Darth Vader's Memoirs . . .

Darth, himself.

GETTING AWAY WITH TORTURE, the title of Dahlia Lithwick's article in Slate, commenting on the publication of Dick Cheney's memoir, "In My Time", seems to be a fair summation of Dick's adventures to date, unless, of course, some brave soul in the US gov't. decides to give it a try.

My focus is what Cheney's books tells us about the rule of law in America. As Glenn Greenwald puts it:

Less than three years ago, Dick Cheney was presiding over policies that left hundreds of thousands of innocent people dead from a war of aggression, constructed a worldwide torture regime, and spied on thousands of Americans without the warrants required by law, all of which resulted in his leaving office as one of the most reviled political figures in decades. But thanks to the decision to block all legal investigations into his chronic criminality, those matters have been relegated to mere pedestrian partisan disputes, and Cheney is thus now preparing to be feted—and further enriched—as a Wise and Serious Statesman ...

Implicit in Greenwald's commentary is that the Obama administration is responsible for Cheney's continued legitimacy in the debate about torture, as well as the legitimacy of the debate itself. By deciding to repudiate torture while doing everything in its power to protect the torturers, the Obama administration has succeeded in elevating not only Cheney but the idea that, in America, some torturers are too important to be punished.

Rule of law, what a great idea. We should try it here, too, what with Dalton and the un-published, un-Gazetted secret amendment to the Public Works Act, plus Stevie's contempt for Parliament and anything Stevie doesn't like.