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Above all else, the mythology of Muslim as Scary Menace must be preserved

Trying to solve Terrorism with more bombings is like trying to cure lung cancer by smoking more

On the eve of a new leak, widely trumpeted Pentagon accusations about the whistleblowing site have proven false

Opinion: Look at the successful case of Portugal when considering Proposition 19 in California.

The deceit and propaganda which justify both wars are identical, as are the harms they cause

Lawrence O'Donnell spends the night spouting a theory as trite as it is false

The soon-to-be House Majority Leader vows to protect Israel from his own Government

Upcoming speeches, a 1967 MLK interview on war, and midterm election lessons

The notion that Democrats lost because they were "too liberal" is a vapid cable-news platitude

Earlier today I posted video of a Civil Liberties and Terrorism speech I gave last night at the University of Wisconsin, along with some notices of events and media appearances tomorrow, but I wanted to separately post this 13-minute discussion I had on MSNBC this afternoon with Dylan Ratigan and Cenk Uygur about the Obama presidency, progressives and the Democratic Party, because I thought the discussion was quite good and touched on some important issues:

The ongoing death of the rule of law.  The administration's cartoon depiction of Anwar Awlaki.  Obama's empty vows.

There is, as usual, a complete lack of healthy skepticism over the Government's most recent terrorism claims

Examining WikiLeaks with a transparency advocate and harsh critic of the whistle-blowing site

A media demonization campaign against the whistle-blowing site includes outright falsehoods

That the whistle-blowing site has been charged with no crime is no barrier to severely punishing it

I have a legal question about the Wikileaks case, prompted by this this Guardian piece, by John Naughton, linked in Henry's comments. I must confess: I wasn't surprised or particularly scandalized when Amazon kicked Wikileaks off its cloud, because I figured Amazon was probably technically in the right. Wikileaks had probably violated whatever terms of service were in place. I thought this sounded like the sort of thing any private company was likely to do, whether or not Joe Lieberman actually brought pressure to bear. If you have a problem customer who has violated your terms of service, you terminate service. (Just to be clear: I think ongoing attempts to shut down Wikileaks in patently legally dodgy ways are an utter scandal. Joe Lieberman pressuring Amazon is a scandal. I'm with Glenn Greenwald. I also think existing intellectual property laws are, by and large, an atrocious mess. Still, the law is what it is, so the question of how a private company like Amazon can and should be expected to react to this sort of situation is narrower than certain other more general questions about free speech and the press and so forth.)

When many cynics thought it impossible, the President reaches an all-new low in his abysmal civil liberties record

The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Politico are just some of the outlets in need of a real retraction

Political liberties are meaningless if citizens are afraid to exercise them

Go read this Glenn Greenwald post and this followup from Nick Baumann about Gulet Mohamed, an American citizen who was recently arrested in Kuwait, brutally tortured (I think it's OK to use the word since it's someone else's police we're talking about), and then put on a no-fly list so he can't return to America. This is not the first time this has happened, and if you're really worried about an increasingly tyrannical government, this is the kind of thing to worry about. If a crime has been committed, then let him come home and charge him. If not, then he's an American citizen, and no American government should be allowed to unilaterally strand its own citizens overseas. This whole affair is revolting.