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.

GOP Rep: Deport US Citizens! (VIDEO)

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Apr. 28, 2010 5:01 PM PDT

Lest you think that Mother Jones only scrutinizes the missteps of retrogressives in red states like Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Virginia, Alabama, and South Carolina, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) has jumped in to remind America that hating all things vaguely immigrant-related—including US citizens—transcends state borders.

Hunter—not to be confused with his belligerent, anti-immigration dad of the same name, who more or less bequeathed the 52nd congressional district in San Diego to his son two years ago—traded the Beltway for a California Tea Party meeting last weekend, presumably so he could rail against the entitled Beltway elite class. The conversation turned to those durn'd dirty illegals, because there's no better way to express your solidarity with a bunch of 18th-century British-born colonists than to rail against immigration. Hunter praised Arizona's new "Papers, please" law to round up undocumented immigrants (or anyone who looks like one), calling it "a fantastic starting point." But at one point, his red-meat stumping got really raw. According to Talking Points Memo, things got weird during the Q-and-A:

"Would you support deportation of natural born American citizens that are the children of illegal aliens?" a man in the audience asked.

"I would have to, yes," Hunter said.

He continued:

"You can look and say, 'You're a mean guy. That's a mean thing to do. That's not a humanitarian thing to do.' We simply cannot afford what we're doing right now."

Actually, Duncan, it's not just a mean thing to do. It's kind of illegal. And logistically a bit difficult. 'Cause, you know, where are you going to deport a lifelong US citizen to?

Hunter, who batted for my Navy-Marine Corps team as an Iraq-deployed artillery officer, then explained that "it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It's within our souls."

So now, in addition to carrying your birth certificate and handgun with you in Arizona, you should probably steel yourself for any potential run-ins with the soul police. That's totally different from the thought police, though. We swear! Scout's honor!

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Oklahoma: Pro-Life Nanny State

—By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Apr. 28, 2010 11:15 AM PDT

Statistics collected by the National Birth Defects Prevention Network show that fetuses brought to term in Oklahoma have higher incidences of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal birth defects than in the US at large. Oklahoma babies, for example, are 63 percent likelier to be born with gastroschisis, a condition in which the internal abdominal organs—particularly the intestine—are pushed outside the baby's torso. Such babies require immediate—and potentially risky—surgery after birth, and even survivors may have limited digestive functioning and costly, challenging lifelong disabilities.

Why am I telling you this? Because it all relates back to Oklahoma's general distaste for legal abortion. The Sooner State hates a woman's right to choose; this we knew already, from its plan to post women's medical histories online when they choose an abortion, to its shrinking number of clinics able to perform the procedure (three, according to a very scary anti-abortionists' site; Oklahoma's solidly red-state neighbor to the south, Texas, has 46).

But when the state's legislature overrode a governor's veto on two new medieval anti-choice measures yesterday, we learned something new: Oklahoma hates parents' rights generally, and it's willing to create a nanny state around that theme.

One of those new laws should give every parent, or potential parent, pause when mulling over a job offer in Norman or Oklahoma City. That's because it grants immunity from malpractice lawsuits for doctors who refuse to tell parents that their child will be born with a birth defect.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Republican: Que Pasa Con Alabama?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Tue Apr. 27, 2010 12:55 PM PDT

Look, people. I'm ostensibly from the South, and it does me no small piece of stress to continue to harp on racist Texas cops, angry Virginia Hitler lovers, homophobic Mississippi parents, and unstable, secessionist South Carolina legislators. But it's become apparent that there's this thing called Inner America, which is like Inner Mongolia, only less inviting. Inner America is a mental space where some angry, xenophobic, misogynistic id-impulse is running roughshod over our civil national superego. Inner America isn't confined to any specific place, but sadly, it has many loud, flag-planting adherents in my beloved South.

One place it's apparently taken root is in the brain of Alabama Republican Tim James, who's running for governor on the "I Hate People Who Are Not Like Me" platform, which seems to be gaining momentum this week. Tim is a former governor's son, and Americans do sooo love their southern-accented sons of chief executives. The key difference between James and George W. Bush, though, is Dubya actually deigned to learn a language other than English, and bucked Inner America by backing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. James, not so much. Take a gander at his new campaign ad!

It sort of makes you pine for the days when xenophobic politicians bothered to actually code their hate language. It could have been worse: James could have just come out and said, "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." Still, when you make Dubya look urbane and cosmopolitan, we're reaching Inner America critical mass.

Arizona's Other Crazy New Law

—By Adam Weinstein

| Mon Apr. 26, 2010 12:41 PM PDT

In an attempt to preserve all that they believe is great about a free and just America, Arizona has opened US culture to two words that previously were the exclusive province of Nazi Germany and the communist bloc: "Papers, please."

You may have heard last week about Arizona's latest bout of nostalgia for a never-was White America, in the form of a draconian "illegal immigration" law that effectively lets police stop anyone and haul them in if they can't prove their Americanness on the spot. (Just a few months ago, MoJo exposed how Texas peace officers were using petty drinking misdemeanors to round up undesirables; Lone Star State cops must be jealous of Arizona now. No more red tape to cover your penchant for profiling!)

But guess what? Arizona's got other new crazy laws! Just a week before criminalizing trips to the supermarket sans birth certificates, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a decree that empowers state residents to carry a concealed weapon with no license, no registration, and no questions asked. Exciting, right? But wait—there's more! If your gun was made in Arizona, you don't even need to submit to a federal background check to buy it.

The nice thing about concealed-carry permits—which most states have—is that they require the applicant to go through some sort of weapons training proving that they can, you know, not kill the wrong people with their lethal firearm. That had been the case in Arizona. But now, for citizens who opt to get the state's now-pointless permit, "classes are no longer required to be a set number of hours or include any hands-on use of the weapon," according to the Arizona Republic. What's more: "Those who don't get a permit would not be required to get any training or education."

That's so crazy, even gun enthusiasts are aghast. Ex-cop and firearms-safety instructor Dan Furbee says the law won't just kill off his business—and that of every other weapons instructor in Arizona—but it could literally kill off Arizonans:

[Read more in the MoJo blog]

Do You Know This Racist Driver?

—By Adam Weinstein

| Thu Apr. 22, 2010 10:08 AM PDT

Proof positive that racial justice, of a sort, can be crowdsourced: A few days ago, someone posted this photo of a rolling Inner America sterotype on the Internet, and Gawker picked it up. Apparently, a patriotic Confederate—as evidenced by his love for the stars and bars—wanted everybody behind him to know how much he hates Muslims while driving past the Philip Morris plant south of Richmond on I-95. "EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM I LEARNED ON 9/11," his slick tailgate decal reads, in block letters superimposed over explosions at the World Trade Centers, which must have been oh, such a personal blow to this south-of-the-Mason-Dixon waterdrinker.

But then the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took a look at the photo and noticed Jebediah Q. Public's license plate: Turns out it's laden with white supremacist code. The "88" you might know: That's a popular way among yahoos of subtly saying "Heil Hitler," since "H" is the 8th letter of the alphabet. (Apologies to all you well-intending NASCAR fans of Jarrett, Junior and Geoff.) The "CV" means "confederate veteran", which is consistent with the plate's tiny confederate battle flag denoting the licensee as a Sons of Confederate Veterans member. Best of all, though, is the lesser-known "14," which is a reference to the "14 Words," a white supremacist manifesto first coined by The Order member David Lane: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children." Turns out the driver of this mystery machine isn't just a racist lunatic; he's a joiner.

[Read more in the MoJo blog]