Don't miss watching Honor the Memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Get Active from BushFlash and United for Peace:

The flash movie produced for this year's MLK Holiday by BushFlash.com features excerpts from Dr. King's 1967 Vietnam War speech, and ends with an appeal to take part in the March 20 Global Day of Protest on the one-year anniversary of the Iraq War

United for Peace and Justice urges you to honor the legacy of Dr. King by taking part in educational events, cultural activities and protests during the MLK Holiday weekend. This can be a critically important time for the antiwar movement to link the struggle against empire abroad with the fight for racial and economic justice at home, to strengthen ties with other movements, and in many cases to build new relationships. Here's some suggestions.

Some quotes from Dr. King:

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

Another must-read: Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam . It was delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr , April 1967, at Manhattan's Riverside Church.

Here is an extensive list of links as a primer on Dr. King.

The Jan. 26 issue of US News & World Report features John Ashcroft on the cover and contains this 8 page article on him. It's not entirely a puff piece, although plenty of his friends and underlings assert that he has been unfairly demonized. At least it mentions some of the policies Ashcroft has been criticized for:

They [federal judges and civil liberties groups] cite policies like jailing terrorism suspects as "material witnesses" so that they can be interrogated by investigators and prosecutors, even though they have not been charged with any crime. Or the preventive detention of illegal aliens and the 600-odd secret trials of those detainees. Or Ashcroft's legal defense of the administration's detention of thousands of "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba--with no prospect of trial for most. Ashcroft also modified existing rules to allow the government to detain illegal aliens even after courts ruled that they should be released--measures that four federal judges have ruled unconstitutional.

Public perceptions aside, there are growing questions about whether Ashcroft's prevention paradigm works. In his new book Enemy Aliens, Georgetown University law Prof. David Cole examines the preventive detentions of roughly 5,000 foreign nationals--Muslim men--after the terrorist attacks. Only three were ultimately charged with terrorism-related crimes. Just one was convicted. At the time, Ashcroft called the detainees "suspected terrorists" and announced the deportation of more than 500 Muslim men as a signal victory in the "war on terror." In fact, the 500 were deported only after the FBI found no terrorist ties. "They were misses," Cole says, "not hits."

There's lots more, go read the whole thing. One of our favorite quotes:

More and more, there's grousing among prosecutors, who say they duck when Ashcroft blows into town to announce a big case because they fear that his polarizing presence could taint the jury pool.

[link via How Appealing]

San Francisco's new mayor, Gavin Newsom, is gaining our esteem. In the past few days he has given San Francisco it's first woman fire chief and first woman police chief:

Mayor Gavin Newsom named Assistant Police Chief Heather Fong as his pick for interim police chief Sunday, two days after he swore in Joanne Hayes-White as the city's first woman fire chief.

If the city's Police Commission confirms the 26-year veteran's appointment this week as expected, San Francisco will have the rare distinction of having women lead its two key public safety departments.

Howard Dean left Iowa to go to church with Jimmy Carter in Georgia.

Dr. Dean said last week that he was skipping 20 of the last 48 hours in the Iowa campaign because "when the former president of the United States asks you to go to church with him on the Sunday before caucuses, I think you probably take that up." But Mr. Carter said today that the visit had actually been Dr. Dean's idea and that he hoped all the Democratic candidates would make the pilgrimage to Plains "to kind of heal wounds and show that we can all worship together."

"I didn't invite him," the former president, wearing a bolo tie, told reporters and parishioners as he entered the church this morning. "He called me on the phone and said he'd like to come worship with me."

It was a coincidence, Mr. Carter said, that he was teaching from Job, which Dr. Dean has cited as his favorite Bible book. "After I won in Iowa, I realized what Job was talking about," President Carter said. "It seemed like everybody descended on me with all kinds of abuse and accusations. And I felt like I was innocent, too."

Update: Nitpicker noticed something in the article that we missed:

As promised, Mr. Carter did not offer an endorsement, but did refer to him as a friend and "fellow Christian," praising his "courageous and outspoken posture." The two men shook hands, but did not raise them in the traditional politicians' pose.

Monday's Los Angeles Times takes an in-depth look at hemp in The Demonized Seed (free subscription required):

As a Recreational Drug, Industrial Hemp Packs the Same Wallop as Zucchini. Why Does the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Continue to Deny America This Potent Resource? Call It Reefer Madness.

The facts:

Because they're often used interchangeably, the terms cannabis, hemp and marijuana can be confusing. While cannabis encompasses all varieties of the species, hemp, often called industrial hemp, has come to mean a few dozen nonintoxicating varieties of cannabis bred and cultivated for commercial ends: clothing, paper, food, biofuels, biodegradable plastic, building materials, automobile parts, insulators, paints, lubricants—the list of possibilities goes on.

Marijuana, on the other hand, refers strictly to the cannabis drug plant, of which there exist endless varieties differentiated by the amount of intoxicating substances they contain, notably tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Today virtually all strains of cannabis are the product of human alteration, manipulated by scientists, breeders and drug dealers to increase or decrease THC content and other characteristics to suit their purposes.

This just in from NORML:

Just in time for the first official Democratic Presidential primary, NORML has issued its 2004 Presidential Candidate Report Card. Marijuana law reform promises to be a pivotal and highly publicized issue this election, and NORML's Presidential Candidate Report Card is a quick reference guide to each Democratic candidate's position on various marijuana-related issues, including decriminalization, the legalization of medicinal marijuana, and the repeal of the drug conviction exclusionary provision to the Higher Education Act.

This primary season, get informed before you "Smoke the Vote." Check out NORML's 2004 Presidential Candidate Report Card.

From the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on survey results on criminal justice issues from the presidential candidates (pdf):

In mid-October, 2003, the NACDL national office sent a short list of questions to the Bush-Cheney campaign and to the nine declared Democratic candidates in the upcoming presidential primaries. The candidates were asked for their views on the death penalty, DNA evidence, indigent defense, judicial discretion, the war on terrorism, white collar crime and corporate compliance. This survey was conducted for the benefit of our members; NACDL does not rate or endorse candidates for political office.

We received responses from five of the Democratic candidates; the Bush-Cheney election committee responded that the President and Vice President have not yet declared their candidacy for office, and it is not responding to these sorts of surveys at this time. Retired U.S. Army General Wesley K. Clark, former Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean, and U.S.Senators John Edwards (NC), John Kerry (MA) and Joseph Lieberman (CT) all responded by late December, in line with our request. Reps. Richard Gephardt (MO) and Dennis Kucinich (OH), and candidates Carol Moseley-Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton did not respond to phone calls and e-mails to their headquarters.

The same questions were sent to all candidates. The responses, in alphabetical order of the candidates’ names, follow each question.— Ralph Grunewald, Publisher, The Champion

Here are some of the questions the candidates answered:

Via Drug War Rant:

With the Iowa Caucuses coming up, it's a good time to review the candidates again. Today, I'd like to remind you about the Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana Voter Guide. The Granite Staters have gone through voting records (and other actions) and public speeches regarding medical marijuana and graded each of the candidates. Go to their site for detailed analysis, but here are the quick current grades. (Remember this is specifically for medical marijuana and may not reflect other drug war issues)

Dennis Kucinich A+
Al Sharpton A
John Kerry A-
Wesley K. Clark B+
Howard Dean D-
George W. Bush F
John Edwards F
Dick Gephardt F
Joseph Lieberman F

Former Ill. Governor George Ryan was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this weekend to promote the film Deadline, directed by Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson, a chronicle of the demise of the capital punishment system in Illinois.

"Deadline," directed by Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson, follows the turbulent debate that erupted when Northwestern University journalism students showed that innocent men had been condemned to death row. Thirteen men were eventually found to have been wrongly convicted and Ryan, a Republican and supporter of the death penalty, declared a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.

Ryan, his wife and three former death row inmates were expected to attend a launch party Sunday night for the film, a contender in the Park City festival's documentary competition. The film mixes interviews with Ryan and other figures in the legal debate with archival footage.

Death row inmates interviewed in the documentary include Gabriel Solache, a Mexican national who speaks no English, yet was convicted of murder and kidnapping based on an alleged English-language confession; Robbie Jones, who was the youngest man on death row at 19; and Grayland Johnson, who claimed to have been tortured into a false confession. Ryan commuted the sentences of all three to life in prison without parole.

Just over 24 hours to go to Iowa results. It's a horse race. It's exciting. Follow the storm with your favorite candidate. Here's how as to our favorite top three, in alphabetical order:

BloggerStorm (Howard Dean) (P.S. Great to see Judy Dean campaigning beside her husband today. She's lively and has a smile that doesn't stop. We'd like to see more of her.)

John Edwards Campaign Blog

John Kerry Campaign Blog

Kicking Ass is the offical blog of the DNC

Get real time Iowa results here.

For the best analysis, there's no beating Daily Kos. Get the latest news here.

Here's Wesley Clark's blog--he's not in Iowa, but campaigning like crazy in New Hampshire. George McGovern showed up to endorse him today at a pancake breakfast.

And some good news--the latest CBS/New York Times poll shows Bush's support among independents is slipping.

President Bush is bragging about his human rights record, telling the New Yorker,

No President has ever done more for human rights than I have.

Billmon has the details of other President's bragging rights in this area. [New Yorker link via Hamster.]

China's Civil Rights and Justice System is poised to become better, fairer and less lethal than Texas:

The Chinese government is planning to implement judicial reforms that could sharply reduce its use of the death penalty and is debating new legislation to abolish the power of police to send people to labor camps without trial, according to Chinese legal scholars who have participated in the deliberations.

The moves would weaken two of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's most notorious instruments of state power and begin to address longstanding international criticism of China's justice system. More people are executed in China than in the rest of the world combined, and police order tens of thousands every year to undergo what the party calls "reeducation through labor."

The government has not announced a final decision on the measures, and the scholars said many conservative police and provincial officials were resisting the changes. But they said that key bureaucracies, including the courts, the Justice Ministry and the legislature, had backed the measures. For the first time in years, they said, the momentum appears to be with advocates of judicial reform.