New Quaker Notebook

Who says the Busheviks don't read history? Apparently someone in the administration is reading Gestapo literature.

In his Atlantic Online column on Tuesday, Andrew Sullivan reported that the "enhanced interrogation" techniques favored by Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, et al, are the same "verschärfte Vernehmung" techniques used by the Gestapo, including some Bushevik torture favorites that the Nazis didn't approve. Sullivan has the documents to go along with it.

You can read about it now—or wait for it when it all comes out in the War Crimes trials.¹

1. Still there is more this week on the Cheney-Bush administration's desire to refine its torture techniques. See "Interrogation Methods Are Criticized," New York Times, May 30, 2007: "The Bush administration is nearing completion of a long-delayed executive order that will set new rules for interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency. The order is expected to ban the harshest techniques used in the past, including the simulated drowning tactic known as waterboarding, but to authorize some methods that go beyond those allowed in the military by the Army Field Manual." See also "White House nears completion of new torture guidelines," Christian Science Monitor, May 31, 2007 [archived at Truthout.org].

Who's on First?

On Monday, Memorial Day, Cindy Sheehan quit her job as the public face of anti-war activism in the US. In her blog entry on Daily Kos, Cindy said:

I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an "attention whore" then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a "grateful" country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey's brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

However, while she was making her public announcement, America was far more interested in the earlier fight between Rosie O'Donnell and Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View. This is the fight, shown on split screen, that got nasty and personal and led to O'Donnell's leaving the show.

I mention this because the video segment in question really is worth watching. It helps to make sense of what Cindy Sheehan is talking about. The segment is about 10 minutes in length; the argument between O'Donnell and Hasselbeck starts at about four and half minutes. What leads up to it is the most important part of the segment: Co-host Joy Behar started things off by reading a list of reasons why George Bush should be removed from office and concluded that "This country needs to be furious with what's going on!" Indeed. But then that issue was immediately derailed by the O'Donnell-Hasselbeck cat fight.

I stand by my claim that Americans will not be concerned about our military activities in the Middle East until the economy declines to the point where they have to take notice. Until then, they will all just go back to eating their dinners.¹

1. I continue to be haunted by what journalist Jack Daglish (Joaquin Phoenix) said in the movie Hotel Rwanda: "If people see this footage, they will go, 'Oh, God! That's horrible,' and then go back to eating their dinners."

Show us your papers ...

Under terms of a new immigration bill passed by the Senate this past week, US citizens who apply for jobs must get approval from the Department of Homeland Security in order to work. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 [S.2611] also requires current employees to obtain eligibility approval from the DHS within 60 days after the law's enactment. Says the ACLU:

The proposed legislation would require every job applicant in America to have their eligibility to work verified by the DHS, using the error-plagued Employment Eligibility Verification System (EEVS). EEVS creates a massive government database containing extraordinary amounts of personal information on everyone in America, tied to each individual's Social Security number. If DHS makes a mistake in determining work eligibility, there will be virtually no way to challenge the error or recover lost wages due to the bill's prohibitions on judicial review.

As a part of EEVS, every person in America would be forced to carry a hardened Social Security card perhaps containing biometric information about the cardholder—essentially a national ID—and present a Real ID-compliant driver's license to get any new job. The proposed legislation also expands current practice of expedited removal. The ACLU noted that these policies do nothing to solve the problems of illegal immigration and violate the fundamental American value of due process.

I think that I-9 Form looks far more sinister now, especially since this is coming from the same people who gave us the No-Fly List, and we know how well that's been working.

More on Cheney-Bush War Crimes

Who's on First?

Show us your papers ...