Torture Is Bad! Except...

The Washington Post has an interesting story about our Vice President.

The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody.

The proposal, which two sources said Vice President Cheney handed last Thursday to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the company of CIA Director Porter J. Goss, states that the measure barring inhumane treatment shall not apply to counterterrorism operations conducted abroad or to operations conducted by "an element of the United States government" other than the Defense Department.

Awesome! So, we don't condone torture! Well, we don't condone torture on our soil, only abroad. And not by the military, certainly. The CIA, though? Ah, let'em do what they want! I'm sure they know what they're doing, right? I mean, it's not like they've ever been wrong about anything, right? Hell, they have the word "Intelligence" right there in their name! And the old CIA head won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for crissakes! I'm sure they don't just give that out to anybody for cynical, political reasons...

Nice, classy move by draft-dodger Cheney, by the way, trying to weasel his pro-torture exemption by lobbying actual torture victim John McCain.

"This is the first time they've said explicitly that the intelligence community should be allowed to treat prisoners inhumanely," said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "In the past, they've only said that the law does not forbid inhumane treatment." Now, he said, the administration is saying more concretely that it cannot be forbidden.

Quiet down, you tree-hugging, freedom-hating hippie! This administration doesn't like people pointing out the fact that they're pro-torture! They've got a car battery and a couple of alligator clips ready for you and your America-hating nutsack, Frenchie!

Here's my "favorite" part:

Cheney's meeting with McCain last week was his third attempt to persuade the lawmaker, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, to accept a less broad legislative bar against inhumane treatment.

I don't think the intent could be any clearer if Cheney met with McCain and said, "C'mon, John! Pleeeeeeeease pleasepleasePLEASE let us torture Arabs! I'll be your best friend! Pleeeeeeease? No? WHY!? God! I HATE you! You never let me torture ANYONE!"

Well, anyway, I guess now creepy troll Lynndie England will be able to get a job when she gets out of prison. We already know she can hold a dog leash and point at genitalia like a champ, so she's more than qualified for a job at Cheney’s CIA.