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Obama’s State of the Union is short on specifics but long on compromise; Tunisians keep their revolution strong even as Egyptians take to the streets, giving President Mubarak the biggest challenge of his 30 year reign; and the Black Agenda Report.

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“Widespread failures in financial regulation” and “systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels” are among the causes of the economic collapse, says the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The Commission released its final report yesterday after beginning work in May 2009. It is the fruit of a thorough investigation that included reviewing millions of pages of documents, holding 19 days of public hearings, and conducting over 700 interviews. About its findings, Commission Chairman Phil Angelides, said in part, “Despite the expressed view of many on Wall Street and in Washington that the crisis could not have been foreseen or avoided, there were warning signs.” However not every commissioner agreed with this assessment. The bi-partisan Commission split along partisan lines, with only the 6 members appointed by Democrats endorsing the final …

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More than two years after Israel’s brutal Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, the landmark UN Report on Israel’s war crimes is still a source of major controversy. The Goldstone Report as it is called, was authored by celebrated South African and Jewish human rights lawyer Richard Goldstone, and covers not only Israel’s crimes targeting civilians in Gaza during the war, but also Hamas’ rockets fired into civilian-inhabited regions in Israel. Yet, the Israeli government and pro-Israel establishment soundly rejected the Goldstone report, attacked Goldstone’s reputation, and, so far, have managed to legally stymie the entire report. The U.S. House of Representatives declared the report “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy,” and passed a resolution 344 to 36 against the report. Meanwhile, the Arab news network Al Jazeera …

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The past decade saw the continuation of strained relations between the U.S. and the governments of Central and South American countries—most notably Venezuela. A rarely mentioned but significant historic contributor to the turmoil is the School of the Americas (SOA), re-branded in 2001 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the SOA instructs soldiers and police from around the globe in U.S.-sanctioned civilian and military tactics, including disorder management, intelligence and anti-drug operations. At least 11 Latin American dictators are known to have been trained at the SOA since 1948. However with allegations of torture and assassination-based curricula, coupled with a growing awareness of a progressive trend in Latin America—documented by films such as South of the Border and Father Roy: Inside …

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Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today.

Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films.

Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com/user/jsjkim, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReThinkReviews. ReThink Reviews’ theme song is by Restavrant.

The Rite

So an atheist walks into a religious supernatural thriller. No, it’s not the set-up for a joke, it’s what actually happened to me this week when I went to see THE RITE, a film about a young American priest named Michael, played by Colin O’Donoghue, who travels to Rome to learn how to perform …

“I will not tire of declaring that if we really want an effective end to violence we must remove the violence that lies at the root of all violence: structural violence, social injustice, exclusion of citizens from the management of the country, repression. All this is what constitutes the primal cause, from which the rest flows naturally.” — Oscar Romero

The other day I was talking with a friend who was dismayed over the departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC. She expressed a hunch that I think many progressives share: that Olbermann’s exit foreshadows the inevitable transformation of the cable news outlet by its new owners Comcast into a less progressive, less “left”, voice.

She then turned to me and said, “Air America’s gone, MSNBC is doomed, you guys (Pacifica) are going to be the only game in town again, the only voice of sanity.”

As Program Director at KPFK, Southern California’s Pacifica station, it’s a sentiment I’ve heard before — in particular when the Air America Radio Network closed shop after five years of progressive advocacy and constant fiscal crisis.

From the point of view of Pacifica, it’s not surprising that advertising revenue is in short supply for media outlets critiquing society from the progressive side; while, in turn, money is ever-abundant …

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Watchdog organization Common Cause will host a press conference in an effort to draw attention to the so-called “Billionaires’ Caucus” hosted by conservative financier and energy baron Charles Koch, today in Palm Springs. This will be ahead of a panel this weekend that includes former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and former Obama administration environmental adviser Van Jones. The panel will precede a rally and will discuss the campaign finance ramifications of Citizens United. In addition, the panel will undoubtedly focus on the recent request by Common Cause for a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into previous interactions between the so called “Billionaires’ Caucus” and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court. In question is the alleged correlation of appearances made by Scalia and Thomas at …

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Egyptians, seemingly inspired by the revolution in Tunisia, have flooded their streets with major protests this week, threatening the power of President Hosni Mubarak. The actions started on Tuesday, dubbed the “National Day of Anger” and continued yesterday. Midan-al-Tahrir, or Liberation Square in the capital Cairo was filled with hundreds of thousands of people demanding exactly that – liberation from a repressive regime. The demonstrations have broken out in many different parts of Cairo, as well as all across the 85-million strong nation. The Egyptian government announced a ban on protests and public gatherings with a massive deployment of riot police. They have also restricted access to Twitter.com, and Facebook. So far at least 6 protesters and one policeman have been killed and hundreds rounded up. But protesters are not backing …

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On Tuesday Najib Miqati, a billionaire and Harvard graduate, was sworn in as Lebanon’s new Prime Minister amid protests around the nation. On Wednesday the sometimes violent protesters turned to daily sit-ins in downtown Beirut, as the nation remained locked in political turmoil. Much of the previous days actions took place in the Northern city of Tripoli by Sunni supporters of ousted Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Lebanon’s government collapsed on January 12th after 11 Ministers from the Hezbollah party withdrew. Tensions had been rising between the Sunni-backed Saad Hariri, and the Shiite-backed Hezbollah, in anticipation of a report on the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad’s father. Hezbollah has long opposed the UN-backed tribunal investigating the murder, contending the tribunal was preparing to unfairly accuse them of the …