Edward Snowden's *must watch* "virtual appearance" on TED.

Since November, advertisements featuring the face of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have been wrapped around several city buses roaming the streets and avenues of Washington, D.C. The can't-miss ads featuring whistleblower Snowden's goateed visage cover most of the outside of the buses.

The ads are part of the Thank You, Edward Snowden campaign headed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a left-leaning public interest organization that focuses on defending activists' free speech rights. According to the group's executive director, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the ads were funded by donations from some 30,000 citizens.

In a November Washington Post article, Washington Metro General Manager Richard Sarles noted that the courts had ruled that public transportation agencies are a public forum. "So we have to accept anyone who wants to put up an ad," said Sarles. "Obviously we don't support, necessarily, what the opinions are that people express in these advertisements."

The ads bluntly inform the political and bureaucratic enablers of the domestic surveillance state that many Americans think that it is they, not Snowden, who have betrayed their oaths to defend the U.S. Constitution.

reason.com/archives/2014/03/15/thank-you-edward-snowden

Snowden should be rewarded as a hero, say LP poll respondents

In poll results collected as of June 17, comprising 4,457 respondents (excluding the 695 who selected the "different combination" option), at least 88 percent advocated repealing the Patriot Act, the NDAA, FISA, and every other law that violates Americans' Fourth Amendment rights, and at least 75 percent agreed that the NSA should be abolished.

At least 54 percent of those who took the poll thought that Snowden should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for shining a spotlight on how our militaristic security state has grown unaccountably out of control.

The Libertarian Party is the only political party that has, since its founding 42 years ago, fought to restore the privacy rights established by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. By electing Libertarian candidates, the American people can reclaim their privacy and be free of the threat of warrantless searches by powerful and abusive government officials.

"Edward Snowden is a hero, not a criminal," said Kenneth Kaplan, Libertarian Party candidate for governor of New Jersey. "If elected, I will sue the U.S. government on behalf of New Jersey residents and seek damages for violations of their Fourth Amendment rights."

www.lp.org/blogs/staff/snowden-should-be-rewarded-as-a-hero-say-lp-poll-respondents

After a surprise appearance by Edward Snowden at TED2014, Chris Anderson said: "If the NSA wants to respond, please do." And yes, they did. Appearing by video, NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett answers Anderson’s questions about the balance between security and protecting privacy.