Trillions for War, Prisons, & Wall St. Bailout = No Progress

The effects of corporate lobbyists have impacted the way that the major initiatives of the Administration such as the Wall St. Bailout & the Stimulus Package for the Economy, Financial Sector Reform, and Health Care Reform, have been written as legislation in committee and the final result as passed by Congress. In certain instances, this can be shown to be contrary to the public interest and thus requiring further reform of the way political contributions, soft money, and lobbyist groups work on the Hill. Between the years 2009-10, the Obama Administration supported three main legislative packages through Congress to address the economic problems arising from the recessionary economy.

The Lisbon Treaty represents the common standard of agreement binding the European Union for 27 nations, and one of the main goals of the EU is to present a cohesive foreign policy on international issues. The Lisbon Treaty integrates national and supra-national politics in the public leadership positions that represent the EU officially, creating the possibility that the sectarian issues that have divided European politics traditionally could result in factionalism under the new structure. This essay will first look at the leadership of the EU that relates to foreign policy articulation and implementation and discuss the issues of regionalism and cohesion in the greater context of the important historical events post-Lisbon.

In 2010 on election day, I wrote Professor Noam Chomsky to encourage him to run for Presidentin 2012 under the Green Party platform, which he politely refused, stating "I wouldn’t run on the platform...  Rightly or wrongly, I think I can do a lot more good elsewhere. I don’t think the problem is finding candidates, but organizing the movement that can carry them forward." This year, Professor Chomsky has appeared at the Occupy Boston demonstrations, and it appears that he has found a movement which he believes can carry America forward in alignment with his vision, or his critique, political views, and discourse on power published over innumerable articles in a lifetime of work.