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Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of 3/4/13

Mon, 03/04/2013 - 23:08 — Glen Ford

Supreme Court Puts U.S. Spy Agency “Above the Law”

The U.S. Supreme Court’s dismissal of a suit against the National Security Agency’s wholesale spying on telephone and internet systems “essentially holds the NSA above the law,” said Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Committee. Unless the plaintiffs can document that they, personally, have been monitored, they “have no right to appear in a federal court to challenge the program,” Shahid explained. But, since the program is secret, it is all but impossible for individuals to prove their case.

DNA vs. the Bill of Rights

The High Court is considering how police departments can collect and use people’s DNA. The case centers on Maryland’s DNA law, under which at least one victim of crime was later convicted of another, subsequent crime, based on his DNA. All 49 other states have filed briefs supporting Maryland’s law. Black Maryland state lawmaker Jill Carter, of Baltimore, who opposed the law when it was passed in 2009, said “every state in the country could be permitted to collect DNA from people who are not convicted of any crime.”

Detroit to Lose Control of Finances

Michigan’s Republican governor plans to name a financial manager to oversee the 83 percent Black city of Detroit, which would join five other Michigan municipalities and three school districts that have been stripped of local financial control. “Both Democrats and Republicans have had it in for Detroit ever since the 1967 uprising,” said Joyce Schon, of the activist organization BAMN, By Any Means Necessary. Resistance to the takeover must go beyond legal appeals, Schon said. “I think it’s got to be direct action, anything we can possibly bring to the streets.”

The Ruling Austerity Consensus

There is a consensus among both major political parties on the need for austerity, said Left Business Observer publisher Doug Henwood. “The only controversy among the ruling elite is, just how much and what kind” of austerity. Meanwhile, U.S. organized labor “has no independent politics, and no independent capacity for thought.”

Philly Schools Turn Back Clock on Equality

Philadelphia school authorities are calling for draconian changes in the system’s operations, including elimination of limits on class size – on top massive school closings. “I think that it’s turning the clock back on guaranteeing every child equalization of opportunity,” said State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas. Many schools don’t have libraries, safety officers, nurses, clean bathrooms, books, computers, or “teachers that are teaching in their areas of competency,” said Thomas, who wants Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “along with the federal courts, to step in and straighten this situation out.”

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Why Does the US Chamber of Commerce Want to Train or Replace Your Elected School Board, If They Haven't Already?

Wed, 02/27/2013 - 18:18 — Bruce A. Dixon

By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

A key role in the elite drive to privatize public education is being played by privately owned school “accreditation” agencies, which are immune from public scrutiny, and under the absolute thrall of pro-privatization forces like the US Chamber of Commerce and the Broad Foundation. Are you hearing stories in local corporate media about your school board being “dysfunctional” and your school systems accreditation threatened? It could mean the US Chamber of Commerce and the Broad Foundation just want to replace them.

Freedom Rider: Hollywood’s Propaganda

Wed, 02/27/2013 - 01:15 — Margaret Kimberley

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Hollywood helps Americans feel good about being part of an empire that kills other peoples at will. “Movies have become a happy arm of the United States government as they advocate for violence and war crimes.” Tales of torture and wanton killing are blockbusters in the USA.

Farewell Jesse Jr., We Hardly Knew Ye: A Lesson on the Limits of our Black Political Class

Wed, 02/27/2013 - 01:14 — Bruce A. Dixon

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Bruce A. Dixon

Former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., was the closest thing to black royalty we hope to see. Junior was handed a congressional seat at the age of 30 on the strength of his father's career. His rise and fall should be lessons on the limits of depending on the princesses and princes of our black political class. It's time for new leaders, new pathways to, and new models of leadership.

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Remember: Sequestration was Obama’s Idea

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 21:42 — Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

President Obama is a full partner with the Republicans in the latest episode of the manufactured disaster saga: sequestration. “The idea was to make every popular constituency in the country scream – and accept the inevitability of massive entitlement cuts.” It’s a goal shared by corporatists in both parties.

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Why Isn't Closing 129 Chicago Public Schools National News?

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 21:40 — Bruce A. Dixon

A Black Agenda Radio Commentary by Bruce A. Dixon

It's an obvious question, with an easy answer. Our nation's bipartisan political elite have decided to privatize public education. They know the only way they can execute this deeply unpopular policy is to do it on the down-low, with a minimum of coverage, and no mention of the p-word, especially of growing civic resistance to it.

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Mali, France and the War on Terror in Africa

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 17:50 — Horace Campbell

by Horace G. Campbell

“The current insecurity in Mali is a direct result of the US military presence...and why Africans must be more forthright in opposing the expansion of the US Africa Command.” France plays a special role in this escalation, as she maneuvers to hold on to her African holdings. The U.S. and France trained and financed the same jihadists they are now fighting.

Goodbye Black Studies!

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 17:39 — Cecil Brown

by Cecil Brown

Black Studies is in deep trouble, on the internal and external racial fronts. “The test of whether a Black Studies department will survive depends on how many white teachers and students they have.” Meanwhile, the absence of an African American political movement has undermined Black Studies, which has “lost the self-respect and the respect for other blacks.”

Mississippi Finally Ratifies the 13th Amendment – Here Are Some Other Things that Mississippi Decided to Ratify First.

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 17:33 — Kamau Franklin

By Kamau Franklin

Mississippi is the poorest state in the union, and the state with the highest percentage of people with African ancestry. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But the list of things the magnolia state is first and nearly first in, apart from balmy weather, is not a good one.

Colleges Love Hip-Hop, But Do They Love Black Men, Too?

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 15:07 — Travis L. Gosa

by Travis L. Gosa

Hip hop, African American youth culture, is all the rage on college campuses – but where are the creators of the culture? “The people whose images are most associated with hip-hop—young black men—continue to be left behind.” There has been no relative improvement in the number of Black men entering college since 1976.

My Wise Country Cousin on Cory

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 14:13 — Raymond Nat Turner

by Raymond Nat Turner

“…iffin
Monee is de muthaz milk ob
Polytikz, den CoryBooker be
Mommaz boy, wit de golden
Tit neva too far from hiz mouf.”

Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of 2/25/13

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 23:15 — Glen Ford

Obama’s Drone Wars are “Evil,” Says Black Church Group

President Obama’s drone assassination policy is “evil” and should be condemned by all Christian clergy, said Rev. Anthony Evans, executive director of the Washington-based National Black Church Initiative. Black political figures such as Reverends Jesse Jackson Sr. and Al Sharpton and NAACP chief Ben Jealous “have replaced their loyalty to God and serving the African American people with serving President Obama, who can do no wrong.” Al Sharpton, said Rev. Evans, has become the White House “gatekeeper,” and “you can buy the NAACP, these days.”

Suit Against UN was Doomed from Start, says Haiti Lawyer

“We were not surprised” that the United Nations claimed immunity from liability for the cholera deaths of thousands of Haitians, said Ezili Danto, head of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network. “Asking the UN to find itself guilty is like asking the rapist, Tell us if you actually raped this woman,” said Atty. Danto. She favored naming the United States as liable for the epidemic, “because they call the shots, and we name the UN because their soldiers brought it in.” The unsuccessful action was brought by the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

“Baby Doc” Duvalier Avoids Haiti Court Appearance

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier failed to personally appear in a Port-au-Prince court in connection with allegations of human rights violations. Duvalier is also facing corruption charges for taking millions in public funds with him into exile in 1986. If Duvalier finally does show up to answer human rights charges, “it would be the first time that he is actually in court with some of his victims,” said Dan Beeton, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Modern-Day “Robber Barons” Looting Postal Service Properties

U.S. Postal Service real estate and art is being sold off to private developers through a firm controlled by the husband of California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. “It really is a bank heist,” said Gray Brechlin, of the Living New Deal Project. The sell-off “is something like the great land frauds in the 19th century, when the railroads and the various other robber barons got hold of the public domain.”

Give Me That Old Time Hoodoo Religion

Although nowadays associated with items like “hotfoot powder” and “money-drawing oil,” Hoodoo was once a “full-fledged religion” among African Americans, said Dr. Katrina Hazzard-Donald, director of the Africana Studies and Research Program at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. Hazzard-Donald is author of the new book Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System. “What we are looking at today,” she said, “are the remnants of what was once a fully functioning religion, just as you find in Voodoo and Santaria and the other African manifestations of traditional religion on this side of the Atlantic.”

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On Education, Barack Obama is the President of Privatization. Can We Stop Him? Will We?

Wed, 02/20/2013 - 19:18 — Bruce A. Dixon

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

By the time his term is over, President Obama and his Race To The Top program will have forced the closure and privatization of thousands of inner-city schools, a feat no white Republican or Democrat could have accomplished. But he'll only be president 4 more years. If we can stop this now, his successors won't be able to do this again. Can we? Will we?

U.S. Gives Haiti the Gift of Prisons

Wed, 02/20/2013 - 08:40 — Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

The United States, in its infinite kindness, is making Haiti a gift of two penal institutions. It's actually the most back-handed kind of charity. In order to keep Haiti a failed state, the occupiers deny the Haitian government funds for even the most basic functions of government: law and order.”

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There is No Effective Constituency for Africa in the United States

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 23:16 — Glen Ford

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

The next chief of AFRICOM wants a 15-fold expansion in drones and other intelligence-gathering. The full-court press against the continent has begun, with the U.S. “building the capability to militarily control all of Africa, in conjunction with its European allies and its African proxies.” But the Black American Misleadership Class couldn’t care less.

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