Obama and those around him are criminals. But what few people understand here is that they're interchangeable parts in a corrupted system, slowly destroying us unless stopped. Obama replaced Bush seamlessly. Whoever comes next will do the same. ~ Stephen Lendman

After 8 years of Bush's reign that ended with a record low presidential approval rating in the low 20s, Obama's promise of hope and change inspired many beyond mainline progressives. His campaign speeches were so powerful that they landed him the Nobel Peace Prize without having done anything for world peace except to offer the idea in order to get elected. As a Constitutional law professor and attorney, Obama appeared to have a greater understanding of rights and the balance of power than did flunky Bush.

Although policies being implemented under Obama's leadership exhibit the continuation of Bush's tyrannical agenda, his stunning betrayal of populist and Constitutional principles in support of these actions makes him the ultimate hypocrite. Additionally, because Obama is a much more influential orator than Bush, his service to the puppet masters is far more dangerous to the American people he's supposed to serve. - There have been many articles written about Obama's unkept promises and outright lies, but here are 10 actions that prove Obama is just as bad if not worse than Bush:

An unnamed senior military official in Israel has confirmed Wednesday that a Tuesday attack on Sudan was carried out by the Israeli military. The confirmation came after a “no comment” response from the military itself. “It’s not our first time there,” the official insisted. It is presumably a reference to the January 2009 Israeli attack, which likewise was not directly confirmed by the then-Olmert government, but was confirmed by US officials. That air strike was initially reported to have killed 39 people, but the Sudanese state media later put the toll over 100.

Global Post: Mystery plane bombs Sudan, Israel blamed - Two people were killed when an unidentified foreign airplane reportedly bombed a car close to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan in Sudan on Tuesday night. Sudanese officials blamed the attack on Israel. “A plane bombed a small car which was coming from Port Sudan airport to the town,” said a senior local official. “There were two people in the car and both were killed. The vehicle was completely destroyed," Mohammed Tahir, a member of the state assembly, told AFP.

A NATO airstrike has killed at least five popular forces in eastern Libyan as the revolutionaries accuse Western troops of siding with Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

The attack was carried out on Thursday near the oil town of Brega. "It was a NATO air strike on us. We were near our vehicles near Brega," Reuters quoted a wounded fighter as saying from his stretcher at the Ajdabiyah hospital. The attack marks the second deadly NATO strike on Libyan revolutionary forces in less than a week. Thirteen also died in another West-led air strike near Brega on Saturday.

"We were standing by our tanks and NATO fired two rockets at us," one anti-Gaddafi fighter said, describing NATO officials as liars. "They are siding with Gaddafi."

Libyan anti-government forces, inspired by revolutions that toppled authoritarian rulers in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, are fighting to dethrone Gaddafi after suffering under his despotic rule for over 41 years. The violent repression of anti-government protesters by Gaddafi loyalists has claimed the lives of thousands of people since the beginning of the revolution in mid-February.

PressTV: Britain forced apology from Libyans
The Independent: Divided and disorganised, Libyan rebel military turn on Nato allies

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinians in a West Bank town say Israeli troops have rounded up some 200 women as part of a search for the killer of five Israelis in a nearby settlement last month. Kais Awwad, the mayor of Awarta, says the women were taken into custody in an overnight raid. He says troops fingerprinted them and took DNA samples from their mouths. He says that as of Thursday morning, about 100 women remained in custody, along with about 50 village men arrested in earlier raids. The Israeli military had no comment. Details of the investigation are under a gag order. Israel has been carrying out arrests Awarta since a young Israeli couple and three of their children were stabbed to death in the neighboring Jewish settlement of Itamar.

Japan has been rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the north-eastern coast. The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to one metre. The warning was issued for a coastal area already torn apart by last month's tsunami. Officials say the new quake was a 7.4-magnitude and hit 25 miles under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude. Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.

MSNBC: Tsunami warning lifted after large Japan quake
CNN Blog: New quake hits northern Japan; tsunami warning issued

You Tube: Who was Bill Hicks - Part 1 [Part 2] - Bill Hicks (Wikipedia) - Official Website

Koch Funded Organization ALEC Writes Legislation That Makes It Harder For Young Americans To Vote. Why? Well, Probably Because Young Americans Tend To Vote For Democrats. Nearly forty years after a Constitutional Amendment giving 18-21 year-olds the right to vote, Republican legislators across the country are trying to disenfranchise youth under the subterfuge of combatting "voter fraud." However, as Christina Francisco-McGuire recently pointed out at progressivestates.org, instances of *voter fraud "are so rare that one is more likely to be struck by lightening." Amongst the legislation being pushed in various states are photo id requirements, the abandonment of election-day registration, and the redefining of student residency requirements.

[Google Translate] Icesave contracts will be decided in a referendum on Saturday. Almost 57% of the people are going to say no according to a new survey. This is a real turnaround in the attitude of people on the matter of several weeks. The survey was conducted by MMR days 4 to 6. April and included more than 1500 people. 942 said no (almost 60 percent). They were asked: "If the latest Icesave law were to be decided upon today, would you vote for it or against it?"

Of those who responded, 56.8% said no while 43.2% said yes. These results will be incorporated in the contracts Icesave þjóðaratkvægðagreiðslunni on Saturday. This is a great change from previous surveys - all of them have indicated that Icesave would be accepted. 11 of 16 parliamentarians voted in favor of the Iceasave deal in Parliament, including Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of the committee. This parliament, however, has failed to convince voters. Only a quarter of voters plan to support the agreement. Democrats expect most voters to vote with Icesave, but the Left Green party voters, however, are split on the matter.

Yahoo: Iceland set to reject Icesave repayment deal

ZAMOSC, Poland — Jewish leaders and foreign dignitaries have gathered to celebrate the reopening of an important Renaissance synagogue in Poland.

The synagogue is a jewel of Renaissance architecture located in the eastern Polish town of Zamosc. It is considered one of the most important surviving synagogues in a country that was home to Europe’s largest Jewish community before the Holocaust.

A ceremony Tuesday was attended by several ambassadors to Poland, including those from the United States, Germany, Israel and Norway. Norway funded most of the restoration work.

Amid the festivities, Poland’s chief rabbi affixed a mezuzah at the door. A mezuzah is a decorative box containing a religious scroll attached to the doors of Jewish homes and synagogues.

Russia was uncertain that the arrival of the new authorities in Cote d'Ivoire would bring stability to this African country, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. "The enforced change of power may unlikely mean arrival of democracy, peace and stability in Cote d'Ivoire," the Foreign Ministry's spokesman Alexander Lukashevich was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. The diplomat reminded that Moscow has warned about hard humanitarian consequences of the attempts to resolve the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire by force.

Reuters: French helicopter hits Gbagbo forces in Ivory Coast
Jason Ditz: Ivorian Surrender Talks Fail as Opposition Launches New Attack
The Independent: Gbagbo's refusal to cede power sparks brutal assault on bunker

A 75-year old lady from Georgia (the country, not the state) has perpetrated an impressive feat of international sabotage in what seems to have been an accident of extremely bad luck. While foraging for copper wire near her home in the village of Ksani, the unnamed septuagenarian managed to come across a critical fiber optic cable, one responsible for serving internet connectivity to "90 percent of private and corporate internet users in Armenia" and some in her own country as well. Her swift strike at the heart of said bit-transferring pipeline resulted in all those folks being thrown offline for a solid 12 hours, while the Georgian Railway Telecom worked to find and correct the fault. In spite of her relatively benign motivations, the lady now faces three years in prison for the damage she caused. We'd say all's well that ends well, but this doesn't actually seem like a very happy ending at all.