The Big Jewcy: Spencer Ackerman – Wired.com National Security Blogger/Hardcore Punk Fan

Spencer Ackerman took very little time to climb the ladder to become one of the most recognized voices when it comes to national security issues, the pentagon, the military, and a host of other fun issues that has earned him plenty of notice in places like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera, and his current post, blogging at Wired.com’s “Danger Room” blog. His opinions have helped set him up in the crosshairs of some of the most well-known right-wing pundits and former bosses.

So how does one become a “national security blogger” exactly?

Report on the Pentagon, the CIA, the military, the extensive defense contracting apparatus, all that. Do it for a bunch of national publications, for years, and for your own impertinent blog. End up working for Wired.com. These steps are fool proof.

You’ve been sorta called out by Ann Coulter.  Did you feel gross after that — almost like some disgusting curse had been laid upon your head.

More like “tingly.” I would convert to Christianity for that woman.

I see your name mentioned a lot with fellow members of the Google Group, JournoList, and a lot of the names on that list tend to be, well, Jewish sounding.  With all this talk about the death of the Jewish left, how do you actually think it’s doing?

I don’t know what the “Jewish left” is anymore. Does it define itself in terms of its impact on American social justice? On the just settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? On…?

Level with me: would you fight Andrew Breitbart?

My only remaining ambition in life is to work for Andrew Breitbart. Whatever path is necessary to achieve that, I shall endure

You tend to sometimes veer off the political path and discuss hardcore music.  Care to tell us your top 5 hardcore records?

Top Five *All Time*? Huge task. Let’s just bound this to 90s hardcore, the overlooked renaissance era for hardcore. Or is that conventional wisdom now?

1. Refused, “The Shape of Punk to Come.” Peerless, timeless, powerful and weird. The best musical performance I have ever seen and will ever see was watching Refused play to 40 people in the basement of the UNC-Greensboro student center in September 1998.

2. His Hero Is Gone, “Monuments to Thieves.” With their “Fifteen Counts of Arson” close behind, but it’s lame to put two records by the same band in lists like these.

3. Avail, “4 A.M. Friday,” the best Avail record and I will fight anyone who says otherwise, preferably Andrew Breitbart.

4. Catharsis, “Samsara.” “Passion” is actually their better record, but “Samsara” was more meaningful for me.

5. Los Crudos/Spitboy split LP. Both of them in their prime. You can debate forever about whose side of this record is better, like with the Biggie-Jay Z-or-Nas question. (Talmudic, no?)

Honorable mention: Born Against, “The Rebel Sound of Shit and Failure.” Not *technically* an album, since it’s a collection, so I guess it can’t go on this list, but like Galileo said in defiance: Still, it moves.