No one updates himself like Glenn Greenwald (a/k/a “Rick Ellensburg,†“Thomas Ellers,†“Ellison,†“Wilson†and “Ryanâ€Â) but the Nine Updates of Rage occasioned by the House passage of the FISA/telecom amnesty bill may be a record, even for him. Perhaps the highlight of the main post is this declaraton:
Surrendering and fearful: that’s the face of the Democratic Party.
He may have a point, though he’s only disappointed when the “surrendering” is to teh eeeevil Rethuglians.
Of the Nine Updates, my favorite whinge may be from UPDATE III:
Today, the House leadership has set aside a grand total of one hour to debate the FISA/amnesty bill, and gave its members less than 24 hours from the time it was released yesterday until they have to vote on it today. That’s the same bill which the NYT this morning calls “the most significant revision of surveillance law in 30 years.” They’re going to enact massive changes to our spying laws without having the slightest idea what they’re voting on.
While Congress often votes on voluminous pieces of legislation with little idea of the content, the bill at issue here is not voluminous, and the the underlying issues have been a matter of public debate over the course of the past year.  Greenwald himself has been churning out posts with near-interminable updates analyzing and critiquing this very bill for the past 24 hours.  Perhaps this is a superhuman feat that can be accomplished only from the confines of a cabana in Brazil, far beyond the ken of your typical House Representative and his or her staff. But even if it is, House Members have Internet access to the unsuppressed brilliance of best-selling author and constitutional law maven Glenn Greenwald! How could this bill have passed over his objections? Could it be that his raging paranoia is exceeded only by his overweening ego?
In any event, Greenwald approvingly quotes Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) in UPDATE V, though she had no more time to read and understand the bill than her colleagues. To be fair, I am not surprised that someone with Lee’s background would be opposed to any bill of this sort. But the point of amusement here is that Lee invokes the wiretapping of Martin Luther King, Jr. — which just coincidentally happens to be the focus of newspaper ads to be run against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) by groups for which Greenwald is raising money, and which he unveils in UPDATE VI. Amazing how all of that came together in less time than the 24 hours in which it is supposedly impossible to read and understand the bill.
The runner-up for most amusing whinge would be in UPDATE II, where Greenwald — without any trace of irony – ridicules a comment from Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) by adding that “[h]e forgot to say that we should click our heels and salute before obeying.” The man whose claim to fame is arguing that Illinois neo-Nazi Matthew Hale should not have been disqualified from practicing law on character grounds goes Godwin? This is not the Glenn Greenwald I knew. Or the Rick Ellensburg.
As amusing as all of that is, the most interesting stuff may be in UPDATES VII & VIII, which again excoriates Barack Obama for supporting the bill and (correctly) dismisses as political theater his claim that he will work to remove the amnesty provision from the bill in the Senate. At Balkinization, “JB” astutely observes:
Barrack [sic] Obama plans to be the next President of the United States. Once he becomes President, he will be in the same position as George W. Bush: he wants all the power he needs to protect the country. Moreover, he will be the beneficiary of a Democratic-controlled Congress, and he wants to get some important legislation passed in his first two years in office.
Given these facts, why in the world would Obama oppose the current FISA compromise bill? If it’s done on Bush’s watch, he doesn’t have to worry about wasting political capital on it in the next year. Perhaps it gives a bit too much power to the executive. But he plans to be the executive, and he can institute internal checks within the Executive Branch that can keep it from violating civil liberties as he understands them. And not to put too fine a point on it, once he becomes president, he will likely see civil liberties issues from a different perspective anyway.
So, in short, from Obama’s perspective, what’s not to like?
This is not very Changey at all, which is what has sent Greenwald and his joyless band of sycophants off the rails so completely.
At this juncture, it is worth noting that the title of Greenwald’s much-updated screed is “What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by ‘bipartisanship'”. Any rank-and-file Obama supporter who thinks that an Obama presidency will issue in some Utopia of Unity on an issue of any controversy can now consider themselves disabused of that fantasy. It is fairly clear that paranoid propagandists like Greenwald and his nutroots ilk will brook no compromise on issues of national security — not even one backed by 46% of House Democrats, their leadership and their presumptive presidential nominee.
IRONIC UPDATE: Greenwald’s foaming continues unabated in a new post, directed not only at Obama, but also at those trying to make excuses for him:
[T]his attitude that we should uncritically support Obama in everything he does and refrain from criticizing him is unhealthy in the extreme. No political leader merits uncritical devotion — neither when they are running for office nor when they occupy it — and there are few things more dangerous than announcing that you so deeply believe in the Core Goodness of a political leader, or that we face such extreme political crises that you trust and support whatever your Leader does, even when you don’t understand it or think that it’s wrong. That’s precisely the warped authoritarian mindset that defined the Bush Movement and led to the insanity of the post-9/11 Era, and that uncritical reverence is no more attractive or healthy when it’s shifted to a new Leader.
If he was not preaching extremism in the pursuit of liberty, I could better appreciate the hobgoblin of his consistency. If it was not already taken, Greenwald could title a book about this crowd Great American Hypocrites. Or Liberal Fascism.
Unironic Update: Allah-lanche!
I read that, and have the same impression.
It was pretty funny, Glenn gone overboard so obviously.
I liked James Balkin take on FISA and Obama:
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-obama-kinda-likes-fisa-bill-but-he.html
Perhaps it gives a bit too much power to the executive. But he plans to be the executive, and he can institute internal checks within the Executive Branch that can keep it from violating civil liberties as he understands them.
I don’t know, that all sounds very unitary to me. How could anyone remotely foresee Obamessiah operating in such a fashion?
– From the level of escalating hysteria in this piece of spooge from Mr. sock, I think he saw the perplexed look in Nancy’s face yesterday, when it was apparent she’s finally educated enough to stop looking under the bed for the FISA boogiemanm, and hes feeling punked.
– One by one, banjo man is losing his pet wedge issues, and looking silly while it happens. Nothing says Democrat like unabashed screaming at your own leadership, and since Sheehan seems to have gotten down to the occassional “I’ll kidnap all her grandkids if the bitch doesn’t do what I demand”, who will be left to carry the brave new hopey changy banner.
– The way things are going if anymore issues get resolved, El Guaco banjosock will be reduced to writing about beetle infestations in the rose garden.
Could it be, that no matter how off the wall your political base is, that when presented with compelling evidence of the absolute need for this bill, that common sense triumphed?
Moaning really loudly is one thing, but I’m sure the Dems don’t really want to come to work one morning and find half of DC gone.
And as usual, the moonbats seem to have no idea that data mining is NOT random wiretapping. But let’s not let any FACTS get in their way…
Marginally related: a power outage in DC caused the Examiner newspaper there to go ballistic because the District’s answer to DHS didn’t spend its federal grant on being prepared for… wait for it… a blackout.
I mean, it’s not as if our Nation’s Capital has bigger things to worry about, is it?
Nobody ever says they are going to abuse the power they are given, they all promise they won’t and we always find that they do. That’s sort of why the Constitution was written, isn’t it?
– What, they’re still not intercepting your calls to your brother in law about the family Kulitch recipe sashal. What a bummer.
– Well you might use phrases like “…and its necessary to “beat” the seven egg yolks for hours at a time until the safferin can leak into the surrounding area, and cause the material to shoot up through the silo shaped launch tube….”. Maybe they’ll take it as some sort of Cryto-code for sending missiles at your next door neighbors cat or something. I’m sure if you try hard enough theres some way even you can get their attention.
– Barring any success, you can always send the NSA peopla an wmail and tell them how insulted you are that they don’t seem to give a fuck about your plans for world domination through the use of Weapons of Mass Dough.
I wonder whether Gleenwald’s over the top rageyness is due to nature or nurture, or perhaps boils.
“Barrack [sic] Obama plans to be the next President of the United States. Once he becomes President, he will be in the same position as George W. Bush: he wants all the power he needs to protect the country.”
Shouldn’t that be under a twenty-four point “BREAKING” headline with the flashing red alarm light?
I must say, the part where they’re campaigning against Democrats tickles me. Rage, rage against the machine! Let slip UPDATE X!
– Shouldn’t that be “Let slip the socks of UPDATE X!”
I think Gleen(s)’s are quite a few drama queens.
Wait, can I say “queen”?
I tire of this Greenwald. And the Andrew, he provides us precious little sport either. And but the wee dawn of summer it is.
Nobody ever says they are going to abuse the power they are given, they all promise they won’t and we always find that they do.
sounds like the gay lobby to the courts: we just want recognition… privileged consideration under the law is not what we are after. We just want equity.
Courts: Here is your equity, then.
Oh, erm… howabout some privileged status then?
Public: You said that’s not what you were after.
Right… wow. We don’t recall that.
Public: You said not to worry about that: here, here, and here.
Right. erm. Ok. So when you deliver the special protection under the law, could you also provide a couple stockyards worth of banana hammocks?
Public: What?
Banana hammocks. The injuns got blankets. We demand banana hammocks.
Public: No. Absolutely not. You never said anything about banana hammocks.
Right. Erm. All we are looking for is a subsidy for banana hammocks. Is that really too much to ask?
Public: Why, yes… it is too much to ask.
Oh, in that case, we’ll just compromise for special protections.
Courts: sounds reasonable to us.
Public: Good grief!
Now can you give us a wee little push down Slippery Slope Lane.
Public: Fuck you.
Is it poor sport to point out to Gleen that Martin Luther King was survailled
under Justice Department guidelines that aren’t affected by FISA. This is what happens when you take “The Bourne
Supremacy” or Enemy of the State” as a instructional text”. That would be cool, but frankly they’re not that competent. Rest assure, the “Kwitzach
Haderach” will probably use it against
the other members of the “CHOAM’ guild
(Big Oil. Tobacco, the RNC)instead of
the real enemy. The Elian ‘rendition’
and “Operation Meggido” are testimony toward that viewpoint.
So who is going to be the lucky benefactor of Gleen’s denouncing the democrats? McKinney?
Yeah, nine updates is a bit much. It isn’t like getting a report on someone’s counter-tops, exposing Scott Beauchamp, or revealing that Jamil Hussein does exist. Those were important issues; this is just the Constitution.
Intercepting interntional intelligence does not violate the Constitution, and it is safe to say no intelligence of any kind will be intercepted from rick.
Why do rick/Thomas/Ellers/Mona and all of the other sock puppets and sycophants hate democracy and the Constitution?
Scott Beauchamp made fun of a horribly deformed woman that didn’t even exist just so maybe America would be more persuadable to embrace a humbling defeat and hand the Middle East over to totalitarian Islamicists.
I still think that was a very curious thing to do.
BTW,
“rick” is indeed a sock-puppet for an occasional commenter here. But he put “ellensburg4U” in the spoofed e-mail address, which is pretty funny. So I’ll give him that one.
troy – In Re: wiretapping MLK.
There has been forty years of jurisprudence on that issue, as well as stautes enacted. The legal situation isn’t quite the same. Forty years is a span of time, as demonstrated by the legal environment in 1940 as compared to 1980. Actually, the events are near fifty years ago, which makes it 1940 to 1990.
Whistling through the graveyard. GiGi believes Itself to be piously worthy of a massive spying operation by the evil “Bush&Co”, and fears the video will appear on UpYourTube. What a self-filled balloon. Too bad GiGi and like minded silly prissies don’t have the courage of their “convictions” and go be human shields for the taliban, or aq, or Hamas…. I guess they’re too busy in Virtual World ™ being “human shields for privacy”, for Michelle and The Children, and for America’s other enemies. Ignorance is curable with education, stupidity only with death. In Chicago, the stupid never stop voting.
Hunter, it is a secret recipe, how come they don’t want to know?
besides i can make great vodka seeped on blueberries and cranberries. They can blame only themselves, their lazy asses
Oh, well…
Mugged by reality.
Somewhere, the ghost of Barry Goldwater smiles…
Yeah, but how did that work out in ’64?
Those were important issues; this is just the Constitution.
I doubt “rick” will be back, but let me ask it this:
Where in the Constitution does it say that the government doesn’t have the right to examine anything which crosses the border?
For that matter, can you name any country in the world which does not assert that right?
Diplomatic bags, that’s about it. In practice, borders are quite a bit more porous. The port of Long Beach is a notorious example – how do you “inspect” that many containers? You don’t. You scan them for radiation and bio agents, at best.
But on the electronic side, where the possibility of non-human monitoring is much better, why would you pass up the opportunity? “Semantic Forests”, go google.
Have all of the gleeeeeeeeens had the opportunity to post their own updates yet?
[…] Rick Ellensburg’s having his own hard reckoning with that fact of political life per the update to Karl’s latest post, but that’s not so much poignant as … immensely […]
Alright, I went through and read all 9 updates, and then clicked through and listened to his nasally whiny bitchy little self on airamerica. Good Allah, how do the cabana boys stand him?
Earplugs.
Or, you know, suicide.
If they choose hara kiri or seppuku, there must be a lot of them, because the Socky McSockersons of the world never seem to go away. Maybe the gleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeens have been working with the nishit on how to reproduce.
December 18, 2005
The New York Times leaked the National Security Agency (NSA) covert multi level terrorist communication surveillance and intercept tracking program.
The Times disclosure of a top-secret covert wire communication tracking program of Al Qaeda killed the program
December 20, 2005
Senate Democratic Minority leader Harry Reid gathered together with senate democrats House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senator Ken Salazar, Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Charles Schumer, in an attempt blockthe extension of The Patriot Act specifically “FISA” and on that day the democrats did the unthinkable and broadcast to the world and every terrorist and would be terrorist the National Security Agency NSA classified electronic communication intercept program of terrorist wire communications
THE DEMOCRATS TOLD THE ENEMY
HOW WE TRACK THE ENEMY
THE WAY WE TRACK THE ENEMY AND
THE NAME OF THE AGENCY THAT TRACKS THE ENEMY
The democrats took great joy in going to the media night after night broadcasting
to the world and every terrorist enemy of the United States the entire NSA
classified terrorist surveillance and electronic wire communication intercept
program, and the details of how a FISA court operates.
During this same week of December 2005 the democrats accused the
President of “spying” on Americans, in an attempt to cover up
aiding and abetting the enemy by broadcasting to
the enemy tactical military operational details of the NSA communication
intercept gathering program,
gee do yah think Osama and Al Qaeda
still uses email, cell phones or any other form of electronic communication?
FISA is as useful as tits on a bull,
these congressional democrat retards think this FISA is even
worth the paper it is written on—
FISA is a joke a useless joke —
FISA and the NSA wire intercept program are longer a secrets– retards
the terrorist “know” the secret ass wipes
Will someone please explain to Speaker Pelosi, and this Greenwald individual
when you broadcast a secret it is no longer a secret, FISA and the NSA are useless
So the democrats are working on a senate bill making significant revision of FISA and the NSA surveillance programs —
Here is a bill revision
THROUGH FISA AND THE BILL IN THE TRASH!!
Got kinda noisy in here all of a sudden, didn’t it?
WHAT? SPEAK UP, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!
[…] In the past week alone, he has alienated some segment of his base by supporting the bill to update “wiretapping” under FISA. He has alienated some segments of an otherwise friendly media by breaking his word on opting […]
This is a nice post about variety of Socks and its a very needed information.
Thanks for such an important post.
Thanks