From the Macon Telegraph:

Last Wednesday, the Senate voted 90 to 9 to attach an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that prohibits abuse and torture of prisoners detained by the military or other U.S. agencies. It would forbid “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment that has been alleged recently by various organizations, including the Red Cross and the U.S. Army, at prison camps in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Mr. Bush hopes to kill the measure in the House, where the administration is lobbying the leadership. But failing that, he threatens to use the first veto of his presidency to bring down the measure.

It would be more than a shame; it would be nothing less than a national disgrace, if it comes to this. The thought of the president of the United States fighting tooth and nail to maintain the right for our military and the CIA to torture prisoners flies in the face of everything this country stands for.

If they get it down in southern Georgia, they get it everywhere. The President has been infatuated with torture since he was a child:

:::flip:::

“one of the local rituals for children was the meetings with cookies and milk at the home of a nice old lady who represented the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The cookies were digested more thoroughly than the teachings.

”We were terrible to animals,” recalled Mr. Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush home turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out.

”Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,” Mr. Throckmorton said. ”Or we’d put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.”

Such a sweet child, our President. But we here at the Frog Pond don’t take kindly to being sniped at and blown up with firecrackers.

The fate of the amendment will be decided in joint House-Senate conference. Senator Ted Stevens, who voted against the bill, will try to tinker with the language. His counterpart, Representative Bill Young, will oppose it outright.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, will take the lead for the Senate in negotiations as chairman of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee. Although Stevens supports the intent of McCain’s provision, he voted against it because he fears that it’s too broad. He plans to tweak it during negotiations.

“I do not intend to change anything he says. I intend to add to it to make sure that those people that are involved in intelligence work and are involved in difficult circumstances, say behind enemy lines, are judged by the circumstances they face,” Stevens said.

His House counterpart, Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., is likely to challenge him.

Young questioned whether Al-Qaida and its allies should be protected under the Geneva Conventions that bar mistreatment of prisoners of war, given that the terrorist network was not a party to that agreement.

“We have an obligation to obtain as much intelligence information as we can from prisoners to save the lives of Americans who are fighting the fight,” Young said. “I don’t believe we have any obligation to these terrorists.”

No. You don’t have an obligation to the terrorists, you have an obligation to me, and to all Americans, including our troops…you flaming wingnut.

If you want to tell Bill Young what you think of his policy of torturing people, you can email him here: Bill.Young@mail.house.gov

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