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Greetings!,
 Let's talk about clubs and organizations. If you've checked out the Organizations pages of Social Notes, you know there are a ton of special and general interest groups out there.
But maybe you're looking for something that doesn't yet exist - like the Meyerland GLBT Knitters Guild, or the Katy Cloggers. Well, why don't YOU take the lead in getting a group started? Social Notes can help you recruit members and publicize your events, so what are you waiting for? Get to organizing!
And speaking of organizing, some friends and I have started a new social and civic group for GLBTs living outside the northwest corner of Loop 610. In a spasm of creativity, we have named ourselves Northwest Corner. You can find out more about this group, and our upcoming Launch Party, by reading the article below. Hope all your northwest glibbits will join in the fun!
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Northwest Corner
Launch Party Friday, May 29th
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Northwest Corner is a new social and civic group for GLBTs living outside the northwest corner of Loop 610.
To introduce our group to the community (and to prove that "there IS life outside the loop!), we're throwing a cocktail party and barbecue at Carol's house at 3503 Cherry Forest Drive.
Bring $10 to cover the cost of the barbecue, and the steering committee will provide beer, wine and vodka-based drinks. The party will be held pool-side, so shorts are definitely the recommended fashion theme! Click here to visit the evite for more information about the party, and to RSVP.
Please feel free to forward the invitation to all your friends in the area - the more the merrier! To find out more about Northwest Corner and the part of town we are targeting, visit our website.
Can't make this event but would like to receive information about other Northwest Corner events? Simply email us with your name, phone number, address and neighborhood.
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Upcoming "Don't Miss" Events
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Be sure to check the Calendar page of Social Notes for more details on each of these fine events.
Saturday, 5/2: Fiesta, a benefit for Lazarus House
Saturday, 5/2: Houston Energy Football Team plays Miami
Sunday, 5/3: Erika Luckett performs at the Mucky Duck
Tuesday, 5/5: Lady's Night at Anita's Bar and Grill
Tuesday, 5/5: Astraea House Party
- Wednesday, 5/6: Professional Women's Happy Hour at meteor
- Thursday through Saturday, 5/7 -5/9: Splash festivities
Saturday, 5/9: Art Car Parade
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"Save The Date" and purchase your tickets now for these future events!
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 Even though these events may be a few weeks down the road, you need to buy your tickets and/or make your reservations NOW, girlfriend! You can find out all the details, including ticket purchase information, by visiting the Calendar Page of Social Notes
- Saturday, 5/16 and Tuesday, 5/19: Bayou City Women's Chorus presents "Africa"
- Friday, 5/29: Northwest Corner Launch Party
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The Rant
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Many of you (and I think 3 can count as "many" under certain circumstances) have written to request a Rant on torture, since it is much in the news again these days. Alrighty then. Here's the world's shortest Rant.
Torture is legally, morally and ethically unacceptable. If America hopes to have ANY moral leadership, it's not enough to cease the torture that began under the BushCo reign of terror. We must prosecute all those who had any role in these dastardly actions.
You would think that pretty well covers it, but recent polls have shown that a disturbingly high percentage of our citizenry think that torture is ok under some circumstances. Arggggggg! Soooo, let's break down the issue, debunking the right wing claims on the matter.
But before I do that, remember this critically important fact. BushCo's initial torture efforts had NOTHING to do with keeping us safe. They tortured detainees for political reasons. Kommander Kodpiece and Darth Cheney were desperately seeking somne proof of the non-existent links between al Qaeda and Iraq. If you'll remember, BushCo had been making these claims since 9-11, as a justification for attacking Iraq (which of course had NOTHING to do with 9-11). Unfortunately, the facts have a stubborn liberal bias, and BushCo was frantic to find some evidence to support his nutball theory. They waterboarded two of the prisoners 266 times in one month, in an attempt to give themselves political cover. Shameful.
Let that one sink in for a minute...OK, so let's get to all the right wing talking points about torture:
 1) Torture is effective. It doesn't matter if it is effective, because it is WRONG. But for those of you whose moral compass flutters at the first sign of a threat, let's go ahead and address the issue of effectiveness. Interrogation experts say that it doesn't work. WWII interogators who dealt with senior level Nazi prisoners say it isn't needed and isn't effective.
A man being tortured will say ANTHING to stop the pain and terror. Oh, you might get a few nuggets of truth along the way, but you get a lot of crap too, and how do you sort it out? Remember in the days after 9-11, when there were wild rumors that terrorists were targeting shopping malls and other public targets? That "information", since proven totally bogus, came from waterboarding sessions. The FBI spend months chasing this stuff down. It wasted time and money, and diverted our resources.
2) In today's dangerous world, we have to set aside our principles to protect ourselves. Gee, it's amazing how quickly the "values" crowd is willing to abandon those values that have served our country so well over the years - honor, integrity and doing the Right Thing even when it is a hard thing. Imagine if our founding fathers had had the moral courage of today's "patriots". "Give me liberty or give me death" certainly wouldn't be in fashion with these moral cowards!
Obama told an interesting anecdote in last night's press conference. He said that during WWII, when London was being bombed to smithereens, the British had about 200 POWs in their custody. Still, when his country was facing unimaginable risk and threat, Churchill said "We don't torture". We've managed to defeat enemies who were much stronger, and much more evil, than al Qaeda without having to resort to torture. We shouldn't allow the hysteria propagated by Bush and his minions to cause us to deviate from the moral high ground.
3) They would torture us if given the chance. Probably, but as John McCain said, "This isn't about who THEY are. It's about who WE are."
4) We need to be able to use torture in a "ticking time bomb" scenario. You've been watching too much "24", people. That ticking time bomb scenario has never once happened in the real world. In fact, the CIA Inspector General reports that there is no proof that torture helped stop ANY imminent attacks. But just for the sake of thoroughness, let's stipulate that it could happen. If the President really believed that we needed to torture a prisoner to get very specific and time-sensitive information, then how about this plan: The President should a) Take Reponsibility, b) Go Public, c) Get Backing From Congress and d) Limit the Scope in Both Time and Space.
5) Waterboarding isn't torture. It might be convenient to believe this, but unfortunately the weight of history proves that it has been regarded as torture since the Spanish Inquisition. The United States executed Japanese officers who waterboarded American soldiers during WWII. In 1983, a Texas sheriff was prosecuted for waterboarding a prisoner. Even if you are on the fence as to whether waterboarding is torture, how on earth can you defend waterboarding a guy 183 times in a month - an average of 6 times a day for a MONTH! Conservative columnist Christopher Hitchins subjected himself to waterboarding so he could make his own judgement as to whether it constituted torture. Here is the disclaimer that the goverment made him sign: "Water boarding" is a potentially dangerous activity in which the
participant can receive serious and permanent (physical, emotional and
psychological) injuries and even death, including injuries and death
due to the respiratory and neurological systems of the body.
Oh, and his verdict? " You may have read by now the official lie about
this treatment, which is that it "simulates" the feeling of drowning.
This is not the case. You feel that you are drowning because you are
drowning-or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled
conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying
the pressure...if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture." 6) This is just
political retribution - a matter of policy differences. Two points to be made here. This is not just Democrats trying to attack Republicans. Democratic leaders in Congress had knowledge about the torture program - how much knowledge is still under debate as we speak. But if we find out that they had detailed information about the program, and did nothing to stop it, then they need to be outed and punished as well. As for the policy issue, I call bullshit. A "policy issue" is something like universal health care alternatives. This is a LEGAL issue. Torture is against US law, and the law specifically prohibits any of the excuses and justifications BushCo has tried to use. In fact, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will be breaking the law if they do not prosecute.
7) The President got legal authorization, so it isn't torture. If you believe that anything that the President does is legal, then where do you draw the line between a President and a King or a dictator? I have always rejected the notion that the President is above the law. In this instance, BushCo (and more specifically, Cheney) used the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to create justifications for the torture program as an attempt at legal cover. OLC's memos are the documents that Obama released just last week, which has brought the topic into the news again. The military tried to warn Bush that torture was illegal and ineffective, but he wouldn't listen, and pressured the OLC to give him the cover he needed. BTW, OLC's memos were so poorly reasoned and contained so little research that they border on legal malpractice.
8) Torture makes us safer. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. We've already discussed the fact that torture yields LOTS of false information, and clogs up our ability to pursue real threats. But in truth torture has gotten many of our US service people killed. Alberto Mora, the former Navy General Counsel says that US torture has served as al Qaeda's most effective recruiting tool. In fact, he says that US torture is the first and second identifiable cause of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq.
9) None of what we did was torture. His Eminence Rush Limbaugh has stated that it was no worse than fraternity hazing pranks. Hmmmm...if the techniques are so benign, then how could they possible be effective on these hardened bad guys???? And besides, when was the last time that Sigma Chi hung someone by their wrists from a meat hook, forcing them to stay awake for 11 days as they stood in their own waste? Long time standing causes your legs to swell to twice their size. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that sleep deprivation was the worst torture he suffered in the Soviet gulags
Guantanamo Judge Susan Crawford said the combine set of techniques used at Guantanamo constituted torture. The International Red Cross reports that we committed torture. Did you know that we've killed prisoners in our custody with torture? One prisoner, an Afghan taxi driver held at the prison at Bagram Air Force Base, was beaten so badly that the coroner said he legs had been pulverized. To date there are
appoximately 35 people who has disappeared while in our custody, and the US government
refuses to give any details.
Jose Padilla, a US citizen who had not been tried or convicted of any crime, was kept in
isolation and sensory deprivation for FIVE YEARS. Think of that.
Five years, locked in a very small cell, with no TV, no books, no visual or
auditory stimulus of any kind. Five years of that. When he finally
was given access to legal counsel, his lawyers reported that he is so damaged
that he is a veritable vegetable and can be no help to his own defense.
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I simply cannot stand the thought that this travesty has been perpetrated by our country, and in my name. I remember when I was in high school, discovering for the first time the depths of Nazi attrocities in WWII. I wondered how German citizens could ignore the evil that was going on in their midst. Then in college, I found out about Roosevelt's internment of US citizens of Japanese ancestry for the duration of the war. I wondered if everyone knew what was going on, and if anyone spoke out.
This torture issue is OUR generation's opportunity to stand up and protect our country's values. I'm glad Obama stopped the torture, but that is simply not enough. We've GOT to conduct investigations to understand how this really happened, so we can prohibit it from happening again. We also need to make sure that none of the perpetrators are allowed to serve any role in government EVER again. I'd prefer to try them and then send the lot of them straight to jail,
but at a minimum we've got to make sure that they never have access to the
levers of power again.
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Professional Pointers
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 This is a new feature of Social Notes, in which different professionals within our community will share their advice/wisdom/tips for success with all my loyal readers. If you are a professional with advice to share, please shoot me an email to discuss what you'd like to present.
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So Long!
 Whoooosh, I wore myself out on that Rant!
I hope you all have a great weekend. See you all next week at Professional Women's Happy Hour.
Sincerely,
Carol Wyatt
Social Notes
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