Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 148

Versailles sleaze

As I finish up my lengthy piece on the detention of accused WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning, which will be posted very shortly, I wanted to make certain you were up to date on the latest glamorous gatherings of White House officials and the aggressive, adversarial press corps which holds them accountable.  From the gossip column of Politico's Mike Allen, this morning (apologies for that triple redundancy):

WOLFGANG PUCK is in town from Beverly Hills to cook for YOUSEF AL OTAIBA...

Jon Stewart on Obama's executive power record

(updated below)

When ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero last week addressed the progressive conference America's Future Now, he began by saying:  "I'm going to start provocatively . . . I'm disgusted with this president."  Last night, after Obama's Oval Office speech, Jon Stewart began his show with an 8-minute monologue on Obama's executive power and civil liberties record which, in essence, provided just some of the reasons why Romero's strong condemnation is so justified...

The media's understanding of its role

(updated below - Update II)

Over the weekend, NPR's Brooke Gladstone conducted quite a good interview with CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry concerning Henry's defense of frivolous fraternization between some in the White House press corps and the politicians they cover.  It was Henry who not only attended the Biden "beach party" but then giddily reveled in the experience afterward.  The whole interview is only 4 minutes long but well worth listening to (the...

The U.S. wins the right to abduct innocent people with impunity

The Supreme Court today denied a petition of review from Maher Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who was abducted by the U.S. Government at a stopover at JFK Airport when returning to Canada in 2002, held incommunicado for two weeks, and then rendered to Syria, where he spent the next 10 months being tortured, even though -- as everyone acknowledges -- he was guilty of absolutely nothing.  Arar sued the U.S. Government for what was done to him, and last November, the Second Circuit Court ...

Rep. Bob Etheridge should be arrested for assault

(updated below - Update II)

Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) was walking on a public sidewalk last week when he was politely asked a question by someone holding a camera, and this is what happened: 

That's a clear case of assault and battery (the unedited video from the first camera is here).  There is some speculation that the individuals questioning him have some connection to the right-wing organization of Andrew Breitbart.  I hope ...

John McCain on the Evil, Barbaric Iranians

John McCain has a new article in The New Republic -- which is exactly where it should be -- calling for regime change in Iran.  The whole article contains one paragraph after the next of the favorite pastime of America's political and media class:  self-righteously condemning other nations for what we ourselves do (at least) as much.  Of all McCain's paragraphs, this is probably my favorite (h/t sandbun):

Is it any wonder that this is the same regime that spends its people's precious...

Chuck Schumer: Mainstream Democrat

(updated below)

Chuck Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, spoke to an event of Orthodox Jewish leaders on Wednesday and made comments that can only be described as bigoted and disgusting.  Kudos to Zaid Jilani who, despite working for the Democratic Party-serving Center for American Progress, wrote about Schumer's remarks on CAP's ThinkProgress blog and explained the reasons they were filled with falsehoods, or -- as he put it -- "as offensive as they are...

Journalistic balance at the expense of truth

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

In a new post about the just-declassified decision of a federal judge ordering the release of a Yemeni detainee from Guantanamo, The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder writes:

If you're interested at all in the future of detention policy, you might to make time to read a scathing and now declassified opinion of Judge Kennedy on the case of the Yemeni detainee (Odaini), available on line. If the re-engagement rate cracks the myth of the left...

Don't forget about Beltway cowardice

(updated below)

Corruption and dishonesty are among the Washington vices which receive substantial attention, but cowardice is often overlooked, despite how pervasive it is.  The news cycle of the last two days has been driven by an attack on organized labor from a "senior White House official" who was willing to express these views only while hiding behind the fetal wall of anonymity extended by Politico.  Last night on The Ed Show, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard was...

The Democratic Party and Blanche Lincoln

(updated below)

The run-off between Democratic Senate incumbent Blanche Lincoln and challenger Bill Halter, which culminated on Tuesday night in Lincoln's narrow victory, brightly illuminates what the Democratic Party establishment is.  Lincoln is supposedly one of those "centrist"/conservative/corporatist Senators who thwarts the good-hearted progressive agenda of the President and the Party.  She repeatedly joined with Republicans to support the extremist Bush/Cheney Terrorism a...