Argh. Lindsey Graham is having it both ways. One day he is hammering that USAF lawyer for refusing to call waterboarding torture, and then he pulls this garbage.

I hope next time your B&D buddies are working you over, they forget to take the gag out and can't hear your safety word:

Hyprocrite

Republicans - the party that approves of torture and disapproves of medical care and preschool for children. What a great buncha guys, huh?

I wonder if there is a connection with the homophobic gay politician's love of torture and men not qualified for the military in any way due to their sexual preference?
and believe me, I know this question is as absurd as the answers we receive to the important questions we ask.

Lindsay Graham is just another Alen Specter -- he talks like a reasonable human being when things are being debated, but the minute a vote comes along, he retreats into the Republican rabbit hutch. If these issues were not literally matters of life and death, their duplicity might be amusing.

Sullynyc has it exactly right: Hypocrite!

I would love to see a list of all the bills the repubs have blocked.

It could be included with all the repub scandals next to the list of all the repubs on trial/under investigation/in jail.

Jon--

Regarding the strange way that the US makes laws, the FINAL version of all bills MUST be passed and signed by BOTH chambers of Congress.

What I think they are saying here is that the provision was not in the House-passed bill or the Senate-paased bill but was added by someone in the conference committee deliberations and then passed in the House.

All of this is a very roundabout way of saying that if the senators wanted to make this happen, they could make it happen. Graham is using this technicality because, while he says the US does not torture, he is willing to look the other way and stick his fingers in his ears.

And not a WORD about this on CNN.com.

Just looking at and/or listening to Lindsay Graham is torture. He(?) ought to be outlawed by the Geneva Conventions.

Democratic candidates should have the gumption to call for joining the International Criminal Court.

This outcome today will go down in infamy and a very great deal will need to be done for a very long time to retrieve America's standing in the world -- it is not just Bush who is a supporter of torture -- there are not 60 Senators that will vote against legalized torture???? How can that be?

Wow, then what the fuck is the difference between us and our enemy is we use the exact same barbarian tactics they use? What happened to the fucking 6th amendment?

Lindsey Graham is a closeted gay man. Thus, while he may actually oppose torture personally, he's subject to being blackmailed by the Republican/Democrat death machine for fear of being exposed.

I don't want to specifically SAY what I won't do either, and I will refuse to do most of what I've been raised to believe is wrong. But ... don't get me wrong, this guy is a whore and his team is the bad guy team.

But I hate the image we're showing the world. The good guys are showing the world our panties? The bad guys are putting panties on the bad guys?

WTF. Unfortunately, there's only one degree of capitalization on this computer. But we're a fighter. An honorable one. We're supposed to refuse to put a razor blade in our boxing glove before we enter the ring. We don't need to talk about it... this sucks. Look what I'm arguing for.

Fire Bush.

Every Republican lawmaker has taken a secret blood oath on his life and on the life of all of his family members to support and defend George Bush and Dick Cheney. Neither the Constitution nor the rule of law nor common decency has anything to do with what these animals stand for. In return they are guaranteed wealth and security for their families. The Republicans plain and simple constitute a vast criminal conspiracy.

I have been watching and reading for awhile now. I have offered the occasional comment. For the most part, I commend the discourse amongst those who dig deep into the current affairs of our demise. It seems that we find a great deal to talk about, and we hope that the exchange will change things. I wonder when our founding father's, in dealing with 'King George', came to the understanding that a greater sacrifice was going to be necessary, and how they were able, without the internet, to organize themselves and stand up and FIGHT for what they believed in.

I for one am ready and willing to place myself in harm's way to defend against the enemy both foreign and domestic. The issue is not those foreign, but those domestic. Never in history have we had the leader of our nation be the enemy within. It is time to act, and if not soon we will have lost it forever.

What has happened to the humanitarian nature of our country? What has happened to the civic responsibility of the individual? It is serious, and things need to be done. If those who 'drag' the lines for anyone in opposition to their views have the power to stop free speech, then perhaps we have lost already. If a privatized army is without consequence for acts of illegal engagement, then perhaps an army should be mounted in effort to combat that injustice along with the likes of torture. Until the 'rubber meets the road' they will continue and we will watch?

Apologies for the length...

The whore press picked Bush in 2000 and 2004.
That's their job - to protect Bush and attack the Democrats

Looks like they want anybody but Hillary in 2008.

I live overseas so have to rely on blogs such as TPM and newspaper websites for to keep abreast of what is happening in the U.S. Very often I am surprised at the continued willingness of blogs to view various GOP transgressions (the fired attorney scandals, Abramoff, torture, wire tapping, etc.) as material to Americans. I couldn't believe it when I heard the GOP unananimously against outlawing torture. I assumed there was either a very good reason for this or there would be outrage in the papers. I thought perhaps the Dems pulled a page out of the GOP play book and attached the the torture bill as part of an overall bill the GOP could not possibly vote for (like a tax increase). However, when I checked the LA Times, Washington Post, NY Times, MSNBC and CNN I couldn't find any mention of the vote at all. I have to assume Americans either don't care or actually support torture as an explicit policy of the U.S. government. The fact that George Bush, an enthusiastic proponent of waterboarding and other forms of torture was re-elected is proof enough that whatever else our virtues may be, we can no longer be considered anti torture. Hopefully we can dispense with any further whining at the mistreatment of our POW's in Vietnam, Germany and Japan. The fact is, now that we are vulnerable to attack we have chosen the same brutal methods as our enemies and deserve the same condemnation.

If we didn't have a constitution, and today's citizens were discussing one, seems to me we'd end up with a theocracy, no rights to privacy, a police state, intruding into everything, a dictator pretending to give us "security," no need for a legislature except to rubber stamp, no need for a judiciary except to prosecute anyone disagreeing with the dictator. Torture as a means to speed up the so-called trials. Pretend elections. More prisons of course.

Have I left anything out? Our citizens have forgotten what our form of government is supposed to be. They're willing to let bush's notions of it carry forward.

Soon every thread will be the same.

The constitution provides a remedy: impeachment.
If the people's representatives choose not to exercise it, when they have both cause and evidence of impeachable offenses, then the people have the right to arise and, by whatsoever means necessary, remove those who obstruct the will of the country.
We need to encircle the BushiteHouse AND the Congress with a million furious citizens, waving pitchforks and torches. Tar and feather a couple of 'em...Then, either the fascists open fire, as they will, or they climb onto waiting helicopters and wing away for Paraquay. Win-win.

No one is surprised at this little squirmy.

He's as bad as Saxby Chamblis from Georgia. Well, almost. (Chambliss was booed by his own party).

You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

So, how come the Republicans can block legislation they don't like, but the Democrats can't; even though the in Democrats have the majority? Where can we find some effective Democratic leaders?

He got so much tv face time going after President Clinton and blindly ignoring "the good of the country." Now, suddenly he cares about "the country" so desperately that he would condone torture?

What a jerk!

corretion: "...oath-loyalty."