Martinez: Tax the Rich? We Already Do

Andres Martinez — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Dear Stumped, We are constantly told the rich don't pay any taxes, but my father-in-law claims that the top 5 percent pay 50 percent of the income tax, while the bottom 45 percent pay none. How is this possible? It contradicts everything I've been told since I was 12 years old. -- Larry Anderson

Dear Larry: Well, clearly you haven't been reading the Wall Street Journal editorial page since you were 12 years old. If so, you might believe that only the rich pay taxes in this country. It's silly, really, how polarized we can get not just about differences of opinion, but also about underlying facts. Your father-in-law is in the ballpark....

Lalwani: When 'New Realities' Ignore Facts on the Ground

The Washington Note — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

It comes as little surprise that Fred Kagan, Kimberly Kagan, and Jack Keane offer a glowing assessment of the political and security progress in Iraq in yesterday's Wall Street Journal op-ed "The New Reality in Iraq." Despite evidence to the contrary, the Keanes and Kagan open by triumphantly proclaiming:

All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has accomplished almost all of the legislative benchmarks set by the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration....

Clemons: Congress Should Travel More Not Less -- Applauding the Aspen Institute

The Washington Note — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

I like the folks at US News & World Report but they just sent me a disconcerting political news swipe at sponsored Congressional travel and the Aspen Institute.

The opener reads:

While many Americans watched their wallets, several dozen members of Congress used the Memorial Day recess to travel overseas to places including Rome, Venice, and Athens without digging into their own. At least 64 lawmakers traveled abroad that week, many with spouses in tow, a U.S. News review found. The largest contingent was 17 members of Congress ensconced for five nights in the $480-a-night Rome Cavalieri Hilton, courtesy of the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit group famous for transporting lawmakers to chic destinations, ranging from the Grand Cayman Islands to Istanbul, for in-depth looks at foreign policy and other issues.

The Aspen Institute brought the lawmakers to Rome for a seminar called "Political Islam: Challenges for U.S. Policy." But it wasn't just the members of Congress who benefited, at no cost to themselves, since all but one brought along a spouse or child. Trips for two soared as high as $20,120, and the bottom line for members and their companions rose to nearly $263,000, according to disclosure reports.

Nine Democrats were on the Rome trip: Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Rush Holt of New Jersey, Nita Lowey of New York, and Howard Berman, Susan Davis, George Miller, and Henry Waxman, all of California. Eight Republicans also were on board: Sens. Robert Bennett of Utah, Richard Lugar of Indiana, and George Voinovich of Ohio and Reps. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, Geoffrey Davis of Kentucky, John Duncan of Tennessee, Fred Upton of Michigan, and Greg Walden of Oregon.

All but Bingaman brought one relative, most often a spouse; Blumenauer took a son. Three members, Lowey, Miller and Upton, extended the trip to Italy at their own expense. Aspen, which has been holding such conferences for lawmakers since 1983 and now puts on about five a year, marks a milestone in August with its 100th conference in Paris, according to Dick Clark, who directs the Aspen Congressional Program. Those meetings will probe the cultural and ideological aspects of Islam.

Let me play the contrarian here and defend the Members of Congress and the Aspen Institute. We need as many Members out seeing the world as possible -- and if they are at a forum debating political Islam. . .well, fantastic!...

Fallows: Bad News Worth Noticing in Malaysia

New America Network — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

The Malaysian government's arrest yesterday of a politician named Anwar Ibrahim is important and really discouraging news.

When my family lived in Malaysia twenty years ago, Anwar was the bright-eyed, somewhat fiery-tongued young Malay leader on the rise. Malaysia, then as now a prosperous, diverse, and overall very modern country, then as now had a nascent fundamentalist-Islamist movement to deal with. Anwar in his youth stood for a kind of Islamic reassertion, but of a very suave and modern kind. I was at a conference in Singapore in the late 1980s where he appeared along with Lee Kuan Yew. The arrogant mandarin and the confident young aspirant made an impressive complementary pair.

Then in the 1990s he seemed to pose too direct a challenge to his one-time patron, the overly-long-staying Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir, and he was imprisoned on sodomy charges that most outsiders considered politically motivated. He has recently become eligible to run for office again and has attracted wide support. And now, incredibly, the government has come up with a new 23-year-old male witness to make the same old shocking allegations against him....

Lewis: Same Old Boring Shahab 3

Arms Control Wonk — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

CNN has a “developing story”

Iran did not conduct new missile tests today, despite Iranian media reports that it did, a senior U.S. military source tells CNN.

No kidding. [Oh, I see its the new test, not the new missile that is being disputed. Ed.]

Although Iran clearly wanted to show off, it should be pretty obvious that the missile tested is exactly the same old Shahab-3 with a 1,200 km range....

Clemons: Off to Ramallah

The Washington Note — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

This trip to Israel and today to Palestine has been extremely eye-opening. Condoleezza Rice will be here on Monday -- and there is antipathy to her trip at the highest levels of government.

I've been told that she comes with no plan, no ideas, no pressure to move in any direction whatsoever. According to a source very close to Prime Minister Ehud Ohlmert, she doesn't even ask questions about the basic positions on each side so as to understand the "gaps" and then to offer ideas -- or even pressure on the Israelis and Palestinians -- to close the gaps. Those engaged credibly in the peace process here want American engagement -- and want the U.S. to play a role in defining "best options" among many competing visions of how this is going to work out.

I'll have more to say later regarding some surprising perspectives I've encountered about Hamas....

Blogging Heads: Goldfarb and Hounshell on a Post-Musharraf Pakistan

Blogging Heads — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

In this Blogging Heads excerpt, Michael Goldfarb, editor of the Weekly Standard's The Blog, and Blake Hounshell, web editor at Foreign Policy, try to figure out why the Bush Administration still lashes its Paksitan policy to Pervez Musharraf in the wake of his defeat, which signals the inauguration of a democratic government. Later, they also discuss how democracy in Pakistan will enhance counterinsurgency effort in the region. This excerpt touches on a number of ideas and concerns raised by New America's foreign policy experts.

The excerpt is viewable below. For the full "diavlog," please visit BloggingHeads.tv.

Paul: Writing off Clinton

Mark Paul — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

I know how Hillary Clinton must feel. A few years back, I sat half naked on the examining table as my doctor pored over my charts. "Anything wrong?" I finally asked after a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence. "No," he replied, "I'm just trying to figure out what's going to kill you."

Sen. Clinton is still alive, but much of the blogosphere, convinced that the end of her presidential run is near, is busy conducting what can only be called the premortem....

Clemons: U.S.-Cuba, Non-Tourist, People-to-People Initiatives Flourished Before 2004

The Washington Note — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

A friend, John McAuliff, has a letter in the New York Times today in response to a very good editorial the Times ran last week titled "Twilight of the Dictators: And a Chance for Cuba -- and the U.S."

McAuliff reminds that before Bush tightened restrictions on Cuba by executive order in 2004, non-tourist people-to-people initiatives were on the upswing. These were choked off by Bush.

I think that this represents the minimum base-line that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should speak to when discussing taking US-Cuba relations a different direction. It's one thing to talk about opening family-related travel and increasing the amount allowed in remittances of Cuban-American families to their relatives in Cuba. It's another not to even talk about restoring what existed before George Bush began paying off the elders in Miami's exile community for their role in manipulating Florida's election results in 2000.

Hillary Clinton needs to do a serious "full policy review" of her Cuba position -- and Obama needs to go farther than he already has. The benchmark that existed in 2003 should be a minimum start in this process....

Lewis: IAEA Hints At Pre-2003 Iranian Bomb Program

Arms Control Wonk — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0500

Sorry, I’ve been so quiet lately. Strange combination of being really busy and, when I blog, not being able to finish a post.

But ISIS has acquired GOV/2008/4. Although David and Jackie have an excellent write-up and Andy discussed it some, I want to pull out what I think is the most important feature — growing detail about why the US and IAEA are so worked up about Iran’s past behavior.

Generally, speaking the report divides the outstanding questions into 3 categories. Iran’s answers are …

“… consistent with” information available to the IAEA. (Po-210, Gchine)

“… not inconsistent with” information available to the IAEA (Contamination at, and Procurement for, Lavizan-Shian)

“… still not provided.” (i.e. Alleged Studies, aka “The Laptop of Death”)

A colleague asked me, “What’s the difference between ‘consistent with’ and ‘not inconsistent with’?” In this context, I believe the answer is this:

Although Iran’s story on the uranium contamination and suspicious procurement linked to the Physics Research Center at Lavizan-Shian holds together (“not inconsistent with” a benign explanation), the IAEA is hinting that the links between PHRC and the “alleged studies on the green salt project, high explosives testing and the missile re-entry vehicle” are still very, very suspicious....