The Guy Who Set the Bar Lower than the Geneva Convention

I'm already getting nauseous, and its only been a week.

It has always been my belief that Americans have a responsibility to set the bar higher in how we conduct ourselves around the world. Admittedly, this is a painfully naive belief on my part, especially with respect to the record of this administration. In the past, when we threw out the playbook, we would at least have the crisis of conscience to hide our efforts (not that I am forgiving that behaviour either). Not any more. We not only work to set the bar lower, we take pride in it, and nominate the guy primarily responsible for that strategy as the new The New York Times > Opinion > Attorney General

"The president is putting his own counsel, Alberto Gonzales, who wrote the famous memo defending torture, in charge of our civil liberties. Torture Guy, who blithely threw off 75 years of international law and set the stage for the grotesque abuses at Abu Ghraib and dubious detentions at Guantánamo, seems to have a good grasp of what's just. No doubt we'll soon learn what other protections, besides the Geneva Conventions and the Constitution, Mr. Gonzales finds "quaint'' and "obsolete.''