As many reading this may already know, the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4310) was passed by the House, 299-120, on Friday afternoon, despite threats earlier in the week from the White House to veto it for a variety of reasons. 77 Democrats voted FOR the bill in tandem with 222 Republicans.
However, due to the timing of a last-minute, exceptionally-Orwellian amendment to the NDAA -- one that makes it officially sanctioned and legal for our government to LIE to us as it pretty much deems it necessary -- which made it into the final, approved version of the bill, hours before its passage, perhaps the biggest reason for vetoing the bill has gone largely unnoticed by the MSM and most of the blogosphere, as the administration remains focused on back-to-back G-8 and NATO meetings at Camp David and in Chicago, respectively, through the weekend. (More about this draconian exercise in totalitarianism, down below. But first, a little more background.)
(NOTE: A big h/t to Kossacks Quasimodal and Jesselyn Radack for bringing this to the community’s attention. See: Quasimodal’s comment in Jesselyn Radack’s post, from a few hours ago. And, as I was writing this, I realized that Kossack Shawn Russell posted the first diary on this story which you may read by clicking HERE.)