Poli-Sci 101

So the Gitmo Papers are out - and while they caused barely a ripple in the news cycle - what with the Royal Wedding coming up and all - it's interesting to reflect that everything some of us learned in American History, high school civics classes, Poli-Sci classes in university and Con Law in law school went right out the window at the first opportunity:

Innocent men were picked up on the basis of scant or nonexistent evidence and subjected to lengthy detention and often to abuse and torture. Some people were released who later acted against the United States. Inmates who committed suicide were regarded only as a public relations problem. There are seriously dangerous prisoners at Guantánamo who cannot be released but may never get a real trial because the evidence is so tainted.

While Mr. Obama did stop the torture and perhaps (we think? we hope?) the renditions, he didn't put an end for once and for all to the enduring blight - the existence of Guantanamo - on everything we were supposed to stand for.

Worse, he let the bastards who definitely knew better - the lawyers - get away with it. And . . . not only did they get away with it, they flourished.

Not to put to fine a point on it, here is the previous administration's chief lawyer's vision of executive power. Here is why this vision as articulated is really just another misdirection not to be taken remotely seriously, assuming of course anyone has cared enough to pay attention.

So - off to the liquour store I go.