From (of all places!) the Arkansas Times editorial section:

Outlaw in office
Arkansas Times Staff
Updated: 1/12/2006



We know that Bill Clinton was not the first horny president, despite what his critics said, but George Bush is surely the first torturemonger.

As old-time Southern congressmen resisted anti-lynching laws, so Bush defies restraints on his use of torture. After first opposing legislation that would prohibit "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of suspected wrongdoers, Bush appeared to change course and signed the bill, to general applause. Torture is in bad odor with most people.

Then it was revealed that the president found giving up torture "cold turkey" too difficult, that he was reserving the right to bypass the new law under his powers as commander in chief, that he will continue to indulge in fingernail removal and genital electroshock when the craving becomes really strong.

Republican lawmakers who accused Bill Clinton of putting himself above the law tried to impeach him for it (and failed for lack of popular support).

Bush states openly that he won't be bound by laws that apply to lesser men, and the Republican majority in Congress acquiesces. "Nobody died when Clinton lied" is a well-known slogan comparing the former president's deceptive comments about a consensual sexual encounter to Bush's untruths that have caused thousands of unwilling deaths in Iraq.

Bush's insistence on an unlawful right to torture suggests that some of those who are dying will die in agony. Prior presidents would have thought this un-American. ...

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From the same editorial section, the following brief thought:

"We've noticed that the people who cry "Support our Troops" the loudest seem to interpret "support" to mean "sacrifice." Their idea of supporting our troops in Iraq is to keep a stiff upper lip as more of the troopers die. They don't realize that working to bring the troops home alive and well from a place they should never have been sent in the first place is a higher form of support, and much easier on the troops. Nothing says "support" like saving somebody's life.

If the "Support our Troops" cheerleaders had the troops' best interests at heart, they'd have been rioting in the streets over congressional Republicans' scheme to attach a controversial and irrelevant amendment to the bill providing financial support for American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, an attachment that would have put the bill itself in jeopardy.

But the outrage came instead from high-minded legislators like Arkansas's Blanche Lincoln. "Drilling rights in Alaska has been debated and defeated in this Congress for many years, and I am disappointed that Alaska senators have used our troops as pawns to try to win passage of an economic development project for their region," Senator Lincoln said, in language remarkably restrained for the circumstances. "This extraordinary attempt to insert it into a bill that funds our troops and provides for their safety at a time of war is inappropriate." ...

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A rich day... outrage seems to be spreading.

A