Before Bush Issue 3 -- Extraordinary Rendition

Continuing my mini-series illustrating the historical context of the Bush presidency, this weeks issue takes a look at the practice of extraordinary rendition -- or simply "rendition" just like the bad movie from 2007 -- whereby suspected enemy combatants or terrorists are taken to an "ally" country where they can be held or questioned by entities not under authority of US laws.

Sometimes those allies are erstwhile "friends" of the US such as Egypt or Saudi Arabia. The practice is controversial, as it may or may not violate treaties we have with other democratic allies. But it has been a useful tool in the pursuit of terrorists. And Obama is keeping this tool handy.

Mainstream media reports often (purposely I believe) provide the impression that this practice originated with George W. Bush and is unique to his presidency. That's incorrect. The record is clearly different and as this article states, the program "began under Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, in the early 1990s."

Could these targets have been pursued and prosecuted under the law enforcement model put forth by Barack Obama during his run for president? Perhaps, but it is clear that he is presently prepared to carry on the tradition of the last two presidents and keep his options open.

Before Bush Issue 2 -- Kyoto Protocol DOA

It may come as a surprise to some people newly interested in the Hope and Change of politics, that the American response to the Kyoto Protocol has been consistently negative stretching back to the second term of Clinton. Before Bush (for an explanation of this Series please click here) "rejected" the Kyoto Treaty it had been decidedly tabled for lack of support.

In 1997 the Senate voted 95-0 to adopt a resolution stating that ''the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto.'' Given that result, presidnet clinton wisely refrained from signing the treaty and submitting it to a vote.

So Before Bush was president, the senate unanimously and bipartisanly rejected Kyoto as an nonviable treaty. By the way, since then the USA has made more progress towrd reaching targeted reductions in greenhouse gases than any of the signatories to Kyoto. And Bush was the first president to build and occupy a sustainable green home.

Before Bush - Introduction

While reading through the posts on Twitter on the day of President Obama's inauguration and the glee with which his first policy announcements were greeted an idea began to form in the Tiny Pundit's brain. Granted this is not all that original an idea as many better writers than I have attempted to influence the tide of information about the Bush administration in light of the historical facts that apply to the execution of the office of the president.

My theory is that many Twitter users are so young they can't remember much about politics before Bush became president, and have been fed a steady diet of the mainstream media nonsense that leaves out any historical context when discussing policy. Of course, now that Obama has been crowned, er, inaugurated, the media have no end of comparison with historical figures such as Roosevelt and Lincoln. But the MSM sure won't provide a complete picture of the extraordinary executive power these men wielded in times of emergency.

Suspending Habeas corpus? Interring foreign born citizens or Americans of questionable ancestry? Torture? Extraordinary rendition? Readers may be surprised to learn that these policies are not the work of Bush & Co. Indeed, there are a lot of Things that Existed Before Bush that bear telling, even though the sacrosanct accepted version of history is ALL that is evil took office January 20, 20001 and all is well now.

In the coming days -- or weeks -- I will post a tidbit per day (on average) attempting to enlighten my young friends on Twitter. This series will be titled Before Bush. Each day's piece will be pithy and easily digested but will include a link back to this post to provide more of that needed "context" so lacking in MSM reporting.