Politics

Apparently President Obama didn’t get the memo that birthdays are the equivalent of holidays for black people. We can’t count the number of times we’ve heard, “I’m taking tomorrow off because it’s my birthday.” Well, like many of us who think that’s ridiculous, President Obama is doing what he normally does on his 49th birthday:…

President Obama has offended Dr. Cornel West. West details the incident in an NPR interview. It seems that during their last meeting, the president made a “beeline” for Dr. West, and then “demeaned” and “humiliated” him over West’s criticism of Obama and the White House. West says the president talked to him as if he…

Beginning last week, President Obama’s approval rating is now the lowest it’s ever been, with just 45 percent of Americans saying they’re satisfied with the job he’s doing, according to Gallup. With the economy still flagging, the WikiLeaks fiasco looming over Afghanistan and an embarrassing run-in with new populist hero Shirley Sherrod, the president, who…

After blocking extensions of programs that “mainstream” economists said would create jobs and stimulate the economy, some Republicans want to make former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the rich permanent. How could you forget the drama over adding to the deficit by extending temporary benefits to the unemployed and Medicaid for states? That…

by Christopher Beam Rep. Charlie Rangel had to decide on Thursday which he cares about more: his party or his job. The answer, for now: his job. As the House ethics committee prepared to read its 13 charges against Rangel—the culmination of a two-year investigation—there was a flurry of reports that Rangel would strike a…

Andrew Breitbart, blogger and darling of the conservative movement, surfaced this weekend at a Tea Party rally in Philadelphia. Yes, the man who edited a video that led to the downfall and subsequent uprising of former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod joined a Tea Party rally at Independence Mall denouncing a “media cabal,” the NAACP, liberals…

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, strode into the media spotlight last month when he called on the Tea Party to “repudiate the racist element and activities within” its ranks. He immediately became the focus of attacks from the right and emerged as a visible advocate for racial justice, following the announcement…

As they say in the Budweiser commercial, “Here we go!” The Shirley Sherrod incident provided one of the most fertile and significant opportunities to focus attention on the toxic racism of the far right, the dynamics of race and class in the rural South, the cynical use of the “reverse racism” charge to ignite opposition…

Those who attempt to paint the president’s appearance on The View this Thursday as a reaction to the Shirley Sherrod situation or as a political triumph miss the point. President Barack Obama did not appear on the ABC midmorning show because he was on the defense after the Sherrod-Breitbart bungle. He was going on the…