“All that matters now is the economy, which Obama began to own after his massive spending orgies.”

So if he hadn’t spent the funds, you would blame Bush?

“Transparent distraction only will make things worse for the Dems unless there is some economic turn-around no one believes will happen.”

Why is this a transparent distraction? Why couldn’t it be possible that this new interest in prosecution stems from new evidence that crimes were indeed committed? Did you read the 5OIG report? The ony other possible explanation for what happened, other than intentional criminality, is Reckless/Negligence-level incompetency and stupidity.
And now its looking like Cheney deliberately ordered the CIA not to brief Congress, which is (a) clearly a contravention of Constitutional power and (b) clearly illegal.

I know Repubs have grown quite comfortable in their “I’m such a poor downtrodden victim” costumes lately, but is there really anybody here that thinks no crimes were committed? Honestly?

Pelosi and company have not learned the first rule of holes. Not that it matters, really, because there is precious little bread to pass out at their circus. The fate of congressional Dems are joined at the hip with Obama on the economy, and no amount of distraction will change that nasty reality. People are event-driven now. Transparent distraction only will make things worse for the Dems unless there is some economic turn-around no one believes will happen.

What in the hell does that have to do with what yoyo said?

Heh. It’s amazing how often I’ve asked myself that same question.

“Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.” - George Washington, charge to the Northern Expeditionary Force, Sept. 14, 1775

Art. 16. Military necessity does not admit of cruelty - that is, the infliction of suffering for the sake of suffering or for revenge, nor of maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of torture to extort confessions. … in general, military necessity does not include any act of hostility which makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult. (Lincoln Administration’s General Order 100)

Convention Against Torture — signed by Reagan in 1988, ratified in 1994 by Senate:
Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law (Article 4) . . . . The State Party in territory under whose jurisdiction a person alleged to have committed any offence referred to in article 4 is found, shall in the cases contemplated in article 5, if it does not extradite him, submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution.
No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. . . . An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Geneva Conventions, Article 146:
Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.

Charter of the International Tribunal at Nuremberg, Article 8:
The fact that the Defendant acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior shall not free him from responsibility, but may be considered in mitigation of punishment if the Tribunal determines that justice so requires.

U.S. Constitution, Article VI:
[A]ll Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.

Well… there you have it, boys. I didn’t make a word of it up. You have two Republican Presidents and the Founding President of these United States all saying that torture isn’t worth a damned.
And yes, G.W. Bush Jr. was the worst offender this country’s ever seen. If Democrats are complicit, by all means put them in a dock too, but these war crimes are in need of investigation and if proven guilty- convicted to the furthest extent of the law, up and including execution. That’s what the Rule of Law (courtesy of the Magna Carta) means. I enjoyed your article, nonetheless. Good show.

You are indeed right. We don’t know what we are talking about. Maybe we should find out so we as American Citizens can become better informed. I wonder how we could find out about all this stuff . . . maybe some sort of committee that would determine what the truth is? They could call it a Truth Commission possibly.

Nah. Better to blindly trust your government. That’s why you unreservedly trust and support Obama, right?

Well for clearing up this misconception ALONE, this country needs a truth commission - where were all these moralists when Clinton was outsourcing torture to the Egyptians ? in the mid-90’s ?

Both political parties have supported what is going on implicitly or explicitly - and both of them have tried to use it to their political advantage explicitly and implicitly.

A good old fashioned circus is probably what is needed. Let’s start from the Clinton years and see how many Clinton officials took part in extraordinary renditions to Egypt and elsewhere.

And while we are at, lets figure out what Sandy Berger was doing stuffing intelligence material into his socks and when caught, had to quit from the Kerry campaign in 2004.

Lets then get to Bush and evil company who irreparably harmed America. And then lets come to Obama who in the fierce moral urgency of now has backed Bush policies to the hilt.

There is no short supply of astounding naivete in this country.