Adam Weinstein

Engagement Editor

I'm Mother Jones' engagement editor and Tumblrizer, specializing in explanatory journalism and new-media reporting. As a Navy vet and ex-Iraq contractor, I'm also committed to articulating all things martial—good, bad, and weird—to new audiences.

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Adam Weinstein is Mother Jones' engagement editor, having previously served the magazine as its national security reporter and copy editor. Before that, he worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, and the Tallahassee Democrat. He's written for the New York Times, New York magazine, GQ, and Newsweek. A Navy veteran, two-day Jeopardy champion and ex-political scientist, he also did a recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq. For more about Adam and his writing, click here.

Tea Party Rep Decries Debt... and Owes $100K in Child Support

—By Adam Weinstein

| Thu Jul. 28, 2011 8:39 AM PDT

The Chicago Sun-Times has some info on a leading tea party congressman:

Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.

"I won't place one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids and grandkids unless we structurally reform the way this town spends money!" Walsh says directly into the camera in his viral video lecturing Obama on the need to get the nation's finances in order...

"Joe personally loaned his campaign $35,000, which, given that he failed to make any child support payments to Laura because he 'had no money' is surprising," Laura Walsh's attorneys wrote in a motion filed in December seeking $117,437 in back child support and interest. "Joe has paid himself back at least $14,200 for the loans he gave himself."

In addition to haranguing the president and playing loose with the budget numbers, Walsh has been one of the biggest thorns in John Boehner's side, rebuffing the speaker's entreaties to accept a GOP "compromise" bill on the debt ceiling. But the Sun-Times story suggests Walsh's principled stand on the national debt isn't all that principled. Unless, of course, he were to buck the tea party and argue that the federal budget is nothing like a family's checkbook...

Drama! Where's my popcorn?

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When the Home Front Takes Away Your Home

—By Adam Weinstein

| Thu Jul. 28, 2011 7:19 AM PDT

For years, FHA and VA mortgages have made homeownership possible for military vets. Those service members' modest incomes often keep them from saving a large-enough down payment to secure a prime loan; the federal programs helped them find affordable financing that fit within their budgets.

Until the mortgage boom, that is. Private lenders managed to hawk subprime mortgages with ballooning payments under the FHA and VA umbrellas. Now, as more vets transition from the war zone to the home front, they're finding that they can no longer afford their homes.

Which is why you should read "Home From War and Facing Eviction," a riveting story of struggling vets and how the financial sector gamed the system to screw them. Written by Pulitzer winners Donald Barlett and James Steele, it comes via our partners at New American Media, and it's damned important. If you don't mind the pain of being rapped hard on your empathy bone, give it a look-see.

Russian Diplomat: GOP Senators Are "Cold War Monsters"

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Jul. 27, 2011 10:13 PM PDT

From Foreign Policy via Ink Spots, here's a full-tilt tizzy between a high-ranking Russian official and two Republican senators:

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, met with [Sens. John Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) yesterday in Washington—but they probably won't be meeting again anytime soon...

"Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk. The meeting is very useful because it shows that the alternative to Barack Obama is a collapse of all the programs of cooperation with Russia," he said. "Today, I had the impression that I was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights."

Rogozin was sauced because of the GOP's longstanding opposition to US-Russia cooperation on nuclear weapons and missile defense, as evidenced by the party's initial attacks on the new START treaty late last year. (As FP's Josh Rogin points out, it could also be because Russia doesn't appreciate the US insistence on human rights reforms or its support for neighboring Georgia.) For his part, Kirk didn't take the criticism so well:

"You could say that we're just not that into him," Kirk said. "In a potential missile combat scenario between NATO and Iran, Russia is thoroughly irrelevant. So Russian concerns about what we do and not do about the Iranian threat are interesting but largely irrelevant."

Regarding Rogozin's comment that Kirk and Kyl were "radicals" and "monsters of the Cold War," Kirk said, "He should probably moderate his caffeine intake."

As Ink Spots blogger Gulliver argues, calling one of the most-heavily armed nuclear powers in human history irrelevant to a missile war is pretty nutters. But then, Mark Kirk never was one for getting military matters right.

Watch Rick Scott's CNN Implosion (Video)

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Jul. 27, 2011 4:40 PM PDT

When not looking for national security news, I like to check in on Florida politics, which are a great bellwether for the nation at large. Specifically, I like to track tea party Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who lives just a couple blocks from me, and who's setting records for unpopularity, just months into his tenure.

Scott's latest crusade is to argue against any rise in the federal debt ceiling—an issue in which he has no official say, and whose basic economic consequences he seems to grasp not one jot. (This week, Scott said Florida would see no effects from a US default; his opponent in last year's gubernatorial race, former state CFO Alex Sink, called his statement "clueless...That's Florida Budgeting 101.") The beleaguered guv took his case to CNN today, and managed to get himself yelled at by two anchors. At one point, Ali Velshi gave up. "Why is this difficult for you to understand, governor?"

A failure to articulate basic principles of macroeconomics is all the more disturbing when you consider all of Scott's corporate work before taking over the Sunshine State. That MBA really paid off.

In any case, more on Scott's political plans later...especially his budding plans to "improve" higher education. Until then, watch the beatdown:

Planned Parenthood Clinic Bombed: Whodunit?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Jul. 27, 2011 3:58 PM PDT

Via Think Progress:

A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood confirmed today that one of their Dallas-area clinics was the target of a violent attack last night. Holly Morgan, director of media relations and communications for Planned Parenthood in Dallas said that at around 11 pm last night, the attacker(s) threw a Molotov cocktail, consisting of diesel fuel in a glass bottle with a lit rag, at the building. "It didn't penetrate the health center office and none of the staff or patients were there, which is great," Morgan said.

Two observations:

1) I'm betting the firebomber wasn't an Islamic extremist. Just a guess.

2) Whoever the attacker is, if he isn't smart enough to know the difference in flashpoints between diesel fuel and gasoline, he's probably not qualified to have a say in when life begins.