-"The two are idiots and were treated appropriately.
The "idiots" are the ones who took them seriously for such a harmless tweet. Along with anyone else who thinks accordingly.
This is not the America that I want for my children. If you believe that this is justifiable behavior by our government, then you have just given up your right to the first Amendment for a very cheap price.
Any self-respecting investigator, and superior official, should have quickly realized that this was a harmless joke.
Anyone who dismisses this type of action by the highest officials in our government, is giving in to the enemies of this country who want to instil fear and division in our society.
Au contraire, my FRiend. US government communication monitoring systems are programmed to look for certain words. "Destroy" is among those words. They don't look for context or slang, they are just computers monitoring for certain words. When those words are detected, it sends an alert that gets other people excited and ends up (as in this case) with an arrest!
It isn't MY system, it is the government's "cradle-to-grave" nanny-state system. If you want to blame someone for this, blame Obama, Bush, Clinton, the Congress and Norman Minetta who refused to allow the TSA to profile the terrorists who want to kill us!
The First Amendment provides and protects our right to free speech. What it does NOT do is excuse us from the CONSEQUENCES of exercising that right. You know the story about yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater where there is no fire. That's free speech. Being arrested and tried for doing so are the consequences of exercising one's free speech rights.
The fact is that rights are a two-way street. It's kind of like Newton's 3rd law of gravity: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.