Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 164

The mythical potency of Terrorism fear-mongering

The New York Times Editorial Page today asserts a commonly held belief among the political and media class: 

An election is coming, so the Republicans are trying to scare Americans by making it appear as if the Democrats don't care about catching or punishing terrorists.
It's nonsense, of course, but effective.  The be-very-afraid approach helped former President George W. Bush ram laws through Congress that chipped away at Americans' rights. He used it to get re-elected in 2004. Now...

Rich Lowry's brain

(updated below - Update II)

Markos Moulitsas is writing a book, The American Taliban, which compares various aspects of the American Right to radical Islam (e.g., their obsessions with judging and controlling other people's sex lives, their religious fanaticism, their views of gender equality and the like).  National Review Editor Rich Lowry finds this very upsetting, and the following was said by him during a chat he had yesterday with Ana Marie Cox (who, just by the way, appears t...

Wall Street owners angry with their purchase

Political science professors could require students to read this article from today's New York Times and little else would be needed to convey the essence of the American political system.  The article describes how Wall Street -- which poured massive amounts of money into the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party over the last several years, ensuring unparalleled access and influence -- is now threatening to support the Republicans if Obama keeps saying mean things about them. ...

Palin and the tea-party "movement": nothing new

(updated below)

Fox News, April 6, 2006:

Hundreds of protesters gripped Mexican flags as they marched for immigration reform in the past few weeks, but they say a display of cultural unity is being mistaken as a lack of loyalty to the United States.

The displays turned off many Americans. Conservative talk show hosts admonished the protesters, while everyday people wrote angry letters to the editors of their local newspapers.

Some called for those carrying the Mexican...

The lynch-mob mentality

(updated below)

If I had the power to have one statement of fact be universally recognized in our political discussions, it would be this one:

The fact that the Government labels Person X a "Terrorist" is not proof that Person X is, in fact, a Terrorist.

That proposition should be intrinsically understood by any American who completed sixth grade civics and was thus taught that a central prong of our political system is that government officials often abuse...

The Lynch Mob mentality

If I had the power to have one statement of fact be universally recognized in our political discussions, it would be this one:

The fact that the Government labels Person X a "Terrorist" is not proof that Person X is, in fact, a Terrorist.

That proposition should be intrinsically understood by any American who completed sixth grade civics and was thus taught that a central prong of our political system is that government officials often abuse their power and/or err and...

On the claimed "war exception" to the Constitution

Last week, I wrote about a revelation buried in a Washington Post article by Dana Priest which described how the Obama administration has adopted the Bush policy of targeting selected American citizens for assassination if they are deemed (by the Executive Branch) to be Terrorists.  As The Washington Times' Eli Lake reports, Adm. Dennis Blair was asked about this program at a Congressional hearing yesterday and he acknowledged its existence:

The U.S. intelligence community policy on...

Michael O'Hanlon's "testosterone-laden tough guys"

(updated below)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates today will unveil the administration's plan for repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, beginning with a ban on discharging gay service members who are "outed" by third parties.  More than 13,500 gay service members have been discharged since the Clinton-era enactment of that policy, which continued unabated even as America's military has been stretched horribly thin by multiple wars and endless tours of duty.  Ironically, the highest number o...

What exactly did Bush and Cheney do wrong?

As I noted several days ago, it is not only Republicans -- but Democratic and media establishment figures as well -- who clearly crave the preservation of the Bush/Cheney approach to Terrorism and civil liberties.  When Bush's popularity collapsed to historic lows, political and media elites pretended for awhile to object to his administration's fear-based and radical policies as extremist and an assault on "our values."  But that was all just such a transparent pretense.  In those few...

Susan Collins spreads central myth about the Constitution

Over the weekend, Sen. Susan Collins released a five-minute video in which she sounded as though she had been possessed by the angriest, most unhinged version of Dick Cheney.  Collins recklessly accused the Obama administration of putting us all in serious danger by failing to wage War against the Terrorists.  Most of what she said was just standard right-wing boilerplate, but there was one claim in particular that deserves serious attention, as it has become one of the most pervasive myths...