This administration holding out for torture is the last straw -- how much longer do we need to suffer under their rule?

Three prominent senators from their own party have broke ranks -- a huge symbolic gesture given the pressure within the GOP to kiss GW's ass often and always. One of the three, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a military lawyer no less, said "This whole thing has been just one mess after another. It started with Abu Ghraib. How many more times do we need to create legislation that's defective, that's going to confuse people, that's got not a snowball's chance in hell of passing Supreme Court muster?"

Colin Powell has apparently recovered from his much-deserved acute case of shame to utter some criticism about this administration, stating "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." Really Colin, you think? Nah, can't be. This president is all about God, morality, and the American way. You must have your former boss confused with someone else....

And then 27 (not two, or five, or 10, but almost 30) retired military leaders wrote a letter to the Armed Services Committee urging rejection of Bush's pro-torture proposal.

From a recent Washington Post editorial: "President Bush rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted from them by means he dare not describe publicly." Yes, "painfully skewed priorities" indeed.

Look, to witness this president and VP pulling out all the stops to insure that torture is permissible, regardless of the repercussions to our Constitution, prior international accords, or the future treatment of our own soldiers, is to conclude just one thing: they're mad -- as in stark-raving, Howard Beal mad. Voting for anyone who aligns with them is a tragic act in support of sociopathic, repugnant derangement. In doing so, you will (should) look back on such a decision with great shame, and may you be forced to admit your sin to grandchildren, close relatives, and friends.