny tiny geeky spazzy GAY GUY! Don't you think he MIGHT have been playing along with the bullies as a cover story? How many gay guys pretend to be straight? How many sissy boys pretend to be macho? This is the MILITARY. Weakness is not tolerated. Rape, murder, hazing and harassment are the NORM. TO BE EXPECTED.
DeleteAre we all blind and dumb and totally incapable of reading the daily headlines? The military environment is a toxic, dangerous stew of psychpaths and power junkies, not to mention Mind Control Central.
what was Manning SUPPOSED TO DO? Say, Hey guys, cut it OUT!?
Yeah RIGHT. AND END UP DEAD IN A DITCH OR MISSING.
Gitmo has nothing to do with a formal declaration of war (which we are not under) or treason (which you have to be under a formal declaration of war to commit). We are not in a War. Iraq was not a war, Afghanistan was not a war, the war on terror is not a war (as legally defined, not as colloquially used)...the US has only declared war 5 times in its history: The War of 1812; The Mexican-American War; The Spanish American War; World War I and World War II.
ReplyDeleteAnd respectfully, it is people who sit back and allow their government to break laws and subvert our rights that show no respect to those that give their hearts and their lives to protect our rights.
I fail to see how being against an illegal government subversion of the laws and rights of our country and/or being against an illegal military action (for which the government is to blame, not the soldiers who did/do their jobs) is not showing respect for our military.
I'm also sorry you missed the civics lesson that laid out exactly what the Constitution defines as war.
Lola, you absolutely ROCK.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@bacon
ReplyDeleteMy father was in the marines so I have a lot of respect for ANYONE who chooses the military as a way of life.
I think what you sign up to do and what you end up doing are two very different things, unfortunately.
You may be off in another country "defending my freedoms and rights" all the while at home your govt are doing their damndest to take them away. That's a fact!
WORD!! I feel like the people who join the military get inculcated into a cult of violence. They get their spirits broken in basic training to never ask questions or stand up to their commanding officer. The few who do get killed, like that football star. The military is a cesspool of violence, powermongering, and raping and pillaging. What Manning released is not an anomaly. IT IS THE NORM.
DeleteWAR IS A RACKET. It is a way for lazy vicious psychopaths to have fun and make money. So long as there is no draft, ordinary Americans can pretty much ignore the carnage.
Sadly, our planet has reached the final stage of resource depletion, species collapse, radiation contamination, global warming, and atmospheric deterioration, not to mention the magnetic pole shift. Methane release is about to skyrocket. The bees are dying. The weather situation is officially out of control. Kids, this situation is FUBAR, to use a common military term.
I am doing my best to enjoy every day and pray ceaselessly that the simultaneous spirithas awakening that is occurring will save SOME OF US. Not that it matters. We have messed this planet up ROYALLY in under 200 years. How does that qualify us as a superior race or deserving of survival???
I see no sign at all of courage or leadership sufficient to keep this planet on the livable side of the equation. Yes, there are LOTS of heroes doing their best to preserve what is left but most of humanity is either lost in the struggle for survival on a daily basis or so mesmerized by the Machine that they JUST DON'T CARE. the effort it would take to pull us back from the brink or even for a small percentage of us to survive just isn't being made. Its like we are focusing on making gum wrappers for a collection rather than figuring out how to feed ourselves without bees or safe fish in the sea. The water is evaporation from land, all is going into the ocean, and the ocean is officially permanently irradiated by the first of MANY failing nuclear contamination plants.
We are SOOOOOO SCREWED. What Bradley Manning (now Chelsea, according to her choice) did was expose a tiny little pustule on a body that is riddled with the fatal disease of violence and hubris.
Amen sista! I pray that we can survive this.
DeleteAmen Lola. Amen.
ReplyDeleteLola wins today.
ReplyDeleteYes Lola!
ReplyDeleteI have more of a problem with the stuff our government is secretly doing around the world than I do with people exposing our doing shit we shouldn't be doing in the first place that really has no bearing on our national security as much as it has on our corporate-run military industrial complex' thirst for power. There are more power-hungry shitheads like Cheney and Rumsfeld tucked away in safe places in our government than we could count. Before Bush II ended his 2nd term, he was busy putting right wing chickhawk idealogues in every nook and cranny in DC.
ReplyDeleteAnd Obomber left them there. And started murdering innocent US citizens with drone strikes. F'ing war criminals.
DeleteIt's the selective persecution and prosecution that bothers me. Fuck the injustice!
ReplyDeleteVery well said, Lola (and I'm not American). I also agree about Cheney and Rumsfeld.
ReplyDeleteManning was a whistle-blower who is now paying dearly for what he did, but the judge rejected charges that his actions aided the enemy.
From an opinion piece on CNN's website:
Manning was sentenced to 35 years, but should have been sentenced to time served already: 3½ years, 112 days of which was improper pretrial detention, also known as torture. He suffered prolonged solitary confinement and was forced to be naked.
If anyone is interested, here is the full piece:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/21/opinion/radack-manning-sentence/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Yes THIS. before he was ever even charged, he was subjected to horrific treatment at the military base where he was originally locked up.
DeleteOur DOJ has been taken over by Bush era prosecutors who were never let go when OBomber took office, even though that wad a time honored precedence.
Democrats have been prosecuted and thrown in jail by this DOJ when they never did a thing wrong. I no longer vote and stopped registering as a Dem ages ago, but something just ain't right here.
This Administration is ignoring the Constitution, common law, and common sense. It is ignoring the global catastrophe unfolding at Fukushima. It is twisting and turning like a bucket of eels rather than give a straight answer on the Surveillance State we live in.
Something just AIN'T RIGHT.
@cleodacat - The oath is to defend against enemies foreign and domestic.
ReplyDeleteWe both know that a soldier has a duty not to follow illegal orders.
Manning found out about war crimes. Which is what killing medical personnel and the wounded are.
Reporting those crimes isn't treason; it's justice. 35 years is an insane sentence. 5 years would be appropriate.
35 years is more than Squeaky Fromme got for trying to assassinate Gerald Ford ffs.
He revealed the truth, and history will vindicate him. Like it or not, y'all have been involved in some very shady business since at least the 80's.
ReplyDeleteWay earlier than the 1980s. This country has been a cesspool of rapacious imperialism from very early on.
DeleteJust ask the original occupants.
@sophia
ReplyDeleteYou go girl! I couldn't agree more. I only pray more people like manning who serve in the military will protect its citizens when the shit hits the fan!
@sophia
ReplyDeleteYou go girl! I couldn't agree more. I only pray more people like manning who serve in the military will protect its citizens when the shit hits the fan!
You conspiracy people need to get some serious real life perspective. Syria GASSED and killed hundreds, women and CHILDREN included. Gassed their OWN people. You you're worried the govt reading your friggin emails!!!???? Perspective, people , perspective. Now THATS a govt out of control.
ReplyDeleteAnd dont you think obama wld have closed Gitmo if feasible? Obviously theres alotta bad people there that cant be let go. Dont you think he may know more than us?? And the so called innocent 16 yr old killed was a muslim convert to al quaida. You know, a traitor!!!!! I dont feel sorry for him; the thinking of these fanactics is to live to die gloriously. They are fools to think death helps their cause.
This.
DeleteOh and manning now wants to transition to a woman, while in jail, on our dime. Theres your hero. Using our money for himself.
ReplyDeleteOk and how's that different for my dime going towards shit I disagree with? It doesn't. Your point is moot.
ReplyDeleteProps for using moot. I enjoy an intelligent arguement :)
DeleteHowever I doubt that will happen.
ReplyDeleteGod...will people please fucking go on Wikipedia and spend 2 fucking minutes looking up the definition of "treason" under the US Constitution?
ReplyDeleteNo, auntliddy, the kid didn't commit treason. And how do you think governments that end up gassing their own citizens end up that way? If you think breaking 4th amendment Constitutional rights against illegal searches is okay, I can only shake my head at your complete lack of knowledge about world history and civics (which unfortunately is the state of a large part of our populace). Further, do you think being concerned about the illegal encroachment on civil, constitutionally protected liberties means that people are somehow unable to be concerned about another government gassing it's own citizens? Strangely, I am able to be concerned (and upset) about any number of things at once. I contain multitudes.
It is all only a matter of degrees in what a government trying to grab power will do to get that power. The constitution was designed to save us from the abuses of government's quest for power and to protect us from those who choose to ignore it.
Sure, it's fine for you if you have nothing to hide....that is, until you have something you didn't even know you needed to hide.
But it's better to just stick our heads in the sand and pretend our government only has our best interests at heart and have no self serving motivations whatsoever.
People who are willing to give up freedom for safety deserve neither.
And for the record, since your use of "conspiracy theorists" would imply that you think we're all right wing numnuts...I speak as a dyed in the wool, Clinton loving, liberal who has a real concern about the direction our government has taken in regards to the erosion of Constitutional rights and the protection thereof.
DeleteOh, and I also have nothing to hide...until the government decides that I do.
Amen Lola!
ReplyDeleteLola, i am in no way implying you're wingnuts. Look, im probably older than most of you, and I once would have thought the same way. But as years passed, i saw that nothing like what may happen actually happens, so im not quite so fearful and negative about it. Sure, the goverment, or anybody good with computers, can rearrange facts to make you seem guilty of something when you arent. But it hasnt happened. We live in a fluid, transparent society. We have bank accounts, we talk on the phone, we get mail, and with advent of internet, we are all exposed to some degree. It is just part of life. No one likes it but we have to trust each other to do the tight thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I look up treason- which is actually not what I said, I said traitor-it reads:" The betrayal of one's own country by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies." No where does it state it can only happen in state of declared war. I stand by what I said, he was a traitor. A traitor is guilty of treason. So perhaps you should be looking up some stuff.... a burn! And Im kidding so dont get all chaotic and twirly.
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean "Chelsea " Manning?
ReplyDelete@cool, i see you too have drunk the koolaid. That is what happens when you only listen to one side of the situation. Poor you.
ReplyDelete