McCain Votes Against Torture Ban

Thinkprogress.org:

Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, containing a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that establishes one interrogation standard, requiring the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and banning waterboarding.

Just hours ago, the Senate voted in favor of the bill, 51-45.

Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war, has spoken strongly in favor of implementing the Army Field Manual standard. When confronted today with the decision of whether to stick with his conscience or cave to the right wing, McCain chose to ditch his principles and instead vote to preserve waterboarding:

Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted "no" on Wednesday afternoon.

Read the whole story: Thinkprogress.org

Comments

[bikerdude]

We know McCain is insane. The question is, is he a sadist or a masochist? Loving torture after being horribly tortured defies sanity...

[Rumplestiltskin]

Maybe he doesn't like torture cretin?

[forpeace]

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Maverick Fails The Test: McCain Votes Against Waterboarding Ban

............ After Bush vetoes the bill, McCain will again be confronted with a vote to either stand with President Bush or stand against torture...........

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/13/mccain-waterboarding-fail/

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[HumeSkeptic]

Watch this video. And this is the creep who was recently complaining about Romney's flip-flops:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIHHZ59aWoA

[Zhonni]

Good one.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

John McCain once again proves that he is a man without principles and scruples. He wants to become President at any cost. This is a man who has seen first hand the effects of torture and how effective it is. Yet here he is voting against a bill that would ban torture simply because it would earn him brownie points with the sadistic right wing base. He's a conservative alright. No doubt about that.

[iswearington]

just wait untill charlie chaplin..er...er i mean john mccain shows up at his first g8 meeting.the top of the little short shits head will only come up to angela merkels waist. what an embarrasment that will be for this nation.

[Savanarola]

This is the final piece of the McCain character puzzle. He was an unwilling war hero to begin with. It isn't as if he did a heroic act or volunteered to risk his life on a deadly mission...he crashed his plane and was captured and tortured and has since rightly declared that we become like our enemies when we torture. Then this.

This is clear evidence that his "maverick" actions was in each instance self-service and not principled...he shed his party loyalty only when it put his career at risk.

Here is a man who has whored himself to the Shiite wing of his Party now that there's something in it for him. His literal and figurative embrace of George Bush should change his hero image to a traitor's stock. It was he who once bragged that : "I am an Amereican first and a Republican second."

He has now demonstrated in his dotage that he will trade his Country's Moral character and position in the world for the dubious honor of representing the greatest war-mongers and spendthrifts in our sad history.

Here is a man who has writeen his epitaph himself:

HERE LIES A COWARD AND A TRAITOR

[Turnip]

It almost seems as though McCains principles are, like, being pimped out in some weird way.


(oops, i hope i don't get fired now)

[GrouchoMarxist]

ROFL! Good one.

[JaneC]

LMAO

[smokeystover39]

MaKane lost the last shred of credibility he had with this vote. I can't wait until the Hucksterbee calls him on this.... OOPS, I forgot he's not going to say much of anything as long as HE is pandering for the VP spot on the MaKane ticket. They give the world's oldest profession a bad name. C'mon November 08!!!

[jsinclair]

He's shown such hypocrisy before, but this is the worst.

I can't stand McCain, and I'm actually shocked he voted like this. Opposition to torture was his last principled stand.

Now he really is a "Bush Republican".

[Turnip]

Well, at least this will get Rush, Ann and the 'Christian' crowd behind him.

[GrouchoMarxist]

That's what he's going for...pandering to the igits.

[SaviourMachine]

Who function in the single digits.

[researcher]

to get the evangel vote must vote for torture. so much for religion being in line with jesus teachings.

the worst of the worst war mongers are the evangels. go figure.

this man will sell his soul to be pres. he wants a win a war so bad he will do anything or say anything to get to be pres.

at least he picked the right country to fight a war for him as most americans are imperialists and many are war mongers.

until americans wake up to that reality nothing will change in america.

any country that calls their soldiers heros for fighting in illegal wars are imperialists. even obama called mc cain a hero that makes obama an imperialist's like the rest of americans.

nam was an illegal war as is iraq both wars based on lies and american imperialism.

[jagoneely]

Yikes. Calm down. Most Americans are not war mongers. Maybe just most Republicans - get it right will ya. Also, our American soldiers are heroes. They give up a lot, and it's not their fault that their Comm. in Chief is a moron. Many of us are unhappy, and many soldiers are unhappy. Many have given their lives based on a lie. They trusted and were failed. What the hell are you risking whining and blogging on Huffpost? It's easy to judge sitting in a chair in your home. NObody said America is perfect, but we are not imperialists. Maybe some of us, but we're a pretty diverse crowd.

[repubstheirownworstenemy]

McCain's new campaign slogan:

"WAR? MORE YEARS!"

"WAR? MORE YEARS!"

"WAR? MORE YEARS!"

[GrouchoMarxist]

LOL...that would certainly fit the theme of his campaign.

[UpstateNYer]

So much for context...

[HumeSkeptic]

There will be Presidential debates. Waterboarding and national security will come up as questions. ...- Superbus

-------------

Here you idiot, watch this. Would McCain want to talk about waterboarding?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIHHZ59aWoA

[HumeSkeptic]

And here's the Republican record on ational security after seven years in the White House:

- 1.5 TRILLION spent.

-TENS of thousand US soldiers killed and wounded.

- HUNDREDS of thousands civilians KILLED and wounded.

- MORE terrorists now than on 9/11.

-TALIBAN as strong as ever.

-FOUR Iraqi provinces under control of Iran-friendly militias.


I would love to see McCain defend this clusterfuck.

[Superbus]

Taliban is not strong as ever. Before Bush routed them, they ran the government.

In the short run there were more terrorists, but that's no reason to give up like the French did.

Iraq is heading towards democracy, but remember that Iraqis are Arabs and Iranians are Persians. There is a vast difference between the cultures.

[JaneC]

Scroll down the page at Freepers to see the jpg posted there of their own candidate. Then tell shortbus to go over there and bitch.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1960209/posts

[JaneC]

Huffy and the liberal posters are being quite kind by comparison. Go home trolls McLame needs you where it counts!

[GrouchoMarxist]

Yep...they are savaging McCain over there. It's pretty damn funny.

[kevenseven]

I generally avoid going to Freeper for fear of disease.

[forpeace]

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McCane LOVES to stay in Iraq for another 100 years, so he better come up with new Methods of Torture.

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[bikerdude]

This act alone should eliminate him as a presidential candidate. The United States of America is not a torture state. The current president should be impeached for making us a torture state. These folks are just plain nuts in my book. When will this madness stop? When international tribunals convict these perps as war criminals?

[forpeace]

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bikerdude

.....When will this madness stop? When international tribunals convict these perps as war criminals?

==========

Unfortunately there is no STOP to this madness as long as there are Morons out there to support people like Bush and McCane.

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[kevenseven]

See, this is the part you are getting wrong. A good 15% of Americans would be delighted to see muslims, arabs, and assorted brown people tortured on a regular basis. Hell, think of the Roman circuses, the Romans were the most civilized people of the time.

Why should that 15% not be represented in government?

[Savanarola]

Sadly, America IS a torture state- Renditions began under Bill Clinton. My Lai was not a Disney ride. Abu Ghraib was not Magic Mountain. One could mention the documented 143 case of egregious violations of the Geneva Conventions during this Iraq adventure.

AmeriKa has not signed War Criminal Treaties and will not subject itself to the Internation War Criminal Court at the Hague.

Bikerdude, this is your country.

[Superbus]

There will be Presidential debates. Waterboarding and national security will come up as questions.

I can't wait for Americans to hear the weak kneed and appeasement answers of the democrat nominee. The voters will see just how weak the left is when it comes to national defense.

[GrouchoMarxist]

It's the economy, stupid.

[PixieThis]

How will he know? He'll be hiding under mommy's skirts or under the bed, waiting for the 'publicans to save him from the evil shadows.

[SupremeIdiot]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Torture is now our "national defense" policy?

Why not make it our jay-walking prevention policy too?

[AtomicSplash]

You still can't get over how incompetent your guys are at the wheel can you short bus heh heh heh

[forpeace]

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Superbus

I can't wait for Americans to hear the weak kneed and appeasement answers of the democrat nominee......

==========

Great idea!

I can not wait for Americans to see what an Evil this War Loving McCane is.

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[BWonka]

Poor busboy - still wrong, still stupid. But such a good little Rethuglican.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

Since you're a Republican, I'm not surprised that your security expertise is less than nil. To you people, it's just a vote getting sham from terrified lil bunny rabbit types, or simply a source of colossal graft.

Personally, I'd welcome a serious investigations and hearings on our security measures and preparedness. I'm positive there are many seriously disgusted professionals in "Fatherland Security" that will be glad to testify at what a shameful travesty it all is.

Borders are wide open, container loads of stuff go through our ports un-inspected or get "scanned" by machines that don't work run by companies under phenomenally lucrative contracts with built-in swag. Terrorists used to have to try to get onto a plane to kill a planeload of people, but now we've helpfully provided them with a rich unsecured kill zone in airport halls BEFORE the security bottleneck, where multiple plane-loads sit like ducks.

We've prioritized electronics and automation wherever possible, and even where implausible, as opposed to people and brains, because people mean salaries and electronics mean fat contracts and graft (who cares if they work or not?).

It's a shameful friggin' mess, and your Republican pals are laughing all the way to the bank pretending to be "patriots" and to "protect us", when all they've done is inconvenience millions of people to keep up their pretense.

Go screw yourself.

[Not Blind]

While I did not agree with McCain's position on Iraq, and was dismayed at his attempts to derail the investigations into the S&L's back in the 80's (due to his association with Charles Keating), one thing I did admire him for was his stance on torture, and thought he was somewhat honest. Obviously, that illusion is gone. Pandering to the administration and far right wing of his party, which comprises a very small base, compared to moderates, independents and others in this country (over 70% of us) was a gross tactical error on his part. Not only has he betrayed his principles as a man who himself had been tortured, imprisoned for years, and now thinks it's justifiable to do so to others, he might have cost himself the election. His credibility and moderate views were the only thing he had going for him in a race with either Clinton or Obama.

[SaviourMachine]

NotBlind-

Exactly what is moderate about being in Iraq for another hundred years?

What is moderate in wanting to bomb,bomb,bomb Iran?

[Turnip]

It's been obvious for quite some time that McCain secretly supports torture, or we should never have been subject to his tedious campaign in the first place.