McCain wins on Torture Ban?

This is great news. I'm not really surprised that the White House caved on this after yesterday's vote in the House, but I'll be really curious to hear the announcement to see if McCain won on the provision regarding this defense for CIA personnel.

(AP) WASHINGTON - After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday.

(Later) It's official. Both sides have announced an agreement, and the CIA defense provison stayed in. McCain got everything. He didn't have to give up on one point from what I've read so far. WaPo version, NYTimes version. Nothing further in either one.

And just as an aside, as a commenter pointed out a couple of days ago, how far has the great ideal of America fallen that we're ecstatic about this?

Sort of Related: Today is the first day of the window in which to expect a ruling on releasing the rest of the Abu Ghraib materials, photos, videos, reports, etc. I don't remember the window dates specifically, I just remember the irony that the first possible ruling date was on the day of the Iraqi elections.

And, while I'm at it. This is totally unrelated, but it made me laugh out loud. A letter from the "War on Christmas."