After days of angry protests across Afghanistan, 2 US soldiers and up to 12 Afghan civilians are dead. The protests are the result of  military personnel burning Korans at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. The Taliban has used the situation to incite anger against US and NATO forces. There have been attacks on French, Norwegian, and US bases. The situation has escalated enough to the point where President Obama had to release an apology to the people of Afghanistan.

Via Jakarta Globe:

In a letter of apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama expressed “deep regret” over the incident that he said was unintentional, and pledged that those responsible would be held accountable, Kabul said.

“I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies,” Obama wrote in the letter presented to Karzai by US ambassador Ryan Crocker.

“The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the apology, which came in a broader three-page letter to Karzai, was “wholly appropriate given the sensitivities” over the issue.

It’s been reported that the 2 US soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier that was upset by the burning of the Korans. The Afghan civilians were killed by gun fire at various protests.

Of course the Taliban is taking full advantage of the outrage.

But the Taliban, leading a 10-year insurgency against Karzai’s government, on Thursday sought to exploit the anti-American sentiment.

“You should bring the invading forces’ military bases under your brave attack, their military convoys, kill them, capture them, beat them and teach them a lesson that they will never again dare to insult the Holy Koran,” it said in a statement.

It is a tragedy that 2 US soldiers and 12 Afghan citizens have died over the burning of a few books. I think this is a prime example (among many) why we are not likely to have a complete victory in Afghanistan. Our cultures are far too different and having such a large footprint there makes it likely that situations like this will occur and ruin whatever relationship we build. Surely it’s time to bring our troops home. We don’t need anymore deaths like this. I am sure we can build a much better relationship and help build Afghanistan through trade and diplomacy.

[Image via Flickr/Pan-African News Wire File Photos]

Ron Paul had a pretty good debate performance last night. Now that there are only four candidates left he had ample time to articulate his positions and even got the opportunity to to show everyone that Rick Santorum is really a big government conservative.

Here’s a timeline for the subjects Ron Paul talked about:

0:55 – Ron Paul’s ad calling Santorum a fake conservative.

5:24 – Earmarks

8:00 – Bailouts

9:30 – Contraception

15:00 – Immigration

17:30 – Define yourself in one word

18:10 – Women in combat/Foreign Policy

19:34 – Iran

22:15 – Economic reason against war

23:19 – Education

24:35 – Biggest misconception about his candidacy

The big take-away here is that Ron Paul is the only unique candidate in the race. There is virtually no policy difference between Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich and they all have or have held policy positions that are similar to Obama’s.

Can’t find a job? Don’t worry! You’re helping your family AND the economy!

Speaking at North Carolina Central University White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told a crowd that unemployment is actually healthy for the economy, contrary to the beliefs of nearly every notable economist in the modern world.

“Even though we had a terrible economic crisis three years ago, throughout our country many people were suffering before the last three years, particularly in the black community, and so we need to make sure that we continue to support that important safety net,” Jarrett said.

“It not only is good for the family, but it’s good for the economy. People who receive that unemployment check go out and spend it and help stimulate the economy, so that’s healthy as well.”

It’s stunning to witness such colossal economic ignorance coming from someone so close to the President. It doesn’t make me feel good about the future.

It does, however, make me want to drink. So there’s always that.

[Image via flickr/World Economic Forum]

Republicans have been hammering President Obama about the corporate tax code and how its burdensome and filled with loopholes for a while now. All of the GOP Presidential candidates have released tax plans that greatly reduce the tax burden on business. Today the President finally released an outline of what he would like the corporate tax code to look like.

It’s most notable point is to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28% and remove many of the loopholes from the code. He also wants to impose a “minimum tax” on companies that operate internationally and don’t pay taxes on revenues made outside the US that they don’t bring back. Finally, he wants to end tax breaks for companies that outsource overseas and give tax incentives to companies that bring jobs back to the US.

Via The Washington Post:

Marguerite Higgins of the conservative Heritage Foundation argued that such a tax would hurt competition.

“Once again, Obama is going in precisely the wrong direction,” Higgins said in a statement. “Rather than in-sourcing jobs, he would outsource the headquarters and top management of U.S. multinational companies.”

Higgins has a point about rewarding and punishing corporations for moving jobs to or from the US. It’s all about unintended consequences. This all or nothing approach could be enough for companies that need to move jobs to other countries to just completely up and move out of the US. We can’t know for sure if this would happen, but why create complexities in the tax code that could create incentives to leave the country completely?

The President’s plan even specifically punishes and rewards specific industries.

The president’s plan targets oil and gas companies for tax increases while promising special breaks for manufacturing companies.

So oil and gas companies will pay more in taxes and manufacturing will end up paying around 25%. It baffles me why the President wants to play puppet master over the economy. If he wants the corporate tax rate to be 28% then let’s go with 28%. A flatter and lower tax rate is stimulus enough for the economy. And why punish oil and gas companies? Are they somehow morally inferior to other companies and need to be punished? We should treat them just like any other company.

There you have it. Obama has complicated the simple idea of lowering tax rates and removing loopholes and made it complicated with many pieces that will most likely be bitterly debated. This is an issue the Democrats and Republicans are supposed to mostly agree on. I would also like to point out that Obama has waited to the last year of his term to start working on a tax overhaul like this. A day late and a dollar short.

Well said Governor. Well said.

Ron Paul stands apart from a great deal of the Republican party. That makes speculating on who he may pick for a running mate a bit tricky. In recent history VP choices have come primarily out of Congress, but being outside of the mainstream Republican party his choices are greatly reduced making a pick from outside Congress more likely. Or I suppose you could say that his choice is made easier because the pool of like minded people is smaller. Today he indicated that Judge Andrew Napolitano “jumps right out at [him]” as a choice for VP.

Judge Napolitano hosted a show on Fox Business Channel call Freedom Watch, but that show was cancelled recently. Judge Napolitano shares many of the same positions that Paul does and on occasion outright endorsed Ron Paul on his show.

Sen. Jim Demint is another possibility. He has done all but endorse Ron Paul. Gov. Buddy Roemer, a largely ignored GOP candidate, is another Republican outsider that could be a natural fit for Ron Paul. Either way, Ron Paul is defiantly the underdog in the race so all of this is mostly wishful thinking, but a Ron Paul/Andrew Napolitano ticket would be devastating to the establishment in Washington and I think thats exactly what we need.

UPDATE:

I totally forgot about the Libertarian candidate for President Gary Johnson. He initially tried to run as a part of the GOP, but had gotten pretty much the same treatment as Buddy Roemer so he split off to run as a Libertarian Party candidate. If Ron Paul got the nomination I am sure that Johnson would be willing to leave his campaign for a VP spot on Paul’s.

[Image via Flickr/ronpaulrevolt2008]

I thought hippies didn’t believe in guns? Then again, Rich Latta is from Texas after all.

USA Today published a cute letter to the editor written by Mr. Latta in which he accuses them of bias against the Occupy movement.

Aaaand then!

Latta wonders if the protestors should ditch the whole nonviolence thing and use guns to take Wall Street and the nation’s capitals by force instead.

USA TODAY’s editorial is right to say that Occupy might lack clear goals on how to move forward, but the movement has accomplished its main original goal: to protest these injustices, not by simply holding a rally and going home, but by keeping the rally going to underscore the seriousness of this problem. Your piece accuses the protesters of sitting around and doing nothing. So maybe they should take up their Second Amendment-sanctioned guns and storm Wall Street and our nation’s capitals. If our country doesn’t change, it could very well come to that one day.

Seems reasonable, right?

Ben Shapiro notes the blatant double standard. If this letter came from a Tea Party activist, it’d be on every major media outlet tonight with MSNBC pundits predictably charging racism and/or sexism. It’s impressive USA Today even published the letter in the first place. Maybe they thought no one would catch it.

Sorry guys.

[Image via flickr/Occupy Global]

In January the government reported that unemployment fell to 8.3% (Not to sound too paranoid, but I don’t completely trust the numbers that the government comes up with) in January. Anyways, Gallup released its unemployment survey results during the middle of the month and it’s an indicator of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release later on. As of mid-February Gallop finds that unemployment is at 9%. Gallup does not account for seasonal adjustment, so while the BLS may report a number below 9% it will likely be close.

If that isn’t bad enough, the survey also found that underemployment is over twice the unemployment number at 19%.

Via CNS News:

The survey also found that “underemployment” – those unemployed and those working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable – rose to 19 percent, up from the 18.7 percent Gallup found in January.

Gallup said its report reflected a continuing trend of weakness in U.S. labor markets, marking a “sharp deterioration” in job market conditions.

So basically 1 in 5 working aged people in America is unemployed looking for work or working less than they’d like to. When the BLS calculates unemployment it ignores a category of worker called the “discouraged worker.” These are people that are of working age and ability, but have stopped looking for work because they feel there is none out there. The BLS reported in January that there are 1.1 million discouraged workers as well. In April 2009, there are 740,000 discouraged workers. Not a good sign of economic recovery.

One of the reasons Gallup cited for the lack economic recovery is the rising energy prices. Gas prices are setting records for this time of year already. It also said that “it is premature to assume the condition of the economy will not remain a major issue for Americans both financially and politically in 2012.” This will surely ruin President Obama’s narrative that the economy is getting better.

Lets face the fact that Santorum is a big government guy, both here at home and in foreign policy. He has the same big government leaning that nearly all Republicans who have held office over the last 20 years have. Thats the reason why we see a pool of candidates that are incapable of personifying small government and individual liberty. This is truly a tragedy considering that this election will likely make or break us as a country. We all know that we can’t afford another 4 years of the Obama Administration, but how can we trust Romney, Gingrich, or Santorum? They have only found their support of small government ever since Obama was elected and even now their plans to achieve it are pretty weak. On the other hand there is a guy that has been consistent for 30 years, predicted the housing bubble, and would seek to cut $1 trillion from the budget in his first year.

Yesterday the Knights of Columbus released a Presidents Day ad inspired by the administration’s disdain for the First Amendment.

“From the beginning, our nation’s great presidents have understood that we are One Nation, Under God, Indivisible.”

Earlier this month, Obama’s hometown Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George issued a letter in which he said the White House “seemingly ignored the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.”

He continued, “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens because of their religious beliefs.”

“Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights.”

Meanwhile, Catholic League President Bill Donohue strongly condemned the contraception mandate saying, “This is going to be fought in the courts, the court of opinion, this is the most serious infringement by the Federal government on the rights of Catholics and others in 200 years.”

If the President doesn’t repeal this blatantly unconstitutional and economically unsound mandate, he will find himself opposed by a unified Catholic-and for that matter Christian-church.

And they’re all reliable voters.