Thank goodness for the Wall Street Journal:
The author’s bio is r ich:
William McGurn is a Vice President at News Corporation who writes speeches for CEO Rupert Murdoch. Previously he served as Chief Speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
Fair and Balanced! Center-Right Nation!
donovong
Since Murdoch bought the WSJ, it hasn’t had a shred of credibility. Hell, I would be afraid to use it for toilet paper in an emergency for fear of a vile infection.
PeakVT
VP and political insider = Main Street only in the minds of hacks and liars.
dmsilev
I’m very disappointed. An entire article on the theme of “Obama must move to the right”, and I didn’t see a single call for tax cuts anywhere.
Have these Republican hacks no pride in their work anymore?
-dms
dmsilev
@donovong:
In fairness to Murdoch, the editorial pages of the Journal were batshit crazy long before he bought the thing.
-dms
Napoleon
@dmsilev:
But the straight reporting sections are excellent. It was always funny to see a story report that the sun rises in the east and then 2 pages later on the editorial pages would be an opinion piece claiming the sun rises in the west.
wilfred
Move to the right, move to the right? Here’s Greenwald’s take:
Robertdsc-iphone
Obama did move to the right. That’s why he’s on track to surpass Dubya as worst President ever.
Ash Can
I know that August is known as the silly season, but these guys are abusing the privilege.
Hunter Gathers
The fountain of stupid is everflowing.
Zifnab
Move to the right? I thought Obama was Just Like Bush(tm) Only Worse!
Just out of interest, how many liberal news pundits
existdemanded George Bush move to the left? Was that even considered a possibility after his first three weeks in office?What other party in the world would heed the call to break with it’s own base because the opposition party demanded it? I’m not sure if this is really an indictment of the hacks in the GOP or a rather stinging rebuke of the Dem Party for being such pussies that a GOP hack would think an editorial like this would work.
NSinNY
Next up: “Saving The Road Runner: The Road Runner Needs to Slow Down” by Wile E. Coyote.
arguingwithsignposts
@Robertdsc-iphone:
My snark-meter is broken, but I hope that’s snark, because if not, it might be the stupidest thing anyone has ever said. And that’s covering a lot of ground.
Sloth
This
parksideq
@dmsilev: Looks like the Obama Death Panel(TM) is doing its job too well; it’s indiscriminately killing off his presidency and GOP talking points.
wilfred
This is how they do things. They painted Clinton to be the second coming of Leon fucking Trotsky, all the time he was giving them the store, everything from Nafta to welfare reform, and the odd Muslim killing missile strike.
They attack his non-existent leftism, while the leftists complaints of his pandering to the right go completely ignored.
Game, set, match.
Hunter Gathers
Obama should move upward, not downward. Forward, not backward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!
ominira
@Hunter Gathers: LOL
vacuumslayer
Whew! I’m glad the WSJ is looking for the prez. I feel better now. I’m sure they have his best interests at heart. And ours as well!
El Cid
In only 8 months Obama is clearly on track to exceed Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Vlad the Impaler, and The Riddler put together times eleventy-googillion as the most dangerous evil mortal the Urf has ever done seen.
Max
Seems to me, if you’ve got the far left mad at you and the far right mad at you, you might be on to something.
handy
@wilfred:
Yep. And like a commentor above said, it’s pretty sad to think that crap like this Op-Ed piece works. We really do need more viable parties in this country.
tc125231
@Napoleon: The news portion is not nearly as independent as it is frequently claimed to be. Anyone who has watched the WSJ for a few years knows that. That shift was the reason I quit reading it.
gbear
@NSinNY:
Win. I LOLed.
@Robertdsc-iphone:
Fail.
MattF
Hmm. I suppose Cheney would be available to replace Biden as Vice President. All you have to do is ask…
tc125231
@handy: No, we need BETTER parties. The Republicans should go the way of the Luddites.
vacuumslayer
Whew! I’m glad the WSJ is looking out for the prez. I feel better now. I’m sure they have his best interests at heart. And ours as well!
tc125231
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, it is stupid. I think it is fair to suggest, however, that Obama is flirting with mediocrity.
vacuumslayer
Sorry for double message…good as it was, probably not worthy of being posted twice…no edit button, then an error message.
Yay for ellipses abuse!…
Sloth
I’m wondering what would happen if Obama sold the ANWR drilling rights to pay for a public option.
I imagine this would be something like dropping a cat with butter on its back.
jenniebee
Well, it’s official. Our country has now devolved into a Groo comic.
jenniebee
Specifically, Groo #4. All that’s left is to make a lot of jokes about mulch, cheese dip and mendicants.
arguingwithsignposts
@tc125231:
“flirting with mediocrity” is nowhere near what @Robertdsc-iphone was saying. He said “surpass Dubya as worst President ever.”
To which I say, he’s got a looooooooooooooonnnnnnngggg way to go before he reaches that level. Mediocrity is several light years above where GWB is. To even suggest that Obama is even “on track” to get past GWB in the presidency FAIL sweepstakes is to give evidence of a malformed logic node in the brain.
Per some comments yesterday in the discussion with Phaedrus, I’d really like to see some kind of spreadsheet listing the accomplishments of the administration and the failures of the administration (Ledbetter – accomplishment; Failure to prosecute war crimes – so far a failure). And then a similar spreadsheet for the bush presidency (???? – accomplishment; katrina, iraq, afghanistan … – failure)
I don’t even think it would be close. If we’re going to start this 7 months into the man’s term in office, let’s at least get some quantitative data about it.
jenniebee
No Edit button FTL. Also. Too.
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m with you. Can we stop with the goddamn pearl-clutching on the left? I am no Obama apologist, but this he’s worse than W. meme from the left is really starting to piss me off.
As for whether or not he’s gonna be just mediocre, can we at least wait for one year of his term to be over before we rush to pass judgment? Please?
As for the WSJ editorial page–fuck off, you wankers.
tc125231
I agree completely. He could turn out to be a really terrific president, if he develops cajones. There is no doubt that he is several orders of magnitude more competent than our last president.
Unfortunately, that’s a pretty low bar. I am afraid the times we are in requires more.
Fulcanelli
O/T… Ed over at Gin and Tacos IMO nails Obama’s problem which is the lack of forceful, relentless, bare knuckled persuasion of his opposition a la LBJ, Medicare and the Civil Rights Act. Makes sense to me.
The MUP’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (but brings a butter knife to the gunfight) tactics ain’t working. It’s bad enough he’s waffled on so many issues important to DFH’s like me, but his socially retarded opposition is defining his presidency to a degree that he may never recover from if it doesn’t stop soon.
If Obama winds up a one term pony because of his signing off on a bad health insurance bill it’s really gonna suck for the progressive left in this country for a long, long time.
Steeplejack
@NSinNY: Win.
Max
@Robertdsc-iphone: Don’t worry, I read on the intertubes that Hilliary is going to primary him in 2012, so your nightmare is almost over.
PUMA!
SGEW
@jenniebee:
Except our country never gets around to asking “did I err?”
donovong
@dmsilev: “In fairness to Murdoch, the editorial pages of the Journal were batshit crazy long before he bought the thing.”
Point taken, but that is hardly a defense of Murdoch. They have proceeded farther into the rabbit hole ever since he bought it. Hence my point – it is no longer even worthy of consideration as toilet paper.
ET
The WSJ sure has come down in the world when it starts to play the Concern Troll.
Of course the fact that they have completely misread the 2008 election is no surprise when you realize they have been breathing the air in that alternate universe they live in.
Joshua Norton
Mediocrity is several light years above where GWB is.
Chimpy would have been thrilled to rise to the level of mere mediocrity.
Robertdsc-iphone
Well, let’s list the problems:
-Banks untouched
-Unwinnable war in Afghanistan
-Residual troops in Iraq
-Undersized stim pack with 228 billion dollars in wasted tax cuts. Tax cuts do not create stimulus.
-Next to no action in Bush admin war crimes
-Pushing harder for the war supplemental than for cramdown
-Ridiculuous messaging about health care reform.
-Inability to manage the party caucuses as party leader
-Transparency in most respects has been awful. TARP & detainee photos spring to mind.
-Indefinite/preemptive detention
-expanded state secrets use
-No change in the drug war; his drug czar spreads lies about pot.
-Active resistance to resettling innocent Gitmo victims
-Bagram prisoners have no rights at all
I’m no Limbaugh. I don’t want him to fail. But all the above are what he’s done on his own. It’s difficult to watch.
arguingwithsignposts
@Fulcanelli:
I get where Ed is coming from, and I respect his view. But I do think comparing Obama to LBJ is like comparing apples to nuclear weapons. LBJ spent years in the Congress, both house and senate, and spent time as whip.
Obama never showed the type of dogged determination LBJ showed, even on the campaign trail. It’s not his style.
We might want more of it (and if Rahmbo was more progressive, he’d be more than capable, I imagine), but I don’t see it happening unless something major changes in his personality, a long-shot.
Also, Congress was a much different animal in the 1960s. Truth be told, I think the Senate is pretty well totally screwed up at this point. For some reason, we don’t have real statesmen anymore in the Senate (excepting Teddy). They’ve all died or retired or gotten defeated by right wing asshats
Michael
Obviously, Obama needs to rule by decree. Fuck that noisome congress or advocating reason among the polity as ways to get things done by something approaching a reasonable consensus that supports the action.
Robertdsc-iphone
To put it another way, our esteemed host, Mr. Cole, wrote the following:
I was struck by this so much that I had to save it. It encapsulates do well how far off the country’s direction is.
A couple more bits:
-Staying out of the Iranian elections is botched by continuing to insist ON NO EVIDENCE that the Iranians are building nuclear weapons.
-Hillary’s fucking up of the coup in Honduras. Read Al Giordano’s Narco News for the story.
-We can’t give the Administration a year because the banks are still fucked up. If the Administration had shown a tenth of the will to the banks as the did to the GM & Chrysler people, I’d give it a year. Instead, Timmy is playing footsie with Wall Street while the country burns.
bayville
Really, we live in a bizarre culture and country. Flashback nearly eight years to just days after the 9/11 attacks, and the rightwingers and conservatives were dismissed any blame on BushCorp. for that day.
“”Well, he’s only been in office for
6789 months” was the common defense.Now, less than eight months into the Obama Presidency, it is CW to opine on whether his Presidency is doomed or has already failed.
Unbelievable Harry!
Michael
In the day of our 24/7 Pundit Asshole Village, where a relative handful of unaccomplished dolts get multiple hours of time to spew something akin to sports color commentary on public policy that they’re not responsible or accountable for, I have serious doubts that any of the big moves accomplished by Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower or Johnson could even be contemplated, much less done.
This will not change until Tweety, Ed Schultz, Joe Scarborough, Eugene Robinson, Jonathan Capehart, Mika Brzezinski, Dylan Ratigan, Larry Kudlow, Glenn Beck, Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Uncle Tom Sowell, Larry Kudlow, Candy Crowley, John King, Harold Ford, Bob herbert Cal Thomas, Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke, Mark Levin, Glenn Greenwald and every motherfucking bitch or bastard of paid punditry shuts the fuck up and goes home, never to get paid for spewing an opinion piece ever again.
They’re not experts, they’re not entertaining, they don’t provide information – so why the fuck does anybody care what they have to say or think about anything?
bayville
I would suggest Greenwald doesn’t belong in that list.
jim
America definitely needs to heed the advice of someone who wrote the words spoken by such a Grand Master of oratory as George W. Bush.
So which brown steaming “jewel” of Bush rhetoric was McGurn responsible for polishing – “I know it’s hard for you to put food on your children” … “I believe that man & fish can live together in peace” … “Bring it on” … “peeance freeance” … or perhaps “Now watch this drive”?
Robertdsc-iphone
One last thing before I go to sleep:
-Vice-President Biden said that the Econ team misjudged the unemployment layout when setting up the stim pack. Now we hear the deficit was underestimated by 2T, said on Friday. Has the Econ team been given pink slips yet? Are any lefties going to be allowed onto the White House grounds? It sure seems to me that Larry & Timmy & their people have some issues.
Al Giordano made a great point in rationalizing why Timmy can’t be fired, & that’s the fact that the GOP can strangle any nom in the Senate. So we’re stuck with Timmy. Everyone else? Time for some change. Fuck you, Larry Summers.
–
wilfred
@Robertdsc-iphone:
You left out widening the war in Afghanistan – 41 dead this month after 44 last month.
Where is that goddamned liberal press when you need them?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@arguingwithsignposts:
To add to your apples-to-nukes analogy, if people are going to invoke LBJ as a comparison then they really need to go back and look at the mid 1960s in detail. When LBJ was ramming legislation thru Congress he was doing so in the name of a national martyr (JFK) during a period when much of the nation was still in shock and going thru the stages of grief (c.f. how the Patriot Act was rammed thru after 9/11), and later on into 1965 in the context one of the greatest open-a-can-o-whoop-ass national elections ever (1964). And he had behind him backing him up a (by today’s standards) very liberal SCOTUS and a liberal media which didn’t shy away from calling the right wing a bunch of unhinged nuts (see the coverage of the GOP National Convention in 1964 for example).
Obama on the other hand is fighting a much tougher fight against more deeply entrenched establishment forces on the right, and doing so without those advantages which LBJ had. If you are going to make comparisons between Obama and somebody from the 1960s, he and his postition are much closer to JFK’s. With the exception of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, JFK didn’t get shit passed in Congress.
Socraticsilence
Ironic that this would come in the same week that much of the rest of the center right Village types are coming to the realization that the Obama admin basically pulled this nation back from the abyss economically (recovery might be slow but both CNN and MSNBC, as well as several national opinion types have run “Bernake and Obama saved America from a second great depression” pieces)– I’ve got a question for the WSJ Opinion types- if we followed the tax cut/ slash-spending and regulation advice they peddled just 8 months ago we’d likely be in the midst of a catastrophe- given that likelihood, why on earth should we think their opinions are anything other than potshots they hope work before the general public follows the emerging CW and Obama jumps back up from the mid-50s to the mid-60s?
Michael
Glenn “Obama Slaughtered My Kitten and Ground Its Liver to Pate to Serve to Wall Streeters” Greenwald certainly does belong on the list. He’s as useless as the others, is an expert on nothing and has nothing to offer save opinion.
My personal war is on paid punditocracy, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. If I want to see people paid for an opinion on public policy, I’d like to see them actually know what the fuck they’re talking about and be accountable for any negative results. Anything else is navel gazing.
Shawn in ShowMe
Why play from the Bobby Knight playbook when the Dean Smith playbook works just as well over the long term? Of course if he would have gotten the UNC coaching dig today, Coach Smith would have been fired after three seasons due to lack of production and “a failure to lead”.
arguingwithsignposts
@Shawn in ShowMe:
per the pearl-clutchers here at bJ and elsewhere, apparently he’d be fired after the first 10 games of the season.
arguingwithsignposts
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
very good point re: JFK assassination.
Parole Officer Burke
re: Greenwald
From his bio:
STFU
ronin122
@Michael: Not sure I agree with all the people you listed but if it’s against paid punditry in general I salute you. Of course getting rid of that means news organizations have to do…well, news. And you know that’s not gonna happen….
ronin122
@Parole Officer Burke: So what? Ann Coulter is a lawyer. What does it mean? Nothing, except he can discuss law matters. Unfortunately, that’s a minority of the things he opines about.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Parole Officer Burke
If Greenwald wasn’t masquerading as a political pundit, you’d have a point. Instead we get 1500 word posts that ignore political feasibility entirely. How is this useful?
Parole Officer Burke
@ronin122: My impression was that the majority of what Greenwald writes about is on matters of law – primarily constitutional and international law.
But you make a very good point, re: “Ann Coulter is a lawyer”. Touché.
Michael
Parole Officer Burke
Whooptie shit. All that means is that he’s got briefwriting experience in the vaguest chunk of law with the least amount of accountability for achieving a specific result. “Constimatooshinal lawyer” (in the parlance of left and right ideological lawyers) simply means that you like to argue and don’t want all the accountability that nuts and bolts practice for real clients with real life, day to day problems carries with it. Besides, I haven’t noticed that our rights have been increasing during the timeline of Glenn’s career – he must suck at litigation.
ronin122
Journalism requires journalists and management staff, which requires newsgathering, which requires…..money.
Obviously, ’tis far better to overpay some asshole to state his opinion on badly sourced or inadequately researched facts and save the actual newsgathering money to hand out to execs and major shareholders…….
winguts to iraq
Man is that Michael guy retard. He just left diarrhea all over this thread with his crack pot, paranoid delusions.
Wait, I mean Only HE KNOWS. FOLLOW MICHAEL! HE KNOWS ALL!
JGabriel
@Zifnab:
None. But I know I’ll be using it as part of my rhetorical toolkit next time we have a Republican president (a few decades away, I hope). And I doubt I’ll be the only one.
.
Shawn in ShowMe
Greenwald is like a baseball broadcaster that spends the entire time complaining about the lack of consistency in the strike zone: “That ball was 9 inches off the plate! What a travesty!!! This is the worst umpire I’ve ever seen!!!!!” Nine innings a game, 162 games a year.
Yeah, I’m in full-blown sports mode today.
ChrisB
For what it’s worth, Wachtell Lipton is an extremely prestigious law firm. You may not like its corporate clientele but Wachtell only takes the cream of the crop. Doesn’t qualify you as a pundit either, but worth pointing out I thought.
Olly McPherson
It’s interesting to see the schism that’s developing here w/r/t Obama’s competence and political skills. There’s a real “What has his shown us?”/”Take the long view” gap. (I’m in the former camp myself.)
Maybe it’s a matter of people’s expectations going into the Obama presidency. I would argue he raised those expectations with his own rhetoric, and it’s incredibly disappointing to see him take an incrementalist approach to governing. Throw in his penchant for letting his unhinged appointments define issue after issue, and I think we’re on the road to fizzle.
As for Glenn Greenwald, he meticulously lays out his point-of-view on a variety of political subjects, grounding his analysis in existing law. I think he does excellent work.
If he’s an idealist instead of a realist, well, what’s wrong with that? I don’t want to have a “count the votes” view of torture and human rights–that’s gotten us power drills and a squandered national image.
slippy
@Michael: FTW!
valdivia
Obama was *never* an idealist in the campaign. he talked about change but he also made it clear it only happens with hard work and that he himself was a pragmatist. he also talked a lot about engaging the enemy. I think some people just want him to be who they thought he would be and now that he is himself–the person ho won the election by the way–people are screaming like banshees. With no sense at all of what really will happen.
A case in point–a few months ago people were screaming about how he was Teh Fail because he would not release the Holy Grail CIA report. He has now released it, and those people have not acknowledge he was wrong. Now they complain about something else without admitting they were actually wrong. The problem is that those complaining think that governing is like winning an election. It is not, it takes time and the display of what actually goes into getting legislation passed does not suit the impatience of those on the left who want to fire Obama without knowing what will happen. When health reform happens I want to see those pearl clutchers take it back. but of course they won’t just like no one who said Obama would make the economic crisis worse (so many here) by not nationalizing all the banks have continued to whine about other staff without even acknowledging how wrong they were. I bet these people would have branded LBJ a traitor just the same for not passing things quickly and failing to do what they wanted, it is just in the light of the passage of legislation that they look at him like a hero.
El Cid
How dare Glenn Greenwald be like those other irritating shitheads like Orwell or I. F. Stone who just sat around writing clearly about stuff instead of modulating their observations to better fit assumed political realities? Pfffft.
We need more Joe Kleins and Paul Begalas who know how to fit their points in more comfortably within the establishment. After all, we’re not just citizens out here — we’re all tasked with being junior White House advisors; how dare there be one columnist out there observing his day’s events such that they simply accord with clearly framed principles?
valdivia
miss edit button. sigh. spelling fail on my part.
Olly McPherson
“A case in point—a few months ago people were screaming about how he was Teh Fail because he would not release the Holy Grail CIA report. He has now released it, and those people have not acknowledge he was wrong.”
Maybe he released it, in part, because they were screaming…?
valdivia
@Olly McPherson:
and maybe he planned to release it all along but had to deal with in-house stuff before he did?
the problem is not screaming to make him do stuff, the problem is that the screaming takes the form of “obama is a weak loser” which is not productive, just idiotic. also the fact that those who said He will not release it because he is worse than Bush are still saying he is worse than Bush.
SGEW
Ahem:
(emphasis added)
valdivia
@SGEW:
are these the people who were yelling he is worse than Bush? No. My point is that pressure is good but these idiotic comapasions are not. By all means let us pressure Obama to do what we think is right, but yelling Teh Fail every time things do not happen on our clock is just not very smart. But that is just MHO.
daryljfontaine
@bayville: I agree, I think his name should be replaced with Larry Kudlow’s.
D
SGEW
@valdivia:
Fair enough.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Olly McPherson:
Put me down in the latter “long view” camp myself. I understand the frustration of the former group, and think similar thought myself almost every day, but I keep coming back to this: the US system of govt is designed for incremental, slow moving change. Very few US Presidents have been able to make rapid changes on a scale of months rather than years, and all of them did so in the immediate wake of an accute national trauma of some sort. Lincoln, FDR, LBJ, and curse him – GWB, all of them had an accute emergency to work with that seriously freaked people out, with the exception of Andrew Jackson, and he came so early in the history of the republic that comparisons are difficult to make with today.
All the other transformational Presidents (Reagan, TR) worked slowly and incrementally and changed the nation over the course of multiple terms in office. And even FDR was that way – people really, really need to go do their homework on FDR’s terms in office to understand that the New Deal didn’t all get passed in his first year or even his first term.
Obama on the other hand has not been working in the context of the fast, accute state of emergency that his more transformational predecessors did, thanks to the stabilization of the finanacial system engineered by the Fed and the Treasury. He would have to be superhuman to get everything done that his critics on the left want by now, nor were the signs lacking in his rhetoric and his campaign that he would be an incrementalist and a compromiser. It was pretty much front and center during the campaign that his governing style would be this way. And the other thing which was front and center was the idea that change comes from the ground up, not the top down. Why everybody expects a former community organizer to start acting like a Rooseveltian-semi-dictator, I have no idea.
valdivia
@SGEW:
thanks for the correction of my horrid typo. ;-)
My kingdom for an edit button!
SGEW
@valdivia: No problem (sorry for so presumptively taking the liberty).
The edit function is returning soon, we are promised, so your abdication is unnecessary . . . but you shouldn’t have a kingdom anyway, you dirty monarchist ;-p
valdivia
@SGEW:
take the liberty anytime! I am pretty bad with my spelling and am constantly dependent on the edit function.
and yeah, not the most apt quote (re monarchy and abdications) given that I am constitutionally, ahem, incapable of supporting it but hey first thing that came to mind was dear old Shakespeare.
Olly McPherson
@ ThatLeftTurnInABQ
The workings of government are certainly hard to shift, as the old “ship” analogy makes clear. I think there are a number of factor that make Obama’s incrementalism additionally frustrating, first among them:
1. The perceived blank-check bailout for the financial industry, something that did happen very quickly, and with, seemingly, no strings attached
2. Establishing Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff. The promise seemed to be that he would be the attack dog for Obama’s vision of government, but instead he seems to be more-geared toward attacking progressives and advancing a triangulating, help-the-Blue-Dogs-and-slap-the hippies mission
3. Clinging too long to hopes of bipartisanship, to the point where the crazies are defining the debate. Seriously, what is Obama’s vision for his presidency? What changes would he like to accomplish? With Reagan, W., and even Clinton, I think you could answer this question, like it or not. I think Obama is too squishy in defining his vision and ambition.
Now, is that who he was when we elected him? Sure, but I didn’t like that aspect then, and the aura of winning has begun to fade, and with it, his momentum. I think he’s running into dangerous territory here, in terms of being able to get things done. I hope I’m wrong, but I’d like him to drive the debate again.
arguingwithsignposts
@SGEW:
There was an earlier CIA report that was released over much pressure from Panetta et. al., that was not, IIRC, released under pressure of lawsuit.
Leelee for Obama
As a former NYer, I use Cuomo’s “Campaigning in poetry, govern in prose” quote a lot.
Campaigning is done from the viewpoint of what is wanted given perfect circumstances, knowing full-well those are unlikely. Governing is done in the real world, where the blood and guts are on YOUR desk now. However, Obama is navigating a world populated with true Wingnuts who lie without compunction, and Democrats of the Blue Dog variety who have their own asses to cover, and other Democrats with very unsavory friends in influential places. Getting the cats herded in this case will take a rather large electric can-opener, and he is diligently seeking one..
SGEW
@arguingwithsignposts:
This one? (Also released to comply with the ACLU’s FOI request) Or did you mean the OLC memos? The ICRC report? The Army’s report?
To be honest, I can’t keep up anymore. But I’m pretty sure that no CIA report has been released by the White House without a court order demanding it.
Michael
Lets talk for a minute about Greenwald.
I’ll start by elaborating on the vagueness perpetrated by “Constimatooshinal lawyers” of the left and right.
1. There are no objective standards. You have hundreds of opinions to cherry pick citations from in order to daisy chain even the most ridiculous contentions. Some are in the main body, some in dicta and some in dissent.
2. This “work” (if you can call it that) doesn’t usually involve regular problems suffered by normal people.
3. If you like to do the big sort of “harrumph harrumph” arguments which make you feel like a Big Player while not really having your ass on the hook for being accountable for the result you achieve, then it is Teh Awesome.
4. You’re not forced to think on your feet while asking questions in depositions or trial. Most of the work is tied up in writing tedious, contentious, overwrought briefs, most of which misrepresent the contention that you cherrypicked, you may never even have to stand up in front of a judge at an argument.
As a 20 year+ legal practitioner who deals primarily in business, family and estate work, I’m responsible for a great deal accuracy and achieving some positive results for those clients in my care – judges in my field are exacting in terms of the sorts of arguments that have credibility, and would be viciously critical if I tried to do the same stupid shit I see coming out of Constimatooshinalists of the left and right.
As to Greenwald himself, I note these items that have been represented as biographical:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald
Count me as unimpressed, to say in the least.
Translation: navel gazing is far more profitable than litigating for wingnut losers.
Yeah, that’s really the mark of a serious guy. I wsh we had an eye-rolling smiley.
RememberNovember
They should take the WSJ, The NY Post and Investor’s Business Daily and combine them into the Murdoch Media Manifesto.
Olly McPherson
@ Michael
Personally, nothing you’ve said diminishes my regard for Greenwald’s work (i.e. writing for Salon.com). I don’t even see how it adds up to a critique.
JPK
I appreciate Greenwald’s work and have seen it have a positive impact on friends and acquaintances, particularly regarding the political chattering classes that Michael is complaining about. As an example, one friend of mine “trusted and liked” Tim Russert and could not be shaken from that by any argument I made — until she started reading Greenwald’s critiques. I think Greenwald’s clarity is useful and important, and while I would be happy to see almost all of the others on Michael’s list go, I could accept their staying if it was the only way to keep Greenwald.
Ed Drone
You have it wrong. If he/she has a kingdom, then he/she is a monarch, not a monarchist. YOU, by acknowledging his/her monarchical status, seemingly with approval, are the monarchist.
Ed (the pedantist)
Ed Drone
I take back my last comment concerning monarchy — the commenter does not approve, so therefore he/she is an anti-monarchist, or democrat (possibly even a republican, as the term used to be used).
My apologies.
Ed
arguingwithsignposts
@SGEW:
I may be getting it confused with the OLC memos. IDK. I should note, however, that the FOIA lawsuits from the ACLU were brought during the Bush Admin. and (lawyers, correct me if I’m wrong) the gov’t could have pursued appeals in the cases that we are talking about here (as they have in some other instances regarding detainees). Instead of foot-dragging through the appeals process, the docs were redacted and released (which may be why panetta was screaming).
If that is the case, then I would think the administration’s handling of this would bring approval from civil libertarians for not continuing the fight. Am I wrong on that?
Shawn in ShowMe
Orwell was a journalist who lived among the masses and wrote about his experiences in a political context. Greenwald is a paid pundit who engages in daily navel gazing with no political awareness whatsoever.
SGEW
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m not (necessarily) arguing with you. Just pointing out that the Obama administration has yet to choose to release any of the CIA documents without there having been a court order first.
Also, @Ed the Pedantic Drone: It should be noted that most monarchs are also monarchists, in that they (assumedly) support the monarchical system that they inhabit. So there.