Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s week-long tour of Asia ended this weekend with high-level talks in China, which covered the global economic crisis, global warming and North Koreas nuclear program.
Cheng Li, the director of research at the China Center at the Brookings Institution, joins Martin Savidge to discuss whether American-Chinese relations are at a turning point, what Clinton’s talks accomplished and why she downplayed any reference to China’s human rights record.
Former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and current State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a bill in the California Legislature to legalize marijuana. Mr. Ammiano argues “billions of dollars in the illicit marijuana trade goes up in smoke every year, billions that the state could get by taxing the drug.” He adds that “treating pot just like alcohol and cigarettes could help balance California’s budget.”
Ammiano says marijuana is California’s largest cash crop.
“The marijuana industry probably nets in California alone $14 billion,” Ammiano said.
The bill is also supported by state Board of Equalization chair Betty Yee. She says the taxes would be a windfall for the state.
“The revenue impact of this proposal we believe will generate over $1.3 billion,” Yee said.
Part of that money would come from a $50 per ounce state excise tax on the drug – roughly $1 per joint, according to Ammiano. Sales tax revenue would make up the rest.
Advocates say the bill would take the profits away from drug dealers.
“They are willing to kill for and rob California taxpayers of billions of dollars in potential revenue,” Steve Gutwillig said.
The battle against Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents in both Afghanistan and Pakistan appears to be an expanding war, one also being conducted in secret by American military advisers and technical specialists inside Pakistan. More than 70 American Special Forces troops are training Pakistani soldiers, part of what The New York Times calls a secret task force, overseen by the United states Central Command and Special Operations Command.
In recent days, the U.S. has stepped up air strikes launched from unmanned drone aircraft. The news of increased U.S. involvement comes as some of Pakistan’s senior officials are headed to Washington.
Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. and a former U.S. State Department intelligence analyst specializing on Pakistan and Afghanistan, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the current situation in Pakistan, the stepped-up drone attacks and the scheduled meeting in Washington with Pakistani and Afghani civilian and military leaders.
More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.
The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added.
They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command. It started last summer, with the support of Pakistan’s government and military, in an effort to root out Qaeda and Taliban operations that threaten American troops in Afghanistan and are increasingly destabilizing Pakistan. It is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged.