The players who used -- Canseco, McGuire, now A-Rod, etc -- will never been seen as among the greats. And neither will President Barak Obama.

Yes, it's already too late. He has spent years choosing his own benefit over his/our treaty obligations. And his first steps in office have been to walk in lockstep with the torturers.

The stigma never goes away - nor should it.

He continues to drive the torture getaway car. His crime is in fact worse than bushcheneyism. Because while criminals might come and go, a corrupt police force endures and becomes institutionalized.

We need to stop rationalizing for him and for ourselves. Because that's the real core problem our nation faces (or rather, doesn't face -- reality). There is no "centrist" fence to sit upon on torture.

No, there's no quirk of "the system" that forces him into aiding and abetting these atrocities. No, there's no "missing evidence" that he's waiting to find. No, there's no "secret plan" that he's carrying out that will make up for his non-action to date.

No, closing Gitmo is simply removing the weather-beaten, crumbling eyesore from the national lawn. It is not real action either -- not for any humans. (Remember them? -- Years of torture at Gitmo and all they got was a lousy "Former Enemy Combatant" t-shirt.)

Nor is there reality in all the nice sounding rhetoric about how we're going to unring the bell by "going forward" (always forward -- blinders in place -- history to soon repeat).

No, we have no right to torture our way to "economic recovery." Yes, that's exactly what is being done. Because turning a blind eye to torture only prolongs the ordeal for the victim -- the crime is still in progress.

There is no hope for any real change while we remain complicit.

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