A big thanks to our guest blogger TChris who filled in for us this weekend. He wrote some great stuff, we hope you will scroll down and read it. We have court this morning and will return this afternoon.

"Too Hot of a Potato: A Citizen Soldier's Encounter With the Polygraph" is a personal account of the life-changing consequences of wrongly failing an FBI polygraph examination -- and of a soldier's exercising his First Amendment right to speak publicly on polygraph policy. George Maschke was a soldier with a security clearance in the interrogations program. He served in the first Gulf War, was an Arab translator at interrogations and then had an opportunity to work with federal prosecutors on the World Trade Center bombing case. He decided to apply to the FBI to become an agent. Then the nightmare began:

On Monday, 15 May 1995, FBI polygrapher Jack Trimarco met me for the first time in his life and within three hours concluded that I am a spy, drug dealer, and drug abuser.

The FBI rejected my application to become an FBI special agent and entered my polygraph examiner's false accusations of deception into my permanent FBI Headquarters file. The FBI's accusations have had life-changing consequences for me, and I am telling my story to help hasten the day that our government ends its misplaced reliance on the pseudoscience of polygraphy, a practice it has with good reason prohibited the private sector from employing.

In 2000, Mr. Maschke and Gino Scalabrini co-founded AntiPolygraph.org and published The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, a free e-book with chapters on polygraph validity, policy, procedure, and countermeasures.

We included information on countermeasures not to help liars beat the system, but to provide the truthful with a means of protecting themselves against the random error associated with an invalid test.

by TChris

Californians in need of medical marijuana will be able to choose from several varieties at a new store in Roseville -- at least until the feds move in to shut it down. The store doesn't bother the local police chief, who acknowledges that Proposition 215 made the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes a legal business under state law.

Federal law is a different story. Listen to Richard Meyer, a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco:

"Federal law is clear about marijuana: It is illegal to cultivate, possess or distribute it," Meyer said. "So if that club is selling marijuana, it's going to be in violation of federal law.

"Just because (the Roseville club) is in operation doesn't mean it's legitimate or that we condone it. They should not be surprised if one day we show up with a warrant at their door."

Although Meyer complained that staff shortages made it difficult to close marijuana clubs, the Roseville business has reason to worry. Other distributors of medical marijuana have been arrested or shut down, and the Ashcroft Justice Department seems determined to stand in the way of states that enact sensible legislation to benefit the sick and dying.

A female prison guard held hostage for two weeks by inmates at an Arizona prison has been released. There aren't many details yet, only that the guard is receiving medical attention.

A nightmare, we're sure, but we're glad she is safe.

Update: A later AP story:

"Her voice is exceptionally strong," said Corrections Department Director Dora Schriro. "I would characterize her spirit as being exceptionally strong. To the eyes, she looks well."

Gov. Janet Napolitano, who went with Schriro to meet the medical helicopter that transported the female guard, said the officer told the director, "Thank you for not leaving me, thank you for not rushing the tower, they would have killed me."

How did the hostage-taking event happen to begin with?

No information was immediately released on what led to the surrender at the medium- to high-security Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis, but in one concession, one of the inmates was allowed to give an interview to a radio station.

"It was initially an escape attempt. We were on our way out," Ricky Wassenaar, told KTAR-AM radio in an exclusive interview. "This was a stopping point to get some arms, firearms, to get out of here. Unfortunately, the plan went bad."

by TChris

The Detroit verdict that John Ashcroft heralded as a victory against terrorism may be coming undone. An excellent summary of events that are unravelling the case against three men accused of planning terrorist acts appears in the Detroit Free Press. The article suggests that Ashcroft's Justice Department may join the defense in asking for a new trial. While the government rarely confesses its errors, doing so in this case would be a victory for public integrity.

Wayne State University law professor David Moran reminds us that prosecutors accused of misconduct often "circle the wagons .... But that's not happening here." Instead, the U.S. Attorney's office appears to be conducting a serious investigation of the terrorism prosecutors' alleged misconduct. However, WSU law professor Robert Sedler considers it unlikely that an Ashcroft-headed Justice Department would join in a defense request for a new terrorism trial.

Developments in the case include:

by TChris

Accusations of abuse and corruption have shaken the faith of many Canadians in Canadian law enforcement.

Police officers have been accused of robbery of jewelry and drugs, and of rigging evidence to put suspects behind bars in Toronto, and of abusing drug addicts in Vancouver. They have even been accused of dumping intoxicated Native Canadians on isolated snowy roads to freeze to death in the prairies.

Six Toronto narcotics squad officers arrested in January face "a variety of brutality and corruption charges" while "newly released internal police documents indicate that many more may be implicated." A Royal Canadian Mounted Police task force investigating the narcotics squad released evidence that several officers stole jewelry and cash during a raid of a drug dealer's home. Three other officers were reported to have stolen $70,000 using a fake search warrant.

The Toronto scandal has followed a pattern that has emerged in New York and other American cities in which officers were suspected of having succumbed to the temptations of the great sums involved in the drug trade while internal investigative units were inadequate to monitor them.

A criminologist at the University of Monreal cautions that Canadians, proud of the image of brave Mounties on horseback, may be unwilling to closely examine charges of corruption, even though "brutality and fabricating evidence is fairly widespread." That attitude may change in light of Canada's "heritage as a global proponent of human rights and civil liberties" and the publicity surrounding recent investigations of police misconduct.

by TChris

A television ad criticizing the Bush administration for saddling the next generation with today’s debt will not appear during today’s Superbowl broadcast, because CBS refuses to run it. Eli Pariser makes a strong argument that CBS, by hiding behind a policy against advertising concerning controversial issues, is actually protecting its corporate advertisers from criticism.

Notably, the policy has not motivated CBS to avoid airing the administration’s controversial issue ads, including those making the specious link between terrorism and toking. Nor will it prevent CBS from airing this year’s anti-drug ad during the Superbowl, one that attempts in a “subtle” way to link drinking (a favorite Superbowl pastime) and marijuana smoking.

As Senator Durbin (D-IL) remarked, the CBS officials who are protecting the administration from criticism recently succeeded, with the administration’s help, in raising to 39 percent the maximum percentage of television viewers that any single company’s TV stations may reach in a market. According to Senator Durbin,

it just so happens that Viacom, which owns CBS, currently owns stations reaching 38.8 percent of American households, and Rupert Murdoch's news corporation, the owners of that "fair and balanced" Fox Network, owns stations reaching 37.8 percent.

TalkLeft recently reported that moveon.org, the organization seeking to run the ad, is urging Superbowl viewers to change the channel to CNN in order to view the ad that CBS refuses to run. The ad should be running during the halftime show, at 8:10 and 8:35 EST.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, John Arguilla, a professor of defense analysis at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, makes the case that Osama bin Laden can determinethe outcome of the 2004 election.

It's been mentioned by a few, including us, that if Bush pulls Osama out of a hat shortly before election day, it could be a problem for the Dems. Arguilla looks at it from the other side -- what if there's another big attack before election day? Using several examples from Abe Lincoln to LBJ, Arguilla says:

If, by the November election, the al Qaeda mastermind is able to mount another large terrorist attack inside the United States, bin Laden will show that Iraq has been a fatal distraction from the more pressing business of ripping apart his network. And George Bush will lose his job. Such are the electoral fortunes of war.

...The main point is, if bin Laden has the capability to launch an attack on America this year, he will. It must be an irresistible temptation to know that, from his remote cave, he could possibly exert a decisive influence on the political succession in the United States.

We're dubious, but we'll report it anyway. The U.S. says Saddam has provided useful information during his interrogation:

American officials have received useful information from direct interrogation of Saddam Hussein, a senior military official said Sunday.
The official would not say what the information was, but he said it allowed interrogators to confirm some suspicions and reject other information.

Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, the official said both documents and the results of questioning of Saddam have allowed the military to hunt for some people involved in attacks on U.S. troops.

[comments now closed.]

According to Newsweek's latest poll, John Kerry's fortunes are rising while Bush's approval ratings sink to an all-time low:

In a hypothetical vote, Kerry and Bush are locked in a dead heat, with Kerry pulling 48 percent or registered voters vs. Bush’s 46 percent.

While Kerry is enjoying his bounce in the polls, Bush’s approval rating is at an all-time low in the NEWSWEEK poll, slipping to 49 percent (with 43 percent approving). Almost half (49 percent) do not want to see the president reelected in the fall (compared to 45 percent who do), which represents a slight improvement in his favor over last week, when 52 percent didn’t want to see him re-elected (44 percent did).

For the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll, a majority (54 percent) believes the Bush administration misinterpreted intelligence about Iraq.

A majority of those polled didn't think Bush lied--just that he was mistaken. But,

More than half (55 percent) feel the U.S. did the right thing in going to war with Iraq, down from 62 percent in December.

Will it be enough to save Bush if he pulls bin Laden out of a hat before the election? Our view: Not if it also turns out he sat on the news for political purposes.

Did Neil Bush father a child with his paramour (now his fiance) while he was married to his wife Sharon? A judge has ordered Bush to submit to a DNA test.

Sharon Bush requested the tests to defend herself against a defamation lawsuit stemming from the tangled relationship between the Bushes and another Houston couple, Robert and Maria Andrews.

During the Bushes' contentious divorce, which became final in April, Sharon Bush testified she heard rumors that her husband had an affair with Maria Andrews and is the father of her 3-year-old son, Thomas Alexander Andrews.

The Andrewses ended their 14-year marriage in 2002. Robert Andrews sued Sharon Bush for defamation in September, saying he is the boy's father. Andrews demanded at least $850,000 in damages -- the amount Sharon Bush paid to buy the Memorial-area home in which she had lived with Neil Bush.

Our prior coverage is here.

We'll agree with the New York Times' nice tribute to Howard Dean in Come Back, Little Deaniacs:

However he fares in the coming primaries, Howard Dean has already touched more than a few young lives. Around the country — campus by campus, computer by computer — thousands of teenagers and 20-somethings have fallen hard for his campaign. They're lucky. It's a wonderful experience to lose one's political heart for the first time, as did the college students who sacrificed long hair and beards to be "clean for Gene" — Eugene McCarthy — in 1968, or the young men who stood bare-chested waving placards for Bill Bradley in the New Hampshire snow or followed the banner of Senator John McCain in 2000. The newly enchanted of 2004 bring a rush of young blood into the nation's old campaign arteries.

....If the product of the Dean movement is thousands of young people who are slightly hardened to the lure of a charismatic candidate, but determined to keep on fighting for a better world, it will have been a success no matter what happens to the former governor of Vermont. That is the way politics, at its best, works. First you discover that your paragon of a candidate is all too deeply human. Then you realize that the real heroics come from you and your friends with the pamphlets, stolidly going door to door.