What a relief to hear honest language regarding what torture is.
This today from the AP:
It was the first topic discussed at [Attorney General nominee Eric] Holder’s confirmation hearing, and he made an unambiguous statement about its nature: “Waterboarding is torture.”
And:
Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder Jr. forcefully broke from the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies Thursday, declaring that waterboarding is torture and pledging to prosecute some Guantanamo Bay detainees in U.S. courts.
This is a good day for those who can’t stand Orwellian obfuscation.
I’m so glad the Bush Administration is heading for the exit.
Our long national shame regarding the treatment of people in US custody is coming to an end.
Prometheus Unbound 
While we are in the area of At Long Last, the Orwellian Language is OVER: Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder Says “Waterboarding is torture” | Prometheus Unbound, The philosophy of law is a complex and in depth study, which requires an intimate knowledge of the legal process in general as well as a philosophical mind. For centuries, the scope and nature of law has been debated and argued from various view points, and intense intellectual discussion has arisen from the fundamental question of ‘what is law’. In response, several major schools of thought have been born, of which the natural law scholars and positivists are two of the most notable. These two camps hold strictly contrasting views over the role and function of law in certain circumstances, and have provided in themselves platforms for criticism and debated which continue to be relevant today.
Are you saying that those who adhere to a natural law tradition and those who adhere to a positivist tradition cannot begin to agree on a definition of what torture is? I think that is a ridiculous position (if you hold it).
—Santi