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Having been elected on a wave of hope four years ago, Barack Obama now faces a significant drop in popularity among disillusioned Democrats.

Back then, a historic campaign turned US politics into a pop culture phenomenon. The Democratic candidate achieved unprecedented support, international fame and a record-breaking US $650 million in donations. Thousands of New Yorkers celebrated the victory, clutching an enormous American flag hand-sewn by Obama supporters.

But the winds have changed – and the same very Democratic symbol waved in honor of the president-elect in 2008 has been donated to the movement that became a phenomenon in 2011.

David Mafouda, who fundraised for Obama in 2008, organized the flag project after being inspired by his rhetoric – a dream shattered by the subsequent years of “politics as usual”.

“Currently what’s inspiring me is OWS. That’s why I brought the flag to OWS,” he told RT. “And the thing that inspired me about it is the fact that it’s a grass roots movement that had a very clear and transparent process.”
Artist Shepard Fairey feels similarly disenchanted, releasing an updated version of his iconic “Hope Poster” in which Obama has been supplanted by Occupy Wall Street.

With an economy still in crisis, Wall Street largely unregulated, social programs slashed and over 45 million citizens on food stamps, Barack Obama still says that “it all starts with you, making a decision to get involved.” Now, it seems, his familiar rhetoric may not be enough to win back his old fan base.

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A new session of SINGING ON STAGE is accepting new students for the Winter session. 

 Students will be studying the highly respected David Craig Method, a method used for decades by professional singers and Broadway performers.  By using this method,  performers of all ages can win singing contests and auditions even against singers with better voices.  Learn techniques designed to blend acting and singing skills into a single performance art.

 The instructor is long time David Craig student and Idyllwild Arts faculty member Justin Blake, with Christopher Perry on piano.  Sheet music is provided. 

 The David Craig Method has been studied by performers such as Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bernadette Peters, Hugh Jackman, Rock Hudson, Piper Laurie, Lee Grant  and many others.

 Classes meet in Yucca Valley for 2 ½ hours for twelve consecutive weeks beginning late January through March.    Tuition is $300.  Email justincdrt@gmail.com or call 760-328-1483 for further information.

New York Police Department officers arrested a Tennessee nursing student at Manhattan’s September 11 memorial this week. Despite having a license for her .32-caliber pistol, the NYPD has a zero tolerance rule for firearms at Ground Zero.

Meredith Graves, 39, has since posted $2,000 bond and will have to return to New York in March to explain herself in court. The city is charging her with felony weapons possession, a crime which carries a minimum of three-and-a-half years.

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With an economy in ruins, how many foreclosures do banks have to deal with nowadays? Enough that the process of dealing with homeowners in default is taking years to complete.

As a result, more and more Americans are learning that if mortgage payments are becoming too much of a burden on the old bank account, a new surefire way to curb the bills is to simply foreclose. The wave of foreclosures has swept so many homeowners into default that banks can’t deal with the droves of customers and the unfortunate filers for foreclosure are finding a positive side to the depressing ordeal.

Homeowners are quickly realizing that the foreclosure processes — in all of its complicated glory made seemingly impossible by red tape and written forms — could take upwards of two years’ time to go through. In the interim, Americans are foregoing mortgage payments and living scot free while they wait for the banks to catch up on their calling it quits.

Now it seems like the best way to buy a home is to buy your time with the banks.

With the average foreclosure taking 631 days to go through, homeowners are learning that they can stay sheltered for upwards of two years even with the banks aware. While waiting for the paperwork to go through, homeowners are learning that banks aren’t apt to approach them for missing payments if the foreclosure process is almost finalized either.

“It is happening and it’s happening more frequently,” Chantay Bridges, a senior real estate specialist with Clear Choice Realty & Associates, tells Business Insider. “They know they have a least a year (for the foreclosure to go through), at minimum, and people are taking advantage of it.”

With the US economy in shambles, living mortgage-free while planning ahead, even if for a few months, is one of the only breaks homeowners can get. In exchange often, the only sacrifice is a few points on a credit score.

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Fox Latin America is being forced to apologize after Rupert Murdoch’s Spanish-language outlet added a questionable poll to its Facebook page as part of a failed promotion.

In an outlandish effort to promote a Christmas special this year on the National Geographic Channel, a Fox Latin America staffer asked fans on the group’s Facebook page, “Who do you think is responsible for the death of Christ?”

The options were Pontius Pilate, High Priests and “Jewish People.” Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with a decent number of Fox’s audience.

In the past, Fox has been called out for its criticism with Muslims and its misrepresenting of followers of Islam, and regularly considered a supporter of Judeo-Christian beliefs. The poll that made it to the network’s Facebook page suggests that a new religion might be on the hit-list for the Latin American branch of the News Corp empire, however.

Fox Spokeswoman Guadalupe Lucero immediately apologized to those offended by the error and assures the network’s Facebook followers that it would be the last time such a gaffe was given the go-ahead. The Simon Weisenthal Center, a Jewish advocacy group based out of Buenos Aires, says it isn’t that easy to dimiss, however. In a statement to the Associated Press, the group calls the inclusion of Jews in the answer pool a reference to outdated Catholic propaganda that characterizes Jewish people as the killers of Jesus Christ. That campaign, says the center, “resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews for two millennia.”

Pope Benedict XVI has criticized the Catholic Church for the campaign himself, and in his book Jesus of Nazareth Part II he says there is no wording in the Bible that singles out the Jews for the killing of Christ.