The plain language of the constitution makes torture verbotten, under cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the III, IV and V amendments.

Precedent may be another matters

by each step St. Barry takes back away from the promises that got him 'elected.' As Arthur Silber has often stated:

Any individual who rises to the national political level is, of necessity and by definition, committed to the authoritarian-corporatist state. The current system will not allow anyone to be elected from either of the two major parties who is determined to dismantle even one part of that system.

Eight more days until we see what we've really got.

"Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can."

Ivins' essay "Addressing the National Crisis Means Moving Beyond 'Republican Lite'" is worth re-reading with an eye to how the Democratic leadership handles all the current critical issues.

How would progressives respond if President Bush nominated as “regulatory czar” a person who:

– Once called for changing the Clean Air Act to require a balancing of costs and benefits in setting national clean air standards – a fundamental weakening long sought by big polluters who believe it would help them resist cleanup;

– Urged the federal government to devalue senior citizens in calculating the benefits of federal regulations because “A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people.” This is a concept dubbed the “senior death discount,” and that environmentalists forced EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman to renounce in 2003;

– Argued that it “might be better” to help future generations deal with global warming by “including approaches that make posterity richer and better able to adapt” than by “reducing emissions.”

– Even raised questions about the value of cleaning up Love Canal, reducing arsenic in drinking water and using child restraints in automobiles?

Progressives would’ve screamed, of course. But what will they do now that President-elect Obama appears poised to nominate Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein to head the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)?

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/01/10/...

for Director of National Intelligence.
As reported by Democracy Now, when genocidal monsters in the
Indonesian military were committing massacres in East Timor, Admiral
Blair DEFIED his orders to get them to stop, and instead gave them
encouragement to continue. He then lied to Congress about it all.
http://www.usalone.com/reject_blair.php

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/9/did_obam...

First, creating any new justice process means explicitly that our justice system is not "Justice for All" and that "parallel" means "Double Standard"... A thoroughly Corrupt Concept of meaning of the Justice itself. On this point we can only hope Obama's strategists recognize the crucial importance of Executive Authority.

Now to the real Trojan Horse:

It may not be obvious, but the deliberate sabotage of The United States of America is being executed before our eyes. While the Guantanamo miscarriage of justice, or, "War Crimes" there are important, American citizens must step back and look at the larger picture so as to realize any unity or substantive change.

Look at how the news cycles jump from one massive international offense to another, Bankster-Bailout with exactly ZERO help to actual housing occupants but lots of cannibalistic Consolidations, Iraq and Afghan Conflicts Flailing mixed with major Energy Deals, President/Vice President openly admitting War Crimes and massive violations of Federal Laws, Treason, Simultaneous Attacks on Environment, Land Management, Workers Rights, Species Protections and Science, SEC cases being dismissed, Food-Tainting, Toy-Tainting, Bird Flu and other "Bio-Threats", Over-Classification/State Secrets/Executive Privilege, Losing Emails/Data/Accountability throughout federal agencies, and then there's the MIA Congress, or should we say, Military-Industrial-Congress who joined Israel in advance of Obama's swearing in by sanctioning a Palestinian Genocide and attempting that all-too-clear desire of the PNAC-backed Bushies to commence WWIII while they still have their finger on the button.

Smart people make mistakes, criminals make tons of them. The Borderless-Billionaires behind each and every one of the above noted travesties do not "need" a democratic America, it in fact dilutes their power when it's run properly. They don't need the voice of the people, they don't need a middle-class, they don't need manufacturing here, they don't need safety-nets, health care, environmental protections or a green revolution, and they certainly do not need US Constitutional Restraint.

Isn't it plain as day that we the people have been divided by the official acts of a tiny elite in our own time that has thrown so many curve-balls at us that it leaves us stuck in a dense soup of stench too deep for us "little powers" to overcome?