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.

Full Bio | Get my RSS | Follow @adamweinstein

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.

WATCH: John McCain Does a 180 on Jobless Vets

On exclusive audio last month, the hawkish senator called jobs for vets priority No. 1. Wait till you see what he said this month.

—By Adam Weinstein

| Fri Sep. 21, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Will Seberger/ZUMAPRESS.com

Sen. John McCain—Naval Academy class of 1958, Vietnam prisoner of war—has long enjoyed a reputation as a straight-talking protector of the troops. But yesterday, he joined 39 Republican colleagues in blocking a bipartisan bill that would have provided federal jobs for up to 20,000 out-of-work ex-service members—and in doing so, he went back on a verbal promise he made to a veteran weeks ago.

Mother Jones has obtained exclusive audio of an interview McCain conducted with military vet and citizen journalist Meg Lanker-Simons at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last month. In the exchange, McCain said getting vets back to work was job No. 1. (The jobless rate for former service members is up to 31 percent higher than for civilians.) "The fact is, it's a national disgrace that veterans' unemployment is 14 percent," McCain said. "That's a national disgrace. And we've got to try to find more ways and better ways to hire veterans. And that has got to be our highest priority."

Listen for yourself:

listen to "John McCain: 'National Disgrace'" on Audioboo

But last week, in floor remarks criticizing the now-dead Veterans Job Corps bill, McCain took a dramatically different stance. He declared that fiscal austerity trumped joblessness among former soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. "We already have six veterans job-training programs, but what the heck? Let's, ah, let's have another one," he said in a sarcastic tone:

[Read the full article]

Advertise on MotherJones.com

GOP to Jobless Vets: Drop Dead

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Sep. 19, 2012 8:19 PM PDT

US Army

As if to underscore Mitt Romney's indifference to the 47 percent, his Republican Party colleagues in the US Senate used a procedural vote Wednesday to block a $1 billion bipartisan bill that would have given tens of thousands of jobless military vets the opportunity to work.

Inspired by President Obama's State of the Union Address challenge to get veterans working, the Veterans Job Corps bill would have created a program to fast-track 20,000 former service members into federal jobs as law enforcement officers, first responders, and parks workers. The legislation "was one of the few pieces of legislation [to] make it through Congress, which has been mired in partisan gridlock for the last two years," reports Stars & Stripes' Leo Shane. A few enthusiastic Republicans even added several provisions to the bill, including measures to increase internet access for job-seeking vets and to aid them in their transitions from military life. "Once it incorporated ideas from both sides of the aisle, I thought it would be an easy sell," Tom Tarantino, a war vets' lobbyist, told the Washington Post Wednesday.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Occupy II: What's Happening Now in Lower Manhattan

—By James West, Tim McDonnell, Josh Harkinson, and Adam Weinstein

| Mon Sep. 17, 2012 8:05 AM PDT

Twelve months after they slept, ate, and occasionally got arrested with the demonstrators, our team of journalists has returned to Lower Manhattan to follow #s17 protesters observing the birthday of Occupy Wall Street. Below is our Storify of MJ street reporting, plus updates from our friends and colleagues across the internets (please be patient: The Storify may take a few seconds to load):

Wingnuts Falsely Claim Obama Administration Forbade Marines From Carrying Live Ammo

The Marine Corps has confirmed to Mother Jones that a military blogger's popular conspiracy theory about the embassy attack in Egypt is wrong.

—By Adam Weinstein

| Thu Sep. 13, 2012 12:47 PM PDT

Marines send rounds down range with an during exercise Javelin Thrust 2012 in Twentynine Palms, California. Sgt. Alvin D. Parson/US Marines

Update, Thursday, September 13, 2:30 p.m. PDT: Mother Jones has obtained a memorandum from the Marine Corps' congressional liaison confirming that the Marine guards at the embassy in Egypt were in fact armed with live ammunition, contrary to the anti-Obama conspiracy theory du jour:

The Ambassador did not impose restrictions on weapons or weapons status on the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group (MCESG) detachment. The MCESG Marines in Cairo were allowed to have live ammunition in their weapons. The Ambassador and Regional Security Officer have been completely and appropriately engaged with the security situation. Reports of Marines not being able to have their weapons loaded per direction from the Ambassador are not accurate.

The full text of the memo is at the bottom of this post.

Early Thursday morning, conservative military bloggers began to float reports that the US ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, did not permit US Marine security guards to carry live ammunition. Within hours, this "no ammo" rumor in response to the embassy attack in Cairo lit up right-wing social media, with the allegation unquestioningly blamed on the White House. Conservative thought-leaders and pundits led the charge:

From a neocon torch bearer:

So Marines in Benghazi like Bobbies in London. Very leading-from-behindish.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) September 13, 2012

to a Breitbart editor:

Obama's World of Appeasement: Cairo embassy Marines not allowed to carry live ammo. bit.ly/Pme6nI #caring
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) September 13, 2012

to a co-host on Glenn Beck's radio network:

Under orders from Obama administration--NO AMMO for Marines at Cairo Embassyfreebeacon.com/reports-marine…
— Michael Graham (@MGraham969) September 13, 2012

From there, the "news" trickled down to conservative foot soldiers:

OBAMA sends Marines but tells them no use of LIVE AMMO ..like sitting ducks..who the hell is this LUNATIC in the WH#p2 #ocra
— patricia Schurr (@patriot32) September 13, 2012

Marines under fire w/no ammo Worst Thing I Have Ever Heard. I am in a Rage. Obama is what US Marines scrape off bottom of their boots.
— Jay Severin III (@Jay_Severin) September 13, 2012

Marines not allowed live ammo at US Embassies?freebeacon.com/reports-marine…why not arm them with bean bags or feathers?Obama unelectable
— Melody(@prfekrdumbrella) September 13, 2012

RT @quark1217: The "commander in chief" must think these are war games--->“@fritzster: Marines not permitted live ammo t.co/jR ...
— FunVirginian (@funvirginian) September 13, 2012

The sole source for this assertion was Nightwatch—a conservative "intelligence" blog written by former Defense Department analyst John McCreary and hosted by a subsidiary of a defense contractors' lobby group—which attributed the report to unnamed (and uncounted) "USMC blogs." According to McCreary, Patterson—a career foreign service officer who was not a political appointee, and who served George W. Bush as an ambassador to the United Nations and to Pakistan—"did not defend U.S. sovereign territory and betrayed her oath of office." And: "She neutered the Marines posted to defend the embassy, trusting the Egyptians over the Marines."

[Read the full article]

PHOTO: September 11, 2001

—By Adam Weinstein

| Tue Sep. 11, 2012 10:29 AM PDT

Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001. NASA

The long view: "Nous sommes tous Américains."