Another rendition of "Hail to the Chief"

(An extraordinary rendition flight. Note the flag.)

UPDATE: Looks like I got punked too.

I'm not expecting to agree with everything the new president does, but his failure to put an end to extraordinary rendition dulls the shine on his restoration of other Constitutional rights.

I can't see how someone who seems to understand the need for the United States to adhere to the letter of the law can allow a policy which allows secret U.S. agencies to kidnap people from the streets, anywhere in the world, and throw them into jails without the benefits or personal freedoms, or guaranteed representation and due process.

It's a shameful sin of omission in Obama's current attempts to resurrect the reputation of America, and restore the rights we are all guaranteed by the Constitution.

An Obama spokesman said: "Obviously you need to preserve some tools – you still have to go after the bad guys."

Sorry, but I'm not willing to allow any administration to define who the bad guy is, if the bad guy doesn't have the right to declare that a mistake may have been made.

One more reason why the government, the Pentagon and the intelligence community cannot be trusted

Another rendition of My Corporation Tis of Thee

By now it's become completely obvious that the Bush administration favors the rights of corporations over the rights of the individual. Funny, I don't think I ever read anything about the free market in the Constitution.

But consider how Bush has angled to protect the telecoms, how it refuses to acknowledge wrongdoings by Iraq vendors of choice Brown and Root, Blackwater and Halliburton, including the rape and harassment of female employees while in Iraq.

Now, another corporation that was enlisted in the ubiquitous war on terror is getting the "you can't touch that," treatment.

The justice department wants a judge to dismiss a suit by the ACLU against Jeppesen Dataplan whose slogan is "Making every mission possible." Jeppesen is accused of aiding the US Government in extraordinary renditions.

So if your insurance company wants to distribute your health info, or your phone company wants to disclose your telephone records, or your bank wants to reveal your money transactions all they need to do is shout "national security" or "war on terror," and the Bush buddies will come running.

From extraordinary rendition to plain old rendition

I think the lawyers in Bush's Justice Department have been watching a bit too much Dog The Bounty Hunter. In international court, they've admitted that according to US law it's legal to kidnap a foreign citizen from their own country and bring them to the US to trial. And they point to bounty hunter laws from the 1860's as proof. Seems like something most lawyers from the land of freedom, liberty and justice would be too embarassed to admit.

Extraordinary lack of contrition for extraordinary rendition

It hasn't been a fun few days on the hill for Condi Rice. First a Code Pink protester confronted her with bloody hands and accused her of war crimes.

Then the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee led by Henry Waxman accused her and the State Department of being lax with government contractors because corruption is rife.

Then poor Condi had to admit that the extraordinary rendition of Canadian citizen Maher Arar to Saudi Arabia, where he was imprisoned and tortured, was not handled how it should have been.

And....

The other shoe did not drop. No apology was issued.

Through the looking glass with the Supremes

We were wrong. You were wronged. The world knows how you were wronged. But we can't dispense justice, because it's a secret.

It's the tortured logic of the war on terror, and the shield of secrecy that shields the real criminal perpetrators of that war.

Swallowing Blackwater

It's becoming evident that if the world begins to scrutinize the US and the CIA for the practice of extraordinary renditions, we can take the free enterprise approach.

Outsource abductions and torture.

When will the US press, Congress and we the people demand that our government not engage a mercenary army to do our immoral dirty work?

Another extraordinary rendition of "God Bless America"

As the Bush administration shoves the American brand of Democracy down the throats of unsuspecting countries around the world, we learn that we have more in common with some of those fledgling democracies who still grab people from the streets and throw them into hidden dungeons.

America has lost any moral authority it ever imagined it had.

This morning newspapers reported that 39 suspects are being held in secret prisons by the CIA. It's not a TV show.