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The Politics of the Immigration Debate
So Campus Progress has a well-done infographic contrasting the deportation numbers in a given month with President Obama’s rhetoric on immigration policy. The administration has said it is focused on deporting undocumented immigrants who are a threat to public safety, but in practice there are far more noncriminal removals than criminal ones. Yet the current…
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Michele Bachmann vs. Black Farmers
This week, while touring Iowa with Rep. Steven King, Michele Bachmann threw black farmers under the bus, criticizing a government settlement for African Americans who were discriminated against by the USDA. There was, she says, “proof positive” of “fraud” regarding claims in the Pigford settlement. A bit of a stretch, considering that claims for the…
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First Same-Sex Marriages Celebrated in D.C.
Today, Darlene Garner and Candy Holmes are getting married. Garner and Holmes have been in an on-again-off-again relationship for more than 14 years. When asked why they took so long to realize they were right for each other, Garner and Holmes joked that their relationship is kind of like the movie, It’s Complicated. Along with…
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5 Campaign Promises That Obama Kept
1. The Health Care Bill—The health care reform bill the Senate passed last Thursday will, despite its shortcomings, ensure coverage for 31 million Americans, prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against people based on pre-existing conditions and provide $200 billion a year in subsidies to Americans making up to 400 percent above the poverty line to…
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The Republican Right: Al-Qaeda’s Unwitting Hype Men?
Nine years ago, on September 11th, 2001, a well-coordinated team of 19 al-Qaeda terrorists who had infiltrated the United States months before highjacked four airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon, killing nearly three thousand people. On Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to detonate an explosive…
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Did the Ft. Hood Killer Go Postal or Go Terrorist?
On Thursday afternoon, Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly drew his handgun inside a processing center at Ft. Hood, Texas, cried “Allahu Akhbar” and began firing. By the time the rampage was ended by a civilian police officer named Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley, Hasan allegedly killed 13 people and injured dozens of others. Since…
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A Few Reasons No One Seems To Be Pushing Rangel Around?
Last week, the House ethics panel voted to expand its investigation into Charlie Rangel’s finances for the third time since the probe began. The Harlem congressman has been plagued by numerous ethics problems, to the point that he even asked the ethics committee to look into behavior last year in an attempt to save face—this…
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Holding Fast to Justice
Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that the Obama administration had increased funding for the Civil Rights Division, encouraged stricter enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and removed the Bush-era practices of putting important decisions in the hands of political appointees rather than career lawyers. Unfortunately, current and former Justice Department employees say much of…
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The Self-Hate Hustle
Accusations of ethnic disloyalty have long been a feature of the debate between liberal and conservative Jews over the actions of Israel. In the blogosphere, conservative Jews have a term for a group of prominent liberal Jewish bloggers who have been critical of Israel’s behavior in the region: the “Juicebox Mafia.” Two weeks ago, Jamie…
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Ghetto Loans for 'Mud People'?
As the full impact of the financial crisis was emerging, Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, took to the floor of the House to blame the Community Reinvestment Act for the crisis. “The government was goading these mortgage lenders, saying, ‘You’re redlining. You’re being discriminatory. If you don’t give loans out to marginally credit-worthy people…