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Opening The Files: 12/12/07

You Can't Torquemada Anything

Sorry for the Mel Brooks pun but I felt that some levity was in order given the tortuousness of extracting even a modicum of information from the Bushies. The President still feigns ignorance of what some have taken to calling "Tapegate". This is despite the person he once deemed worthy of a spot on the Supreme Court being intimately involved in discussions with the CIA over the fate of the tapes. It would appear the Bush Bubble is now so opaque that it no longer permits light to penetrate, let alone reality.

There have been some rather inane defenses for why this issue isn't a big deal. And the depths to which the right will plunge in defense of torture shows there really is nothing that should ever be considered verboten.

Which is perhaps the biggest travesty in all of this. Because our leaders can no longer state unequivocally that we will treat our prisoners with a decency that the enemy may never show theirs, we've seceded any claim to being "better than that".

While the Bushies may not be able to come up with a clear instance in which torture "saved lives", Cenk Uygur reminds us of a clear instance in which it had the opposite effect.

Robert Scheer wonders if in destroying those tapes of harsh interrogations, we may have lost out on learning the truth behind the event that supposedly warranted the harshness in the first place.

Digby says that all the Bushies have succeeding in doing is blurring the moral clarity on an issue which requires a far more focused stance.

Scarecrow says it looks like the spooks at Langley aren't willing to be the fall guys anymore.

I'd have to agree with Micheal that Kit Bond really is the craziest Repub of the day for his claim that waterboarding is just the latest water sport craze. Is a name change in order?

Bob Cesca documents the righties attempt to downplay waterboarding as an "exercise in restraint" which isn't all that restrained after all.

(Filed at State of the Day and All Spin Zone)

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