Fw: [BA_Report] Obamanomics, Reagan's Demons, the Reagan We Remember: BA Report for Feb 9, 2011

http://about.me/mikekib1/bio Black Agenda Report News, Analysis and Commentary from the Black Left Chamber of Commerce Obamanomics by BAR executive editor Glen Ford After two years in office, Obama clearly has nothing to offer the Democratic Party “base,” but arrives at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce bearing impressive gifts. “The president’s groveling performance at the Chamber shows him, once again, to be a corporate facilitator who doesn’t even bother to polish up his old con game.” This is a man who is “eager to move the bar even further rightward, with some help from his Republican partners.” Read more Freedom Rider: Ronald Reagan’s Demons by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley The myth of Ronald Reagan's vast popularity during his actual terms as president is now all but written in stone, largely thanks to a lying corporate media. Barack Obama is a disciple, embracing Reagan's doctrines of domestic savagery and global American Manifest Destiny. The real, historical Reagan was an overtly racist politician whose “audience heard him loud and clear and knew that he meant to put and keep white people on top in America.” Read more Egypt, Reagan, Obama: U.S. Hypocrisy Is All That Really Trickles Down A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Dr. Jared A. Ball The same Americans that claim to empathize with the mass revolt in Egypt support police terror against Blacks in the United States. The same corporate media that pretend to cherish democratic rights for Egyptians make a demigod of Ronald Reagan, the president who sealed the deal with the Mubarak dictatorship, and became “the first to sign an Executive Order allowing the CIA to operate domestically.” And will Obama supporters hold him accountable for extending the Patriot Act on Election Day in 2012? Read more Time to Grab the Mic: Low Power FM Radio Licensing Window Looms Without control over some form of mass media, without the ability to speak with and to hear its own voice, no community can long exist.  Commercial media in the hands of for-profit broadcasters can only build markets, not communities.  This year, the FCC will accept license applications for hundreds or thousands of new local low-power FM radio stations in cities and towns across the U.S.  It's an unparalleled chance, and the last chance for local organizers for peace and justice to grab the mics. Read more A Free Egypt Means Freedom From America A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford U.S. imperialism faces a “sea change” in the Arab World, but they have few tools to resist the revolt other the corrupt class of local accomplices who are the objects of the people’s rage and disgust. “It is a sure sign that the U.S. is panicking when President Obama flails about, pretending do be on the side of Egypt's popular rebellion while desperately maneuvering to keep men loyal to Washington in control.” Read more Race-Making Nation A book review by Seth Sandronsky A review of How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon, by David Roediger (Verso, hardcover, 2008). The author lays out the historical roots of modern American white supremacy, in which “lawmakers foment race-thinking to deepen white backlash against non-whites.” Read more My Return to Haiti by Jean-Bertrand Aristide Ever since being driven into exile by the United States in 2004, the democratically elected former president of Haiti has sought to return to his devastated country, now occupied and dominated by foreigners. “An exogenous plan of reconstruction - one that is profit-driven, exclusionary, conceived of and implemented by non-Haitians,” says Jean-Bertrand Aristide, “cannot reconstruct Haiti.” Read more Bush Ducks Geneva Criminal Torture Charges by Bill Quigley There was never a chance that Barack Obama would not work to ensure impunity for the war criminals of the previous administration – no doubt because he planned to employ much the same barbaric practices. But international human rights activists are still seeking justice for George Bush’s gang, including the top dog, himself. Amnesty International says there ought to be a warrant out there with George Bush’s name on it. Read more The Ronald Reagan We Recall, And Not So Fondly Read more Black Americans Still Face Higher Unemployment, Incarceration Rates, and Lower Wages in the Age of Obama Read more Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey Mubarak Corruption Made Egypt a “Failed State” Three decades of rule by President Hosni Mubarak’s clique of “corrupt businessmen” reversed the nation’s achievements in agrarian reform and “took it back to the time of the monarchy” that was overthrown in 1952, says Seif Dana, associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. Economically, Egypt “was totally surrendered to the World Bank and the IMF, and politically, to foreign powers." Housing Discrimination Keeps Blacks From Returning to New Orleans The white leaders of Louisiana’s St. Bernard Parish say they’ll stop trying to prevent construction of hundreds of mixed income apartments, in an effort to keep Blacks from moving into the 90 percent white jurisdiction. James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, which has been locked in court battles with the Parish, says housing discrimination “has made it difficult” for Blacks to return to post-Katrina New Orleans. According to new U.S. Census data, the city lost about 140,000 residents in the 2005 exodus. U.S. Needs Medicare For All Whichever way the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rules on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care legislation, “the American people will continue to be screwed, because health care should not be treated as a market,” says Dr. Clark Newhall, executive director of Health Justice. “A Medicare-for-all solution is necessary.” Prison Rape Grossly Under-Reported The U.S. Justice Department estimates that more than 216,000 inmates are sexually abused every year, many of them by prison staff, but only 7,444 prisoners filed formal complaints in 2008. Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International, says sexual abuse behind bars “is eminently preventable” if there is a “strong political will…to stand up for the dignity of inmates” in the face of this “human rights crisis.” Whose Moment is It? Dr. Jared Ball, of Black Agenda Report, says President Obama's “Sputnik Moment” spiel is an attempt to “wake the country up to its slipping grip on power over the world.” It’s also an example of political “branding” by phrase-mongering, Read more Interview with Dakota Home Resources Director Joy McCracken Dakota Home Resources' (Deadwood, SD) board members engage Neighborhood Councils to better gauge community needs.These councils act as a platform for community members to voice concerns, suggestions or ideas about their communities. This strategy helps Dakota Home Resources' board keep the pulse of the diverse areas the organization serves. Dakota Home Resources founding director Joy McCracken talks about how the organization and board benefit from this. To contact Dakota Home Resources for more information about Neighborhood Councils, visit the organization's website at http://www.nhsblackhills.org/ Ba_report@lists.blackagendareport.net http://lists.blackagendareport.net/listinfo.cgi/ba_report-blackagendareport.net

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