Politics
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Obama Seeks $3.7 Billion From Congress to Contain Border
President Barack Obama is hoping to get Congress to grant $3.7 billion in emergency funding to go toward securing the border, a request brought on by the sudden increase in the number of unaccompanied minors trying to enter the country, the New York Daily News reports. The move marks almost double the administration’s original asking…
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The Meaning of the 4th of July Now
This essay from our archives is every bit as relevant today as it was when we first published it in 2010. What, to a black American in the age of Barack Obama, is the Fourth of July? I answer: the day that reveals to him, more than any other, how much America owes to blacks…
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Think Outside the Box, Democrats, and Hire More Minority Consultants
A new analysis by PowerPAC found that less than 2 percent of spending by the three main national Democratic Party political operations—the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee—went to political-consulting firms owned by minorities. The report sent ripples through the political establishment, in part because it threatens…
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Black Republican Candidate’s Face on Campaign Sign Is Painted White
Campaign signs are often vulnerable to being stolen or tampered with, especially in this political environment, but in what might be a first, a black Florida Republican congressional candidate had one of her signs destroyed by whiteface, the National Review Online reports. Glo Smith, who is hoping to become the Republican candidate for Florida’s 5th Congressional…
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Supreme Court Sides With Hobby Lobby, Strikes Blow to Obamacare
Updated Monday, June 30, 2014, 1:45 p.m. EDT: President Barack Obama believes that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case “jeopardizes” women’s health and will press Congress to respond, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. He told reporters that the White House will “respect” the ruling but “will continue to look for ways to…
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Obama Has Even Less Maneuvering Room After Getting Dissed on Recess Appointments
On the political Richter scale, the Supreme Court’s decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning—ruling President Barack Obama’s recess appointments unconstitutional—is a disaster for his administration. As he muddles through the last two years of his presidency, Thursday’s ruling might be marked as the official beginning of the end of it, with all…
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No, Rush Limbaugh, African-American Voters Aren’t ‘Uncle Toms’—We’re Just Smart
Let’s be clear: Whether or not he thought he was being funny, when Rush Limbaugh called out Mississippi’s black voters as “Uncle Toms for Thad,” it was an insult. Full stop. But what it also reveals, and sadly doesn’t come as much of a surprise at this point, is that the king of conservative talk…
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Supreme Court: President Obama Went Too Far With Recess Appointments
President Barack Obama was wrong when he made appointments during an extended Senate break in 2012. At least that’s what the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, saying that the president went too far when he made the appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, Fox News reports. The nation’s highest court unanimously agreed with Senate…
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Mississippi Appoints 1st Black Clerk of Highest Court
Mississippi Supreme Court Clerk Kathy Gillis has tapped Muriel B. Ellis to succeed her once she retires June 30, thus making Ellis the first African-American clerk of the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. “It will be an honor to serve as the clerk of the Supreme Court,” said the 53-year-old Ellis, Fox News…
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A Rumble in Harlem: 4 Lessons From Charles Rangel’s Primary Fight
Clichéd World Cup metaphors for a knee-scraping Harlem-primary street scuffle might seem corny, but Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) may have defied the odds like an unfavored team entering the dreaded Group of Death. Maybe he’ll watch a few match hours of soccer to decompress—better than eating his fingers into nubs while election officials slowly sort…