Here is a Reuters' link from Rutabaga Ridgepole on Desidero's #1 post at this time here on TPM Cafe: 

 http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE51O3TB20090225

It brings to light a trend in Guantanamo amongst the guards to torment their charges "while they still can".

While we worry about the complexities of this situation, the hows and the whens for trials and the release of captives held without due process, we do have another consideration.  Who ARE these people that commit these atrocities, and are we going to release them to live among the general public.  The guards!  They are more a threat to peace then some of these prisoners.  They have developed [or maybe they had them all along] these violent proclivities that have led them to beat their prisoners, dislocate the limbs of prisoners, and torment them with pepper spray emitted into closed cells with the prisoners or applied to their toilet seats.  These guys and gals are twisted and sick.

It makes a little sense not to simply put the prisoners on a plane and let them all go free in the United States.  There are some prisoners there that have committed atrocities of their own, and frankly, I do expect there to be trials for each and every one of them before they are released anywhere.  But that should have been conducted long ago.  My post is not about how we have abandoned our values to incarcerate anyone we could get our hands on that might possibly be related to the resistance in Iraq, whether the grounds for their abduction were well-grounded or not.  My post is about alleviating the conditions in Guantanamo right now, to bring some relief to the prisoners until we can deal with them.  My proposition is that we clean house.  Let's remove every guard who is there today and replace them, all of them.

It's probably unlikely that we can identify who the brutes are within the Guantanamo Bay facilities, so let's simply get them all out of there, no judgments made.  Then the military should evaluate their mental states and demand they participate in a program to help them adjust to a society where they are not in complete control of those around them.  Some of these guards are simply dangerous.  

There is a supposition on my part about the guards at Guantanamo.  I assume they were changed by having to work in that environment.  But as I noted above, they may have always had these tendencies.  Some people will join the military to participate in this kind of dominance.  But I suspect many of them came to behave like this much the same way that old captive/captor experiment conducted long ago at a university, where the prisoners became the guards and perpetuated the abuses that they loathed when they had been prisoners.  I imagine this transformation to monster does not happen over night, and the management of the guards can be more involved, because this is not an experiment to see how people change if left to their own devices.  We already know the tendencies that can develop.  So while I have no permanent answer to what to do about the prisoners, I am saying, we should do something about the guards.  It is time to clean house, and we can do that now.

She abruptly resigned?!?  What could that mean?!?  Rumors abound, and the most viable seems to be the emergence of a corrupton scandal.  She had to get out of Dodge, or Juneau, as the cas emay be.  Although someone pointed out in a comment Sarah may just be getting bored with being Governor.  She's gotten a taste of the big city and the bright lights and she really likes it.  Rather then go with the corruption suggestion, let's ignore that and focus on ambition, and the GOP playbook.  Sarah is more useful to them out of office then inside.

Sarah becomes much more impressionable out of office then as governor.  As governor, it's difficult to say, "I was out walking the Appalachian Trail" and then emerge from a plane that last landed in Argentina, for instance.  Sarah can now disappear with no accounting to anyone.  As governor she was much easier to track.  She was obligated to reveal her whereabouts, at least occassionally.  She even had to reveal where she gets he rmoney, also.  Unencumbered by office, she can now go where he pleases, and receive money as she pleases as well.

Money buys influence and Sarah is eager to learn how to run with the big boys.  So she will allow herself to be influenced in what to say and how to say it.  Her jedi training is just beginning.  She will use the Force, and the Force is strong with that one. 

Where have we seen this in the past?  I believe the Illusional Leader meme originated by accident, when Ronald Reagan began losing his marbles.  Some have said towards the end he gave speeches believing he was back on the silver screen performing the "role" of President, rather then actually being the President.  It enabled HWBush to control the government and it worked!  George W Bush was the same way.  He was put up as the Illusional Leader of the government, but there are many who would say that Cheney was in charge.  So how would things be run with Ms. Palin? 

Palin will have the time and the luxury of studying really hard to be the Illusional Leader for the GOP.  No one in the GOP has anywhere near her popularity within the party.  Sure, we the educated elite are aghast that anyone would propose someone could be readied to be President of the Uniteed States of America because they went to Rove University for four years, but Rove did it with W!  He can do it with Sarah.  Afterall, they do not need to really win.  They only need to have it close enough to steal, as Randi Rhodes used to say.

It seems to this writer that the structure is in place to perpetuate the party goals, having imbedded innumerable Zom-Bushes throughout the various governmental agencies.  These moles will be activated if Sarah can get into office.  Right now, she does appear to be their best hope.  She can really work the fascist mob.  The American masses are so shallow, and she's fighting for God, don't forget, so the carnival trailers will be visiting every GOP-loyal Christian community just as they did with W.  You can bet the pastors and preachers will not be reminding anyone their Pro-Life agenda hardly moved when the Reich controlled the House, Senate and White House, but the GOP will promise to do it this time, for sure.

The way I see it, this is the future the GOP wants, to put up a candidate that moves the masses, but the issue of corruption may be emerging.  The Dems may want to bury this issue on the tundra.  We have health care issues to promote and we don't need Sarah Palin sucking all the air out of the room.  Yes, she sucks.  We, the educated, liberal elite know that, but we knew it about W too, and it did not prevent his reaching the presidential pinnacle, where he was ever so useful to the Reich.  The GOP is looking for their next tool. Sarah could very well be that next tool, also.