Instead, what we have is a flawed document that in fact betrays the best instincts of some of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle - those who worked in a bipartisan fashion in the Armed Services Committee to craft a bill that we could have been proud of. And they essentially got steamrolled by this Administration and by the imperatives of November 7th.

That is not how we should be doing business in the U.S. Senate...

http://obamaspeeches.com/092-Military-Commission-Legislation-Obama-Speech.htm

(Some interesting thoughts about innocent people being "locked away forever" in this speech, too.)

White House Press Briefing, 6/16/09

Q Why would the President have any objection to the public knowing who is coming in here to visit?

MR. GIBBS: I think we've taken actions to let people know who are. I think again, Peter, this dates back to litigation long before we ever showed up.

Q Do you think you might have to uphold precedent here, possibly?

MR. GIBBS: That's part of what's being reviewed by the Counsel's Office.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Briefing-by-White-House-Press-Secretary-Robert-Gibbs-6-16-09/

This seems to support that...

The government has already lost two rulings by a federal judge in the case involving White House visitor records during the Bush years. That case was still pending when Obama took office, and his Justice Department has been instructed to continue the fight started by Republicans. The Obama administration is arguing that the White House visitor logs are presidential records, and thus not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Obama_to_Keep_White_House_Visitor_List_Secret__Just_Like_Bush_90617

I don't think Obama's definition of transparency is my definition of transparency. His seems to be that it's okay to keep secrets as long as one is open about it.

I can't believe it. Well, yes I can. Thanks for finding it.

rrheard: The House still needs to vote on S.1285. Lieberman & Graham had introduced the amendment to the Travel Promotion Act on Tuesday. (S.1023: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.01023: and S.AMDT.1315 http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2009_record&page=S6663&position=all).

There was a cloture vote on that bill the same day and the photo amendment didn't make it. It turns out that it didn't need to, because the deal for the stand-alone had been worked out. Here's yesterday's spittle from Lindsay Graham, Joe Lieberman, & Barack Obama:

GRAHAM: I have been promised two things that were important to me to remove my holds and to let the supplemental go without objection. No. 1, there would be a freestanding vote on the Lieberman-Graham amendment, the legislative solution to this lawsuit. The Senate has previously allowed this legislation to become a part of the supplemental war funding bill. It would prevent the disclosure of these photos for a 3-year period. If the Secretary of Defense said they were harmful to our national security interests, it could be renewed for 3 years. Senator Reid has indicated to me that before July 8 we will have a chance to vote on that provision as a freestanding bill, which I think will get the Senate back on record in a timely fashion before the next court hearing.

Secondly, I wanted to be assured by the administration that if the Congress fails to do its part to protect these photos from being released, the President would sign an Executive order which would change their classification to be classified national security documents that would be outcome determinative of the lawsuit. Rahm Emanuel has indicated to me that the President is committed to not ever letting these photos see the light of day, but they agree with me that the best way to do it is for Congress to act.

So in light of that, I am going to remove my hold on the bills I have a hold on, and I will support the supplemental. Because I think it is very important for our soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines--anybody deployed--civilian contractors and their families to know there is a game plan. We are going to support General Petraeus and General Odierno and all our combat commanders to make sure these photos never see the light of day. I think we have a game plan that will work. It starts with a vote in the Senate. I am urging the House to take this up as a freestanding bill. There were 267 House Members who voted to keep our language included in the supplemental. It was taken out. I am very disappointed that it was taken out, but we now have a chance to start over and get this right sooner rather than later.

With that understanding, that we are going to get a freestanding vote on the Lieberman-Graham amendment and that the administration will do whatever is required to make sure these photos never see the light of day if Congress fails to act, I am going to lift my hold on all the legislation and support the supplemental. I look forward to taking this matter up as soon as possible.

[Page: S6691] GPO's PDF: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2009_record&page=S6691&position=all