The First Veto. For four and a half years, George Bush has never exercised one of the most powerful of Presidential powers: the veto. Congress has mostly been Bush's loyal accomplice in the pro-wealthy, pro-war agenda of the GOP, so there's simply been no need. That may change. Bush has promised to veto a new bill passed in the Senate, 90-9, which bars the use of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States government." The bill's sponsor, conservative John McCain (who passes for a "moderate" in our backwards, right-tilted world), says the point of the bill is two-fold: 1) send a message to the world that the USA does not tolerate torture and 2) tell our soldiers exactly what kind of conduct is permissible when interviewing detainees. On both points, of course John McCain is correct. Bush doesn't care. His entire foreign policy has been built about not giving one lick about what the world thinks. To him, the only people's opinions who matter are his base of conservative Christian Republicans. Second, Bush doesn't want soldiers to stop using torture. The Bush Administration simply doesn't care or respect the fundamental dignity that every human life has. Despite claiming to be Christians, they violate the tenents of their believes by condoning torture. Torture isn't being kept around because it works. It doesn't. Study after study shows that torture results in bad information. Even if it does work, it's immoral. Torture is being maintained because an old-boys network has always done it that way. The threat of torture, unfortunately, may be seen to serve as a deterrent. Yet another example of why George Bush is a giant hypocrite.