Graham does not care. He supports breaking the law under certain circumstances and that certain people are above the law. The ONLY way to reslove this issue is in a court of law (how ironic), not through political hearings where idiots like Graham are given the opportunity to politicize the issue.

I can't understand an attorney, JAG or Civilian, promoting illegal torture! This is what those in power during WWII, Vietnam and now the Iraq/Afghanistan wars did. ON THE OTHER SIDE!! WTF Lindsey Wimp! You and your buddy McCain were against it before you are now for it! A little ol' scratch of the pen to a signing statement makes torture legal? WATERBOARDING IS F"N TORTURE!! Most men and women in the military have gone through some form of training for what could happen in battle. Way back when in Navy boot camp they put us in a container of some kind, put gas masks on us and then fed gas into it.(probably tear gas because there were a lot of tears) How that was going to help on a destroyer I haven't figured out yet. What they do at SERE school isn't what a terrorist would and have done to soldiers captured. They kill them. Are we going to do that next? We have already opened the door to copying them. I agree with Jesse Ventura. Only I wish Cheney could be waterbvoarded if he thinks it isn't torture. None of these cretins saying it is safe haven't volunteered to prove it. They didn't volunteer when their country needed them either.

THE CORE OF THEIR TORTURE ARGUMENT: That if we perform these acts on our soldiers during training, therefore, these acts are not torture. Is the same as saying that if you perform acts(sexual acts) with your wife, then it is okay if you perform those acts on a 13 year old. Since they are both sexual acts, therefore they are both okay. One is a loving act, the other is sexual molestation. Just because an act is okay under condition A, doesnt mean that same act is okay under condition B. This goes to the SERE vs Torture framing that cheney is using as defense.

So, if it is okay for you to perform an act(a killing act) on enemy soldiers, you cannot claim that this makes it okay for you to do the same to 12 of your neighbours. One is serving your country, the other is murder. You cannot claim that since they are both the same act of killing, therefore killing 12 of your neighbours is somehow justified. The same way these torture apologist are using SERE training to justify torture. Like i said, Just because an act is okay under condition A, doesnt mean that same act is okay under condition B.

If you are to follow the cheney logic of: this is done to our soldiers, therefore it is okay. One can use that strain of reasoning to justify practically anything. Think of it. I can always find a condition where something is bound to be legal or even moral, then turn around and say, since it is moral/legal in this situation( A), therefore it is moral/legal under new situation( B) that suits me. I can use that reasoning to justify anything i want to do. Including cheating, stealing, physical assault, killing, harassment, infanticide, genocide, even holocaust.

It is not a ALL YES or ALL NO situation, Otherwise, since boxing or martial arts is okay, therefore is it moral/legal for me to start kicking you around?!?! That is the SERE argument that cheney is advancing. It is ridiculous, offensive, dangerous, and even abominable. Since you can use it to justify any acts on this planet.

Joe Scarborough cited the ABC News report numerous times during "Morning Joe" this morning, and also cited the ABC News report again during the 9:00 hour on MSNBC, when he was brought on to discuss "enhanced interrogation techniques."

So it would appear that the ABC News report is an official GOP Talking Point. If Elizabeth Hasselbeck uses it, we'll know for certain. :-)

Graham's theme song:

"Facts are funny
Facts are cruel
Facts won't do
What I want them to."

Lindsay Graham has one of the the Republican's tactics down pat, agree with you on a point or two, then put the knife in.

He likes to come off as a fair minded, rational person looking for the truth or common ground, but while he's patting you on the back with one hand, he's picking your pocket with the other.

I think everyone has a different opinion of what torture really is. For example, I feel that listening to these slimy, low-life pieces of human waste try to explain why their criminal actions are OK, is torture to me.

TPM is letting Cheney drag them down to his level - arguing whether torture 'worked.'

It. Doesn't. Matter.

United Nations Convention Against Torture:

2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

We all know that, right? So why let Cheney steer the dialog towards whether torture 'worked?'

It's the only chance Cheney has. Why throw him a life preserver when you can throw him an anchor?

I watched this hearing today and was appalled by the way Graham backed the US doing torture all the time! He tried to make a case that torture as we did it did NOT fall under the Geneva Conventions article 3, because article 3 in his opinion and Cheeney's applies to law enforcement not to nations.

I'm amazed he can actually go outside and face anyone after this performance. Graham, at this point, falls into the same criminal category as Chenney and his gang of thugs. He is a despicable man and should be treated that way..

The cut line on the picture says that Sen. Graham is from North Carolina. He is from South Carolina. The politics are bad enough here in NC without Sen. Graham.