Politics
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Education Department Seeks to Level Public-Education Playing Field
The U.S. Education Department is taking the first steps to further ensure educational equity for disadvantaged students, including students of color and low-income students, by announcing a new guidance for states, school districts and schools. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday announced the guidance, which came in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter (pdf), at the…
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1 Year After the GOP’s Government Shutdown, It’s Time for America to Change Course
One year ago today, the federal government came to a dead halt—shut down by the obstructionism of Republicans in Congress. For more than two weeks, national parks closed, critical medical research stopped and our economy lost billions of dollars. American families and small businesses were unable to acquire federal loans and mortgages. Contracts between small…
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What Obama Should Do for His Last 2 Years in Office
It was just a couple of weeks ago that first lady Michelle Obama seemed to weigh in on how President Barack Obama’s legacy was shaping up thus far. “When folks ask me whether I still believe everything we said about change and hope back in 2008, I tell them that I believe it more strongly…
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Congress Interrogates Secret Service Director About White House Invasion
One silver lining in this media firestorm about how the Secret Service has had one too many mishaps lately is that it’s at least nice to see that Republicans are concerned about the president’s safety. They may not like President Barack Obama, but they want him alive and his house intact and impenetrable. According to…
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Paging Dr. Ben Carson: Based on That Fox News Interview, You Need a Political Tuneup—Stat
If you’re a regular The Root reader, you already know that I’m fairly skeptical about the prospects of a 2016 presidential run by current Fox News contributor and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. If not, read here, here, here, here and here. My basic takeaway is that Carson—the first surgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at…
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Secret Service: You Can’t Slip Up With This President
More than a week after the world watched a deranged Omar Gonzalez somehow slip his way into what we thought was one of the most impregnable fortresses in the world, we find out that what actually happened was even worse. According to a Washington Post exclusive, not only did Gonzalez get across the White House…
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3 Theories on Holder: Why Is America’s 1st Black Attorney General Rolling Out?
That Attorney General Eric Holder was resigning was really no surprise to the perennial Washington watchers who have nothing better to do than track the lives of the politically famous. Sources were chattering quietly about it late last year, and the New Yorker’s eager legal eagle, Jeffrey Toobin, got something of a scoop on it…
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Eric Holder to CBC: My Commitment Will Never Waver
In light of Thursday’s surprise announcement that Attorney General Eric Holder is stepping down after six years, Holder addressed the shock and unease over his pending resignation at the Congressional Black Caucus’ Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Holder joked that he was still the attorney general and wasn’t gone yet during his opening remarks at…
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GOP Backs Early Voting—Just Not for Blacks
Before 2008, early voting was the “in thing” for wealthier, whiter, educated Republican voters. Then the Obama-campaign nerds mobilized it into a black thing, too. Go to church, get on a bus, go vote. And look who we got as president. Can’t have that, right? So instead of playing the long game and making a…
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Eric Holder’s Resignation Brings Shock, Disappointment
The mood was one of disappointment on the second day of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference when news hit that Attorney General Eric Holder was stepping down after six years in the position. Little is yet known as to why Holder is stepping down, but several CBCF conference attendees expressed sadness for…