To address issues of international violence, first abolish the death penalty domestically

Execution of Woman in Iran

The United States usually ranks in the top five nations using the death penalty. This is the company that we keep...

An open internet is crucial to the interests of the free world

• WSJ -- The UN Trumps Silicon Valley

  "By lobbying for ‘net neutrality’ regulations, big technology companies pave the way for authoritarian governments to censor the Internet."

• Circleid.com -- Secretary Pritzker’s address to ICANN 51

  "The themes of the growing importance of Internet Governance and the U.S. government's steadfast commitment to defense of the multistakeholder model, as well as the connection between maintenance of an open Internet and fostering free speech and economic growth, were key elements of Secretary Pritzker's address..."

A Complicated Vacuum and Turmoil in the Middle East

• BBC -- Saudi Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr 'sentenced to death'

  A Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia Reflects on larger Middle East Conflict

• BBC --Libya turmoil: Benghazi hit by air strikes and clashes

  A power vacuum and struggle in Libya

• BBC -- Iraq crisis: MPs complete anti-IS government

  Iraqi MPs have approved new defence and interior ministers, completing a unity government that is battling the spread of Islamic State militants.

• BBC -- Islamic State Conflict

  The struggle in maps

The Challenge of ISIS

• Thomas Freidman -- International New York Times
  I.S. = Invasive Species

  "Today, ISIS — the foreigners and locals together — is putting pressure on all of Iraq’s and Syria’s native species with the avowed goal of reducing the diversity of these once polycultural societies and turning them into bleak, dark, jihadist, Sunni fundamentalist monocultures."

• Charles Krathammar -- National Review
  Erdogan’s Double Game - Our “ally” Turkey supports jihadists while joining the U.S.-led coalition against them.

  "No one can match Stalin for merciless cynicism, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is offering a determined echo by ordering Turkish tanks massed on the Syrian border, within sight of the besieged Syrian town of Kobani, to sit and do nothing."

Israel and Palestinian Authority UN Speeches

• Abbas' UN Speech

• Netanyahu's UN Speech

Will We Hoist Ourselves On Our Own Petard

• Medsacape -- Dr Emanuel's Death Wish Harms Rather Than Helps

  “Dr Emanuel, of all people, should understand its power. When he writes that having "an [age 75] deadline forces each of us to ask whether our consumption is worth our contribution," Dr Emanuel creates fear.”

• The Atlantic -- Ezeliel Emanuel -- Why I hope to die at 75

  An argument that society and families—and you—will be better off if nature takes its course swiftly and promptly.

• Medscape -- Physician-Assisted Death Gets a Second Look

Too Big to Jail

Attorney General Eric Holder

• Fortune -- Eric Holder's Business legacy
  "in recent years Holder has certainly been punishing banks with unprecedented civil fines and penalties."
  "The attorney general secured no big-name convictions from the financial crisis."
  
• New York Review of Books -- Judge Rakoff On the Financial Crisis
  U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, a former chief of the business fraud unit of the Manhattan U.S., conveys his slack-jawed disbelief that the “colossal frauds” the government has alleged in so many civil cases could not also have engendered at least one successful criminal prosecution.
  

Harry Reid's Plot to Keep the Senate

Politico -- Harry Reid's Plot to Keep the Senate

"The Senate plans to adjourn Thursday until after the elections, avoiding many hot-button votes over changing Obamacare, illegal immigration and taxes. It caps a yearlong effort by Senate Democratic leaders who have the singular focus aimed at bolstering the reelection chances of senators from battleground states — namely Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Alaska, New Hampshire and Colorado."

"Reid has scheduled votes on a politically populist agenda devised by Schumer aimed at forcing Republicans to block bills aimed at wooing students, women, seniors and the middle class. Democrats have repeatedly put forth bills that have little chance of passing — like on increasing the minimum wage, gender pay equity, contraception access and student loan assistance. And even when there are efforts they actually support — such as Obama’s executive action on immigration — Democratic leaders have lobbied the White House to punt on the issue to avoid hurting their vulnerable incumbents and candidates in red states."

GlobalPost - Independence from the United Kingdom

• GlobalPost - Independence from the United Kingdom

Supreme Court October 2014 Term Preview

• Supreme Court October 2014 Term Preview

  "This Term could be among the most momentous in recent history. Petitions for certiorari have been filed by five states raising the question whether prohibitions on same-sex marriage are constitutional. If, as seems likely, the Court agrees to decide that issue, it will be an historic term."

  "Another issue of major importance that may be granted this Term is whether persons who obtain health insurance on the federal exchanges are eligible for subsidies. There is already a petition for certiorari from the Fourth Circuit’s decision approving the subsidies, and the D.C. Circuit recently granted rehearing en banc to resolve the question. It is uncertain whether the Court will hear the case this Term, or even whether the Court will opt to hear it at all. But if the Court does take the case, it will be another blockbuster."

ICANN Proposed By-law Changes. Post Your Comments.

How naive can we be about the importance of information control for autocratic and totalitarian governments such as Russia and North Korea?

• WSJ - The Internet Power Vacuum Worsens

  “The Obama administration plan to give up U.S. protection of the open Internet won't take effect for a year, but authoritarian governments are already moving to grab control. President Obama is learning it's as dangerous for America to create a vacuum of power in the digital world as in the real one.”

  Much of the blame for the splintering of the multistakeholder system lies with Mr. Obama's naïveté in putting Internet governance up for grabs. He underestimated the importance of Washington's control in maintaining an open Internet—and the desire among other governments to close the Internet. And there still is no plan to keep Icann free from control by governments.

• CirlceID - Radical Shift of Power Proposed at ICANN Putting Govts in Primary Decision Making Role

  ICANN is accepting public comments on this proposal until 14 September and reply comments until 6 October 2014 via the email address comments-bylaws-amend-gac-advice-15aug14@icann.org

• Eurasia Review - ICANN and GAC Proposed By-law Changes Analysis

  "I suspect that, the above perceptions, which have been long standing, could be the trigger to dilute the almost ’absolute powers’ of the ICANN board and make it more amenable to accept and implement any or all advice from the GAC. The attempt, in this proposed change of bylaw, could be an attempt to show that governments acting in concert through the GAC, finally have a more ’pertinent and forceful’ role and insulate itself from the supposedly unquestionable independent decisions of the ICANN board."

Henry Kissinger discusses ISIS, Ukraine,and Russia

CBS News - Henry Kissinger discusses ISIS, Ukraine,and Russia

Updates on Electoral Politics

• Real Clear Politics - Portman Won’t Run for Two Offices Simultaneously

• WP - S&P downgrades New Jersey’s debt rating, cites pensions and Christie’s budget

• Time - Surprise Twist in Kansas Scrambles Senate Fight

• WP - Hillary Clinton Reviews Henry Kissinger’s World Order

• Bob Schieffer: Romney may consider 2016 run if Jeb Bush doesn’t

Reconsidering the Death Penalty

• CS Monitor - Convictions for N.C. men overturned

  - Why There has been an uptick in exonerations.

  In the past 25 years, more than 1,300 convicts have been exonerated of the crimes for which they were wrongfully convicted. Last year alone, 87 individuals were found to have been wrongfully convicted, a peak since the database began in 1989.

  While the availability of new DNA analysis techniques has played a role in dozens of exonerations – as was the case with the two brothers – the uptick appears to be largely fueled by a shifting legal climate in the United States, in which law enforcement officials are investing more resources in reviewing old cases, Elizabeth Barber reported for the Monitor earlier this year. In many cases, she wrote, that means that prosecutors are turning the microscope on their predecessors:

  “During the past 25 years, almost 60 percent of the wrongful convictions for homicide in the US are associated with official misconduct, according to data from [a National Registry of Exonerations report]. Moreover, 17 percent of those exonerated originally pleaded guilty. In most cases, the defendant had accepted a plea bargain for a reduced sentence. In other incidents, the exonerated convict had been a victim of coercive interrogation techniques.”

• NY Times - The Innocent on Death Row

  The exoneration of two North Carolina men who spent 30 years in prison— one on death row — provides a textbook example of so much that is broken in the American justice system. And it is further evidence (as though more were needed) that the death penalty is irretrievably flawed as well as immoral.

KGB and Communists tactics in Crimea and Hong Kong

• Crimea seizes Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky's hotel

  Russian-backed bailiffs in Crimea have seized a luxury seaside hotel complex linked to one of Ukraine's richest businessmen, Ihor Kolomoisky.

• Hong Kong's democracy debate

• Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, says that "the ultimate aim" is to elect the chief executive "by universal suffrage".

  The Chinese government has promised direct elections for chief executive by 2017. But in August 2014 China's top legislative committee ruled that voters will only have a choice from a list of two or three candidates selected by a nominating committee.

Russian Advances in the Ukraine

“Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his country was "close to a point of no return - full scale-war" with Russia.”

---

“The crisis in Ukraine began in November last year when pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych abandoned a deal with the EU in favour of stronger ties with Russia.”

• Putin talks about ‘statehood’ for eastern Ukraine
• EU set to tighten Russia sanctions 'within a week'
• Ukraine crisis: Obama blames Russia for violence
• Russia’s new tactics of war shouldn’t fool anyone
• Vladimir Putin: Don't mess with nuclear-armed Russia
• WP - War in Europe is not a Hysterical Idea
• Ukraine in Maps: How the Crisis Spread

Lessons for Ferguson From Cincinnati's 2001 Riots

WSJ - Lessons for Ferguson From Cincinnati”s 2001 Riots

• Tell the public everything immediately
• Set the record straight
• Don’t crucify the cops
• The federal government can slow the healing
• Repudiate race-baiters

"Cincinnati went to work repairing race relations. After a year of meetings supervised by a federal judge, representatives of the city, the police department, the ACLU, the Black United Front and the police union imposed the Collaborative Agreement for police reforms. They included less aggressive pursuit guidelines, a citizen complaint board, and communiy-oriented policing."

"Before the riots there was simmering anger at police in the black community. The police were insular and authoritarian. Today they are proactive, transparent, a model of community-oriented policing."

WSJ - Thousands Protest in Staten Island Over Eric Garner's Death

NY Post - Three Cheers for the NYPD

Islamists Militants “kill reporter James Foley on Video”

• BBC -- James Foley: Islamic State militants 'behead reporter'

• Telegraph - James Foley's murder should only stiffen our resolve to destroy Islamic State

“And this, ultimately, is the most important point: terrorist groups have beheaded hostages and prisoners, Westerners and non-Westerners, for many years. What is shocking is not that they are extreme sadists, but that they are extreme sadists with a conventional army and nation-building aspirations. This is what makes them different. By their own admission, their aim is to “drown all of you in blood”. They are incapable of compromise, uninterested in moderation, and hell-bent on territorial expansion.”

Language counts. It is time to define the radical Islamic terrorists as just what they are, radical Islamic terrorists.

A major unacknowledged but obvious important conflict in international affairs is between moderate and radical Muslims, with the radical Muslims being defined as those who are willing to use lethal force based on religion as a means to their ends. This has included stoning women to death for infidelity, honor killings, assassinations for “blasphemy”, executions of farmers and journalists for political control, kidnapping and selling young women, suicide bombings, and terrorist attacks. As usual, the ends are used to justify the means. The means, however, define any group as much as the ends, and the means often come to distort the ends.

It is also time to better define, understand, and convey our own values and to contrast them with those of the radical Islamic terrorists. Have we learned nothing from the tragedies of the 20th Century. Our primary moral concept of equality, understood as a respect for human dignity and our common humanity, at least has the capacity for some accommodation in what is now a pluralist global community.

• Language Counts in Politics.
  “Language and Politics” -- George Orwell

• Ideas Also Count in Politics.
  “Equality as an Affirmation of Personal Dignity and our Common Humanity."

Iraq Isis Conflict in Maps, Photos, and Video

New York Times -- Iraq Isis Conflict in Maps, Photos, and Video

An Observation

Only when pushed to the brink, such as in Supreme Court Cases or in a world humanitarian crisis, do our leaders start to refer to and correctly describe our primary moral concept of equality as a respect for human dignity and our common humanity.

Equality as an Affirmation of Our Common Humanity

The Rapidly Changing Events in the Middle East

BBC -- Could Iraq becomes Obama’s War?

"President Obama once said the US should not be fighting a war in Iraq. Now he has approved air strikes, trying to protect Americans and help minorities under threat from Sunni militants. So will the president find himself entangled in Iraq?"

• Institute for the Study of War
  Situation Updates

• DailyMail
  Barbarians, Genocide, and the Terrifying Lack of Western Leadership

• Huffington Post
  The Final Solution of the Christian Arab Question in the Middle East

• New York Times
  Iraq Airstrikes Seen As Giving Putin Pretext in Ukraine

• New York Times
  Turkish Premier Tries To Keep Power As President

The Senate Races

• New Yorker -- Can the GOP Take the Senate?

  "Just in case you haven’t had enough bad news, here’s a bit more from the domestic-politics desk. With less than a hundred days until the midterm elections, the Republicans now have a very realistic chance of retaking the Senate, which would leave them in over-all control of Capitol Hill for the next two years..."

• RealClearPolitics -- Senate Races
  
  
  
  
  
• Politico -- 2014 Senate Predictions

  "The big change here is in Iowa, which goes from Leans Democratic to Toss-up: This open-seat contest could end up being the key race in the battle for the Senate, and it appears to be pretty much even. As Iowa appears to be getting more competitive, Democratic prospects are brightening in two other states that voted for Barack Obama twice..."

Reconsidering the Death Penalty

• WP -- Arizona excecution last nearly two hours

  "This drawn-out death of Joseph R. Wood III in Arizona prompted the governor to order a review and drew renewed criticism of lethal injection, the main method of execution in the United States, just months after a high-profile botched execution in Oklahoma."

• WP -- Everything you need to know about executions in the United States

  "Lethal injection is the primary method of execution in the country, though some other methods are used..."

---

See previous blog posts on the Death Penalty:

• China Rethinks the Death Penalty (7/9/14)
• Abolishing the Death Penalty Should be an Issue in the 2016 Elections (6/27/14)
• Reconsidering the Death Penalty (5/3/14)
• Death Sentences in Egypt -- It is beyond time for the U.S. to speak up and take action. (4/28/14)
• The Death Penalty in Egypt -- A Political Tool even as a Threat (4/13/14)
• Reconsidering the Death Penalty In Ohio (1/5/12)

The Persecution of Christians

• NYT -- Christians Forced to Flee Mosul

  "By 1 p.m. on Friday almost every Christian in Mosul had heard the Sunni militants’ message — they had until noon Saturday to leave the city.

• FoxNews -- Mass Exodus of Christians from the Muslim World

  The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”