I always suspected that due to Obama's dependence on corporate money he would prove to be a big disappointment to the millions of Democrats, liberals, progressives and independents that fell for his slick rhetoric.Here are some of the main reasons that he should cut his ties to corporate and political elites, announce that he will not run for reelection and, instead, become the populist, reformist president the nation desperately needs.
Corporations get still more powerful. A middle-class living slips away from millions. Climate change becomes deadly. War, and more war. Looking back on the '00s (uh ohs) and the nine trends that changed our world. What was the decade of the '00s about? What trends showed up in the last 10 years that will set the stage for the '10s?
Those pesky taxi drivers of Gaza are always circulating rumors. One story that made the rounds during the first Palestinian uprising in 1987 claimed that an Arab army crossed the Sinai desert to save Palestinians from the daily killings and protracted state of siege which caused untold suffering for civilians. The army in question would change from time to time, but the focus inevitably returned to Egypt. Israeli Tanks on Gaza Border
The UN Human Rights Council initially took no real action on the news of the September 28 shootings of unarmed civilians in Conakry, Guinea as the Council was in the last days of its session and had little time or will to draft a resolution or set up a fact-finding mission. Thus the Council ended up passing the issue over to the African Union, which issued a statement deploring the violence and then passed the issue on to the 16-member regional body - the Economic Community of West African States. Conflict in Guinea
It's been a good decade for the Pentagon. The most recent numbers from Capitol Hill indicate that Pentagon spending (counting Iraq and Afghanistan) will reach over $630 billion in 2010. And that doesn't even include the billions set aside for building new military facilities and sustaining the U.S. nuclear arsenal. But even without counting the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense budget has been moving relentlessly upward since 2001.
World-renowned political organizer and one of Africa's most celebrated poets, Dennis Brutus, died early on December 26 in Cape Town, in his sleep, aged 85. Even in his last days, Brutus was fully engaged, advocating social protest against those responsible for climate change, and promoting reparations to black South Africans from corporations that benefited from apartheid.Dennis Brutus
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