Politics
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US Imposes Targeted Sanctions, Rejects Crimean Vote to Join Russia
President Obama warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday against making further military advances toward Ukraine, the Associated Press reports. Obama also told Putin that the referendum for Crimea to secede from Ukraine to join Russia “would never be recognized” by the United States. Swift sanctions were expected from the U.S. and the European Union,…
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8 Sneaky Racial Code Words and Why Politicians Love Them
When Paul Ryan talked about a “real culture problem” in “our inner cities in particular” this week, he wasn’t the first American politician to be slammed for using racially coded language to get a point across. Far from it. Ian Haney López, author of Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and…
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Frauds Try to Get Attorney General Eric Holder’s Tax Refund
Two Georgia men were caught trying to get U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s tax refund, the Wall Street Journal reports. Holder wasn’t the only person targeted by Yafait Tadesse and Eyaso Abebe, who somehow got a hold of Holder’s private information, including his Social Security number, and filed a tax return in his name. According to…
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Senate Makes Bipartisan Deal to Extend Long-Term Jobless Benefits
U.S. senators have reached a bipartisan deal that should allow them to extend federal benefits to the long-term unemployed for five months, CNN reports. Five Republicans have reportedly signed on to the bill, all but assuring that the $10 billion measure should pass the Democratic Senate with ease. The cost of the bill is expected…
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Jim Brown Says Slavery Wasn’t So Bad. And That’s Bad News for the GOP
It’s been well-documented that the GOP is in the middle of an aggressive rebranding campaign intended to woo African-American voters, and in the midst of this, yet another Republican congressional candidate has provoked cries of racial insensitivity. In a post on his Facebook page that was—in theory, anyway—about federal spending, Jim Brown, who’s running in…
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Eric Holder Backs Lower Sentencing for Some Drug Crimes
Attorney General Eric Holder has endorsed a proposal that would result in shorter prison sentences for certain nonviolent drug traffickers. Holder believes that the change in sentencing would cut federal prison costs and create a fairer criminal justice system, the Associated Press reports. Holder appeared Thursday before the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where he announced his…
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How ‘Stand Your Ground’ Is Killing Black People
If Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis weren’t worthy-enough victims for people to push for “Stand your ground” laws to be revised or repealed, Sherdavia Jenkins should be. In 2006 Sherdavia, 9, was playing with her doll in the courtyard of the Miami housing project where she lived when Damon “Red Rock” Darling and Leroy “Yellowman”…
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The Last Black Mayor of Chocolate City?
In awkwardly timed remarks 24 hours after dramatic campaign-corruption allegations were leveled against him, Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray defied rumors of his political death spiral. “I did not break the law,” pronounced the mayor to a very pro-Gray crowd of several hundred this past Tuesday night, who complimented the moment with stand-up chants of…
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Minnesota Lawmaker Apologizes for NBA Tweet
Minnesota State Rep. Pat Garofalo officially apologized on Monday for a controversial tweet about NBA players, the Associated Press reports. On Sunday, the veteran Republican tweeted, “Let’s be honest, 70% of teams in NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/ possible exception of increase in streetcrime,” sparking a Twitter outcry. At…
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Erika Harold Could Be a GOP Star. First, Though, She’ll Have to Win
There’s a young, multiracial Harvard lawyer running for Congress in Illinois. But it’s not 2000, and she’s not Barack Obama. And while former Miss America Erika Harold would almost surely resist the comparison—particularly a week out from primary election day—it’s hard not to notice the biographical similarities between her and the president, even though she’s…