Torturers and supporters blame Pelosi for not stopping them

"There's nothing wrong with torture, but Nancy Pelosi knew about it!"

Never underestimate the ability of conservatives to torture logic. Let's go to the MoDo:

(A) lot of the hoo-ha around Pelosi makes it sound as if she knew stuff that no one else had any inkling of, when in fact the entire world had a pretty good idea of what was happening. The Bushies plied their dark arts in broad daylight. Besides, the question of what Pelosi knew or didn’t, or when she did or didn’t know, is irrelevant to how W. and Cheney broke the law and authorized torture.

B-B-B-But Nancy was briefed. Indeed she was -- though the details of precisely what remain cloudy. The timing isn't in dispute, however: It was 2002. And Nancy Pelosi was the ranking minority member of the House Intelligence committee. Dennis Hastert was Speaker. Porter Goss (he went on to head the CIA, you will recall) was the chairman of that committee. Hastert lobbies for the Turkish government now, and Goss is "an active speaker on the lecture circuit".

Pesky things, them facts.

If we actually had did have a "liberal" media, it wouldn't be necessary for bloggers to point out hypocrisy this vile.

Now let's be clear: I don't like Pelosi. I think she is far too politically calculating and prevaricating for my approval. And I frankly consider her to be a lousy leader of Congressional Democrats. (I'll have a post later today that goes into greater detail about my personal beef with Madam Speaker.)

But that the Republicans have raised their collective voices to a screech about her as the issue is nothing more than the same old shit from them.

"Please stop torturing us, Dick!"

Calvin Borel's Triple Crown

Calvin Borel atop Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra, the first female to win the race since 1924.

The last leg of racing's Triple Crown runs in three weeks at New York's Belmont race track. And whether or not he rides Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird -- whose late charge nearly clipped Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness -- Calvin Borel has already won life's race.

“You don’t forget the people who brung you here,” Borel said. “Just cause I’ve gotten on a million-dollar horse doesn’t mean I can’t still get on a $5,000 one.” ...

It has been the rhythm of his life since he began his apprenticeship in Vinton, La., where Cecil had a stable of 60 horses at Delta Downs. Borel remains Boo, short for Boo-Boo, which his parents, Clovis and Ella, thought they had made when their fifth son was born. On the racetrack, he is called Bo-Rail for his insistence on taking the shortest route.

Borel learned the business from the ground up, mucking out stalls, changing horses’ bandages, rubbing their legs, working them out in the mornings and racing them in the afternoons. Fourteen-hour days were the norm, and Cecil was a demanding teacher.

“We didn’t have much book education,” Cecil Borel said. “But we’ve worked very hard. I’m proud that Calvin has earned everything he’s gotten.”

When Borel broke ribs, punctured a lung and had his spleen removed after a spill at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, La., Cecil was among the first to comfort him. When Borel returned to the track, however, Cecil put him on the same horse, a filly named Miss Touchdown, for his first race.

They won.

Sunday Funnies