culture

After a two-week binge of self-indulging critique of President Barack Obama’s economic platform, today Rush Limbaugh suddenly wants to have a “serious” fiscal policy debate, writing in The Wall Street Journal, “Let’s stop the acrimony.” As comedian Martin Mull might say, “That’s mighty white of him.” Prior to Obama’s inauguration, right-wing radio host Limbaugh said, “I…

It’s difficult to avoid being completely fascinated with our new First Lady, Michelle Obama. She’s an Ivy League black woman who’s as tall and fashionable as a supermodel. She’s the mother of 10-year-old twist sporting Malia and sassy Sasha. And President Obama glows every time she’s by his side. But The Buzz is not alone…

Via CNN, here comes a neat experience to cap off your frenzied week of Barack Obama inauguration overload: the Gigapan! This cool application stitches together a series of 220 digital photographs taken from the north media tower on the Capitol during last Tuesday’s inauguration, allowing viewers to zoom in on the crowd—way in. If you…

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama granted his first sit-down network TV interview to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya network—the erstwhile CNN of the Middle East. As Al-Jazeera (the FOX News of the Middle East?) reflects on the reasons why it got scooped by its counterpart, viewers across the Middle East will evaluate Obama as he tries to…

What a difference a year makes—this week marks the first anniversary of not only The Root, but President Barack Obama’s sweeping victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary, a drama-filled event that brought our nation’s racial fears, assumptions, long-held grievances—and an abundance of hope—into the winter sunlight. But do the words chanted by thousands on…

After suffering major losses in the last two elections, Republicans have a chance to make history as well as inroads with crucial minority voting blocs next weekend when they meet to select their next chairman. Two African Americans are campaigning to lead the Republican National Committee when it holds its annual winter meeting Jan. 28-31…

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are bracing for a fresh request from President Obama for another massive round of spending to shore up the nation’s faltering financial system, which could send the total price for the bailout soaring toward $1 trillion. So far, Congress has approved $700 billion for the financial system rescue. The first half…

Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines has written a spot-on ode to the black preacher for The Daily Beast. While it’s easy to pooh-pooh the political machinations of high-profile clergy like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Raines focuses on the recently-lionzed Joseph Lowery. Though Ta-Nehisi Coates is moderating some heated back and forth…

“The president of the United States is black. Literally, not figuratively, not in some socio-psycho-political sense. But dark skin, black wife, black children. His name is Barack Hussein Obama, and despite the fact that it was a worldwide spectacle witnessed by billions or that the oath of office was administered twice, there is still a…