Enough Of Greenwald, Already

Glenn Greenwald, who can't even seem to get a blog template right, is headlining a post "Prominent right-wing blogger today calls for the murder of Supreme Court Justices - the Right fails to condemn it."

He's referring to this post by Misha of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler blog. The post goes on about the Supreme Court after linking to the horrific video of two soldiers who were recently tortured, murdered and mutilated.

(WARNING: You do NOT want to click the above link if you’re in any way inclined to acts of rage and violence and most CERTAINLY not if you’ve got any loaded firearms nearby).

Try doing anything to those mutilating darlings of the Supremes in order to extract life-saving intel from them, and then wait for the Supreme Whores to decide that you were “humiliating” them in doing so.

Five ropes, five robes, five trees. Some assembly required. Until then, here’s the message to our troops overseas: Shoot to kill, don’t bother taking prisoners.

I'm not going to condemn that from Misha because I don't see it as anything other than hyperbole and it's Misha's blog and a matter of free individual speech. But I will say something about Greenwald, as he seems determined to make himself the most annoying little twit of the Left - perhaps, in his mind, a star.

Here's Greenwald on White Supremacist Matthew Hale's Internet speech:

Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer for Mr. Hale, said the charges filed today might stem from a misinterpretation of a statement by his client on the Internet that "we are in a state of war with Judge Lefkow."

"They are probably trying to take things he said along the lines of political advocacy and turn it into a crime," Mr. Greenwald said. "The F.B.I. may have interpreted this protected speech as a threat against a federal judge, but it's probably nothing more than some heated rhetoric."

Clearly given Greenwald's own reasoning on Hale, he's simply trying to gin up some controversy here to benefit his blog traffic - as he seems to be doing more and more.

Time was when Hollywood studios would pluck some chorus girl out of the line and apply money, power and influence to make her a star. Now apparently an off-shoot of a $140 million+ corporation, Working Assets, has plucked an average, unemployed lawyer named Greenwald to be the Left's star lawyer blogger. He could start by keeping his New York license current.

Greenwald's book and blog were all but created out of whole cloth by prominent liberal blogs and a media machine. Someone should take the time to teach him how to get a link straight, or write a 300 word post in 300 words. Instead, he seems to prefer 2,000 or so words of the most incredibly dry prose, I doubt many even bother reading the full tripe. If he's simply looking to fascinate himself, he might opt for actual masturbation, instead - and give everyone a break. Check back posts, every blog on the Left was basically begging people to buy the book when it came out, such was the coordinated effort.

On February 15, I asked Greenwald if he'd like to do a book. Working Assets stepped up to fund the project and launch Working Assets Publishing. By March 1, we had a contract and Greenwald sat down to write. There was a printer to find, a distributor to lure, an editorial team to assemble, and all of it managed by a quickly-formed publishing division at the San Francisco headquarters of Working Assets. After some very long days, we delivered the book to the printer on April 24. The day before, I sent digital manuscripts to seven bloggers I'd been working with and asked them to post about the book, if they found it worthy. Within days How Would a Patriot Act? rose from obscurity to number one on Amazon largely because those initial blogs ignited a wildfire of mentions and purchase links throughout the blogosphere.

He claims to have been involved in some of the highest-profile free speech cases over the past few years. He might want to correct his blog to indicate one - Matthew Hale. You can read most of the history on Hale here. Greenwald appears to have lost just about everything he's litigated and I believe he only represented Hale and his Church regarding his law license - running into enough controversy there over some information he shared regarding a passed note.

Even some liberal friends I talk to admit they are tired of watching him get kicked around by Tom Maguire: Glenn Greenwald's Career In Comedy and Glenn: As usual, Glenn Greenwald is clueless - and whomever else from the right that has bothered to take him on.

He appears to lack the academic background to pass as a serious Constitutional scholar, as he evidently wants to be billed. There are no decades of litigation experience, and as far as I can tell, he may not be currently qualified to walk into court as a lawyer in New York - though, as a non-lawyer, that's unclear. Still, given all of the above, you'd think NYU would have given him the intelligence to know when to shut up. Alas, once again, it seems an all too liberal education has failed us, in the end.

(minor grammatical correction last sentence)

Comments

[T-web]

The whole Greenwald phenomenon is puzzling, isn't it? He shot to internet stardom based on his "Bush Cultist" meme, which the left just ate up. The meme, of course, was discredited before he even proposed it by conservative opposition to Harriet Miers, and after by the Dubai ports deal and Bush's soft-on-immigration approach. Greenwald just has a lousy track record as a pundit, yet lefty blogs keep on lapping his stuff up. Given the star system on the left blogosphere in which everyone surrounds and defends a few top bloggers (Kos, Duncan Black, and now Greenwald), that side seems to be much more cultish than the right.

What's heartening, though, is that a few dissenting liberal blogs are now criticizing this blog culture.

[Big Bang hunter]

- Apparently the great Kossak leader Kos has sent down the marching orders to his prolitariat hoards that Progressive Marxist policy for the “Frisch affair” will be handled as follows:

a) It’s ok to issue a soft repudiation along the lines of “she shouldn’t do that” on Frisch’s comments.

b) It is however, a requirement to adamently tie any statements of mild dissaproval to the usual torrent of Left talking points, and political equivalency, working in the usual “Coulterism’s, Rush’s sex life, and any other bitchy red herring’s that can be managed. Slipping the words Zionist Neocon warmongers, Isreal, and oil into your comments would be good too”.

c) One good approach is to simply deny that you’ve ever heard of this woman, covering your eyes, and holding your hands over your ears, singing lalalalalala, if any Rethuglican’s try to actually exercise their free speech rights, which all good Kommrads know, were only invented for us. Use the Constitution as often as possible against the riechwing-nuts. Its your patriotic doodie.”

Your Fearless Leader: Kos Moulitosis

[Redleg]

Big Bang Hunter,
Are you really that stupid or do you just play an idiot in the blogosphere?

Frisch was an unknown blogger who said some dumb things and paid a high price for it. Coulter, Savage, Limbaugh and the rest are much higher profile swine who get on national TV and make their vile comments and are usually not challenged for those comments.

To play like conservatives aren't allowed to voice their opinions in the public forum is to be a fool or a liar.

Both liberals and conservative bloggers and pundits attack each other all the time. One of your people suggests we should hang Supreme Court Justices, then the libs make a stink out of it. One of our people makes creepy comments about another blogger's kid, then your people make some hay out of it. THat's how it works. Stop whining about not being allowed to respond.

By the way, there is a lot more talk from the right about hanging/executing/eliminating liberals and other internal enemies than there is from the left.

[Andrew]

Funny, that I keep reading Greenwald saying Frisch was "an unknown". Until tonight, I had never heard of Firsh, never heard of Greenwald, never heard of Riehl, never heard of most of the bloggers involved in this whole controversy.

I hate to say it, but bloggers remind me of acadmeics. "I am the preeminent authority on the works of Rigoberta Menchu" [actually, work... or ghost-written work, but you get the point] may impress three people in the world, but "I run the 672nd rated blog in Virginia" is no more impressive.

Anyway, a take from someone outside the "blogosphere" (hate that word): The idiot Frisch should have been sacked, as a professor should be held to the ethical standards we expect of your average middle school student. If I had said what she did when I was 6 my parents would have smacked me, so why should an "educated professional" be let off the hook for this.

As far the hypothetical lynching of Justices, I think anyone not currently sniffing glue can see it for a bit of (perhaps tasteless) over the top rhetoric, and can see Greenwald's hyperventilation as a bit of partisan melodrama masquerading as offense.

Anyway, sorry about my generally dismissive view of bloggers, but I still think blogging is right up there with myspace networking and speed dating as "important" activities of the twenty-aughts that will join the counter-culture of the 60's and "whip inflation now" as things seen as important at one time, and destined to become the butt of many a future joke.

Sorry guys, you may be on the (self-described and self-asserted) cutting edge of society, but that doesn't mean you're relevant to the vast majority of us.