Only three days to go, before demonstrations to "stop torture and the Bush regime" that are planned in 175 cities, in 42 States, according to the "world can't wait" movement.
At a rally in New York City Monday night, about 500 people came to hear Olympia Dukakis, Malachy McCourt, Mark Buffalo (who also read a message from Sean Penn), and Reno speak of the need to "drive out the Bush regime".
A special ovation greeted a man that actually put his career on the line to stand up against torture: former British ambassador Craig Murray, who denounced torture in Uzbekistan. He reminded Americans that 500 million dollars were granted to the dictatorship under the rationale of the "war on terror", most of it going to the army and a police that literaly boils people to death in order to extract confessions. "Hardly any islamic extreemism existed until the US supported the Uzbek regime, he said, and that's the kind of stupidity that creates the terror it claims to be fighting".

The rally was part teach-in too, when Bill Goodman, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, detailed the law just voted by Congress on torture and detainees. It essentially reverses the victory at the Supreme Court, four months ago, that had held in administration in check.
"The new act goes even further than the administration did", laments the lawyer. And he sees the new law as only the beginning of a process of erosion of constitutional protection.
The definition of "enemy combatant" is applicable to citizens and non citizens. The new concept is "broad and sweeping", encompassing acts of hostility as well as material support. "It could be anybody who dropped a dollar in the bucket today", said the attorney, refering to the collection taken to organize the march.
His anger at Congress only increases as he explains the elimination of habeas corpus for those designated as "enemy combatants" - that is, the right to see a judge to make a determination that a person is charged with a crime, and that there is evidence to charge them.
That right has been suspended only four times in American history, and always in a limited manner, he reminded the audience. It has now been lifted indefinetely for those detainees.
Finally, he is no less harsh on the torture compromise.
"Only "grave breaches" of the Geneva convention are still punishable under the war crimes act", he warned. The senators and the Department of Justice do not agree, for instance, on the fact that water-boarding would constitute such a grave occurence.
"Congres swallowed everything the president of the United States fed it, said Bill Goodman. We can still go to the Court, and in the streets".
That's where organizers hope to see hundreds of thousands of American on Thursday, as they conclude they can only count on themselves - and certainly not their elected representatives, including those of the democratic party.