I reckon dubya will sign his torture bill today. Maybe we can get them to declare September 29th a national holiday, in honor of the occasion. Torture, of course, is bad (seems odd to have to actually say that; somewhere along the way, being in favor of peace, civil rights, and the rule of law became subversive), but the most horrible thing to come out of this is the suspension of habeas corpus. To be allowed to imprison somebody without ever bringing charges, and with no hope for judicial review is so vile, so repugnant, so — yes — anti-American that it is beyond words.

To say I feel ashamed of this country seems inadequate. After all, it’s been quite a shameful half-decade in American history. You can point to NAFTA and welfare reform as terrible ideas, but they don’t compare to this. You can describe the failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda (or the bombing campaign in Kosovo, ostensibly done to prevent genocide) as shameful. You can point to exploitation of the poor, opression of minorities, Central American death squads — more offenses against humankind than I have the space (or even the awareness) to fully list here. But to codify the use of torture and permanent imprisonment without the benefit of facing your accusers and without being able to defend yourself against the charges — of even being charged — as US law is beyond shameful. It’s right there with slavery and the 3/5 compromise. I, too, can smell the sulphur.

I imagine I feel, today, the way Otto Wells (leader of the Social Democrats) felt in 1933 when the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving Hitler total power in Germany. I can only echo Wells’ words now:

“We…pledge ourselves solemnly in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible.”

Piss and moan about the Democrats all you want — I find them them spineless and reprehensible in their failure to fight this with every means at their disposal — but never forget who the real culprits are here. It is the Bush administration that has done this to our country, and it is their “enablers” in Congress (including 12 Democratic Senators – if you count Lieberman – and 34 Democratic Congressmen) who have let them do it. They need to be cut out of our government – excised like the cancer they are – whiel we still have some semblance of a democracy left in this country.

In happier news, those of you out in the vicinity of Seattle have four chances to catch Marc this weekend – shows at 8 and 10 tonight and tomorrow at Giggles. I know we have at least a couple of Seditionists making their way there, and hopefully we can get a few more. Tell him we all say hello. The rest of us will have to content ourselves with catching Marc on the Sam Seder Show tomorrow morning (if Sam can get Marc out of bed, that is). Have a good one.