unitron: "Just 'cause Hitler pointed it out does not automatically make it incorrect."

... your own apparent agreement with Der Führer on this matter. Do you really want to go there -- I mean, really?

He was only exiled in the sense that he knew that if he remained here he would run the risk of being tried for treason. In any case, a long stretch in the pokey was all he could look forward to in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

His wish was to go to South America - as I guess you know.

The US blocked him from doing so.

So he was stranded in Russia, where he remains.

Saying that he can "return any time he chooses" - is absolutely clueless in the mold of Kerry's sexist suggestion that he "man up". He would be putting his neck in a noose for absolutely nothing. He has made his case. We know a lot that we didn't know before - and we have discovered that there is absolutely nothing we can do to influence our government to behave differently. We have nothing to say.

The only possible reason for a person like Snowden to return would be if there were a really honest grass roots uprising against the abuses of the government, and he felt that his presence would aid the cause.

As it is, the American people are completely defeated.
We have, as I said, no input.
No way to express an opinion through the ballot box.
No one to vote for who will promise to propose and fight for legislation that will end the abuses of the NSA.

But it is certainly nice to have a chill in the air and the threat of being called a traitor if you write or publish a piece of information that the gummint don't particularly care for.

We encourage self-censorship. A kind of preemptive strike against investigative journalism. Effective, and constitutional. Everybody's happy.

And it is extra nice that reporters who actually publish something of interest to the public can be pilloried if they don't reveal their sources. Gotta love it.

You responded to that by providing a list of other countries/governments that have put more journalists in prison than the Egyptians.  Absent any information about how much, if any, US aid those countries are receiving, you might as well have posted the word "Potato," which would be just as much a non sequitur as your list.

So, maybe I have to ask a question, or several questions: should the US be supporting governments that put journalists in prison?  Are there other efforts these countries are making in terms of the quality of life of their citizens and the expansion of their rights and freedoms that permit us to pretend that impinging on the press freedom that is crucial to the development of democracy isn't all that important?

He convinced black voters to be for him.

According to the Fix's Philip Bump, runoff turnout in the 24 counties with a black population of 50 percent or more was up almost 40 percent from the primary. In all other counties, turnout was up just 16 percent.  That is an absolutely stunning stat -- and tells much of the story of the runoff.  Cochran's ability to convince a strongly Democratic constituency to be for him -- despite the fact that every Democratic consultant believed McDaniel gave the party a better chance to win the seat in the fall -- is simply remarkable.

He found lots more votes in his base.

Every time I asked Cochran allies what their path to victory was in the runoff, they told me that lots and lots of Cochran voters didn't cast ballots on June 3 because they didn't really think the incumbent was in trouble. I rolled my eyes. Not in trouble? After millions of dollars in TV ads on both sides and national media coverage of the race everywhere?  Well, they were right. In Hinds County, Cochran's base, he got 10,928 votes on June 3.  On Tuesday night, he got 17,927 (with 99 percent of precincts in the county reporting). For you non-math majors out there, that's 7,000 more votes in three weeks time.  McDaniel, on the other hand, got 5,621 votes in Hinds on June 3 and 6,962 votes on June 24 -- an increase of just over 1,000. Considering that Cochran's margin statewide will be around 6,500 votes, you might say that was the difference.