How Obama Can Help Redeem the White House

I thought this was a terrific article by Amy Goodman!! What a beautiful tribute to those tortured slaves. The White House was built by slaves...and Barack Obama should take the opportunity on Inauguration Day to outlaw torture.

Here is the link to Alternet.

On Inauguration Day, Obama could outlaw torture. It would be a tribute to those slaves who built his new home, the White House

...When Frederick Douglass, the renowned abolitionist, was young, he was enslaved on a plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore, called Mount Misery, owned by Edward Covey, a notorious "slave breaker." There, physical and psychological torture were standard. That property, today, is owned by Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense who was one of the key architects of the U.S. military's program of torture and detention.

With the stroke of a pen on Inauguration Day, President Obama could outlaw torture. It would be a tribute to those slaves who built his new home, the White House, a tribute to those slaves who built the U.S. Capitol Building, a tribute to those who were tortured at Mount Misery.

[edit on 13-11-2008 by Leo Strauss]

Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya............

The only problem with this idea is that the US already does not condone torture.

Just like the US does not give terrorists the rights of US citizens. But that is going to change with Obama. He is going to shut down Club Gitmo and gives every terrorist a lawyer and due process that they are not afforded in the Constitution.

The Constitution protects Americans...not foreign terrorists.

I should have known my only reply would....be...you. Such is life

But today I feel good and I don't mind. If the meaning and importance that a man of african descent will reside the the house that slaves built is the subject of mockery so be it.

Great article, Leo!

RR, you're dreaming. Bush's S. 3930, Military Commissions Act of 2006, approved US torture of detainees and stripped Constitutional rights away from detainees.

Obama Reacts to Torture Bill

We could've drafted a bipartisan, well-structured bill that provided adequate due process through the military courts, had an effective review process that would've prevented frivolous lawsuits being filed and kept lawyers from clogging our courts, but upheld the basic ideals that have made this country great.

Instead, what we have is a flawed document that in fact betrays the best instincts of some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle - those who worked in a bipartisan fashion in the Armed Services Committee to craft a bill that we could have been proud of.

And they essentially got steamrolled by this Administration and by the imperatives of November 7th.

I think Obama will definitely outlaw torture and close Gitmo. Oh, happy day! And Kumbaya, indeed!