Strike Two!

The above photo was taken by Jotman. It shown the expression on Obama's face on the afternoon of July 9th 2008 as he left the parking lot of the United States Senate. Moments earlier, on floor of the Senate, Obama had voted in favor of the controversial FISA amendment. It marked the first time Obama had seriously let down his supporters in the civil rights movement.

Today's announcement was the second.

"They're embracing a theory that literally places government officials beyond the rule of law" blogged Glenn Greenwald today of an alarming Obama DOJ announcement that it would continue the precedent set by the Bush Administration of evoking "state secrets" to prevent a US court from hearing evidence in a extraterritorial rendition case against Boeing's Jeppesen subsidiary that allegedly involved torture.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said of the annoucement:

Eric Holder’s Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government. This is not change. This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama’s Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue.

Strike two!