Glenn Greenwald

The Most Secretive Presidency Since Nixon

 

Books will be written about this. I firmly expect Glenn Greenwald to be among those to write one of the best books. But I will say just this.

The Obama administration's record on civil liberties is the worst since the sixties and seventies, when the Johnson and Nixon crowds let loose the Feds on anti-war activists.

Obama is, allegedly, a constitutional law professor. Despite that, he appointed Eric Holder as Attorney General, a man who has refused to enforce the anti-fraud laws against the Wall Street bankers who nearly destroyed our economy. At the same time, Holder, presumably under orders from the executive branch, has employed the full weight of the Justice Department against whistleblowers who seek to reveal the crimes of the high and mighty.

Obama has a lot of supporters who have either no idea how secretive his administration is, or choose to ignore that fact. In addition, millions of Americans also choose to ignore that Obama has expanded the "War On Terror," by launching a secret drone war, and has made it a permanent fixture in our nation's foreign policy. That's not a theory; top administration officials have confirmed it.

Obama deserves the AP phone records scandal, and probably many others.

 

 

Julian Assange Addresses The UN Via His Friends At Russia Today

While I don't entirely agree with his assertion that President Obama is exploiting the 2011 Arab uprisings for political gain, I do agree with everything else he says, especially his strong points on Bradley Manning:

Bradley Manning, science fair all-star, soldier and patriot was degraded, abused and psychologically tortured by his own government. He was charged with a death penalty offense. These things happened to him, as the U.S. government tried to break him, to force him to testify against WikiLeaks and me...As of today Bradley Manning has been detained without trial for 856 days. The legal maximum in the US military is 120 days.

 

Update: January 15 2018: Video of his appearance is no longer available, but here's a typical Assange TV appearance from the same year.

 

Please Read Glenn Greenwald - Preemptive Arrest Of Civil Liberties Activists Was Unconstitutional


Please read Glenn Greenwald's reports from the streets of St. Paul. This is a shocking roundup of peaceful protesters and watchdog groups who were not causing trouble or breaking the law.

Then trot over to our favorite blogger to hate, Megan McArdle, who takes a shot at Glenn Greenwald without linking to his article. She writes (again, without a hyperlink):

Glenn Greenwald, predictibly [sic],[sic] views these as fascist attempts to stifle dissent."

In the comments, Glenn Greenwald fires back:
The reason it's customary to link to what someone writes when criticizing what they've written is to prevent brazen lying like this.

I said -- so clearly that even you should have been able to digest it -- that the people who committed violence or otherwise broke the law should be arrested. What I wrote had nothing to do with anything you said I wrote.

Nonetheless, keep cheering on preemptive arrests of lawyers, journalists, videographers and legal observers -- along with home invasions and mass arrests of people who had no connection whatsoever with any criminality -- and then keep boasting about what "libertarian" you are. It's good for even more deep entertainment than you normally produce when you move your mouth.


Greenwald 2, McArdle 0