Thursday, June 10, 2004

Torture II

Let me also add that there is an important distinction between the question of whether or not torture is a "good" or "bad" thing conceptually and the legality of its implementation and the appropriateness of Justice Department personnel putting out memos explaining the best way for the administration to get away with clearly violating the law. Yglesias illustrates that basic point here, and Eric Muller has more.


...and, as Digby says,

These people who set about legalizing inhumane behavior on behalf of a president on whom they confer absolute power to order it at will are as shallow and evil as the cliché spouting president who demanded it. The slippery slope to totalitarianism started in a conference room where coffee and donuts and microsoft power point presentations on torture and pain were on the agenda one morning.