rick martinez

Most people consider themselves fairly well-informed, and are not likely to admit that they (personally) are vulnerable to manipulation. Those other people are, of course, but not me. And while we might think we carefully "choose" the sources of our information, our brains often store and edit things according to a different set of often less "enlightened" rules. Whatever. It's part of our psychological makeup, and not likely to change any time soon.

Of all the missteps the News and Observer has made in recent years, the inclusion of Rick Martinez on their op-ed page is among the saddest. Week after week, N&O executives allow the right-wing zealot to spew Puppetshow talking points across their pages without regard for the damage he inflicts. This week, Martinez heralds the discovery of a supply of oil in North Dakota, which he believes should be cause for "dancing in the streets."

For torture.

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement.

Last fall, WPTF-AM (in Raleigh) signed up Rick Martinez as Director of News Programming. In case you don't have the misfortune of listening to WPTF, it's the dull diamond in the Curtis Media Crown, 24 hours a day of non-stop, right-wing hate. The story was originally reported here. Initial response was muted, even as some listeners lamented Rickie's newest venture:

IMHO not a good choice. Rick seems to be too wishy washy.... never taking a stand. Most News/talk PDs I have worked with have a back bone.

For all the moral relativism of John McCain, the man has taken at least one clear and principled stand against torture. So it's rather remarkable that in his commentary about a possible McCain presidency, Rick Martinez, the resident Pope Puppet of the News and Observer editorial pages, takes issue with that particular point.

There is one McCain position, however, that does scare me. If he becomes president, McCain has promised to outlaw U.S. use of waterboarding, and, presumably, some other "enhanced interrogation techniques."

This isn't an empty promise. McCain would cite his personal history as a Vietnam POW and torture victim to claim the emotional high ground and short-circuit rational debate on the role and results of interrogation in the continuing war on terror. McCain is right when he claims torture doesn't work. But waterboarding and other enhanced techniques aren't torture, and they do work.

Over the past two years, the Art Pope Puppetshow has served as an exceptional lightning rod for galvanizing progressives against the toxic agenda of North Carolina's free-market extremists. With a multi-million dollar budget to oil their influence-buying machine, the Show has clearly had some measure of success in shaping the agenda with small town newspapers in general and with the Raleigh News and Observer, in particular.

The fondness of the N&O's political reporters for all things Pope has been well discussed, as have the water-carrying activities of Rick Martinez, an opinionator at the N&O whose wife Donna works backstage at the Show. And while I'm reluctant to boost his readership by linking to his columns, today's piece in the N&O shows Martinez at his worst.

I regret to inform the world that I agree completely with a new column by Rick Martinez. That doesn't mean I don't want to see him fired from the N&O. I do. The N&O has entirely too much infiltration from Art Pope's Puppetshow. But I have to say that I share Martinez' unhappy view of the so-called energy bill sliming its way through the General Assembly.

UPDATED TO PUPPETSHOW 2.0
Note to Dallas Woodhouse: Please send along a current photo so we can give you full credit for being a rising star in this many-ringed circus. Glam-shots preferred.

One of my favorite political writers in North Carolina is Rob Schofield, who is a big cheese at one of my favorite think tanks in North Carolina, NC Policy Watch. Yesterday, Rob wrote a piece that should be required reading for anyone concerned about public education in general, and sex education in particular.

The catalyst for Rob's excellent work was a recent column by the N&O's resident Puppet, Rick Martinez. As I've written on many occasions, Martinez is a class-clown the newspaper apparently keeps around for cheap amusement. His wife is a staffer at the John Locke Foundation, and most of his stories trickle out in full alignment with "reports" issued by other minions at the Puppetshow.

The few real journalists remaining at the N&O must cringe with embarrassment every time Rick Martinez, Art Pope's planted Puppet at the paper, comes out with a new column. His most recent is truly laughable.

First off, in his infinite wisdom ignorance, Martinez questions the viability of conservation, preferring instead to build more coal-fired power plants that would hasten the demise of the planet. True to his Puppet roots, Martinez has never met a thoughtful approach to planning he didn't like.

The latest chapter in North Carolina's growing record of civic selfishness occurred early Tuesday morning in the Buncombe County town of Woodfin, a few miles north of Asheville. In a room packed with 150 or so people, the town's Board of Adjustment rejected Progress Energy's request for a conditional use permit to build a small, 130-megawatt peak power plant.

There are a few people in the world who relish being dumped on by the vast majority around them. The Child King in the White House appears to be one of them. And so is the N&O's Rick Martinez. You can almost hear the glee in his voice as he crows about the fact that he's one of six people on the planet who support the Navy's Washington County OLF proposal.

About the only people in North Carolina who say they support the Navy's desire to build an outlying landing field (OLF) on 30,000 acres in Washington and Beaufort counties are five Havelock city commissioners and me.

I learned years ago that when most people around me think I'm wrong about something, they're probably right. I also learned to have the grace to rethink my judgments in the light of their informed opinions, and adjust my positions accordingly. It looks like Mr. Martinez has managed to skate through life without the benefit of that lesson.

More to the point, Martinez slaps on his blinders with an absurdly naive statement that reveals his moral relativism for all to see.

Today is Women on Wednesdays day at BlueNC, which makes it a lucky day for Pope Puppet Rick Martinez. Otherwise the story of his stunning ignorance and hypocrisy would be nailed to the top of our front page all day long. But since it's not on the front page, I'll just go ahead and call a spade a spade. Rick Martinez is a fucking idiot.

Martinez has been asked again and again by the NO OLF people to visit Site C to get a first hand view of what life looks like on the ground. But in his infinite wisdom, he has chosen to believe the serial liars in the United States Navy instead of the people who live there, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Air Force, the North Carolina Farm Bureau, and countless organizations dedicated to preserving the health of our environment.

You can find his ignorance in all it's glory here. In the same way he believes global climate change is not the result of human activity, he believes the Navy can alter thousands of years of migratory behavior by changing the farming patterns on a few square miles of land.

In today's News and Observer, puppet Rick Martinez takes on school reform. He's slingin' ideas without facts or reason.

Martinez takes issue with the increases in school funding over the last 10 years. He moans that the increased funding has not lead to increased student performance. With his signature cynicism, he hones in on teacher pay:

The only thing that has enjoyed meaningful growth during that time is teacher compensation, and a lot of good that's done us.

It hurts to hear that anyone seriously thinks we pay our teachers too much.

Martinez goes on to give his prescription for school reform. Without citing any research or facts, he throws out such brilliant free-market ideas such as making teacher pay dependent on student performance and increasing the number of charter schools. Let's put his reform plans under the microscope.

There are few things more annoying than the smarmy self-righteousness of pro-life men, especially when one of those men has been given a platform to spin his depraved view of reality on the pages of the News and Observer. Which brings us to the sad case of Mr. Rick Martinez.

I'll spare you most of his holier-than-though pontificating about the state of feminism in America - and zero in on one core issue: Mr. Martinez believes abortion should be illegal, pure and simple.

. . . the right to privacy, on which abortion on demand is based, is being transformed into the right not to be inconvenienced by an unwanted child. As each year goes by, the traditional arguments in favor of abortion rights crumble. This leaves advocates in the unenviable position of being more anti-child than pro-woman.