Enemy of the State: How Glenn Greenwald is taking on the world, and why he'll never stop.
http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2013/10/24/enemy-stateOne of the problems with political ideologues is that they can be such a drag. While I’ve always admired Greenwald’s work — rigorous 3,000-word columns packed with hyperlinks to federal court documents, obscure government memoranda, and dissident dispatches by foreign bloggers — I worried that in the flesh, Greenwald would be grim, cold, and wonky. His obsession with surveillance and privacy issues have made him into an ideological pillar of the rather sterile, unfriendly world of civil libertarian politics, a group not known for its warmth and humanism.
My hesitation dissipates the instant Greenwald and Miranda pick me up off an Ipanema boulevard in their red mini station wagon. I’m tagging along with the couple to a photo shoot for a feature spread (fully clothed) for the Brazilian edition of Playboy. “It’s a very tasteful magazine,” Greenwald insists. “It’s run by gays!” With Katy Perry playing on the radio, we spend our first hour together mostly talking about Cesar Millan and the tyrannical nature of chihuahuas. Miranda, who has found his own global acclaim and notoriety since being detained at Heathrow, is on his phone trying to coordinate picking up scalped tickets to a sold-out Bon Jovi/Nickleback concert in Rio. “I am going to this concert!” he declares. Greenwald credits Miranda, a Brazilian native who is currently finishing a degree in communications, for his success in journalism. “He’s like my Svengali,” says Greenwald.
Greenwald, 46, met Miranda, 28, in 2005, on the first day of a two-month vacation in Rio. At the time, Greenwald was just beginning to transition from his job as a constitutional law litigator to fiery polemicist. He was reading on the beach at Copacabana; Miranda was playing beach volleyball. Miranda’s beach ball rolled onto Greenwald’s towel: “Oi! Meu nome é Glenn.” They moved in together that week. “As a gay man, when you come to Rio for seven weeks, you’re not looking for a relationship,” Greenwald says with a bawdy laugh, “but I never fell in love so fast.”
.....
Greenwald and Miranda never moved to the U.S. together because, until the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in June, Miranda could not get an immigration visa. “For eight years we didn’t have that option,” Greenwald says, “but then, literally the week DOMA got struck down, this other little barrier to living in the United States popped up: I might be arrested indefinitely the second I got off the plane.”
Not that Brazil has been some kind of tropical detention center for Greenwald: “Rio is the best fucking place in the world,” he says as we cruise along the white sands of Copacabana. “The people and the culture have taught me a different way to live; it’s all spoken to my soul since I got here. The U.S. is more concerned with being an actor in the world and influencing the world. You don’t have to be here too long to figure out there’s never any thought at any time of invading another country. I mean, I assume if Argentina invaded Brazil for some reason then, yes, OK, but you realize when staying in another country that the notion of constant invasion is extremely radical.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
In seven-plus years of political writing, I have written a grand total of twice for Cato: the first was a 2009 report on the success of drug decriminalization in Portugal, and the second was a 2010 online debate in which I argued against former Bush officials about the evils of the surveillance state.
I not only disclosed those writings but wrote about them and featured them multiple times on my blog as it happened: see here and here as but two examples. In 2008, I spoke at a Cato event on the radicalism and destructiveness of Bush/Cheney executive power theories.
That's the grand total of all the work I ever did for or with Cato in my life. The fees for those two papers and that one speech were my standard writing and speaking fees. Those payments are a miniscule, microscopic fraction of my writing and speaking income over the last 7 years. I have done no paying work of any kind with them since that online surveillance debate in 2010 (I spoke three times at Cato for free: once to debate the theme of my 2007 book on the failure of the Bush administration, and twice when I presented my paper advocating drug decriminalization).
I have done far more work for, and received far greater payments from, the ACLU, with which I consulted for two years (see here). I spoke at the Socialism Conference twice - once in 2011 and once in 2012 - and will almost certainly do so again in 2013. I'll speak or write basically anywhere where I can have my ideas heard without any constraints. Moreover, I'll work with almost anyone - the ACLU, Cato or anyone else - to end the evils of the Drug War and the Surveillance State. And I'll criticize anyone I think merits it, as I did quite harshly with the Koch Brothers in 2011: here.
The very suggestion that there is something wrong with writing for or speaking at CATO is inane and childish. The claim that it means I "worked at CATO" is just an obvious lie. If writing for or speaking at CATO makes one a right-wing CATO-employed libertarian, then say hello to the following right-wing libertarian CATO employees, all of whom have been writers for or speakers at the CATO Institute in the past:
Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas (Writing for CATO's Unbound: here and here);
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (speaking about surveillance issues at CATO in January, 2011, speaking again at CATO in July, 2012 about FISA, and favorably citing CATO);
Democratic Rep. Jared Polis (defending CATO as "a leader in fighting to end the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and helping to end the War on Drugs"
.
the ACLU's Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson (speaking at the CATO Institute's 2011 event on FISA);
Brown University Professor Glenn Loury (writing for CATO's Unbound);
liberal blogger and Clinton Treasury official Brad DeLong (writing for CATO's Unbound);
Harvard law Professor Lawrence Lessig (writing for CATO's Unbound);
liberal blogger and GWU Professor Henry Farrell (writing for CATO's Unbound); and
Wall Street critic and securities professor William Black (writing for CATO's Unbound).
Trying to judge someone for where they write or speak - rather than for the ideas they advocate - is about as anti-intellectual and McCarthyite as it gets. CATO has a far better record of advocacy than the mainstream Democratic Party on vital issues such as opposing the Drug War, secrecy abuses, the Surveillance State, marriage equality for LGBT citizens, anti-war activism, and reforming the excesses of America's penal state. They were attacking Bush and Cheney for power abuses (see here) and aggressive wars (see here) far earlier, and far more loudly, than most mainstream Democratic politicians
As is obvious, all sorts of liberals, progressives, and even leftists have written for or spoken at CATO. It's a think tank devoted to debate and discussion of public policy, and invites a wide range of speakers to participate.
I'm proud of all the advocacy work I've done against the evils of the Drug War and surveillance abuses -- whether it's at the ACLU, CATO, the Socialism Conference or anywhere else. That's why I write openly about all of that work. But the claim that I've ever worked at CATO or was in any way affiliated with them is just an outright lie.
that.
Nor is cutting/pasting reams of limp denial (where he tries to insist that CATO is "better" than the Democratic Party....yeah, sure! And call anyone Joe McCarthy who doesn't agree, too!!).
He was paid a stipend for them for a long period of time--see, that's when he was writing that "report" for CATO. He was also paid appearance fees for showing up at CATO insider/donor events.
Now, you can call that something other than "employment," but when he prayed "Give us this day our daily bread" his prayers were answered by Koch.
And it's not being "Joe McCarthy" to point that fact out. But yelling "Joe McCarthy" at people who point out these facts? Why, that's something interestingly pathetic and humorous, right there!!
Yours is the funniest (albeit, I'm sure, unintentionally so) post I've read today.
And then, of course, there's this.....
http://www.cato-unbound.org/contributors/glenn-greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional lawyer and widely read blogger for Salon.com. His work has focused on civil liberties, the expansion of federal power, and the loss of transparency in government.
He has also been published by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, as well as the Cato Institute. He is the author of the books A Tragic Legacy (2007) and How Would a Patriot Act? (2006).
Greenwald is routinely cited as one of the most influential American pundits active today. He holds a B.A. from George Washington University and a J.D. from New York University Law School.
I guess he "contributes" out of the goodness of his heart, is that it?
Why don't you call me another derogatory name, yeah, that's the ticket!!!!
But before you do that, watch this video, where he acknowledges his association with CATO goes back to 2008...
I don't care about them. And don't plead with me to read GG's little report. "But....but....it was GOOOD!!!!!!" So what? It was work product that he sold to CATO for a stipend that enabled him to live while he performed the service--in other words, he was EMPLOYED by CATO. That's the bottom line. You want to know how much he charged? You'll have to ask him. I'm sure it was a good wage the Koch brothers paid him, otherwise he wouldn't KEEP COMING BACK to them. Over and over again--for years.
As he said in the clip, his association with them "BEGAN" in 2008. He was delivering lectures and reports for the two--no, three, at least-- years following that, http://www.cato.org/events/ending-global-war-drugs all under the CATO umbrella. He was also attending "inner circle" parties, and they gave him an award. They list him as a "contributor."
Keep whistling past the graveyard if you'd like. Only someone with a desperate need to believe would think he was "volunteering" to help them. He was getting paid. He WORKED FOR them.
I mean, come on. If you want to "like" the guy, fine, but he has self - declared that he does not identify with liberal/progressive perspectives. He is what he is, and like I said, he's more comfy with Rand Paul than Bernie Sanders. Deal with it.
https://twitter.com/Gus_802/statuses/351554938704371714
EDIT: Ooops, I made a mistake--Greenwald's association with CATO goes back to 2007, at least!!!
http://www.cato.org/events/tragic-legacy-how-good-vs-evil-mentality-destroyed-bush-presidency
Those Koch brothers must be very pleased with him. They spent enough time grooming him, it looks like...
Response to MADem (Reply #39)
Recommended even though I'm disappointed that Bon Jovi 
is on the same stage as Nickleback.
in Texas...a person along with others who worked hard to get the TRUTH OUT...but now "UNDER THE BUS!" 
's It's okay though...
There's a contingent who think that many of us "fell off a Turnip Truck." Know NUTTHING..Do, NUTTHING... Yet .....one has to consider...the sources.
have happened since they did such a good job of CONTROL!
The Prisoners are Getting Anxious so "WE MUST RESORT to FORCE FEEDING INFOMATION"...might be what it is? Who knows...but, there's a ring of truth to this to me as a long time Democrat whose kind of seen it all. 
and would fight tooth and nail to laugh CTs down by others...with so many of their own different conspiracies NOW about the NSA/GG/Snowden saga.
I guess they don't know what hypocrisy means.
from MI-5 
and two others from Parliament Investigations. Glenn's partner was threatened in the Heathrow Airport and he knew that with Guardian being hit & investigated that he couldn't stay there because it would hurt Guardian...dragging them more into investigations than when MI-5 came in and destroyed the hard drives thinking that Glenn had info stored there at the Newspaper.
I believe that he went where he went with Omidyar because he hoped it would help Guardian for him to no longer be working for them and he hoped that he would be able to continue his work.
Whether he gets STIFFED by Omidyar with the new offer or not ...I'll leave it up to Glenn's smarts to know what to do. But, it gives him a chance to keep reporting and that's what he loves to do in exposing wrongdoing. We shall see how long the alliance lasts.. But, I still believe he wants to work for GOOD...and he will find a way.
