No Balm in Gilead
I’ve been running from this picture for a week now.
It’s a photograph of the signing ceremony for the new torture bill. The bill legalizes torture, including rape, and denies due process to anyone the President declares an enemy of the state. Which, of course, could be anyone.
Look how happy they are. Look at their smiles. What are they thinking? Deutschland über alles?
Notice the sign attached to the front of the desk: Protecting America. I think this is the first American administration to use captions. Obviously the hope is that people will believe the caption and not what’s actually happening, which is almost always the exact opposite of what the caption says.
Like “Work Means Freedom.” That sort of thing.
My friends and readers, this picture depresses the living shit out of me. It captures in a single image the essence of banal evil that has gripped our nation. Not banal if you’re strapped to a torture table, of course, but banal for the millions of Americans who slap flag decals on their cars and wear Support Our Troops pins and believe, somehow actually believe, that George W. Bush is a nice man. A patriotic man. Just protecting America.
So a week ago I looked at this picture, and tried to write something, and couldn’t. I fled, instead, to France. (Where else?) Thank you all for accompanying me on that little divertissement. It was fun, wasn’t it? The guessing game, the prizes.
Over the weekend I continued to escape by hanging out on other feminist blogs, hoping for a little emotional solace. Mistake. I love and respect my sister bloggers, but for some reason the feminist-leftist blogosphere has been beset with nasty infighting for months now. The nastiness culminated a few days ago in a bizarre episode at Feministe that was so wrong in so many ways I thought we’d reached some kind of blogular nadir, our own digital Death Valley.
Until someone threatened to murder Chris Clarke’s dog.
25 Responses to “No Balm in Gilead”
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Burrow says:
And Kate at Cruella-blog wondered why I am so paranoid. I should not read blogs before bedtime.
God, Chris I am so sorry. It is a horrible person indeed who needs to hurt a helpless creature. I hope it’s only temporary, and that that person meets the business end of a really vicious dog.
October 24th, 2006 at 4:28 am EST -
Dlunch says:
I think it was Carol Pateman speaking at a lecture in London recently who said: while we were arguing over essentialism–they stole the country.
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Dlunch says:
What seems strange to us, that many many more people are not shocked or worried about the loss of their fundamental rights, has to been seen as an indication of the confidence that white male privilege feels -it can rest assured in its rightful place, it feels no threat from this particular legislation after all this legislation refers to brown people doesn’t it? A glance around that signing table confirms them in this cozy view. On the other hand, Black American men, and women have never felt such confidence in their status being confirmed by these rights we are losing—after all they have been arbitrarily fitting the description for years.
What is lost, however, is more than just these rights, its the glue that holds America as a nation together. You were so right when you said this is what we were taught in school that was important, that made us a country we should be proud of, even when we sometimes did things wrong or made serious mistakes. Still, there existed some fundamental premise that the whole project of America rested on something good..if our rights were infringed upon we could scream for them, demand them, if someone was left out we should insist they were included–but now there is nothing to demand because those rights have been taken away…
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liberata says:
So a week ago I looked at this picture, and tried to write something, and couldn’t. I fled, instead, to France. (Where else?)
For most of my life, I too have escaped to une France imaginaire when this American life got too gray, too much buying-and-selling, too moche .
Hélas, il n’y a pas de paradis sur terre, gamine … as I’ve discovered. But at least the French learned their lesson about torture with Algeria.
bonne journée !
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Infidel says:
How soon might the first of many cases be brought to the Supreme Court to challenge a bill that trashes the bill of rights?? There is hope!
It is an unconstitutional bill, isn’t it? Looked at by the greatest legal minds on the planet and the highest court in the land it couldn’t be found to be anything but unconstitutional. Look for a “test case” to be brought to the Supreme Court by the administration to “challenge” the constitutionality of the bill, that is lame and would serve to protect an actual criminal and actually endanger thousands of innocents and that will end up supporting and vindicate the passage of the torture bill and show it’s obvious constitutionality- it will be fast tracked and brought to the “Supremes” before a decent and irrefutable case can wind it’s way up through lower courts. -
gordo says:
Infidel–
It’s not clear who has standing to appeal a case to the Supreme Court. As I understand it, the law doesn’t require the government to give any “enemy combatant” a hearing.
Still, I have to think that a lot of aspects of the bill will be challenged, which is why it was so important to block Alito’s nomination. This is exactly why I think those spineless Democrats who voted for cloture on the nomination stabbed their own country in the back.
Did Lieberman think that Bush wouldn’t try something like this? Did Cantwell think that Bush wouldn’t try to take advantage of having 3 full-on fascists on the court? Did Byrd imagine that Bush coudl be trusted to protect our liberties?
If not, how could they go along with Alito?
And don’t even get me started on the ones who voted for the torture law itself.
Violent–
I saw the message from Chris Clarke, and it made me a bit sick. Kind of strange that it happened right after he said he’d fold his blog at a moment’s notice if he thought it was the right thing to do.
Here’s hoping that he’ll start blogging again soon.
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Infidel says:
There are three constitutional standing requirements:
Injury: The plaintiff must have suffered or imminently will suffer injury – an invasion of a legally protected interest which is concrete and particularized. The injury must be actual or imminent, distinct and palpable, not abstract.
LIKE TORTURE
Causation: There must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of, so that the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant and not the result of the independent action of some third party who is not before the court.
BEING A PERSON SUSPECTED OF TERRORISM
Redressability: It must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that a favorable court decision will redress the injury
HAVING THE RIGHT OF HABEAS CORPUS
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Txfeminist says:
Wow, that’s horrible . Both Torture President and the dog threat. yuk.
I hope Faultine comes back. Don’t let the bullies win, Chris. Track the IP address, and press charges. I am so sorry.
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Paul Tergeist says:
I have been missing recently because we have had a major earthquake followed the next day by floods and the most violent thunderstorms in living memory. Of course none of this is important except as we can spin it to blame the patriarchy.
I mentioned many months ago that Iran was going to be a nuclear threat almost immediately and that NO ONE who has not served in combat should ever be allowed to send men into combat, especially someone who was “privileged”, because they had no grasp of the horrors of war. I was soundly rebuked by the liberals who insisted that only civilians could possibly be Commanders-in-chief because otherwise our rights under the Constitution might be eroded. So, now that we have no rights and the Constitution has been abolished, what say ye?
By the way, the war is costing $6,300 per SECOND; four times the additional cost needed to provide health insurance for all uninsured Americans for the next decade and 1,600 times Mr. Bush’s financing for his vaunted hydrogen energy project.
Social Security will be bankrupt by the time I am 67 and can collect it in 10 years. America will be a third-world country, global warming will have caused a mass-extinction event well before 2,100, and….
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Violet says:
Paul, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything about the earthquake. I was thinking about the torture bill and then I was in France. I hope you and yourn are all okay.
I still do not think the Presidency should be limited to combat veterans. That restricts the pool of potential Presidents unnecessarily and unfairly. No handicapped people, no women for at least a generation from now, no one at all who hasn’t been a combat soldier. That’s ridiculous.
Where I would focus is on restricting the power of the Presidency. If we can get control of the country back, we need to radically restrict this Imperial Presidency. We need to make changes to our political system so that rich white twits don’t have a lock on the Oval office, and don’t then have the power to ravage the world and squander our soldiers’ lives at will.
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Paul Tergeist says:
Unfortunately I must agree to compromise with you and I do. Historically, presidents who have been to war don’t start wars, but I concur that we must not leave out the privileged rich who aspire to high office and usually buy their way into it. After all, that is the American way.
It is fortunate that we can still successfully vote posers out of office, but it is disheartening that there are no ‘real’ candidates anymore, just talking heads….with the possible exception of Barack Obama who gets my vote by default.
When voting no longer works we will be faced with an armed overthrow of the government. Not if, but when.
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Violet says:
Hey, Creek Running North (Chris Clarke) is back! And Zeke has addressed his tormenters in verse.
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Veronica says:
What scares me is wondering when/where/if the country is going to bottom out…
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Ann Bartow says:
Hi Violet,
There is a possibility I am going to stop by and thank you every day for the rest of my life or yours, which ever is longer (friggin’ lawyers). You put yourself out for me, and got pounded on yourself a little in the process. You are pretty special.
best,
Ann -
Violet says:
You put yourself out for me, and got pounded on yourself a little in the process.
All I did was ask some questions to sort out what happened. Actually I still don’t know exactly what happened, but there’s enough confusion that it seems like a big part of it may have been some misunderstanding. Several other people in the thread made a similar point, so there’s no need to single me out for thanks!
I don’t remember getting pounded…
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Violet says:
..if our rights were infringed upon we could scream for them, demand them, if someone was left out we should insist they were included–but now there is nothing to demand because those rights have been taken away…
Exactly. I feel a gaping terror, a sense of having the rug pulled out from under us, the ground cracked open under our feet.
Here’s something I keep wanting to ask: when will this bill be repealed? What will it take? Not just a simple majority in both houses of Congress, but enough voting power to overturn an inevitable veto by Bush. If Democrats win control of Congress, does the will exist to repeal this law? Must we await a Democratic President and a Democratic majority in both houses?
The Nazis took power by legal means, you know. The Reichstag Fire Decree, the Enabling Act — all that was legal. That’s exactly what’s happening here.
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Paul Tergeist says:
Blame yourself. Liberals got too liberal and decided that the people shouldn’t have civil rights anymore because big brother would protect them. So they started with gun registration and it progressed to the disarming of a large part of the nation. But it was a bad idea. See, the cops can’t protect you and the court system won’t. By the time the police arrive you have already been raped and murdered and the only one who could have prevented it was YOU, by not believing that you live in a world of fair play and civilization and accepting responsibility for your own protection and liberty.
Now that the asswipe liberals have gutted the right we used to have to keep and bear arms, it’s pretty simple for whoever is in power to just cancel the constitution, isn’t it. The government reads your email and listens to your phone calls, and taxes you just enough that everyone almost has everything they need, but to get health insurance or take that vacation, you have to put in overtime instead of sitting around city hall discussing why your rights have dissolved and your son is laying dead in the sand in Iraq. And now, if you DO complain, you are a terrorist and can disappear. Shades of The Shah! Of Papa Doc! Of Idi Amin! Of Saddam Hussein! Of George Bush! We have met the enemy and he is us.
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Ann Bartow says:
Sorry – I wasn’t trying to presume or intimate that you held any particular views on anything. I just meant your willingness to ask questions set you apart. It’s very easy to just look away. Okay, last comment I promise! Take good care.
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Infidel says:
The Shah. The fucking Shah. If your not with me, your against me, and now if your against me your with the terrorists, and if your with the terrorists you are subject to detention and torture at my discretion. The fucking Shah. Has anyone declared war? War powers act without war? We have reached a rendezvous with destiny, the combined congress, myself, and the joint chiefs of staff have concluded that a state of WAR exists between the United States and uh.. whomever George Bush decides is an enemy combatant. A shining example of Democracy. Shining like Zekes’ effluence.
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Paul Tergeist says:
Infidel, if you weren’t a man-bashing feminazi I’d ask you out for a date. Violet is moderately cute but wishy-washy. You don’t hold back and I like that.
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Infidel says:
I imagine Violet if she hadn’t taken the trip to Paris and it isn’t pretty
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Paul Tergeist says:
Infidel, you talk like a lawyer and I’ll bet you are good in a knife fight. Dya want to come to Hawaii and do some pro bono work?
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Infidel says:
In Hawaii I’d spend all my time seeking insects. The little suckers never cease to amaze me. They are so weird and diverse. Hawaiian flora and fauna, just the jewels in the crown of life- gotta go to Hawaii, gotta make it there before I die.
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Violet says:
Oh, Ann, I wasn’t trying to run you off. Sorry if I sounded ungracious, which I guess I did. I just meant that I don’t feel like I did anything special or particularly deserving of thanks.
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Infidel says:
If the congress were doing appropriate oversight it seems obvious with the flood of intel now gushing into the CIA and NSA and military intellegence due to the great effectiveness of legal torture and the overwhelming numbers of detainees, that those intellegence agencies could disband their useless and megacostly spy satelites, listening devices, and silly computers- let ‘em have torture but lets not pay for these frivoluous and needless accessories, they weren’t good enough in the past and now that we have torture we don’t need them. Sell them and don’t buy anymore. Oh. and quit paying off informers- we won’t need them either, plus we can cut back on having experts in forensics and social sciences, politics and diplomacy. If the efficacy of torture is so laudable let it be depended on for security and savings.
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