Paul Gigot says "No one ever claimed a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda"

Today on Fox News, Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot claimed, “We didn’t go to war because of al Qaeda links.” What an asshole.

Apparently, Paul Gigot didn't read what the White House resolution authorizing force against Iraq said:

"Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq."

What bothers me is that this guy was on the Fox News show with millions of people watching. Bad Fox News, bad. (watch video here)

Escalation: a 1968 anti-war short film by Disney animator [video]

This was created by Academy Award-winning Disney animator Ward Kimball (1914 –2002). The 1968 film protests then-president Lyndon B. Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam war.

via Boing Boing

Jailing Pot Smokers Costs U.S. Taxpayers $1 Billion a Year. Treating Nearly Half of All Americans as Criminals: Priceless

According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), "Drug Use and Dependence, State and Federal Prisoners, 2004," 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses. This turns into it costing U.S. taxpayers more than $1 billion a year to keep pot heads locked up. That can be turned into 1 out of 8 American drug prisoners are locked up for marijuana.

Paul Armentado (AlterNet) reports that according to the most recent figures available from the FBI, police arrested an estimated 786,545 people on marijuana charges in 2005 -- more than twice the number of Americans arrested just 12 years ago. Among those arrested, about 88 percent -- some 696,074 Americans -- were charged with possession only. The remaining 90,471 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. These totals are the highest ever recorded by the FBI, and make up 42.6 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

Marijuana isn't a harmless substance, and those who argue for a change in the drug's legal status do not claim it to be. However, pot's relative risks to the user and society are arguably fewer than those of alcohol and tobacco, and they do not warrant the expenses associated with targeting, arresting and prosecuting hundreds of thousands of Americans every year.

New Technology for Mind Reading Raises Ethical Debates

The London Guardian reports that scientists have now learned to use high resolution brain scans to translate brain activity patterns into meaningful thoughts about a person's intention.

"Using the scanner, we could look around the brain for this information and read out something that from the outside there's no way you could possibly tell is in there. It's like shining a torch around, looking for writing on a wall," said John-Dylan Haynes at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany, who led the study with colleagues at University College London and Oxford University.

There is talk of refining this method in the hopes that judgment will be passed before any laws have been broken. Currently, the software used to spot the subtle differences in brain activity, is only about 70% accurate with predicting a person's intentions.

Barbara Sahakian, a professor of neuro-psychology at Cambridge University, said "A lot of neuroscientists in the field are very cautious and say we can't talk about reading individuals' minds, and right now that is very true, but we're moving ahead so rapidly, it's not going to be that long before we will be able to tell whether someone's making up a story, or whether someone intended to do a crime with a certain degree of certainty."

The Quotable Atheist by John Huberman

"Meanwhile, religion continues to be granted far too much respect and too little critical examination in our culture and mainstream media.We need to change the cultural climate so as to make supernatural, occult, and faith-based claptrap feel unwelcome and to make adults ashamed of the blithe surrender of their otherwise sound minds to idiocy.We need climate change. Bullshit levels are rising globally, threatening to submerge intellectually low-lying areas. Much of the United States is already inundated.Temperatures are rising; IQs are dropping. Four of the five stupidest years on record have occurred since 2000."

In his book, The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Non-Believers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound, John Huberman has collected powerful and moving quotations from a variety of people concerning organized religion and the belief in God.

... As Sam Harris wrote in The End of Faith, "Unreason is now ascendant in the United States -- in our schools, in our courts, and in each branch of the federal government. Only 28 percent of Americans believe in evolution; 68 percent believe in Satan. Ignorance in this degree, concentrated in both the head and belly of a lumbering superpower, is now a problem for the entire world."

Read more excerpts at Alternet.

Televangelists and Tax-Exempt Private Luxury Jets

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a complaint with the IRS against Preacher Mac Hammond for using church funds to not only but a jet plane, but also a stunt plane.

Last fall, Hammond endorsed Rep. Michele Bachman, which CREW also filed a complaint about for violating the prohibition against clergy endorsing political candidates.

The purchasing of luxury jets, however, is indeed common among Televangelists. The funds used to purchase the jets, are basically payed for by taxpayers. Churches receive tax-exempt donations, and in return donors get tax deductions.

I wasn't aware that luxury jets were necessary for spreading the Word. Perhaps they put those streamers on the end of them? Maybe that is why Hammond also bought a stunt plane, to write the Message in the sky? And I haven't heard a complaint from any Republicans about this.

Via AlterNet

Update: Judge Declares Mistrial in Watada Case

On Wednesday, presiding judge, Lt. Col. John Head declared a mistrial, in the court-martial of First Lt. Watada, over a technicality. Beginning the court-martial, Judge Lt. Col. Head had Watada sign an agreement admitting that he failed to deploy to Iraq, and that he had given several antiwar speeches, for which he was charged with 'conduct unbecoming of an officer'. During exchanges in the trial, however, Watada disagreed.

“Your Honour,” he said. “I have always believed that I have a legal and moral defence. I realise that the government can make arguments and you can make rulings contrary to that, but that does not negate my belief that I have a defence.”

“To me,” Watada told the court, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq “means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal.”

Aaron Glantz (GNN) reports that Col. Head had ruled that Watada’s claim—that the war is immoral and illegal—would not be a permissible defence at trial, and that Watada had hoped to argue under the so-called Nuremberg Principals which arose from trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II.

Lt. Watada's attorney, Eric Seitz, had this to say about the trial; “Every time the government has tried to prevent political speech, which they are attempting to punish, from infusing the trial proceedings it has created a major mess and many of those cases resulted in mistrials.”

“The government tried in artificial ways to prevent the defendants from explaining in their own way why they were there and why they did what they did,” Seitz said. “But there is a contradiction, because they are the core issues of what led the defendant from being there in the first place.”

Many antiwar activists cheered for the mistrial declaration. Mike Wong, a San Francisco social worker who deserted the Army rather than fight in the Vietnam War, stated that A GI Rights hotline has been set up for the men and women fighting the war, who want to get out of Iraq. Wong says that the army is now receiving 2000 calls a month.

“The military doesn’t want the American public to know that soldiers are talking about this in the barracks. Some soldiers think he’s a disgrace and others think he’s a frickin’ hero. But what it’s causing is for soldiers to discuss, to debate, and what’s really frightening to this administration is that soldiers are thinking. They don’t want soldiers to think. They want soldiers to follow orders.” -Geoff Millard (about the court-martial)

Every Soldier has a Right, a Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders

Today, in Fort Lewis, Washington, the court-marshal of First Lt. Ehren Watada begins (see interview with Watada). He is charged with "missing movement" and "conduct unbecoming an officer" including the "use of contemptuous words for the President." Ehren, from Hawaii, has questioned the legality of the war in Iraq, and refused deployment.

His defense includes all the lies Bush has fed to us about the war : the fraudulent basis for the war, the absence of a formal declaration from Congress (which has no constitutional authority to transfer its war-declaring power to another branch), the war crimes, and the flagrant violations of international treaties such as the United Nations Charter. However, prosecutors told the presiding judge that Watada's truthfulness is irrelevant to the case. They do not mean to allow Watada to prove what he has said about the President is true.

"The war in Iraq is in fact illegal," Watada told TruthOut.org. "It is my obligation and my duty to refuse any orders to participate in this war. An order to take part in an illegal war is unlawful in itself. So my obligation is not to follow the order to go to Iraq."

Lt. Col. Head, the presiding judge at Watada's trial has already stated that he will uphold a motion "to prevent the defense from presenting any evidence on the illegality of the war."

Via Alternet

Bush's war on the Iraqi people

Is this a war on terrorism, or a war on Iraqi's? Air America reports that last month, the U.S. government stopped accepting all but the latest version of Iraqi passports. Hundred of Iraqi's have been stopped from entering the U.S., including some college students.

The only way for Iraqis to get a valid passport and get into the U.S., is to go back to Baghdad and get a new passport. If you don't maybe the U.S. will crush your car with a tank.

The Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to End the Iraq War

Voices for Creative Nonviolence has just launched the 'Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to End the Iraq War' (visit site to sign-up). The campaign began today, February 5, and will run for eight weeks. The campaign challenges Representatives and Senators to publicly declare that they will vote against any further funding for the war in and occupation of Iraq.

Today a total of eight local congressional offices were occupied across the country, including the San Francisco offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), and the Portland office of Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). Members of Veterans For Peace, one of the 18 organizations endorsing the campaign, participated in an action at a congressional office in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dan Pearson, a spokesperson for the Occupation Project, explained the campaign’s goal is to defeat the $93 billion “emergency supplemental” war funding bill that the Bush administration forwarded to Congress yesterday.

Listen to the Democracy Now! interview with Kathy Kelly, Executive Director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

Bush's Record Low 28% Approval Rating

According to the latest CBS News poll, the president's overall approval rating has now fallen to a mere 28%—the lowest in his presidency. Not too surprising. However, to help put this approval rating into perspective, Jaimie Etkin (Radar) has put together 2 lists; 1 of people and things with equal popularity, and the other list with people and things with greater popularity.

OTHER THINGS WITH A 28 PERCENT APPROVAL RATING
• Boxer Briefs
• Kelly Osbourne
• Body Hair on Guys
• Reptiles
• A Wall Along the Mexican Border
• Text Message Flirting
• Porn
• Cottage Cheese

THINGS WITH AN APPROVAL RATING HIGHER THAN BUSH
• Brussels Sprouts (51%)
• Coke Zero (41%)
• Hillary Duff (52%)
• Jennifer Love Hewitt (36%)
• Fruit Cake (40%)
• Kevin Federline (45%)
• Rosie O'Donnell on The View (46%)
• Crocheting (72%)
• Fishing (49%)
• Legalizing Prostitution (58%)
• The Dentist (45%)
• Hanson (53%)
• In-Laws (68%)
• Figs (76%)
• The Name "Shiloh Nouvel Jolie Pitt" (29%)
• Ciara's Goodies (55%)
• The Pussy Cat Dolls (56%)
• Ryan Seacrest (60%)
• Spiceworld (57%)
• MTV VJ John Norris (35%)
• The Barenaked Ladies (73%)
• Russian Pop Duo T.A.T.U. (58%)
• The "Dude, You're getting a Dell!" Guy (42%)
• The Backstreet Boys (66%)
• Nickelback (57%)
• Sum 41 (63%)
• Hootie & The Blowfish (84%)
• Stepping in Dog Shit (35%)
• Walking in the Rain Without an Umbrella (60%)
• Small Breasts (50%)
• Getting Kicked in the Balls (41%)

Radar Online

Watch out for DNA sucking Feds!

According to The New York Times, U.S. authorities will soon begin collecting DNA samples from suspects arrested or detained by federal authorities, including hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Before the U.S. Justice Department changed them, the rules were that it was only convicted felons who had their DNA logged. Now, all you have to do is look suspicious, and the feds can detain you for just that. You no longer have to commit a crime to get your DNA stolen from you and filed into the U.S. database.

"DNA profiles have the potential to reveal our physical diseases and mental disorders. It becomes intrusive when the government begins to mine our most intimate matters," said Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, which has exonerated dozens of prison inmates using DNA evidence.

The Raw Story