Scraping the bottom of the Puppetshow barrel

For those not familiar with the John Locke Foundation, it's North Carolina's own wingnut think tank. More than 95% of its funding comes from businessman Art Pope, a rich white guy with a big inferiority complex. Around these parts, we call Mr. Pope the Puppetmaster - and his sprawling reactionary empire is known as the Puppetshow. And last but not least, there's John Hood, the Stage Manager, who's responsible for grinding out the propaganda through a right wing rag called the Carolina Journal.


Among the cast of characters in the Puppetshow are a gaggle of partisan hacks and free-market types who carry Pope's water, including one Donna Martinez, wife of Puppet-turned-N&O-columnist Rick Martinez.


Why am I giving you all this background? Because a current piece in the Carolina Journal is the wife's hard-hitting interview with the husband on the topic of illegal immigration. You can go read the interview if you like, but don't expect insight or interest. My 15-year-old daughter has as much to say about the topic as anything you'll find there.


But the real question is this: If you're the Puppetmaster and you're spending a couple of hundred thousand a month to put on the Puppetshow, shouldn't you expect more for your money than a little meaningless pillow talk between Ricky and Donna?