torture memos

It's good that the Obama Administration has released the memos and won't prosecute the actual people who tortured, as long as they followed the guidelines. The guidelines were wrong; the people who advocated those policies are the ones that should suffer.

(Incidentally, the argument that releasing the details of torture would deter people from government service is stupid - although it might deter some sadists.)

The memos are pretty awful. This was torture in the name of Americans. And full of evasions and lies. This one, as excerpted by Talking Points Memo, caught my eye:

"You have informed us that your research has revealed that, in rare instances, some individuals who are already predisposed to psychological problems may experience abnormal reactions to sleep deprivation."

Bullshit. Sleep deprivation of the sort encouraged by the Bushies causes serious mental and physical damage to all. It is a facile cop-out to say "only the nut jobs flip out when kept awake for days on end." Talk about blaming the victim.