Via Rocky Mountain Progressive Network:

Remember the Army Times' editorial castigating Rumsfeld and the rest of the civilian leadership at the Pentagon? Now the Air Force Times' publishes it, too;

This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

The Navy Times joins the chorus with the same editorial.

And here are the Navy Times' poll results;

----58% say Rumsfeld, Myers, or both should go...

Take a guess where the following true scenario takes place daily:

The bullhorn blares across the yard. Young Latinos and African Americans quickly scan their surroundings, noticing the many faces that watch them. A chain-link fence, 20 feet high, surrounds them on three sides. Dutifully, they fall into place in line. Heads up, hands clasped behind their backs, shoulders straight. Most know better than to talk. A few test the rules and murmur among themselves. "You're wasting my time!" barks the attendant. Rumpled play dollars are doled out to the well behaved; order is maintained through this token economy. Thus begins their day.

You're thinking boot camp? A juvenile detention facility? Wrong. It's an elementary school.

This is elementary school. First grade. Our inmates are 6 years old. They are not criminals. Small and wiry, these are children whose usual offenses are pulling braids or not sharing Hot Cheetos. The children must walk in straight lines. Hands must remain behind their backs, as though in handcuffs. The high fences separate them from the outside, physically and symbolically. What does it mean when you are 6 and your school is run like a prison?

For the first time in his Presidency, a Newsweek poll says, a majority of Americans disapprove of President Bush. Only 42% approve of the job he's doing, down seven points in the last month:

Bush's overall job approval rating in the survey conducted May 13 and 14 fell from 49 percent in the last Newsweek poll almost a month ago, while the number of respondents who say they approve of his handling of Iraq also dropped to 35 percent from 44 percent. Forty-one percent of registered voters say they want Bush reelected, down from 46 percent.

A feminist, a Laker fan and a teacher struggles with determining where consent ends and rape begins.

Is it rape, a criminal act of violation, when you have willingly joined someone late at night? He hasn't drugged you or strong-armed you, as far as anybody knows. But sometime between entering the door and rushing out of that same door, you became uncomfortable with the sex and wanted it to stop. He didn't, and you're furious. You feel violated, and rightfully so. But is it rape? Did Kobe Bryant force this woman to have sex? Or to finish what they both had started?

Our view has been that "no" means "no"--provided the "no" has been effectively and clearly communicated in a way that any reasonable partner would have understood.

by TChris

It's hard to believe, but there are still judges who think that only male lawyers should wear pants in court. They don't say it as often as they used to because ... well, when they do, it makes the news. Particularly if the lawyer is pregnant.

Pamela M. Roberson was eight months' pregnant when she appeared before Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Thrasher Sr., 67, in a Santa Ana courtroom. Roberson, 39, of Los Angeles, was dressed in an oversized white shirt and black pants, according to a photo that her husband said showed Roberson shortly after her run-in with the judge.

"Well, your appearance, Miss Roberson," Thrasher told her, according to court transcripts, "leaves a lot to be desired, as far as your clothing is concerned."

Roberson was understandably upset when she left the courtroom. The next day, she had an emergency Caesarean section, delivering her son a month early.

According to the court's spokesperson, Judge Thrasher "felt his remark may have been inappropriate." No kidding. The Robersons haven't seen a promised apology letter, but the spokesperson says it's on the way.

by TChris

Ahmad Chalabi (a man of doubtful credibility, as Talkleft discussed here and here) finally said something that's undeniably true:

"The Iraqi people will not accept limited, questionable sovereignty.... That means they should have complete control over their armed forces and over Iraqi revenues and be able to dispose of them according to the decisions of the provisional government."

Chalabi wants the Bush administration to give the interim Iraqi government control over its oil revenues and its military when power is transferred on June 30. Without that autonomy, Chalabi says that the notion of sovereignty will be meaningless. He's right, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen.

The revenues are now deposited in a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account, which is controlled by the United States. Iraqis are expected to have control of expenditures after June, but U.S. officials want a U.S.-authorized international board, which monitors the accounts, to remain in place.

While the Bush administration has long denied its intent to install a puppet government in Iraq, it wants to control Iraq's oil revenue through a puppet board. That isn't sovereignty.

Colin Powell says the U.S. military will leave if asked to do so on July 1 by the interim government. Maybe he's confident that the U.S. won't install an interim government that would make that request. Maybe he sees such a request as an exit strategy for the Bush administration.

Or maybe he's just not on the same page as others in the administration. Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, testifying before Congress on Thursday, contradicted a state department official who advanced the Powell view. Sharp asserted that only an elected government could kick the U.S. military out of the country.

Chalabi points out that U.S. forces killed 1,500 Iraqis last month. While the U.S. may argue that its military presence is needed to assure security for the new Iraqi government, it's easy to see why Iraqis might think it's time to take care of their own business.

by TChris

Will Texas Gov. Rick Perry follow the lead of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry by sparing the life of a man who wasn't given access to his government's consulate after his arrest, as the Vienna Convention requires? The government of Honduras wants Texas Gov. Rick Perry to commute the death sentences of two Hondurans who were denied their right to help from consular officials at the time of their arrest.

Gov. Perry recently pardoned Josiah Sutton, but DNA evidence established Sutton's innocence. Shortly after the International Court of Justice asked the United States to review the death setnences imposed on 51 Mexicans who were denied access to their consulates, Perry said that the court had no jurisdiction in Texas. Although his spokesperson denies that he's changed his view, she says that Perry expects law enforcement officials to obey all laws, including the Vienna Convention's requirement of consular notification, and promises that he "will continue to review death penalty cases on an individual basis as they reach his desk and look at the individual merits in each case in making a determination." Whether Gov. Perry will conclude that the failure to comply with the Vienna Convention affects the "individual merits" of either case remains to be seen.

If Gov. Perry follows the lead of Gov. Henry, it's likely that the Hondurans won't be the only inmates saved from execution. There are 26 foreign nationals on death row in Texas.

Even Wolfowitz disagrees with Rumsfeld on what constitutes excessive interrogation techniques:

Mr. Rumsfeld has said that the American military in Iraq was abiding by the Geneva Conventions, and that the mistreatment was the work of a terrible few. But at a Senate hearing on Thursday, Mr. Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz, acknowledged that hooding prisoners or forcing them to crouch naked for 45 minutes — tactics available to interrogators with General Sanchez's approval under the old policy — was inhumane. The International Red Cross had warned American officials for months that Iraqi prisoners were being abused in American-run prisons.

Friday, changes were announced, likely the result of increased attention to the interrogation methods used by the U.S. against prisoners :

Under a barrage of international and domestic criticism, the top American commander in Iraq has barred virtually all coercive interrogation practices, like forcing prisoners to crouch for long periods or depriving them of sleep, the Pentagon said Friday. The commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, will still consider requests to hold prisoners in isolation for more than 30 days, according to a senior Central Command official who briefed reporters on Friday. The general has approved 25 such requests since October, the official said. But the official said that General Sanchez would deny requests to use other harsh methods. "Simply, we will not even entertain a request, so don't even send it up for a review," the Central Command official said.

....Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who clashed with Mr. Wolfowitz at Thursday's hearing, said in a telephone interview, "I'm glad they're changing them, but it's like closing the barn door after the herd is out. Why were these regulations promulgated in the first place?"

Unfortunately, the changes only apply to prisoners in Iraq, not Guantanamo or Afghanistan. Once again, here's the chart of interrogation techniques (pdf) currently being employed.

Someone at Google apparently has a sense of humor. We received this by email, try it soon, before someone at Google fixes it:

1) Go to www.Google.com

2) Type in (but don't hit enter): "weapons of mass destruction"

3) Hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button instead of the normal "Google search" button.

4) READ CAREFULLY what appears to be a normal ERROR message.
MAKE SURE YOU READ THE WHOLE ERROR MESSAGE!!!.

A Santa Barbara dentist is making serious misconduct allegations against Tom Sneddon, the DA in charge of the Michael Jackson prosecution:

Sundaram's allegations against Sneddon were serious, in that he also claimed to have heard, first-hand, statements by Sneddon and others in the DA's office that suggest that Santa Barbara police persecution of innocent citizens is planned, common, and often racially motivated. Sundaram said that in 1994, he attended a fund-raising event with Tom Sneddon and other city officials, where ways to "get Michael Jackson out of the county" were discussed. Racist remarks were allegedly made on that occasion. According to Sundaram, other alleged vendettas were discussed as well, to the extent where he said it resembled a Mafia planning session.

Sundaram's allegations are not an isolated instance. There have been many complaints and law-suits against the Santa Barbara DA's office. The new counts against Jackson may be consistent with a pattern that Santa Barbara defense attorney Gary Dunlap has called "stacking charges."

Back in November, we published a sampling of quotes issued by Sneddon about Jackson over the past ten years, which we got from doing a Lexis query that turned up 100 entries for "Tom Sneddon" and "Michael Jackson" between 1994 and 2001. Sneddon still denies he's a man on a mission to get Michael Jackson.

We can't keep track of all the articles and commentary coming out about prisoner abuse in the U.S. since the Abu Ghraib photos . Here's one that caught our attention, about the Los Angeles County Jail:

I don't mean to diminish the suffering and humiliation of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, but they're lucky they weren't locked up in L.A. County Jail. Five inmates have been murdered in downtown L.A. detention facilities since October. In one case, an accused murderer managed to leave his cell and wander around like he owned the place. I don't know if guards were watching "Survivor," making popcorn, or playing Parcheesi. But this inmate roamed the killing fields for hours until he eventually tracked down a witness against him — a witness who was supposed to be enjoying the benefits of protective custody.

This LA Times Editorial calls jail security an oxymoron:

Twenty-three-year-old Santiago Pineda allegedly was able to sneak out of his cell in the Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail last month and strangle another inmate partly because, county officials said, he possessed the diabolical mind and skills of a Hannibal Lecter. However, Pineda's success in allegedly finding and killing Raul Tinajero — who testified last month that he saw Pineda drive his car over another man last year — illustrates profound problems in the county jail system, from lax rules and inadequate guard training to archaic inmate tracking systems.

Juliusblog has photos of the demonstrators from the 'US Out' organization protesting at Donald Rumseld's house yesterday. The protestors reenacted the Abu Ghraib abuse photos. Go take a look. (link via Skippy)