rick martinez

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.

A long, long time ago, there was an AM radio station in North Carolina with the call letters WPTF. In its earliest incarnation, the acronym stood for We Protect The Family. In 1991, the station came to be owned by a good citizen named Don Curtis, a very nice guy and a shrewd business man.

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.