Protests against SOPA
Protests of this bill were immediately started, with some of the internet’s most popular websites against it. One of the first means of protest was through boycotting websites and services that supported SOPA, the first major one being GoDaddy, the domain and hosting company. After the first week of GoDaddy announcing support for SOPA, they lost over 72,000 domains to transfers. The loss of so many small websites, along with many major ones like the image hosting site Imgur, caused GoDaddy to pull support of the bill.

Many senators still supported the bill however, and on January 18th the next major protest against SOPA came. An estimated 7,000 websites completely blacked out their websites in protest of SOPA, only allowing users to see information on the bill. Many thousands more blacked out their logo, or other parts of their site in protest as well. Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia were three of these sites. The first, third, and fifth most viewed websites in the world respectively.

Senate Response to SOPA
The January 18th blackouts had a major impact on senate support for SOPA. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, an original co-sponsor of the bill, was the the first to pull support after the protest. 29 more senators soon followed, bringing the number of senators against the bill from 5 the day before to 35 the day after.

Some claim that BP’s recent history of irresponsibility has aided the catastrophic spill, placing countless out of work and endangering a plethora of animals in danger. Already dubbed “the worst spill in U.S. history,” the 2010 oil spill has drawn considerable unwanted attention to BP oil. Their “top kill” operation has been met with continued failure and further ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even those previously somewhat unconcerned about the ecological dangers of off shore drilling have been awakened due to the Florida oil spill. But aside from the obvious detrimental effects upon ocean life, human’s safety has recently been questioned. Several popular news sources reported that there were experienced fisherman involved in the 2010 oil spill cleaning process suffering from loss of breath, nausea, and severe headaches. Proper gear and medical attention had then become a focus as the clean-up efforts continue.

Fear of climbing oil prices has added panic to the already tense situation, but has not proven to be a widespread reality currently. Some claimed that oil prices will skyrocket if the gushing Florida oil spill was not contained until August. Thankfully, some days ago engineers succeeded in sealing the oil well; but the ecological disaster and its consequences and pain will remain.

His predecessor Bush was in the end very unpopular and most Americans seemed to be relieved after the great success of the Hawaii-born. But after almost one year of regency, people start to realize that even Barack Obama is not almighty, and some started to criticize him for several reasons. A radical shift to the left did not really take place, neither domestically nor external.

Nevertheless, if some could not find a change in policies: a change in style came with Obama – no question about it. The rather unilateral policy of the Bush-government was not taken over by the new one. Barack pursues dialogue which was currently made clear during his visit in China. Though there was nor real change, he strenghtened diplomatic ties: he accepted China as a big global partner, without giving up on Western values at the same time.

There are many different issues Barack Obama has to deal with concerning foreign affairs: he might be distant from the White House for the conflict in the Middle East; or to make progress in Afghanistan. Next month, the climate change conference will be held in Copenhagen. But also at home, he wants to promote the Health Care Reform and thus improve the situation of millions of U.S. citizen.

The Health Care Debates turned out to be successful for Obama when U.S. Congress voted for the biggest project related to domestic politics a few days ago. Now it is up to the Senate to decide on that topic. A Health Care Reform would mean a real change in the country, and people might start admitting: yes, he can.