Good ole boys cheering for torture

I just came across a surpising instance of someone pounding their chest in a really pathetic way over the torture issue.  I'm part of a discussion group called the NanciNetCafe, an offshoot of a music discussion group about folk singer Nanci Griffith.  Griffith herself is a hardcore Texas liberal politically, and it shows in her songs as well as her personal statements.  She's been an active supporter of the anti-landmine campaign.

One of the long-time members of her band, James Hooker, is a talented keyboardist.  I've also known for years that he's a conservative Republican in his politics.  But today there was an e-mail on the list signed "James Hooker" that at least did a good imitation of his style.  Now, the e-mail address from which he sent that message is not the one given at his Web site, but it is signed with the Web site address.

I'm qualifying this in recognition of the uncertainties of the Internet.  If I later find that it was not the same James Hooker, I'll alter this post to reflect that fact.  But it's still a disturbing kind of instance of how domestic blowhards cheering for war and killing and torture as though it was a football game are promoting really rotten values.

The topic of the message was My Lai & Abu Ghraib.  (You can access the message at Yahoogroups without being a member of the particular list.)  The note was brief, so I'm reproducing the text in full here, complete with the words that may be questionable under AOL's Terms of Service, because otherwise the full effect is lost.

I've only been quiet because it's only been about 3 decades since I signed into Yahoo Groups. As for Rummy, he's a prick. I, for one, want a prick to run the military. I am one of those who is "outraged by the outrage". I have three daughters these bastards are trying to kill and I don't care what is done to get information out of their sorry asses.

Geneva does not apply to them. If removing their balls with a plastic fork does the trick, I just don't fucking care!

In my reply to that message, I asked him just how he knows any of those people in Abu Ghuraib were trying to kill his daughters? Even the defendents in the courts-martial haven't so far claimed that their little S&M playrooms produced actionable intelligence, much less forestalled a plot to murder James Hooker's daughters.

Like it or not, the Geneva Conventions do apply to them. But those who support torture obviously don't care.

As for his little rant about the plastic forks, I said that's a good Ku Klux Klan approach. They all claim to be protecting their precious daughters from ravaging Nee-groes, too.

REAL MEN torture prisoners, according to his idea of being a tough guy. I ended by saying his daughters must be very proud of having a daddy who doesn't even pretend to be a
decent human being.

Someone else on that list asked if he was a friend of Chuckie's (CHARLIE DANIELS).  In the next Chuckie Watch, probably later today, I'll have to give Chuckie credit for at least defending torture in a slightly less obscene way that this guy does.