Obama Now Open to Theoretical Torture Investigations

As long as they're bipartisan! (lolsob)

Mr. Obama, who has been saying that the nation should look ahead rather than focusing on the past, said he is "not suggesting" that a commission [to investigate the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects] be established.

But in response to questions from reporters in the Oval Office, he said, "if and when there needs to be a further accounting," he hoped that Congress would examine ways to obtain one "in a bipartisan fashion," from people who are independent and therefore can build credibility with the public.

Let me just take a moment here to point out that the Republican Party has no credibility with the public on the issue of torture at the moment, so the general public—last seen voting in a Democratic Congressional majority and Democratic President with a sweeping mandate—doesn't give a shit about a bipartisan investigation. The only people who will raise a fuss about it are idiot conservatives, who would immediately renounce as a "real conservative" and denounce as a traitor any Republican who agrees to participate in such an investigation, anyway. So, yet again, we're back to bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake, and I say once more: Fuck 'em.

Mr. Obama said once again that he does not favor prosecuting C.I.A. operatives who used interrogation techniques that he has since banned. But as for lawyers or others who drew up the former policies allowing such techniques, he said it would be up to his attorney general to decide what to do, adding, "I don't want to prejudge that."

You know, that's a funny thing, because I seem to recall a presidential candidate named Barack Obama who took a pretty strong stand against torture and vowed to hold accountable the people who engaged in it. But I guess "taking an ethical position" is just something in which one can't afford to recklessly engage once one becomes president, lest he be accused of prejudice.

Against war criminals.