The facts all point to this “inconvenient truth” -- the time has come to shut down California’s two nuclear power plants as part of a swift transition to an energy policy focused on clean and green renewable sources and conservation.

The Diablo Canyon plant near San Luis Obispo and the San Onofre plant on the southern California coast are vulnerable to meltdowns from earthquakes and threaten both residents and the environment.

Reactor safety is just one of the concerns. Each nuclear power plant creates radioactive waste that will remain deadly for thousands of years. This is not the kind of legacy that we should leave for future generations.

In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown, we need a basic rethinking of the USA’s nuclear energy use and oversight. There is no more technologically advanced country in the world than Japan. Nuclear power isn’t safe there, and it isn’t safe anywhere.

The perils to people are clear. In a recent letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein noted that “roughly 424,000 live within 50 miles of the

Democracy. Who used to have it in the USA, and who has it now? People with white skin privilege? People who were born male? People with piles of money, much of it stolen from other people's labor?

I often hear European Americans from all walks of life talking about democracy in the USA - how they want to reclaim it, like in the good old days - and I wonder about how differently from one another we experience this country. This is not our land; not my land nor your land. When European Americans arrived over 500 years ago, we murdered with bullets and small pox blankets - that we intentionally gave to them - the Indigenous people who had lived in balance here for thousands of years. Then we enslaved people of African descent to build the country's wealth, and kept women - who did not even get the vote until 1920 - second class citizens and the property of men for even longer.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Three days of border fighting with mortars and rockets by Thailand and Cambodia has killed at least 10 soldiers and forced thousands of villagers to flee, while both sides try to dominate nearby ancient Hindu temple ruins which are potentially lucrative tourist sites.

Three Cambodian soldiers and three Thai troops died on Friday, followed by three more Cambodian soldiers' deaths and one more Thai army fatality on Saturday, officials said.

No deaths were reported on Sunday.

Thailand and Cambodia repeatedly blamed the other for firing first.

The three days of fighting were the worst clashes since February when four days of similar battles killed 10 soldiers and prompted the United Nations Security Council to call for restraint.

In New York during the weekend, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon again called on both countries to stop fighting and agree to a verifiable ceasefire.

Cambodia said Thai forces fired 75 mm and 105 mm shells "loaded with poison gas" and flew reconnaissance flights deep into Cambodian territory, but no evidence was provided and Bangkok denied both charges.

Editor's Note: Listen to a conversation with Cynthia McKinney on FIGHT BACK with Dr. Bob Fitrakis, at Talktainmentradio
President Obama promised "change" to the people who voted for him. He told them to hope again and that change would come. But President Obama's change is really more of the same. Therefore, his elixir that was sold to the world was nothing more than snake oil. The most damage, of course, is being done to those whose dreams were intricately woven into his words, not realizing that words are not policy. In a most deadly treachery, those who believed in our President the most are the ones who are now suffering and dying the most.