The Breakfast Club: 4-22-2014

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when ~~we’re not too hungover~~ ~~we’ve been bailed out~~ ~~we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED)~~ the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

This Day in History

Breakfast News

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U.S. Ordered to Release Memo in Awlaki Killing

A federal appeals panel in Manhattan ordered the release on Monday of key portions of a classified Justice Department memorandum that provided the legal justification for the targeted killing of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who intelligence officials contend had joined Al Qaeda and died in a 2011 drone strike in Yemen.

The unanimous three-judge panel, reversing a lower court decision, said the government had waived its right to keep the analysis secret in light of numerous public statements by administration officials and the Justice Department’s release of a “white paper” offering a detailed analysis of why targeted killings were legal.

“Whatever protection the legal analysis might once have had,” Judge Jon O. Newman wrote for the panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, “has been lost by virtue of public statements of public officials at the highest levels and official disclosure of the D.O.J. White Paper.”

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Why Kidnapping, Torture, Assassination, and Perjury Are No Longer Crimes in Washington

With Cartwright as a possible exception, the members of the national security state, unlike the rest of us, exist in what might be called “post-legal” America. They know that, no matter how heinous the crime, they will not be brought to justice for it. The list of potentially serious criminal acts for which no one has had to take responsibility in a court of law is long, and never tabulated in one place. Consider this, then, an initial run-down on seven of the most obvious crimes and misdemeanors of this era for which no one has been held accountable.

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Poll: Big Bang a big question for most Americans

When considering concepts scientists consider truths, Americans have more skepticism than confidence in those that are farther away from our bodies in scope and time: global warming, the age of the Earth and evolution and especially the Big Bang from 13.8 billion years ago.

Rather than quizzing scientific knowledge, the survey asked people to rate their confidence in several statements about science and medicine.

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Why climate deniers are winning: The twisted psychology that overwhelms scientific consensus

One reason global warming opponents still have the upper hand is basic confusion over the nature and significance of uncertainty. “There are numerous instances in which politicians and opinion makers stated that ‘there is still so much uncertainty, we shouldn’t invest money to solve the climate problem,'” Lewandowsky explained to Salon. Now he has just co-authored two related articles on scientific uncertainty and climate change – “Part I. Uncertainty and unabated emissions” and “Part II. Uncertainty and mitigation” – which show this thinking is completely backwards. “This is shown to be wrong by our analysis, because uncertainty can never be too great for action. On the contrary, uncertainty implies that the problem is more likely to be worse than expected in the absence of that uncertainty.”

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Boy Scouts shut down troop for refusing to banish gay scoutmaster

The Boy Scouts of America, one of the country’s largest and oldest youth organizations, has shut down a Seattle troop and pack for refusing to remove an openly homosexual scoutmaster.

In a letter sent last week from BSA attorney Steven P. McGowan to Seattle attorney Peter J. Mullenix, the Scouts fault Rainier Beach United Methodist Church for allowing Geoff McGrath to serve in violation of their policy that “does not allow open or avowed homosexuals to serve as volunteer adult leaders.”

The chapter is being closed “as a result of this refusal to comply with the policies, guidelines, rules and regulations of the Boy Scouts of America,” according to the letter. It goes on to say Troop 98 may “no longer use the Scouting program or any of its registered marks or brands.”

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