Here is the worst-kept secret in Washington: Instead of capturing and grilling suspected terrorists, as agents did during the 2000s, the United States now kills them from above. Yet where the morality of President Bush’s tactics chewed up years of public debate, Congress and the press seem less interested in the legitimacy of drone strikes than in the process (and secrecy) that surrounds them. Members questioned John Brennan, the CIA nominee who helped build the administration’s drone strategy, along exactly these lines. “[The debate] has really all been about the legality of targeting American citizens, not the overall moral issues raised by the drone program, or collateral casualties, or classifying any young men between a certain age-group default as terrorists,” says Bruce Hoffman, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. In a CBS News poll last week, 71 percent of Americans said they support the strikes.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Is Obama's Drone Policy Really Morally Superior to Torture?
Source: Sara Sorcher,, NationalJournal:
The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage
Source: The New Yorker:
The first statement we can make without fear of contradiction is that, at $7.25 an hour, the current minimum wage is pretty low. In nominal dollars, it’s gone up quite a bit over the past twenty-five years. In 1978, it was $2.65; in 1991, it was $4.25. But these figures don’t take into account rising prices, which eat away at purchasing power. After adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage is about $3.30 less than it was in 1968. Back then—forty-five years ago—the minimum wage was $10.56 an hour, according to a very useful chart from CNNMoney.
We also know that the U.S. minimum wage is low compared to its counterparts in other advanced countries. In France and Ireland, for example, the minimum remuneration level is more than eleven dollars an hour. Even in Great Britain, which is usually regarded as a country with a flexible, U.S.-style labor market, it is close to ten dollars an hour. Another informative chart, this one from Business Insider, shows that the U.S. minimum wage is comparable to ones in places like Greece, Spain, and Slovenia—countries where G.D.P. per capita and labor productivity are markedly lower than here in the United States. We have an advanced economy but a middle-level minimum wage.
A second important and (largely) undisputed finding is that there is no obvious link between the minimum wage and the unemployment rate.
Corporations funded secret elections group long before ‘Citizens United’
Source: RawStory:
Some of the nation’s biggest corporations donated more than a million dollars to launch a Republican nonprofit that went on to play a key role in recent political fights.
Like the nonprofit groups that poured money into last year’s elections, the decade-old State Government Leadership Foundation has been able to keep the identities of its funders secret. Until now.
A records request by ProPublica to the IRS turned up a list of the original funders of the group: Exxon, Pfizer, Time Warner, and other corporations put up at least 85 percent of the $1.3 million the foundation raised in the first year and a half of its existence, starting in 2003.
The donor list is stamped “not for public disclosure,” and was submitted to the IRS as part of the foundation’s application for recognition of tax-exempt status. If approved, such applications are public records.
Ex-San Diego mayor's gambling losses top $1 Billion
Of course she is not going to do time. A poor person with gambling debts would have been thrown in jail:
Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor acknowledged Thursday in federal court that she misappropriated $2 million from her late husband's charitable foundation due to a gambling addiction in which she won more than $1 billion but lost even more over nearly a decade.
O'Connor made the acknowledgement in an agreement with the government to defer prosecution for two years while she attempts to repay the debt.
O'Connor was the Democratic leader of California's second-largest city from 1986 to 1992. The two-term mayor was elected San Diego's first female leader after eight years on the City Council. She was married to Robert O. Peterson, founder of the Jack-In-The-Box restaurant chain.
Working less can increase productivity
Working less can increase productivity
- Reduce the workday to 7 hours. It would make us more productive. Its been over 70 years since the 8 hour work day was established. Time for a change.
No prison for faking NYC crane inspections
This man killed people. He should be going to jail.
A crane inspector will not be going to prison for fabricating inspections of New York City cranes including one that collapsed and killed seven people.
Edward Marquette was sentenced to five years of probation on Wednesday.
He was acquitted last year of all charges related to the deadly crane accident on March 15, 2008. But he was convicted of falsifying records of other inspections.
Marquette was also sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service and fined $5,000.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)