We failed to override the Bush vetoof the law restricting the CIA to the Army Field Manual Techniques.

Update: No one was reading this so I changed the title from Bush: Limiting torture could cost American Lives to the above, a shameless trick for a shameful subject.

Bush said in his radio address this morning he is going 'Unitary' pleasure in vetoing the will of the people:

From President Bush's radio address today, where he announced that he'd vetoed the Senate authorization bill, which would have effectively outlawed waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques for the CIA by limiting the CIA to the Army's guide for interrogations, the Army Field Manual

Contrast earlier Bush:

"The U.S. is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the U.S. and the community of law abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating and prosecuting all acts of torture."

— George W. Bush, U.N. Torture Victims Recognition Day, June 26, 2003{ed. update to correct date}

Graphic material over the jump.

Go to ThinkProgress.org to watch it:

Why was there a collapse on FISA today?  These last few weeks of  kabuki aside (all amendments that mattered needed 60 votes to pass - thanks Harry) there had to be something driving the votes like MONEY beside amnesty (which the telcoms were mute about). Last year I wrote about how the sellout on FISA was advanced sluttery at $.0047 per each American in contributions to Congress.  This election cycle the numbers don't even look that expensive.  Of course I got it wrong. Follow me over the jump to find out how badly I screwed up - and what you should know about Congress and the Telcoms.

Pelosi needs NEEDS to have an opponent in the June primary.  I need YOU, DKOS CA-08 to help out, on the flop.

The 'Publicans sent my husband a "Republican Party Census Document".  Since he has been a registered Democrat for 30 years, he checked his voter registration with the County to make sure he could vote in the Democratic Primary (we have closed primaries in California).  He is still legally a Democrat, so no election fraud is going on (in this case), and we can have fun with poll that has landed in our hands below the fold.

Note: it was legally addressed to him, with all his descriptors, etc., was unsolicited, and was retrieved from his trash.

In 2006 your privacy was worth $.0047 per person assuming 300,000,000 people in America.  For 2007, we don't know yet, but as of right now $28,271,656 means your privacy is now worth $.0094 per person this year, a 150% increase  and growing, by my calculation. Not bad, glad that this right to privacy we hold dear is now worth almost a penny.  The telcos want immunity from on-going and  past crimes, and are willing to pay for it, but there is something pretty frightening going on, after the jump.

it is advanced sluttery.  There is no other word for it. Sluttery.  Your privacy was for sale for $1,425,496,  the total contributions the telcoms made to the Senate in the 2006 election.  You'd think they would show a little more gratitude for the government contracts to supply warrentless wiretap info, the contracts for the 'secret' government network, the favorable rulings to let the Baby Bells get back together, and other projects for which there is scant public documentation. But no, there is no apparent, above board money in it for our Senators. If not money, then who benefits?

Yassir Hamdi was the plaintiff in Hamdi vs. Rumsfeld. Jack Goldsmith was Assistant Attorney General General, office of Legal Counsel (OLC) for nine months from October 6th, 2003 to July, 2004. Hamdi is probably somewhere in Saudi Arabia, if he is alive. Goldsmith wrote The Terror Presidency.

They 'met' on this day, September 26th, in 2002. It was a memorable day in that Goldsmith looked through a  black and white video cam to see Hamdi curled in the fetal position asleep on cot in extreme isolation.  Goldsmith recalled thinking, "this is what habeas corpus is for", which was a major turning point in his very conservative line of thought.

This morning Islamic websites issued a fatwa purportedly from bin Laden himself:

Islamist websites are carrying banners stating: "Soon, God willing: 'Come to Jihad (holy war)', from sheik Usama bin Laden, God protect him... Urgent, Al Qaeda declares war on the tyrant Pervez Musharraf and his apostate army, in the words of Osama bin Laden".

Link.

John Dean thinks that the White House wants a judicial confrontation over the direction to Harriet Meirs to show contempt for Congress by not showing up for her subpoena. Dean thinks the White House will find a conservative federal judge who will say that this is a political confrontation and should be solved in the political, not the judicial, arena.  That would throw the argument back to Congress, set a prescedent that lessens Congressional authority ( the Executive Branch never has to answer a subpoena again), and run the clock towards Jan. 20, 2009.  Dean has a recommendation that might suprise you.

It's Bush. One has to be careful about large pronouncements regarding the State of the Union Address because Bush has a history of lying - WMD and support of science - to mention a couple of standout cases.

So are we going to believe that W is actually going to change the way the U.S. does heath insurance? Jump with me over the chasm and into the pile.

PLEASE UNRECOMMEND THIS DIARY AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE. Thanks. PLEASE UNRECOMMEND THIS DIARY AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE. Thanks. PLEASE UNRECOMMEND THIS DIARY AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE. Thanks. PLEASE UNRECOMMEND THIS DIARY AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ONE. Thanks. Apologies for the quick cut and paste.
Simultaneously on the House and Senate Floor right now they are debating the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the bill the suspends habeas corpus and legalizes torture.

This is turning point in America. Both the House and Senate Bills have been rushed forward with minimal debate.

Watch online on CSPAN  

Call the Capitol switchboard NOW: 800-828-0498 and 800-459-1887

Haynes. Pentagon architect of the torture guidelines that violate both the Military Code of Justice and the Geneva Conventions and current nominee to a lifetime appointment to the  Federal Appeals Court . Hold my hand across the chasm. Update: This is face of a torture enabler. As surely as he sculpted the memos that allowed torture to happen, he allowed the electroshock buttons to be pushed, and the men to be waterboarded. You do not need to see more torture pictures. Take action.

Alameda County had a poll worker emergency announced on the radio. I responded, got interviewed, attended the inspector class and showed up to work at the county court house. Hand counting paper ballots was one of the tasks of the day. Follow me to the follow up.

Alameda County is using paper ballots for the election on Tuesday. 150 poll workers have cancelled their pledge to work.

They still need workers as of 3:30 p.m. PDT. Follow up: