Eric Martin

by Eric Martin Andrew Bacevich has an interesting piece on the the ways in which the military has asserted itself in recent decades, and become somewhat independent of civilian leadership, despite the illusion of civilian control maintained for popular consumption.  Along the way, he makes a good point about the selective outrage concerning leaks: …With President … Read more

by Eric Martin The more information that emerges about the Cordoba Initiative, and its leaders, the more absurd the opposition to the Park51 project, and the vitriol directed at Imam Faisal Adul Rauf becomes.  First, it was revealed that Rauf and his wife are dedicated to promoting women's rights, and melding modernity with Islam from an interfaith framework - … Read more

by Eric Martin Matt Yglesias, merciful soul that he is, looks past Howard Dean's disappointing statements on the Park51 project and, instead, praises Dean's courage and prescience during the run-up to the war in Iraq.  Quoting Dean: My question is, why not use our information to help the UN disarm Iraq without war? Secretary Powell’s recent presentation at … Read more

by Eric Martin Glenn Greenwald makes an interesting observation: The New York Times, in June, detailed that proposed mosques in multiple locales in New York City — far away from the Sacred, Hallowed Space of Ground Zero — are provoking similar backlashes.  Two weeks ago, Yahoo News reported on similar incidents from around the country.  These are the real … Read more

by Eric Martin Ah, remember the days when Jake Tapper, Ruth Marcus and a host of others rushed to the aid of poor little Fox News when the White House suggested that the network served more as a GOP surrogate than a, well, fair and balanced news organization?  Well, Fox News has put its money where its mouth is: With Republicans … Read more

by Eric Martin As with Ireland's attempt to tighten their belts out of a recession, so, too, does Greece suffer the fate of Hoovernomics: The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent … Read more

by Eric Martin Atrios: Perhaps I was right to be a bit skeptical about claims from Republicans and conservatives that they wanted to liberate Muslims from tyranny. Indeed. After all, if all Muslims are the same as al-Qaeda (even Muslim Americans that were employed by the Bush administration to serve as goodwill ambassadors!) such that … Read more

by Eric Martin Shorter Harry Reid: This woman who lost her son in Iraq is less American than you and me because she is a Muslim.  And so was her son. Shameful and craven. Everyone involved in this despicable anti-Muslim hate fest should be deeply ashamed of themselves.  To the core.  This is not only un-American … Read more

by Eric Martin There are many flaws in the rationale employed by liberal hawks in supporting the use of military force for the putative benefit of the underlying populations of various military targets – from Iraq and Iran, to Burma.  For one, military force is a blunt weapon, and military intervention inevitably kills many of … Read more

by Eric Martin According to the ignorant, and reckless, anti-Muslim demagoguery being aggressively pursued by leading Republican and conservative voices in connection with the expansion of the Muslim cultural center blocks away from the WTC site, the Cordoba Initiative's leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a dangerous radical with ties to terrorism. Of course, that caricature … Read more

by Eric Martin Yet another episode of, "What Adam Serwer said…": The New York Times has a new piece up on Faisal Rauf and Daisy Khan, the couple behind the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero that has brought rank Islamophobia into the Republican mainstream: Daisy Khan, who immigrated, also as a teenager, to … Read more

by Eric Martin McClatchy provides a summary of the annual State Department Country Reports on Terrorism (more below). Something to keep in mind as the most recent PR campaign to extend the war in Afghanistan (to enter its second decade shortly) is underway.  That would be a war that we "must" extend at a cost of hundreds … Read more

by Eric Martin Many prominent conservatives are making the argument that Judge Walker is gay and, therefore, his decision regarding Prop 8 might have been unduly influenced by his sexual orientation. It's not that I would suggest that his sexual orientation (if he is gay) has no influence on his jurisprudence, but here's the thing, if … Read more

by Eric Martin More evidence that Ronald Reagan would not be welcome in today's Republican Party (in addition to his now heterodox stances on raising taxes, pursuing nuclear arms control and engaging adversarial regimes such as the then-Soviet Union): In fact, Judge Walker was first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, at … Read more

by Eric Martin Score one for civil rights, human decency and a celebration of life and those that live it: In a major victory for gay rights advocates, a federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California ban on same-sex marriage. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the voter-approved ban, known as Proposition … Read more

by Eric Martin I don't vote for Republicans often – as in, almost never.  However, I did vote for Mike Bloomberg (twice), the last time because he has done a solid overall job managing the NYC behemoth and, with respect to both occasions, because the Democratic Party nominated duds to oppose him.  Further, importantly to me, Bloomberg has actually been … Read more

by Eric Martin Nicole Belle attempts to beat back some of the misinformation surrounding the GOP's recent cause celebre: opposition to the expansion of the community center run by a moderate Muslim group a few blocks from the World Trade Center. First and foremost, the Cordoba House is not a mosque as Muslims generally use the … Read more

by Eric Martin The ADL on the contemplated expansion of the mosque near the World Trade Center: We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship. … Read more

by Eric Martin Kevin Drum calls attention to some alarming recent scientific evidence of global warming's effects on our ecosystem.  This one has to do with the health of the world's oceans, and it borders on cataclysmic: So, anyway, as temperatures rise the plankton die. As plankton die, they suck up less carbon dioxide, thus … Read more

by Eric Martin Adam Serwer highlights only the most recent encroachment on civil liberties undertaken by an executive branch that is, in this regard, as avaracious in its appetites with Democrats in charges as with Republicans: Civil libertarians have been trying to add more restrictions to the FBI's National Security Letters since their use exploded … Read more

by Eric Martin This might interrupt the steady flow of flowers and candy from the lucky liberated: As the US draws down its troops and supplies, which should culminate in a total withdrawal by 2012, funds for humanitarian relief operations in Iraq are dwindling at an alarming rate. US funding generally comprised 30-56% of total funding for … Read more

by Eric Martin Adam Serwer suggests that the seemingly jarring claim by Tennesse gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey that "Islam is a cult" should not really surprise anyone.  He might be right: If you're surprised by this remark, it's because you're not reading what they're reading. The right-wing media is full of sentiments like this, bigoted remarks you … Read more

by Eric Martin This is, apparently, what socialism under the reign of ObaMao looks like (The blue bars that is.  The red bars are capitalism in all its glory): $6,400 more for people with $500,000 in adjusted gross income, with cuts for earners with $150,000 or less doesn’t seem too outrageous to me.  Chart from the Wall … Read more

by Eric Martin This item from Friday should not be allowed to slide down the memory hole: Long before an eruption of gas turned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig into a fireball, an alarm system designed to alert the crew and prevent combustible gases from reaching potential sources of ignition had been deliberately disabled, the … Read more

by Eric Martin Yet another example of stark anti-Muslim bigotry from high ranking Republican Party officials.  This one from Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, in response to question surrounding the growing opposition to the addition of a Muslim community center to a mosque already built in that state (via): …Ramsey proclaimed his … Read more

by Eric Martin As I'm sure many readers are aware, Wikileaks released a massive trove of classified reports on the Afghan war effort over the weekend (see the Wikileaks report here, and media coverage here, here and here).  The Wikileaks expose reveals a history of the conflict that often contradicts official Obama and Bush administration statements – with … Read more

by Eric Martin My time flies.  Last month, his 8th, he started crawling.  Now he's like a little marathoner – of crawl.  And, naturally, his instinct is to make a b-line for whatever it is he shouldn't be going near.  He used to be such a good baby: But then, nothing makes him happier than … Read more

by Eric Martin Paul Krugman comments on a recent Karl Rove op-ed that addressed the Iraq war and related political implications: Karl Rove now tells us that his “biggest mistake” was not fighting back against the perception that the Bush administration deliberately misled us into the Iraq war. His main evidence that nothing like that happened is the … Read more

by Eric Martin Note to politicians in Washington: If you want to reduce the budget, vote for the public option. From the CBO (via Matt): CBO estimates that the public plan’s premiums would be 5 percent to 7 percent lower, on average, than the premiums of private plans offered in the exchanges. The differences between the … Read more

by Eric Martin Isn't Newt Gingrich supposed to be the intellectual, the "ideas man," the not-as-loony-as-Sarah Palin option in the GOP?  Apparently not: There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to … Read more

by Eric Martin Barry Ritholtz tackles a question via email regarding a topic that has been discussed on this Site with some regularity (via): “Can you support your position, in a fast, easy way, why the US housing boom was NOT caused by Fannie and Freddie, or the CRA? I understand all the factors you … Read more

by Eric Martin The increasingly vocal campaign to prevent a mosque from being built near the Ground Zero site in New York City is an unseemly mixture of ignorance, irrational fear, naked bigotry and opportunistic political demagoguery.  It also represents a blunder in terms of counterterrorism policy. Unsurprisingly, Sarah Palin has thrust herself to the forefront of this effort, with her characteristic mangling … Read more

by Eric Martin Yet another reminder of why stronger regulation of industry, and stiffer penalties for infractions, are required, and why industry self-regulation/de-regulation as championed by the GOP is such a spectacularly bad idea: Directed by supervisors, miners at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine commonly disabled monitors that could detect methane gas before the explosion that killed … Read more

by Eric Martin Glenn Greenwald links to Britain's former chief intelligence official observing what was, really, the logical result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: Britain's support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan radicalized many Muslims and triggered a big rise in terrorism plots that nearly overwhelmed the British security services, the former … Read more

by Eric Martin Liel Leibovitz views and transcribes a rather telling video shot of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, presumably, thought the cameras were off: In it, Netanyahu dismisses American foreign policy as easy to maneuver, boasts of having derailed the Oslo accords with political trickery, and suggests that the only way to deal … Read more