It was 50 years ago this year that veteran journalist Helen Thomas convinced President John F. Kennedy to boycott the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner. If women weren't invited to attend, the president announced, he wouldn't be going, either.

No sooner had Khader Adnan ended his 66-day life-threatening hunger strike than new urgent concerns are being voiced for Hana Shalabi, another West Bank hunger striker now without food for more than 24 days. Both strikes were directed by Palestinian activists against the abusive use of administrative detention by Israeli West Bank occupying military forces, protesting both the practice of internment without charges or trial and the degrading and physically harsh treatment administered during the arrest, interrogation, and detention process.

According to the doctrine of pre-emptive war, Iran can be attacked based on its alleged desire to develop nuclear weapons, just as Iraq was attacked in 2003. In fact, Congress is currently debating whether a nuclear capability alone (which Brazil, Japan, and many other countries enjoy) could justify the ‘preventive’ attack.

Those who hoped President Obama might bring a new approach to foreign policy have been repeatedly disappointed. On Sunday, Obama had a chance to partially redeem himself. He failed. Speaking at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he declared, “I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power.”

Bankers aren't lending. The federal government passed stimulus packages for small business, which small businesses never saw nor could access. In this economic blunder, the small business owners and entrepreneurs, who are the backbone of the economy and account for 70 percent of the new jobs, have been hit the hardest.

New York Times' reporter, Anthony Shadid died unexpectedly this week. With his passing we lose America's finest reporter on Arab World issues — at the time when Americans need his work more than ever.