This is what the DOJ lawyers SHOULD have written.

Dear Mr. Bush and Mr.Cheney.

We at the Department of Justice thank you for offering us the opportunity to comment on proposed interrogations using waterboarding, slamming people into walls, and locking them in boxes with caterpillars.

Sirs, in a nutshell our advice is "We are America! We do not fucking torture". If you go ahead with this proposed action you will be in contravention of the UN Convention Against Torture and may be prosecuted as a war criminal. Furthermore, if you proceed with this, we will have no option other than to resign our positions at DOJ and go public in denouncing your administration. This will be necessary so that we don't go to the gallows with you.

We thank you for the opportunity to serve our country. Should your administration require any further advice, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely, Your Obedient Servants, Bybee & Co.

I have to think that although Cheney and others implicated in approving torture are playing a bold game and remain defiant, that they are running scared and probably not sleeping well, taking tranquilisers and antidepressants etc.

If any of us, even if we were completely innocent of any crime, knew that we had been sentenced to death in a far-off country that has no capacity to extradite us, it would certainly prey on our minds.

Think how much worse it must be for the torture gang, knowing that any attempt to travel abroad could easily lead to arrest and a possible death sentence.

No, they are not sleeping well.

...for taking time out from their busy schedule of hunting, studying, court appearances and so on to travel all the way to Los Angeles to be interviewed by L. King. I fully understand their resentment at having their soiled undergarments washed in public and pray that, having now cleared the air with a tough cross examination by Larry King, they will now be able to hunt, study, and appear in court undisturbed.

But it sounds a little odd to me that the son of an unmarried couple would have his last name listed as the father's name on the birth certificate. Can anyone confirm if this is kosher in Alaska or other states? Even odder if the mother's family could then change the child's name without the consent of the father, though King seemed to think this is possible.

Glad to hear he lost the ring when hunting. Beaver, most likely.

He is a good looking young fellow... and with this TV exposure a good speech writer, and a voice coach, he could be well set for a political career.

However it does disturb me a bit that he refers to his son Tripp as this baby. Has he forgotten the name?

Oh, I don't know. If a special prosecutor could be appointed to investigate things as trivial as Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky giving blow jobs in the bathroom of the Oval Office without the country falling apart, then why not appoint one to investigate real crimes with real victims? Texas might secede, but I doubt it, because secession of Texas dooms the Republicans for ever.

How many of you str8 guys have had a mmf threesome, or participated in a gang bang? If these aren't bisexual acts I don't know what would qualify.

Never. I have had several mff threesomes, and even a mfff foursome, so maybe I am not fully qualified to comment.

However, in my experience of threesomes a mff threesome is often really just the same as an mf, only with more hands, (due to factors like hygiene and jealousy).

So I would think that in an mmf threesome, it would be much more likely that the two guys would take turns with the woman than that they would be intimate with each other. The reason for this is that a str8 man may agree to participate in a threesome with a couple so that he can have sex with the woman, which he would not otherwise be able to do.

As far as protocols for gang bangs, I bow to the greater knowledge of other Salon readers.

Sex is so sordid, isn't it?

Saying that you believe marriage should only be between and guy and a gal is an acceptable point of view, but giving as your supporting reason the fact that you were raised that way betrays a lack of thoughtfulness about one of the hottest topics of the day.

Having said that, asking a Ms. California about same sex marriage is a bit like asking Ms. North Carolina about her views on smoking cigarettes, or Ms. Florida about Medicare fraud, so maybe the fix was in when it came to determining the questions.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the history of torture used by the US government is that its architects, people like Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have generally been hailed as great intellects, and yet some of the things they have done have been utterly stupid.

Perhaps Obama's strategy is not so much to reveal their evilness as their dumbness.

... I think Cheney may have lost his marbles, and may have been losing them for a long time.

Certainly his recent statements about his request for release of memos showing the success of torture seem quite absurd. Cheney has a history of cardiac problems and bypasses and quite conceivably may have suffered from lack of oxygen to the brain at some point in time.

I could be wrong, but time will tell.

Maybe the CIA are very happy indeed to be out from under the thumb of a madman.