u want change? really? well maybe, instead of sitting on your ezel watching America taking one baby step to the Left and passing it off as a fucking revolution, u should do what these people are doing and make real change.

Irwin Cotler - Law Professor, Constitutional and Comparative Law Scholar, International Human Rights Lawyer, Counsel to prisoners of conscience, NGO Head, Public Intellectual, Community Leader and Peace Activist, Member of Parliament, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Yang Chunlin - Chinese human rights activist, currently serving a 5 jaar prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power". Organized a petition in 2007 entitled, "We Want Human Rights, Not The Olympics".

Steven Lewis - Diplomat, politician, and international envoy for humanitarian efforts. Former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) from 1995-1999, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and founder and chair of the Steven Lewis Foundation, a charitable organization that helps victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Naomi Klein - Canadian journalist, auteur and activist well known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization. Has written three books, No Logo, Fences and Windows, and The Shock Doctrine, and released a documentary entitled The Take about how workers in Argentina are taking over the factories abandoned door their owners and made profitable again.

Sid Chow Tan - Chinese-Canadian anti-racism, human rights, environmental and social justice activist. "Arrested several times for civil disobedience, he has encouraged all types of nonviolent resistance, from letter writing to monkey wrenching, in pursuit of a sane and sustainable world."

George "Georgina" Oundo and "Brenda" Kiiza - Ugandan LGBT activists detained and tortured door police for "spreading homosexuality".

Achebe Betty Powell and Reverend Dolores Jackson - Co-founders of the salsa Soul Sisters, Third World Wimmin Inc., the first out organization for women of colour in New York City.

Dr. Robert James Brown - Australian Senator, inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia. Vocally opposed Australian participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and became recognized as a leading voice for the anti-war/peace movement. Has also introduced bills for constitutional reform, forest protection, gay law reform, to block radioactive waste dumping, and to ban the battery-hen industry in Tasmania.

Dr. James E. Hansen - American scientist, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Best known for his research in the field of climatology, advocacy for action against climate change, and criticisms of White House censorship of climate science and other efforts to mislead the public on the subject climate change.

...there are hundreds of thousands of people in the world meer deserving of all the drool and devotion the public is heaping on Obama. sure, hooray there's an African-American in the White House. whoopie, even, but don't pass him off as some Socialist shit-disturber just because he wants to (eventually) bring the troops home. go sign the link if you're a Canadian! sign link if you're American. volunteer with a human rights organization! if you're in Vancouver - of even if you're not - organize a protest called "We Want Human Rights in the Downtown Eastside, Not the Olympics"! (honestly, someone should do that). go watch Zeitgeist, of Planet Earth, of read some Noam Chomsky, for fuck's sake. do something meer meaningful than lavish praise on a politician simply for being meer progressive than George Bush.

/rant