blogging the beltway
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5 Ways the Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Cases Affect Black Women
Today, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in what has been dubbed the Hobby Lobby case, a catch-all name for two separate cases—Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. v. Sebelius. The cases could determine whether employers can be exempted on religious grounds from a mandate of the Affordable Care Act…
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Yes, Rep. Issa, Cutting Rep. Cummings’ Mic Really Was Pretty ‘Sorry’
On Thursday Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)—chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee—told Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)—the committee’s ranking minority member—that he’s sorry for cutting off Cummings’ mic at a hearing on Wednesday before the Democrat had a chance to speak his piece. It was part of the ongoing squabble between the parties in…
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Senate Aide: It’s ‘Impossible’ to Get Obama’s Black Nominees Past Senate Republicans
On Wednesday the U.S. Senate voted 47-52 to reject President Barack Obama’s nomination of former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorney Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division—with seven Democrats joining Republicans to prevent the president’s pick from moving forward. Obama called it a “travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks.”…
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Update: Black Tea Partier Katrina Pierson Collected Unemployment Benefits
If you read my profile in The Root of African-American Tea Partier Katrina Pierson on Tuesday, you know that in her bid to unseat incumbent House Rules Committee Chair Pete Sessions in next week’s Texas congressional primary, she described herself as someone who “just wants the federal government to leave us alone.” Her platform is mostly…
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The Obamas and CVS on the Same Page About Quitting Smoking
Today one of the biggest national drugstore chains announced something that would once have been unthinkable: It will cease selling one of its most in-demand items, simply because the company believes that’s the right thing to do. Sounds hard to believe, right? Sure does. But could CVS Pharmacy’s decision to quit selling cigarettes as of Oct.…
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Hold On, Conservatives, Marriage Is No Poverty Cure-All
Though the candidates rarely discussed poverty during the 2012 presidential election season, it now seems to have replaced the so-called war on women as the topic neither party can stop talking about. For the first time in my lifetime, Republicans and Democrats are trying to prove that they—not their opponents across the aisle—have a solid…
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De Blasio Daughter Shares Story of Depression and Substance Abuse
The family of New York City Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio has already begun to emerge as a model American family for the new millennium. There is their multiracial makeup, comprised of de Blasio, who is white, his wife, Chirlane McCray, who is black, and their two biracial kids, Dante and Chiara. Though still rare in…
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Poor Kids Should Sweep Floors, Says GOP Scrooge
Apparently Rep. Jack Kingston has taken it upon himself to pick up where Mitt Romney left off in attempting to establish the GOP brand as officially synonymous with disdain for poor people. In a recent speech Kingston reportedly said of kids benefiting from free-lunch programs, “Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay…
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A Homeless Girl’s Story Highlights Family Planning and Poverty
This week the New York Times landed in the news in a way the paper probably wishes it had not. A reporter teased a story she was working on, and another outlet promptly published a link to said story before the New York Times did. But the good news to come from the so-called media…
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Give Obama Credit for Jobs Turnaround
By any measure the last few months have not been a high point for the Obama administration. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) has been a disaster of epic proportions. The technical glitches have been embarrassing, but the communications strategy accompanying it has been worse. It is as though the technologically advanced,…