My short life has taught me that, sadly, true heroes are never recognized by history. I wish that weren't the case for the sake of this man, Bradley Manning, and Julian Assange.
I hope I can pay some tribute in my meager line of work to these people that will make some lasting memory of their sacrifices.

That aside, I'm really surprised that this story is in the news at all. It does sound like these interviewers are downplaying things a bit, but overall this feels like the same kind of story that, 5-10 years ago, the media would have gone out of their way to display indifference entirely.
That's... some sign of hope I guess?

Last thing: Ugh. @8:30-ish, Greenwald says ".. Even back then... ... nobody had any inkling that the government would use the Patriot act... ... to collect data [from every American]..."
Sorry, I'm bad at proper quotation, but that's the gist of it, and I don't know of anyone in my generation who didn't see that right off the bat.

The Patriot Act was intentionally put into place in a time of war and uncertainty. It should have been a much bigger deal at that time. I find it funny that the people who are so afraid that our guns are getting taken away had no outrage over this back when it was passed. So willing to give up their freedoms when a R is in office, cause if you don't you're unAmerican or have something to hide.

It's reminds me of the outrage over the embassy attack in Benghazi. That is such a big deal, but the 12 times embassies were attacked when bush was in office are not?

what a boss

Holy shit, fuck you Joe.

Go ahead and raise the mic on his throat clear some more msnbc. I don't want to hear what your guest came to say, I came here to hear Joe clear his throat and flip paper. Fuck you msnbc.

upvote for calling out "white house talking points". was so obvious.

"Make the United States safer". Oh, ffs. Anyone else immediately think of Ben Franklin when you hear this bullshit line? I'll trade a 9/11 and a Boston bombing every decade for the governement staying the hell out of my phone and my computer. (Omg, am I starting to sound like goptea'er?). This crap that Obama spewed the other night, roughly "you can't have both 100% security and 100% privacy", is the ol' statue-of-liberty play. He's implying that these programs provide 100% security. You can dismiss everything he says after that because his premise is FALSE. You can dismiss everything he said before that as well, but that's another rant.

And Mika, you can't demand a "yes or no" answer when you just don't want to hear the explanation. There is a very good reason why you weren't paid as much as Joe, and you should thank your lucky stars they still let you read the intros. And stop with the huffing and tsk'ing and eyerolls. You're starting to look and sound llike one of those shrill FOX "analysts".

Willie, what a dumb question. Of course there is a difference between state secrets that do not inpinge on our freedoms and rights of privacy and those that do, you knob. Some would even say the ultimate purpose of maintaining state secrets is to assist in protecting the very American freedoms and rights that are being grossly abused by these programs. The difference between Manning and Snowden is that Manning exposed warcrimes and other abuses being committed on brown people, and Snowden exposed an invasive, Orwellian-level spying and data-mining infrastructure being used on Americans by our own government. So yeah, a little different. So what? Both heroes. And it infuriates me when our government goes after them and tries to paint them as treasonists. They have committed no crimes against America because the government is not America. It's straight-up self-preservation, and has nothing to do with protecting the citizens of this country and the tenets on which this country was founded. What Manning and Snowden did, however, does.

There was once a time when democracies around the world, whether imminent, new, or struggling, could look to the US for inspiration. Now, we could learn much today from a country like Turkey. They get it. It took a few whacks with police batons, and lots and lots of tear-gas, but they get it now. They get beat down, and get smarter and angrier. We just get dumber and dumber no matter what this government says or does.

“The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other in opposite directions.”
― George Carlin

“Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again. Here. Here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America. Here is American Gladiators. Here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!”
― Bill Hicks

As if Mika could actually think of a question on her own.

@Fletch
i love you

in a totally inappropriate way.

If you are, then I am too.

What I'm about to say may sound callous, but it is based in fact.

Terrorists are not a threat.

The number of people killed by terrorism (while obviously a tragedy for those involved) is basically statistical noise and is dwarfed by the numbers killed by smoking or alcohol (or gun violence for that matter, but I don't really want to go there).

Hell, in the 3 months following sep 2001, more people where killed in auto accidents as a result of fear of flying than were killed on the planes!

There was a time when we cared about the lives of our global brothers and sisters. Now we use them as justification for our self preservation. No, no, guys, we're not simply going after Americans, we're using this to go after NON-Americans.

As if that was just.

But I'm just an asshole that screams and bangs my head against shit. Just another fuck of an American raised by indifference, learning too late and too old to change or ever make a difference beyond my own shallow, depression-ridden selfish, consumerist, game-obsessed pitiful existence. The neutrality of INGSOC: not happy enough to raise a flag and not angry enough to raise arms.

No one gives a fuck and morality is as much as you can earn and spend in a life time.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Greenwald is awesome - the Woodward and Bernstein of our times.

I also note the "social policy blowback". He's prevented from living in the US because the government won't recognise his same-sex marriage.

Though he is probably glad he's not in the US at the moment.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Monday, June 10th, 2013 11:49am PDT - promote requested by dag.

Maybe they call it the "Patriot Act" because it takes an act of patriotism to stand against it?

Not sure if I understand the question, but if you are saying that Greenwald is being played like a chess piece by others, I gotta say "no". I wish we had many more Greenwalds, Mannings, Snowdens, and Assanges.

I realize that's more than one word, but I'm a rebel.