Politics
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Obama Wants 'Boy Ejector' Car for Malia
Obama wants ‘boy ejector’ car for Malia: “I am hoping to see one of those models that gets a top speed of 15 miles per hour and the ejector seat anytime boys are in the car,” Obama told auto-industry leaders Friday in a speech about fuel-efficiency standards. “So hopefully you guys have some of those…
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Urban League: Empowered Enough?
The National Urban League wrapped up its annual conference in Boston this weekend, celebrating 101 years of existence. The news backdrop was hugely significant. President Obama and the Republicans wrestled with the debt limit on the cable networks and in the back rooms, with the likely outcome of further shrinking the already fragile social safety…
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Your Take: Bill a Threat to Poor Students
While some of the gridlock among policymakers today can be chalked up to principled differences in political philosophy, some political stalemates are the result of policies that defy common sense. This most often happens when politicians ignore basic realities in order to further their own ideologies. This behavior is frustrating in any instance but is…
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Deal Reached on Debt Limit
CNN is reporting that President Obama and congressional leaders reached agreement on a measure that would extend the federal debt ceiling, cut spending and guarantee more reduction efforts. “There are still some very important votes to be taken by members of Congress, but I want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both…
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Do Black Voters Have Obama Blues?
Citing a recent poll showing a steep decline in the number of African Americans who believe that President Obama has helped the economy, Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune evaluates whether Obama is losing his voter base. It is only in comparison to today’s Republican Party, divided between its old-school establishment and its tea party…
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Why NAACP Call to End War on Drugs Matters
Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts writes about NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous’ call to end the nation’s “war on drugs,” calling it a monumental sea change for the old-guard civil rights organization. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and…
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After Norway: Free the French!
Editor’s note: In the aftermath of the tragedy in Norway, The Root asked Caribbean-born French politician Alain Dolium for his views on how his country has responded. Here is his take on the continuing problems and challenges that French society faces in integrating its growing immigrant population. The masks are off! Finally, a sector of…
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The Debt and the Planet of the Dopes
As I write, it remains uncertain whether the superpatriots who make up the Tea Party will send the nation they claim to love so much hurtling into the abyss of default with consequences that no economist or politician can totally foresee. Nor is it completely clear which planet these extremists have been living on as…
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NAACP: End the War on Drugs
At its annual convention in Los Angeles, the NAACP has passed what it’s calling a historic resolution that calls for an end to the war on drugs. The headline is likely to make critics of the organization’s agenda wonder whether this is a case of misplaced priorities, given the dire economic circumstances of African Americans…
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Radio Host Fired for McDonald's-Boycott Call?
It was a no-brainer for 21-year-old Jentri Casaberry when he recently took time off from work at a McDonald’s on Chicago’s South Side to tend to the bedside of his prematurely born son, Nyeem. He was glad he did. The child died at 9:15 p.m. CDT on July 13 at the University of Chicago Hospital,…