Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 137

The "obscenity" of comparing Americans to "killers and terrorists"

A couple of weeks ago, I took issue with some of the objections being voiced by progressive critics of Markos Moulitsas' new book, The American Taliban.  In particular, I found this sentence from The American Prospect's Jamelle Bouie -- fairly representative of the negative reaction to the book -- to be not only absurd but almost offensive in its self-loving nationalism:  "Yes, progressives are depressed and despondent about the future, but . . . . it doesn't excuse the obscenity of...

Obama's view of liberal criticisms

Last night, Barack Obama spoke at a $30,000 per plate DNC fundraising event at the "home of Richard and Ellen Richman, who live in the exclusive Conyers Farm development in Greenwich [Connecticut:]'s famed 'back country' neighborhood," and said the following about liberal critics of his presidency:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get -- to see the glass as half empty. (Laughter.) If we get an historic health care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there.  If you get...

The misguided reaction to Tea Party candidates

The "tea party" movement is, in my view, a mirror image of the Republican Party generally.  There are some diverse, heterodox factions which compose a small, inconsequential minority of it (various libertarian, independent, and Reagan Democrat types), but it is dominated -- in terms of leadership, ideology, and the vast majority of adherents -- by the same set of beliefs which have long shaped the American Right:  Reagan-era domestic policies, blinding American exceptionalism and natavism...

Public opinion and the war in Afghanistan

(updated below)

Opponents of the Iraq War frequently criticized the Bush administration for continuing and then escalating that war even in the face of large majorities which opposed it, culminating in the furor that erupted when Dick Cheney, asked about war opposition, contemptuously dismissed public opinion as irrelevant with his infamously candid: "So?".  Yesterday, a new NYT/CBS poll revealed that 54% of Americans believe that the U.S. "should not be involved in Afghanistan...

Obama in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland, Chapter 12:

"Let the jury consider their verdict," the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.

"No, no!" said the Queen. "Sentence first -- verdict afterward."

"Stuff and nonsense!" said Alice loudly. "The idea of having the sentence first!"

"Hold your tongue!" said the Queen, turning purple.

"I won't!" said Alice.

"Off with her head!" the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.

Scott Shane, The New York Times, April 6...

Interview with Sen. Russ Feingold

(updated below - Update II [player fixed:])

Even for those who are disillusioned and angry with the Democratic Party, or even apathetic about the outcome generally of the 2010 elections, Russ Feingold is one of the very few candidates whose re-election is genuinely worth caring about.  No matter how bad Democrats generally become, Feingold's presence in the Senate provides unique and real value.  I spoke with him for 15 minutes late last week about a variety of topics, including...

Transcript: Interview with Sen. Russ Feingold

To listen to this interview, go here:

Glenn Greenwald: My guest today on Salon Radio is Senator Russ Feingold, the Democrat from Wisconsin, who is a member of, among other committees, the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees, and we're here to discuss several different issues in the news.  Senator, thanks very much for joining me this morning.

Russ Feingold: Great to be on the show, Glenn,

GG: So, I want to begin by asking you this: you were, as everyone knows, a leading critic of ...

The Democratic fear-based strategy

(updated below - Update II)

Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, August 12, 2010:

I talked at the top of the show tonight with Gail Collins about how one way to motivate your natural base for an election is to make your base afraid of what the other side has to offer. And that is true. That works. That works on both sides. It works for conservatives about liberals and it works for liberals about conservatives.

But one less soul-sucking way to motivate your base and to win an election and...

America the Exceptional

(updated below - Update II)

Even for those who believe they're inured to the absurdities of imperial irony, this is almost too extreme to process:

The New York Times, Wednesday:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information. . . .

"To this date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had...

Tom Goldstein and the perils of conflict-plagued commentary

Back in April, I wrote in detail about the glaring conflict infecting the Supreme Court nominee analysis of SCOTUSblog's Tom Goldstein.  Goldstein's lucrative partnership at Akin, Gump -- as has been true for his whole career -- depends almost exclusively on aggressively promoting himself as a specialist in Supreme Court litigation (NBC is even developing a new entertainment show based on his career called "Tommy Supreme").  Therefore, quite unsurprisingly, he invariably takes the lead role i...