GEORGE W. BUSH - THE GRAND INQUISITOR

The news flash today: the White House asserts that torture is legal if The President approves its use. So The Decider is now The Grand Inquisitor!

In essence, if there is a threat to The Homeland, the President can authorize extreme measures of interrogation to protect The Homeland. In other words, waterboarding, which the CIA has admitted using and which is considered torture by most people, and other techniques can and will be used. (The head of the CIA has said that waterboarding "might be illegal" under current law.)

Torture is illegal under international law. It is considered illegal under various U.S. laws and Constitutional rulings. (A good FAQ on the illegality of torture is provided by Human Rights Watch.) Waterboarding is a technique that dates back to the Inquisition; some descriptions indicate that victims of this technique often died. We are led to believe, by the Axis of Weasels Spin Machine, that waterboarding and other "extreme interrogation techniques" employed by the CIA are performed by professionals in a controlled environment - in other words, we should not have an image of a dark, dank dungeon with implements of torture and big, hairy goons grinning as they torture the life out of their hapless prisoners. Yeah - right.

I'm truly outraged by this. I called the offices of our Senators and Congressman to voice my outrage that this President has taken our country to such depths of immorality. I hope all of you do the same.