The difference between Democrats and Republicans is finally clear.  The former rejects the rule of law, the latter will honor it, at least to a point.  The former rejects human decency, the latter respects it.  The former believes in government through lies, the latter is vastly more willing to endorse honesty and openness to the American people.  How far these differences will be honored remains to be seen, but President Obama and Holder have already moved far ahead of the administration of thugs they replaced.

I am relieved, as for a while it seemed President Obama might have bee trying to back down.  When push came to shove, he did the right thing.  Now we will see whether he prosecutes the people responsible for these memos.

Here are examples of Republican  memos that explicitly endorsed torture while Bush and company told the rest of us it was not happening.  They are taken from the memos written by the Republican equivalent of legal experts, memos that have finally been released.  They are fro Steven Bradbury at the White House’s Office of legal Counsel.  Hopefully by the end of the year he will be in prison for a very long time.

1. The Convention Against Torture does not apply
   outside the United States, or anywhere where the US has de fact
   control: hence, it does not apply to CIA “black sites”, which are in
   other countries. Therefore, the CIA can torture people there and not
   have to worry about the law.

1. However, even if the CAT did apply, it only applies
   if the techniques “shock the conscience” in a constitutional sense.
   
   Because the methods are derived from SERE techniques which are part of
   U.S. military training (albeit training for soldiers to resist torture
   by foreign captors), and because the techniques are “carefully limited
   to further the Government’s paramount interest in protecting the Nation
   while avoiding unnecessary harm,” the OLC concludes that they do not
   “shock the conscience.”

UPDATE:  Jeff Greenwald has an important post on the torture memos that I think any American who takes his or her citizenship seriously should read.