Politics
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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…
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Tyler Perry Wins Big at NAACP Image Awards
In the black community, there may be some strong objections to Tyler Perry’s work (because of its perceived “reiteration of stereotypes that black filmmakers like Spike Lee and black actors like Denzel Washington have worked so hard to suppress“), but evidently, they aren’t shared by the NAACP. At the NAACP Image Awards on Friday, Perry…
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Note to Republicans: Cuts Don't Cut It
Written by Eugene Robinson After slamming Democrats for not focusing on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” Republicans have decided to ignore their own winning message in favor of “cuts, cuts, cuts.” This is bad economics — and bad politics. If you don’t believe me, read a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, published Thursday, that has what should…
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Double Talk? White House Promotes Muslim Help Against Terrorism
The Associated Press is reporting that the White House is pushing a message of religious tolerance ahead of this week’s congressional hearing on Islamic radicalism, which has sparked protests on grounds that it unfairly singles out Muslims. President Barack Obama sent his deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, on Sunday to a Washington-area mosque known…