Author Archives: Doug Badger

Hope And (Regime) Change

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Our drive-by intervention accomplished regime change in Libya, but the country has still not recovered from its liberation. [Credit: National Post]

Our dri­ve-by inter­ven­tion accom­plished regime change in Libya, but the coun­try has still not recov­ered from its lib­er­a­tion. [Cred­it: Nation­al Post]

The Con­sti­tu­tion requires Pres­i­dent Oba­ma to leave office in 700 days.  If he has his way, Vladimir Putin and Ben­jamin Netanyahu will pre­cede him into pri­vate life.

It should not be sur­pris­ing that a Pres­i­dent who prides him­self on refus­ing to nego­ti­ate with elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives has so lit­tle patience with some of his fel­low nation­al lead­ers.  Or that regime change has become a lead­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Pres­i­den­t’s for­eign pol­i­cy.   Con­tin­ue read­ing →

A Sensible Immigration Ruling Makes No Sense In Washington

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The President took immigration policy into his own hands, bypassing Congress. A federal judge has ruled that he acted improperly. [Credit: Tax Justice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge has ruled that the Pres­i­dent improp­er­ly took immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy into his own hands. [Cred­it: Tax Jus­tice Blog]

A fed­er­al judge in Brownsville, Texas, on Mon­day pro­vid­ed a way out of the Con­gres­sion­al impasse over a bill to fund the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS).  But the oppor­tu­ni­ty might be squan­dered by Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans bent on self-immolation.

Com­pared with the President’s exec­u­tive excess­es and Repub­li­can cir­cu­lar fir­ing squads, Fed­er­al Dis­trict Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen’s pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion against the Admin­is­tra­tion’s immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy is a mod­el of ratio­nal­i­ty and restraint. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why Are We At War With The Islamic State?

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Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia are among the ground troops on whom we rely in our war against the Islamic State. [Credit: Reuters]

Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces and Shi­ite mili­tia are among the ground troops on whom we rely in our war against the Islam­ic State. Their bru­tal­i­ty rivals that of IS. [Cred­it: Reuters]

[The sol­diers] dragged res­i­dents up to age 70 from their homes, beat­ing and curs­ing them with sec­tar­i­an slurs, Abu Omar [one of the sur­vivors] told Reuters by phone.  He said the fight­ers took the men’s mobiles and ID cards, then bound their hands, tying Abu Omar to his 12-year-old men­tal­ly ill son with rope. They did the same with his two old­er sons and three brothers.

The men were led a few hun­dred yards to a field where Abu Omar said more than a hun­dred oth­ers had been gath­ered.  For about two hours, they were forced to kneel and stare at the ground as the fight­ers select­ed their tar­gets and led them to a spot behind a mud wall.

“They took them behind the wall. Less than a minute, then a gun­shot,” said Abu Omar. “All we could hear was the gun­shots. We could­n’t see.”

This atroc­i­ty, which claimed the lives of 72 unarmed peo­ple in a vil­lage in Iraq’s Diyala Province, was not car­ried out by the Islam­ic State (IS). It was per­pe­trat­ed by our allies in the war against IS — Iraqi secu­ri­ty forces and Shi­ite mili­tia. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Approaching Obamacare With Humility

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Washington can’t get out of its own way on health care.  Give states a chance.

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma spoke fre­quent­ly of humil­i­ty dur­ing last week’s prayer break­fast. Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans could use a healthy mea­sure of that virtue should the Supreme Court rule that Oba­maCare sub­si­dies are not avail­able in the 37 states with fed­er­al­ly facil­i­tat­ed exchanges.  Read more.

 

How Cutting Jobless Benefits Cut Joblessness

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During his December 2013 Hawaiian vacation, President Obama phoned lawmakers, asking them to extend unemployment benefits. They did not. Which is a good thing, according to a new study published by NBER. [Credit: Fox News]

Dur­ing his Decem­ber 2013 Hawai­ian vaca­tion, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma phoned law­mak­ers, ask­ing them to extend unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits. They did not. Which is a good thing, accord­ing to a new study pub­lished by NBER. [Cred­it: Fox News]

A lit­tle more than a year ago, the Pres­i­dent was dis­tressed.  It was a few days after Christ­mas 2013, and extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits for 1.3 mil­lion peo­ple were about to expire.  In a typ­i­cal­ly per­func­to­ry lob­by­ing effort, he called two Sen­a­tors to urge them to move a bill to pre­serve the benefits.

To recov­er from his exer­tions, he and his fam­i­ly then “ven­tured to the white-sand beach at Bel­lows Air Force Sta­tion, which is on the wind­ward side of the island of Oahu and fea­tures turquoise water and a stun­ning view of the Moku­lua Islands,” the Wash­ing­ton Post reported.

That tran­quil scene augured the best year for U.S. employ­ment growth since 1999.   Accord­ing to the Labor Depart­ment, the econ­o­my added more than 3.1 mil­lion jobs in 2014.  The topline unem­ploy­ment rate was 5.6% in Decem­ber, down from 6.7% the pri­or Decem­ber and the low­est rate since June 2008.

And here is the sur­pris­ing major rea­son for the resur­gence in employ­ment: Con­gress spurned the President’s entreaties and let extend­ed unem­ploy­ment ben­e­fits expire. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obama’s Misguided “Middle Class Economics”

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The U.S. is sec­ond among devel­oped coun­tries in social spend­ing. But you would­n’t know that from read­ing the bud­get the pres­i­dent sub­mit­ted on Monday.

His bud­get assumes that social spend­ing is too low and that “mid­dle-class eco­nom­ics” requires gov­ern­ment to spend, tax, reg­u­late and bor­row more, plung­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment more deeply into debt.  Read more.

Can Greece Slip The Austerity Trap?

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Greek Prime Minister paid tribute to Greek patriots executed by Nazis during WWII. His message to the Germans was clear: we bailed you out, now it's our turn. [Credit: The Guardian]

Greek Prime Min­is­ter paid trib­ute to Greek patri­ots exe­cut­ed by Nazis dur­ing WWII. His mes­sage to the Ger­mans was clear: we bailed you out, now it’s our turn. [Cred­it: The Guardian]

Short­ly after his elec­tion last Sun­day as Greece’s Prime Min­is­ter, Alex­is Tsipras chose not lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Sol­dier in Athens’ Syn­tag­ma Square.  Instead, he went to a war memo­r­i­al in the Athens sub­urb of Kessar­i­ani where Nazi sol­diers exe­cut­ed hun­dreds of Greek Resis­tance fight­ers dur­ing the bru­tal Ger­man occupation.

Tsipras’s mes­sage was not lost on Angela Merkel and oth­er Euro­pean lead­ers: the world for­gave most of Ger­many’s debt; now it’s Greece’s turn. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Saving Mr. Banks’ Game

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Ernie Banks, who passed away last Friday, helped build a legacy that former Commissioner Bud Selig pissed away. Recovering from the Selig era will require big changes to the game. [Credit: Gannett]

Ernie Banks, who passed away last Fri­day, helped build a lega­cy that for­mer Com­mis­sion­er Bud Selig pissed away. Recov­er­ing from the Selig era will require big changes to the game. [Cred­it: Gannett]

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, whose prodi­gious tal­ents were over­shad­owed by his irre­press­ible good cheer, passed away last Fri­day, two days before Bud Selig stepped down as base­ball commissioner.

Mr. Banks will be missed.

He was part of the gen­er­a­tion of African-Amer­i­can play­ers who trans­formed the sport dur­ing the 1950s and 1960s, help­ing build a fan base that dete­ri­o­rat­ed dur­ing Selig’s seem­ing­ly inter­minable 23-year tenure.  The task of restor­ing that fan base and sav­ing Mr. Banks’ game now falls to Selig’s suc­ces­sor. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Good News Coming On The Deficit. Well, Sort Of.

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Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras hopes to prevail in today's Greek elections, which could mark a turning point in his nation's struggle against a crushing load of debt. Meanwhile, U.S. government deficits are improving. Sort of.

Syriza par­ty leader Alex­is Tsipras hopes to pre­vail in today’s Greek elec­tions, which could pro­voke a show­down between Euro­pean lead­ers and Greece, which strug­gles under a crush­ing load of debt. Mean­while, U.S. gov­ern­ment deficits are improv­ing. Sort of. [Cred­it: BBC]

On Tues­day morn­ing, the Con­gres­sion­al Bud­get Office will announce that the fed­er­al deficit con­tin­ued to decline last year.

The announce­ment will trig­ger an orgy of self-con­grat­u­la­tion in Wash­ing­ton.  The Admin­is­tra­tion will claim that its poli­cies have been vin­di­cat­ed.  Repub­li­cans also will take a bow, tout­ing spend­ing con­straints they’ve imposed since win­ning the House majority.

But you’ll hear noth­ing from the Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who most deserve cred­it for reduced deficits: the Fed­er­al Reserve Board of Gov­er­nors.  By hold­ing inter­est rates near zero and lend­ing tril­lions in free mon­ey to the Trea­sury, the Fed has allowed the gov­ern­ment to reduce deficits even as it gorged on debt. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

In Russia, Nothing Is True, Everything Is Possible

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Russian media coverage of the downing of a passenger flight over eastern Ukraine included a number of fanciful theories. A new book tells of how the Kremlin reshapes the truth.

Russ­ian media cov­er­age of the down­ing of a pas­sen­ger flight over east­ern Ukraine includ­ed a num­ber of fan­ci­ful the­o­ries. A new book tells of how the Krem­lin reshapes the truth.

But what is a Russ­ian point of view? What does Rus­sia Today stand for?” I asked. 

“Oh, there is always a Russ­ian point of view,” he answered. “Take a banana. For some­one it’s food. For some­one else it’s a weapon. For a racist it’s some­thing to tease a black per­son with.”

Noth­ing Is True And Every­thing Is Pos­si­ble, Peter Pomer­ant­sev

When a Malaysian Air­lines pas­sen­ger flight was shot down over rebel-con­trolled east­ern Ukraine last July, Russ­ian media adamant­ly denied that rebel forces were responsible.

Instead they float­ed a series of alter­na­tive the­o­ries, among them that Russia’s ene­mies had secret­ly recov­ered the wreck­age of a Malaysian Air­lines flight that had gone miss­ing the pre­vi­ous March and dumped it in east­ern Ukraine.  Anoth­er had it that the plane was car­ry­ing corpses and not live pas­sen­gers when it left Ams­ter­dam.  Anoth­er that it was a failed assas­si­na­tion attempt by the Ukrain­ian mil­i­tary, which shot down the plane in the mis­tak­en belief that Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin was on board.

By gen­er­at­ing a fog of fan­tasies, the Krem­lin obscured the expla­na­tion that almost cer­tain­ly is true: Russ­ian-backed rebels blew the plane out of the sky. Con­tin­ue read­ing →