Don't be surprised, Glenn. It has happened again and again. One does not have to be a Republican or a Democrat: one has to be part of the Ruling Establishment. That's what happens once one enters the Oval office. Look for promises of change in the summer of 2012.

I guess you just dance with the Justice department that brung ya, huh?

...and begin holding Obama to account? Bush is gone. Democrats control both houses of congress. What is the excuse?

Can people really still be pushing the 11th dimensional chess theory? Can they really believe that Obama is so superior to us mere mortals that we are simply incapable of understanding the game he is playing?

I reject all of that. And I salute Glenn Greenwald.

Sir, you deserved that Izzy. Keep speaking truth to power. Maybe some will listen. God, I sure hope so.

I'm wondering what these recent actions by the administration mean for future Supreme Court appointments. Will Obama be appointing people who would support the kinds of actions he has been taking? Since the expected retirements in the Court are all on the "left" end, that could lead to a dangerously pro-Executive tilt. Here's hoping that finding someone that won't infuriate Democrats on other matters means that Obama will be forced to appoint someone that would vote to keep his power in check.

I know it's only been a few days, but where is this being reported in the regular media? Anywhere? I haven't seen it in the NY Times. Is this just the delay that the regular journalistic process entails (hopefully with some benefit) or do think it's not a story?

I know it's only been a few days, but where is this being reported in the regular media? Anywhere? I haven't seen it in the NY Times.

Both the Times and the Post have a story today on the ICRC report, focusing on the participation of medical professionals in our torture regimen. Other than that, most of what is in the ICRC report isn't particularly new, though reading it in vivid detail still packs a pretty heavy punch -- and I'm not sure if the Report's demand for investigations and prosecutions was ever previously disclosed. Either way, it was reported by both newspapers this morning.

Do you have any specific candidates in mind for an interview on Salon Radio in regards to this latest, as close as they can come to a FUBAR, turn of events?

Do you have any specific candidates in mind for an interview on Salon Radio in regards to this latest, as close as they can come to a FUBAR, turn of events?

There will be an interview up later today with Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer for numerous Guantanamo detainees, including Binyam Mohamed, about this travesty:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/apr/02/torture-human-rights

The recent rash of RWA's with gun fetishes losing their minds in gun battles with police indicates to me that the stress levels of our terminally conformist citizens is significantly high. Insert Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to whip their 2nd amendment concerns into a creamy froth and we have set the stage for some new gun legislation to take their focus away from this very real theft of liberty.

Milk the outrage away with a battle over more poorly written gun laws with one hand while the DC elites steal the essence of America with the other.

My instinct is to believe that Obama and crew are intending to upset the GOP faithful with this. I don't see the RWA minds of their followers buying into it though because it is Obama becoming one of them. They are blindly pacified by it. Meanwhile the Obama worshippers are blinded by Obama's goodness and polished speaking habits. They see no evil either.

Those who see through the false dichotomy of Left vs. Right are left to straighten this mess out.

Obama is a phony. Didn't you know that when he was running? There was plenty of evidence available but so many voters were smitten by his charm. Pity!

He saw the end of our democracy in the constitutional attacks from the Bush administration along with earlier transgressions.

I thought he was just being a too negative when he said a couple of years ago that we may never get the rule of law back in this country.

Well, it looks like he was right. Cheney is embedded into our system. Looks like a hardened site. That is what my friend was saying about how hard it would be to reverse these changes.

Cannot be reversed without prosecution.

I was taken for a ride by Obama.

The ICRC Report is outrageous, but Americans who read it can comfort themselves by saying they've seen it all already on "24" -- and they did it to Jack Bauer, too, ya know.

They have seen it all already on "24", haven't they? It ought to be shocking that a television show was entertaining Americans with these "techniques" at a time when the government was silent about or denying any involvement in torture. Yet the very "techniques" used on the captives were being displayed on teevee for entertainment purposes on a regular basis. And the producers denied they were collaborating with elements of the government.

Sure. Whatever.

Rightist Authoritarian Americans, while celebrating their love of Jack Bauer and the torture regime of "24" that's Keeping Us Safe, must believe that the captives whose testimony is documented in the ICRC Report were watching "24" as well, because they have been at some pains to declare that the Report is bogus because it uncritically repeats the "stories" of these captives, captives who have been trained to claim they were tortured!" You see? May the circle be unbroken.

But how would they know what "techniques" to say they were subjected to unless they had been watching "24?" Well?

Soon, Duncan Hunter will start prattling again about oven fried chicken and two kinds of fruit.

And Obama uses the same formulation as the Busheviks: "We do not torture."

As long as you can simply redefine your terms at will, something the Busheviks were masters at and the Obamanauts are demonstrating some competence with as well, then we don't.

As I alluded to in another thread, we will become inured to any further claims of American torture by a forthcoming media obsession with other regimes and how awful they are or were (Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge; the Ayatollahs' Iran, Saddam! Saddam!, even Russia). They're all worse ya know. Oh yes. They are. And what about China!!!!?

And besides, if they're Keeping Us Safe by lying about torturing captives, who are we to complain?

They don't do it any more, do they? What captives?

Americans have an amazing tolerance for this sort of monstrousness. The institutional restraints are gone. Many of the institutions themselves (Congress, for example) are essentially vestigial and nonfunctional.

And if the media is presenting it all as entertainment, what's to worry? Nobody died did they?