Bizarroworld Dispatch: Torture Edition!

Amazing. This is sheer deperation, and no one is going to buy it coming from a guy whose top advisors are under indictment and investigation, respectively. A guy whose administration is responsible for the "torture memos," which claimed that anything less than organ failure or death is fair game during an interrogation. And a guy who's threatening to veto legislation that would outlaw torture (and passed the senate 90-9).

PANAMA CITY, Panama - President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."

He declared, "We do not torture."

Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.

When I say no one is going to buy it, I'm thinking specifically of the fact that he said it during his South American trip. He should save that sort of rhetoric for his domestic base-- the rest of the world stopped believing him years ago.