WHATEVER WHITE HOUSE WANTS, WHITE HOUSE GETS:

[rodeodance]

WHATEVER WHITE HOUSE WANTS, WHITE HOUSE GETS:

Hear the one about the intelligence reform legislation that explicitly prohibited intelligence officers from participating in torture? How about the one that "would have required the C.I.A. as well as the Pentagon to report to Congress about the methods they were using"? Showing just how serious it is about reserving the right to do whatever it wants to whomever it wants, the White House pushed for the removal of such restrictions from the final version of last month's intelligence reform bill in spite of the measure already having passed a 96-to-2 vote by the Senate. Letters of opposition from Condoleezza Rice and the Defense Department as well as closed-door negotiations with White House officials all contributed to the removal of the supposedly "unnecessary" restrictions. (Read more about just how "unnecessary" oversight and restrictions would have been.) Former Justice Department lawyer Martin Lederman stated his belief was "that the administration had 'always wanted to leave a loophole where the C.I.A. could engage in actions just up to the line of torture.'"

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=291536

[atommom]

1. Their version of "just up to the line of torture" is more like

our version of actual, totally indefensible torture. What the hell has happened to our country?