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Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to our country asks an important question about Iran’s nukes.
America and its allies, empowered by the United Nations and the Arab League, are interceding militarily in Libya. But would that action have been delayed or even precluded if Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had access to nuclear weapons? No doubt Gadhafi is asking himself that same question.
Gadhafi unilaterally forfeited his nuclear weapons program by 2004, turning over uranium-enriching centrifuges and warhead designs. A dictator like him—capable of ordering the murders of 259 civilians aboard Pan Am Flight 103 and countless others in many countries including his own—would not easily concede the ultimate weapon. Gadhafi did so because he believed he was less secure with the bomb than he would be after relinquishing it. He feared that the U.S., which had recently invaded Iraq, would deal with him much as it had Saddam Hussein. …
… The Iranian regime is the pre- eminent sponsor of terror in the world, a danger to pro-Western states, and the enemy of its own people who strive for democracy. It poses all of these hazards without nuclear weapons. Imagine the catastrophes it could inflict with them. …
Nile Gardiner points out W was a better builder of coalitions.
When he was president, George W. Bush’s international leadership was widely mocked and derided by his liberal critics, who loudly declared that his plain-talking style was undermining America’s image in the world. Even now, the Left cannot resists a dig at the ex-president, with former Obama adviser Rob Shapiro exclaiming to Fox News over the weekend:
“The United States is no longer the out-of-control cowboy. Instead, we build global coalitions. We get the support of the Arab world. We get the support of Africa. We get the support of Europe.”
Shapiro’s statement ignores the fact that the military alliance built by Bush to confront Saddam Hussein was significantly larger than the coalition on the ground now in Libya, that Europe remains divided over how to deal with Colonel Gaddafi (witness Germany’s abstention at the UN Security Council), or that the Arab League is barely lifting a finger, with one or two exceptions. As for Africa, so far not one member of the African Union has joined the no-fly zone operation. But the Left rarely lets reality get in the way of baseless conjecture. …
Toby Harnden lists ten things we have learned from Libya about Obama. Here’s a few.
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7. Obama has a tendency to take “tough” action because he’s afraid of appearing weak (he also did this when he fired General Stanley McChrystal).
8. Obama really does believe in the “international community” and the intrinsic goodness of the UN.
9. Obama will go to war, but would prefer not to admit it.
10. Obama is prepared to go to war with muddled military objectives and no plan for the end game.
Yesterday a PowerLine post showed the cozy relationship between GE and the government. Today, a NY Times article details some of GE success rentseeking in Washington.
General Electric, the nation’s largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010.
The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.
Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.
That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.
Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.
While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less.
In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back.
Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts — from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009. …
… A review of company filings and Congressional records shows that one of the most striking advantages of General Electric is its ability to lobby for, win and take advantage of tax breaks.
Over the last decade, G.E. has spent tens of millions of dollars to push for changes in tax law, from more generous depreciation schedules on jet engines to “green energy” credits for its wind turbines. But the most lucrative of these measures allows G.E. to operate a vast leasing and lending business abroad with profits that face little foreign taxes and no American taxes as long as the money remains overseas. …
Thomas Sowell has mined the new census data.
The latest published data from the 2010 census show how people are moving from place to place within the United States. In general, people are voting with their feet against places where the liberal, welfare-state policies favored by the intelligentsia are most deeply entrenched.
When you break it down by race and ethnicity, it is all too painfully clear what is happening. Both whites and blacks are leaving California, the poster state for the liberal, welfare-state and nanny-state philosophy.
Whites are also fleeing the big northeastern liberal, welfare states like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as the same kinds of states in the midwest, such as Michigan, Ohio and Illinois.
Although California has long been a prime destination of Asian immigrants and the homes of their descendants, the 2010 census shows a striking increase in the Asian American population of Nevada, more so than any other state. Nevada is adjacent to California but has no income tax nor the hostile climate for business that California maintains.
The movement of the black population– especially educated young blacks– is the most striking of all. …
A link to the most amazing tsunami video we have seen.