Glenn Greenwald's Blog, page 177

Calling for greater religious strife with Islam

(updated below - Update II)

The New York Times today, in the form of Ross Douthat's column, has published what could fairly be described as a call for a Christian religious war -- certainly metaphorical and perhaps literal -- against Islam.  Douthat praises recent efforts by Pope Benedict to recruit disaffected Anglicans back into the Catholic Church by dispensing with the last half-century's practice of religions "being exquisitely polite to one another."  Douthat claims -...

NYT condemns what it calls "Obama's cover-up"

(updated below)

The New York Times Editorial Page has long been one of the most reliable and vocal pro-Obama outlets in the nation.  When they endorsed him for President, they praised his "strength of will, character and intellect, sober judgment and a cool, steady hand," attributes they said he possesses in "abundance," and predicted he would provide "sensible leadership, compassionate leadership, honest leadership and strong leadership."  Throughout this year, their praise of him ...

"America's Priorities," by the Beltway elite

Something very unusual happened on The Washington Post Editorial Page today:  they deigned to address a response from one of their readers, who "challenged [them:] to explain what he sees as a contradiction in [their:] editorial positions":  namely, the Post demands that Obama's health care plan not be paid for with borrowed money, yet the very same Post Editors vocally support escalation in Afghanistan without specifying how it should be paid for.  "Why is it okay to finance wars with debt...

The Washington Post's 2002 "reporting" on Iran

Anyone who believes the establishment media in the U.S. learned even a single lesson from what happened with Iraq should immediately read this featured Washington Post article by Joby Warrick, which gravely and frighteningly warns that Iran's Qom nuclear facility "was intended explicitly for making highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons."  It's filled with one alarmist claim after the next (all anonymously provided, needless to say), such as this:  "That number is too small to furnish f...

Benjamin Netanyahu's definition of "war crimes"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded yesterday to the U.N. Report finding Israel guilty of war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity by pointing out that Hamas committed war crimes -- a fact nobody disputes but which doesn't exonerate Israel in any way.  Netanyahu argued, accurately, that Hamas committed four types of war crimes, one of which is this:  "they've been holding our captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, without access to the Red Cross, for three years."

So...

Tucker Carlson and the right's perpetual self-victimhood

(updated below)

The number one rule of American politics:  the greatest, most insatiable need of the standard conservative is to turn themselves into oppressed little victims.  In The Daily Beast today, Tucker Carlson devotes his entire column to complaining that Obama is "bullying" Fox News, absurdly claiming that the White House and liberals are trying "to use government power to muzzle opinions they don't agree with."  Needless to say, Carlson doesn't say a word about the

Tucker Carlson and the Right's perpetual self-victimhood

The number one rule of American politics:  the greatest, most insatiable need of the standard conservative is to turn themselves into oppressed little victims.  In The Daily Beast today, Tucker Carlson devotes his entire column to complaining that Obama is "bullying" Fox News, absurdly claiming that the White House and liberals are trying "to use government power to muzzle opinions they don't agree with."  Needless to say, Carlson doesn't say a word about the endless -- and far worse --

The unconstitutionality of the congressional GOP's ACORN obsession

Yesterday, GOP Rep. Paul Broun  had a five-minute dialogue with Rep. Alan Grayson about the unconstitutionality of the Congressional GOP's numerous amendments directed exclusively at ACORN, all of which bar ACORN from receiving any government contracts due to alleged wrongdoing (not adjudicated by any court).  While being questioned by Grayson about whether these measures are unconstitutional "bills of attainder" -- acts of Congress that punish specific individuals for alleged...

The unconstitutionality of the Congressional GOP's ACORN obsession

Yesterday, GOP Rep. Paul Broun  had a five-minute dialogue with Rep. Alan Grayson about the unconstitutionality of the Congressional GOP's numerous amendments directed exclusively at ACORN, all of which bar ACORN from receiving any government contracts due to alleged wrongdoing (not adjudicated by any court).  While being questioned by Grayson about whether these measures are unconstitutional "bills of attainder" -- acts of Congress that punish specific individuals for alleged...

The Congress today had five minutes of worthwhile dialogue

Earlier today, GOP Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia introduced yet another amendment to deny all funding to ACORN.  Rep. Alan Grayson took the five minutes allotted to him to question Rep. Broun about this thing called "the Constitution" and, specifically, "bills of attainder," which happen to be prohibited by the "Constitution."  What ensued is both hilarious and very worthwhile.  Every member of Congress should be subjected to questioning like this on a daily basis:

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