Search results for: “node/olopade”
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Barack Obama's Tax Day Talking-To: "Prose, Not Poetry"
President Barack Obama has just finished giving a big speech about the economy. You can tell it was a big speech because it has a name: “A New Foundation,” to be precise. In the address, delivered at Georgetown University on the eve of Tax Day (and a number of Republican protests, if the GOP echo…
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What Recovery? Who to Blame for that "Streetlight Tax" in D.C.
This weekend, the NEW YORK TIMES provided a valuable accounting of the impact that the recession is having on state and city budgets. The short answer: not good. Nothing, it seems, is off the table. In Pima County, Ariz., the County Board of Supervisors increased an assortment of fees, including the cost of AIDS testing.…
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Obama Plays Green Cop, Bad Cop With US Automakers
The White House announced this week that President Obama will buy about $285 million worth of American automobiles from Detroit—a huge boon to an industry spiraling toward bankruptcy and causing sky-high levels of unemployment in the state of Michigan and across the country. From the mothership: The purchase is slated to include 2,500 hybrid sedans,…
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UP CLOSE: Obama and Clinton Talk Policy on the Playground
POTUS and SOS hanging on the playground on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday. READ ABOUT the encounter here. —DAYO OLOPADE Covers the White House and Washington for The Root. Follow her on Twitter.
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Send Them Away Already
I’m really glad Kai Wright wrote about a boarding school experiment for kids in poor public schools. He frets about disconnecting teens from their families—which could have particularly pernicious effects in black households. I dissent: Having attended boarding school hundreds of miles from home from age 14 on, I think the experience is well worth…
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How to Heckle Barack?
Over at the mothership, Krissah Thompson has a story examining the lively debate among black Americans regarding how best to criticize Barack Obama—if they do so at all. Her rather didactic thesis: As the nation’s first black president settles into the office, a division is deepening between two groups of African Americans: those who want…
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Malia and Sasha: Home Alone?
Saaret Yoseph is a writer and Assistant Editor at TheRoot.com. She manages and blogs for \”Their Eyes Were Watching …\” Less than a month into their father’s presidency, Sasha and Malia Obama were seasoned passengers of Air Force One. Here, Mr. President and the first lady have the kids in-tow for a weekend trip to Chicago.…
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Did Black Power Birth Obama?
April 4, 2008—the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 slaying in Memphis—provoked endless conversations about the way forward for black politics and whether it was King who truly prepared the nation to elect Barack Obama as the first black president. This year, the topic has moved beyond musings about what is possible for…
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Obama's Second Presser Keeps Progressive Pressure On
Barack Obama’s second prime-time news conference as president, held in the East Room of the White House just six weeks after the first, did not provide new, meaty policy prescriptions or one-liners that make for good television. But it did further the sense that, in America, there is a man in charge, and he—to borrow…
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When it Comes to Cancer, Should Black Folks Think Pink?
An article in today’s NEW YORK TIMES suggests that drinkers who turn pink have something serious to be worried about. The phenomenon, known in impolitic circles as “Asian flush,” could actually be a precursor to esophageal cancer: The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an…