Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Eunomia Mira Rapp-Hooper criticizes the idea that Crimean annexation has damaging implications for U.S. security commitments elsewhere: According to this narrative, Washington’s failure to uphold the 1994 Budapest Memorandum portends U.S. complacency if Japan faces an attack in the East China Sea. It is tempting to attribute this to an acute case of “resolve anxiety,” but it is also important to parse why the failure of one international agreement does not imply the frailty of them all. If the United States is to remain powerful and engaged in the world at a time of great resource constraints, it will need to choose its battles wisely. In this case, Rapp-Hooper is comparing the Budapest Memorandum with the U.S. Rapp-Hooper continues with a discussion of credibility: Scholarly work suggests that states assess their opponents’ interests and capabilities with respect to the particular object under dispute, as opposed to their diffuse reputations for resolve towards all commitments in all cases.

Homeland Security News Wire Outside The Beltway | OTB | Online Journal of Politics and Forei 2012 Election Central PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts The bugger, bugged When I broke down in my midlife crisis car in remotest Kent just before Christmas, a battered white van pulled up on the far carriageway. To help, I thought. But when the driver got out he started taking pictures with a long-lens camera. He came closer to get better shots and I swore at him. Then he offered me a lift the last few miles to my destination. I suspected his motives and swore at him some more. He turned out to be an ex-News of the World investigative journalist and paparazzo, now running a pub in Dover. More than that, he was Paul McMullan, one of two ex-NoW hacks who had blown the whistle (in the Guardian and on Channel 4's Dispatches) on the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper, particularly under its former editor Andy Coulson. I agreed and the picture duly appeared in the Mail on Sunday that weekend with his creative version of the encounter. I wanted to hear more about phone-hacking and the whole business of tabloid journalism. Those are the highlights.

Comité pour la réforme des collectivités locales The Top 10 Tax Breaks -- And How They Help The Wealthy The Most This is the time of year when we are most aware of our tax burdens. But what we may be less aware of are all the huge tax breaks built into our system. Most Americans benefit from one or more -- but it's the wealthy who benefit the most. The government spends money through appropriations and writing checks, but it also showers individuals and companies with a astonishing array of special exemptions, credits and deductions that amount to a $1.1 trillion giveaway each year. About half of the money lost to "tax expenditures" comes from the 10 breaks listed below. Few of the biggest breaks directly benefit corporate America. But in stark contrast to, say, social programs, tax breaks vastly favor the rich over the middle class and the poor. They vastly favor people who own homes (especially expensive homes), can put a lot away for their retirements, have generous health insurance plans and live in high-tax states. Some of these terms may require a little explanation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Le blog de Benoit PETIT / CAP 21 - MoDem Aix Policy in an age of post-truth politics Obama still doesn’t get it.Photo: White HouseAs Joe Romm noted the other day, Ezra Klein has an interesting column in WaPo making the case that, in terms of policy, Obama “is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s.” Putting aside the emergency measures responding to the economic crisis, Obama’s signature initiatives have been a health-care bill modeled on Mitt Romney’s and a cap-and-trade bill modeled on George Bush Sr.’s. Both of those original policies were successful, but when Obama took them up, Republicans fled en masse. I agree with Kevin Drum that those policies were never truly Republican: They were compromises Republicans felt forced to accept to avoid worse (i.e., more liberal) policies. For decades Republicans have single-mindedly pursued a few core goals: reducing taxes on the wealthy, dismantling the post-war social welfare state, and freeing corporations from regulatory restraints. In short, Republicans have mastered post-truth politics. What happened instead? No.

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