This week in Black Agenda Report

Obama’s Humiliating Defeat

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
When presidents fail, it is a public spectacle. In his rush into unprovoked war against Syria, President Obama overplayed his hand. Shortly before he appeared on television on Wednesday, “Obama’s handlers advised him that his political position was, for the time being, untenable.” But he’ll soon be back on the warpath, meaner and more aggressive than ever.

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Freedom Rider: Obama Comes Undone

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
Russia has been a stalwart for peace in the Syria crisis. “It is their insistence on defending Syria which has brought the world from the brink and forced the president to postpone the congressional vote that he so badly wanted.” The contrasts are striking. “Vladimir Putin is trying to stop a wider war but the Nobel Peace Prize winning Barack Obama is trying to start one.”

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Who Are the Minions of War in the Black Caucus?

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
For the first time in five years, “the Black Caucus was treated like royalty, rather than a nuisance, as is usual, at the White House.” The reason: Obama needs their votes to continue his rush to war against Syria. “If past voting behavior is a guide, the majority of the Caucus is likely to put Obama’s political interests ahead of their constituents’ wishes and the welfare of humankind.”

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The Black Budget and the Shadow National Security State

by Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
The “Black Budget” isn’t the sole domain of conspiratorialists, anymore. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now know that the taxpayers dole out $52.6 billion a year to finance the “shadow” government of spies, provocateurs, hit men, human network trackers, drone operators, secret armies and domestic and international destabilization specialists. But the country can’t afford to save Detroit.

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Cornel West and the Fight to Save the Black Prophetic Tradition

by Chris Hedges
African Americans have historically been the most progressive U.S. constituency because of the Black prophetic tradition, best personified today by Dr. Cornel West. This tradition has also saved the United States from itself. “America without the black prophetic tradition, from Frederick Douglass to Fannie Lou Hamer, means an American authoritarian regime, American fascism.”

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Obama’s Irresponsible Rhetoric Exacerbates Global Tensions

by Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III
The Obama administration tells the American public that its “intelligence” on Syrian government culpability for chemical attacks is ironclad, and that the “world” agrees with Washington. But much of the planet clearly disagrees. “Is it possible that the ‘world’ does not equate their interests with American interests?”

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Crack Cocaine Flick

by Raymond Nat Turner

Drone Man’s
Set to do drive-bys,
With the world divided
Between “NO” and “HELL NO!”

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Listen to Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network, with Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey – Week of 9/09/13

Syria is Opportunity to Build a Real Peace Movement
“They’ve handed this to us on a silver platter: an announced war,” said David Swanson, veteran peace activist and publisher of the influential web site WarIsACrime.org. “This is an opportunity to build an anti-war movement.” However, so-called “progressives” on Capitol Hill have proven to be of little use. “For the most part, the Progressive Caucus has reached a new low,” said Swanson. “Now they’re split, half pro-war and half anti-war. You’re not seeing leadership from the usual congresspeople. You see incredible deference to the president.”
Obama is Going Down
“England and Germany and other forces that have usually been reliable partners in crime have tried to distance themselves from this criminal war” that Obama plans against Syria, said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition. The president’s domestic situation is also perilous. “It is difficult for many of the Negroes who have been in bed with Obama to continue this elicit affair. Obama stands the chance of going down in history as a war criminal.”
Deceitful War, American-Style
The U.S. routinely tells bald-faced lies to justify its military aggressions, said John Quigley, professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University. Quigley, author of Ruses for War: American Intervention Since World War Two, cites phony U.S. pretexts for war in the Dominican Republic (1965), Grenada (1983), Sudan (1998), and Iraq (1993), not to mention the patently false basis for the Iraq invasion of 2003. Is the U.S. a rogue state? “In the sense of taking action that has no basis in international law, then I suppose” it is, said Prof. Quigley.
Lynne Stewart Critiques the “So-Called Left”
People’s lawyer Lynne Stewart, who is suffering from Stage Four breast cancer, will probably not benefit from Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent revisions of Bureau of Prisons regulations on compassionate release, since she is charged with terrorism, said Ralph Poynter, Stewart’s husband and comrade in struggle. Stewart “is very angry with what is happening in the so-called Left, who have neglected the struggle in the rest of the world,” said Poynter. “If we can’t get our minds around freeing our political prisoners, maybe all of our time has come.”
Misleadership Class in Deep Conflict with Black Masses
“I don’t believe there has ever been this wide and extensive a split between the Black elite and bourgeoisie, who are aligned through Obama to finance capital and American empire, and the broad masses” of African Americans, said Dr. Anthony Monteiro, professor of African American Studies at Philadelphia’s Temple University. Monteiro estimates the March on Washington commemoration, organized by traditional Black organizations in deep collaboration with the White House, drew only about 25,000 people. “The elite, the so-called leadership, is in trouble with the great masses of Black people.”
California Prisoners Suspend Hunger Strike
After nine weeks, inmates called a halt to the third hunger strike since 2011, without having forced California officials to accede to any of their major demands, most notably an end to the “torture” of long term solitary confinement. However, the struggle continues, according to Keith James, of the Stop Mass Incarceration Movement. “They are waging a protracted battle,” said James. “We really have to have these prisoners’ backs, because this torture is continuing." At its height, 30,000 inmates were involved in the protest.

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