Politics

In January the newly assembled staff of the Congressional Black Caucus — executive director and general counsel Angela T. Rye, policy director E. Brandon Garrett, communications director Stephanie L. Young and executive assistant Latrice Powell — drove to Howard University to peruse the CBC archives. They wanted to research the 40-year-old organization they were now…

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post is reporting that President Barack Obama will address the United Nations General Assembly today. In his address, President Obama will tackle a diplomatic quagmire, like squaring up his hopes of last year for Palestinian statehood with his opposition this year to a Palestinian bid for statehood. Wilson reports, “Obama…

The president has been talking some new talk. He should keep it up, and even step it up. Obama rode in on his vaunted oratorical abilities, but the kind of ability we fell in love with him for is no longer of any use. The calls for unity, the echoes of Martin Luther King Jr.,…

In his jobs speech earlier this month, President Barack Obama spoke eloquently of a time when Americans felt that hard work invariably paid off. We “believed in a country where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share.” I’m not convinced that most black Americans ever really felt that way. Many of us…

Zachary A. Goldfarb of the Washington Post reports that President Obama will announce a proposal on Monday to tame the nation’s rocketing federal debt, calling for $1.5 trillion in new revenue as part of a plan to find more than $3 trillion in budget savings over a decade, senior administration officials said. The proposal draws a sharp…

Civil rights leaders and associates of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had mixed reactions to the disparaging comments that former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy made about King. Kennedy’s comments are published in a new book entitled Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life With John F. Kennedy. The book is based on interviews she had…

Unemployment is at 9.1 percent, unemployment among black and Latino Americans is even higher (at 16.7 percent and 11.3 percent respectively) and job creation has risen to the top of the government’s agenda. So what are many top Republicans saying about the struggles of millions of Americans who can’t find work? That it’s their own…

Who says miracles don’t happen? One occurred at the Republican presidential debate earlier this week. To wit: making Texas Gov. Rick Perry — the coyote-shootin’, secession-talkin’, George Wallace-channelin’, global-climate-change denyin’, extremist loudmouth — look less loony than some of his opponents. If that doesn’t qualify as a miracle, what would? I mean, Perry is the…