So, if this is just another of Obama's chess moves.....

[NRaleighLiberal]

it is some form of chess that is pretty unusual. Again, he has proven to make the right decisions again and again - but something just doesn't smell right about the whole torture memo/what said what when/photo release pullback business.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. So what do you suppose his secret motive is?

A heart-felt crush on Dick Cheney?

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. The only thing I can think of is his way of using public opinion to exert pressure

and open up spaces politically.

[Taverner]

2. As for me I think they showed him "the film"

Go and listen to Bill Hicks if you have any questions about what I'm talking about

[EOTE]

8. I think he was showed that film on January 20th.

No way they'd let him go this long without seeing it. And btw, I don't know if the "film" is actually a film, or perhaps it's just the quiet meeting in a darkened room. Maybe something a hell of a lot more complicated, who knows? But what matters is that NO President is able to govern without their influence, however strong that might be. I don't know who exactly they are, but to pretend they don't exist would be foolish.

[Taverner]

12. Well yeah, "The Film" is a metaphor

Just the idea that those who are really in charge speak with the President

And they remind him what can happen

Perhaps they are a paper tiger? Perhaps not? That's just it - the President doesn't know.

Or maybe he does...

[FiveGoodMen]

11. Seemed a little tinfoily when Bill said it, but not anymore.

[EOTE]

14. Seriously.

Maybe even just 10 years ago I would have thought talk like that to be super paranoid nonsense. Now it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Mr. Hicks was well ahead of his time.

[Taverner]

15. Bill Hicks was an Atheist (or at least Agnostic) Prophet

That's all I gotta say

[Frustratedlady]

4. He may be waiting for the groundswell, demanding they be shown..

Personally, I won't look at them as I can't stand to see such awful evidence, whether it be our country, or a murder down the street. I have enough anger about what was done in our name, I don't need more proof.

What were all these photos used for? To give Cheney, The Kid and Rummy their jollies?

[malaise]

6. Remember Scooter's novel

about the woman in the cage with a bear.

[Pyrzqxgl]

19. The reason Obama won't release them is because of the GOP cum stains on them.

[mckara]

5. When the Military Tells the CinC His Decision Would Endanger Troops in the Field

Presidents take their advice and side with the troops.

I, too, believe we should expose everything we know about Cheney's torture program.

Obama, on the other hand, has responsibility for the lives of our military personnel around the world.

[ThomCat]

7. "Again, he has proven to make the right decisions again and again"

Just not on LGBT rights, free trade, banking and finance, ending the wars, closing Guantanamo, closing the "secret" CIA prisons, and Ending torture (which the red cross and amnesty international says is still happening on his watch). That's just off the top of my head at the moment.

He has made some right choices on the environment, but only partially. Baby steps so far with no real results or impact.

He has made the right choices on restoring support for science in government offices. But no hiring yet. The budget is all going to banks and the military, so there is no money to rehire the scientists he supports so much.

He has made the right choices in supporting one union so far, but that support didn't come with any real signs of support. It was just a verbal slap on the back. Not like the support his corporate buddies get that have policy and money behind it.

He has made the right choice to start talking about health care, but he is making the wrong choice in keeping insurance companies at the heart of it even though they are the bulk of the problem.

So, as I see it, he's batting someplace around 10%. That's 10% better than Bush, and better than McCain would have done. But it's still only 10%

I was hoping for a president would be making right decisions at least someplace in the 50% range. :(

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Some good points there. I guess that after Bush, 10% seems like 1000%.

[AndyA]

20. I think that's probably it.

Bush took us down to such low levels of disparity, anything higher up the scale, even if still a negative, is better than what we've had.

Pathetic that we're expected to settle for so little, when the people responsible seem to be doing awfully well. :(

[ThomWV]

10. Chess moves? WTF? Looks more like ineptitude to me

[Zen Democrat]

13. Here's hoping that the ultimate goal is to charge Cheney with Coup d'etat --

which would encompass the torture, but include everything else too. I don't think Obama wants to rush into a torture prosecution that the Dicks apparently want to have. They certainly don't want to stand trial for treason and lying to wage war for profit. They are guilty of so much, why exclude anything at this point, or do it piecemeal which is to their benefit. This doesn't have to be done until all the facts are in and on the table -- after the economy has recovered and health care has passed.

I don't Obama will give them a pass at all. He knows what they did, tried to do, and are still doing. I'll not sell Obama short -- ever.

[ThomCat]

17. Who are you calling Dicks for wanting torture prosecuted?

I hope you're not referring to other DUers who don't share your blind faith. x(

That would be blatantly against DU rules.

[rucky]

16. the only guess I can wager is...

he doesn't want to prejudice an ongoing investigation with a premature release?

I'm pretty sure FOIA does not apply to investigations in progress. I've tried to get materials released pre-trial before, and was told to wait until trial - when it becomes public.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. Time is on his side

As far as the photos are concerned, I personally don't care. Another photo of prisoner abuse cannot make me more outraged about the use of torture than I was when the Abu Ghraib scandal was first exposed. Neither would photographic evidence by itself prove that the orders for torture came from high level authority, i.e., Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, as opposed to being just a bunch of poorly trained and miscast national guardsmen playing a lethal version of a frat prank, at least in their own minds.

So, would it convince anybody else? The willfully ignorant will still follow the pied pipers of willful ignornace -- Limbaugh, Hannity and the other usual suspects -- and believe what they want.

Also, there is a difference between releasing the photos now and releasing them a year or two ago. It would have been more urgent then as a device to increase outrage so that more momentum could build to cut off funding for the Iraq war and to impeach and remove from office the war criminals. Today, there is a commitment to withdraw from Iraq by a certain date, the war criminals are out of office, investigations are commencing, the justice department is no longer controlled by unqualified political hacks loyal to Bush and Rove and more facts are out. Most important, the torture program has been terminated and Guantánamo is being closed. We know for a fact now that justice department memos justifying torture were dishonest, sloppy works of legal scholarship designed to give the policymakers legal cover to institute a Spanish Inquisition Lite (hey, they didn't resort to the rack or the iron maiden). The people who wrote those memos are going to be disbarred and should be prosecuted along with those who approved, designed and implemented the torture program.

[Jack Rabbit]

22. Addendum

What Obama may be trying to do is to make the courts tell him what to do. That would deprive the torture apologists of the argument that Obama and Holder are just criminalizing policy differences. It would establish, once and for all, that waterboarding is torture, that torture is illegal and that a reasonable person would know that know that and that nothing Cheney said then or says now or that shysters like John Yoo or Jay Bybee wrote while at the OLC changed that. Waterboarding is, has always been and will always be torture; torture, in any and all circumstances, is, has always been and will always be a crime against humanity, not because Obama says so, but because federal courts say so.

That's the chess game Obama seems to be playing.

For those wondering, live from St. Louis, the US Championship:

Nakamura-Akobian: White (Nakamura) is two pawns to the good after 33 moves; JR expects Akobian to resign soon.
ON EDIT
Nakamura 1-0 Akobian

Shulman-Onishuk: White (Shulman) slightly better after 32 moves; JR expects this one to go on for a while.

Shulman and Akobian started today's seventh round tied for the lead.

[The Magistrate]

23. Very True, Old Friend

Regarding the photographs, two points seem worth making.

One is that it is of benefit to have any matter of disclosure thoroughly litigated, to set precedents for the future. the argument being made does not seem very good to me as a question of law, and if it is struck down by the courts, will no longer be available in future at any level.

The second is that a fresh burst of anger in the Moslem world would be inconvenient at present, particularly in Pakistan where public opinion has turned somewhat against Taliban excesses, and the army is at last beginning a serious campaign in the Swat valley. This is a matter of great importance.

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Thank you, sir

I value your opinion and input.

[Champion Jack]

21. I'm more than willing to let things play out...

He's doing pretty good so far without all the second guessing and monday morning quarterbacks.