Why Aren't Afghan Allegations an Election Issue?

With the Harper Government actively trying to bury a report on Afghan prisoner abuses, one wonders why this isn't an election issue. Until one remembers that Prof. Ignatieff is in favor of torture. Oh, not the mean, nasty and messy kind. Only the nice kind. Maybe sort of like what was done to our citizens in Syria?

Some Wind in the Left's Sails?

While I still think der Fuhrer will win, likely with a slim majority, I am also seeing encouraging signs of a resurgent left. An Angus Reid poll from the past few days shows the NDP tied with the hapless Liberals at 25%. The bad news of course is that this could simply mean a more comfortable Tory majority, but at least it shows a left that is not completely dead.

Perhaps even more encouraging is the whole vote mob thing. The Tory strategy hinges on low voter turnout, especially among young and disaffected voters. If students show up in much greater numbers than normal, this could radically (pun intended) swing results.

Those Crazy Ratings Agencies

From Moody's and Standard and Poors come threats this morning to downgrade the U.S. Government's AAA bond rating. These, readers will recall, are the same agencies who gave the same AAA ratings to CDOs comprised of garbage mortgages that where a primary reason the U.S. government is in such sad shape now.

I am sure there is nothing political here. Aren't you? After all, we know these agencies never fudge their ratings.

If Corporations are Persons, Can We Put Them in Jail?

While school teachers and firefighters are under attack for their looting of the public treasury, Bernie Sanders, the only social United States senator (wish we had one of those!) brings us this news of unprosecuted corporate theft:

Come April 15, everybody ponies up their fair share, right? Not so much. Thanks to corporate tax cuts and loopholes, these big companies will be rollin’ in the green instead of paying Uncle Sam. Read Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) corporate freeloaders list now:Spread the word. Share this on Facebook today.

Tough on crime indeed!

some election fun (and needed perspective)

Shit Harper Did (no, really)

Stiglitz and Winner Take All Economics

Last week's Vanity Fair article by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz reminds us that while most of the world struggles to rebuild in the wake of the financial meltdown two years ago, things have never been better for the folks who brought us this clusterfuck. Channelling Paul Pierson and Jacob Hacker's Winner Take All Politics,  he reminds us that the top .1% of U.S. households now command almost a quarter of all income, a staggering maldistribution of wealth not seen since the late 1920s.

And in case you thought this was just another uniquely American disaster, things are much the same in our peaceable kingdom, where almost all of the income growth of the past decades has accrued to the same .1% of the population. And as Stiglitz notes, this warps far more than economic outcomes, as

America’s inequality distorts our society in every conceivable way. There is, for one thing, a well-documented lifestyle effect—people outside the top 1 percent increasingly live beyond their means. Trickle-down economics may be a chimera, but trickle-down behaviorism is very real.

 More important, in this Darwinian struggle where only those at the top prosper, our sense of solidarity forged in the the economic catastrophe of eighty years ago is utterly lost. We have a bit more materially, but we are so much less.

Bacevich on Libya and Futility

Once again, historian and former senior officer Andrew Bacevich grasps the obvious on the use of military power in the middle east, this time in Libya.

As with Iraq, he argues, the why of this misadventure will never be known, and in any coherent sense, probably does not exist. The important point is therefore how and the how that we keep grasping at is the use of force. As he argues

Perhaps Barack Obama found his political soul mate in Samantha Power, making her determination to alleviate evil around the world his own. Or perhaps he is just another calculating politician who speaks the language of ideals while pursuing less exalted purposes. In either case, the immediate relevance of the question is limited. The how rather than the why is determinant.
Whatever his motives, by conforming to a pre-existing American penchant for using force in the Greater Middle East, this president has chosen the wrong tool. In doing so, he condemns himself and the country to persisting in the folly of his predecessors. The failure is one of imagination, but also of courage. He promised, and we deserve something better.

Ten years on, Afghanistan is a sinkhole -- a kleptocracy whose only virtue is that it is our kleptocracy, though not so much and likely not for long. Iraq has, almost inconceivably, been left worse off than we found it. And Libya looks to be emerging as more of the same. 

When do we start bombing Harare?

I have just been listening to Romeo Dallaire on CBC's The Current this morning. This is someone I have great respect and admiration for, so I find it very difficult to disagree with him, though in this instance, I do.

He was talking about Libya and a duty to protect. Given his experience in Rwanda, and our staggering failure to intervene in genocide, this is understandable. We had troops on the ground there and could have acted at minimal cost to prevent great evil.

If, however, we are to apply this doctrine broadly, then we will be compelled to intervene in places where leaders are routinely abusive. Zimbabwe comes to mind. So when do we start bombing Harare? Of course, we are not going to.

We have now involved ourselves in a civil war in Libya -- an inter-tribal civil war. We have taken sides against the regime and so will be compelled to do all we can to defeat that regime. Our erstwhile brave, brave middle eastern allies have abandoned us, though they should be doing the heavy lifting here. They have the means.

By all means ground the Libyan air force and encourage, leverage or whatever Arab neighbors to take responsible action. Given this approach, though, if Ghaddafi does not go quickly, and it does not look like he will, then we will begin to see mission creep as more and more resources are applied to achieving a feel good objective that looked good when it looked quickly doable. This is a dumb, dumb, dumb war.

Getting Out of Hand

MSNBC is currently reporting on their mobile site (no link, sorry) that eastern Libya has effectively broken away, and a civil war seems a distinct possibility. The regime in Tripoli appears to be using tanks and aircraft indiscriminately against civilians.

Nick Kristoff mentioned in one of his tweets on the weekend that there is a U.N. sanctioned "right to protect" that would allow for member intervention in situations such as this. But of course Egypt, the regional military hegemon, is enmeshed in troubles of its own, and anyone who thinks that western nations will do anything productive is dreaming. Unless, of course, oil truly does become a factor.

A Recipe for Despair

From Paul Krugman's blog, a disheartening picture of the world facing our brightest and most ambitious young people:

Here’s the question: of college graduates with a bachelor’s degree who aren’t enrolled in further schooling, how many have full-time jobs?

In December 2007, on the eve of recession, the answer was 90 percent

By December 2009, it was down to 72 percent

As of December 2010, it had recovered only slightly, to 74 percent

To me, that’s a tale of young lives blighted, not just in the short run but perhaps permanently: failing to get a job when you get out of school colors your whole career. And it’s still happening.

This is a society eating its young.