Twain is one of my favorite writers! When I was in college, I took a semester-long course just on Twain. Bliss. BTW, Mark Twain was supposedly the first author to submit a typewritten manuscript (Life on the Mississippi - http://www.ebook-search-queen.com/ebook/Life/Life%20on%20the%20Mississip... ) to a publisher? Although he didn't type it himself--one of his hired lackeys typed it from his handwritten manuscript. But he was one of those enthusiastic "early adopters." Today, he would have been lining up for an iPhone.

It's a sad statement that this video is true.

Once upon a time a great leader was challenged to torture. He stood up and told the world that the United States would never torture, and it didn't matter if torture worked. We simply would take the high ground, and lead the world to greater civilization. He also lectured the world that torture didn't work, as all experts agree, but made it clear that was NOT the reason we would abstain.

This great leader was Harry Truman.

A few years later a great general was challenged to torture. His response was slightly different. He stated that for religious reasons the United States could never torture. Torture was the last resort of distators and other monsters. He also mentioned that torture didn't work, but took the same high ground - even if it did work it was barbaric. He was a great general. He had fought in many battles, facing an enemy who tortured. Troops under his command had been tortured. He refused to respond in kind. As leader of the troops he told his men that they may face torture, and he hoped they were strong enough to take it, and Christian enough to forgive their torturers. He said that he would send them into battle knowing they might be tortured, but with a clean heart, btcause there was one thing he would never under any conditions do to his men. General Ike Eisenhower promised his men that they would never have to face their family, their nation, or their God and try to explain why they had tortured another human being. They could always stand tall and honestly claim that Americans were different, honor meant more than hardship, and we would never, ever, under any conditions lower ourselves to the detestably inhuman and unChristian depths of moral depravity required to torture another human being.

I imagine Ike turned in his grave when those violaters of the US Constitution, President Cheney and W, and their ethics-free amoral, yes, EVIL, depraved administration approved dragging the good name and honor of the US Armed forces through the mud of torturing Muslims, many of whom were KNOWN to be innocent non combatants.

Sheesh, I read through these comments and see nothing but the two extremes.

"(Cue high-pitched screeching) It's only been a month! Give him some **time**!!!"

No, no, no, a thousand times **NO**. It doesn't matter how long or short it has been, things that are wrong are still wrong. The new DoJ attorney said quite explicitly that they are still using Bush legal doctrines to challenge the lawsuits of torture victims and black-site inmates. This kind of secretive end-run around the justice system has already been going on for six or seven years, and we've been criticizing it that whole time. Are you suddenly going to start tolerating it just because the President doing this is one of our people now?

Anyway, it is very important to keep all politicians' feet to the fire and make sure they don't forget who elected them. Otherwise, they have the tendency to begin ignoring their campaign promises and such. If you don't watch Obama like a hawk merely because he isn't a member of the GOP, you are failing in your duty as citizens (and making the same mistake so many republicans made over the past 8 years).

And then there's the other side:

"(Cue Beavis&Butthead laughter) So much for change, you morons who didn't vote for Bush the Third!"

Yawn. Aside from the amusing prospect of your tacit admission that Bush was a criminal and a failure, Obama isn't there yet. He hasn't started any wars under false pretenses, outed a covert CIA agent as retaliation, fired US Attorneys for being insufficiently partisan, allowed a major city to be drowned by a hurricane, etc. And more importantly, he's already started working on the economy despite your obstructionism and, this one trouble spot not withstanding, has already rolled back Bush's massive illegal black project of torture and extreme rendition.

----

Let's try to stop being blindly partisan about this (I know, I'm asking a lot, particularly of the Bush trolls). We can't ignore this repeat of Bush-style legal tactics just because it is Obama doing it rather than Bush. We also shouldn't ignore that he's already done a lot of good. We need to give him room to work, but we also need to watch him like hawks to make sure he does the right thing, and we need to make ourselves heard when he does something wrong. The last 8 years should have proven to each of us the danger of blind trust in the White House.

People need to lighten up. First of Obama has only been in office a little over a month.Rome was not built in a day! I will say, he has done more in 1 month, than Bush has ever done in 8yrs.
As far as the Bush Doctorin, Until Obama comes out with his plans, I will not believe anything, as there are too many naysayers, and people who are looking for anything to blame him for, and hope that he fails. He has alot on his plate with our enconomy, so when it comes time for him to discuss this issue, I REFUSE TO LISTEN TO ANYTHING THE MEDIA OR NAYSAYERS HAVE TO SAY. At this point it is all talk. For all the naysayers out there, I wish you all would of put this much effort, into the Bush Admin, because if you did, we would not be in this mess, you all took your eyes off Bush for 8yrs, and gave him card blanc to "WHATEVER" he wanted to do, with no questions asked! Kudos to Obama for "TRYING" to clean up after the mess Bush left him, and this country with! Where is the patriotisum in this country?? Give the guy a break!!

First off the man whom I didn't vote for has been in office all of a month if that long. Now idiots are judging on every turn since Bush made the public hyper sensitive critics who know nothing of governing or concessions that have to be made for the common good. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good people. Things are changing and the world sees it but you act like the man has a magic wand to wave and poof the world is better.

First off what are all of the facts behind this matter. You have simply created a cartoon as you have in the past showing your opinion and hoping to get humor out of the issue. This issue is too complex to judge without all of the facts. I would like to try to get a clear understanding of why they are taking this action before I throw them under the Bus. I say that as a person who did not vote for OBAMA.

I will never vote again after hearing this.

Has it ever occoured to you that maybe, just maybe that totureing one of those dipshits on the island down there might just have kept another jetliner from flying up your ass? Its not right to do it but neither is killing a lot of innocent people. You idiot

I have to admit I am not always the biggest fan of your work. But today I take off my hat to you, and have to say you've really earned my respect (not that this means much!). By criticizing Obama, First you show that you are consistent in your beliefs, no matter who is on the other side of them – and that is rare and admirable. Secondly, as much as I like our new president personally, and what it means to us as a nation that he even is a president, I worry about the mindless acceptance of anything he does by the masses. In today's climate, he CANNOT be criticized, and if he is it must be because the critic is racially prejudiced or a right-wing extremist (so the thought goes). And having any man (or woman), even a good man, with that kind of power, is very, very dangerous to a nation and to the world.

John Mignon, S.F., CA.

do you flush the evidence or do you leave it around for others to smell... a dirty business for sure..

- StupidPeopleTrick

What a mess. I'm not really sure how to clean all this up, myself. Put a stop to it and reveal it all? With all the resulting legal damage and cases dismissed and so on?

Or just stop it now and sweep it all under the rug and forget about it, declaring it history?

Seems Obama has chosen Option 2 because option 1 would make us look even worse.

Honeymoon is over, I guess.

Yeah, "Change we can believe in". Uh-huh. Right. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it would seem. The only thing that really changed from Presidency #43 to Presidency #44 is the puppet put in there to be "the face" of the Executive Branch.

What has really changed though? Nothing -- and nothing will! The stuff made secret, remains secret. The power of the government remains concentrated in a few hands. Accountability is still non-existent.

So, huzzah! We have ourselves a new president! You'll excuse me if I don't jump for joy or pass out in rapture at the prospect of real Government reform.

(Sigh!) 'Seems that change cannot be radical and done overnight!

Whew! New animation is up, and we're running a new server, thanks to my favorite tech whiz, Pete. Hope our days of tech trouble and glitchy site are rapidly fading.

-Mark