Sorta like mowin your lawn 3

The relative silence that's greeted Pres. George W. Bush's nonchalant confirmation that he authorized torture -- in the corporate media and among some biggish liberal blogs where I'd expect to see at least a reference -- has been unsettling. I'm sure they all have their reasons or excuses.

For now, an antidote is to focus on actions that can be taken, however small.

• You can support the ACLU's call for a special prosecutor.
  
  
• Thanks to tenure, John Yoo will probably not be removed from his position on the faculty of Berkeley's law school unless and until he is convicted for the crimes he committed. However, there's no issue of academic freedom surrounding his association with the U.S. Constitution Center; help end it. Via commenter James Mullin.
  
  
• The Defense Appropriations bill will be considered in the House before too long. Urge your Congressman to
  

  attach H.R. 1416 the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 repealing the portions of the Military Commissions Act which suspended habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions --- and H.R 1352 the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act which would “prohibit the return or other transfer of persons by the United States, for the purpose of detention, interrogation, trial, or otherwise, to countries where torture or other inhuman treatment of persons occurs, and for other purposes.” [Digby, whose response to the recent revelations has been exemplary.]

  
  
• Urge ABC to follow up on their own story by asking the presidential candidates about it. [Many editors and reporters in the stenographic traditional media openly say that they won't cover issues unless members of Congress or candidates are talking about them -- that'd be "making news."] This excellent suggestion courtesy of dday:
  

  contact them here and demand that they follow up their reporting on torture by pushing it into the Presidential race. Contacting World News Tonight with moderator Charlie Gibson and ABC News Programming Specials would probably be the most helpful.

Update: 10:00 pm, 16 April - The disgraceful quality of ABC's debate questions makes clear that the above suggestion was pointless. But you can help break the silence by writing a letter or letters to your local and area newspapers. Firedoglake's gizmo makes it easy, and you'll be one of many. As you compose your less-than-200-word message, you may find inspiration in Dan Froomkin's column of a few days ago. He explains concisely why this story is new and startling.

Image: Tom Tomorrow design from June 2004, as seen on my wrinkly T-shirt. Alas, no longer available via his CafePress store.