Think Tanked

Cato's Daniel J. Mitchell Discusses Issa's Letters to Businesses on CNBC

Cato's Chris Preble: I No Longer Support Capt. Honors

Chris Preble, Cato's director of foreign policy and former commissioned U.S. Navy officer, in a piece at CNN made every case as to why Capt. Owen Honors should be given a break over the recently revealed "morale boosting" video, finally asking: "Can't we just cut the guy some slack?"

Preble's answer?

Actually, no.

[...]

...a single officer's actions will be seized upon by the service's harshest critics as a sign of an institution run amok. The antics of a group of Navy and Marine Corps aviators at the infamous Tailhook convention in 1991 affected naval officers all through the service. I know. I was deployed half a world away at the time, and yet my promotion to lieutenant junior grade was held up until I could prove that I was not involved in the events in Las Vegas.

If Honors' punishment seems severe -- he was relieved of command of the Enterprise and his career is effectively over -- consider that officers can be processed out of the military for "conduct unbecoming" even when they commit offenses off base and in civilian clothes. Officers have been removed from the service, often with deep reductions in rank that result in severe cuts in their retirement income, for offenses ranging from driving under the influence of alcohol to solicitation of prostitution.

By contrast, Honors was acting in an official capacity, using government equipment and the time of his staff. And always in the role of executive officer.

Cato's Juan Carlos Hidalgo Talks Economic Growth in Latin America on Al-Jazeera

Cato's Barnett on Health Care & the Commerce Clause

Cato's Christopher Preble: 5 Ways to Cut Military Spending

Personnel Files: Guillermo Zuloaga Joins Cato

Guillermo Zuloaga, president of Venezuela's Chavez-opposing Globovision TV, has joined the Cato Institute as a fellow in free speech. Zuloaga, who fled to the United States in June, is seeking asylum from what appears to be trumped up charges that include Zuloaga's alleged assassination plot of Chavez.

From the release:

Zuloaga, now in exile, has become an international symbol of press freedom for maintaining Globovision's independence in the face of severe harassment of the company's journalists, himself and his family by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government.

"We are delighted and honored to be working with Guillermo, who has paid a high price to exercise and defend free speech in Venezuela at a time when Hugo Chavez is intensifying his authoritarian project and when most other television stations are state-owned or have lost their independence," said Ed Crane, president of the Cato Institute.

At Cato, Zuloaga's work will highlight the growing threats to free speech in Latin America and the ways in which the Venezuelan and other democratically elected governments are undermining press freedom.

"I hope that my association with Cato will help bring attention to the rapid deterioration of basic liberties in Venezuela and shed light on the critical role that a free press plays in restraining authoritarianism in Venezuela and beyond," said Zuloaga.

Cato's Daniel Ikenson Talks the GM IPO on Fox

Cato's Sallie James: Farm Subsidies Are Harmful

Cato's Donald Boudreaux on Biden & Private Enterprise

Cato's Mark Calabria Discusses the Impact of Midterm Elections on the Economy