World-News

Greg Guma, Truthout: "It was a fairy-tale premise: Once upon a time, a charismatic prince appeared magically and gave an inspiring, instantly famous speech. Four years later, he was leading the most powerful kingdom in the world from the brink of disaster."

http://www.truthout.org/obama-myths-and-realities59514

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President should nominate justices who respect the Constitution

Liberty For All
by Brian Irving

05/18/10

The bitter battles now routine for every U.S. Supreme Court nomination go beyond the issue of the qualifications or political views of the specific nominee. They expose a more fundamental problem with the federal government: the legislative and executive branches simply refuse to take the Constitution seriously...

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4332



Time to save the middle class

In These Times
by US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

05/18/10

Now is the time for President Barack Obama and Congress to take the bold steps necessary to reverse our economic decline and to strengthen and expand the struggling middle class. As part of this effort, we need to pass a strong financial reform bill and a robust jobs bill that puts Americans back to work at decent-paying jobs. We must never forget that this economic crisis was caused by the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of a handful of executives on Wall Street. If we are going to get the economy back on track, we have to fundamentally change the way Wall Street does business. Wall Street must invest in the job-creating productive economy instead of engaging in the casino-style risk-taking that led to the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history...

http://tinyurl.com/2fuvf56



Obama and the myth of the public opinion excuse

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

05/18/10

Presidents often insist on polices which public opinion rejects. Bush continued and even escalated in Iraq when large majorities opposed the war, and Obama has done the same in Afghanistan (with less pervasive though, at least at times, substantial majoritarian opposition). Obama fought for passage of a health care reform bill in the face of overwhelming public sentiment against it, and he favored the Wall Street bailout under the same circumstances. Obama has strongly condemned, and threatened to take action against, the Arizona immigration law despite widespread public support for it. Clearly, when a President believes a policy is sufficiently important, he’ll insist on it (often successfully) despite public opposition; conversely, when he genuinely opposes a policy, he’ll reject it despite public sentiment in favor. That, I believe, is called leadership. … if Presidents do nothing more than slavishly follow public opinion, then what difference do elections make? If majority sentiment dictates policy outcomes, then who cares who does the implementing?

http://tinyurl.com/2vkplcp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Fact vs. Fiction on Today’s Economy
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/galland7.1.1.html

Science in the Age of Obama
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/oil-spill-scientist-fired.html



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