as a relief from the real torture of shackles and sleeplessness.

six times a day! "not enough, please can i have more, he cried!"

"Those who approve of torture methods see no conflict with that and continuing to call themselves christians."

This is so depressing I can't honestly laugh at Tom's parody of the regressives.

It used to be that America stood for something. I'm sickened beyond belief to know that my taxes supported an Administration that used medieval torture on captives.

And that whole "waterboarded 182 times in one month" - how was that not revenge and punishment? Rightwingers and the media enablers have soiled America beyond belief.

Didn't they actually try something like that for a while?

Well, yeah. The symbol of their religion is a device used to torture people to death. What conflict do you see?

Sensible Centrists, if they must discuss the torture debate, know that the only thing worth discussion is whether it was effective.

...Rationalize, Rationalize, and Rationalize some more...Sure worked well at Nuremburg!

The problem that Barak Obama has is that the Republican party has sworn 100% alegience to everyone in the Bush Administration and will paralyze the government if any Loyal Bushie, any time, is ever help accountable for anything. (Not that they aren't 100% negative on Barak Obama anyway).

President Obama has, apparently made the second-worst choice by trying to get the US out of a Depressoin. It stinks, but I understand why.

But when is anyone going to start holdig Republicans accountable for protecting criminals as part of their official party platform?

On TV tonight???....says it all

or after your government has done it in your name. Ask Bernie Madoff -- he was just going to use creative accounting for a little while to cover a few shortfalls, and then he'd start making legitimate profits and no one would ever know. Ask any prostitite. "Well, I was broke, and I figured I'd just do it once to pay the bills . . ." It always becomes easier the second and third and fourth time.

We will get the government we deserve; it's up to us to determine whether it will look like the last 8 years or not.

Releasing the memos that showed we used Not Torture on the prisoners puts the United States at risk!

Not Torture is very effective, by the way. Using Not Torture on Abu Zubaydah resulted with ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE that prevented the planned attack of a year earlier, evidently by giving us the information we needed to build a cyborg to go back in time.

....at Dancing with the Stars....

Many of us opposed the war and the use of torture.

Obama hasn't said it, but a very good reason for not bothering to prosecute anyone is that at the end of the very long, very politically charged legal battle, at most anyone who's convicted would have to serve a few years until the first day of the next republican president, when they will all receive full pardons and Medals of Freedom.

So, I can't blame him for actually wanting to get his agenda passed instead to make a real difference in people's lives, because prosecuting these people won't.

Well, the minority party Democrats didn't stop it, so it's all their fault.

Even the libruls agree on this one.

Moreover, laws, treaties, and rules of basic human decency only apply to Democrats. Repubs always get a pass.

Even President Obama agrees on this one.

Yup, you're right. Our President has seen that four years or more of prosecutions and trials for Bush Administration torturers would result in not much more than "time served" until the next Republican administration arrives with pardons in hand.

You're also right, I think, in saying that our President would rather spend his and our energies in trying to get things done that will actually help make our lives better and our country stronger and safer.

Maybe I've watched too many late-night horror movies, but it seems that the creatures from the Ford Administration keep coming back, again and again, to lay their poisoned eggs in the hold of our ship of state. Rummy, Cheney, and their little helpers like Scooter -- will they claw their way up out of their coffins yet again to sieze the contols of this country? And if they do, what will they dream up next? My goodness. If this happens, it will be like "Alien" and "Night of the Living Dead" have mated to create yet another spawn from Hell. Dick Cheney becomes Secretary of Agriculture in 2013 and begins a program to grow ultra-secret poison corn, while Rumsfeldt becomes Secretary of the Interior and puts things in motion so Peabody Coal can stripmine our national parks.

Maybe the French had it right, you know? When it comes to some criminals, maybe eternity on Devil's Island wasn't such a bad idea, after all. As long as there's not torture, of course.

The reference to Raymond Carver is appreciated.

I like to suggest that we torture Eric Rudolph to find out who was feeding him and sheltering him while he was on the run after committing terrorist ats by bombing abortion clinics and a gay bar.

That usually results in a very quick change of the subject.

I know MANY good Christians (I think of them as TRUE Christians) that actually do follow the tenets of their faith in ways such as helping the needy, not judging others, standing up for Peace and Love, etc...

But the fact remains that there are MANY False christians (capitalization is key?) who actually work at cross purposes to those of their faith, such as favoring greed,war and discrimination; and in America, they are the dominant regressive force.

What is the shorthand we use to reference them? Writing out Radical Religious Right gets tiresome and seems pedantic after a while.

Using the small case "christians" might be too subtle and could still have the impact of tarring you all with the same broad brush.

Using Christianists as some do, is perhaps too precise and really describes only those that truly espouse the theocracy we must fight, while there are many other less radical; but no less hurtful regressives outside those ranks.

Myself, I used "xians" in quotes. But, I worry that it is too obscure, and perhaps pointless after all.

I'm open to suggestions...