Ex-FBI agent: Torture doesn’t work

Summary: An ex-FBI agent also espouses that torture doesn’t work, adding to what a military official said last week.

9/16/2006

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Flashback: Middle class becoming endangered species

Summary: A study ran in Harvard Magazine looks at how the direction of the country is leaning more towards super rich and poor. The middle class is getting squeezed more and more, and becoming an endangered species.

1/2006

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How a more open immigration policy helps developing countries

Summary: Sebastian Mallaby writes on the benefits of having a more open immigration policy should help developing countries more than just lifting trade tariffs or giving them economic aid.

9/18/2006

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Flashback: Immigration reform and red herrings

Summary: Sebastian Mallaby writes about the many myths of immigration, including that immigrants only do jobs Americans don’t want, that immigration pushes unemployment, and that the effect on wages is drastic (in reality it’s small).

5-16-2005

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Flashback: Iran 10 years away from building a nuclear weapon

Summary: According to the National Intelligence Estimate of 2005, Iran is at least 10 years away from having the means of building a nuke. This estimate was also acknowledged by the Bush administration at the time. Keep that in mind for anyone who wants to strike up fear against Iran.

8/2/2005

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Stock options explain disparity in income growth (aka rich get richer)

Summary: Typical wages for working class Americans have not grown at the proportional rate as productivity, yet the total amount paid out in salaries is also growing. The money must be going somewhere, and it’s not to the middle class. The Wall Street Journal shows that it’s going to the richer folks, mostly into their stock options.

9/18/2006

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Reuters provides rundown of daily Iraq security devolpments

Summary: Reuters provides a rundown of the daily security deveolpments in Iraq. Unfortunately, it’s not going very swimmingly.

9/18/2006

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Flashback: John Yoo thinks it’s cool to torture children too

Summary: During a debate in Dec 2005, John Yoo basically outlines that he believes it’s perfectly fine to torture children. Actually, this isn’t limited to just children who are believed to be terrorist suspects, but this extends to children of terrorist suspects who haven’t done anything.

Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

12/1/2005

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Update: More Goodies.  Here’s John Yoo claiming Clinton was abusing too much executive power, and here’s a rundown on the historical illiteracy of Yoo when describing the Founding Fathers’ intent (not to mention the Cold War as well).

Abusive tactics doesn’t lead to good intelligence

Summary: During the previous week while the Bush administration was trying to push for passage of a bill that allowed them to use “torture light” tactics on prisoners, the LA Times ran an article with a buried section on how US military leaders don’t believe such tactics lead to good intelligence.  The intelligence gained from such abuse has little credibility, any good that comes out of it is undercut by the damage it does to the reputation of the US abroad.

9/8/2006

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Osama is a priority, or maybe not

Summary: Fred Barnes, through a Weekly Standard interview with President Bush, has given us a rationale on why Osama bin Laden is not a top priority with the President.  This is yet another continuing shifting and changing saga as to whether or not the administration is intent on capturing bin Laden, “dead or alive”.

9/14/2006

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