* Good news on the torture front from the new administration…

President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

The orders, which would be the first steps in undoing detention policies of former President George W. Bush, would rewrite American rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They would require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted.

And the orders would bring to an end a Central Intelligence Agency program that kept terrorism suspects in secret custody for months or years, a practice that has brought fierce criticism from foreign governments and human rights activists. They will also prohibit the C.I.A. from using coercive interrogation methods, requiring the agency to follow the same rules used by the military in interrogating terrorism suspects, government officials said.

…and from the majority of the American people:

A majority of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll oppose the use of torture in terrorism investigations, backing Barack Obama’s pledge that “under my administration, the United States does not torture.” But there’s an even split on whether he should investigate whether laws were broken in the way suspects were treated under the Bush administration. [It’s actually 50-47 in favor -STC]

Overall, 58 percent support the prohibition Obama declared before taking office, but there’s a wide gap across party lines: 71 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents in the poll said torture should never be used, but most Republicans, 55 percent, said there are cases in which the U.S. should consider using torture against terrorism suspects.

Note that last bit, because it perhaps explains the behavior of some GOP senators in the confirmation hearings for Attorney General-designate Eric Holder: They’re playing to their torture-enthusiast base.

* I oppose torture but not the Darwin Awards, so it’s a shame that this story about al-Qaeda operatives dying en masse of their own bubonic-plague experiments is most likely bullroar, since otherwise it would manage to be both horrifying and hilarious in one fell swoop. Either way, no word as to the presence of the Walkin’ Dude at or near the training camp. (Via Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

* Bryan Alexander tracks the Onion’s pretty shockingly horrific Bush Administration send-off pieces from the past few months.

* Curt Purcell catches that that much-discussed piece by former Starbuck Dirk Benedict on the supposed awfulness of the current Battlestar Galactica actually dates back to May 2004, before all but the initial miniseries had aired. Benedict says a lot of things in the piece that are stupid and loathsome regardless of when he said them, but this does at least excuse some of his egregious misreadings and mischaracterizations of the show and its characters. It also makes the whole kerfuffle make more sense to me, since I recalled seeing Benedict happily chatting and smoking stogies with Katee “Stardoe” Sackhoff in a behind-the-scenes featurette on one of the BSG DVD sets. On the other hand, it speaks pretty poorly of either Benedict or the right-wing entertainment-ressentiment site Big Hollywood or both that they thought it appropriate to dredge the piece up and post it again.

* Legislators in the UK are moving to increase restrictions on drawn and computer-generated representations of children engaged in sexual conduct. This is a bad idea for reasons I’ve gone into before; it’s of a piece with Europe’s illiberal attitude and legal climate regarding unpleasant or controversial speech generally, but that doesn’t mean it can’t and doesn’t happen here, as the Christopher Handley case (going to trial February 2nd) demonstrates. The people and art and speech involved in all these cases may or may not be distasteful or even outrageous, but they are people and art and speech deserving of protection. Bad law is bad law. (Links via Tom Spurgeon, Kevin Melrose.)

* Newsarama’s Michael C. Lorah talks to David B. (in French AND English) about his dream-comic collection Nocturnal Conspiracies, one of my favorite books of 2008. (Via Dirk Deppey.)

* Kurt Busiek politely explains the uses and abuses of shared-universe, continuity-based superhero storytelling to a largely skeptical audience of Noah Berlatsky. I really liked what he has to say here, which I don’t think will surprise those of you who’ve followed my recent explanations of my own approach to such comics. (Also via Dirk Deppey.)

* Shelf porn from my pal Ryan Penagos of Marvel.com! I’ve seen this in person, and it’s freaking impressive.

* Which is the most awesome part of this Hammer horror poster: the image, the title, or the tagline? U DECIDE!

* Finally, here’s rising altcomix star Jon Vermilyea’s video for Animal Collective’s “My Girls.”

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