Torture directly approved by Bush?

From the ACLU:

A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

I've pretty much given up hope that ANY revelation about the Bushies is going to have any impact on the national unconsciousness. Bob Harris hasn't completely lost hope, however:

The way the public rolled for the "few bad apples" story about Abu Ghraib was one thing. But would middle America really stand for knowing Bush personally authorized torture?

The fact that I don't know the answer is depressing really, since, um, torture ought to be a no-brainer. But so should unnecessary war, billions of dollars for unworkable weapons, and needlessly destroying everyone's Social Security.

But I have a feeling that Bush's name on such an Executive Order, should it exist, would be huge.

He left out outing a CIA agent, stealing two elections, and presiding over the worst terror attack in U.S. history. That W's popularity shot up after that mindboggling debacle says way too much about the collective intelligence of this country. I remember in the summer of 2003, back when I still had some hope, people would ask me why I thought Dennis Kucinich had a chance of getting elected. I would tell them that as time went on, more people would see that the Iraq war was a disaster based on lies, and that they would turn on Bush and any of the Republicrats like Kerry who voted for the war. Unfortunately, H.L. Mencken was right when he said "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." I mistakenly believed that the truth would make a difference. But truth was the first casualty of Bush.