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Maher Arar, a Canadian (born in Syria) who was arrested by the U.S. and sent to Syria where he was tortured as a result of the RCMP’s erroneous labeling of him as someone associated with al Qaeda, was unable to receive a human rights award in Washington, D.C. because his name is still on the TSA no-fly list. Arar currently has a lawsuit pending in Canada against the RCMP. (Also see the Wikipedia entry on Arar.) This is further evidence of the TSA’s failure to competently maintain the no-fly list. UPDATE (October 20, 2006): Ed Brayton has discussed this story today. UPDATE (January 23, 2007): The U.S. Attorney General and head of Homeland Security are both insisting that Arar remain on the no-fly list for reasons which they have disclosed only to officials in Canada. The Canadians don’t think those reasons make any sense. My guess is that they think somebody they sent off to be tortured might have a beef with the people who did it to him.

There’s an excellent article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi called “The Worst Congress Ever." When the Democrats take back one or both houses of Congress, I hope they will not be following the Republican rulebook for payback, but will try to return some dignity, honesty, integrity, and accountability to the legislative branch of our government. One exception, though–they should follow the Republican lead from 1995 and not require minority party approval for issuing subpoenas to the White House as they clean house. It’s high time that Congress started actually providing some oversight of the executive branch again.

Independent filmmaker Brett Hanover made a very nice little one-hour film called “The Bridge," about the Church of Scientology, which he put out on Google Video and YouTube about a month ago. Scientology came after him, and he buckled, withdrawing the film and saying that he no longer supports it. Google and YouTube took it down. But it’s still out there. Watch it, it’s pretty well done.

From “PT,” a reader of Talking Points Memo: 5 stages of Republican scandal: 1. “I have not been informed of any investigation or that I am a target” 2. “I am cooperating fully, but this whole thing is a political ploy by the Democrats” 3. “I’m SHOCKED by the mistakes made by my subordinates” 4. “I’m deeply sorry for letting down my friends and family. I now recognize that I am an alcoholic. I will be entering rehab immediately, so I have no time for questions” 5. “Can I serve my time at Eglin Federal Penitentiary (aka Club Fed)?”I’m sure these work just as well in a bipartisan manner (with minor rewording), but today it is most fitting as written.

An archivist at the Arizona Historical Foundation, Linda Whitaker, found a 25-min 16mm film canister last fall while preparing an exhibition on World War II Japanese internment camps. The film can was labeled “Poston Color Dupe.” The film turned out to be footage of Arizona’s Poston internment camp, which was located in La Paz county, 12 miles south of Parker. The film had a magnetic strip for sound, but it had deteriorated, so what is left is a color silent film. It has been converted to DVD format and is for sale for $40 from the Arizona Historical Foundation. Poston was one of two sets of Japanese internment camps in Arizona, and was also known as the Colorado River Relocation Center. It was composed of three camps, called Poston I, II, and III, on reservation land of the Colorado Indians. It operated from April 1942 to March 1946, and at its peak housed 18,000 people. The other was the Gila River Relocation Center about 50 miles southeast of Phoenix, which housed 13,000 people at its peak, and operated from May 1942 to February 1946. It was composed of two camps, Butte Camp and Canal Camp, which were built over the objections of the Gila River Indian tribe, on whose land they were built. The Japanese-Americans who were taken from their homes in California and Arizona and forced to live in these prison camps were mostly U.S. citizens (about 2/3). The Poston and Gila River camps were, at the time, the third and fourth largest “cities” in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson. The Poston camp was built by Del Webb, best known as a homebuilder of planned communities in the southwest (such as Sun City and Anthem). The discovery of this film serves to remind us how a country can get so caught up in wartime fear that it disregards its own Constitution and tramples the rights of individuals. ...

Rep. Jim Kolbe is under investigation by the Justice Department regarding a 1996 Colorado river rafting trip he took with two 17-year-old former pages (as well as several staffers and National Park Service employees). His press secretary, Korenna Cline, “abruptly resigned” yesterday in order “to pursue another job opportunity.” Historical Comments dogscratcher (2006-12-09): I hope they aren't making mountain out of a molehill here simply because he is gay. Not all gay men go after 17 year old boys any more than all hetero guys go after 17 year old girls. Kolbe's knowledge of Foley's transgressions... That is another matter. ...

Recent amendments and proposed amendments to state constitutions like Arizona’s Proposition 107, which “preserves “marriage” as only consisting of the union of one man and one woman, and prohibits creating or recognizing any legal status for unmarried persons that is similar to that of marriage,” have been backed by the Alliance Defense Fund. These constitutional amendments will not just be used to block same-sex marriage (already prohibited by multiple Arizona statutes, as I’ve pointed out here), but to prevent things like domestic partnership benefits to unmarried partners. In response to these claims, the ADF denies it, calling this a “false argument” used to “confuse”: Preying on these and similar fears, advocates of same-sex “marriage” argue that proposed state marriage amendments will undermine the ability of government and even private entities to grant benefits to unmarried people. This false argument is being used to confuse many people… Same-sex “marriage” advocates argue that eliminating domestic partnerships or other counterfeit marital institutions is hateful and mean spirited, because it will undermine benefits granted to unmarried people. Unfortunately, many people (including some so-called “conservative” politicians) have bought into this fallacious argument. ...

On Tuesday of this week (October 10), Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert met with evangelist K.A. Paul, without first consulting with his advisors. He now says that he was “duped” into the meeting, in which Paul performed a “laying on of hands” on Hastert and asked him to resign. Paul says Hastert said that he would. Paul is a full-blown kook, whose record includes (according to a June 2006 Houston Press story): - claiming another minister’s leper colony as his own, and videotaping said lepers for a promotional video - transporting children in an airplane one former crew member called a “flying death trap” ...

MSNBC has the story, about David Kuo’s new book, Tempting Faith: More than five years after President Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, the former second-in-command of that office is going public with an insider’s tell-all account that portrays an office used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities.The office’s primary mission, providing financial support to charities that serve the poor, never got the presidential support it needed to succeed, according to the book. ...

Sen. John McCain has attempted to blame President Clinton for North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons: “I would remind Senator [Hillary] Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration’s policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure,” McCain said at a news conference after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard. “The Koreans received millions and millions in energy assistance. They’ve diverted millions of dollars of food assistance to their military,” he said. ...