Eric Martin

Making Perfection the Enemy of the Good

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by Eric Martin Gulliver, reacting to reports that the US is mulling over a $1.2 billion arms/training package to Yemen as part of a burgeoning whack-a-mole counterterrorism effort in that country, sums it up quite concisely: A dude tried to get on an airplane in the U.S. with a bomb in his pants, and this … Read more

Sold a Ballot of Goods

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by Eric Martin Joshua Foust sounds a somewhat pessimistic note on the eve of Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.  In addition to the increased marginalization of women politicians (through intimidation and vioelence, no less), there is evidence of backsliding: In comparison to the 2009 election, nearly 600 additional voting stations will be closed this year. These … Read more

Lotta Strands to Keep in My Head, Man

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by Eric Martin And if it weren't for those meddling kids, it would have worked: Consider what the Limbaugh/Morano crowd is saying about climate: not only that that the world's scientists and scientific institutions are systematically wrong, but that they are purposefully perpetrating a deception. Virtually all the world's governments, scientific academies, and media are either … Read more

The King Called Up His Jet Fighters

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by Eric Martin Some months back, it was quite popular for pundits and foreign policy commentators to rue the fact that Obama was actually considering – gulp – engaging less-than-democratic regimes in North Korea and Iran (though the latter is, really, quite more democratic than the former). Notably, James Traub couched Obama's tepid, insignificant outreach … Read more

Best Buy

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by guest blogger Gary Farber.

In an economic depression, it's especially important to invest wisely.  That's why wise American business leaders believe a dollar spent buying John Boehner is a dollar well spent. 

Remember, if you want to fight against the interests of common people, you want to Buy Boehner.

[…] He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former
aides representing some of the nation’s biggest businesses, including
Goldman Sachs, Google, Citigroup, R. J. Reynolds, MillerCoors and UPS.

A helpful graphic of some of Minority Leader Boehner's best pals.

[…] Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said the industry ties only
help make Mr. Boehner a better Republican leader. “Like the American
people, Boehner — a former small-business man — is most concerned right
now about the issue of jobs,” he said. “So he often speaks with
employers, rather than, for example, labor unions or environmentalists
who support job-killing policies.”

Remember, if you kill a job, you have to eat it.

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Bin Laden’s True Followers

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by guest blogger Gary Farber.

On October 29th, 2004, Osama bin Laden released a video addressing the American people, and the world, as part of his series of fatwas and statements.

Among the things he said (italics for emphasis are mine):

[…]  All that we have to do is to send two Mujahedin to the farthest point
East to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda in order to
make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human economic
and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note
other than some benefits for their private companies.

This is in
addition to our having experience in using guerrilla warfare and the war
of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers as we alongside the
Mujahedin bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced
to withdraw in defeat. All Praise is due to Allah.

So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of
bankruptcy.

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Always Bet on Ali

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by Eric Martin Matt Yglesias takes note of the recent scuttlebutt regarding Iraq's inability to form a government: Apparently we’re trying to diminish the powers of the prime minister’s office as a way of greasing the skids of coalition: American officials said that the approach, which aims to bring Mr. Maliki’s State of Law party, … Read more