DISQUS

Say Anything: Bush Threatens To Veto Defense Spending

  • Gene Redlin · 4 years ago
    Fundamentally on a humanitarian level I'm against torture. I wish we could among ourselves agree NOT to do this. Maybe the Lyndee England thing was a way to say to our soldiers, watch it, there is a line, we won't tell you where it is but there is one, be careful out there.

    What I'm against in this legislation is it takes the teeth out of our ability to extract information from people who make a living out of blowing themselves up.

    My wife works in the local school system. She works with troubled kids. The kids know the rules say that they can't lay a hand on the kid, they can't spank, can't make them stand in the corner on one foot or run laps as punishment. All the teeth have been removed in codicils kids read. So Discipline suffers. They can't yell at them even any more.

    I want it so we know not to do this (torture) but I want the bad guys of Alqueda not to know this. I want them to fear for having their manhood cut off at any time and we get a sharp knife we wave around. It will get so much more info than giving them a time out and withholding the fudge bars on Tuesdays.

    How do you do this? I don't know, but I hope the President has the guts to veto this bill. It's wrong in it's effect, not in it's intent. I mean OK, we'll go along with your lame pick for the supreme court (Mr. President) if you will just tank this lame bill.
  • Sigivald · 4 years ago
    I do wish any of the reports would give us the exact language of the bill, but I've given up expecting that in law reporting in any case.

    I think your commenter is right, though, if that's what the language is; if the bill banned only specific things, or left it up to a Senate committee to decide what to ban and when, with the DoD providing input (as to what they do, why, and what's effective), I couldn't see any plausible objections.

    Sure would be neat to see the exact language, but I'm so sick of using the LOC website to try and look things up ...
  • Dave · 4 years ago
    Who gets to define "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment?
    The Army
    SEC. __. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PERSONS UNDER THE DETENTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.

    (a) IN GENERAL.--No person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.
  • Say Anything » John McCa · 4 years ago
    [...] Previously I suggested that the President should follow through on his threat to veto the defense spending bill currently making its way through Congress if it reaches his desk with the McCain amendment still intact within its pages. [...]