Renee Parsons - U.S. Hegemony in Latin America

While the 'misconduct' of Secret Service agents with prostitutes in Colombia is a significant, if titillating scandal, most media reports have missed the tectonic political shift that surfaced at the recent Summit of the Americas meeting.

The Summit, an offshoot of the Organization of American States organized in 1948, consists of 35 western hemisphere nations that meet on a tri-annual basis with the U.S. historically setting the agenda since the summit's inception in 1994.

The president arrived, smooth and impeccable, with, no doubt, the expectation of encouraging new investment and trade initiatives at the first business seminar conducted since the Summits began. Attending were over three hundred U.S. business executives with Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue in attendance to push for a free trade deal with Brazil. Once China began out-hustling the U.S. for its share of the global pie in Latin America and as the U.S. bogged down in a decade of war with an enduring economic catastrophe on its hands, Summit countries took the opportunity to readjust their vision of Uncle Sam's once omnipotent authority. That readjusted vision has offered a measure of independence from U.S. trade markets as well as U.S. domination on policy decisions. While not known for its historical memory, the U.S. does not usually react kindly to previously compliant nations flexing their sovereign muscles, U.S. AID to Latin American and the Caribbean at $1.3 billion in 2010 will most likely provide the necessary tether for continued cooperation.

Read More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-parsons/us-hegemony-in-latin-amer_b_1445244.html

Gary Younge - Abroad, as at home, Obama coasts on a wave of disappointment

In January 1903 the US signed a treaty with Colombia that would have provided unfettered access to the Panama canal. Unfortunately, the terms were not good enough for the Colombian senate, which refused to ratify it. At the time, Panama had been a region of Colombia for 80 years. Undeterred by the annoying matter of Colombian sovereignty the US encouraged, incited and facilitated Panama's secession from Colombia.

The newly independent Panama gave its American enablers all it wanted. In the face of considerable criticism, the US president, Theodore Roosevelt, looked to the closest members of his cabinet to help him justify his actions. Unable to articulate a principled defence they simply endorsed them with gallows humour. "You have shown that you were accused of seduction," said his secretary of war, Elihu Root. "And you have conclusively proved that you were guilty of rape."

This was not the last time Colombians would be screwed by the US. Earlier this month several secret service agents and military personnel were embroiled in a scandal with Colombian sex workers. More than 20 have so far been implicated in the scandal after local police intervened in a dispute between an agent and an escort. She said he'd agreed to pay her $800 for the night; he offered her only $30. She eventually left the hotel after being paid $225.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/22/abroad-obama-coasts-wave-disappointment

Kevin Drum - Why Wall Street Hates President Obama

Brad DeLong writes today that the standard bargain between Democrats and Wall Street is simple: we might tax you a little more than Republicans, but in return we'll provide you with "competent economic management in striking contrast to that offered by the ideologically-blinded wingnuts who are the Republicans." And President Obama has done just that. So why do the lords of finance almost unanimously hate his guts these days?

A big part of it, I think, is that Obama was not just supposed to make things better: he was supposed to fix things — to bring things back to "normal"....[But] Obama did not fix things: Wall Street bankers today are a lot poorer than they were in mid-2007. And the Wall Street bankers think that Obama disses them. And the Wall Street bankers know that Obama wants to tax them.

I'm not sure I buy this. My sense is that Wall Street financiers, whatever their other blinders, take a pretty intellectual approach to the macroeconomy, and they know that the economy is doing about as well as they could have hoped back in 2008. The stock market is up, corporate profits are up, and bonuses have rebounded. From a purely self-interested financial point of view, I don't think very many of them are really dissatisfied with the Obama/Geithner/Bernanke regime.

Read More:

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/04/why-wall-street-hates-president-obama

Robert Reich - The lesson for Obama of Europe's failed austerity

So far, President Obama's election strategy can best be summed up as: "We're on the right track, my economic policies are working, we still have a long way to go, but stick with me and you'll be fine."

This won't be enough to win him the election. The US recovery is too anaemic, and the chance of an economic stall between now and election day far too high. Even now, Mitt Romney's empty "I'll do it better" refrain is attracting as many voters as Obama's "we're on the right track." Each is gathering 46% of voter support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Only 33% of the American public thinks the economy is improving, while 39% say they're still falling behind financially – an 11-point increase from 2008. Nearly two thirds are concerned about paying for housing, and 23% of Americans with mortgages say they're underwater. If the economy stalls, Romney's empty promise will look even better. And I'd put the odds of a stall at 50:50.

Europe's forced austerity is pushing the continent into recession. Spain is already in one, and much of the rest of Europe is on the way. Luckily, the United States hasn't yet fallen into the austerity trap – America's fiscal policy is still wisely expansionary – but it's not sufficient to overcome a pull-back by American consumers.

Because most Americans' real pay continues to drop, they're going deeper into debt and tapping into their savings. Inevitably, they'll have to cut their spending. Without sufficient government spending to make up the difference, total demand will shrink, causing employers to pare hiring. March's disappointing jobs report could mark the beginning.

Read More:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/23/lesson-obama-europe-failed-austerity

Harvey Wasserman - Obama's Atomic Solyndra?

Listen to Harvey show (Green Power and Wellness Hour) on Tuesday's at 2pm (Eastern Time) on PRN.fm

The future of nuclear power now hangs on a single decision by President Obama -- and us.

His Office of Management and Budget could cave to the unsustainable demands of reactor builders who cannot handle the standard terms of a loan agreement.  

Or he could defend basic financial procedures and stand up for the future of the American economy.

You can help make this decision, which will come soon.

It's about a proposed $8.33 billion nuke power loan guarantee package for two reactors being built at Georgia's Vogtle. Obama anointed it last year for the Southern Company, parent to Georgia Power. Two other reactors sporadically operate there. Southern just ravaged the new construction side of the site, stripping virtually all vegetation.

Read More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-wasserman/obamas-atomic-solyndra_b_1433308.html?ref=green

Obama Administration Must Say No to Industry Loopholes in Natural Gas Fracking Standards

Natural gas development is spreading like wildfire across the country. Energy companies have drilled more than 75,000 wells in the past five years, many of them on farmlands, near public schools, and in people’s backyards. These wells release benzene and other chemicals known to cause cancer. Yet energy companies aren’t obligated to clean up any of the pollution they put into the air we breathe.

The Obama administration is poised to change that.

It is about to establish the first-ever national limits on air pollution coming from natural gas wells, especially from wells that are fracked. This would be a major first step inprotecting public health and create real improvements for families living in the midst of natural gas fields.

Read More:

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/fbeinecke/obama_administration_must_say.html

Joshua Frank - Obama's Biggest Environmental 'Victory' Was Really a Big Win for Gas Drillers

Greenhouse gas emissions are hot news these days -- especially during election season when candidates, at least those who claim to believe in climate science, say they are actually going to do something about the biggest environmental crisis facing our little blue planet: global warming.

In early March, while campaigning in New Hampshire, Obama vowed to end $4 billion in Big Oil and Gas subsidies. "You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people," Obama said to an applauding audience. "You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that's been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean-energy future."

That sounds dandy, but ending subsidies to polluters is only half the battle, and Obama's idea of a "clean-energy future" is tenuous at best. In an attempt to round up the green vote, President Obama is trumpeting his half-hearted attempt to put the breaks on global warming by tapping energy sources here at home and regulating the industry that's doing most of the damage. Only days after the president announced he was looking to fast-track the southern portion of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, his administration released the first-ever federal standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/154892/obama%27s_biggest_environmental_%27victory%27_was_really_a_big_win_for_gas_drillers

Stephen Lendman - Obama Wreaks Duplicity

Like most in Congress, he serves wealth and power alone. People needs don't matter. Rule of law principles are spurned.

Peace is deplored. War is official policy. So are other duplicitous foreign policies for unchallenged global dominance.

Imagine what's ahead in a second term, regardless of which party controls Congress. Both are in lockstep on issues mattering most. They include pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran.

At the same time, Obama delivers mixed messages on Iran. Conciliatory comments follow baseless accusations and hawkishness, then more threats. In late March, he appealed directly to Iranians, saying there's "no reason for the United States and Iran to be divided from one another."

America seeks dialogue, not confrontation, he suggested, or did he? At the same time, he added:

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-Wreaks-Duplicity-by-Stephen-Lendman-120409-95.html

Paul Craig Roberts - Washington Leads The World Into Lawlessness

The US government pretends to live under the rule of law, to respect human rights, and to provide freedom and democracy to citizens. Washington’s pretense and the stark reality are diametrically opposed. 

US government officials routinely criticize other governments for being undemocratic and for violating human rights. Yet, no other country except Israel sends bombs, missiles, and drones into sovereign countries to murder civilian populations. The torture prisons of Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo, and CIA secret rendition sites are the contributions of the Bush/Obama regimes to human rights.  

Washington violates the human rights of its own citizens. Washington has suspended the civil liberties guaranteed in the US Constitution and declared its intention to detain US citizens indefinitely without due process of law.  President Obama has announced that he, at his discretion, can murder US citizens whom he regards as a threat to the US.

Read More:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30273

John Atcheson - The Real Invisible Hand: George Orwell, and Why We Got JOBs not Jobs

When Obama took Office on January 20^th, 2009 the stench of failure hung over the conservative’s economic philosophy like a mushroom cloud.  For the second time in a decade, deregulation had produced a huge speculative bubble, fed largely by unregulated hedge funds operating in secret and “irrational exuberance” fed in part by fraudulent lending practices in the largely unregulated mortgage lending market. 

It was yet another failure in a long history of failures for the conservative’s beloved laissez faire policies – in fact, they’ve brought on the three biggest economic collapses  this country has ever experienced. 

So in January of 2009, the time was right to take on the myths that conservatives had been using to fleece us and enrich their already rich constituency. 

The time was right to set the record straight. To tell Americans what the Orwellian terms conservatives had been using for four decades really meant. 

“Trickle down,” was really all about trickling up. 

“Job creators” were really “job exporters.”

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/12