Bush Breaks Out Veto Pen: Waterboarding OK!

The last seven-plus years has been strange and surreal, hasn't it? The so-called conservative party has tossed all of their alleged principles in order to "feel safe," letting George W. Bush and his administration do whatever the heck they wanted, even if it meant letting Bush become a mini-dictator. The formerly Republican-controlled Congress did so little oversight of The Decider, he barely ever needed to break out his veto pen.

Now that we have a (nominally) Democratic Congress, the Commander Guy has deigned to use the pen a little more often. Sometimes he only has to threaten to. But the things he vetoes are so odd. Stem cell research to cure diseases? Children's health care? And he threatened to veto extending the (supposedly vital) Protect America AT&T Bush's Ass Act, because it didn't contain retroactive immunity for telecoms? Now there's this:

[Excerpt]

Bush vetoes bill outlawing CIA waterboarding

President George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques. [snip]

"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said in his weekly radio address. He added that the vetoed legislation "would diminish these vital tools."

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