Bombing raids tried to lure Saddam into war

The (British Royal Air Force) and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war, new evidence has shown.
The attacks were intensified from May, six months before the United Nations resolution that Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, argued gave the coalition the legal basis for war. By the end of August the raids had become a full air offensive.

More on this at the London Times here.

Al-Arian trial tests nation’s justice system

he trial of former USF professor Sami Al-Arian is slowly moving forward, but the jury selection process, as well as the location of the trial, cast doubt on how well justice will be served.

Al-Arian stands accused of helping an organization called the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. His arrest was one of the few instances that allowed former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to hold a press conference that gave the American public the illusion that their “war on terror” was effectively being waged.

If Al-Arian, a man who has spent the past few years in jail — a large portion of which he spent in solitary confinement — turns out to be innocent, it would be embarrassing for the Bush administration, to say the least. But this should not be an impetus to sentence him no matter the circumstances.
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Florida’s beaches deserve protection

Two beaches close to the University of South Florida have been named among the nation’s best, one even taking the top spot. For Floridians as well as the tourism industry, this is good news. It also stresses the need to protect our shores, as there was a time when most of Florida’s beaches would have competed with the beauty of the beaches that are now heralded as exceptional.

The beach close to Fort Desoto on the northern shore of Mullet Key, an island just off the entrance to Tampa Bay, has been named the nation’s best, a distinction that is based both on water quality and surrounding factors. Caladesi Island took the fourth spot.
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BBC offers foreign affairs podcast

The BBC is now offering more podcasts. Aside from their podcast of the philosophy/history show In Our Time (podcast feed here), which by the way is excellent, they now offer a feed for all shows of the “Our Correspondent” series.

The series features on-site audio from the BBC correspondents throughout the world. The site for the series can be found here and the podcast feed is here.

FBI Records Cite Quran Abuse Allegations

This is the Associated Press quoting FBI records:

Terror suspects at the Guantanamo Bay prison told U.S. interrogators as early as April 2002, just three months after the first detainees arrived, that military guards abused them and desecrated the Quran, declassified FBI records say.
“Their behavior is bad,” one detainee is quoted as saying of his guards during an interrogation by an FBI special agent in July 2002. “About five months ago the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Quran in the toilet.” link

At this point its safe to say that something is going on.

McClellan Backs Away from Claims that ‘Newsweek’ Story Cost Afghan Lives

At a White House press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Scott McClellan, pressed by reporters and with Afghan President Karzai in disagreement, retreated on claims that Newsweek’s retracted story on Koran abuse cost lives in Afghanistan.

He also claimed that he had never said it did, even though a check of transcripts disputes that. On May 16, for example, he said, “people have lost their lives.” On May 17, he said, “People did lose their lives,” and, “People lost their lives” due to the Newsweek report. E&P/a>.

I’d say that is is “a step in the right direction” but “more actions are needed.”

What Really Happened at Guantanamo Bay?

… from the experience of Martin Mubanga, a recently freed Guantanamo Bay detainee who spoke to U.S. media for the first time this weekend.

Mubanga, a 32-year-old Londoner who was arrested in Zambia in 2002 and taken to Guantanamo, was released without charge in January 2005, after 33 months in captivity. He says that offensive treatment of the Qu’ran was ongoing, even routine, over the three years he was a prisoner. Mubanga says complaints by inmates about the desecration of the Qu’ran fell upon deaf ears, and often resulted in severe punishment, including pepper-spraying of prisoners.
(…)
Laura Flanders: Did Newsweek lie about abuse of the Qu’ran? What did you see?
Martin Mubanga: From my own personal experience and from what I know of what occurs in Guantanamo Bay, this is actually an ongoing thing for the past three years, so we don’t need Newsweek to corroborate or substantiate these accusations. We who have been in Guantanamo Bay know that these and other things occur in degradation of our religion.

Read the interview with Mubanga here.

Hufu?

How about a nice Hufu? dinner?

iTunes 4.9 to feature podcasting, iPod to feature recording

Here’s a thing that really made my day: Speaking at a conference in San Diego, Steve Jobs showed off iTunes 4.9 which will feature built in podcasting support.

On top of that Adam Curry had a meeting with Steve (I love how Adam casually mentions he met with Steve for one and a half hours in this podcast at min 10:00). One thing Adam is guaranteeing is that the iPod will be able to record in the very immediate future.

Additional outlets needed for laptops

Laptops are becoming more common in USF’s classrooms and are bringing a problem with them. Most classrooms were never designed for students to bring their own computers and have only few electrical outlets available. This often causes a mad dash for the seats closest to electrical outlets.
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Doctor Who: The Empty Child

Just watched the ninth episode of Doctor Who and it scared the crap out of me. Seems to have the same effect on kids, too.

If a 26-year-old thinks about hiding behind the couch, it may be a tad bit extreme for kids.

Stacking the deck

We all knew President Bush’s Social Security barn burners were carefully casted. But this La Times article details just how detailed they were planned out in advance.

You have to admire the lengths they went to. You know, just like you admire the plan some crazed villain battling James Bond comes up with…

Priorities

Jane Fonda’s new movie Monster-in-Law has been banned by two Kentucky cinemas, in protest against the veteran actress’ anti-American stance during the Vietnam War. IMDB

and

Some analysts were forecasting that the film could earn as much as $45 million today (Thursday) alone and was likely to set a box office record for the weekend. Others, however, noted that with a PG-13 rating, the film was not going to bring out the huge family crowd that greeted the previous Star Wars movies. Still others took note of a mounting campaign by conservative groups to portray the film as a thinly disguised attack on President Bush and his policies in Iraq. IMDB

Seems like some people need to get their priorities straight. But if they want to spend their days protesting Star Wars, I guess they are entitled to do that.

Over-generalizations

But Newsweek couldn’t wait a moment to run a story that predictably ginned up Islamic savages into murderous riots in

Afghanistan, leaving hundreds injured and 16 dead. Who could have seen that coming? These are people who stone rape victims to death because the family “honor” has been violated and who fly planes into American skyscrapers because — wait, why did they do that again? Ann Coulter

How nicely Ann Coulter generalizes what a couple of fanatics do. I assume all Christians are terrorists because the KKK is also based on pseudo-Christian values?

Here’s an over-generalization I am prepared to make: Ann Coulter is a spotlight whore.

Bush’s ratings still plummeting

Among all Americans, 43% say they approve of the way Bush is handling his job and 51% disapprove. When it comes to Bush’s handling of the economy, 37% of Americans say they approve and 57% say they disapprove.

Among Americans registered to vote, 43% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 51% disapprove. As for Bush’s handling of the economy, 38% of registered voters approve and 56% disapprove.

A total of 59% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse, up from 53% in April, 51% say they expect the national economy to be worse a year from now, up from 44% in April, and 61% say the financial situations in their households are getting worse, up from 50% in April. American Research Group, Inc.

Patriot Act II would give FBI power to issue subpoenas without judge or jury

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury. AP

Casting blame on media shortsighted

Earlier this week, Newsweek retracted a story in which it claimed that the Koran had been desecrated by U.S. officials to pressure inmates at Guantanamo Bay. Bush administration officials were quick to blame Newsweek for the international backlash against the United States and claimed the ill will such nations harbor is the fault of the media.

White House officials also said the retraction was “a good first step,” but called for “more action.”

It is clearly regrettable that Newsweek did not check their facts before running this potentially inflammatory story. But it is ridiculous to suggest that the media has created the ill will toward the United States that is found in many nations, especially in the Middle East.

There are plenty of witnesses who claim abuse is occurring in installations such as Guantanamo Bay. One such allegation included female U.S. interrogators throwing blood at male inmates and telling them it was menstrual blood. This is largely why the reports about a Koran being flushed down a toilet to make inmates talk seemed so plausible.

If such incidents are occurring, it is the men and women who perpetrate them — not the journalists who report them — who are to blame.

But instead of using an apparent blunder to extort favorable commentary from the media, the allegations should be investigated. If such incidents are indeed occurring, the backlash will be even bigger once news about them leaks.

DVD format squabble could hurt customers

Remember Betamax? Most college students are probably too young to remember the squabble that erupted when both Sony and JVC attempted to bring video recorders to the market, each with a different format.

Many consumers who had bet on Betamax, the format that was pushed by Sony, got burned badly when the equipment they purchased quickly became obsolete.

Now the same scenario could happen with DVDs as two rivaling factions push their own formats.
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Beeblebrox for President!

Vote Beeblebrox!

Opinions You Should Have: Bush To Retract War

Genius:

Bush To Retract War
Cites Protests, Poor Sourcing, Newsweek Debacle as Impetus

George W. Bush retracted the Iraq war today, saying that it had been based on information from an unreliable source and that the original premises for the war were wrong.

“We had one source for the war — two, if you count Judith Miller — and it now appears that that source didn’t know what he was talking about,” George W. Bush told reporters. (Ahmed Chalabi had no comment, but told reporters that he would consider “telling them everything they wanted to hear” for 10 million dollars.)

While the Administration initially reported that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that it was linked to the 9/11 attacks on America, it appeared as recently as last Thursday that that was not true. “We couldn’t be sorrier that our misreporting of the facts surrounding Iraq has caused the loss of human life,” said Scott McClellan today. Opinions You Should Have:

(just in case you wondered: satire)

One ring to rule them all

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the US government over its funding of a nationwide sexual abstinence programme.

The ACLU says the Silver Ring Thing programme violates the principle that the state budget cannot be used to promote religion.

The programme, which targets teenagers, is an offshoot of a Christian ministry. Since 2003, it has received more than $1m from the Department of Health and Human Services. BBC

Let’s assume for a second a Democrat had funneled funding for a ring that says “Abortions are cool!” from federal funds to such a project. Wouldn’t the right absolutely lose it?

Seems to me that the modus operandi lately is that if you can get away with something, do it. Doesn’t matter if it’s moral or unconstitutional. As long as you can get away with it, do it.

Clear case of WLWJC: Which Lawyer Would Jesus Call?

‘Living wage’ unattainable for many Americans

Ask a student what they plan to do after graduating and you will most likely receive a worried look. The quest to find a job after college is, after all, quite a daunting prospect. This is not likely to change, as stated by a recent study that indicates wages are now falling the fastest they have in 14 years.

According to the study, published in the Financial Times, inflation is at 3.1 percent while salaries rose only 2.4 percent on average. The study also showed “real wages” — a number calculated by comparing what services or goods can be purchased at the time the wage was received — falling by 0.9 percent in 2004, a rate that had not been reached since 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 percent, the Times wrote.

In the months leading up to the general election last year, the number of jobs lost during President George W. Bush’s first term was feahotly contested. The Democratic National Committee claimed the number of jobs lost totaled 2.7 million. The Republican National Committee responded by questioning the accuracy of the claim. The RNC, however, could not give a rosier picture that stood up to scrutiny.

Either way, it appears that jobs are becoming scarcer by the day. What makes this trend even more dire is that the jobs available pay less, and many of them do not offer a “living wage,” forcing Americans to work for numerous employers simultaneously just to get by.

During President Bill Clinton’s terms, the administration often proudly proclaimed how many jobs had been generated. The public responded at the time with jokes such as, “Isn’t it great we have all these jobs available to us? I have five and so does my wife.” It appears clear that there is enough blame to go around.

President Bush’s blasé attitude toward this rising problem, though, does raise the question of whether the government is aware how bad the situation is for many Americans. At one of the president’s carefully planned “town hall meetings” to push his plan to partially privatize Social Security, a woman told the president she had more than one job. President Bush congratulated her for doing such an “American thing.” While the president is right that it may be the norm to have numerous jobs, he missed the point that most Americans do not do so by choice but as a last resort.

The concept of a higher minimum wage may still pack some controversy, but would be successful in ensuring wages rise at the same rate across the nation. Now it appears the new challenge is not only to create more jobs, but more importantly, to ensure that such jobs offer a living wage.

Bush ends ban on forest development

The Bush administration issued new rules Thursday making it easier for road construction, mining and other commercial activity to take place on the last 58.5-million acres of undisturbed national forestland.

Federal officials said the move was needed to fix legal problems with an earlier rule issued by President Bill Clinton that prohibited development in roadless areas of national forests. That land, a little less than one-third of the 190-million acres in the national forests, is considered by environmentalists to be among the most pristine and valuable in the nation. But the land also holds timber and oil and natural gas deposits that were out of bounds under Clinton’s rule. St. Pete Times

Florida drops case against 13 year allowing her to have an abortion

Florida dropped its fight on Tuesday to prevent a 13-year-old girl in state care from having an abortion in a case that marked the state’s second recent foray into controversial personal rights issues.

Weeks after it unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the bitter dispute over the fate of a brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo, the state’s Department of Children & Families said it would not appeal a ruling from a Palm Beach state court allowing the teenager to have an abortion.

“There will be no further appeals and we will respectfully comply with the court’s decision,” DCF District Manager Marilyn Munoz said in a written statement.

It was not immediately known if the girl, who is 14 weeks pregnant, had had the abortion. Reuters