"It's OK. He's Exempt"

The lurching, out of control carnival ride that's the Bush administration continues apace--and once again, Big Dick is at the controls:

The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody.

The proposal, which two sources said Vice President Cheney handed last Thursday to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the company of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, states that the measure barring inhumane treatment shall not apply to counterterrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by "an element of the United States government" other than the Defense Department.

Although most detainees in U.S. custody in the war on terrorism are held by the U.S. military, the CIA is said by former intelligence officials and others to be holding several dozen detainees of particular intelligence interest at locations overseas -- including senior al Qaeda figures Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaida.

Cheney's proposal is drafted in such a way that the exemption from the rule barring ill treatment could require a presidential finding that "such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack." But the precise applicability of this section is not clear, and none of those involved in last week's discussions would discuss it openly yesterday.

What else can you say, except "what a dick."?

Lunatics play the sadist equivalent of stoner games when it comes to torture, devising bizarre scenarios to justify their particular fetishes. Truth is, torture, as most people engaged in security matters know, produces results about as often as slogging through pigshit produces pearls.

In other words, it's NOT the intelligence pro-torture folks want: it's the perverse thrill they're after.

That's just plain sick.

Remember though, it's the Shrub administration we're dealing with--which explains a lot.