Add some shrillness to your day:

–Tristero:

It is long overdue for groups like HRW [Human Rights Watch] to get accorded the “moderate US mainstream” respect they deserve, and get acknowledged for the incredible courage it takes to report these kinds of abuses. While it is a secondary issue to the sheer immorality of torture, if ever there was a program designed to make overseas travel and work by Americans more dangerous, it is a policy of systematic torture of prisoners.

Once again, the Bush administration demonstrates that they are prepared to dangerously undermine American interests while branding all critics as leftwing scoundrels and traitors. And once again, they are full of shit.

–Hilzoy:

Before this administration took office, I would have thought that the one thing I could count on Republicans to do right was to take care of the basic needs of our men and women in uniform. “Help is on the way”, Bush said. I suppose I should have remembered that he came from the same party that told us (falsely) that “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help'”, and taken it as a threat. Leaving aside the little matter of sending them off to fight a needless war without bothering to take care of such minor details as planning for the occupation, we’ve seen the guard and reserves stretched to the breaking point, stop-loss orders, Humvees with inadequate protection, and soldiers buying their own body armor.

–PZ Meyers:

You would be surprised at how much email is sent to me telling me to stop being so derisive, that harsh language and ridicule turn people off and repel the very ones we’re trying to persuade. My reply is like the one above; by refusing to ridicule the ridiculous, by watering down every criticism into a mannered circumlocution, we have created an environment where idiots thrive unchallenged. We have a twit for a president because so many people made apologies for his ludicrous lack of qualifications?we need more people unabashedly pointing out fools.

I’m doing my part to fight Idiot America. I hope more people join me.

–PGL:

At the end of the day, it does not matter what Bill Frist really knew about the true standing of HCA when he sold the stock, it does not matter how many ethical violations and violations of Texas law Tom DeLay really committed, or in how many ways Karl Rove undermined the CIA ? they are all Republicans. Forget all the hypocrisy from those former prosecutors in the Reagan DOJ who now make money pimping for the rightwing. All of their nonsense is true by definition. The Rule of Law party is above the law. Karl Rove must be innocent ? regardless of the facts.

Man, that felt good. I picked the wrong week to quit smoking.