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Long day at work, when legal memos supporting torture — and I can hardly type that — became public showing new depths of depravity of the Bush/Cheney Administration.
So I thought I would get away from things, go for a nice long neighborhood walk. The first neighbor I see, asks ‘What’s wrong?’ and I realize I have leaky eyes. Tough day at work, I say, hope you are well.
The next neighbor: ‘Hey are you ok?’ and I realize that multitasking today means walking and crying at the same time.
I shared that our staff is hurting from seeing legal memos justifying – almost inviting – torture. This is done in our name. We have worked to elect a different team for the government; we knew the Bush/Cheney administration did bad things, and yet…to see this in writing, from LAWYERS…it is egregious. It is too much. They went too far.
I realized that the neighbors had never seen me cry before. Not from divorce, not from being lonely in a new place, not from other losses. But THIS – this makes my eyes overflow, in public, in a way I have not done since my father died. My father, city prosecutor, HLS, who deeply believed in the rule of law.
Our national honor has nearly died. I hope and pray we can restore it.
*****
crossposted at the home blog mcegregious
photo by margaretv
26 Comments
A moving post. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Beard5–infrequent commenter
Thank you Beard.
I wonder about the people who read this and don’t feel sad. Good Diary Egregious real good.
As journalists we try to be professional and cover stories dispassionately. But every once in a while it just spills over. Thanks, Things.
You have spoken for so many of us. I want to scream until the world hears: “This is not us. We have learned.”
But if we do not enforce our law, our law is meaningless.
Karen
Thanks Pierce Aero – we hope the world heard us in the election of a new team. But it’s important that the new team takes action.
A moving post. I hope its feelings are shared and replicated from the Back Bay to the Bay Area.
These memos should be cause for coming together. They are not partisan in the traditional sense. They are not Republican or Democrat, big city or rural, North or South, East Coast or West, right or left.
These memos are the shadow of evil. The bureaucratese merely institutionalizes and perpetuates it. It doesn’t cleanse it or make it comforting or acceptable or even tolerable.
Mr. Obama perforce is our national spokesperson, national pastor in times of trouble. He should be ashamed to be doing damage control with pat phrases like “reflection, not retribution”. He should be telling us this is one issue we can ALL come together on because it is truly transpartisan.
This is about who we are and who we are not. We.Are.Not.This.
Thank you earlofhuntingdon. The reaction I got from even conservative neighbors is telling. Revulsion against torture might be something close to universal.
The actions themselves were unadulterated evil. The attempts by lawyers to paper this over, to provide a thin veneer of social approval for these heinous acts, is what I find most painful.
People may act badly in the moment; but to take the time to reflect and STILL find these actions tolerable — it is too much. It is the difference between manslaughter and murder.
Situation ethics at its apogee.
Puppies and gardens cannot compensate for lack of moral fiber.
thanks egregious for putting into words what i’ve been feeling. it’s deeply disturbing what our government has come to. i’ve been sad, depressed and angry. obama is following his fisa path on this one. and it’s so disheartening to see it. there’s sleeves to be rolled up and work to be done, but not today.
Sometimes you just have to lie down and bleed for a while. But then we will get up and fight again.
Only indictments and impeachments will dry my tears.
We must punish the evildoers in our midst. Or we have become them.
You too, Barack and Eric.
((Egregious)), if you were here I’d offer you my shoulder to cry on – and I’d cry on yours.
I agree it’s the full thought process that went into the preparation of the torture memos that makes them so evil – or sinful, if you like.
Pres. Obama is in a tough place. He has a good deal of support that gets little coverage in the MSM. Yesterday’s demonstrations were an indication of how the racial issue is still very much with us. BHO is surely aware that a hard-core of racial bigots will never accept him as leader of this country. He may even have enemies in the inner circle, a position he put himself in so he could show bipartisanship. He’ll be criticized no matter what he does. And who knows whether he’s getting sage advice on how to deal with all things Bush/Cheney/ + + .
If John Edwards or some other white person were Prez, he’d still be criticized, but he might be able to move toward Justice and the Rule of Law. The racial issue compounds the problem for BHO, and it’s not just for his administration: it could totally divide the country – again. I don’t know how the Federal Govt. could deal with that.
I want Justice too, as we all do. BHO’s job is a truckload of problems requiring tough decisions. Add in a few nasty complications. … I can’t imagine who’d want his job.
Thank you, {{{egregious}}}. I can hardly see the screen, seems like there’s a river in front of it. This is torture of the Soul which is not of our own making. We share your deep, deep wound.
Obama may not be aware of it yet (I suspect he is) but he crossed his own Rubicon today. Holder may have crossed his quite some time ago.
I cannot justify what these sad lawyers wrote. The only way I can put my mind around it is to suspect that some or all of them are on some level sexual sadists. The way that these tortures are described sounds like pornography to me and I can see them sitting there excitedly writing each little detail, perhaps even allowing themselves a little giggle every now and then.
Ah….”We don’t (fill in the blank)”? Remember THAT one? The list of things that our government once did, did for a whole long time, and perhaps continues to do grows ever longer. The evidence this week in those memos shows me that there was a point fairly early in the Bush game where they decided that they lived in an entirely different country than the rest of us. That THEY were the ‘owners’ of the United States and could do whatever they pleased and that the rest of us were political prisoners in some sort of outdoor refugee camp …only we didn’t know it. It is not only the rest of the world that we must convince that we don’t do this sort of stuff – that this is just totally wrong…it is ourselves as well.
Many of us share your grief for our country, egregrious.
To me, the biggest frustration is that tears usually are cathartic and a signal that there is realization of what has been done on the part of those who are responsible. Tragically, those tears have not been shed by those responsible for this grave injustice. When our tears mingle with those of the parties who led our country to depravity then we will finally be on the road to setting things right.
(((egregious))), I wish my doorbell was in your neighborhood.
Have Shoulder- Will Travel. As long as it takes, doesn’t matter.
I prolly should’ve walked yesterday instead of banging head on desk.
I thought the *head desk* times were over and done.
C’mon Mr. President, time to show us the real magic.
thank you e. I too cried, feel sick to my stomach and am so deeply disappointed in Obama, Holder, Panetta. Obama “this is a time for reflection not retribution”
What the hell did Obama and Holder mean when they have endlessly said that “no one is above the law” I have now heard Obama use words like “retribution, blame, witch hunt, vengeance” instead of Justice or Accountability.
I realize that the over a thousand hours that I put in for Obama were a waste a real waste. Oh yes I am aware of the focus on womens wages, health care, access to a higher education, non-proliferation, organic gardens at the white house, etc etc. How can any of this matter when our nation sold it’s soul to the devil during the Bush administration and Obama and Holder will not call in the exorcist. Obama says time to “turn the page, move forward, dark chapter of our history” he may try to pull this off but he is dragging a nation of zombies behind him.
Have a big ol cyber-hug: {{{{{{{egregious}}}}}}
I know just how you feel. This is so devastating to our image of ourselves as Americans. These f**kheads went and did this, not because they needed to, but because they wanted to. They wanted to show what tough bad asses they were. All they achieved is shaming our entire nation and perhaps significant permanent damage to our system of justice.
The worst is that the memos are NOT the most appalling part of all of this–the most appalling part is the President’s refusal to enforce the laws and punish the torturers.
The “memos” and “opinions” are just crude pornography. Horrifying, but, in their way, childish and gloating. Mr. Holder’s announcement was, on the other hand, truly horrifying. This is what the “banality of evil” is all about. Ultimate evil without the decency to be obscene. Evil as policy, expedient, good politics.
Well, I am not so sure about that.
Here is the thing, there is some good case law to indicate if the people carrying out the torture were given advice (good or bad)AND it has to do with National Security, they will get a pass from the Federal Courts for their acts. This happened to two of the Watergate burglars.
Now we can say it is is wrong (it is) but it is also the way the law was when they commited their torture, and the Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws, so they are going to get away with it.
Since prosecution would not work, the Administration gets a couple of things by saying this: they calm down the intellegence community, but more importantly they short circut any reasonable resistance from those who got the orders to fully discussing it with investigators. This makes it more likely not less the criminals in the Bush Adminsitration will be prosecuted.
It is less than ideal, but hardly evil.
(((greege)))
we need to remind Obama & crew that all crimes occur in the past. And the time to make it right is now. To protect our future.
Love ya, egreege. And my wish is that all Americans feel our grief and join with us to make it right. Right now.
The nicknames you guys have for me crack me up. Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and virtual hugs.
Thank you so much for writing this. It lives in us all.
You’re not alone. The sheer horror at reading such brazen, obscenely inhumane language from supposedly responsible adults. We didn’t know for sure before, but now we do. There has to be an accounting for these despicable policies that were hiding behind the actions. Those who crafted the policies knew what they did. Their actions are unconscionable. Yes. They bring tears here also, many times over. Often we just have to stop what we are doing and take a moment to grieve openly.
There is no way to undo what has happened, but there are laws and there should be justice brought to bear.