War on whistleblowers and first amendment

[xiamiam]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Shouldn't we be talking about this? since our governments' stance is in direct violation , certainly in regards to wikileaks as well as the increased war on whistleblowers.

[tama]

1. What's the legal excuse

for jailing Bradley Manning without trial for so long? Any?

I've seen post on DU about OWS people attacking Dem campaing on behalf of Manning. They haven't been very popular, as expeced given the partisan nature of this forum.

Edit to add: this is very telling, gov official fired because of critical of Mannings treatment.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/03/state-department-spokesman-pj-crowley-resigned-bradley-manning/

[HooptieWagon]

2. Tough call.

In general, I think its a bad idea for each and every serviceman to decide for themselves which classified information should be released and which shouldn't.
But Manning released evidence of war crimes, which should be made public if we consider ourselves to be a moral democracy.
One would hope, that authorities would act to prosecute war criminals, and the Manning, if not rewarded, would at least get a pat on the back and our country's thanks.
However, this is the USA... where we cover up war crimes, not prosecute them. Since the US is not prosecuting the crimes exposed by Manning, they have to prosecute him.
Obama's "transparency" has been in many ways even worse than Bush. This has been a great disappointment to me... I had hopes of an Obama presidency restoring USA's honor and integrity. Boy, was I wrong about that...

[xiamiam]

3. i feel the same..at this point, we should be talking about this instead of romneys tax lies

the first amendment..written for a reason..and as far as i can see..being shredded and accepted because the president has a great smile and is a dem..we should be talking about this every day ...screaming about it every day until it stops..because until it stops the idea of a democracy is a joke

[HooptieWagon]

4. If the republicans weren't batshit crazy,

maybe the country could be debating torture, spying on US citizens, war criminals, and Wall St criminals.
Unfortunately, the republicans declared war on women, gays, blacks, immigrants, education, and the poor. Obviously, TPTB would prefer debate be steered to wedge issues... b/c no matter which side wins, they win.