by Stephen Lendman

Obama targets humanity at home and abroad. Illinoisans paying attention knew long ago. He served as senator for the state's 13th district.

He sold out straightaway. Real estate interests had their man. Gentrification demolitions rewarded them. Poor folks were driven out. Most were Black.

Banking, finance, insurance, and real estate interests comprised his political base then and now. Needs of constituents he represented were ignored. Community uplift rhetoric disguised harming people who needed help.

Critics called his record kick back cronyism. Convicted felons and big monied interests funded him. Every dollar invested returned multiples.

Pay-to-play was always Chicago's way. City and state politics are notoriously corrupt. Obama played the game down and dirty.

He earned his bona fides. He was well suited for bigger and better things in Washington. He was singled out and took full advantage. Nationally he betrayed the poor and disadvantaged the way he did in Illinois. Globally it's much worse.

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If saying it were so could make it so, the Syrian government would have toppled by now. United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has called for Assad to leave Syria at nearly every stop on her not so diplomatic missions of late. She and the NATO countries support the Syrian rebels. According to the NATO storyline, it seems almost inconceivable that Assad can survive. The article re-posted below tells a different story. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan will blame Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sooner or later for the problems to date or, most certainly the reporter points out, for any outright failure of Turkey's deep involvement in the internal affairs of its neighbor to the south, Syria. Of note, the foreign minister has behaved oddly lately. He visited the Kurdish section of Iraq without informing the government of Iraq, which is furious over the incident. Michael Collins

From Alakhbar English edition, Creative Commons license

Davutoglu: Betting on the Fall of Assad

By: Hüsnü Mahalli Published Tuesday, August 7, 2012

It now appears that the political future of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu very much depends on the fate of Syria. If the Assad regime falls, then Davutoglu may very well become prime minister. But if the regime survives, Turkey’s top diplomat will be scapegoated and possibly sacked.

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