—have the capacity or inclination to project their brutality to the four corners of the earth.

Nothing the Saudis do...

nothing the Iraqis do...

nothing the Taliban does...

nothing Al Qaeda does...

—exempts us from our humanity, and from our obligation to repudiate the torturers. My god, listening to Rumsfeld talk about "abuses" (apparently the Rove-approved euphemism du jour for what we used to call "atrocities") today made me want to puke.

Friends, if this criminal conspiracy disguised as an American presidential administration is returned to power in November we will all, as one recent commentator has put it, be wearing the blue dress.

I swore after 1980 that henceforth I would treat politics as entertainment and spectacle only...but now I'm quite unable...

despairingly,