Politics
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Former White House Press Secretary: 'This White House of All White Houses' Should Not Make Fun of Boehner's Skin Color
Dana Perino, former White House press secretary for George W. Bush, doesn’t seem to like Barack Obama’s jokes. Speaking at the annual Gridiron Club dinner recently, Obama roasted House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) about his skin color. “I’ve made a few jokes over the years about John’s unusual coloring,” he said. “I used to think…
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President Obama Pens Letter About Gun Laws
In the aftermath of the January shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, President Obama wants the country to keep talking about the importance of gun laws. Over the weekend, he wrote an op-ed letter to the Arizona Daily Star, the daily newspaper in Rep. Giffords’ congressional district, urging for stronger enforcement of gun laws. President Obama…
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Gutting Unions Hurts the Black Middle Class
We’re republishing this article, which originally ran on March 10, 2011, in honor of Labor Day. “The Fabulous 14.” That’s what Rozalia Harris and other members of the Milwaukee teachers union call the renegade Democratic state senators who fled Wisconsin on Feb. 17 to stop a vote on a proposed spending plan that includes restrictions…
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Notorious HIV: The Criminal Prosecution of a Virus
In Texas, a man is serving 35 years in prison for spitting at a police officer. In the state of Washington, a 19-year-old college student sits behind bars on first-degree assault charges for having unprotected sex with his girlfriend. A Georgia woman was sentenced to eight years in prison after consensual sex without a condom,…
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President Obama Jokes About 'Birther' Debate
Rachel Rose Hartman of Yahoo News is reporting that President Barack Obama made light of the “Birther” debate during his comments at a Democratic fundraiser in Boston. He joked about the fact that people don’t believe that he was born in Hawaii. She reports that the president stated the following: “I think there’s nothing —…
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GOP Pushes Anti-Union Legislation Through in Wisconsin
MSNBC is reporting that Republicans pushed a provision stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights through the state Senate Wednesday evening after finding a way to bypass the chamber’s missing Democrats. Republican senators separated the provision from Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget bill, removing the requirement that 20 senators be present for a vote…
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VIDEO: White House Conference Tackles Bullying
On Thursday, President Obama will convene a daylong White House Conference on Preventing Bullying. USA Today reports: It marks the first time a president has brought so much attention to the difficult and sometimes devastating problem. The goal of the conference, according to the White House, is to dispel a commonly held belief that bullying…
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Obama and O'Reilly Team Up for Charity
Reuters reports that President Barack Obama and conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly have teamed up to raise nearly $750,000 for U.S. military families. After the end of their infamous pre-Superbowl interview (the one in which the president was interrupted 48 times), O’Reilly asked Obama if he would sign his research notes as long as O’Reilly…
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Hunting for Muslim Radicals
On Thursday, Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, will hold hearings on the Muslim community and terrorism. “The main goal is to show the extent of radicalization within the Muslim-American community, how dangerous that is, how serious that is,” he said on Fox television Sunday. “It’s a real…
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Guantánamo: Obama Creates Indefinite System of Detention
The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama signed an executive order Monday that will create a formal system of indefinite detention for those held at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who continue to pose a significant threat to national security. The administration also said that it will start new military-commission trials…