The Roller Coaster This blog likes to make fun of Andrew Sullivan. Well, mostly, I, Attaturk, like to make fun of Sully. DeDurkheim is too nice an intellectual to do so. I on the other hand, am not nice and therefore can operate freely in my scorn. That is not to say, bashing the Beagle Lover of Provincetown is unique to this blog. It is not. In fact several blogs do it more often, and better. Democratic Veteran for example, or the appropriately named, Sully Watch take down Sullivan virtually everday. But yet, Sullivan is fascinating, because on occasion there is a glimmer of light that seeps through and he sees it, the truth. For example, today, Sullivan sees that Ashcroft's ridiculous testimony and torture opinions make it clear that that Bush II, Electric "to your nads" Boogaloo was totally in on the idea of torturing prisoners.

The lame responses by John Ashcroft to the evidence in leaked memos that the Bush administration condoned torture with the personal approval of the president are damning. It's even more damning that Ashcroft will not release a critical memo, prepared by his department, making the point that some forms of torture, if approved by the president, would not be illegal. I'm hoping to write at length about this, but let me say one thing. I should have spoken up earlier. The signs were there - including the decision to ignore the Geneva Conventions with regard to al Qaeda in Guantanamo. In a very small number of cases, this might have been a debatable question. But what we have clearly seen is a green light from the very top condoning at best mistreatment and abuse of prisoners of war in a whole slew of cases. We'll see as more facts emerge what the truth is. But the brutality of U.S. forces against prisoners in their care and custody is now public record - and a permanent mark of shame for the United States.

This, of course, points to the fact that Dubya is not the beflightsuited manly man of virtue that Sully occasionally opines about, but rather, by American standards, a dangerous and callow fanatic who enjoys making alleged "evildoers" suffer. There was more to his mockery of Carla Faye Tucker begging for her life than just bizarre behavior, there was sadism. Today, Sullivan sees the sadism. For this alone Bush should have his ass shipped back to Crawford (though there are numerous others). Yet, Sully will undoubtedly snap back into some sort of insane immaturity and find Bush's STRENGTH compelling in the future. That and the pushing conservativism keeps me financially better off considerations that adds up to hypocrisy. Sully has yet to take the final path and see the truth for what it really is, that this outward strength, is really the cover for what is in actuality the shallow "pick the wings off a fly" vileness that makes up Bush's personality. We know that impeachment considerations are out there, but will never happen. But it is important that we make sure he doesn't make it past January 20, 2005.