Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 153

White House reporters afraid to criticize the White House

(updated below)

Politico's Josh Gerstein and Patrick Gavin have a long article describing the growing anger of the White House press corps towards the Obama White House.  Many of the grievances are petty, though some are serious and substantive (involving lack of transparency and media manipulation), but the passage that I found most revealing is this one:

Much of the criticism is off the record, both out of fear of retaliation and from worry about appearing whiny. But...

Larry Lessig's "case for Kagan" is the opposite

Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig has a Huffington Post piece today making what he calls "The Case for [Elena:] Kagan" as Justice Stevens' replacement.  But as anyone who reads it will see, it actually does the opposite:  just as Walter Dellinger's paper-thin defense of Kagan did, Lessig's piece illustrates how Kagan has no meaningful record, no apparent beliefs, and no way for any rational, independent-minded person to assess the impact that she would have on the Supreme Court.  She's...

War propaganda from Afghanistan

The New York Times yesterday excitedly declared that the imminent Battle of Kandahar "has become the make-or-break offensive of the eight-and-half-year [Afghanistan:] war" and is "the pivotal test of President Obama's Afghanistan strategy."  As Atrios suggests, there never is any such thing as "make-or-break" because we never leave no matter how completely our war and occupation efforts fail.  That's what led to the countless Friedman Units of the Iraq War:  the endless proclamations that The...

The New York Times' Muslim problem

(updated below)

Ross Douthat, The New York Times, today:

In a way, the muzzling of "South Park" is no more disquieting than any other example of Western institutions' cowering before the threat of Islamist violence. . . . But there's still a sense in which the "South Park" case is particularly illuminating. . . . [I:]t's a reminder that Islam is just about the only place where we draw any lines at all. . . .Our culture has few taboos that can't be violated, and our...

Ross Douthat's Muslim problem

Ross Douthat, The New York Times, today:

In a way, the muzzling of "South Park" is no more disquieting than any other example of Western institutions' cowering before the threat of Islamist violence. . . . But there's still a sense in which the "South Park" case is particularly illuminating. . . . [I:]t's a reminder that Islam is just about the only place where we draw any lines at all. . . .Our culture has few taboos that can't be violated, and our establishment has largely given up...

Various matters

There are numerous items -- seemingly disparate but all tied together by common themes -- worth noting from the last couple of days; they are all individually linkable with links at the bottom of the post:

The New York Times' Scott Shane reports today that Dr. Henry Heine, a former U.S. Army microbiologist, testified Thursday before a panel of the National Academy of Sciences examining the FBI's scientific claims in the anthrax case, and said "it was impossible that the deadly spores...

The Obama administration's righteous stance against indefinite detention

(updated below)

For those who believe that there are certain types of hypocrisy and double standards too blatant and shameless even for the U.S. Government to invoke, I'd like to point out how wrong you are:

The Washington Post, today:

The Pakistani military is holding thousands of suspected militants in indefinite detention, arguing that the nation's dysfunctional civilian justice system cannot be trusted to prevent them from walking free, according to U.S. and...

Follow-up on Supreme Court selection process

(updated below)

The New York Times this morning publishes a very favorable article examining the judicial record and attributes of Diane Wood.  Written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, it highlights what I documented at length here on Monday:  that Wood is one of the very few judges in the country able to be both a strong and principled advocate for legal and Constitutional principles while finding ways to persuade very conservative judges to join her opinions and maintain constructive...

Unlearned lessons from the Steven Hatfill case

Andrew Sullivan rightly recommends this new Atlantic article by David Freed, which details how the FBI and a mindless, stenographic American media combined to destroy the life of Steven Hatfill.  Hatfill is the former U.S. Government scientist who for years was publicly depicted as the anthrax attacker and subjected to Government investigations so invasive and relentless that they forced him into almost total seclusion, paralysis and mental instability, only to have the Government years...

The long, clear, inspiring record of Diane Wood

If one were to analogize the search for Justice Stevens' replacement to the recently concluded health care debate, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood would be the public option.  Just as the truly left-wing health care approach (a single-payer system) was eliminated from consideration before the process even began, so, too, have the truly left-wing candidates to replace Justice Stevens (Pam Karlan, Harold Koh) been ruled out as "not viable."  As a result, the...