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Clear Channel's Promotion of Toxic Music in the Black Community
Dr. Boyce Watkins, writing at Your Black World, slams Clear Channel for trafficking toxic and denigrating hip-hop and rap lyrics over its airwaves. He says the company must be confronted in court to put an end to negative messaging in the black community. This week, I spoke at a conference hosted by the Center for…
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The Tragic Game of the Federal Shutdown
Americans are tired of playing the Republican Party’s blistering game of high-stakes political brinksmanship, writes the New York Times‘ Charles M. Blow. He calls on the GOP House to end its futile feud with President Obama and get on with the business of governing the nation. Speaker John Boehner barked Friday about the government shutdown:…
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Why the GOP House Needs an Assist From Obama
Writing at the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart explains why a detente may be fleeting in the latest searing bipartisan battle on Capitol Hill. He says President Barack Obama is done rewarding the GOP’s bad behavior. As the sad drama of Miriam Carey was unfolding on Pennsylvania Avenue, I was listening to a Republican member of Congress talk…
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Police Probe Announced in Capitol Hill Shooting
Updated Oct. 6, 12:25 p.m. EDT: Washington police are investigating the use of deadly force in the shooting of 34-year-old Miriam Carey, who reportedly tried to ram her car through a White House barrier. The review comes after Carey’s family raised questions about the shooting, saying it was “unjustified.” Deadly force experts have also raised…
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Capture of Libyan Al-Qaida Leader Highlights US War on Terror
The Obama administration has been unflinching in its war on terror, despite exceptional political dysfunction at home, which includes a partial shutdown of the federal government. On Saturday, amid a day of bipartisan bickering over who is responsible for the closing of the government, came news of the capture of a Libyan al-Qaida leader, who…
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Quote of the Day: Muhammad Ali on the Vietnam War
Read how the quote is referenced here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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From Sandwiches to 'Housewives': Bad Relationship Advice
Zerlina Maxwell, writing at BET, delivers a stern message to women passing off bad relationship advice: We are not in the 1950s. She is responding to advice from the sandwich-making New York Post reporter and one of the “Housewives,” who essentially suggest that women cater to their men in order to keep them. It’s 2013, but…
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The GOP's Debt Ceiling War: What Is It About?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, at his Hutchinson Report News, says that the Republican Party’s debt-ceiling debate cannot be separated from its “never-ending hunt for any issue that can taint, embarrass and ultimately weaken the Obama presidency.” The GOP’s goal has altered only slightly since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s oft repeated, and failed, vow to make…
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Is a New Confederacy Rising?
In an insightful piece at the Washington Post, Colbert I. King provides historical context to the partial shutdown of the federal government. An “insurgent political force” has captured the Republican Party “and is taking up where the Old Confederacy left off in its efforts to bring down the federal government,” he writes. It took on…
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Watch This: Usher Remixes ABC Song on 'Sesame Street'
Usher visited the set of Sesame Street this week and sang the ABC song along with the cast in a version that will delight the old and young. “You guys ready?” he asked Elmo, Murray, Grover and Addy Cadabby before launching into an R&B version of the song. “Let’s do it,” he said. “Clap your…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
