So  a reublican got elected in Massachutsets to replace a Dead Kennedy.  He's up for reelection in 2012, so it remains to be seen if it was a freak event based on a bad opponent or a greater trend.

Question: is his election good or bad?
He is against health care (although everyone in his state already has it; so its not like he'll lose the votes of his constituents)
But he's pro torture...

This posting was prompted by this article (oh, and the fact that no ones posted in awhile; so all I see on my feed for this site is Aaron telling us we have the right to F off and die...); figured it might stir up some discussion.  Key grafs:

it is penny wise and pound foolish to worry about creeping tyranny via government-run health care or gun control when we’re another terrorist attack away from popular support for an archipelago of secret prisons where anyone can be whisked away and tortured without any evidence against them. Look to Europe if you doubt whether government-run health care or black sites run by secret police are a more immediate threat to the liberty of innocents.
Do you think that I exaggerate?
Know that one of the Gitmo Three [prisoners it now looks like were tortured to death one night in 2006] was arrested at age 17, held for some years without being charged, and scheduled for release at the time of his death due to the military’s conclusion that no evidence linked him to al Qaeda or the Taliban.  We may never know exactly how he and his fellow detainees died: A conclusive, independent autopsy is impossible because their bodies were returned to their families with their throats missing