Reply #4: But as Glenn Greenwald mentioned, Bush fired dissenters in his gov.

[beachmom]

and Democrats were outraged. So there seems to be a double standard.

Yes, jobs and health care are extremely important. The Manning situation will no doubt have zero effect on the election, as torture was a non-issue in '04 & '08. That doesn't mean it's not important -- you are correct that there are conflicting reports (although I found the Pentagon rebuttal to confirm more than it refuted), but that's the problem -- Pres. Obama's response (and Kerry's to a lesser extent) was maddening and leads me to be more suspicious not less.

And just to clarify from what I am seeing in GD/GDP (which I rarely visit), I do not think Manning is some kind of hero or innocent. In fact, when the cables hit I was sympathetic more to the government. However, since then the government (after right wingers taunted Obama for being weak for letting the leaks happen) has behaved in a horrible and intemperate fashion. Like bullying servers to take down the Wikileaks website, to charge Wikileaks itself with a crime (sorry, but they are no different than the NYT, in that they publish information not steal information), and finally their treatment of Manning is odd. 23 hours solitary confinement (or in Pentagon words "single cell" with 1 hour of exercise a day) is strange for someone who fancies himself a whistleblower (we can debate whether he is a "good" whistleblower but he clearly wasn't trying to help the Taliban for goodness sake). He also hasn't even been charged yet. And finally, he WAS nude at night (confirmed by the Pentagon, although they said he had a blanket). It just is not my idea of how a non-violent prisoner should be treated. I am very concerned about it, and think the government is not particularly deserving of trust at this point.