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Should Edward Snowden Get a Plea Deal When a Black Panther Can’t?
Question: What’s the secret to going on the lam as an anti-government global superstar and getting set up in a nice, cushy exile in a country that’s a rival to your own? Answer: Be a keyboard-tapping, suburban-raised white guy who gives away national secrets and then puts a “patriotic” spin on it. You’ll lock in…
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Why Democrats Are Losing the Voter-ID Message War
Voter-ID laws must not be all that bad if black folks like them, right? That’s the new political wolf ticket that the Republican rank and file want you to buy. Conservative activists, as jumpy as So You Think You Can Dance contestants, have hit the media trail with their latest talking point: Black folks heart…
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Where’s the Black Political Conversation on Climate Change?
President Barack Obama might be the only black person on the planet who cares about climate change. Well, not really, but close—the ill-fated climate-change debate is as white as late-night talk shows. It’s that way for a number of reasons: from who funds either side of the heated climate conversation to allegations that environmentalists routinely…
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Don’t Get It Twisted: There Is an Obama Doctrine
As President Barack Obama dropped foreign policy science on graduating West Point cadets, a fresh battle re-emerged over whether or not he actually has a foreign policy, rekindling fresh rounds of debate over the existence of an “Obama doctrine.” Hating conservatives are as convinced of its nonexistence as they are in doubt about his birthplace.…
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We’re Still Living With the Specter of Sam Greenlee’s Spook Who Sat by the Door
Sam Greenlee was underappreciated, disgruntled, professionally disemboweled and perpetually agitated. His sudden death at the age of 83 offers opportunity for reflection on a man trapped in the suspended animation of one great work that briefly elevated, then haunted, him into his last days. An apprehensive and highly educated foreign service officer who abruptly quit…
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Post-Mandela South Africa Is a Nation on Edge
That an embattled African National Congress won the latest round of South African elections was not at all surprising. However, this particular election was a curious inflection point in the post-Mandela era, presenting a number of alarming transitions for what was, up until very recently, Africa’s most powerful and stable democracy. In the wistful wake of…
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Can the US Play a Role in Rescuing the Missing Nigerian Schoolgirls?
When the bizarre disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 captured the global imagination like missed episodes of Lost, an international military search and rescue response was swift. Two months and a dying black box ping later, no expense has been spared in the effort to find 240 passengers now presumed dead. Weeks going on a…
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In Meeting With Paul Ryan, the CBC Was Killing It Softly
If conservative bean counter and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was expecting a packed roomful of angry black members of Congress, he got a rude awakening. They were actually mad nice about it. A nervously anticipated meeting this week between the Congressional Black Caucus and the stumbling Badger State congressman looking to reinvent…
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The Black Congressional Budget No One Ever Talks About
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) federal budget proposal, crowded with unrealistic cuts on critical social programs, is like a scene in a bad The Lord of the Rings sequel. Long, overblown and waiting for a third act—and as unbearably outdated in its outlook on poverty as Gandalf appears in his gray beard. Yet,…
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Note to Democrats: If You Lose in November, Don’t Blame Black Voters
As midterm elections near and pundits predict Republican blowouts in November, Democrats appear poised to run that classic racial sob story if they lose control of the Senate: The black folks did it. RealClearPolitics actually gives Democrats a 1 percent edge over Republicans in a generic congressional ballot, and even Quinnipiac shows voters viewing Democrats as the “lesser…
