Bush and Obama: War Crimes or Lawful Wars?

November 3, 2011 – 7:07 pm

For Immediate Release: Nov. 3, 2011

Who: Ralph Nader; Center for Study of Responsive Law
When: Friday, November 18, 2011 at 12:30 p.m.
What: Bush/Obama: War Crimes or Lawful Wars?
Where: 1530 P St NW, Washington, DC – Carnegie Institution building
Contact: Katherine Raymond, 202-387-8030, kraymond@csrl.org

(Washington, D.C.) – On Friday, November 18, Ralph Nader and the Center for Study of Responsive Law will host a public debate on the subject: Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s actions: war crimes or lawful wars?

Debaters arguing for the proposition that Bush and Obama engaged in war crimes

Bruce Fein is an attorney and constitutional scholar, and has consulted foreign nations on matters ranging from constitutional revision to telecommunications and cable regulation, and human rights. He appears regularly on national and international television, cable, and radio programs as an expert in foreign affairs, terrorism, national security, and has testified over 200 times before Congressional committees. .

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer is a highly experienced U.S. Army intelligence officer, and is nationally known as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for intelligence collection and policy, terrorism, data mining, situational awareness and adaptive/disruptive technologies. He is also a senior advisor to multiple organizations on terrorism and counterinsurgency issues and a member of the US Nuclear Strategy Forum.

Debaters arguing against the proposition that Bush and Obama engaged in war crimes

David B. Rivkin is a member of Baker & Hostetler Law Firm’s litigation, international and environmental groups and co-chairs the firm’s appellate and major motions team. He served in the White House Counsel’s office and the Department of Justice under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Prior to embarking on a legal career, Mr. Rivkin worked as a defense and foreign policy analyst, focusing on Soviet affairs, arms control, naval strategy and NATO-related issues, and served as a defense consultant to numerous government agencies and Washington think tanks.

Lee Casey a partner at Baker & Hostetler, focuses on federal environmental, constitutional and international law and Alien Tort Statute issues. He served in the Department of Justice under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also advises clients on compliance issues under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), U.S. trade sanctions regimes, and federal ethics requirements. Mr. Casey’s practice includes federal, district and appellate court litigation, as well as matters before federal agencies. From 2004 through 2007 he served as a member of the United Nations Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Moderators
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has written extensively in areas ranging from constitutional law to legal theory to tort law. He has served as a consultant on homeland security and constitutional issues. He also is a nationally recognized legal commentator.

Stuart S. Taylor is a lawyer, author and freelance journalist focusing on legal and policy issues, a “National Journal” contributing editor, and a Brookings Institution nonresident fellow. He has written many columns on this issue and has co-authored a piece titled “Looking Forward, Not Backward: Refining American Interrogation Law” through the Brookings Institution.

The event is free and open to the public. Please join us and invite your colleagues and friends to attend. The Debating Taboos series brings public attention and analyses to “taboo” topics. This is the third debate in the series.

A complimentary light lunch will follow the event.

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Transactions Tax Debate on C-SPAN

August 5, 2011 – 3:04 pm

For those of you anxiously waiting the airing of the two debates on taboo topics, here is C-SPAN’s plan for airing them:

Monday 8/8 at 6pm on C-SPAN – Discussion of mandatory voting (from June 27)
Tuesday 8/9 at 6pm on C-SPAN – Discussion of securities transaction tax (From July 8 )

Check here to see more information on C-SPAN.org for the debate. And, in case you missed the first one, check out that debate here.

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Debating Taboos – Securities Transaction Tax – bring it back or leave it out?

June 28, 2011 – 3:13 pm

Debating Taboos:

Securities Transaction Tax: Bring it back or leave it out?

Friday, July 8, 2011, 11:30 a.m.1530 P St, NW, Washington, DC 20005

A financial transaction tax is a small tax placed on a specific type (or types) of financial transactions. The way it is often discussed is a small tax on each trade of stocks, derivatives, currency, and other financial instruments.

Moderator, Dean Baker – Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.  He’s worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.

Moderator, Gus Sauter – George U. “Gus” Sauter is the chief investment officer of Vanguard Group. Sauter has been a trust investment officer with First Bancorp of Ohio (formerly The First National Bank of Ohio).

Robert Pollin, arguing for the tax – Professor at UMass (Amherst), Robert Pollin’s research centers on macroeconomics, conditions for low-wage workers in the U.S. and globally, the analysis of financial markets, and the economics of building a clean-energy economy in the U.S. Pollin’s main research center is the Political Economy Research Institute.

Jim Angel, arguing against the tax - Professor James “Jim” Angel at Georgetown University has worked at BARRA (now part of Morgan Stanley) where he developed equity risk models. He has also been chairman of the Nasdaq Economic Advisory Board and a member of the OTC Bulletin Board Advisory Committee. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the DirectEdge stock exchanges.

 

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Ralph Nader’s intro to Mandatory Voting Debate

June 27, 2011 – 7:18 pm

Good Day! My name is Ralph Nader. Today marks the first debate—Mandatory Voting: Patriotic or Undemocratic—in a forthcoming series of debates, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law, on subjects rendered taboo in political, electoral and main media arenas of our country. The second debate will be on July 8, 2011 with the topic being a Wall Street securities transaction tax.

Information is the currency of democracy. Subjects that are treated as taboo contradict the open debate and discussion necessary to motivate the citizenry toward higher expectations for their society and themselves. That is what a deliberative, democratic society is about.

Anthropologists have documented taboos in all cultures. Whenever taboos’ on significant subjects are pierced the matter closed out by the taboo is opened up for examination and the possibility of change.

read more »

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Mandatory Voting: Patriotic or Undemocratic?

June 24, 2011 – 5:40 pm

Who: Ralph Nader; Center for Study of Responsive Law

When: June 27, 2011 at 11:30 a.m.

What: Mandatory voting debate

Where: 1530 P St NW, Washington DC 20005 – Carnegie Institution of Science

(Washington, D.C.) – On Monday, June 27, Ralph Nader and the Center for Study of Responsive Law will host a public debate on the pros and cons of mandatory voting.

Norman Ornstein will be arguing for mandatory voting. Norman Ornstein is a long-time scholar of Congress and politics. He writes a weekly column for Roll Call and is an election analyst for CBS News. He serves as co-director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project and participates in AEI’s Election Watch series.

Fred Smith will be arguing against mandatory voting. Smith is the founder and president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market public policy group and international NGO in Washington, DC. He addresses complex policy issues ranging from the environment to corporate governance and is a frequent guest on national TV and radio programs, as well as a prolific writer.

Mark Green will be the moderator. Green has been a public interest lawyer, an elected public official, author, and TV/radio commentator. An honors graduate of both Cornell University and Harvard Law School, he is the author or editor of 22 books, including “Losing our Democracy.”

The event is open to the public.

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