Yes, that was I standing before the U.S. Embassy in Athens on the eve of the July Fourth weekend holding the American flag in the distress mode — upside down.

Indignities experienced by me and my co-guests on “The Audacity of Hope,” the American boat to Gaza, over the past ten days in Athens leave no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama’s administration has forfeited the right to claim any lineage to the brave Americans who declared independence from the king of England 235 years ago.

In the Declaration of Independence, they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to a new enterprise of freedom, democracy and the human spirit. The outcome was far from assured; likely as not, the hangman’s noose awaited them. They knew that all too well.

But they had a genuine audacity to hope that the majority of their countrymen and women, persuaded by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and the elegant words of Thomas Jefferson, would conclude that the goal of liberty and freedom was worth the risk, that it was worth whatever the cost.

The Declaration of Independence is best remembered as a declaration of war, a war declared on the grounds that we wanted our own flag. The sheer stupidity and anachronism of the idea serves to discourage any thoughts about why Canada didn't need a bloody war, whether the U.S. war benefitted people outside the new aristocracy to whom power was transferred, what bothered Frederick Douglas so much about a day celebrating "independence," or what the Declaration of Independence actually said.

When you read the Declaration of Independence, it turns out to be an indictment of King George III for various abuses of power. And those abuses of power look fairly similar to abuses of power we happily permit U.S. presidents to engage in today, either as regards the people of this nation or the people of territories and nations that our military occupies today in a manner uncomfortably resembling Britain's rule over the 13 colonies.

Or perhaps I should say, a large portion of us take turns being happy or outraged depending on the political party with which the current president is identified.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Voters gave a strong mandate to elect Thailand's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, on Sunday (July 3) so she can reverse a devastating 2006 coup by the U.S.-trained military and bring her toppled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, home from self-exile.

To protect herself against a possible putsch, Mrs. Yingluck, as prime minister, may allow the generals who staged the coup to keep their current job promotions and continue to enjoy a free hand in demanding expensive weapons procurement contracts.

But hatred, distrust and betrayal have ravaged Thai society on all sides since the coup, making any deals difficult to believe or rely upon.

The military had supported Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who took office in December 2008.

Oxford-educated Mr. Abhisit, 46, conceded defeat in a brief speech on Sunday night after the polls closed and congratulated Mrs. Yingluck, 44, who is Mr. Thaksin's youngest sister.

Dr. Bob Talks to Wayne Madsen, investigative journalist. Wayne Madsen just returned from a trip with Cynthia McKinney to Libya in the midst of the U.S. bombing campaign. He is a Washington, D.C.-based author, columnist, and self-described investigative journalist specializing in intelligence and international affairs. He has written for The Village Voice, The Progressive, CounterPunch, CorpWatch, Multinational Monitor, CovertAction Quarterly, In These Times, and The American Conservative. His columns have appeared in The Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Sacramento Bee, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among others. He is the author of the blog Wayne Madsen Report. He has been described by critics including Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly, CBS, and Salon as a conspiracy theorist
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The referendum campaign to place SB 5, the legislation to take away public worker’s collective bargaining rights in Ohio, culminated on Thursday in a massive ‘People’s Parade’ to the Secretary of State’s office to turn in petitions. 233,000 signatures, or 3% of the electorate in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties were needed to qualify the issue being placed on November’s ballot. The huge labor-led ‘We Are Ohio’ coalition got that number, and then some! On Thursday a march of an estimated 10,000 Ohioans wound down Broad St. in Columbus and in turned in 1.3 MILLION signatures!

“This is truly impressive, it really gave me chills,” said OCSEA representative Bill Otten. “Now is when the real fight begins. We have to build a political machine that will represent the people and overcome the millions of dollars the corporate side will spend against us in November.”