It's P.T. Barnum time on Capitol Hill. The famous circus entrepreneur was once quoted as saying that"there's a sucker born every minute," and that's the only way to justify the bizarre justifications given my members of Congress defending the administration's decision to not release any of the additional photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Among the better excuses mentioned, the prisoner's civil rights (?????) and inciting the enemy (as if that hasn't already happened).

All of this reminds me, strangely, of a book Sam Smith wrote about the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990's with Michael Jordan. In The Jordan Rules Smith recalled an incident at Bulls practice in which Jordan punched out a teammate prompting the Bulls to close practices for"privacy" reasons. His explanation"we can't let people see this stuff."

People have a right to know what government employees are doing to Iraqis we are supposedly trying to help. Failure to release those photos violates the most fundamental duty of an elected government - to be responsible to us, their alleged bosses.