It is now acceptable to go on national TV and argue openly for the use of torture as formal US bi-partisan consensus policy.
I went looking to see what I could find in terms of prominent media figures defending the use of torture, and here's what I found.
Most egregious is radio host and (non-practising, I hope) attorney Michael Smerconish who is a regular contributer to Hardball. Here he is in December of 2008:
As suspicious as I am of the motives of the conservatives jumping ship to support Obama (like Powell and Buckley), I am equally suspicious of the Cheney endorsement. Much like Osama Bin Laden's 2004 "endorsement" of John Kerry, Cheney simply has to know how his endorsement would play. So why do it? All I can come up with is simple revenge. Inside, I'll present the evidence.
A U.S. federal judge on Saturday ordered Vice-President Dick Cheney to preserve a wide range of records from his time in office.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is a setback for the Bush administration, which has been pushing for a narrow definition of materials that must be safeguarded under the Presidential Records Act.
Don't celebrate yet, but CREW (who are the plaintiffs) have won the first round in the battle to get the Judicial branch to agree that the Vice-President, is, in fact a member of the executive branch, which is actually what Cheney's defence hinges on here. However, the injunction is an extraordinary measure while the Court considers the matter. Kollar-Kotelly might end up ruling in Cheney's favour, but at least for the time being, Cheney can't fax his records to Shredderville quite so easily.
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