United States Senate takes Georgie's toy away

Bush will veto anti-torture law after Senate revolt
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 07/10/2005)

The Bush administration pledged yesterday to veto legislation banning the torture of prisoners by US troops after an overwhelming and almost unprecedented revolt by loyalist congressmen.

Well this is all very fun. It seems that Arizona Senator John McCain, who has actual experience of being, you know, tortured, decided that enough was enough, and that his country didn't really need any more of this. So, he attached this amendment to an appropriations bill designed to pull together some money for the armed forces. The amendment passed, easily, and so did the bill itself. This put George in a bit of a quandary, since vetoing it would mean saying "no" to whole pot of cash that the military apparently needs really badly. So, what to do? Does George keep his right to have dark-skinned foreigners tortured? Or does he take steps to see that the soldiers fighting and dying for their country are better protected? Hmmm. Torture brown people, or save American lives? Well, go back and read the first paragraph again, and you'll see which way Shrub went. Somehow, we're not surprised.

It was a real bad day for George in other ways, as well.