Dick the Prick

...has crawled out from his lair to bask in the temporary media spotlight his Exploding Heads book makes inevitable. Glenn Greenwald, as usual, has the definitive take on this situation, and he is quoted in numerous other articles on the subject 'round the blogosphere, the best of which that I've read are here, here and, most especially, here. Dahlia Lithwick demonstrates why she remains one of the few remaining reasons to read Slate:

It's currently fashionable to believe that political and ideological battles are "real," and it is the law that is empty symbolism. But Cheney stands as an illustration of the real-life, practical value of the law. Torture really did become legal after 9/11, and even after it was repudiated—again and again—it will always be legal with regard to Dick Cheney and the others who perpetrated it without consequence. The law wasn't a hollow symbol after 9/11. It was the only fixed system we had. We can go on pretending that torture is no longer permissible in this country or under international law, but until there are legal consequences for those who order or engage in torture, we will only be pretending. Cheney is the beneficiary of that artifice.