http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/greenwald-partner-detained/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

I've been standing on the sidelines for a while, not wanting to weigh in on the NSA secret intelligence operations and other issues, but the detainment of an innocent family member of a Press reporter just stepped over all the lines of this Conservative. Even I have a line in the sand, when it comes to security arrangements and investigations.

We have real issues in this world, real threats from ideological and theological extremists, but why are the gun barrels being redirected backwards.

It's not just that it was the reporter's gay partner that was detained, of course that makes my blood boil a bit more intensely, it is the audacity that any governments that prides itself as "Free and Open" can claim extensive rights to pursue intelligence beyond normal operational protocols. While this incident occurred in the UK, the US government was told beforehand about it. So let me ask a question, even if gay rights can be obtained under the laws, what does it matter if Civil Rights and Civil Liberties are distorted to the point of irrelevance? Even if you can marry your partner, does it matter if he is also guilty by association?

While, I agree that enhanced security measures are needed in times of war and unrest; there's a limit to what any government can do before it becomes a police state.

Under the US Constitution, our 1st Amendment under the Bill of Rights guarantees Free Speech and Free Association. Even if your partner might be guilty of releasing sensitive information, you are not guilty by association just due to being one part of a union of two people.

Under the UN Declaration of Human Rights, article 19: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

This is a fundamental concept to every nation and to humanity as a whole.

This is quite simply wrong on every level.

Just had to let out that rant