"Tyrants censor; democracies self-censor." -- A scathing critique of the growing Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal from the Washington Post. Has America become its own worst enemy? Perhaps. Let's ask some of our popular neocon commentators, like Rush Limbaugh, who says the abuse was just soldiers "blowing off steam" or soldier "babes" meting out a little torture, "just like anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage." Dear god.

A bracing chaser for this awful news is a surprisingly forthright criticism of the Bush "Administration" by none other than George Will -- when it gets to the point where George Will writes stuff like this, you know it's getting bad: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think, and, having thought, to have second thoughts . . . Being blankly incapable of distinguishing cherished hopes from disappointing facts, or of reassessing comforting doctrines in face of contrary evidence, is a crippling political vice." I'll go one better and posit that there is in fact no thinking of any kind going on at the White House. Dear god, again.