The admistration keeps the pictures secret because without them, we can deny what's being done in our name.

Thank you for posting this.

But, some of the pundits told us they were no worse than a fraternity hazing.

Sunshine is supposed to be the best disinfectant - so maybe it's time for Obama to stop blowing sunshine where "the sun don't shine" and instead release the photos and order some investigations!

That's what the photos make me and that's what the people who did this are. But they need to be seen. Sunshine, disinfectant, all that.

What's being suppressed?

I consulted NPR's ombudsman on this one and you are definitely taking sides...

the side of what we used to, when I was a kid, call "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

Also the side of doing the right thing 'cause it's the right thing to do.

Or you could call it the side of decency and humanity.

Or I could 'fess up. It's vengeance and I don't want to wait for it to get cold as space. I'm not Khan. I don't have that kind of patience. Look at what has happened in just ONE of Bush's wars of choice, and I'm only talking KIA:

U.S. Confirmed Deaths
Reported Deaths: 4323
Confirmed Deaths: 4322
Pending Confirmation: 1
DoD Confirmation List

Throw in the dead in Afghanistan, the maimed in both wars, and the literally uncountable hundreds of thousands of people mutilated or murdered as "collateral damage," and you know what?

The atheists really need to be right 'cause if they're wrong and any of the gods care a flip about justice -- let alone holding us to account for not doing unto the least of these our brethren as we knew we should in the name of charity never mind faith -- then yeah, we as a nation are reaping what we let Cheney and his cabal sow. It will get worse, 'cause it should get worse, 'cause we stood around with our mouths open going "duuuuuh" or hollering "USA USA USA" or sat on our damn thumbs instead of all of us together charging Andrews and plucking those worthless lying cowards off Air Force One and forcing them to face their crimes and be justly punished -- although, short of beating them into chili meat right there on the ramp and then locking up the remains so far under a Supermax somewhere you have to shoot them sunlight with a blowgun and beans with a waterhose, I don't know what justice for these scumsucking dirtbags might be.

I'm actually not even picking the fight with NPR -- I'm picking it with the Obama administration.

This was torture -- for all we know it still is torture -- of prisoners of war in American custody, control and care. It's a war crime, plain and simple. Those who ordered it, those who okayed it, those who authorized it, those who defend it -- should not be given a free pass in the name of political expediency, inter-party goodwill, or "civility".

• Investigate.
  Indict.
  Prosecute.
  Convict.
  Punish.

The rule of law applies to everybody, or it doesn't really apply to anybody -- and nobody is above the law. The whole idea of America boils down to that: same law for the rich man as for the poor man. Does it really work like that? Only if you can afford equal lawyers (representation at the bar being equally critical to survival as in the legislature).

NPR gives me the creeping willies, and they're the nearest thing to not right wingnut in the news in this country right now (how damn scary is *that*?) -- but you're right.

They fall all over themselves not to admit that the exact same treatment of detainees by US GIs (and/or contractors) which they call "torture" when it's done by Iran or Israel isn't just "enhanced interrogation" when it's done at the order of Cheney/Bush & Co.

Lambert: Irony is for the young. I want to *live* to *see* Cheney and Bush and that whole tribe of ... scumsucking dirtbags ... get what they deserve. So yeah, we need to get on this pronto.