The stunning rejection of Barack Obama's play for the Chicago Olympics had better teach him a good lesson about escalating in Afghanistan.

Ignoring fierce grassroots resistance in Chicago itself, the Obamas flew to Copenhagen with Mayor Richard Daley to "persuade" the International Olympic Committee to give the games to the Windy City.

Imagine yourself a member of the Olympic Committee as the almighty President of the United States and his entourage, with the world media in tow, swoops down from Olympus to tell you how to make your decision.

Are we surprised Chicago was summarily bounced?

Imagine yourself an Afghani villager as the almighty President of the United States shoots down from Olympus those murderous drones that kill your family and your neighbors, to be followed by heavily armed troops who---after eight years of brutal slaughter---now want to "help."

Obama's decision on Afghanistan will define the rest of his presidency---and the fate of our nation.

PITTSBURGH -- A new world order is emerging at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh with a decision by the group to become the premier coordinating body on economic issues. Radio Free Europe, Sep. 26, 2009.

The world's most exclusive public club, the G-20, met last week in Pittsburgh for "the opportunity to take stock of the progress made and discuss further actions to assure a sound recovery from the global economic and financial crisis." The G-20 consists of finance ministers and senior banking officials from the world's 20 largest economies. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were there for the United States. But the real action comes from the gathering's function as an informal summit for attending heads of state.

The Pittsburgh Summit focused on changing the regulations governing the world's financial institutions and processes In addition to rewriting the rule book, the "new world order" announced that the G-20 is now the "premier coordinating body on economic issues" which will benefit the wealthiest interests in each member country.

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, Ohio had its third botched execution in as many years. It is unacceptable to put people to death under a system that is fundamentally flawed. Please call Governor Ted Strickland and tell him to put an immediate stop to all executions indefinitely. His number is (614) 466-3555 or contact him electronically here. After over two hours of excruciating needling, the execution team could not locate a viable vein in Romell Broom to conduct the lethal injection. Governor Strickland delayed his execution for one week, so officials can devise a way to put him to death.

Broom’s failed execution follows the similar experiences of Joseph Clark in May 2006 and Christopher Newton in May 2007. If we continue using this system next week with Mr. Broom or the following month with the next condemned person, it is simply a question of when, not if, another horrible problem will occur. Please call Governor Strickland today and urge him to stop executions in Ohio.

On Sept 20, The Toledo Blade published an article in which President Obama is quoted as saying, in reference to the G-20, “protests about abstractions [such] as global capitalism or something, generally, are not really going to make much of a difference." While I am not sure what the opposition to the G-20 accomplished last week in Pittsburgh, I found that many of the activists there were quite concrete about what they don’t like about the elite economic club.

(To express the details of what you do or don’t like about the G-20 and other global financial institutions or about the protests, contact the Columbus Free Press at truth@freepress.org or phone 614-202-0178 and your input will be added to this article).

On Sept 24, about 150 people gathered for the People’s Tribunal against the G-20 at the Emanuel Episcopal Church in an area of Pittsburgh called the North Side. This part of town was quiet with no more than the usual amount of police I have seen in various cities.

At the main protest against the G-20 in downtown Pittsburgh on Friday, Sept 25, Falun Gong marchers played calm, recorded music as they carried signs four lanes wide, some of which had gruesome photographs of people who’ve been mutilated and tortured. Kui Huang was one of the demonstrators. He urges people to “write to the president…and Congress” so as to get China to stop its persecution of Falun Gong, which includes not only imprisonment and torture, but also organ harvesting.

Stopping the atrocity against practitioners of Falun Gong will take a lot of public pressure in the United States because, as Huang said, “many officials in the U.S. are afraid of the Chinese government” and so are not inclined to make this an issue in nation to nation relations.

“Chinese media tell lies about Falun Gong.” said Huang, who was imprisoned for 5 years. But Huang said in an email a couple of weeks after the protests in Pittsburgh, " nowadays, more and more people in China who don't practice Falun Gong are starting to stand out to protest the persecution."