Canada

"If I may be permitted a bit of advice to our president-elect: In foreign policy the Palestinian challenge remains at the root of America’s difficulties. Barak Obama can be true to his campaign pledges by leading Israel to acknowledge a plain and urgent reality -- that Israeli citizens can attain true security only if Palestinians attain the same thing in a truly independent state within the borders that existed before June 1967."

"There is no chance for progress towards Israeli-Palestinian peace without American pressure on the Israeli government. That has been true for decades, and that remains true today."

"...it will require a fundamental and momentous change in US hubris to end the bombings, the invasions, the killings, the destruction, the coups, the occupations and the torture. ."

"The irony in this case is that it is not the United Nations imposing this decision; rather, it is the Horn of Africa regional authority IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority on Development). The UN has suspended the trusteeship mandate in 1994."

Sen. John McCain’s presidential candidacy was done in mostly by a Wall Street-Financial Meltdown, in late Sept. 2008. This phenomenon took the issue of “national security,” which favored him, off the table, and replaced it with “the economy,” which was Sen. Obama’s strongest suit. The fact that Dubya is the most unpopular president in history, coupled with having $639 million to spend, all added up to a smashing victory for Prez-Elect Obama.

"Let’s be clear: Despite their rhetoric, even McCain and Palin know that spreading the wealth from greedy elites to the masses of people is quite popular in our country. That’s why their campaign emphasized how Palin “stood up to the oil industry” in Alaska. She did it by imposing a windfall profits tax on big oil that put money into the hands of every man, woman and child in the state. If it’s good for Alaska, why wouldn’t it be good for America as a whole?"

"...why are the ‘international community’ and the countries around the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean more concerned about Somali pirates and paying less attention to the increasing violence in Somalia, the tragedy of its people and the clear failure of the IG to rule? The reason is simple: most of those countries and the UN are opposed to the assumption of power in Somalia--or, indeed, the whole region--by an Islamic group such as the Islamic Courts, as they all back the US-led war on Islam."

"It stands to reason that both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian President Bashar Assad, while welcoming ongoing contacts with Israel, will avoid entering into any definitive commitments with Olmert that could end up embarrassing everybody. Olmert's Palestinian and Syrian negotiating partners should be aware of the pitfalls of pursuing serious negotiating progress with the outgoing Israeli prime minister at this critical juncture. If Olmert himself doesn't understand or accept the need to redefine the negotiations as "maintenance mode" pending the arrival of a new government in Jerusalem, then Abbas, Assad and the next US president should."