Dear Common Dreams Readers:
Dan Hamburg
Dan Hamburg, a former US congressman from California, is executive director of Voice of the Environment..
Articles by this author
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Views Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Obama Declares Wrong Emergency It's often said by supporters of President Obama, with some justification, that too much has been expected of him. Sure he went in with high ideals about moving the country in a more progressive direction, but the reality of money and power in the nation's capital have rendered him unable-at least in the two years he's been in office-to achieve the objectives he so glowingly promised. Read more |
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Views Sunday, July 18, 2010 Pandora’s Box in the Gulf: Does Hope Remain? "From the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort," Obama said. "BP is operating at our direction." (White House press conference, May 26, 2010) Read more |
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Views Sunday, June 20, 2010 Obama’s Oily Waterloo President Obama's handling of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico can be aptly described, in the words of the great Yogi Berra, as "déjà vu all over again". After nearly two months of dilly-dallying, Obama finally got the deservedly reviled BP CEO Tony Hayward to the White House where he extracted some kind of a commitment-over-time for a $20 billion dollar escrow fund. Republicans cried foul, Democrats praised the president's fortitude. Read more |
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Views Saturday, May 22, 2010 BP: The Buck Stops on Obama’s Desk One of the hopeful promises Barack Obama made to the country in 2008 was that if elected, his administration would reinstitute science-based decision making. We had all heard the stories of how, under George W. Bush, science was regularly compromised in the interests of big business. The BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, and events in the aftermath of this epic catastrophe, demonstrates how little has changed. Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 29, 2010 Reprieve for Banks, Foreclosure for Homeowners Its first attempt at foreclosure relief--dubbed Making Home Affordable--having proven a dismal failure, the Obama administration recently implemented a new program called the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) Hardest Hit Fund. According to Bloomberg News, the new program "[gives] bankers a reprieve." 1 Read more |
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Views Thursday, March 11, 2010 A Challenge to Corporate Feudalism? "[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences." --Prof. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966 Read more |
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Views Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Leading an Empire in Decline: Obama’s First Year Almost a year ago, in an editorial published on this site we called on Barack Obama to be the hero our country so sorely needed. We pointed back in time to the flush of hope that greeted Bill Clinton's election in 1992, hope that was quickly dashed on the shoals of NAFTA and the Contract with America. Would Obama's early tenure follow a similar trajectory? Read more |
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Views Saturday, November 21, 2009 Still the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave? Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. - George Washington Read more |
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Views Friday, October 16, 2009 Obama Renews Bush's 9/11 State of Emergency On September 10 th , President Obama reinstituted the national State of Emergency first declared by George W. Bush on September 14, 2001 by placing the following language in the Federal Register. The terrorist threat that led to the declaration on September 14, 2001, of a national emergency continues. For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect after September 14, 2009, the national emergency with respect to the terrorist threat. Read more |
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Views Friday, August 21, 2009 End the State of Emergency! On August 28, 2008, then President George W. Bush extended for another year the state of national emergency he first officially proclaimed on September 14, 2001. In a notice published in the Federal Register and transmitted to Congress, the president wrote the following: "Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2008." Read more |