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Honduras: The brutality of agrarian capitalism http://www.oilwatchmesoamerica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3008&Itemid=69
By: Dr.Juan Almendares Bonilla. The Liberator and http://redsolhonduras.blogspot.com.
This military-police operation based on politics "vest, bullets and Security" was conducted by the "Mega Ministry of Security" with the private security ally of the agribusiness oligarchs. farming families injured, beaten and tortured are the Unified Peasant Movement (MUCA) struggling to regain their land on the left bank of the River Aguan town of Trujillo, department of Colon.
According to the complaint of MUCA they were attacked by elements of Tocoa Police, members of the Fifteenth Army Battalion located in Rio Claro, Trujillo and Private Security Guard employers René Morales and Gustavo Canales. As a result of the confrontation four farmers were injured, two of them wounded by bullets, in the case of Antonio Estrada of approximately 24 years of age struck with a bullet in his face in his left eye and Rosendo Rodriguez of about 22 years with a bullet in his left leg .
For the severity of injuries, they both went to the hospital in La Ceiba Atlantida in a Red Cross ambulance Tocoa and were detained unreasonably and abused at the hands of Post Police Township Planner Sonaguera by a group of not less than 15 police preventive unit and "snakes" (private security)involved in the shooting.
They were then pursued by a police patrol Tocoa, where he led four cobras, two policemen and a member of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation, arriving at La Ceiba Atlantida Hospital and was guarded by more than 30 policemen. Also unaccounted for is a child of around 14 years old, named Samuel Fuentes, who accompanied the ambulance to farmers injured, the police assumed that he is being detained in an unknown location.
"It is feared that the injured farmers and the young Samuel that accompanies them are the subject of abuse and attempted homocide. We charge the Colonel Commandant of the fifteenth Peraza Infantry Battalion Commander Elias Antonio Melgar Sub-commander in the same battalion who was hired by the managers of the land for the management of private security where it has employed members of the army reservists, Commander of the Columbus Police department, the Head of Planning Posta and operators of regional courts operating in clear collusion with these businessmen plundering our lands. After this confrontation, the peasants ,owners of these lands will continue to stand ready to defend it. "
These policies violate the rigths of Food Soberanea(Food Sovereignty)and our social economic human rights, whose philosophy is aimed at the destruction of the peasantry with intent to incorporate the logic of international financial capital of the ogre fuels wich are linked to the local oligarchy. We demand an end to police brutality and military security apparatus of the state and will fight for change in agricultural policies, based on a just and ethical model.
comment-also see...Honduran Coup d’état, a ‘win’ for the U.S.? http://alainet.org/active/35865
Washington behind the Honduras coup: Here is the evidence; Repression intensifies http://links.org.au/node/1147
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FLASHBACK-What is Neoliberalism?A Brief Definition for Activists by Elizabeth Martinez and Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376
The main points of neo-liberalism include: THE RULE OF THE MARKET. Liberating "free" enterprise or private enterprise from any bonds imposed by the government (the state) no matter how much social damage this causes. Greater openness to international trade and investment, as in NAFTA. Reduce wages by de-unionizing workers and eliminating workers' rights that had been won over many years of struggle. No more price controls. All in all, total freedom of movement for capital, goods and services. To convince us this is good for us, they say "an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth, which will ultimately benefit everyone." It's like Reagan's "supply-side" and "trickle-down" economics -- but somehow the wealth didn't trickle down very much.
CUTTING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE FOR SOCIAL SERVICES like education and health care. REDUCING THE SAFETY-NET FOR THE POOR, and even maintenance of roads, bridges, water supply -- again in the name of reducing government's role. Of course, they don't oppose government subsidies and tax benefits for business.DEREGULATION. Reduce government regulation of everything that could diminsh profits, including protecting the environmentand safety on the job.
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The neuroscientist, branded "Lady Qaeda" by some in the US press, disappeared for five years before her arrest in Afghanistan in 2008.
Aafia Siddiqui Verdict Angers Pakistanis http://www.islamonline.net/english/news/2010-02/04/02.shtml
Protests were held on Thursday in several cities in Pakistan, where many believe that Aafia Siddiqui is innocent.
Obama seeks $200 million fund for Khalid Sheik Mohammed trial security http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5549.shtml
The Obama administration is proposing to pay $200 million for security expenses to any city that tries Khalid Sheik Mohammed.It turns out that New York City has gotten cold feet about trying KSM as the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11/01 attacks. It turns out it will cost the already over-burdened budget of NYC, closing schools as we speak, upwards of a billion dollars for this show trial in a kangaroo court.
Well, everything costs more here, I guess, as our anti-terror and Homeland Security folks will tell you. We’re still a target. But you should know that KSM confessed to the CIA, after being water-boarded 183 times in 2003. His fellow prisoner Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Given the heat the torture generated, President Bush asked for “clean-confession,” i.e., no waterboarding, to tell it all once more. He got it from KSM. So this will be the third confession, the one for the money, with all the magic of three and the media attached to it.
Given the fantasy circumstances surrounding this trial, I suggested Disneyland to Kevin Barrett, calling in last Saturday on his radio show Truth Jihad. He one-upped me with how bout Terrorland. I thought it was, as they say in Hollywood, “high concept,” a fantasy theme park where the whole family can visit and be scared to death by terror boogey-men popping out from behind trees.
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El Salvador: Mining giant sues entire country http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/825/42411
In a July 22 Dissent Magazine article, Michael Busch said the corporation began operations at the invitation of the neoliberal Arena party government, which issued exploration permits in 2002. Since 2005, the Cabañas community have organised against Pacific Rim because of the concerns about water and soil pollution from the mining operations. Busch said: “Miners use cyanide-laced water to extract gold from subterranean rock, which, experts contend, makes its way back to reserves tapped for drinking.”
Community efforts successfully blocked Pacific Rim's from obtaining mining permits. The government led by Mauricio Funes, who came to power last year, has said it will not allow the mines to proceed. Pacific Rim has responded by filing a lawsuit with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against the Salvadoran government. Busch reported that Pacific Rim allege violations of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Busch said that because “Canada is not a signatory to CAFTA, Pacific Rim is not technically entitled to protections as it claims. Nevertheless, the corporation routed the lawsuit through a backdoor: its American-based subsidiary Pacific Rim Cayman LLC.” El Salvador is a very small, poor country. If the arbitration board rules in Pacific Rim’s favour, El Salvador would be crippled by the US$100 million settlement payout asked by Pacific Rim. Bush said: “[P]erhaps more troubling still, the verdict would send a signal to other multinationals in Central America that the law sides with corporate interests over the protection of local populations.”
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Africa, geology and the march of the development technocrats http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/61998
Jason Hickel asks whether ‘environmental determinism’ – the theory that Africa’s development has been hindered as a result of ‘the environmental conditions that Africans inhabit’ – accurately explains Africa’s poverty. While he commends its attempt to stop blaming underdevelopment 'on the presumed genetic inferiority of black people’, he finds the theory and motives behind environmental determinism to be seriously lacking.
Hickel asserts that environmental determinism is both ahistorical and apolitical: ‘Poverty is not a problem of nature, it is a problem of power.’ Furthermore, he argues that to tackle the real issues behind Africa’s slow development and poverty would mean to go against Western economic interests and to radically change the world system in which we exist. ‘The wealth of the West’, Hickel reminds us, ‘is intimately bound up with the poverty of Africa, and vice versa.’
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GOLDCORP Inc. LINKED TO CAPTURE OF GREGORIA CRISANTA PEREZ, AN IMPOVERISHED MAYAN WOMAN WHO WAS THEN LIBERATED BY THE LOCAL POPULATION http://rightsaction.org/articles/Goldcorp_&_Mam_woman_020410.html
Why is Goldcorp Inc. (Canadian gold mining company) afraid of Gregoria Crisanta Perez, a poor, Mayan-Mam woman? Why did Guatemalan legal authorities issue two “capture orders” and try and put her in jail?Goldcorp’s “Marlin” mine is in the mountainous municipality of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, department of San Marcos, in western Guatemala (bordering the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico). The majority of inhabitants of this region are Mayan Mam campesinos.Watch a 4-minute interview with Gregoria Crisanta, explaining what some of their struggle is about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PcEXLs9qng
It is a huge open-pit, cyanide-bonding gold mine. Since 2005, there has been growing opposition due to a wide range of environmental and health harms and indigenous and human rights violations linked to the mine’s operations. On Monday, February 1, 2010, Gregoria Crisanta was taken by police and presented before the justice of the peace in San Miguel Ixtahuacan. To then “formalize” their detention of her, based on previous “capture orders” issued after activities in protest against harms and violations linked the mine, the police needed to present her before legal authorities in the city of San Marcos. As the police were taking her to San Marcos, the road was blocked and Gregoria Crisanta was liberated by local populations. There was no violence
Sucre replaces US$ as currency in first trade operation between ALBA countries http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=88148
Venezuela and Cuba made history today by launching the new trading currency adopted by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). 360 metric tonnes of rice was sold to Cuba for 108,000 sucres. The sucre has been fixed at the rate of US$1.25.The first deal was between the Venezuelan Socialist rice joint venture and the Cuban Food Commerce company.
The decision to adopt a currency that was not the dollar was reached in November 2008 at the third ALBA summit.ALBA countries spent last year working out and finalizing the technological platform enabling transactions and other important details agreed at the last ALBA meeting before Christmas. The 360 tonnes of rice is the first of a cargo of 8,000 tonnes.
Present at today's historic exchange overseen by the Banco de ALBA were Venezuelan Planning & Finances Minister, Jorge Giordani, Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) president, Nelson Merentes and Venezuela representative to the Sucre regional monetary council, Jesus Faria.Merentes said the first trading operation in the new currency is a step forward in the unstoppable integration of South American peoples headed by ALBA countries.
Chaderton Matos targets Canada for unilateral support for "spoilt child" RCTV http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=88147
Venezuelan Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton Matos has criticized the way the USA and Canada have leapt to the defense of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) International.The Ambassador defended his government's handling of the situation and made it clear at a OAS session that RCTV had been taken off the air by the chamber of cable and paid TV because it hadn't complied with Venezuelan law. The channel insisted that it was not bound by the social responsibility in TV and radio law because it was an international channel.
Canada's representative to the OAS, Pierre Giroux led the attack on Venezuela, accusing it of restricting freedom of expression and access to information by suspending the cable TV channel.Chaderton Matos informed the OAS that 90% of RCTV's programming was national and that Venezuelan law stipulated that channels with 70% or more national programming cannot be classified as international channels and must be subject to Venezuelan law. RCTV, the Ambassador complains, has become the "spoilt girl of international media dross," even though it has broken the law.
Canada itself came under attack as lacking any moral authority to judge Venezuela regarding human rights.Chaderton Matos recalled international and domestic criticism against the Canadian army's practice in Kandahar of handing over of Afghan detainees to Afghan authorities to be tortured.Canada, he jibed, appeared to be ready to support an offensive favoring media dictatorship in Latin America and destabilizing left-wing governments ... "it has been flirting with Hondurean coupsters."
"Venezuela responded to legal pressure with responsible negotiations" http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/943020
As the refurbishment has dragged past AECL's deadline, NB Power has been forced to purchase replacement electricity at a cost of nearly $1 million a day. The final bill will be passed on to the utility's ratepayers. And, as Energy Minister Jack Keir observed this week, it's likely to be a large bill. Current estimates place the probable cost at around $800 million. If other unanticipated delays occur, the cost could be even higher.
When a state-owned Venezuelan oil company failed to complete an agreement to supply low-cost fuel to New Brunswick, NB Power took the matter to court. Pundits considered the Crown utility's position weak, since the negotiated agreement had not been finalized. But Venezuela responded to the legal pressure with responsible negotiations, eventually offering compensation that included a supply of fuel oil at guaranteed low prices. This saved New Brunswick ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars in replacement fuel costs.
Two MPs to face fraud charges over expenses as 389 greedy politicians are named and shamed http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248648/Expenses-Two-MPs-face-fraud-charges-389-shamed.html
At least two of the six MPs and peers under investigation by police over expenses fraud will be charged today.The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, QC, will make a live TV statement at 11am on which parliamentarians or peers should face trial.
Obama administration continues to support non green technologies http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-biofuels4-2010feb04
Corn ethanol? Just how much do they owe the corn industry and Monsanto? Do they realize there is a food crisis going on? And yet, they support MORE corn ethanol that has already been proven to contribute to climate change? And they are still supporting "clean coal!" There is no such thing as "clean coal." This proves they are totally out of touch with the true urgency of cutting Co2 emissions. To say they will have carbon sequestration up and running by 2016 is misleading. We spew 70 plus million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere EVERY DAY.
Do they even comprehend what that will amount to by 2016? So what good are their "green jobs" making solar panels if people will still be able to get dirty coal energy cheaper? Where is the aggressive stance on movng us to cleaner energy? All I see are the same markers being paid to campaign contributors over caring about the environmental and health effects of burning fossil fuels and also in clearing land to grow corn for fuel instead of food!
Harmful pesticides found in everyday food products http://www.seattlepi.com/local/349263_pesticide30.html
"Government promises to rid the nation's food supply of brain-damaging pesticides aren't doing the job, according to the results of a yearlong study that carefully monitored the diets of a group of local children.
The peer-reviewed study found that the urine and saliva of children eating a variety of conventional foods from area groceries contained biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.When the same children ate organic fruits, vegetables and juices, signs of pesticides were not found."
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It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/it-is-now-mathematically-impossible-to-pay-off-the-u-s-national-debt
A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt.
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Senate passes AIPAC sponsored Iran Sanctions Act http://www.examiner.com/x-9462-LA-Nonpartisan-Examiner~y2010m2d3-Senate-passes-AIPAC-sponsored-Iran-Sancctions-Act
The sanctions would target oil which Iran's economy is dependent on. The bill would also ban trade with companies that do business with Iran. The President has not stated whether he will sign the bill into law but did warn Iran that it would suffer "growing consequences" if they ignored international obligations. President Obama introduced similar legislation when he was Senator.
How corporations secretly move millions to fund political ads http://rawstory.com/2010/02/exclusive-trade-groups-swiss-bank-accounts-campaign-finance/
The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.
The government has your baby's DNA http://www.medicalwebtimes.com/read/the_government_has_your_babys_dna/
Many parents don't realize their baby's DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents' concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it's appropriate for a baby's genetic blueprint to be in the government's possession.
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Last Week: US Iraq Casualties Rise to 73,758 http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49866
military forces in Iraq suffered nine combat casualties in the week ending February 2, as the official total since the invasion rose past 73,700. The total includes 35,100 dead and wounded from "hostile" causes and more than 38,600 dead, injured and sick from "non-hostile" causes, requiring medical evacuation. The website Downing Street says the actual count is over 100,000 because the Pentagon doesn’t count the more than 30,000 veterans whose injuries--mainly brain trauma from explosions--were diagnosed only after they left Iraq.
Downing Street says US media divert attention from the actual cost of US life and limb by reporting only the total killed-- 4,378 as of Feb 2nd--but rarely mentioning the 31,600 wounded. To further minimize public perception of the cost, mainstream media usually ignore the 37,700 military victims of accidents and illness serious enough to require medical air evacuation. The 4,378 deaths include at least 18 from faulty electrical work by KBR and 197
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Official thinking about the future of U.S. aid to Colombia http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1286
Briefing Presentation: Partners Meeting (PDF): This is a PDF version of an April 2009 PowerPoint presentation laying out USAID’s strategy from 2009 to 2013. It discusses the “Integrated Action” effort and the new CSDI.
It also includes this map(above left) of the U.S. government’s chosen CSDI zones. (While this map has been widely circulated, this is the only public copy we’ve seen online.) These are the geographic areas where the U.S. government will focus its military and development aid for the next few years, as overall aid amounts decline. Any zone outside these red ovals will receive humanitarian aid and little else.
comment- for those who keep up with the situation and relationship between us gov and colombia...this us map details precisely exactly whre us military aid is going,and how it coincides with the exact places where army massacres of indigenous communities are taking place...not to mention mass graves and false positives(instances where colombian army and rightwing paramilitaries killed thousands of innocent civilians then claimed they were farc or killed by farc)...this is our tax dollars at work ladies and gentleman...
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40 trade unionists murdered in 2009: CUT http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8053-40-trade-unionists-murdered-in-2009.html
Colombia was the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists in 2009, with 40 assassinated over the year, it was revealed at the Second National Meeting on Anti-Trade Unionist Violence held in Medellin Thursday.Families of assassinated trade unionists, human rights defenders, UN representatives and NGO's attended the meeting. Organizers, among them trade union movement CUT seek to strengthen and organize the collective, EFE reported.The director of CUT's Department of Human Rights and Solidarity Alberto Vanegas said that 60% of murdered trade unionists are Colombian.
Since CUT was founded in 1986, they have recorded 2,721 murders of trade unionists, 573 of which occured since August 2002 when Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was elected."More than a statistic, this is a movement of trade unionist genocide," Vanegas said at the open of the meeting.Luciano Sanin, the director of ENS, another trade union movement based in Medellin, illustrated the magnitude of the problem with the example that Brazil, a country which as 20 times more trade unionists than Colombia but only had four trade unionist murders in 2009.
Colombia has a "historically violent and selective system" and is "especially anti-trade unionist", said Sanin, adding that the International Labor Organization receives the most calls from Colombians concerned about failures to comply with labor legislation and liberty of trade union practices."This is one aspect of a systematic policy of violation of human rights," Vanegas said, adding the impunity from justice is a major problem.98% of cases of trade unionist murders and 100% of other human rights abuses against trade unionists in Colombia have gone unpunished, according to CUT.
comment-also see...Obama urged to move on Latin FTAs http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=16699 Latin America business leaders and experts are urging President Barack Obama to ask Congress to ratify pending free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama after his State of the Union speech Wednesday pledged to strengthen ties with those countries.The event was organized by AACCLA, a trade group of 23 American chambers of commerce in Latin America that represents more than 20,000 companies and over 80 percent of U.S. investment in the region.
Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the University of Miami’s Center for Hemispheric Policy, also urged the Obama Administration to make progress on the Colombia and Panama FTA’s.
Jerry Weller, chairman of New World Group and a former congressman from Illinois, said there are enough votes in Congress to pass the Colombia and Panama FTA’s today. “If Panama and Colombia are put up for a vote they will be ratified,” he said.
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Former army general implicated in paramilitary massacre http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/8054-montoya-implicated-in-peace-community-massacre.html
Ex-army general Mario Montoya Uribe has been implicated in the massacre of eight people in the Peace Community of San Apartado, reported El Tiempo on Thursday.Whilst on trial for the murder of eight citizens http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/6311-paramilitaries-claim-joint-massacre-with-army.htmlin September 2005, three colonels from the Colombian army's 17th brigade named Montoya, saying that he had been involved in tactical planning of 'Operation Pheonix' - an operation that had intended to dismantle the fifth front of the Colombian guerrilla group FARC, but had instead ended in the massacre of civilians.
During the trial courts heard that the Colombian national army had hired paramilitaries as guides to lead soldiers to the FARC settlement, but they had instead gone to civilian homes, where they had entered the houses and tortured and killed the inhabitants.The plan to hire paramilitary guides was attributed to General Montoya Uribe by the colonels on trial, thus implicating him in the crime.
This is not the first time Montoya has been accused of links to the paramilitary. Montoya was also investigated http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/5038-former-army-commander-investigated-for-alleged-paramilitary-ties.htmlfor involvement with paramilitary organization the AUC. Montoya, now ambassador to the Dominican Republic has denied all allegations.The trial for the murder of members of the Peace Community is ongoing.
comment-also see..La Macarena, the site of the grave, has been a very important site of U.S.-aided military operations since the mid-2000s. In this area, the U.S. government supported and advised the Colombian Army’s 2004-2006 “Plan Patriota” military offensive, and since 2007 has supported the “Plan for the Integral Consolidation of La Macarena” or PCIM, part of the new “Integrated Action” framework that is now guiding much U.S. assistance.http://www.cipcol.org/?p=1303
Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/f253-f03.shtml
A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, reported on DetroitNews.com, established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of thwarted Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa would have prevented him from boarding the airplane. The revelation that US intelligence agencies made a deliberate decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board the flight without airport screening has been buried in the media.
Barack Obama and US intelligence, FBI and Homeland Security officials have insisted Abdulmutallab was inadvertently allowed to board the plane because of a failure to “connect the dots.” The World Socialist Web Site says the official story strains credulity, given that there were multiple advance warnings that the Nigerian was linked to terrorists in Yemen who were planning attacks on the US. The website says it’s clear the White House is overseeing a massive cover-up.
Senate: Lobbyists launder $100 billion in 'dirty money' in US http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202441971226&Senate_Report_Dirty_Money_Still_Entering_US
A new Senate report says foreign dictators, prominent bureaucrats and arms dealers laundered well over $100 billion of dirty money in the US. In a report on money-laundering practices in America released Thursday, a Senate subcommittee has incriminated Washington lobbyists and lawyers for helping foreign political figures. The two-year inquiry supervised by Senator Carl Levin, implicates high-ranking foreign officials for using US financial institutions in order to transfer $150 million into the US without proper scrutiny.
These include former Nigerian vice president Atiku Abubakar and the son of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue. Levin said there were "significant holes" in America's defenses against money laundering. Levin added: "Now that we are ..going after the source of money that supports terrorism, we have to take strong steps to make sure we do not aid and abet dirty money." The 330-page report comes despite money-laundering legislation having been in place since 2001.
UN: 258 Civilians Killed in Somalia in January http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/03/un-258-civilians-killed-in-somalia-in-january/
The UN says 258 civilians were killed in Somalia in January and 80,000 people displaced from their homes. African Union troops have come under increased criticism for shelling civilians, including two major incidents last month. The AU and Somali government have defended the killings, saying they only attack regions known to be under insurgent control. That covers most of the country since the Somali government controls only a few blocks near the presidential
Rodriguez: 'We wanted a Nelson Mandela, We got a Clarence Thomas' http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/02/rodriguez-we-wanted-nelson-mandela-we.html
The Obama enigma has more to do with the expectations of those who swept him into office. In truth, those who thought they had gotten Mandela – a liberator – were few because most understood that Obama was elected head of an empire, not head of the UN Human Rights Commission. Many more Democrats and Independents thought they had elected a Martin Luther King figure – someone who would fight for the rights and dignity of all human beings. Unquestionably, Obama indeed can speak like MLK, but his actions, especially on matters of war and peace and human rights, have been much closer to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
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