Obama Made His Career “Collaborating with the GOP”
“I think he liked the 2010 election outcomes, that brought the Right back to power in the House,” says Paul Street, author of The Empire’s New Clothes: Barack Obama and the Real World of Power. “I think that’s his comfort zone. This is his career, collaborating with the GOP,” says Street, who worked for years as a researcher for the Chicago Urban League. Although “deluded liberals and progressives” continue to insist that Obama shares their values, “they just don’t get it. This guy is just very conservative.”
White House Retaliates Against Whistleblowers
The Obama administration is taking retaliation against whistleblowers “to a new level,” says Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, herself a renowned whistleblower and author of the book, No Fear. “The president has suggested that psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists should be deployed throughout the federal government to ferret out whistleblowers,” says Coleman-Adebayo. “They want to see if there is even a potential that you might blow the whistle on injustice or corruption.”
“Baby Doc” Has Friends in High Places in Haiti
Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the dictator who returned to Haiti 25 years after being run out of the country, still has “cadres in power of some sort in the [Rene] Preval administration, and in business and many other venues in society,” says Haitian journalist and community activist Roger LeDuc. In addition, France, the United States “and, to some extent, Rene Preval,” are anxious to divert attention from the recent disastrous elections. Duvalier has been charged with corruption and embezzlement, and prosecutors say they are investigating possible crimes against humanity.
Progressive Candidate Claims Detroit Teachers Victory
Steve Conn, candidate for president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers on the Defend Public Education/Save Our Students ticket, says he is the rightful winner in the race, and that incumbent Keith Johnson rigged the vote count. Conn charges Johnson and national union president Randi Weingarten with “running the union as a tool of [education secretary] Arnie Duncan and the anti-public education privatizers.” A Day of Action is schedule for March 2, in Detroit.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
Orisanmi Burton is an assistant professor at American University’s Department of Anthropology.
Shannon Jones is a member of the Spirit of Mandela’s Peoples' Senate Coordinating Committee.
The Supreme Court has always been a political institution. Racism, political expediency, and outright corruption have always dictated its decisions.
A poem from the late Amiri Baraka questions the myths of U.S. exceptionalism that engulfed the nation after 9/11 attacks, contextualizing them with a history of the West’s centuries-long…
A UN "peacekeeping" mission continues operations in Somalia.
