Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Court dismisses suit alleging 'torture flights'

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Court dismisses suit alleging 'torture flights'

by Bob Egelko from the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." This particularly applies to US administrations regardless of which capitalist party plays the lead role in US political theater.

The ruling is a victory for both President George W. Bush's administration, which directed the rendition program and acknowledged its existence, and the Obama administration, which promised to curb the program's excesses but argued that it was too sensitive to be litigated in court.