Salon.com News | New claims of detainee torture: "New claims of detainee torture Documents obtained by the ACLU indicate that the U.S. used interrogation methods in Afghanistan as harsh as those employed at Abu Ghraib."

(Via Salon.)

The Cocaine Price Support Program by Bill Walker: "The Costs of Drug Price Supports

• Cost #1: Taxes. ... I think we can safely say that the actual direct tax costs of the drug war are over $100 billion.
• Cost #2: The high prices of illegal drugs. ... But while the actual number of drug users may be open to debate, there is no question that legal heroin and cocaine only cost about as much as aspirin; marijuana is literally a weed. Now that they are illegal, they cost the economy tens of billions.
• Cost #3: Loss of labor. About 1.5 million people were arrested for drug possession and/or sale in 2003. The overall US prison and jail population is over 2 million. Let’s say roughly half that number is related to the drug war. When each drug user is criminalized, they turn from a worker making an average of $40,000 to an inmate costing around $30,000; that would be another $70 billion or so annually.
• Cost #4: Real (not victimless) crime. Murder has soared since the Drug War expanded in the 1970s. ...
• Cost #5: Terrorism. Every half-baked wannabe dictator with a few AK-47s can fund his nonproductive lifestyle with illegal drug sales. From the Taliban to the FARC in Colombia, US-designated 'terrorist' groups make money from the US drug trade. ...

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

Bush's Science Advisor, Senator Clash Over Computer Models: "Representative Henry Waxman accused the administration of invoking scientific uncertainty to discredit evidence counter to its policies.

John Marburger, science advisor to the president, responded that the computer models used to make predictions about climate change and public health were both ambiguous and prone to group-think errors by scientists.

The clash came during addresses to science journalists in a meeting preceding a large scientific conference sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C."

(Via eWeek.)

Wired News: Experts: Global Warming Is Real: "A parcel of studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice leave no room for doubt that it is getting warmer, people are to blame, and the weather is going to suffer, climate experts said on Thursday.

New computer models that look at ocean temperatures instead of the atmosphere show the clearest signal yet that global warming is well underway, said Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography."

In other news, high levels of pollution may make air and water toxic...

(Via Wired News.)

The New York Times > Washington > Administration Is Warned About Its 'News' Videos: "The comptroller general has issued a blanket warning that reminds federal agencies they may not produce newscasts promoting administration policies without clearly stating that the government itself is the source. Twice in the last two years, agencies of the federal government have been caught distributing prepackaged television programs that used paid spokesmen acting as newscasters and, in violation of federal law, failed to disclose the administration's role in developing and financing them."

(Via .)

The New York Times > Washington > Administration Is Warned About Its 'News' Videos: "The comptroller general has issued a blanket warning that reminds federal agencies they may not produce newscasts promoting administration policies without clearly stating that the government itself is the source. Twice in the last two years, agencies of the federal government have been caught distributing prepackaged television programs that used paid spokesmen acting as newscasters and, in violation of federal law, failed to disclose the administration's role in developing and financing them."

(Via .)

The Myth of Democratic Peace: Why Democracy Cannot Deliver Peace in the 21st Century by James Ostrowski: "Spencer R. Weart alleges that democracies rarely if ever go to war with each other. Even if this is true, it distorts reality and makes people far too sanguine about democracy’s ability to deliver the world’s greatest need today – peace. In reality, the main threat to world peace today is not war between two nation-states, but (1) nuclear arms proliferation; (2) terrorism; and (3) ethnic and religious conflict within states. As this paper was being written, India, the world’s largest democracy, appeared to be itching to start a war with Pakistan, bringing the world closer to nuclear war than it has been for many years. The United States, the world’s leading democracy, is waging war in Afghanistan, which war relates to the second and third threats noted above – terrorism and ethnic/religious conflict. If the terrorists are to be believed – and why would they lie?─they struck at the United States on September 11th because of its democratically-induced interventions into ethnic/religious disputes in their parts of the world."

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

Standard Weekly Lies by Thomas DiLorenzo: "As I quickly learned upon the publication of The Real Lincoln, the first reaction of virtually all neoconservatives to a publication with which they disagree, from the Claremontistas to National Review, The Weekly Standard, and AEI, is; 1) to lie about the actual contents of the publication, and then attack their own straw-man arguments; 2) to wage a personal smear campaign against the author; and 3) to quote each others’ lies from #1. "

(Via Lew Rockwell.)

Feb 18, 2005: How much will you lose?: "Cutting benefits is a key part of President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. But exactly how much do you personally stand to lose under Bush's plan? Find out today with this handy calculator from the Senate Democrats"

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)

Del. Dick "Baby Pesticides" Black says VA Senate is "Aligned With Elements of Vice": "Delegate Black also spends time in the interview repeating the discredited claims of one of his star witnesses, pseudo-sociologist Paul Cameron. Black said, 'The fact [sic] is, in children that have a homosexual parent, approximately 29% of children are molested by that parent. That contrasts with .6 percent of normal parents....a 50 to 1 increase in risk for molestation.'  No reputable scientific study backs up these claims.  Black continues by saying, 'No structure is more unstable than a homosexual relationship.'"

...

"One of the most stunningly twisted quotes from the interview was Black saying that the main issue is 'whether we should favor the best interest of the child, or whether the children should be used as rewards for certain sex activists'." 

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

AlterNet: Negroponte's Dark Past: "Today George W. Bush named him to the new post of Director of National Intelligence. Previously, Bush had hired Negroponte to be UN ambassador and then U.S. ambassador to the new Iraq. On each of those earlier occasions, I noted that Negroponte's past deserved scrutiny. After all, during the Reagan years, when he was ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte was involved in what was arguably an illegal covert quid pro quo connected to the Iran/contra scandal, and he refused to acknowledge significant human rights abuses committed by the pro-U.S. military in Honduras. But each time Negroponte's appointment came before the Senate, he won easy confirmation. Now that he's been tapped to lead the effort to reorganize and reform an intelligence community that screwed up 9/11 and the WMDs-in-Iraq assignment, Negroponte will likely sail through the confirmation process once again."

(Via AlterNet.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Alan Keyes Means What He Says: "Remember how he cruelly denounced the entire Cheney family because Dick and Lynn showed love and compassion for their lesbian daughter, and even invited her to participate in the campaign? Well, Fox News reports that Keyes' own twenty-year-old daughter has just come out of the closet, at which time her dad abruptly quit paying her college tuition at Brown University. So thaaaat's what the neocons mean by compassionate comservativism."

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Alan Keyes Means What He Says: "Remember how he cruelly denounced the entire Cheney family because Dick and Lynn showed love and compassion for their lesbian daughter, and even invited her to participate in the campaign? Well, Fox News reports that Keyes' own twenty-year-old daughter has just come out of the closet, at which time her dad abruptly quit paying her college tuition at Brown University. So thaaaat's what the neocons mean by compassionate comservativism."

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Salon.com Politics: "According to today's New York Times the CIA is upset about getting stuck with a bunch of beaten-down detainees. 'The CIA's current leadership is concerned,' the Times says, 'that the legal authority for interrogations and detentions is eroding, and that there is no clear plan for how the agency can extricate itself from what could be a lengthy task of holding and caring for a small population of aging terrorists whose intelligence value is steadily evaporating and who are unlikely ever to be released or brought to trial.'

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com News | "Jeff Gannon's" secret life: "Last week, Republican activist Bobby Eberle, the man behind the now infamous conservative Web site Talon News, insisted that before hiring "Jeff Gannon" as his White House correspondent, he never looked into Gannon's background. If true, Eberle probably wishes he had."

...

"Guckert insisted his only involvement with the sex sites was as a software consultant and, he added: 'Those sites were never hosted. There's -- nothing ever went up on them,' as he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Feb. 10. In an interview posted Feb. 11 with Editor & Publisher magazine, Guckert made the same claim: 'They were done through a private company [Bedrock Corp.] I was involved with doing Web site development about five years ago. The sites were never hosted, and nothing was ever posted to the sites.' On Monday, John Aravosis posted on his liberal site AmericaBlog.org detailed evidence indicating that not only was Guckert personally involved with the Web sites, but he was also offering his escort services for $200 an hour, or $1,200 a weekend."

You can't make this stuff up. If I could, I would've made up much lower rates...
Also, be careful on the AmericaBlog.org link, the photographic proof provided is pretty explicit!

(Via Salon.)

Request to Edit Title of Talk On Gays, Suicide Stirs Ire (washingtonpost.com): "At issue is a conference on suicide prevention to be held Feb. 28 in Portland, Ore., and organized by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center of Newton, Mass., a SAMHSA contractor. On the program is a talk that, until recently, was titled 'Suicide Prevention Among Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Individuals.'

Everyone seems to agree the topic is important. Studies have found that the suicide risk among people in these groups is two to three times higher than the average risk.

So it came as a surprise to Ron Bloodworth -- a former coordinator of youth suicide prevention for Oregon and one of three specialists leading the session -- when word came down from SAMHSA project manager Brenda Bruun that they should omit the four words that described, precisely, what the session was about."

(Via Salon.)

Feb 16, 2005: Bush breaks promises to America's veterans: "Remember what President Bush said about his commitment to veterans during the third debate with John Kerry? Let's remind him:

Bush: 'Of course we're meeting our obligation to our veterans, and the veterans know that… Veterans are getting very good health care under my administration, and they will continue to do so during the next four years.'

It's a promise Bush isn't keeping. Earlier this month, Bush proposed a budget that would charge a user fee for veterans simply to enroll in the VA health care system. He also sought to double prescription drug co-pays for veterans."

(Via DNC: Kicking Ass.)

Scrounging for Iraq Excuses [1]: "Someone asked a question at the ACA meeting about how, given the Iraq intel debacle, the US can build a credible case regarding Iran and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. As part of his answer, Assistant SecState Stephen Rademaker stated that:

MR. RADEMAKER: ... I guess it’s the received wisdom now that the Bush administration was all wrong in its assessment of Iraq. I think it’s important to just recall that – I mean, errors may have been made but they were not simply made by the Bush administration. "

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | Web Log: MDA's performance problem: "The missile defense system is like a ‘hot rod in your garage,’ Jeremiah Gertler, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told NPR’s Morning Edition on February 14. ‘As soon as you got the engine and transmission and one seat in, you could take it out and try it out.’

Unless, of course, the hot rod is a dud. Gertler’s was commenting hours after yet another failed missile defense flight test. "

(Via Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | Web Log.)

PENTAGON ADMITS IRAQI TROOP LACK: "During the 2004 election, the President and his team talked endlessly about the countless battalions of Iraqi troops that were helping out the coalition in its counterinsurgency fight. On May 15 of last year, for example, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld told Wolf Blitzer that 'we now have 200,000 Iraqi security forces that are out there providing security in their country, and frankly, being killed themselves.' But the Pentagon's supplemental budget bill, released yesterday, shows just how hollow those words were."

(Via Defense Tech.)

Salon.com Politics: "When asked to respond anonymously to a survey regarding their work that was conducted by the watchdog groups Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists, some scientists received memos from higher-ups ordering them not to answer, even from home and on their personal time."

...

"Forty-four percent of those who work on endangered-species issues said that they have been ordered to avoid findings that would require greater protections for wildlife. And one fifth of the agency's scientists who responded to the survey revealed that they have been personally directed to alter or omit technical information from scientific documents."

(Via Salon.com.)

7Online.com: " 2004) _ It was the scream Howard Dean says became famous after the media played it nearly 700 times in a few days. Not only that, his camp adds, what we heard on the air was not a reflection of the way it sounded in the room.

...

After my interview with Dean and his wife in which I played the tape again -- in fact played it to them -- I noticed that on that tape he's holding a hand-held microphone. One designed to filter out the background noise. It isolates your voice, just like it does to Charlie Gibson and me when we have big crowds in the morning. The crowds are deafening to us standing there"

So that scream we all heard during the Dean campaign was just him talking at the level of the crowd.

(Via /.)

Economist.com | Social attitudes: "HAS American politics moved to the right? The charts above show figures from a new survey of 2,116 Americans by YouGov, a British-based internet pollster. They seem to reveal a somewhat schizophrenic tension in the body politic. Many Americans think that they and their politicians have become more conservative; yet, when it comes to some fundamental questions, they have actually shifted to the left."

(Via /.)