THE HEADLINES

(Foreign Policy)

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Noted hawks in the U.s. Senate, John McCain and Joe Lieberman surprised everyone with an unannounced trip to the Turkey-Syria border this week to visit refugees of the Syrian uprising and, more importantly, to meet with leaders of the “Free Syrian Army” to pledge assistance to them in their armed fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The two lawmakers have been in the forefront of calls for greater American intervention in the Syrian conflict, complaining that even the waves of “non-lethal” assistance and millions of dollars in aid sent to Syrian rebels by President Obama are not enough. Calling the conflict between Assad’s government forces and Syrian rebels a “war,” McCain and Lieberman essentially circumvented the administration and promised rebel leaders that the US would soon be “doing a lot more” to oust Assad.

(Reuters)

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As if America’s multinational corporations don’t receive enough special treatment when it comes to their dwindling corporate tax rates, a new study by the group Citizens for Tax Justice finds that some of the nation’s largest corporations are taking advantage of a new tax loophole that has bipartisan support to virtually wipe out their federal income ta bills. A provision in the corporate tax code called “accelerated depreciation” allows big companies like GE and Duke Energy to write off many of their assets and enjoy massive tax breaks that leave them with a negative tax bill to Uncle Sam. GE averaged a negative 19 percent tax rate from 2008 to 2011, mainly due to the “accelerated depreciation” provision. This loophole is the result of intense lobbying by corporate interests that has led to Democrats, Republicans and President Obama pledging to protect “accelerated depreciation” even as public pressure grows to make a fairer tax code. 

(Wall Street Journal)

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Privacy is increasingly a quaint vestige of the past as the increasingly social and technologically connected lifestyles of modern Americans present unforeseen challenges and pitfalls that are raising concern among the users responsible for the explosive growth in the nation’s digital economy. The most pervasive culprit in the push to make our private lives oh-so-public is the profusion of “apps,” web-based programs that run on our smartphones, iPad’s, and online communities like Facebook. Like Facebook, apps are a booming business, with some companies that make nothing but applications for phones and social media worth billions of dollars. There is literally an app for just about everything these days, from directions to porn, and each one is increasingly likely to collect huge files of financial and personal data about each of us. Many people want the convenience that such data mining provides when it comes to certain apps, but often these programs are observing everything about the people that use them without their knowledge. And a backlash is developing against the aggressive intrusion of privacy among apps, highlighted by a controversial program that promises to deliver the whereabouts and personal information of woman who the “Girls Around Me” app decides are near your location.

(Bradenton Herald)

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Proponents of legislation that would have taken small steps to alleviating Florida’s crisis of mass incarceration and prison overcrowding are crying foul after Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the bill that proposed a minimal pilot program aimed at providing drug treatment for non-violent criminals whose addiction-fueled crimes landed them in state prisons. Out of over 100,000 inmates, just a few hundred would have been eligible to participate in the drug program at the center of legislation crafted by both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature — only 12 lawmakers voted against the bill in both GOP-controlled chambers. Florida law mandates prisoners convicted of drug-related crimes serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, and providing the option for treatment outside of prison was seen as vital to saving taxpayers money and reducing the stress on the state’s overloaded criminal justice system. Gov. Scott saw otherwise, breaking with his fellow Republicans and slamming the legislation in his veto announcement as a means to “permit” the release of “criminals.”

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