Well, slightly different approach than Bush, but end product of tyranny is still the goal ...

... Here, then, is a man who considers torturing a kid barely past his youth for an alleged crime whose principal result to-date has been an acute case of The Embarrassments, more important, more pressing, and more necessary than the public maintenance of his own image as a moderate reformer and as a conciliator. ...

... He does not delight in cruelty like his predecessor, but is grossly indifferent to it. ...

Obama, the hollow man ...

Just like Torturer Bush, Torturer Obama fires truth sayers ...

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tells the truth (however reluctantly) about the ongoing torture of PFC Manning and Obama and his henchmen show him the door.

Just like Bush, Obama says we don't torture thus establishing himself as a liar in front of the world.

Everyone around Obama must pretend to be as stupid-blind as he is (or as he pretends to be).

State Department spokesman steps down amid flap

Of course, if Hilary Clinton had any integrity she would resign also. But who would expect her to have any more integrity than Obama as she's still working for a man who has step by step established himself as the current Torturer-in-Chief of the United States of America.

Obama is pathetic, pathetic, pathetic ...

... and, as an individual, must be as big a monster as George W. bush.

Obamas is reported as saying:

With respect to Private Manning, I have actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures that have been taken in terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are. I can't go into details about some of their concerns, but some of this has to do with Private Manning's safety as well.

Oh gee, Obama asked the Pentagon and they told him everything is just hunky-dory.

Pathetic.

Quantico becomes Guantanamo ...

Well, why not? After all Obama is Bush's successor in mind and perversity as well as in his place of residence. Instead of closing Guantanamo, as he promised, Obama is bringing Guantanamo to us all.

Glenn Greenwald writes about the latest disgraceful conduct by US authorities perpetuated on Manning.

UPDATE II: Lt. Col. David Coombs, Manning's counsel, just posted the following:

Last night, PFC Manning was inexplicably stripped of all clothing by the Quantico Brig. He remained in his cell, naked, for the next seven hours. At 5:00 a.m., the Brig sounded the wake-up call for the detainees. At this point, PFC Manning was forced to stand naked at the front of his cell.

The Duty Brig Supervisor (DBS) arrived shortly after 5:00 a.m. When he arrived, PFC Manning was called to attention. The DBS walked through the facility to conduct his detainee count. Afterwards, PFC Manning was told to sit on his bed. About ten minutes later, a guard came to his cell to return his clothing.

This type of degrading treatment is inexcusable and without justification. It is an embarrassment to our military justice system and should not be tolerated. PFC Manning has been told that the same thing will happen to him again tonight. No other detainee at the Brig is forced to endure this type of isolation and humiliation.

I'm already disgusted anticipating the Obama loyalists and right-wing fanatics who will jointly defend this.

I think I'll go vomit ...

Exactly ...

Please Mr. President, don't spew any more nonsense about principles and the rule of law, OK? You are enabling torture, and have fallen so far down the chasm from your campaign rhetoric, that you'll soon be bumping into your predecessor as you hit bottom.

Nothing good ...

... That's what is 'says' about us!

... the thesis of the article is that electric torture devices only become popular in democratic societies where police are constrained in how much cruelty they can inflict. What exactly does that say about us?

-- Shocking Reflections by digby

And we call ourselves civilized? ...

... Most Americans like torture. They're entertained by it. But at least someone is making a record. Sometimes that's all you can do.

Bush/Cheney (among others) caused this. Obama (and many Dems) choose to continue it.

Those who torture should be prosecuted. Those who support torture should be treated with derision, demonized, ostracized.

But the United States of America led by that great hope, Barack Obama, does the opposite.

Digby gives up ...

... the authoritarian torturers win.

Still torturing ...

In my mind this makes Obama a complete failure as a human being:

The Status of Torture in Obama's America

... The President began with a big series of presidential orders that supposedly ended the Bush administration's policy of torturing prisoners, and shut down the CIA's black site prisons.

But as we know now, not all the black site prisons were shut down. Nor was the torture ended. Whether its beatings and forced-feedings at Guantanamo, or the kinds of torture described at Bagram, it's obvious that torture has not been rooted out of U.S. military-intelligence operations. In fact, by way of the Obama administration's recent approval of the Bush-era Army Field Manual on interrogations, with its infamous Appendix M, which allows for much of the kind of torture practiced at Bagram, the White House has institutionalized a level of torture that was introduced by the previous administration, but which has been studied and devised over the last fifty or sixty years.

Obama may sound more reasonable than Bush the Lesser, but ...

... Obama's unconstitutional imprisonment and kidnapping policies for anyone his administration doesn't like is the same. Maybe, perhaps they aren't torturing them. But secrecy and injustice lead to lies, so who knows. And any nation that regularly tortures its own citizens with Tasers is hardly to be believed on this issue.

As Glenn Greenwald writes:

Does that remotely sound like a "justice system"? If you're accused of being a Terrorist, there's not one set procedure used to determine your guilt; instead, the Government has a roving bazaar of various processes which it, in its sole discretion, picks for you based on ensuring that it will win. Even worse, Holder repeatedly assured Senators that the administration would continue to imprison 9/11 defendants even in the very unlikely case that they were acquitted, citing what they previously suggested was their Orwellian authority of so-called "post-acquittal detention powers." Is there any better definition of a "show trial" than one in which the defendant has no chance of ever being released even if acquitted, because the Government will simply thereafter assert the power to hold him indefinitely without charges?

and

The administration should have the courage of its convictions and defend jury trials as a linchpin of American justice, which would entail giving them to all Terrorism suspects not captured on any battlefield. But by refusing to do so -- by exhibiting the very cowardice of which Holder accused Republicans, i.e. denying Terrorism suspects a trial -- the administration has no cogent argument to make in its own defense. It's just another case of the administration wanting to bask in the rhetorical glory of "the rule of law" while simultaneously trampling on it for petty political convenience.

That is IF this administration has convictions. This Democratic Administration has become Republican Lite. Now that's really scary ...

The Republicans at least have a goal, a creed. Perpetual war, perpetual dominance of the world, ensuring the 'haves' have all and the 'have-nots' are effectually slaves. It's very direct, very simple minded. What you say today only applies to today. Justice is a word like any other.

Republican Lite, one the other hand, is an attempt to appease. A cowardly approach with no principals behind it that can be defended.

Is Obama trying to be Solomon? Now that the Thugs have demanded that he split the baby, and he's actually tried, what is he going to do next? I think the lesson of Solomon and the baby is one that the Thugs understand and Obama does not. Solomon wished to identify the real mother. Obama's actions are more like negotiating with the fake mother and pushing the real mother out of the way.

The UK just like the US, don't expect any help from them ...

British Government refuses to help 'torture flight' victim

Britain says it will not help Binyam Mohammed - who is facing trial by US authorities - because it has "no obligation under international law" to provide information that might prevent someone being convicted outside the UK on evidence obtained through torture.

Certainly not many still expect help, or even lawfulness, from the US anymore.

"I was absolutely stunned -- it changed my whole world view in an instant -- to be told that London knew [the intelligence] coming from torture, that it was not illegal because our legal advisers had decided that under the United Nations convention against torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture as long as we didn't do the torture ourselves," Murray said. [link to this quote no longer active, came from C&L post: Former UK Ambassador: US Sent Detainees to Uzbekistan for Torture ]

Lawlessness has a way of escalating [just look at the Taser's progress through US Lawless enforcement]. Just think if Bush the Lesser hadn't wanted torture closer to home we wouldn't have Guantanamo and we could go on pretending that torture by proxy is not torture.

Do you think you have rights protected by the US Constitution? ...

Think again.

Yesterday, the Second Circuit -- by a vote of 7-4 -- agreed with the government and dismissed Arar's case in its entirety. It held that even if the government violated Arar's Constitutional rights as well as statutes banning participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him.

If the person elected as President under the US Constitution says he doesn't want your 'rights' protected because he's got a secret, seven judges agree that though you may have rights they will not deign to inquire into them because the President claims he has a secret. The President does not want you bothering him any further with all that US Constitution crap. The only part of the US Constitution that matters is any part that favors him.

After all it's only a piece of paper, why not cut and paste as his little secret heart desires ...

The article, by Glenn Greenwald, continues:

I want to add one principal point to all of this. This is precisely how the character of a country becomes fundamentally degraded when it becomes a state in permanent war. So continuous are the inhumane and brutal acts of government leaders that the citizens completely lose the capacity for moral outrage and horror. The permanent claims of existential threats from an endless array of enemies means that secrecy is paramount, accountability is deemed a luxury, and National Security trumps every other consideration -- even including basic liberties and the rule of law. Worst of all, the President takes on the attributes of a protector-deity who can and must never be questioned lest we prevent him from keeping us safe.

This is exactly why I find so objectionable and dangerous the ongoing embrace by the Obama administration of these same secrecy and immunity weapons. Obama had nothing to do with the Arar case -- all the conduct, and even the legal briefing, occurred before he was President -- but he has taken numerous steps to further institutionalize the core injustice ...

Obama has taken up the cause of that Monster, Bush the Inferior (not to mention that other Monster, Cheney the Deranged). Sorry, Dems, but that makes Obama a monster. He can parade his cute family all he wants. They do not prevent his monsterhood. Obama is accountable for his own actions and he has chosen to follow Bush's path. In Heaven's Name, WHY?

Today's quote ...

Over time Americans will learn that in order to maintain their liberty, they must instantly comply with everything those in authority tell them to do. The police will follow the edicts of their civilian leaders, who sanction torture on many different levels "to keep the people safe." The population will learn eventually that they will automatically be shocked with electricity if they fail to comply and over time they will be conditioned to fall in line regardless of their constitutional right to speak or resist unwarranted intrusion. And then we will truly be free.

-- Following Orders by digby, Hullabaloo

Kidnapping of others just hunky-dory with Obama, just like with Bush ...

The ACLU reports:

Rendition Program to Continue Under Obama’s Watch

On Monday, the Obama administration made the disappointing announcement that it would continue the Bush administration practice rendition -- the practice of kidnapping individuals suspected of terrorism and rendering them to other countries to be detained or interrogated -- but that it will monitor all cases to ensure that suspects are not mistreated. [excerpted from a newsletter from the ACLU]

Kidnapping is not mistreatment? How nuts has our country become? Do we think it is OK for other countries to kidnap our citizens? I don't think so.

Maybe there's some kind of viral infection in the White House attacking the residents. Obama seems more and more like Bush. Though Obama is no where as ignorant as Bush, he appears to be attempting to compete with Bush's stupidities. A very sad showing is our 'change' President. Evidently he is so owned by the Corporate Robber Barons that he will prostitute himself even to the point of stupidity.

Barack Obama assumes the anti-Constitutionalist's George W Bush mantle ...

Obama becomes Bush in the really critical matters of disregarding human rights, the US Constitution, justice and the law.

And he seems to think --or at least wants us believe-- that he's thinking "of the long term."

Does he think he can put the Constitution and the Rule of Law back together just prior to when he leaves office?

Did Cheney leave a virus in the White House that is dissolving Obama's brain cells?

Sergeant Schultz and Condoleeza Rice ...

Remember Sergeant Schultz in Hogan's Heroes? Tell me that our former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice doesn't sound just like him: I see n-n-n-nuuuthink. I see n-n-n-nuuuthink. N-n-n-nuuuthink.

Student: Okay. Is waterboarding torture in your opinion?

Rice: I just said, the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.

Of course, Rice doesn't project Shultzies bufoonery. And Rice was in a position to make a real difference while Schultz was a guard that tried to avoid all trouble.

How so very Russian of them ...

From digby:

All day I've been seeing torture apologists all over TV frantically trying to block this particular line of inquiry. They know that it's potentially the most explosive revelation of all. If the White House ordered torture to try to get the prisoners to falsely confess to links between al Qaeda and Iraq ... well all bets are off.

'Pears Bushie-baby got a real good look at the ol' USSR's soul through Putin's eyes [...and enjoyed finding their true connection].

Rahm Emanuel believes in obstruction of justice ...

... and is at least amenable to torturing people. Else why would he not only tell

[ ] George Stephanopoulos of ABC's This Week that no field officers should be prosecuted over breaking the law when it comes to torturing prisoners, but [take] it a step beyond and [proclaim] that even the lowlife John Yoos and Jay Bybees shouldn't face any consequences for their actions.

Rahm Emanuel should be fired.

Releasing the latest torture memos was the right thing for Obama to do. It was a relief that he finally made that decision. But it's not enough. Obama's look forward spiel applies to some of the worst crimes that US government officials have ever committed. What Obama is saying is there will be no laws that those running the government can't break (specially if they are Republican). Even if Obama's administration keeps its word and does not torture Obama has made the decision to leave torture available to future administrations. I do not believe that Obama doesn't understand this.

First Obama should get all those who supported or participated in torture out of the government. Second, he should support the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into what crimes have been committed and pursue prosecution of those involved starting at the top.

It's very disappointing that Obama is keeping torture on the table for the US. Disappointing, humiliating, stupid ...

Pretty picture ...

Larisa Alexandrovna at at-Largely writes:

"The role of government in the modern era has become rather clear to me: it acts as a broker for the transfer of public money to private hands. There is no actual governing."

Certainly, Obama-baby is proving her point. So far Obama has lied about most things he professed that he would do or that he believed in and for the rest he has Rahm Emanuel to ensure that his fake proposals to Congress get sabotaged. Being personally less offensive than Torturer Bush doesn't make Obama a good-guy by default, no matter how much one may wish it so. Obama may not have taken up the torture-banner completely yet but he is in the process, or at least very close, to doing so. Since open-government Obama appears to relish secrecy almost as much as Bush did, it's possible that Obama has already done so.

Not much hope so far ...

Say it ain't so ..

Was Binyam Mohamed brutalized at Guantanamo in the last month?

There's no reason to believe this report is not true. The US has no credibility left in these matters. Obama has to do more than tweak the edges of the US's illegal and immoral behavior.

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Today's QUOTES:

Out with the Bush World, In with the Obama World. "Anonymous sources, secret meetings, and zero tranparency. Change we can believe in?" --Comment by JClausen to post 'Social Security: White House Triangulates Against Pete Peterson' by Jane Hamsher, firedoglake.com "If we're embarking on a new effort to convince the public that government can work, you don't start by bragging about starving it of resources. You can't win a fight with Republicans about cutting taxes. It's a race to the bottom and the losers are the least of society." --Giving Away The Tax Argument by dday, Hullabaloo

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