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State of Obama: Immunity for Wall Street

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 13:37 — Glen Ford

 

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

President Obama had hoped to put on a big show – a huge con, really – at his State of the Union address, by announcing a monetary “settlement” of massive banker criminality in housing foreclosures. “Obama’s operatives have doggedly pressed for a settlement that would effectively give banks immunity from prosecution.” But he was thwarted by a small group of state attorneys general that wanted a real investigation into “the crime of the century.” So the president “was finally forced to set up a federal unit of his own.” Since Obama’s own law enforcers have failed to send a single banker to jail, Wall Street immunity is likely to remain the real State of the Union.

Freedom Rider: Defend Iran!

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Margaret Kimberley

 

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

“Americans can expect to see a presidential address within the next few months, announcing bombings, drone attacks or an outright invasion with ground troops against Iran.” The momentum of war makes the result nearly inevitable. But the obligation to resist war remains paramount. “Iran has been demonized so thoroughly that only the most ardent peace activists will come to its defense, but defend it they must.”

Newt Gingrich: King Cracker

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Glen Ford

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

It is no longer unthinkable that Barack Obama could face Newt Gingrich in November. If that happens, the political lines will be unequivocally drawn around race – and only race. But Black people will have no defender. “The issue in a contest between Obama and Gingrich will be the same as between Gingrich and Juan Williams, a slimy Black right-winger who claims African Americans wallow in a culture of ‘victimhood.’” Sound familiar? Maybe that’s because “the coded language and euphemisms of white supremacy are deployed by both Republicans and Democrats, and forms the core of American political speech.”

For “cracker” references, read the story.

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The US Military: A Global Force, But Not For Good

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Bruce A. Dixon

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In official folklore, the US armed forces are the virtuous repositories of honor, probity and moral virtue. But the real history and culture of the US military, from invading Spanish Florida to prevent its being a refuge for escaped slaves, to Wounded Knee, to massacres in Haiti and Central America, to Fallujah and marines pissing on Afghan corpses, are something else altogether.

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Lying About the Harlem Protest Against Obama

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Glen Ford

 

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

It’s not enough that President Obama has Wall Street in his back pocket – or, is it the reverse? – but he also has loyal operatives among what passes for the Left. Daily Kos, In These Times and Democracy Now! misrepresented, and miscounted, last week’s Occupy Harlem-led protest at the Apollo Theater. In These Times writer Allison Kilkenny took a step backward in time, treating white Occupy Wall Street demonstrators like “outside agitators” for protesting Obama in Harlem. “Kilkenny doesn’t think Black progressives have the right to ask white and Latino progressives to attend Black-led demonstrations in Black neighborhoods.”

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Occupy Harlem Sets Record Straight on Apollo Theater Protest

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Anonymous

 

by Nellie Hester Bailey

Pro-Obama media seemed to claim that last week’s highly successful protest in Harlem was a “white” affair. They are actually suggesting that “Blacks are incapable of critical thinking and analysis regarding Obama’s presidency,” says one of the organizers. The demonstration outside the Apollo Theater “was called by Occupy Harlem and lead by Occupy Harlem.” Obama, in case these critics failed to notice, is still the President of the United States, and it is Obama, not Mitt Romney, who “just eviscerated the most fundamental rights of US citizens by signing NDAA.” One thing is certain. “Whether Obama or Romney is elected president, we can be sure that the attacks on the poor and working people, on civil liberties and on global human rights will continue and so will our protests.”

Death of the American Dream

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Marsha Coleman-...

 

by Marsha Coleman-Adebayo

Much of the so-called “American Dream” has always been a myth: for example, the national commitment to the proposition that all men are created equal. But the chance of upward mobility was, at one time, a real one (for white men), compared to old Europe. No more. “Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe.” Some of the factors that have destroyed mobility include “more children raised by single mothers, ‘uniquely high incarceration rates,’ ‘pay in America tilts heavily toward those who have’ education and “access to better schools.”

Echoes Of A Soledad Brother: The White Shadow Now Over Mumia Abu-Jamal

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 02:04 — Todd Steven Bur...

by Todd Steven Burroughs

Mumia Abu Jamal is out of death row but consigned to the twilight zone – or purgatory – of administrative custody placement, a status that seems to mean whatever prison officials say it means. “His transfer to general population, where he would have contact visits, access to prison services and programs, etc.—has been, uh, delayed.” Abu Jamal’s incarceration “echoes” that of George Jackson, shot down by guards 40 years ago. “One day, perhaps sooner than we suppose,” writes Mumia “we shall look back at the phenomenon of mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex as proof of a mad society.” Said George Jackson: “Dialectics, understanding, love, passive resistance, they won't work on an activistic, maniacal, gory pig.”

12,000 US Troops Poised to Move From Malta to Libya?

Wed, 01/25/2012 - 00:02 — Cynthia McKinney

 By Cynthia McKinney

Of course President Obama assured the world that no US troops would be deployed to Libya. Barack tells us about as much of the truth as any US president, which is to say not much, often not any. Unnoticed by the US press, the empire's military are consolidating the rule of the so-called National Transitional council, and claiming their prize --- unrestricted access to bases deep in the Sahara, on the borders of Sudan, Chad and Mali, from which special forces and drones can be quickly dispatched to corners of Africa unreachable before now...

Imperialist-driven War on Somalia Raises Casualties

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 19:38 — Abayomi Azikiwe

 

by Abayomi Azikiwe

America’s African proxies are waging a “three-prong attack in several regions” of Somalia, in a war instigated by George Bush in late 2006 and expanded by Barack Obama. In that time, Somalis have suffered two catastrophic humanitarian crises that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands and displaced millions. U.S. drones have killed hundreds in the current offensive, involving troops from Kenya, Ethiopia, and mostly Ugandan and Burundian soldiers fighting under African Union auspices. The Al Shabaab resistance continues to put up a determined defense. “The current military interventions in Somalia harbor a strong strategic underpinning,” given the discovery of large oil deposits in the country.

Ten Steps for Radical Revolution in USA

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 19:35 — Bill Quigley

by Bill Quigley

If the current system of rule of, by and for the rich is truly in its terminal stages, as some believe, then it’s about time to envision new or transitional ways of living. The author has ten suggestions, including reparations for America’s “original crimes”: genocide, land theft, and slavery. “If those in government and those in power do not help the people do what is right, people seeking change must together exercise our human rights and bring about these changes directly.”

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of January 23, 2012

Tue, 01/24/2012 - 06:50 — Nellie Bailey a...

 

Hundreds Protest Obama in Harlem

About 400 people gathered in Harlem to protest President Obama’s foreign and domestic policies. “We’re here to send a clear message to President Obama that he cannot come to Harlem without receiving a scathing message about his service to the 1%,” said Nellie Bailey, of Occupy Harlem, which called for the demonstration. Preventive detention was high on the list of grievances. “Without a doubt, it’s the rise of a police state,” said Bailey. Occupy Wall Street, MoveOn, and Stop Stop-and-Frisk sent delegations to the protest outside of the Apollo Theater, where the President held a fundraiser. “I never thought he would sell out like this,” said Jose LaSalle, of Stop Stop-and-Frisk,” to the point he would sign a bill like this and know how it affects minorities and people who are fighting for justice.”

Mothers Against Stop-and-Frisk

Mary Black’s teenage son was stopped five times in five months for no good reason by New York City police – all within a two-block radius of his family’s Harlem apartment. Ms. Black and other mothers have joined with Stop Stop-and-Frisk to protest a policy that saw 700,000 New Yorkers accosted by police, last year, most of them young Black and brown men. “People don’t deserve for their children to be treated this way,” said Ms. Black.

Preventive Detention Suit

Journalist and author Chris Hedges and other plaintiffs sued President Obama for his New Year’s Eve signing of a preventive detention bill. “The way this law is written is really terrifying,” said Hedges. “It’s the whim of the security and surveillance state, whoever they want to go after, they can pretty much do so under this legislation.” The former New York Times correspondent believes “there has been a clear effort on the part of the security state to try to tar the Occupy movement as an enemy of American democracy.”

Punish Police Torture

“It’s time to recognize torture under federal law as the crime against humanity it is,” said Taylor Flint, of Chicago’s People’s Law Office, at a Capital Hill briefing. Illinois Rep. Danny Davis has introduced legislation to punish police torture of suspects. Over a 20-year period, a police squad under detective John Burg tortured at least 200 suspects into giving false confessions. One of them, Darrell Cannon, spoke at the briefing. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Cannon, who served 26 years in prison. “I can never forgive, I can never forget.” Congressman Davis’ bill would also eliminate the statue of limitations on police torture.

“Handwriting on the Wall” in Nigeria

The gasoline price hike “was the straw that broke the camel’s back” and led to a general strike in Nigeria, earlier this month, said Aniedi Okure, of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, in Washington. The Nigerian government first doubled, then reluctantly reduced, prices for gasoline, causing instant inflation in a whole range of other prices. Although a major oil exporter, Nigeria imports most of its gasoline. Mr. Okure blames the Nigerian elite – “the .0001%,” as he called them – for vast economic disparities. “I’m praying that this awakening does not die out,” he said. “The politicians saw the writing on the wall. We might have had a French-style revolution on our hands.”

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Black America Paralyzed, Powerless, Irrelevant: Year 4 of the Obama Era

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 11:08 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Next week will mark the third anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration, and the unveiling of his fourth budget. Already White House spokespeople admit that it will be bad news for black and poor Americans. In three years this president has investigated and prosecuted not a single Wall Street banker or institution, not held up the wave of foreclosures a single week, not addressed the issues of black unemployment or black mass incarceration. But black America has silenced itself to protect the career of the First Black President.

Occupy Wall Street’s Next Phase: Avoid Cooptation in Election Season

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 11:08 — Glen Ford

 

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

The election season is in full swing, and Democratic tentacles are reaching out to caress the Occupy Wall Street movement and its new, Black partner, Occupy The Dream. How does OWS fight the temptations of cooptation? “If nonpartisanship means avoidance of Obama’s wars and the destruction of due process of law, or requires hobnobbing with local politicians who all happen to be Democrats and Obama boosters – then it is a shallow and technical assertion.” What the people need, and the movement must provide, is the Truth.

Freedom Rider: Pissing on Afghanistan

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 00:57 — Margaret Kimberley

 

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

U.S. troops commit ceaseless atrocities against the peoples they have been sent to subdue and occupy. The victims include women, children, the elderly, the armed, the unarmed, those that run away from the Americans and those who reach out to the foreign soldiers. All categories of the occupied are killable. War and occupation is the root crime, from which all the atrocities flow. “Unless the American people declare that they will no longer accept a government that has troops stationed in most of the world’s nations, wars and terror will be the norm.”

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