They're Going to Need a Bigger Fan So why are the Guardian and the Telegraph doing better reporting than most any American Paper? This should give conservatives some indigestion. This last 9 days, under the cover of Reaganpalooza, has seen the most damning evidence of the extent of torture at Abu Ghraib since the pictures came out. One has to wonder where Republicans who have stuck there neck out to this point...McCain, Hegel, Lindsay Graham, are going to be if this report comes to fruition. From the Telegraph:

New evidence that the physical abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay was authorised at the top of the Bush administration will emerge in Washington this week, adding further to pressure on the White House. The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly. According to lawyers familiar with the Red Cross reports, they will contradict previous testimony by senior Pentagon officials who have claimed that the abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison was an isolated incident. "There are some extremely damaging documents around, which link senior figures to the abuses," said Scott Horton, the former chairman of the New York Bar Association, who has been advising Pentagon lawyers unhappy at the administration's approach. "The biggest bombs in this case have yet to be dropped."

Now there are two areas, both comflicting, where this hurts Bush. First, the most clear of them. He is a sadist. Looking over his 42 predecessors there are some strange ones in the bunch. I'd accuse Nixon and Johnson of many, many, petty faults and sociopathic shortcomings. But I wouldn't call them, nor any of their predecessors sadistic. A lot of bigots, a few racists, certainly more than a few with overly large egos, an occasional war mongerer (I'm looking at you James K. Polk) but no sadists. But Bush is certainly giving substantial evidence that he is a first class sadist. Most of us do not find cruelty to be a virtue, both religious and areligious usually share that common ground. But there will be a core of folks who think being mean to the "a-rabs" is a neat idea. Unfortunately, all one has to do is visit some of the darker corners of the rightwing, a Free Republic.com, or even some idiots at Fox News to know that the ideas of sadism and cruelty towards those who don't worship at the alter of Chimpy McFlightsuit is a-OK with them. "You're either with us or against us". S & M on the Right isn't just for Bill Bennett (allegedly) anymore. A few generations ago these folks wouldn't be online, they'd be at lynchings. Second, and perhaps even with his fellow sadists this may be troubling, is the lying. Bush knows that sadism is not something the United States is supposed to be engaging in (perhaps Poppy told him, or Powell). In the aftermate of Abu Ghraib, as they do on almost any issue, they simply denied doing what they had actually done and expected the rightwing chorus to scream so loudly in his defense that the story would go away (i.e. unnamed three-time loser & hillbilly heroin addict calling it "blowing off steam" and "fraternity pranks"). Well the papertrail is out there and its coming out, and the death of Jerry Ford or Poppy isn't going to really keep it under wraps. ...If Osama is pulled out of the ground in the next week, rather than October, you'll know how desperate they are.