Reply #22: Addendum

[Jack Rabbit]

What Obama may be trying to do is to make the courts tell him what to do. That would deprive the torture apologists of the argument that Obama and Holder are just criminalizing policy differences. It would establish, once and for all, that waterboarding is torture, that torture is illegal and that a reasonable person would know that know that and that nothing Cheney said then or says now or that shysters like John Yoo or Jay Bybee wrote while at the OLC changed that. Waterboarding is, has always been and will always be torture; torture, in any and all circumstances, is, has always been and will always be a crime against humanity, not because Obama says so, but because federal courts say so.

That's the chess game Obama seems to be playing.

For those wondering, live from St. Louis, the US Championship:

Nakamura-Akobian: White (Nakamura) is two pawns to the good after 33 moves; JR expects Akobian to resign soon.
ON EDIT
Nakamura 1-0 Akobian

Shulman-Onishuk: White (Shulman) slightly better after 32 moves; JR expects this one to go on for a while.

Shulman and Akobian started today's seventh round tied for the lead.