Politics
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Obama's Day, June 19: G-20 Summit Closing Ceremony
THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FORTUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2012 In the morning, the President will attend the second plenary session of the G-20 Summit. This session is closed press. Later in the morning, the President will attend the third plenary session of the G-20 Summit. This…
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What Rodney King's Woes Say About Us
(The Root) — Monday morning I was sitting on an exercise bike in a hotel gym, listening to a drum-and-bass song from the ’90s while I pedaled furiously and watched the morning TV news on mute. That’s when I learned that Rodney King had drowned. The song Horizon, by LTJ Bukem, samples parts of Maya…
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Egyptian Military Generals Assert Power
Two candidates have declared themselves Egypt’s first democratically elected president today: Both the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq claimed over 50 percent of the vote. But as the votes are tallied and the official winner of the election is sorted out, there are questions about how much power the country’s…
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MHP: Jay-Z for President
One of the key arguments of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has to do with his experience as a corporate executive. But remember, Jay-Z has been very successful in the private sector, too, and created plenty of jobs. You can see where this is going. Beginning with a satirical proposal for Mr. “I’m not a businessman;…
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Obama's Day, June 18: Meetings With Presidents of Russia and Mexico
THE WHITE HOUSEOffice of the Press SecretaryFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULEFOR TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 In the morning, the President will attend a bilateral meeting with President Calderón of Mexico. There will be a pool spray at the bottom of the meeting. Later in the morning, the President will attend a bilateral…
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Rodney King's Legacy: A Civil Rights Symbol
(The Root) — We all make mistakes. Some are bigger than others. And if we survive them, most of us try to learn from our mistakes, make amends and move on. Rodney King made the biggest mistake of his life — drinking and driving — on the night of March 3, 1991, when four white…
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Everything Is Just 'Fine,' President Obama?
(The Root) — Have you ever had one of those moments when, the second you finish answering a question, you realize, “Oh, crap, I’m going to pay for that one”? I have. The tough part, particularly in a hypercharged political environment, is cleaning it up (or, as we like to say in Washington, “walking back…
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Stop-and-Frisk March, Packed and Peaceful
(The Root) — On a Sunday that started out with blustery winds and slightly overcast conditions, several thousand New Yorkers gathered in upper Manhattan and marched down Fifth Avenue from 110th Street in a remarkably silent protest of the city’s stop-and-frisk police policy. Today’s march — led by a coalition of organizations and prominent public…
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Michelle Obama's White Ancestors Revealed
Matching DNA samples, scientists and historians have identified first lady Michelle Obama’s family history, which traces back to Northern Georgia. According to the New York Times, her ancestors were both slaves and the slave masters because of interracial couplings through the years. Now, Mrs. Obama’s distant white relatives, descendants of the slave masters, are grappling…
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How Obama Became Black
By David Maraniss He was too dark in Indonesia. A hapa child — half and half — in Hawaii. Multicultural in Los Angeles. An “Invisible Man” in New York. And finally, Barack Obama was black on the South Side of Chicago. This journey of racial self-discovery and reinvention is chronicled in David Maraniss’s biography, Barack…