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2012All JULY POSTS (95)
Beer Goggles: The Lessons of Skip Gates' Arrest
In honor of the reconciliatory beer being shared tonight at the White House, between president Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley, it’s worth revisiting, however briefly, discussion of the larger issues raised by the arrest.
Valerie Jarrett: Third Obama or Third Wheel?
What does Valerie Jarrett do? Robert Draper (of the scathing Donald Rumsfeld expose) spills 8,000 words of ink on Jarrett for this weekend's NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, in search of that very idea. He tells a lot of great stories about Jarrett's influence with President Barack Obama, stretching back to the glory days in Chicago's Hyde Park, before their close-knit group of friends and power brokers could ever dream of running the country.
Obama's Money Machine: Now Running Foreign Policy?
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is considering the nominations of two men to represent the United States in East Asia: Republican Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah, and Democrat John V. Roos of California. But it's the Democratic appointment who is selling out Obama's promise....
If Words Could Heal, Obamacare Would Be Done
It’s a truism that health care reform is so hard in large part because so few people actually understand the stuff. Well, last night, President Obama tried his best to frame this year’s debate simply.
Obama Says Officer 'Acted Stupidly' in Arrest of Skip Gates
Given President Barack Obama's reluctance to dwell on the issue of race in America, it was a surprise to hear the president's forceful comments on last week's controversial arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Root's editor-in-chief.
Is Race-based Health Care a Prescription for Discrimination?
Last week, the often controversial and always conservative William Saletan published a piece about the link between race and cancer outcomes. But do genetic differences between races just a slippery slope toward outright racism?
Losing Your Cool in America
Henry Louis Gates knows the rules. He knows them so well that he writes books about them for a living. So why did he lose his cool?
When Color Strikes--What Next?
Is there a difference between Barack Obama's talk on race before and after election? John McWhorter talks Sonia Sotomayor, political organizing, the Philadelphia pool incident and the "Joshua Generation."
Calling a Stall a Stall in Health Reform
It was a busy weekend in the intensifying political brawl over health care reform. Most notably, Obama’s budget guru (and health care secret weapon) Peter Orszag caused a stir by pointing out just how naked some “centrist” Senators are in their effort to kill reform.
Really, Pat Buchanan?
THE ROOT recently ran a story about why failed, racist Republican politician turned commentator, Pat Buchanan—the devil we know—is better than the devil we don’t. Adam Serwer argued...
Health Reform Rises from the Dead
For those of us who questioned how hard the White House and its congressional allies would fight for health care reform, the answer is here. The devil remains in the details, of course, but in the last couple of days Barack Obama has put Republicans and conservative Democrats alike "on notice": Get on board or get left behind.
Swagga Goes International
Is Jay-Z George Bush? Mark Lynch of SLATE sister site FOREIGN POLICY recently compared hip hop to geostrategy. He parses the recent back-and-forth between rapper Jay-Z and less successful (though still famous) MCs like The Game, Nas, and 50 Cent, using Jay-Z's diss tracks, and his responses to those of others, to form a crudish theory of American global authority.
Double-Edged Steele
RNC Chair Michael Steele’s antics are a lot easier to explain if you consider the possibility that he’s a double agent working for President Barack Obama—ponder this... A few months back, CNN reported that Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ house slave, William Jackson, was an agent for the Union army. Davis spoke with his generals openly in Jackson’s presence—thinking of Jackson as a mere “piece of furniture.” Meanwhile, Jackson absorbed key military information, then escaped in 1861 and delivered what he knew to Union commanders. Maybe Steele is Jackson’s heir apparent.
Sonia Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearing: The Drinking Game
The first session of judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing was a meaningless display of platitudes. Some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, like Lindsey Graham, saw the writing on the wall: "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you are going to be confirmed," he told her. And with that said, just about everyone else in the room (Democrats included) decided to read their sincere thoughts on Hispanics, distate for foreign law, strip-searches or abortion, and other highfalutin theories of jurispridence into the record...
Sotomayor v. Sessions
"There you go again." By that, I mean the GOP. Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, can’t seem to grasp that American jurisprudence is about more than just the application of the law to the facts, or that our Constitution has proven time and time again to be one of the most pliable, flexible, living, breathing documents ever to be written in the history of man....
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