House Republicans passed a bill yesterday that would require voters show photo ID in Federal elections despite objections from Democrats (and despite the fact that a court in Georgia has dismissed such a law as unconstitutional). Leaving aside the “papers please” implications and the fact that it amounts to a poll tax (government photo IDs aren’t free), it imposes another hurdle on a demographic traditionally outside the GOP tent.

It’s hard to escape the notion that a party seemingly bent on preserving a low-turnout electorate must not, at its core, hold truly democratic values. The GOP opposes efforts like Motor Voter, even, precisely because they make it easier for more people to vote.

Food for thought. (Via MeFi.)

We do. From our 2003 entry:

Maher Arar is a Syrian-born Canadian. Returning to Canada from vacation in Tunis last September, he flew from there to Zurich to New York, intending to continue on to Montreal. US officials detained him in New York, refused his requests for an attorney, would not tell him what charges or allegations resulted in his arrest, and eventually deported him — to SYRIA, where they knew he would be tortured or killed. He was held for over a year in total — ten months in Syria — before finally being released on October 5, thanks to the efforts of his wife and Canadian authorities.

A Canadian government commission officially exonerated Arar today, 3 years later. He was arrested and sent to Syria to be tortured with no due process, no trial, no jury, no judge, no charge, no nothing. He was essentially abducted and sent to Syria by our government despite the fact that he’s not a US citizen, does not live here, and did nothing wrong. The Canadians gave the U.S. people bad intel, and based on this intel people acting in our name had him tortured. He had no chance to avoid it.

From the NYT story:

Mr. Arar, speaking at a news conference, praised the findings. “Today Justice O’Connor has cleared my name and restored my reputation,” he said. “I call on the government of Canada to accept the findings of this report and hold these people responsible.”

His lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, said the report affirmed that Mr. Arar, who has been unemployed since his return to Canada, was deported and tortured because of “a breathtakingly incompetent investigation.”

[…]

However, the commission found that the designation [on a “terrorist lookout list”] should have only been applied to people who are members or associates of terrorist networks. Neither the police nor customs had any such evidence of that concerning Mr. Arar or his wife, an economist.

[…]

Evidence presented to the commission, said Paul J. J. Cavalluzzo, its lead counsel, showed that the F.B.I. continued to keep its Canadian counterparts in the dark even while an American jet was carrying Mr. Arar to Jordan. The panel found that American officials “believed — quite correctly — that, if informed, the Canadians would have serious concerns about the plan to remove Mr. Arar to Syria.”

Mr. Arar arrived in Syria on Oct. 9, 2002, and was imprisoned there until Oct. 5, 2003. [Dates differ based on presumably more up-to-date info – Ed.] It took Canadian officials, however, until Oct. 21 to locate him in Syria. The commission concludes that Syrian officials at first denied knowing Mr. Arar’s whereabouts to hide the fact that he was being tortured. It says that, among other things, he was beaten with a shredded electrical cable until he was disoriented.

American officials have not discussed the case publicly. But in an interview last year, a former official said on condition of anonymity that the decision to send Mr. Arar to Syria had been based chiefly on the desire to get more information about him and the threat he might pose. The official said Canada did not intend to hold him if he returned home.

This is why it’s not about “torturing terrorists” or “imprisoning bad guys” — it’s about preserving due process. It’s about making sure that innocent people aren’t imprisoned, and it’s about continuing to the the U.S.A., and not becoming a tin-pot dictatorship in the name of preserving the freedoms we’ve denies people like Arar.

Prof. Felton has released a security analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS machine showing it can be compromised in as little as one minute. Here’s Prof. Felton demonstrating the hack on Fox (of all places). Also, it turns out that the cabinet on these things can be opened with a standard minibar key, which makes it pretty clear how serious Diebold is about security.

Diebold, of course, is once again blowing off researcher concerns, insisting there’s no problem with the machines.

The Douchebag of Liberty himself, Bob Novak, insists he’s never seen Jon Stewart’s show, but still feels free to call him a “self righteous comedian taking on airs of grandeur.”

Rrrrrrriiiiiiight, Douchebag.

Atrios points us to a new book describing how absurd and incompetent the CPA was in immediate postinvasion Iraq; the primary qualification was party affiliation, not area of expertise. We’re adding the book to our to-read list post haste.

The FCC ordered a taxpayer-funded study suggesting greater media ownership consolidation would be damaging to local news coverage destroyed in 2004. It surfaced recently as part of Kevin Martin’s confirmation hearings; someone forwarded a copy of Sen. Boxer, who is now demanding that the FCC address the report and its coverup.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

This is rich. The Senate committee has passed Arlen Specter’s bill on to the Senate. Said bill addresses the illegal wiretapping this Administration is so fond of by redefining it as “not surveillance,” presumably operating on the theory that we’re all morons. It also manages to completely gut FISA, the law that Bush is continuing to violate as we speak. More here and here.

The second night of ABC’s 9/11 fan fiction included falsified scenes bolstering Bush, whereas the first night’s segment’s major falsehoods came at the expense of the prior administration.

This is propaganda, pure and simple.

That’s pretty much the case:

George W. Bush’s speech on September 6 amounted to a public confession to criminal violations of the 1996 War Crimes Act. He implicitly admitted authorizing disappearances, extrajudicial imprisonment, torture, transporting prisoners between countries and denying the International Committee of the Red Cross access to prisoners.

These are all serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. The War Crimes Act makes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and all violations of Common Article 3 punishable by fines, imprisonment or, if death results to the victim, the death penalty.

But, just to be safe, Bush is trying to cover his ass. Guilty much, George?

At the same time, Bush asked Congress to amend the War Crimes Act in order to retroactively protect him and other U.S. officials from prosecution for these crimes, and from civil lawsuits arising from them. He justified this on the basis that “our military and intelligence personnel involved in capturing and questioning terrorists could now be at risk of prosecution under the War Crimes Act . . . ,” and insisted that “passing this legislation ought to be the top priority” for Congress between now and the election in November.

His profession of concern for military and intelligence personnel was utterly misleading. Military personnel charged with war crimes have always been, and continue to be, prosecuted under the Universal Code of Military Justice rather than the War Crimes Act; and the likelihood of CIA interrogators being identified and prosecuted under the act is remote — they are protected by the secrecy that surrounds all CIA operations.

The only real beneficiaries of such amendments to the War Crimes Act would be Bush himself and other civilian officials who have assisted him in these crimes — Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gonzales, Rice, Cambone, Tenet, Goss, Negroponte and an unfortunately long list of their deputies and advisors.

Where is the outrage?

Check it out.

As someone who was directly involved in almost every event depicted in the fictionalized docudrama, “The Path to 9-11,” I believe it is an egregious distortion that does a deep disservice both to history and to those in both the Clinton and Bush administrations who are depicted.

Sadly, ABC’s Entertainment Division hired a production company and screen writer who were apparently unqualified to deal with this historically important subject matter. That error appears to have been compounded by the failure of some of the docudrama’s consultants to insure that the account was accurate. Some of the most outrageous scenes were removed after a recent senior level review. What remains, however, is not the true story as told by the 9-11 Commission.

“Time for Us to Go,” 7 articles by prominent conservatives on why the GOP deserves to be shown the door come election day.

Media Matters discusses one of the more egregious fabrications of ABC’s 9/11 fan fiction.

Keith weighs in on the Anniversary, and holds nothing back. Watch or read the whole thing.

Pro-torture, Imperial-presidency fan and one-time administration attorney John Yoo is apparently opposed to separation of powers.

Atrios points us to this excerpt from Al Franken’s book. Al’s a leftie, but everything in this summary is verifiable as far as I can tell. The bullet points:

• The Clinton administration was becoming more and more convinced that AQ and OBL were going to be a big problem, so they created a far-reaching plan for their destruction. This plan was completed after the election, but before GWB’s inaugural.

• Rather than hand Bush a fait accompli war, they instead passed on the plan.

• The outgoing Clinton people put together multiple briefings for the incoming Bush people, including some comprehensive discussions of terror, OBL, and AQ. Said Sandy Berger, “I believe that the Bush administration will spend more time on terrorism in general, and on al Qaeda specifically, than any other subject.”

• Impressed by his antiterror knowledge and bona fides, the Bush administration asked key counterterror bulldog Richard Clarke to stay on. Still, the impression the outgoing Clinton people had seems to have been that the Bush people thought they were obsessed with terrorism, and didn’t take the warnings seriously.

It gets worse. Of course, you knew that already.

Omnibus Morning Post:

• ABC may be backing off and has stated they’ll make some changes to the 9/11 movie to remove some of the “inaccuracies” (i.e. “lies”). It remains to be seen how much they can actually polish this turd, though. We expect it’ll still amount to GOP propaganda.

• The Senate has, at long last, passed the pork database bill. This, at least, is good news.

• Some attorneys and prominent GOP leaders are a bit upset about Bush’s proposal to try detainees in “tribunals” without allowing the accused to see the evidence against them. The unspoken bit in this move by Bush is that he’s obliquely admitted that he’s maintained secret CIA prisons to avoid US laws and jurisdiction. That’s illegal, and there ought to be repurcussions.

• Bush’s bill attempting to retroactively legalize his warrantless wiretapping has stalled in the Senate due to insufficient support.

We don’t usually cotton to the jokers over at Vanity Fair, but this little stunt may cause us to re-evaluate our stance.

Scholastic has dropped its planned teaching aides for the 9/11 “docudrama” and replaced them with materials stressing critical thinking and media literacy.

9/11 commission member Richard Ben-Veniste slams ABC over their falsehood-filled docudrama; there’s video.

Also, Kos has more on how far Disney is in bed with RoveCo. There’s an ongoing pattern of ABC kowtowing to right-wing interests and ignoring progressive concerns. Once again: What Liberal Media?

They’re assuring the right-wing blogosphere that the film will run as-is, and that “the message of the Clinton administration failures remains fully intact.” They’ve also refused to allow those maligned by the film — President Clinton, Madeleine Albright, etc. — to see advance copies of the work despite their clear willingness to share it with any right-winger with a domain name (or Oxy addiction).

Oh, and it gets worse. MediaMatters notes that the ABC-sponsored teaching materials accompanying this box of tripe falsely suggest that Iraq had WMD, and link Iraq to 9/11. Yeah, you read that right: ABC is lying to schoolkids about actual history.

Via ThinkProgress:

Last night on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country, Roger Cressey — a top counterterrorism official to Bush II and Clinton — blasted ABC’s docudrama “The Path to 9/11.” Cressy said “it’s amazing . . . how much they’ve gotten wrong. They got the small stuff wrong” and “then they got the big stuff wrong.” He added that a scene where the Clinton administration passes on a surefire opportunity to take out bin Laden is “something straight out of Disney and fantasyland. It’s factually wrong. And that’s shameful.” (emph. added.)

They’ve got video. If you haven’t already, go tell ABC what you think of this crap.