The Daily Reviewer | Salon: Glenn Greenwald

The warped platitude of DC "centrism"

Mar 13, 2010 6:14am

(updated below) The Washington Post's Dana Milbank dresses up in idiotic costumes, and the overriding attribute of his commentary is adolescent, above-it-all snideness, and he's thus deemed a wild, unpredictable, creative "contrarian" in Beltway media circles. In reality, he's one of the most cliché-ridden purveyors of conventional...

The Democrats' scam becomes more transparent

Mar 12, 2010 4:13am

(Updated below - Update II [Saturday]) A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a glaring (and quite typical) scam perpetrated by Congressional Democrats: all year long, they insisted that the White House and a majority of Democratic Senators vigorously supported a public option, but the only...

Carville/Greenberg strategists and national security

Mar 11, 2010 5:12am

Earlier this week, a new poll and accompanying "strategic analysis" was released by Democracy Corps (the Democratic firm founded by James Carville, Stan Greenberg and Bob Shrum), co-sponsored by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner ("GQR") and the "centrist" Third Way. It spat out decades-old, warmed-over, fear-driven conventional wisdom: Democrats are in danger of being seen as...

Official dogma: Iraq War a success

Mar 10, 2010 5:11am

(updated below - Update II) The New York Times' Tom Friedman, who did as much as any single individual to persuade large numbers of Democrats and "moderates" to support the invasion of Iraq, today writes: Former President George W. Bush’s gut instinct that this region craved and...

The majestic petulance of John Roberts

Mar 10, 2010 4:11am

The petulance and sense of self-importance on display here is quite something to behold: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama's State of the Union address was "very troubling" . . . . Obama chided the court, with the justices seated before...

Compare and contrast

Mar 9, 2010 3:10pm

(updated below) I'll just go ahead and pass this on without (much) comment, because the point is self-evident: Iran Torture Trials Begin TEHRAN, Iran — The trial in Iran opened Tuesday for 12 suspects accused of torturing to death three anti-government...

Obama sabotages himself with fake "pragmatism"

Mar 9, 2010 6:10am

(updated below - Update II) A new poll from the Democratic polling firm founded by James Carville and Stan Greenberg -- and co-sponsored by the "centrist" Third Way -- provides what its sponsors call "a wake-up call for President Obama, his party, and progressives on national security," because "[h]istorical doubts...

NYU Law School event

Mar 9, 2010 6:07am

On February 26, I spoke at NYU School of Law, at a 90-minute event hosted by that school's Center on Law and Security, regarding civil liberties, Obama, Terrorism and many political and media issues that are frequent topics of discussion here. The event, moderated by NYU Law Professor Stephen Holmes, consisted entirely of a Q-and-A session, first...

High standards at The Washington Post

Mar 8, 2010 4:09pm

By publishing a book that clearly and unapologetically defends the Bush torture regime, Marc Thiessen catapulted himself from obscure, low-level Bush speechwriter into regular Washington Post columnist, joining fellow torture defenders Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol. Today, Thiessen's column defends the Liz-Cheney/Kristol smear campaign against DOJ lawyers and says this: ...

Congressional condemnation of Cheney/Kristol?

Mar 8, 2010 10:09am

(updated below) One of the most inane acts undertaken by the Democratic Congress was its formal and highly bipartisan condemnation of MoveOn.org's "Petraeus/Betrayus" ad. Regardless of one's views of that ad, formally opining on the views of private citizens is not the role of Congress. But since they...

Why do journalists expect to have credibility?

Mar 7, 2010 5:08am

(updated below) Clark Hoyt, New York Times Public Editor, March 21, 2009: THE Times has a tough policy on anonymous sources, but continues to fall down in living up to it. . . .Last year, at my request, a group of journalism students at Columbia University...

The right kind of bigotry

Mar 6, 2010 5:07am

From the long-time Editor-in-Chief and owner of The New Republic, this morning: There were moments--long moments--during the Iraq war when I had my doubts. Even deep doubts. Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice. But...

The WP's employment of a fear-mongering smear artist

Mar 5, 2010 3:06am

(updated below) One of the DOJ lawyers being smeared as part of the "Al Qaeda 7" campaign by Cheney/Kristol (and Wolf Blitzer/CNN) is Karl Thompson, who, while at the law firm O'Melveney & Myers in 2007, represented a Guantanamo detainee (Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was detained). Today in...

The full-scale collapse: From Murrow to Blitzer

Mar 4, 2010 3:05pm

(updated below) When discussing the McCarthyite DOJ witch hunt spawned by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol, I wrote yesterday: now that "we have real, live, contemporary McCarthyites in our midst -- Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol -- launching a repulsive smear campaign, we'll see what the reaction is and how...

Who are the actual "crazy" people in American politics?

Mar 4, 2010 6:05am

(updated below) My Salon colleague, Mark Benjamin, writes about last night's Larry King Show -- featuring a debate between Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and GOP Rep. Michelle Bachmann -- and does so by repeatedly branding Grayson as being every bit as "crazy" as Bachmann. Beginning with the article's headline ("Bachmann and...

Salon Radio: The lawyers smeared by Liz Cheney

Mar 3, 2010 6:06am

(updated below - Update II) As I noted yesterday, the group run by Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol released what is certainly one of the more repugnant political ads of the last decade, if not the most repugnant. It's the type of McCarthyite act which would, if we had any minimal...

Transcript: Jonathan Hafetz on GITMO lawyers

Mar 3, 2010 6:04am

To listen to this discussion, go here and click PLAY on the recorder at the bottom: Glenn Greenwald: My guest today on Salon Radio is Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU, and he has a new book which he has co-edited, along with Mark Denbeaux of Seton Hall Law School, entitled The Guantanamo Lawyers:...

Genuine American exceptionalism on due process

Mar 2, 2010 4:03am

(updated below - Update II) The Obama administration has made explicitly clear its intention to deny civilian trials to scores of detainees, by sending some to military commissions and imprisoning others indefinitely without any charges. And for those cases where it has deigned to provide real due process -- such...

Dredging up the Israel/apartheid question

Mar 2, 2010 3:03am

(updated below - Update II - Update III) In addition to everything else they are, the scribblings on The Washington Post Op-Ed Page are often wildly out of touch. They often have the feel of having been written a decade ago, stuffed under a mattress somewhere, and then arbitrarily...

War is Peace: Robert Gates edition

Mar 1, 2010 5:02am

Ongoing travel has prevented me from writing the last few days and will again today. Regular posting will resume tomorrow. For those interested, here are a few segments I did on Morning Joe on Friday regarding bipartisanship, health care reform and related topics (here, here and here). I hope to have...