Politics

The Chicago Fire Department must hire 111 black firefighters, who passed the department’s entrance exam in 1995 but were told that the city had established a cutoff score and would only randomly hire the most qualified candidates. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has also rewarded “tens of millions of dollars” to 6,000 other applicants…

If former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hadn’t switched previous positions so dramatically on issues like abortion and same-sex unions, he’d probably have an easier time convincing voters that his newfound religion on health care reform is sincere. But as the Boston Herald’s Michael Graham points out, Romney’s got “more flip-flops on his record than a…

One of the world’s great enduring mysteries is why some otherwise clearheaded analysts continue to portray Newton Leroy “Newt” Gingrich as some sort of intellectual policy wonk and not simply a blowhard and a liar. The truth is, the former speaker of the House from Georgia is right up there with the Pauls, father and…

Mike McIntosh II, 21, used to be a vibrant athlete who loved doing kick flips on his skateboard, scoring goals on the soccer field and executing extreme bike tricks on his BMX. He was smart, too, studying welding at a community college, his father recalled recently. “He was a sports fanatic,” the father, Michael McIntosh,…

Conservatives on Fox News are spending this week attacking the White House for inviting the rapper-poet Common to the White House for a poetry reading last night. They are upset with Common for poetry he recited on the TV show Def Poetry Jam, targeting President Bush for taking us to war in Iraq and not…

Today President Barack Obama will meet at the White House with the Congressional Black Caucus — less than two months after his Oval Office sit-down with the CBC’s five-member executive board in March, and one week after the caucus met with White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley. It’s a noticeable change of pace from…

Black Voice News is reporting that a beefed-up battalion of security was ordered around the rural-Kenyan home of President Obama’s grandmother following the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. “We received reports of plans to attack the home of Mama Sarah Obama, and we immediately put in place adequate security measures,” local police chief…

We’re over here wondering what House Speaker John Boehner promised the Tea Party, since they threaten to unseat him every time they don’t like what he says regarding the nation’s debt. Wes Barrett of Fox News is reporting that Tea Party leaders ripped into Boehner (R-Ohio), as well as other House Republicans, saying any vote…

On April 29, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation recognizing May as National Foster Care Month. “For nearly half a million youth in foster care across our country,” the president began in the lengthy statement, “the best path to success we can give them is the chance to experience a loving home where they can…

Conservatives have attempted to credit George W. Bush for President Barack Obama’s success in killing Osama bin Laden in various ways, from exaggerating the role of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” to praising Bush’s unsuccessful seven-year attempt to do so.Today, Ross Douthat offers the latest version of this argument: that killing Bin Laden constitutes “the most…