Did you hear the one about the secret CIA detention centers? Me, too. Not much of a secret anymore. What does this mean? There's a leak! This time it's a real, honest-to-god leak of something that could endanger national security, unlike the Plame thing, which, leak or not, didn't hurt anyone except Patrick Fitzgerald's kids (does he have kids?). This new leak involved things that are happening right now, not a CIA agent who hasn't gone undercover, or even out of the country, in years. How much vigor will the press go after this leak with? Probably not much, because this time the information from the leak is damaging to the Administration, whereas before the leak itself was damaging to the Administration. Notice the difference? The press only acts when it hurts the President, and they remain basically silent when action might help the President. And there's no liberal bias in the newsroom...

By the way, all this torture stuff..... Though I have not read his exact words, I think Cheney's objection to the new anti-torture bill is based upon what torture is. To me, torture is beating someone up, causing pain and bodily harm to extract information. Pouring fake menstruel blood on someone, or making a Muslim see a naked woman, or keeping the heat turned up high are not torture in my mind. They are useful interrogation techniques, and far better treatment than most fraternity pledges get. That should be the line, if it's worse than frat boy hazing, it's torture, and even Abu Gharib had a long way to go.

I was watching the Daily Show last night and Jon Stewart was talking about torture. He made the point, "We keep hearing in the news all the time that torture is not a good interrogation technique, so why is it still used?" The key here is "on the news." He should know that the media will just interview "experts" that fit their ideological agenda. Sure, plenty of experts might say torture doesn't work, but there are probably just as many CIA interrogators that would heartily disagree (and probably Muslim dudes working for Bin Laden would also say torture works).