Politics

The Internet is the most democratic communications network ever created. In a world where our community cannot count on the mainstream media to tell our stories — or on mainstream politicians to advocate for our needs — the Internet has allowed us to organize, speak for ourselves and dismantle political barriers. The Internet did not…

“Speed on before you get peed on.” I found myself thinking about that old lyric from Gang Starr’s “Tha Squeeze” when I read D. Omavi Harshaw’s bit about black America being “urinated on.” But I consider the part about the speed to be more important than the part about getting peed on. Namely, there is…

By a vote of 256-152, the House today approved a $4.6 billion settlement in the Pigford-Cobell lawsuits. The settlement, which passed the Senate on Nov. 9, will now make its way to President Obama, who has long advocated for its passage. The payout is twofold for two separate lawsuits: $3.4 billion will be awarded to…

Don’t look now, but the GOP is pledging to compromise with President Barack Obama during a post-election meeting today. President Obama and Republican leaders in Congress will try to work out their differences, particularly as it relates to taxes. The Associated Press reports, “The American people did not vote for gridlock,” Obama said following the…

PORT-AU-PRINCE — On Monday, Haitians awoke with their hopes for a smooth transition to a new government dashed by a series of missteps and miscalculations that left the outcome on hold. After widespread complaints by voters who said they either couldn’t find their names on the voting lists or were coerced into voting for a…

America’s prisons, like many of our public schools, reflect our country’s most shameful and profound failings. This week the U.S. Supreme Court takes on one aspect of our nation’s love affair with incarceration. In Schwarzenegger v. Plata, the state of California has challenged an order issued by a three-judge federal court under the Prison Reform…

President Barack Obama has announced that he is freezing pay for federal workers for two years. Citing growing concerns about the deficit and Republican pressure about federal pay and benefits, the president announced that he will stop pay increases for most of the 2 million people who work for the federal government. The freeze applies…

The White House received a big package Saturday: a Douglas fir tree from Lehighton, Pa. Christmas has come to Pennsylvania Avenue. Christopher Botek, who won the right to donate the tree through the National Christmas Tree Association’s annual contest, delivered the tree. It will be set up and decorated in the White House Blue Room…

For the last several weeks, thousands of people have lined up in front of makeshift voter-registration offices in Haiti as they attempt to replace lost registration cards. The voter rolls, which numbered more than 3 million people, have been depleted as hundreds of thousands of voters either lost their lives or their voter cards in…

Just a few months after North Carolina Republican Chairman Tom Fetzer asked for the resignation of Michael Steele from the top post at the Republican National Committee, Fetzer is now tending his own resignation, effective in January. The reasons for his departure are less interesting than the issue of succession: Are local Republican organizations buying…