Politics
-
Job Openings and Overall Hiring in the US Reach 5-Year Highs
Job openings and overall hiring reached five-year highs in September, indicating the job market’s current stability and improvement, the Associated Press reports. The Labor Department reported an increase of 69,000 in job postings, making it a seasonally adjusted 3.9 million. A number that hasn’t been seen since March 2008, months after the recession, the AP…
-
Russell Simmons: Fake Democrats, Sit Down
Mogul Russell Simmons is not putting up with anyone, especially Democrats, sidling away from Obamacare just because they fear repercussions if linked to the struggling HealthCare.gov website. Oh, no. In a scathing piece published Thursday on Global Grind, Simmons called out Democrats who “couldn’t handle the hate” from Republicans when the backlash came. “So, their…
-
House Speaker Boehner Finally Enrolls in Obamacare
Updated, Friday, Nov. 22, 2:20 p.m. ET: It seems that House Speaker John Boehner’s Obamacare woes are over. Forty-five minutes after the speaker blogged his frustrations with HealthCare.gov, he got a confirmation email that he was enrolled, the Associated Press reports. Earlier, the Ohio Republican said he’d spent four hours trying to navigate the website.…
-
Senate Changes Voting Rules, Mel Watt Confirmation Set to Go Through
Earlier Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) managed to push through a controversial change to Senate rules, now requiring only a bare majority, as opposed to 60 votes, in order to confirm nominees. This all but guarantees that president Obama’s picks for various positions will fly through, with the Democrats holding the majority with…
-
JFK’s 1963 Race Speech Made Him an African-American Icon
President John F. Kennedy’s tragic assassination 50 years ago today had a profound impact on American race relations. A president who, during his last six months in office, acknowledged that “civil rights has become everything” embraced the movement and in the process helped not only to solidify his personal legend but also to transform a…
-
White Privilege Keeps Crack-Smoking Mayor in Office
In 1988 the white American feminist writer Peggy McIntosh wrote a powerful essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Based on Racial Inequality” (pdf). McIntosh argued eloquently that although racial progress had taken place, there was still a power differential between whites and people of color. McIntosh’s essay was groundbreaking because she was a white…
-
Oh, SNAP! Trey Radel, Cocaine and Racial Double Standards
Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) is now no stranger to the justice system. On Wednesday afternoon, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor cocaine possession charge and was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. And by Wednesday night, in front of TV cameras, he was saying, “I’m sorry” at a hastily called press conference to announce…
-
Tea Party Rep. Trey Radel Busted for Cocaine Possession, Taking Leave of Absence
Updated, Monday, Nov. 20, 11:01 p.m. ET: Florida Rep.Trey Radel will be taking a leave of absence and donating his salary to charity the Washington Post reports. Earlier: Radel, who approved of legislation that would require all food stamp recipients to be drug tested, pleaded guilty Wednesday to possessing cocaine and was sentenced to a year…
-
Oprah Winfrey, Bayard Rustin Among Medal of Freedom Recipients
Recognized for their outstanding contributions to the United States, four African Americans received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a Wednesday morning ceremony at the White House. In a presentation in the East Room attended by first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama awarded this year’s…
-
The 2012 Election Jobs Report Manipulated by Census Bureau
The steep decline of the unemployment rate in August last year, from 8.1 to 7.8, was, in fact, too good to be true. It could be all mere fabrication, according to a New York Post report. As it turns out, the Census Bureau knew about the fabrication, too. In 2010, the bureau caught an employee…