A little politically incorrect humor...

Obama's Drone Warfare

Drone strike increases.  This data only extends to partway though 2011. 

President Obama came into office promising a turn away from the Bush Administration's policies in the War on Terror, but once elected, has kept (or expanded) almost all of the Bush policies.  One area he has expanded is the use of unmanned aircraft (drones) to kill people the administration suspects might be terrorists.

In a further step, this spring the Obama Administration asserted that it had the right to kill US citizens without any judicial oversight, if it felt they might be involved in terrorism (you might remember Senator Rand Paul's filibuster about this).  Apparently, the US military has already killed four Americans outside of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tonight, Obama plans to give a speech justifying his "targeted killing" strategy--in other words, explain why he thinks is okay for the US to have ongoing air wars in more than half-a-dozen countries (some with the host government's permission, some without).

Politically, this should be interesting.  The "Neo-Cons"--the group that pushed to invade Iraq in 2003, such as former VP Dick Cheney--all like his strategy.   The progressives that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, however, claim to be anti-war.  So how does he sell them on this idea?

Abenomics

Japanese Prime Minister Abe

The political battles in this country about government spending are going on in other countries as well.  Japan, which has been stagnant since its own real estate bubble burst in 1991 (!), has decided to bet its economic health on more inflation. 

The new policy of "Abenomics," named for Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, involves

...pushing fiscal and aggressive monetary stimulus while jacking up a debt load that is more than twice the size of its GDP.

In other words, borrowing lots of money for the government to spend, and printing even more.

In contrast, Germany is preventing other European countries from promoting inflation in Europe, based in part on their fear of the hyperinflation that occurred in Germany in the 1920s and contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

German bills became so worthless they were swept up as trash.

As of right now, Abenomics seems to be working:

The 0.9 percent quarter-on-quarter growth — or 3.5 percent if the data were stretched over a year — confirmed Japan’s exit from recession after a decade of lost growth and deflation.

Whether that continues, and whether it leads Japan into yet another cycle of bubble and collapse, remains to be seen.  If it does work for Japan, expect other countries to follow suit.

Weapons Grade Uranium

We don't get to see this often, but the Oak Ridge labs in Tennessee released this picture of a "log" of weapons-grade material collected from scraps and leftovers.  Doesn't look like much, huh?

Courtesy of Knoxnews

Wierd International Law Situation

We talked about the difference between public (for states) and private (for individual) international law.  So what happens when an individual does something that states aren't allowed to do?

A California businessman chartered a fishing boat in July, loaded it with 100 tons of iron dust and cruised through Pacific waters off western Canada, spewing his cargo into the sea in an ecological experiment that has outraged scientists and government officials.

Oddly enough, he was testing a way to pull carbon from the atmosphere.  The problem is...

Mr. Parker, of Harvard’s Kennedy School, said it appeared that the project had contravened two international agreements on geoengineering, the London Convention on the dumping of wastes at sea and a moratorium declared by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

So can he be punished?  I doubt Canada has written those agreements into its domestic law (but I could be wrong), and if its in international waters, what happens?

The International Criminal Court in Action

A few weeks ago, we discussed the ICC, including the way its founding treaty--in theory--obligates signatory countries to turn suspects over to the ICC.   This is creating an interesting wrinkle in the case of former Libyan dictator Gaddafi's son.  Originally created to punish criminals in places where the original country couldn't do so for political reasons (i.e. Rwanda), it is now being used to protect suspects from the death penalty.

The Libyan authorities have made no secret of the fact that they have absolutely no intention of handing Saif Gaddafi over to the ICC, our correspondent says.

If they do want to play by the rules and win the right to try Saif Gaddafi at home, they must convince the judges they can do the job and that Mr Gaddafi will face a fair hearing at home.... Lawyer Melinda Taylor - who spent nearly a month in detention after she and three other members of the defence team were arrested in Libya after visiting Mr Gaddafi in June - say Libya's lawyers are misleading the ICC, for instance by saying a possible death sentence for Saif Gaddafi could be commuted.

Full Article

 Three thoughts come to mind:

1) We're seeing how non-state actors (the ICC) create new regimes (sets of practices and rules--remember that from the exam?) about capital punishment.

2) We're seeing how Euro-centric the ICC is in its opposition to the death penalty.  It reminds me of the European voices who claimed Saddam Hussein wouldn't get a "fair trial" in post-war Iraq

3) The new Libyan government's refusal to turn Gaddafi over reminds us that sovereignty still trumps international law.

What if they made the movie Terminator in 2012...

From XKCD.