The response to the leaked Obama administration document explaining its rationalization for targeted drone killings of American citizens has proven louder than I expected. Obama’s kill list was reported very early in his first term. In October 2011 I wrote about his summary execution of Anwar al-Awlaki. A few months ago it was reported...
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If you have a few minutes, take a look at a government white paper obtained by NBC news on the lawfulness of lethal attacks on U.S. citizens with attachments to terrorists. NBC has this summary of the test for ordering a killing: the confidential memo lays out a three-part test that would make targeted...
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The Constitution allows presidents to fill certain vacancies temporarily when the Senate is out of session–a recess appointment. ”The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” While in office, Obama has made about...
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Drones Watch has compiled a list of the names of children killed in America’s drone bombings of Pakistan and Yemen. Should a major terrorist attack hit the United States, this is as likely a reason as any. Each one of these children is as infinitely valuable as the American children shot in school massacres,...
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Today Obama enjoys his inauguration bash. It is also Martin Luther King Day, and the president was sworn in on the Civil Rights leader’s own Bible. Across the spectrum, Americans celebrate King’s Civil Rights leadership. Yet he was just as prophetic and bold in opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam. He is less remembered...
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James M. Buchanan toiled in the academic trenches for more than half a century, plowing vital new ground that advanced our understanding of the untamed beast that is government (and, by extension, the rascals who grasp at its reins). His passing yesterday should be a solemn occasion for all who value a free and...
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On or about December 5, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt (probably with the aid of one or more speech writers) prepared a speech on U.S. relations with the Far East, in general, and with Japan, in particular. The speech was to be delivered to the Congress in order, as its opening sentence indicates, “to...
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When Paul Krugman starts attacking us, we know we’re doing something right. John Maynard Keynes’s presumptive heir, Krugman apparently doesn’t like the findings of our recent book edited by Research Fellow David Beckworth, Boom & Bust Banking: The Causes and Cures of the Great Recession, exposing the profound fallacies of Lord Keynes’s love affair...
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After President Obama’s reelection he was quick to claim his victory as a mandate on his “tax the rich” campaign platform. Meanwhile, there was much talk about the Republican party being in disarray after Romney’s defeat. Neither of those conclusions are correct. Romney ran a competitive campaign despite lukewarm support among many Republicans, but...
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William Binney, a mathematician who worked for the NSA for 32 years as a cryptographer, goes on the record to detail that the FBI’s going through General Petraeus’s email is no particular exception: all electronic communications of all Americans are under constant surveillance and are permanently stored so security agencies can look through them...
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