Secretary Gates: U.S. 'torture memos' could not be kept secret

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

From a democratic point of view - the parliamentary system is quite dodgy to be honest. It puts all the power in the hands of elected officials, which means that the voting public are dependent on the benevolence of the people they elect not to abuse their power.

But I wouldn't confuse the role of the supreme court with what goes on in civil trials - the two have little to do with each other. The role of the SC is clearly defined - in relation to the founding principles of the country, their interpretation of the law is less clearly defined. Naturally. If nothing else it puts a great burden of scrutiny on prospective candidates (as it should) and why George Bush's toady Harriet Myers was kicked to the curb.

Of course you're going to get a degree of personal bias - that can't really be avoided. The judges are only human after all.

[NickD 203]

I find that all the legal twisting arguments about what constitutes torture are pretty distasteful to be honest - and not far removed from the sort of wrangling that went on when Clinton was claiming that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman", when it was suggested that the term "sexual relations" only applied to intercourse.

Who gives a rats behind on Clintons' sex life anyway, was far more interested in his illegal campaign funds from the Chinese that led to todays disaster. But they (the republicans) let that go. Can only assume the republicans were also getting a bunch of money from the Chinese, but apparently, not those #$%@ jobs.

Cat was already let out of the bag a couple or more years ago on torture, but now it's official. HBO had a rather gruesome special on torture over a year ago, with the actual victims telling their story. Didn't hear anyone contradicting this program at the time.

We also or at least had, one of the very strictest military in the world, very strict rules of engagement, needed a couple of bullet holes in you before firing back, no raping, not even playing around, no spoils of war, just a well below minimum wage paycheck and the honor to serve your country. But I see they are giving food stamps now to our military personnel. Would have helped a lot back then. With the nature of our leaders, feel we are a very hypocritical nation.