Chris Hedges @ Truthdig - Obama’s policies, despite the high-blown rhetoric, are as morally bankrupt as those of his predecessor.

Democracy Now! - Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa also traveled to Copenhagen this weekend to urge world leaders to tackle the climate crisis. The longtime anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate spoke on Saturday at a candlelight vigil just outside the UN climate summit.  Visit site.

The New York Times - German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said the conflict in Afghanistan could not be won by military means and called for more development aid, before flying to visit troops there on Friday. "Afghanistan will not be won with military means," Guttenberg told German broadcaster ZDF. Read more.

Glen Greenwald @ Salon - I wonder what it's like to live in a country where political and financial elites are held accountable for wrongdoing.  Everyone can decide for themselves how credible a threat Obama, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and friends will ever pose to Wall Street, but at least some of the bankers don't seem to be taking it very seriously:

Evan Knappenberger @ Common Dreams  - As I prepare to take my first college degree and enter into the world of the Great Recession, I look back on a time of great turmoil. Not only have we students roundly rejected the Neo-Con worldview, but we have been betrayed by the leader we helped to elect. I also look forward to a time of re-generation. Though our generation is the most democratic and least republican one since the civil war, don't be surprised if we turn away from the Democratic party soon. Fool us once, DNC, shame on you. But beware: it may not happen again.

Max Eternity - In recent weeks, while those who do not believe in the teachings of Dr. King and Gandhi's nonviolent social change--Republicans and a stealth of right-wing operatives--have joined with President Obama.  Their strategy is to propogate a message that War is Peace, a theme originating from a speech the President recently gave in Oslo while en-route to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. 

Max Eternity - In her December 11th interview with African-American talk show host, Tavis Smiley, one of America's most respected Democrats in Congress, Representative Maxine Waters, said that Blacks need to hold President Obama to account.  Waters, a progressive member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that Blacks are suffering as a result of many of the current White House Administration's policies.  And even though Obama is the first Black President, beloved for his charm, eloquence and sophistication, Waters said that that should not be justification for allowin

Max Eternity - In her official capacity of Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, Elizabeth Warren--Professor of Law at Harvard University--is bringing to light the real possibility that with current economic policies as they are, the US is on a crash course with a destiny likely to result in America no longer having a middle-class. Warren states:

Max Eternity - Quoting Fredrick Douglass on the subject of politics and power, celebrated journalist and independent TV host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, commented recently that "Power concedes nothing without a demand." Goodman was being interviewed by PBS TV host, Tavis Smiley, when she made the statement, referring to the fact that even with a Democrat in the White House, progressive change will not occur if citizens do not hold leadership to account.

Max Eternity - At RealNeo and other independent media outlets that promote citizen journalism, though it is the purpose of such forums to provide tranparent dialogues about news of the day affecting collective civic investments for those underserved by Right-leaning, corporate media tv shows and websites, there exists the presence of disinformation campaigns loosely organized by "troll" bloggers and commentators.

"The Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture," Jameel Jaffer, Director of ACLU's National Security Project, said in a confere

Max Eternity - While Liberals and Progressives like filmmaker Michael Moore, media-mogul Arianna Huffing, author Naomi Klein and independent media giant Amy Goodman point out the clear and obvious contradictions and failings of President Obama, others seek to kill the messenger, protecting brand Obama at all cost.

Max Eternity - Who would have thought one year ago that Barack Obama would become the new hero of the Republican right? High-profile Republicans like Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin once called Obama a socialist, decrying his very presence as the downfall of America.

Matt Taibbi @ The Rolling Stone - Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008.

Norman Solomon for TruthOut - Eloquence in Oslo cannot change the realities of war.

As President Obama neared the close of his Nobel address, he called for "the continued expansion of our moral imagination." Yet, his speech was tightly circumscribed by the policies that his oratory labored to justify.

Max Eternity - Bowing to pressure from the Chinese government earlier this year, President Barack Obama snubbed the Dalai Lama by refusing to meet with him while he was in town, visiting Washington D.C.  Now in a second show of indignance toward those who espouse peace, sources have learned that Obama will not be attending the traditional ceremonies of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee when he arrives in Oslo this month to pick up his Nobel Award.

Naomi Klein @ Mother Jones - The highlight of my first day at COP15 was a conversation with the extraordinary Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International. We talked about the fact that some of the toughest activists here still pull their punches when it comes to Obama, even as his climate team works tirelessly to do away with the Kyoto Protocol, replacing it with much weaker piecemeal targets.

Robert Scheer - Barack Obama’s faux populism is beginning to grate, and when yet another one of those “we the people” e-mails from the president landed on my screen as I was fishing around for a column subject, I came unglued. It is one thing to rob us blind by rewarding the power elite that created our problems but quite another to sugarcoat it in the rhetoric of a David taking on those Goliaths. 

Max Eternity - Following in the footsteps of civil rights icons, Coretta Scott King and Julian Bond, both of whom affirmed that "gay rights are civil rights", rock and roll legend Bruce Springteen has joined in the call for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Quoting the words of Springsteen from the official Bruce Springsteen website, he says:

Yes Magazine! - This June, the doors will open at the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a state-of-the-art, nearly $6 million facility in Cleveland, Ohio.