file under "wtf?!?"

Something a lot of us might have missed because of the New Year’s holiday (I know I did): When President Bush signed the Defense Appropriations Bill that contained Senator McCain’s so-called “torture ban” amendment, he also issued what is called a “signing statement.”

Now, I like to think I pay attention to the finer points of Washingtonalia, but the concept of signing statements was news to me when I heard about it on Sunday’s All Thing’s Considered. Apparently, though they date back to Andrew Jackson, signing statements didn’t really come into vogue until the second term of the Reagan administration, when Ed Meese ran the Justice Department (is this setting off any alarms? Yeah, me too).

History aside, here’s the bottom line on Bush’s recent signing statement (which was posted on the White House website, but not publicized anywhere else): The president has said in no uncertain terms that even though he signed the torture ban into law, he has no intention of obeying it.

Really. This is not a joke. This is not hyperbole. GWB has explicitly reserved the right to violate the law. And why bother reserving such a gruesome right unless. . . yeah.