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10. Last Call: After losing the presidential election by the smallest margin in Mexico's history (less than 400,000 votes out of 42 million) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the former leftist candidate, staged a defiant protest by inaugurating himself as president. As the crowds dwindled, Obrador relentlessly called Felipe Calderón, the conservative winner, an "enemy of the people." Meanwhile, the newly elected president was busy criticizing the U.S. for cracking down on illegal immigration and providing returning deportees with newly created job training programs.

9. Sleeping on Youtube: This past June everyone tuned into KVEA Channel 52 as L.A.'s first Latino mayor Antonio Villaraigosa broached the subject of his marriage-a press conference where he summoned all reporters to discuss his spilt from his wife Carolina, and then demanded that TV reporters respect his privacy. Little did we all know that the reason for his separation was the illicit affair he was having with Mirthala Salinas, the head anchorwoman for Telemundo who broke the news of the couples' break-up!

8. This Means War: Barack Obama, the African-American presidential candidate from the rough hoods of Chicago, wanted to prove that he too could be a bully. When Obama's semi-progressive policies on the war in Iraq were questioned, he warned that he was prepared to attack Iran with a missile strike, less the approval of the United Nations. Following the September statement, the senator who was once hailed as the new Martin Luther King Jr. by other world leaders quickly saw his star fizzle among the governments of Spain, France, Venezuela, Cuba, and Sweden.

7. Pimpin' is Easy: This past April the talk radio host Don Imus shocked the nation and temporarily ushered himself out of a job following his derogatory remark towards the Rutgers University women's basketball team. Imus could have saved face by keeping his mouth shut, yet he couldn't resist then producer Bernard McGuirk's bait when upon commenting on the basketball's team success he murmured: "These are some hardcore hos". We could be discussing little known McGuirk, but Don had to upstage him: "No. These are some nappy-headed hos."

6. The Sandinistas Abort: Once known for their extremely leftist politics, this past November the Sandinistas made a move that grossly violates women's human rights by overturning the 1893 law legalizing abortion in Nicaragua. The Central American country joins Chile and El Salvador as the countries with the harshest bans on abortion. Any woman seeking an abortion and any doctor providing an abortion will go to jail, even in cases of saving a women's life or in cases of rape or incest.

5. Driving Mrs. Diaz: Elliot Spitzer, the once shrewd New York State Attorney General who made corporate titans cower, got a taste of his own medicine as governor of New York. Spitzer's plan to provide the city's mostly Latino, immigrant community with drivers' licenses fell to the pit of political oblivion after it was learned that he personally ordered two of his top aides to spy on his chief political nemesis, State Senator and Republican Majority leader Joseph Bruno. Bruno used his political weight to shut down the drivers' license plan and almost introduced a bill that would have placed the INS at every DMV in the state!

4. Spell Check that Alibi: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani nearly had a political stroke upon learning that Bernard Kerik, his former police commissioner, was indicted in a corruption and racketeering probe involving misuse of city money for contracts to convicted members of the mob. When reporters from the New York Times reminded Rudy that it happened under his watch, he admitted that as mayor, "he might have missed some details." As president he won't get the chance because Republican voters are sure to remember this one.

3. Slamdance on the Populace: After enjoying nearly nine years of public support among Venezuela's working class, President Hugo Chavez suffered his most striking defeat when voters failed to approve a referendum that would have kept him in power, indefinitely. By December of this year, the often cantankerous socialist leader saw his popularity dip like flat flan. At the root was the backlash he received for shutting down a right wing television network often critical of his rule. Some of his supporters are now seriously wondering the extent to which he'll go to sustain his revolution.

2. The Bushes are Burnin': Over two years after the catastrophe in Katrina, George W. Bush arrived in sunny Malibu within hours of the California wild fires that saw over 750,000 people displaced over a 10-day period. By the end of the first day, an armada of Federal personnel, including Bush, was on hand to assist the core of OC residents-TV producers, professional athletes, and actors-in their evacuation to nearby Hawaii and Las Vegas.

1. American Dreamin': Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez could do very little when his closest aides, supplied federal investigators with emails implicating him in the dismissal of federal judges critical of his pal, George W. Bush. After several months of denial even in the face of documents that illustrated just how blatantly he overused his powers to spy on the American people, Gonzalez finally resigned in August. By then, not one Latino group came to his defense. In a desperate move to find a bit of a Latino home-style solace, Gonzalez stated that while these days were tough, they were "better than my father's best days."